How to Generate the Figures

Mark dots in four horizontal rows (stick-and-surface) to form the sixteen geomantic figures and read their meanings from the corpus.

Introduction

A geomantic figure has four lines — Head (fire), Neck (air), Body (water), and Foot (earth). Each line is either active (one dot) or passive (two dots). Sixteen unique patterns map to the traditional figure names in the Figure Glossary.

In Geofancy, active lines are stored as 1 (single ◆) and passive lines as 2 (double ◆ ◆). The app names each figure from the corpus once the four lines are known.

The sixteen figures

Geomancy uses exactly sixteen figures — every possible combination of four active or passive lines (2⁴ = 16). Each line is read top to bottom as Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Medieval and Renaissance manuals gave each pattern a Latin name, planet, sign, and interpretive quality; Geofancy stores that material in the figure corpus.

Browse names, imagery, and full readings in the Figure Glossary.

Via (The Way)
Populus (The People)
Fortuna Major (Greater Fortune)
Fortuna Minor (Lesser Fortune)
Coniunctio (Conjunction)
Carcer (The Prison)
Tristitia (Sorrow)
Laetitia (Joy)
Acquisitio (Gain)
Amissio (Loss)
Albus (Whiteness)
Rubeus (The Red)
Puella (The Girl)
Puer (The Boy)
Caput Draconis (Dragon's Head)
Cauda Draconis (Dragon's Tail)

Further reading: Wikipedia — Geomantic figures, Princeton — Medieval geomantic figures.

Mark the dots

In the traditional stick-and-surface method you make four horizontal rows of random dots — Head (fire) on top through Foot (earth) on the bottom. When you are ready, pair dots off two at a time in each row, left to right. If one dot remains, that line is active (single); if zero or two remain, the line is passive (double). Reading the four finished rows top to bottom gives you one figure.

Practice figure

Head Fire0/3

Tap to mark

Neck Air0/3

Tap to mark

Body Water0/3

Tap to mark

Foot Earth0/3

Tap to mark

Mark dots and tap Generate figure to load this figure's corpus entry.

Cast the four Mothers on a chart

Placing four Mother figures on the shield and deriving the rest of the chart is covered in the shield-chart walkthrough — not on this page.

Open Interactive Shield Walkthrough

Prefer the article walkthrough? How to Cast a Shield Chart

Other ways to enter figures

Geofancy does not randomize marks for you — the randomization stays with your hands. Once you know the four lines, you can also enter them directly in the Workspace or Mobile View by tapping each line on the Mother figures to toggle between single and double dots.

When your four Mothers are set, continue to How to Cast a Shield Chart to derive the rest of the chart.