Sikidy divination (Madagascar)

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · Madagascar

What it is

Sikidy is the Malagasy word for divination. It names a divination system that scholars link to Arabic geomancy. Most people know its basic rules, but specialist diviners, the mpisikidy or ombiasy, hold the expert knowledge and are described as "a specialist in guiding people". In secondary…

Format

• This is a framework for the therapist's work, not stages of sikidy. Session counts are guidance only.
• Preparation (before or alongside session 1). Goal: examine your own assumptions about divination, sorcery and Christianity in Madagascar, and arrange an interpreter if needed (Malagasy, French). Move on when you can state your own biases and have a plan for language.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• The state. Madagascar's Ministry of Public Health has a Service de la pharmacopée et de la médecine traditionnelle. The state-created Association nationale des tradipraticiens de Madagascar (ANTM) certifies practitioners. Decree no. 2007-805 defines the tradipraticien de santé in four categories: traditional midwife, tradi-therapist, herbalist and medico-droguist. Healers without recognition are called guérisseurs.…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Polite compliance without engagement. Working: the client corrects you.
• Reifying a lay explanation as a syndrome. Working: the record would be recognisable to the client.
• Discharge against advice and financial exhaustion. Working: the family contacts you before changing the care plan.
• The interpreter softening or editorialising talk of diviners or sorcery. Working: the client uses their own terms freely.
• Scrupulosity, or fear of spiritual punishment from either side. Working: the client can hold the conflict and make a choice they own.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.