Editing Geomancy (section)

==Etymology and history==
[[File:Geomantic figures.svg|thumb|The sixteen [[geomantic figures]] of [[Arabic geomancy]].]]

The word ''geomancy'', from [[Late Greek]] {{Lang|grc|*γεωμαντεία}} {{Lang|grc-latn|*geōmanteía}}, translates literally to {{Gloss|earth divination}}. In Latin it becomes {{Lang|la|geomantia}}.<ref name="princeton">{{cite web |title=Medieval Geomancy.  Geomancy Step-by-Step |url=https://www.princeton.edu/~ezb/geomancy/geostep.html |website=princeton.edu |access-date=28 March 2024}}</ref> Earlier Greek renditions of this word borrowed the Arabic word {{Lang|ar-latn|raml}} ({{Gloss|sand}}) directly, rendering it as {{Lang|grc-latn|rhamplion}} or {{Lang|grc-latn|rabolion}}.  Other Arabic names for geomancy include {{Lang|ar-latn|khatt al-raml}}, {{Lang|ar-latn|darb al-raml}},<ref name="Skinner_80">Skinner, Stephen (1980). ''Terrestrial Astrology: Divination by Geomancy''. London: Routeledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.</ref>{{rp|14–15}} and {{Lang|ar-latn|'ilm al-raml}}, (literally {{Gloss|the science of the sand}}).<ref name="princeton"/> The origins of geomancy are Arabic and the original geomantic figures were created by "making lines of random numbers of dots in the sand".<ref name="princeton"/>  

Geomancy was one of the forms of divination throughout Africa and Europe, particularly during the [[Middle Ages]].<ref name=Hartlieb/> However it was classified by Christians as one of the seven "[[Artes prohibitae|forbidden arts]]", along with [[black magic]], [[hydromancy]], [[aeromancy]], [[pyromancy]], [[palmistry|chiromancy (palmistry)]], and [[scapulimancy]].<ref name=Hartlieb/>