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Geomancy · Figure 9 of 16

Laetitia, Joy: the tower of rising spirits

Laetitia, Joy, is the geomantic figure with a single point at the head over three double lines, like a tower or an arch. The 1655 Of Geomancy makes it Jupiter as the lesser fortune, and the tradition reads it as joy and rising spirits.

The figure Laetitia drawn large: Fire at the head, one point; Air at the neck, two points; Water at the body, two points; Earth at the feet, two points. Below, the sixteen figures small in a row, the 9th marked. Laetitia · Joy Fire, the head one Air, the neck two Water, the body two Earth, the feet two
Laetitia, figure 9 of 16: its points head to feet, with the element and part of each line. Below, the sixteen in our order, the eight that can be Judge first.

Facts

Number
Figure 9 of 16; after the eight that can be Judge
Points, head to feet
1 · 2 · 2 · 2: one point in the Fire line
Total
7 points, odd, so never the Judge
Planet (1655)
Jupiter as the lesser fortune, without harm
Sign (Gerard's scheme)
Taurus, in the Astronomical Geomancy attributed to Gerard of Cremona (1655 English)
Cattan's English (1591)
“ioy”
Agrippa's glosses (1651)
“Joy”, “Laughing”, […], “Bearded” (one gloss, on health, left out)
Turned over
Upside down: Tristitia. Every point swapped: Caput Draconis

Meaning

Laetitia is joy, high spirits and things going up. Cattan's translator calls it "ioy"; among Agrippa's glosses of 1651 are "Joy", "Laughing" and "Bearded"; Hartmann's verdict is that it "is good"; the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's handbook finds it good "for joy, present or to come". The tradition reads it as favourable to nearly every question that needs hope, warmth or a lift, and as weaker for things meant to last. Where Acquisitio, Jupiter's other figure, holds on to what it gains, Laetitia lifts: the 1655 text ranks it the lesser of Jupiter's two fortunes, but "without detriment", with nothing in it that harms.

In the shield

Laetitia has seven points, an odd number, so it can never be Judge; it appears among the Mothers, Daughters, Nieces and Witnesses, and in the houses. Cattan's rule makes figures with more points below than above "going out" and ill, but he names Laetitia as the one exception: going out, and good. Its head line is single, so the Way of the Point can pass through it. Turned upside down it becomes Tristitia, Sorrow, and the tradition reads the pair as rising and sinking; with every point swapped it becomes Caput Draconis. Its partner under Jupiter is Acquisitio.

Jupiter, and the signs

The 1655 text makes it Jupiter as the lesser fortune, "without detriment"; Cattan's table makes it Jupiter retrograde, and Fludd has it direct, with Acquisitio retrograde. In Gerard's scheme it is Taurus, as in Agrippa and Cattan's own table; the Golden Dawn gives it Pisces, a sign of Jupiter, and Cattan's page 63 Sagittarius, the other. Greer's modern "inner element" for it differs from the older lists, one reason we give no figure an element at all.

Correspondences

Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.

Planet
Jupiter, in every source checked (Cattan, Agrippa, the 1655 text, Hartmann, Crowley, Fludd) sourced
Direct or retrograde (Cattan, p. 54)
Jupiter retrograde sourced
Sign, Gerard's scheme (ours)
Taurus sourced
Sign, other schemes
Agrippa (1651): Taurus; Cattan's table (p. 56): Taurus; Cattan's “Gerard Cremon” (p. 63): Sagittarius; the Golden Dawn (1909): Pisces disputed
Quality (Cattan's rule)
Going out, yet good: Cattan's one exception (pp. 62, 215) sourced
Lines
Single, active: Fire (head); double, passive: Air (neck), Water (body) and Earth (feet) sourced
Our keywords
Joy, rising spirits, good cheer our construction

How the schools read it

Cattan (1591)
Calls it “ioy”; going out, yet good: Cattan's one exception (pp. 62, 215).
Agrippa (1651)
Glosses it “Joy”, “Laughing”, […], “Bearded” (one gloss, on health, left out).
*Of Geomancy* (1655)
Jupiter as the lesser fortune, without detriment.
Hartmann (1889)
“Laetitia, Joy, […] laughing, is good.” (its word on health left out)
The Golden Dawn (Crowley, 1909)
“Good for joy, present or to come”
Modern practice (Greer, as reported)
Calls it mobile, the modern word for a going-out figure.
EsoTerrier
Joy, rising spirits, good cheer (our one-line reading in the chart).

Claims about it

  • Laetitia is a figure a person is born under, worked out from a name and a birth date.

    false

    What the record shows: No source makes a geomantic figure from birth data; every casting is for a question. Our own app did this until October 2026, and the method was retired.

  • Laetitia has one zodiac sign.

    disputed

    What the record shows: Gerard's scheme gives Taurus, the Golden Dawn Pisces, Cattan's page 63 Sagittarius. At least six schemes exist; we always name the one we use.

  • Laetitia has an element of its own.

    disputed

    What the record shows: The sources give the figures at least six different sets of elements. We show only the four line elements, never an element for the whole figure.

Elsewhere on EsoTerrier

Sources

Primary texts (6)
  1. Christopher Cattan, The Geomancie of Maister Christopher Cattan Gentleman, translated by Francis Sparry. London: John Wolfe, 1591 (French original, Paris, 1558). wellcomecollection.org/works/gk8r8xpn
  2. Of Geomancy (attributed to Agrippa) and Astronomical Geomancy (attributed to Gerard of Cremona), in Henry Cornelius Agrippa his Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, translated by Robert Turner. London, 1655. github.com/textcreationpartnership/A26563
  3. Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, translated by J. F. London, 1651; Book II, chapter 48. github.com/textcreationpartnership/A26565
  4. Franz Hartmann, The Principles of Astrological Geomancy. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1889. archive.org/details/b24884145
  5. [Aleister Crowley], “A Handbook of Geomancy”, The Equinox I(2), 1909, pp. 137 to 161. keepsilence.org/the-equinox/1.2/a-handbook-of-geomancy_low.pdf
  6. Robert Fludd, De naturae simia, second edition. Frankfurt, 1624; De geomantia II.1, pp. 724 to 725. archive.org/details/bub_gb_zINwyYhcsp8C
Studies and other sources (2)
  1. Sam Block, The Digital Ambler, posts on the shield, the Way of the Point, perfection, the elements and the signs, 2012 to 2020. digitalambler.com/2020/05/08/how-to-construct-the-shield-chart-of-geomancy
  2. John Michael Greer, The Art and Practice of Geomancy. San Francisco: Weiser, 2009. Facts only, known through reports.
Our own research (2)
  1. EsoTerrier, geomancy research and validation, 11 to 14 October 2026.
  2. EsoTerrier calculation engine, the geomancy service, its texts and documentation.
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By EsoTerrier. Written with AI assistance from our research and checked against its sources; last revised 19 October 2026. How we write these pages.

First published ; last revised . Corrections: support@esoterrier.com.