Marko Pogačnik’s Sacred Geography: Geomancy: Co-Creating the Earth Cosmos (pub 2007) is the most important book I read in 2018. I heard Marko present his perspectives at the “Co-Creative Spirituality: Shaping Our Future with the Unseen Worlds” conference in Findhorn, Scotland, in September.
I should explain that I was blown away by the whole conference. Every day I went back to my room at Cluny, mentally reeling from all the presentations, wondering if I could hold any more new ideas in my mind. But it was Marko’s work—its integrity, originality, complexity, and wholeness—that most stunned me. He names, describes, develops, and defends a new field: modern geomancy. (And I know I’m coming to it decades after these ideas first appeared. C’est la vie.)
What does geomancy mean? It’s an optimistic, holistic view of the Earth and Cosmos, how it’s evolving, and what we need to do to harmoniously support and benefit from Earth changes. It’s a viable, gorgeous world-view which may require a willing suspension of disbelief (to use Coleridge’s term) from some readers. Marko says that what we humans must do now is expand beyond our surface five-senses experience into our multidimensional capacities; we need go beyond the restrictions of rational thought into our other human sensibilities—the intuitive, imaginative, and creative—and activate the loving possibilities to which we are all heir.
He’s certainly not alone in this point-of-view. I know that. David Spangler and the Lorian Association have written of it in depth. Most of the other speakers at the conference said the same things in their own ways, and many thinkers, writers, and spiritual seekers in the past have thought similarly. But Marko’s book answered questions that I didn’t know how to frame and ask.
What’s below is part of the book review I just posted on Marko Pogačnik’s Amazon sales page for the Sacred Geography book:
Geomancy is a ancient term that Pogačnik uses in a new way. The new geomancy is a language of Earth divination, of seeing “the sacred and invisible dimensions of the Earth as complementary to those visible and material extensions…of geography.” This requires learning to discern Earth’s messages and developing a solid foundation based on research, experience, and integrity.
Sacred Geography critiques of the limitations of the Earth-as-object view of the modern natural sciences and offers an alternative, subjective Earth-as-living-spiritual-organism view. The “object” view has resulted in degradation and sometimes disastrous consequences; the “subjective” view provides options for communication with elemental beings, for co-creativity, and for physical and spiritual evolution.
The first part of the book is mainly conceptual—and because much in these ideas was new to me, I had to re-read it and make notes in order to begin to digest it. The second half is more about the application of the ideas. It’s filled with Pogačnik’s elegant line drawings derived from his research; they are almost as exquisite as the shapes and forms made by Nature herself.
Pogačnik is a genius, in my opinion. He’s used his architectural, art, philosophic, and scientific knowledge to synthesize and integrate a new perspective. To the uninitiated, as I was, his terminology is strange (what is meant by holon, lithopuncture, pluridimensional? I wondered). Thankfully, he’s careful to explain concepts fully, to compare them with others, and to provide visual examples of his ideas and project. I especially loved that he provided simple exercises that novices can do to enhance or expand their perceptive capacities. He’s been doing this work for many, many years; he understands what’s needed to educate us. And he understands that we need to be educated in order to do and be what’s needed now by the Earth Cosmos.
I give this book a standing ovation. Ten stars! I’ve ordered another one of his books. I think Pogačnik deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for the full body of his innovative work.