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Geomancy · Figure 1 of 16

Populus, the People: the still crowd

Populus, the People, is the geomantic figure with two points on every line, eight in all: the only figure without a single point. The 1655 Of Geomancy gives it the waning Moon, and the tradition reads it as a crowd that takes its character from the figures around it.

The figure Populus drawn large: Fire at the head, two points; 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 1st marked. Populus · the People Fire, the head two Air, the neck two Water, the body two Earth, the feet two
Populus, figure 1 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 1 of 16; the eight that can be Judge come first
Points, head to feet
2 · 2 · 2 · 2: two points on every line
Total
8 points, even, so it can be the Judge
Planet (1655)
The Moon from full and waning
Sign (Gerard's scheme)
Capricorn, in the Astronomical Geomancy attributed to Gerard of Cremona (1655 English)
Cattan's English (1591)
“people”
Agrippa's glosses (1651)
“People”, “Congregation”
Turned over
Upside down: the same figure. Every point swapped: Via

Meaning

Populus is the gathering: a crowd in which no line speaks for itself. The old books call it neither good nor bad. Cattan counts it among his "meane" figures, which take their quality from the company they keep; Hartmann calls it "likewise indifferent"; and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's handbook puts the rule both ways, "good with good, evil with evil". The tradition reads it as many people, a meeting or a crowd, and as things staying as they are. In our own words, it reflects whatever surrounds it. As the Judge the tradition reads its answer as "no change", welcome where the question hopes for things to hold and unwelcome where it hopes for movement.

In the shield

Populus has eight points, an even number, so it is one of the eight figures that can be Judge, and it is Judge for one casting in eight. It has a property no other figure has: added to any figure, it gives that figure back unchanged, because two points added to a line never change whether its count is odd or even. So a Niece, a Witness or the Judge repeats its other parent whenever Populus is one of the two, and any figure added to itself gives Populus. It reads the same turned upside down, and with every point swapped it becomes Via, its partner under the Moon. Its head line is double, so as Judge it has no Way of the Point under the single-point rule we use.

The Moon, and the signs

Every source checked gives Populus to the Moon. They disagree about which Moon. The 1655 Of Geomancy makes it the Moon "from her full light and quarter decreasing", the waning Moon, and Via the waxing; Cattan in 1591 calls Populus the Moon "in her full", and his table of the planets makes it the Moon direct. Wikipedia's waxing Populus matches neither. Our chart follows the 1655 text and says so. In the Astronomical Geomancy attributed to Gerard of Cremona, whose signs we use, Populus is Capricorn, as in Agrippa's table and Cattan's own; the Golden Dawn gives it Cancer, and the scheme Cattan prints under Gerard's name on his page 63 gives Taurus. Fludd lists it twice, under Cancer and Capricorn.

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
Moon, in every source checked (Cattan, Agrippa, the 1655 text, Hartmann, Crowley, Fludd) sourced
Phase of the Moon
waning in the 1655 Of Geomancy; the Moon 'in her full' in Cattan (p. 72) disputed
Direct or retrograde (Cattan, p. 54)
Moon direct sourced
Sign, Gerard's scheme (ours)
Capricorn sourced
Sign, other schemes
Agrippa (1651): Capricorn; Cattan's table (p. 56): Capricorn; Cattan's “Gerard Cremon” (p. 63): Taurus; the Golden Dawn (1909): Cancer disputed
Quality (Cattan's rule)
“meane”: neither good nor bad, taking its quality from its company (pp. 62, 215) sourced
Lines
Double, passive: Fire (head), Air (neck), Water (body) and Earth (feet) sourced
Our keywords
A gathering, the crowd, things that take the colour of their surroundings our construction

How the schools read it

Cattan (1591)
Calls it “people”; “meane”: neither good nor bad, taking its quality from its company (pp. 62, 215).
Agrippa (1651)
Glosses it “People”, “Congregation”.
*Of Geomancy* (1655)
The Moon from her full light and quarter decreasing (the waning Moon).
Hartmann (1889)
“Populus, People, is likewise indifferent.”
The Golden Dawn (Crowley, 1909)
“Sometimes good, sometimes bad; good with good, evil with evil”
Modern practice (Greer, as reported)
Calls it stable, giving a direction even to a figure the old rule calls “meane”.
EsoTerrier
A gathering, the crowd, things that take the colour of their surroundings (our one-line reading in the chart).

Claims about it

  • Populus 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.

  • Populus has one zodiac sign.

    disputed

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

  • Populus 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.

  • Via is the waning Moon and Populus the waxing Moon.

    disputed

    What the record shows: The 1655 text has Via waxing and Populus waning; Cattan has Via “in her decrease” and Populus “in her full”. Wikipedia's waxing Populus matches neither.

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 (3)
  1. “Geomantic figures”, Wikipedia, revision 1364761246 (cited only for the claims we correct). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomantic_figures
  2. 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
  3. 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.