Almugea (Almuguea)
Definition
Almugea is a transliterated-Arabic, medieval-Latin condition in which a planet stands at the same number of signs from a luminary as that planet's domicile stands from the luminary's own sign — its rejoicing-distance, also called its proper face. A planet is in the Almugea of the Sun when its distance from the Sun mirrors its domicile's distance from Leo, and in the Almugea of the Moon when its distance from her mirrors its domicile's distance from Cancer. The sign-counts run Mercury one, Venus two, Mars three, Jupiter four, Saturn five.
In Tradition
Traditional astrologers treat Almugea as a minor accidental dignity — a planet placed at its proper rejoicing-distance from a light is in a comfortable, slightly strengthened state. Bonatti, following Ptolemy's 'sighting face to face' definition, measures it as the planet-to-Sun distance equal to the planet's-domicile-to-Leo distance; Avelar and Ribeiro describe the same condition as 'proper face' by the rulership-scheme distance from the lights. It must not be confused with face or decan, the ten-degree divisions of the signs.
In Practice
When you tally a planet's accidental strengths, check whether it sits at its Almugea distance from a luminary. For Almugea of the Sun, count signs from the Sun to the planet and compare with the distance from Leo to the planet's domicile: Mercury should be one sign from the Sun, Venus two, Mars three, Jupiter four, Saturn five. For Almugea of the Moon, count from the Moon and compare with the distance from Cancer to the planet's domicile. Bonatti adds that the planet should be occidental in Ptolemy's restricted sense — on the western side of the Sun, setting before it rather than after it; Venus is the exception, taken to be in Almugea of the Sun when she sets before it at her furthest elongation. A planet at its proper distance reads as eased in its relationship to the light, a small point added alongside its essential dignities, its house, and its freedom from the beams. Weigh it as one supporting comfort-condition, not a decisive testimony.
Historical Origin
Almugea is preserved in the medieval-Latin reception of Arabic astrology. Bonatti sets out the per-planet distances in Liber Astronomiae, Part III Second Part (trans. Robert Hand, Project Hindsight), attributing the 'sighting face to face' definition to Ptolemy and extending it to the non-luminary planets. Hephaistio's prosopon ('face') doctrine is glossed by Robert Schmidt as the same dignity the Arabs called Almugea. Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro reconstruct it as 'proper face' in On the Heavenly Spheres (AFA, 2010).