Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Almuten Figuris and Guardian Angel.

First of all I would like to remind our beloved readers that english is not my first language, so if the grammar gets messy somewhere along the post, now you will know why.


During my trip to Spain saw many representations of holy beings such as the virgin Mary, Jesus and even God himself surrounded by angels which float aside them or even supporting them. Which got me thinking about the idea of the guardian angel, this particular entity or the notion of a tutelary spirit seems to be a rather common belief in Christianity and ATR. The image of a given protector assigned to us at birth which has a primary role as a spiritual guide and protector, be it a Guardian Angel, Genius, Met Tet , Santo de Cabeza, etc,  all respond to the same principle, thou each system has different ideas on the mechanics and the characteristics of this role. To catholics, the guardian angel is one being, while in vodou the met tet is a single or several lwa accompanied by its respective cohort of spirits and can change in time according to some, some santeria houses consider that each person has both a spiritual father and mother making it two spirits in charge of your wellbeing which never change. These aren’t universal absolutes of course, but some of the things I have heard from people involved in these practices.

The need for an entity of this kind on our lives —in my opinon— responds to two things mainly. First creational burocracy:

An angel is a messenger, a messenger is a carrier of information, God speaks and creates through his word and breath, there for all creation is made manifest through a command from God, this command is an angel, so that’s why it’s said there’s an angel for each second, minute, hours, day, water drop or leave on a tree that exists or has ever existed, so is there an angel for each and every one of us, in charge of what happens to us and God’s plan for us. Reason why K&C with the HGA is deemed so important and other rituals of initiation in ATR systems that put us in contact with our spiritual caretakers.

And secondly as I once read, God doesn’t talk directly so you need intermediaries, which is debatable in some accounts where it is said he has come down himself and given instructions such as in the case of Moses and other biblical figures or in the case of some variants of Christianity where there no intermediary but Jesus who of course is God made flesh. Either way, according to some paths where God is deemed unreachable or too busy to tend to us directly an intermediary figure is needed to talk to him for us and give us the feed-back. Which is reinforced in the catholic idea that our guardian angels carries our prayers to God and that entities like Legba and Ellegua must be served first in order to reach heaven with our prayer, meaning the gate isn’t always open,  we need an intermediary. This of course is a bit more complex than that, especially when you take in consideration the entire cosmological system and it’s different variants, but so far by applying some mild and superficial comparative religion there seems to be a trend.


Now unto the Almuten part! 



Something interesting I found somewhere online is that romans provided their tutelary spirit with wine offerings on their birthdays and that the power or virtue of the spirit was a matter of luck. As a student of astrology I can think of it more of a matter of calculating the name of your genius using the almuten technique and seeing how dignified that planet is on your chart, if the planet is strong on your chart, then you will have a good and strong guardian, if its messed up, then you don’t. This might sound cruel and contrary to the progress of the human soul, giving a person a poor quality guardian angel, but if you come to think about it, God also makes people born blind, deaf and mute among other things.
 
Now, why is the almuten of the figure the proper way to calculate it? What da hell is the almuten of the 
figure in the first place?

Well, the word almuten come from Arabic and means The strong one. It’s the planet that holds more power over a specific degree, in the case of the almuten of the figure, it’s the planet that holds more power over the degree where the 5 Hyleg points stand on your chart. Now, what is a hyleg and how does this almuten power over thing work?

The Hyleg are the 5 points that can determine how long you will live: Sun, moon, syzygy, part of fortune and ascendant. Only one can be the hyleg, to figure out which one, you follow the rules and starting from Sun, discarding each one until you reach the ascendant in case none of the others work. In case you were born at night, which means the sun has already crossed the horizon, not if there was still light out there when you were born, you switch the starting place between the sun and moon and follow the same order.   

The power of the almuten is calculated by the amount of regency a given planet has over a degree on the zodiac wheel. In the case of the almuten of the figure, imagine that there are 5 buildings in a block (hyleg points) and each one has 5 rooms, the person (planet) that owns more rooms in each of the 5 building is the one that own more property and there for power over the block and a stronger vote on what happens there.Iits basically the guy that owns the most property over the chart, and the rest of the planets and all elements on the chart are like tenents that rent, having to respond to their given landlord.

Ok awesome, now we know what each thing is more or less. But why these 5 points? What makes them so special in particular to figure out the name and nature of your Genius/guardian angel?

First of all, the guardian angel is assigned to you at birth, so the 5 candidates for the amount of life you will 
live seem like the proper guide to figure this out, after all, the angel will only be with you until you die

Second, why do we use the 5 points when the actual hyleg will only be one?


-Because then you won’t get to have 5 nifty letter to spell out a name to call on him, but one single letter.

Third, why do we use the amuten of the figure instead of the hyleg itself to determine the nature of the angel?

-Because the name of the angel is given thorugh the 5 letter and you need to know who has power over the name and there for the 5 letter of the angels name to know who rules over him and determines his nature. While the Hyleg will only be one point out of the 5. 

Ok, before me answer, a lil bit of history: 

According to our pal Abraham Ibn Ezra a jewish astrologer born in the year of 1089 in Spain and died probably in England on the year of 1165. Out of whom the formula to calculate the almuten figures was taken from also states the following on the given points:

Sun: In men it represents common sense, intelligence, beauty, strength, great fame, richness, ease with words, lots of desires/goals. It also rules the right eye, the right side of the body and the heart by day and the left eye and brain by night.

Moon: rules thought, the left side of the body and the left eye by day, the right by night
Part of fortune: corresponds to the part of the moon and signifies the body of the person, its life, goods, renown, beginning of all things and persons thoughts.

Ascendent: how will life be, the body, way of speaking, fruitfulness, thought.
So, pretty much they all have to do with things that are intimate to a person, like their brain, thou some hold a distant relationship to it, and the heart, the whole body, consciousness, thoughts and good fortune. So they pretty much happen to be all pretty important.

Even thou I found no account of description as to the use of the syzygy, it’s considered by some to be the blue print previous to any event, in this case, the person.

Something else rather relevant to consider is the fact that all of these points hold a relation to the sun, moon and ascendant in some form to be calculated.

If we get Hellenic then we can look into our other pal Vettius Valens who says:

Sun: light of the mind, organ of perception of the soul, royalty, mind, intelligence, fortune, lord of the head, oracular matters, teachers.

Moon: life of man, the body, appearance, the goddess, birth, fortune.

Those listings aren’t complete, just the relevant parts to the explanation.

So pretty much, the reason why those 5 points are chosen to hold the letter to our guardian angels name its because they hold a close connection to the fact that we are alive and breathing, a very important part of having a guardian angel, like we said, they expire on death.

You can also take into consideration facts like the sun is a representation of God in the chart and the moon represents the soul and all messengers, while the ascendant is the body, so the union of the 3 would be the guardian angel which connects us with God in this world.

Why the ruler of the 11th (teachers, guides and counselors)  isn't taken into account on this escapes me, in geomancy they do, but perhaps its because in astrology this house only relates to physical and human mentors and not spiritual ones. 

So there you go, a some what explanation as to why the almuten of the figure could provide you with your Guardian Angel's name and nature.

PS: yeah this blog's intent is changing a bit. 

1 comment:

  1. Nice post on a topic I've been thinking about a lot. As someone who's studying traditional astrology, and beginning to work w/planetary talismans, but much further along on my primary path of Haitian Vodou, I'm struggling a little with how to regard my Almuten Figuris. More specifically, with how to utilize that personal knowledge, when I have a Met Tet already and spiritual escort. I guess it's just part of how to find a place and purpose for two traditions in my life and work.

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