Geomancy
The sixteen geomantic figures
For daily figure, asked cast, planet and element guidance.
Oracle / Geomancy
Geomancy began in the Islamic world as ilm al-raml, the science of the sand, and reached Latin Europe in the twelfth century. The reader makes four lines of marks, counts each as odd or even, and stacks the four results into a figure: one dot for odd, two for even. Sixteen figures are possible, and each carries a planet, an element and a character inherited from medieval astrology.
The four lines stand for the four elements, fire at the top and earth at the bottom. A single dot means the element is awake in the matter, a pair means it rests. Choose what the question concerns, then cast.
About geomancy
Geomancy is a method of divination built from sixteen figures, each made of four rows of one or two dots. A single dot in a row is an odd point, two dots an even point. Since each of the four rows can be odd or even, there are exactly sixteen possible figures. They carry Latin names such as Populus (the people), Via (the way), Fortuna Major (the greater fortune), Fortuna Minor, Acquisitio (gain), Amissio (loss), Laetitia (joy), Tristitia (sorrow), Puella (the girl), Puer (the boy), Albus (white), Rubeus (red), Conjunctio (union), Carcer (prison), Caput Draconis (the head of the dragon) and Cauda Draconis (its tail). In the European tradition each figure is also linked to a planet and a sign of the zodiac.
Origins
The art comes from the Arabic-speaking world, where it was called ’ilm al-raml, “the science of the sand”, because the diviner marked rows of points in sand or dust. It spread widely, into West Africa and as far as Madagascar. In the 12th century Arabic treatises were translated into Latin, notably by Hugh of Santalla and Gerard of Cremona, and geomancy became one of the most popular forms of divination in medieval and Renaissance Europe.
How a figure is generated
Traditionally the diviner, concentrating on the question, makes sixteen lines of dots without counting them, by hand on sand or with a pen on paper. Each line is then counted: an odd number gives one dot, an even number two. Every four lines produce one figure, so the sixteen lines yield four figures. Coins or dice can serve the same purpose.
The shield chart
The four figures obtained this way are the Mothers. Reading the Mothers across, row by row, produces four more figures, the Daughters. The eight figures are then combined in pairs: wherever two figures share the same kind of point in a row (both odd or both even), the result has two dots, otherwise one. This gives four Nieces, then two Witnesses, the Right and the Left, and finally the Judge, formed from the two Witnesses. By the arithmetic of the chart, the Judge always has an even number of points.
The finished layout is called the shield chart. The Judge gives the overall answer to the question, the Witnesses show the forces that lead to it, and the earlier figures describe the circumstances in more detail. Some practitioners add a sixteenth figure, the Reconciler, made from the Judge and the first Mother, and many cast the twelve figures into the houses of an astrological chart for a fuller reading.
Further reading
- The Seven Planets in Every Art: Correspondences, Magic Squares and Seals Saturn traced through the grimoire, geomancy and the Tree of Life, then Agrippa's seven planetary magic squares: their totals, their Hebrew names by gematria, and how seals are drawn on them.
Geomancy on your phone
The app keeps a history of your readings, has a sign for every day and a home-screen widget, and goes further into the tradition.