Meaning
Albus is Mercury at rest. Agrippa's glosses of 1651 are "White" and "Fair"; Hartmann's English names it "White Head", and his verdict is "wisdom, sagacity, clear thought" and "a good figure"; the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's handbook finds it good for entering on an undertaking. The 1655 Of Geomancy counts both of Mercury's figures as good, Albus the less fortunate of the two. In our own words, it favours study, reflection, beginnings made in peace and anything that needs a cool head, and is weak where force is needed. Wikipedia's modern summary calls it weak alone and good in good company.
In the shield
Albus has seven points, so it can never be Judge. Its quality is disputed: "meane" by Cattan's rule read as head against feet, entering in the modern table. Its head line is double, so the Way of the Point, which follows single points under the modern rule, never runs through it. Turned upside down it becomes Rubeus, Red, which Hartmann calls "Redhead": white and red, calm and heat, are one shape inverted. With every point swapped it becomes Puer. Its partner under Mercury is Coniunctio.
Mercury, and the signs
Every source gives Albus to Mercury, and Cattan's table makes it Mercury direct and Coniunctio Mercury retrograde. Cattan's translator simply calls it "white". In Gerard's scheme Albus is Cancer, as in Agrippa and Cattan's own table; the Golden Dawn gives it Gemini, a sign of Mercury, and the scheme Cattan prints under Gerard's name on page 63 gives Pisces. Two texts under Gerard's name, two different signs: one reason we always say whose sign we show.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Planet
- Mercury, in every source checked (Cattan, Agrippa, the 1655 text, Hartmann, Crowley, Fludd) sourced
- Direct or retrograde (Cattan, p. 54)
- Mercury direct sourced
- Sign, Gerard's scheme (ours)
- Cancer sourced
- Sign, other schemes
- Agrippa (1651): Cancer; Cattan's table (p. 56): Cancer; Cattan's “Gerard Cremon” (p. 63): Pisces; the Golden Dawn (1909): Gemini disputed
- Quality (Cattan's rule)
- “meane” (common) if the head line is weighed against the feet; entering in the modern table disputed
- Lines
- Single, active: Water (body); double, passive: Fire (head), Air (neck) and Earth (feet) sourced
- Our keywords
- Peace, clarity, wisdom our construction
How the schools read it
- Cattan (1591)
- Calls it “white”; “meane” (common) if the head line is weighed against the feet; entering in the modern table.
- Agrippa (1651)
- Glosses it “White”, “Fair”.
- *Of Geomancy* (1655)
- Mercury, calm and good (Coniunctio and Albus are both good, Albus the less fortunate).
- Hartmann (1889)
- “Albus, White Head, wisdom, sagacity, clear thought, is a good figure.”
- The Golden Dawn (Crowley, 1909)
- “Good […] for entering into a place of undertaking” (its word on profit left out)
- Modern practice (Greer, as reported)
- Calls it stable, giving a direction even to a figure the old rule calls “meane”.
- EsoTerrier
- Peace, clarity, wisdom (our one-line reading in the chart).
Claims about it
-
Albus is a figure a person is born under, worked out from a name and a birth date.
falseWhat the record shows: No source makes a geomantic figure from birth data; every casting is for a question. Our own app did this until October 2026, and the method was retired.
-
Albus has one zodiac sign.
disputedWhat the record shows: Gerard's scheme gives Cancer, the Golden Dawn Gemini, Cattan's page 63 Pisces. At least six schemes exist; we always name the one we use.
-
Albus has an element of its own.
disputedWhat the record shows: The sources give the figures at least six different sets of elements. We show only the four line elements, never an element for the whole figure.
