Also called ʿilm al-raml, the science of the sand, sand divination
A divination method that turns random marks in sand or on paper into four-line figures of one or two dots, then combines them into a chart of sixteen possible figures. It came from the Arabic world into medieval Europe.
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Take care: Geomancy is safe to practise on paper. Ifá and other initiatory systems are sacred, closed traditions; do not imitate them or present yourself as a practitioner.
Practitioners drew sixteen random lines of dots in sand and read the resulting figures, often without the European shield layout. Some Islamic scholars condemned the practice, but sand-cutting manuals circulated widely across North Africa and the Middle East.
European geomancers placed the first twelve figures, the Mothers, Daughters and Nieces, into the twelve astrological houses and read the figures with planets and signs. Treatises circulated under the names of Gerard of Cremona, Pietro d'Abano and, later, Cornelius Agrippa.
In Madagascar, an ombiasy arranges seeds into the same sixteen-figure system, laid out in a grid. It is a living specialist practice with its own meanings, and it shows how far the Arabic method travelled.
Ifá uses binary sixteen-fold figures related to geomancy, but it is a sacred system practised by initiated babalawo who memorise a vast body of verses. UNESCO recognises it as cultural heritage. It is not a self-taught method, so the respectful course is to learn about it from its own communities rather than imitate it.
Geomancy, from Greek words meaning earth divination, reached Europe from the Arabic world, where it was called ʿilm al-raml, the science of the sand. Practitioners marked the ground with random lines of dots and read the sixteen figures that resulted. Latin translations of Arabic geomantic texts were made in twelfth-century Spain, and the Latin names of the figures, such as Via, Populus, Puer and Puella, became standard. Christian and Muslim authorities alike often condemned it among the forbidden arts.
Geomancy was popular in medieval and Renaissance Europe because it needed no astronomical tables, only a pen. Pietro d'Abano and Cornelius Agrippa wrote on it, and later the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn taught it. In Africa the same figures live on in Malagasy sikidy and relate to Yoruba Ifá, which UNESCO inscribed as cultural heritage in 2008. There is no evidence that geomancy predicts outcomes, though its strict procedure appeals to people who like a logical system.
Opening a respected book at random and taking the first passage your eye or finger lands on as an answer to your question.
Marking slips of wood with signs, scattering them on a white cloth and reading the ones you pick up. Built from Tacitus's account of Germanic lot-casting and modern rune practice.
Tossing three coins six times to build a hexagram from the Chinese Book of Changes, then reading its text as counsel on a situation.
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