Preface

I have laid out a primer in thaumaturgic cartography. This is largely off the cuff and should not be taken as course material in any way. The material is not connected to the university or the classes that I teach - simply my own notes and thoughts on the subject as they occur to me.

Why Even Bother?

There are three situations to pay any attention at all to maps.

1) When you are blazing a trail and making one.
2) When planning not to be killed or injured.
3) When you are looking for treasure.

Cartography Overview

I used to think that cartographers were dreadful engineer-types hunched over aerial photographs, pointing compasses and rapidographs at each other, arguing over what is a maintained road or where the county line lies through their thick glasses under greasy, matted hair. Actually, most cartographers probably are, plus pocket protectors. But as in most things, there is more to it than that, and not all cartographers are mapping the same things. I started cartography informally, making my own trail notes on incomplete maps, then gradually combining several different maps, plus my own field work, into my own maps.

Modern Cartography

Modern cartography is a festooned with satellite photos, topo maps, GPS, and all manner of data analyzation using digital tools. These tools are emminently helpful and often necessary. They do not, however take the place of field work. Due to higher resolution satellite imagery field work in traditional geographic cartography is simply not being done. In the area of strictly geographic cartography this is usually not a problem. Field work in the area of thaumaturgic cartography however, is absolutely essential.

Thaumaturgic Cartography

Physical characteristics are but one way to describe the reality of an area. There are many others. Social, economic, political, mythical, psychological, even mystical and magical. As it turns out, this has a long tradition in history, and some of the most fascinating texts that still exist deal with this kind of mapping. Imagine my surprise when I discovered there were invisible treasures all around me, only because I lacked a proper map. The recent popularity of GeoCaching taps into a fraction of what has been going on right under the nose of society at large for a very long time, perhaps since the beginning.

Von Riesling Past

Hidden treasure, cosmography, the Thaumaturgic Cartography Brotherhood, and Phineas Crumpt are all pieces of this puzzle. I discovered that my own grandfather was a thaumaturgic cartographer. This world behind the world shall be investigated.