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Geomantic Figures

Albus

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Origin 1100 to 1300

Albus (White) is one of the sixteen geomantic figures, formed of double Fire, double Air, single Water, and double Earth. It is attributed to the element Air, the planet Mercury, and the sign Gemini. Its name means white, and it signifies peace, clarity, wisdom, and calm reflection, the clear light of a serene and thoughtful mind. Ruled by Mercury in its cool and rational aspect, Albus is a favorable figure, particularly for matters of thought, counsel, learning, and peaceful resolution, and it tends toward mild, tranquil, and well-considered outcomes. Its energy is gentle rather than forceful, so while it favors wisdom, communication, and calm success, it may be too passive for undertakings that demand vigor or decisive drive.

Facts
Origins
Origin Period
1100 to 1300 3Tradition: Latin geomancy, translated from the Arabic
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account
1533 4Tradition: Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Origin Period
800 to 1200 CE 1Tradition: Arabic ilm al-raml, the science of the sand
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account
Albus belongs to the sixteen figure system of geomantic divination whose figures took shape in the Arabic tradition of raml, attested there and in North Africa from the eighth to the twelfth century; the technique reached Latin Europe by the eleventh to thirteenth century, and Cornelius Agrippa set the figures into their now standard planetary and zodiacal correspondences in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, published in 1533. 4
Place of Origin
North Africa and the wider Islamic world; carried into Latin Europe through the twelfth-century translation movement, chiefly in Spain. 1
Attributed Author / Compiler
No single author. The Latin geomantic corpus is anonymous and pseudonymous, circulating under the names of Hermes, Aristotle, Ptolemy and others, none of whom wrote any part of it. Having no author is itself the fact about this tradition worth recording. 3
Language
Classical Arabic 1
Language
Latin 3
Attributions
Mode (Stable / Mobile)
Stable 2
Modern mainstream Stable/Mobile classification; exact page locator not confirmed against the primary text this pass.
Ruling Planet
Mercury 1
Zodiac Sign
Gemini 1
Figure Points
Fire double, Air double, Water single, Earth double 1
Identity
English Name
White 1
Element
Air 1
Reading Keys
Keywords
Peace, wisdom, clarity 1
Partially Attested
Exaltation House (Attributed)
1st house (exaltation) 5
Sourced to the subject's own accountReported exaltation house, attributed to Pietro d'Abano, sourced only through a secondary blog summary. Not a ruling-house claim; see Via's note for the full caveat.
Learn More
The Figure Albus and Its Attributions

Albus, White, is one of the sixteen figures of Western geomancy, the divinatory art in which meaning is read from a figure of four rows, each row holding either one dot or two.

The figure and its reading

Its four rows are Fire (two dots), Air (two dots), Water (one dot), Earth (two dots). Geomantic figures are attributed to the elements, the planets and the signs of the zodiac; Albus is assigned to the element of Air, to Mercury and the sign Gemini. Its traditional divinatory sense is one of peace, wisdom, clarity.

These attributions are those of the mature Western tradition set out by writers such as Christopher Cattan (1558) and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (Book II of the Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 1533), and taken up in the modern revival by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn from 1888. The technique itself is older and reached Latin Europe through translations of the Arabic ilm al-raml, the science of the sand. The figure is described here as an element of that documented tradition.

Albus: The Points, and What Flipping Them Gives

Four rows of one or two points is the whole of a geomantic figure. The colour names, the planets and the signs all sit on top of that.

The pattern

Albus is double, double, single, double, reading Fire, Air, Water and Earth from the top down, seven points in all. One light row sits third from the top among three heavy ones.

Flipping every row

Change each row from single to double and from double to single and Albus becomes Puer. Eight such pairs cover the sixteen figures with none left over, because inverting the state of every row maps the set onto itself and fixes nothing.

Albus and Rubeus

Albus and Rubeus, white and red, are the only pair of figures in the set named for colours, and the pairing of the names is older than the Latin. They are not partners under the flip: Albus pairs with Puer and Rubeus with Puella. Readers who expect the colour pair to be the structural pair are working from the names rather than the points, and the atlas notes the mismatch rather than smoothing it over.

The attributions

A planet, a sign and an element are recorded for Albus elsewhere in the atlas. They come from the astrological layer that Latin Europe added, the handbooks differ on several of the sixteen, and none of the assignments was derived from the rows. The point pattern, by contrast, is the same wherever the figure appears.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Originates in Language

Classical Arabic, Languages
Source Islamic Geomancy and a Thirteenth-Century Divinatory DeviceEmilie Savage-Smith and Marion B. Smith
Latin, Languages
Source Recherches sur une technique divinatoire: la geomancie dans l'Occident medievalTherese Charmasson
Sources
1. Islamic Geomancy and a Thirteenth-Century Divinatory Device
Emilie Savage-Smith and Marion B. Smith, Undena Publications, 1980On ilm al-raml and the sixteen figures before their Latin transmission
2. John Michael Greer, The Art and Practice of Geomancy (2009)
John Michael Greer, 2009
3. Recherches sur une technique divinatoire: la geomancie dans l'Occident medieval
Therese Charmasson, Librairie Droz, 1980On the Latin figure names and the medieval tradition
4. Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Llewellyn, 1533Book II, on the geomantic figures and their planetary and zodiacal attributionsView the Source
5. Nick Farrell, "Geomancy Aspects, Dignity, Occupation, Conjunction, Mutation and Translation" (nickfarrell.it)
Nick Farrell
The Geomancie of Maister Christopher Cattan, Gentleman
Christopher Cattan, John Wolfe, 1591On the figure Albus and its significations
Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy: Of Geomancy
Pseudo-Agrippa; Robert Turner (trans.), J. C. for John Harrison, 1655On the planetary and zodiacal attribution of AlbusView the Source

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