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Geomancy · Figure 2 of 16

Via, the Way: the road that changes what it meets

Via, the Way, is the geomantic figure with one point on every line, four in all, drawn like a road. The 1655 Of Geomancy gives it the waxing Moon, and the tradition reads it as change and movement: good for journeys, poor for anything meant to stay.

The figure Via drawn large: Fire at the head, one point; Air at the neck, one point; Water at the body, one point; Earth at the feet, one point. Below, the sixteen figures small in a row, the 2nd marked. Via · the Way Fire, the head one Air, the neck one Water, the body one Earth, the feet one
Via, figure 2 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 2 of 16; the eight that can be Judge come first
Points, head to feet
1 · 1 · 1 · 1: one point on every line
Total
4 points, even, so it can be the Judge
Planet (1655)
The Moon new and waxing
Sign (Gerard's scheme)
Leo, in the Astronomical Geomancy attributed to Gerard of Cremona (1655 English)
Cattan's English (1591)
“the way”
Agrippa's glosses (1651)
“Way”, “Journey”
Turned over
Upside down: the same figure. Every point swapped: Populus

Meaning

Via is a road drawn in points, every line single and active. The tradition reads it as change, departure and movement, and as a journey. Hartmann calls it "neither good nor bad", its quality set by the house it stands in, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's handbook reads it as "injurious to the goodness of other figures generally, but good for journeys". In our own words, it favours whatever is already moving or looking for a way out, and goes against what the asker hopes to keep. As the Judge, the tradition's answer is change: the matter moves on.

In the shield

Via has four points, an even number, so it can be Judge, for one casting in eight; it is the Judge of the sample casting on the Geomancy page. Added to another figure, it turns over every line of that figure, single for double and double for single, which is why the tradition calls it the figure that changes whatever it touches. With every point swapped it becomes Populus, its partner under the Moon, and it reads the same upside down. Because its head line is single, a Judge Via always has a Way of the Point under the single-point rule we use. In the sample casting the Way runs from the Judge up through the Left Witness and the Third Niece to the First Daughter, which is Via again.

The Moon, and the signs

The sources disagree about Via's Moon as they do about Populus's. The 1655 text gives Via the Moon "from her beginning and increasing", the waxing Moon; Cattan gives it the Moon "in her decrease", and his table makes it the Moon retrograde, as Fludd does. Our chart follows the 1655 text and gives Cattan's phase beside it. In Gerard's scheme Via is Leo, as in Agrippa, Cattan's own table and Fludd; the Golden Dawn gives it Cancer, the Moon's own sign, and so does the scheme Cattan prints under Gerard's name.

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
waxing in the 1655 Of Geomancy; the Moon 'in her decrease' in Cattan (p. 72) disputed
Direct or retrograde (Cattan, p. 54)
Moon retrograde sourced
Sign, Gerard's scheme (ours)
Leo sourced
Sign, other schemes
Agrippa (1651): Leo; Cattan's table (p. 56): Leo; Cattan's “Gerard Cremon” (p. 63): Cancer; 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
Single, active: Fire (head), Air (neck), Water (body) and Earth (feet) sourced
Our keywords
A road, change, movement away our construction

How the schools read it

Cattan (1591)
Calls it “the way”; “meane”: neither good nor bad, taking its quality from its company (pp. 62, 215).
Agrippa (1651)
Glosses it “Way”, “Journey”.
*Of Geomancy* (1655)
The Moon from her beginning and increasing (the waxing Moon).
Hartmann (1889)
“Via, Street or Way, is neither good nor bad; its quality, like those of all the rest, is determined by its position in the house of the astrological figure.”
The Golden Dawn (Crowley, 1909)
“Injurious to the goodness of other figures generally, but good for journeys”
Modern practice (Greer, as reported)
Calls it mobile, giving a direction even to a figure the old rule calls “meane”.
EsoTerrier
A road, change, movement away (our one-line reading in the chart).

Claims about it

  • Via 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.

  • Via has one zodiac sign.

    disputed

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

  • Via 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 (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.