Site Planning

Geomantic Site Planning

The geomantic approach to site planning is based on a simple premise: that every place possesses a unique quality or energy as well as a set of physical characteristics.

When you locate activities on spots whose energies actually support that type of activity, you find it amazingly easy to conduct those activities there. For example, you may find it difficult to take a nap on a buzzy energizing spot, but lots of fun to play soccer there. The advantage of the geomantic approach is that it gives you more subtle and complete information to be more likely to find the perfect spot for everything you want to do.

When creating a long-range plan for the development of retreat centers, intentional communities, or new homes, using the geomantic approach delivers huge benefits to property owners. It gives you the big picture from the very beginning. It can help you avoid mistakes that typically occur from piecemeal development, like putting in a road through a spot that you later realize would have been perfect for a vegetable garden, guest house or swimming pool.

The holistic approach I’ve developed ensures that intangible influences, like the spirit of place, and existing ecological and energetic relationships are fully considered. I read the lay of the land, using a combination of naturalists’ observation practices and spiritual attunement processes, and listen to the story of the place by communing with elder tree spirits, via interspecies communication techniques and the enhanced intuitive art of dowsing. I also find any special or “sacred” spots that should be respected and preserved. All this provides a way to know what kind of development will be in harmony with, or even enhance, what is already there.The result is a mapping of potential site development that is less “development” and more like wise stewardship and living in harmony with Nature.

Recall Your Own Experiences of Place Energies

Here’s an easy way to understand this geomantic approach to find the best spots for human activities. You have probably had the experience of taking a walk through the woods with a friend and coming to a spot where you suddenly stopped talking, slowed down, or stopped in your tracks. You just gazed around at the beauty of the forest, or the light streaming through the trees, or took in the deep silence around you. As you took in a deep breath and let out a sigh, you realized how calm and peaceful the place makes you feel. The energetic qualities of this kind of place stimulate deep relaxation, quietude, and peace of mind. Because of that it would make a great place for meditation, sleeping, massage therapy or other modes of healing.

You may have experienced other spots where you spontaneously felt like dancing, running or being mischievous. These spots are charged up with a more yang vibration that makes you want to move. They are perfect for exercise gyms, dance studios, soccer fields, and sports arenas. Other places have a balance of yin and yang energies that will support focused productive work, like for a business office, home office, or school classroom.

There are also a wide variety of Earth Energies that run through veins and arteries in the Earth’s body, each possessing a distinctive vibration and effect on all forms of life. Dowsers commonly find one kind of playful, joyous energy line at very popular children’s playgrounds; and find a balanced combination of yin and yang energy lines at cathedrals, temples and natural power spots. And under the beds of people who complain about not sleeping well, they sometimes feel a turbulent jittery energy associated with a “constricted” underground water vein. This type of Earth Energy helps to disintegrate organic matter, so it’s a good place to locate a compost pile, but not a good place to sleep.

Come with me on a Site Reading

Imagine you’ve just put on your hiking boots, donned a sunhat, and grabbed your camera and notepad - about to show me around your property to find the best spot to build a new home, or create a new landscaping design, or start a long-range site planning process.

When I arrive, I pull out the topo maps and aerial photographs that you sent me, and show you the results of the preliminary reading I did in my office. I’ve already located a bunch of spots with map dowsing that I want to check out on the ground. Some were on your list of activities or buildings that you asked me to find the best spot for. Others were sections of the aerial that were strongly calling to me, but I don’t know why. I explain that these mystery spots usually turn out to be significant energy spots that will help you create a more intimate relationship with the land.

You’re curious how map dowsing works, and I explain how it’s like looking into a crystal ball and being transported to the place the map describes, except “seeing” more details than are actually drawn on the map. Doing the preliminary reading via maps, before I visit your place, is also a way I save a lot of time and effort and get more done during an on-site survey.

I ask you to give me a general orientation, pointing out the property boundary as it travels along ridges and gullies. You take me to a vantage point where I can see most of the whole property. I read the signs in the lay of the land that tell me the story of how the landscape was formed geologically, which ecological habitats you have, and how the wind, water and fog move through the landscape. I help you see the ridges as dragons and introduce you to how Feng Shui interprets the auspiciousness of a landscape by the shape and arrangement of the land forms. I show you how particular plant species tell where the wet spots will be in the rainy season, and many other signs that will help reveal the most auspicious location for a main residence.

Next we go to find a spot I dowsed on the map as the “Earth Spirit Shrine.” This is where it should be easiest to connect and communicate with the Spirit of Place and ask what it wants to see happen on this property. You may want to raise goats or create a labyrinth, but I want to hear if the land itself feels it’s a good idea. We soon come upon a magnificent oak tree that you had not discovered yet. It’s probably one of the oldest trees on the property. Its branches arch down to the ground and create an outdoor “room.” It feels like holy ground; we fall silent and get very still.

I put my back to the tree and enter a meditative state, using an interspecies communication process to commune with the elder tree and listen to the spirit of the land for its wishes regarding land use. Images come to my inner mind’s eye that feel like a download of the history of this place. I also see other places that I sense I’m being called to visit, to get more of the story.

We continue walking around the property, and I show you what I consider to be the most important spots to know about. First is the “Heart Zone.” This is exactly what it sounds like: the heart of the property; a place that opens your heart. I explain that the heart zone is usually the only part of a property where you can find a representative of all the trees, flowers, rocks, soils and habitats that are found around the property. And within this zone are the spots that are most conducive for primary dwellings, because it’s where you feel most connected to the whole place.

Next is the best area to locate your entry drive. I describe it as the place “where the land wants to receive the guests.” This phrase really moves you, and our conversation shifts to a deeper level. I sense you are starting to get what the geomantic approach is all about. It comes out of an attitude that we are guests on this planet, and our job is to be humble stewards and caretakers of the Earth. If we feed the Earth, Earth Mother will feed us.

As we walk along this potential entry drive, I point out how moving through this natural gateway gives family and visitors the best introduction to the land. Here you can see the boundary ridge and get a sense of the whole property. A little farther on, and the heart zone comes into view nestled below the highest hill. I explain how when an entry drive is situated where the land wants to receive the guests, it is more likely that everyone who enters gets attuned to the spirit of place and naturally yearns to love and take care of the place.

Next I blaze a trail for the continuation of the driveway all the way to the main house site. As we go I explain the landscape design principles of Frederick Law Olmstead that I’m using to make the approach a rich experience that introduces everyone to the various qualities of the land: winding the pathway over a stream, around the edge of a meadow, in and out of the woods from conifers to hardwoods and back again. I map out a path that gives glimpses of the house site from various perspectives, but leaves the full view for the final surprise.

We finish the day exploring a few more areas that are the most appropriate locations for various desired human activities, secondary buildings, and other roads. I dowse out significant currents of subtle earth energies that are beneficial or detrimental to human health. I explain how the latter is not conducive for human dwelling, but is perfect for a compost pile, because the energies help decompose matter.

It’s been a long day, but you’re excited about the wealth of information you’ve received and the quantum leap you’ve made in your understanding of this place.

You schedule another consultation to move into phase two: the conceptual design of the main house. I give you an assignment to imagine a day in your life five years after moving into this new home. I explain that I’ll use that to create a “bubble diagram” to start to figure out the most harmonious arrangement for all the different activities. Once we decide on a specific building site within the “heart zone,” I’ll dowse and mark out on the site the areas whose qualities and energies most support the activities to be housed in and around the building.

Time Needed for Site Readings

An initial site reading can take anywhere from four to eight hours to several days, depending on the size of the property and how much clients want to accomplish:

  • Geomantic site analysis

  • Dowsing locations for activities and functions

  • Assessing potential building locations and orientations

  • Review of client’s plan sketches

  • Initial inspirations for conceptual forms that fit with the landscape and client’s building program

Testimonials

“I almost don't have words for the joy and excitement I feel from your site reading. I can't stop talking or thinking about it. I know that our Vision Quest in Ireland opened me up to the power and wonder of our relationship with nature. But you walking our land - with your love, sensitivity, enthusiasm and knowledge - exponentially amplified that relationship. I’m stoked!! Your redirecting the exchange of payment for services into a beautiful and powerful love offering, was over the top!!!” — Dr. Anne Richards, leadership coach

Significant Site Planning Projects

Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California

  • World-famous retreat center on California coast; primary generator of the human potential movement, gestalt therapy, Rolfing, Russian-American citizen diplomacy movement, etc.

  • Geomantic and feng shui analysis of entire property to support process to convert facility into an ecologically sustainable retreat center.

  • Recommendations for relocation of roads, parking, entrances, pathways, and buildings to remove obstacles to optimum use and enjoyment of facility, and enhance more natural, flowing movement around the grounds.

  • Re-visioning and reassignment of use of interior and outdoor spaces to align with the inherent qualities of each spot, create more functional relationships between institution’s elements, facilitate connection with the spirit of place, and foster development of stronger sense of community among retreat program participants, staff, residents and extended local community.

  • Input into long-range planning process, including meetings with department heads, presentations to community, and participation in planning team weekend charettes.

  • Preparation of Geomancer’s Report incorporated into Master Planning documents approved by board of directors and county planning department.

Numerous Private properties - 1 to 40 Acres

  • Location suggestions for entrances, roads, building sites and orientation, ponds, labyrinths, sacred sites, landscaping design.

  • Survey of existing special spots to be aware of — to respect, preserve and use to enhance connection to the place or for spiritual benefit.

Nomenus Land Trust/Wolf Creek Sanctuary, southern Oregon

  • 80 Acre community and sanctuary devoted to development of gay, earth-centered spirituality

  • Master planning - siting for main lodge/kitchen and gathering facility, road and parking lot realignments, stream and wetlands restoration

  • Siting for labyrinth to facilitate arrival on land

  • Investigation of unexplored half of property to identify quality of unusual spots and appropriate land use.

Emerald Earth Land Trust, Anderson Valley, Mendocino Co., Calif.

  • 160 Acre community and rustic retreat center.

  • Land use master plan, pragmatic to spiritual uses, from camping sites to medicine wheel, and nature spirit shrines.

  • Evaluation of sites for future main residence.

  • Psychic archaeology of original homestead site.

Earth Mysteries studies of individual sites and megalithic complexes

  • San Francisco Bay Area: Pt. Reyes National Seashore rock cairns, Mt Tamalpais State Park stone circles, ancient stone walls running along ridge lines in East Bay hills.

  • Indian Mounds in Ohio, Wisconsin and Missouri

  • British Isles and Brittany, France: Megalithic standing stones, rings, henges, dolmens, and passage mounds.

  • Charting of earth energy lines and underground water veins.

  • Study of effects of earth energies on human consciousness.

  • Exploration of range of sacred sites and shrines of the Earth Spirit, including holy wells, sacred tree groves, caves, waterfalls, mountain peaks.