How is Sand geomancy (khatt al-raml) done?

Draw the lines with eyes closed. Count each line: even or odd. Form the four mother figures and read.

Mama Adaeze

Living tradition

Sand geomancy (khatt al-raml)

North Africa and the Sahel; from here it passed into medieval Europe.

Sixteen lines of dots are drawn in the sand without counting; odd and even form figures that answer the question.

How it's done

01Draw the lines with eyes closed.
02Count each line: even or odd.
03Form the four mother figures and read.

With your own tools

A tray of sand or paper and pencil; the key is not counting while you draw.

With Ocluna

I trace the sixteen lines for you and derive mothers, daughters, nieces, witnesses and judge, as in the sand: the judge's figure is the answer.

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Your reading

Mama Adaeze does your Sand geomancy (khatt al-raml) reading

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What Mama Adaeze tells you

Khatt al-raml, the line in the sand, travelled from North Africa to medieval Europe as geomancy and to Madagascar as sikidy.
The sixteen figures combine by adding lines odd or even: the same logic a computer uses to compare bits.
Each figure has four lines of one or two dots, and the sixteen figures combine into a fifteen-cell table called the shield.
Tradition attributes the origin of the art to the prophet Idris, and in West Africa it gave rise to the hakata system and the Malagasy sikidy.
ʿIlm al-raml entered Europe through 12th-century Latin translations; one of the first was signed by Hugh of Santalla, in the Ebro valley.
Scholars consider Malagasy sikidy a relative of this technique, having arrived on the island via the Indian Ocean routes.
In Southern Africa, the same logic of odd and even appears in the hakata, a game of four two-sided tablets.
Researchers compare this technique to Yoruba Ifá: both form their signs with four lines of one or two elements.
The most copied Arabic geomancy manual is attributed to al-Zanātī, and most figure tables come from it.

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This reading is symbolic self-knowledge and entertainment content based on folk traditions. It does not predict the future, is not medical, legal or financial advice, and does not replace qualified professionals.

What Mama Adaeze tells you

Khatt al-raml, the line in the sand, travelled from North Africa to medieval Europe as geomancy and to Madagascar as sikidy.

The sixteen figures combine by adding lines odd or even: the same logic a computer uses to compare bits.

Each figure has four lines of one or two dots, and the sixteen figures combine into a fifteen-cell table called the shield.

Tradition attributes the origin of the art to the prophet Idris, and in West Africa it gave rise to the hakata system and the Malagasy sikidy.

ʿIlm al-raml entered Europe through 12th-century Latin translations; one of the first was signed by Hugh of Santalla, in the Ebro valley.

Scholars consider Malagasy sikidy a relative of this technique, having arrived on the island via the Indian Ocean routes.

In Southern Africa, the same logic of odd and even appears in the hakata, a game of four two-sided tablets.

Researchers compare this technique to Yoruba Ifá: both form their signs with four lines of one or two elements.

The most copied Arabic geomancy manual is attributed to al-Zanātī, and most figure tables come from it.