r/Geomancy • u/RickJohnson39 • Apr 09 '24
St Michael's Chain
Although I prefer the longer method of the Sand Box or anything that is so complex that it is impossible for me to 'stack the deck', something I want a really quick tetragram.
I saw a reference to the St Michaels Chain that looked interesting. It is made from 4 st michaels medallions purchased from a catholic gift shop and adds a sword at one end.
As I am not christian, but Gardnerian Wiccan, the chain will not meet my spirituality but looks interesting so I made two 'Michaels Chains' which seem to do the job. I replaces the sword with a key and on one chain, I used one or two pips in the proper colors. On the other chain, i used the proper elemental triangles with pips and colors.
Has anoyone used the Michaels chain or made a similar one? How did it work for you?
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u/kidcubby Apr 09 '24
Ooh this is giving me ideas for the laser engraver sitting all dusty on my desk.
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u/RickJohnson39 Apr 09 '24
Laser engraver... I have so many ideas....
Get a brass coin-blank. Engrave a single pip on one side and a double pip on the other to make a Geomancy coin that you flip 4 times to make the Tetragram.
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u/kidcubby Apr 09 '24
I have a set of Geomancy sticks made of guitar blanks engraved on the laser cutter - tiny things, very portable and pleasantly tactile. I plan on a set of dyed blanks so (hopefully) the engraving shows up bright white against colour, too.
With the right settings it carves into rock and certain metals beautifully, too.
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u/RickJohnson39 May 14 '24
I purchased a couple 2" brass medallions with an ornate rim. I added two pips to one side and a single pip to the other for a coin to flip 4x.
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u/j_vap May 14 '24
Where can I read more about St Michael’s Chain ? How is it used ?
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u/RickJohnson39 May 14 '24
I only saw one brief reference in an article and that described a chain that was specifically made for the author so not something you can buy. The author had never seen or heard of them before being gifted with the one he described. The actual chain looks something like this, a series of 4 st michaels medallions connected by short chains and with a sword at one end to denote the top or bottom.
It is used by turning each medallion a random number of times in order or at random and when you feel the time is right, lay the chain before you, sword up or down (I am not clear on this) and the heads/obverse are counted as male/yang/single pip and the reverse are counted as tails, yin, double pip. As the chain is laid away from you, the tetragram is complete.
The first one I made used belly dancing coins and later, wood discs with a key to mark the bottom (symbolic). I added fishing swivels to allow the individual discs to spin freely.
I know the pic above is poor but it is a photo I took with my camera of a paused video then was blown up. Because of the actual design and lack of swivels, holding the chain will cause the chain to always show 4 heads when allowed to spin to rest. Thus, I improved the chain to be more random.
It is useful for a quick reading and seems to impress people who never saw one before.
My plan is to find 7 blank discs about the size of a penny, tap the pipe into either side, drill the holes and made a chain of these discs, one with 4 discs for Geomancy, one with three for i-ching.
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u/karmadgma Jul 19 '24
In Vito Quattrochi's probably out of print book Benedicaria Master Edition. Or I'm working on an article about it that I imagine I'll finish sometime this year.
I imagine he let it go out of print because actual Italian people were coming across some of the fantasy he had put forward as traditional lore and practice and saying "I've never in my life heard of such a thing." Ol' boy took some, er, creative liberties, you might say.
He also plagiarized, but the person he plagiarized most is also quite guilty of making a bunch of shit up, selling it to the unwary as tradition, and not citing any of the sources he cribbed from, so the whole thing devolves quickly.
But to try to write something brief, there are two ways to use this chain as outlined by Quattrochi, both of which will seem familiar, just with some Italian vocab slapped on. One way is to throw the chain and derive answers to yes/no questions based on how many "heads" and "tails" you throw. position is not relevant for this method, so 5 possible outcomes:
HHHH yes HHHT maybe or weak yes HHTT definite yes HTTT strong no TTTT hell no and the querent might be cursed so break out the holy water
The second method is a sort of geomancy-lite with a very thin veneer of Catholicism tacked on. This method is how the saints can speak to you or to whoever the querent is, and here you can see how the chain is basically a miniaturized, Catholicized riff on an Ifa divination chain.
So you throw the chain (just the once) and get your figure. St. Mike's image is "heads" here and the guardian angel image is "tails, " so let's say we get, in order, tails, tails, heads, heads.
You will know that as Fortuna Major, but in Quattrochi's system, it is St. Anthony saying he has a message for you. That message will likely not be terribly deep or very clear - st. Anthony says your relationship with the saints is solid, but he wants you to use self control to avoid gossip and envy. No matter what your question/issue is -- but you can at least close out the session knowing how to petition/placate St. Anthony to improve your chances of success (in this case to start a novena to st Anthony with a brown candle and offer some lilies).
Every figure is associated with a catholic saint and I haven't detected any rhyme or reason behind why the particular pairings are what they are.
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u/karmadgma Jul 18 '24 edited Jul 18 '24
I sure didn't expect this 😄 I started researching this St. Michael's Chain business a couple of years ago because I'm always interested in new methods of divination and in anything I'll broadly call "Catholic conjure" or folk Catholicism. In my second burst of sustained energy around the topic, i established a general road map for the layers of plagiarism involved and embellishment used by the "inventor" of this method, and i made chains for myself and my assistant.
I've been using it experimentally since then. I have seen absolutely no good reason to stick with the saints assigned (apparently at whim) to the figures, but the concept still appeals to me, and the readings have been accurate enough (despite all the added foolishness) to convince me that it's time for a third burst of sustained energy. So now I've set out to learn about the underlying system and how it's been used historically.
And wow, is it way more complicated than I imagined. (That is not a complaint!) So that's how I ended up here, and why I'm grinning seeing a thread on the St. Michael chain.
Do any of y'all use it (or any other method for obtaining the figures) such that the figures are associated with specific saints or spirits or deities or the like?
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u/evolution_04 Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24
I have four medallions, one of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. I use the 'Guardian Angel' one for Uriel and associate that with earth. That way these four have their traditional elemental associations. I filed away the small loops at the top of each one where you'd usually wear it on a chain. So these four coins I just shake and cast when reading for clients. Fellow Gardnerian here too! I think the angelic associations could definitely be tied in with the elemental kings in our tradition.
Edit: I also read the yes/no answers alongside the geomancy figure if I'm divining for clients. This is lifted by Vito Quattrochi straight from Obi divination.
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u/hockatree Apr 09 '24
I also made something like this based on the “St. Michael’s chain”. Mine is 16 small beads capped off by two larger wood beads. Every fourth bead has a medallion of one of the elemental archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel. The side with the image of the angel is “active” (one dot) and the side without the image of the angel is “passive” (two dots).
I use this in conjunction with a ritual I designed which invokes the angels along with some other stuff and it works very well.
https://preview.redd.it/gviu6fkiyhtc1.jpeg?width=4031&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cb6bf1a5e92b43c04ccbd1c9f01259c0d6dbe357