Almuten of the Figure

arabic: al-mubtazz (المُبْتَزّ) — 'the victor' · latin: almuten / almutes / almutem figurae / dominator

Definition

The planet that wins the composite essential-dignity tally taken across the five hylegical points of the chart — typically the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Part of Fortune, and pre-natal syzygy — under the weighted 5-4-3-2-1 dignity-counting scheme (domicile 5, exaltation 4, triplicity 3, term/bound 2, face/decan 1). The winning planet is read as the overall master of the nativity, the planet whose condition and placement most fully characterises the whole life. The figure-almuten extends the per-degree almuten doctrine across multiple chart points.

In Tradition

In the Arabic-Persian and medieval-Latin traditions the mubtazz / almuten is the planet authoritative enough to act as chief planet over a topic, a place, or — at the broadest scope — the whole figure. Dykes records two competing weighting schemes: Ptolemy's one-point-per-dignity method and the weighted 5-4-3-2-1 scheme, the latter argued to originate with Abu al-'Anbas al-Saimari c. 815-844 CE and transmitted forward through al-Kindi, al-Qabisi, Bonatti, Ibn Ezra, and Lilly.

In Practice

You list the five hylegical points (Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Part of Fortune, pre-natal syzygy), compute the five dignity-rulers at each point's exact degree (domicile / exaltation / triplicity / term / face), tally the weighted points each candidate planet earns across all five points, and name the winner the almuten of the figure. The procedure isolates the planet most structurally entitled to speak for the chart as a whole. Sect and chart angles break ties when two planets tally equal. The almuten figuris is used as a primary natal-significator alongside the Lord of the Geniture and the sect light; medieval Latin Christian-Astrology-era horary practitioners read it as the principal indicator of life-quality and disposition.

Historical Origin

The mubtazz doctrine is foundational across the Arabic-Persian tradition, transmitted to medieval Latin as almuten / almutes / almutem / dominator. Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae Tractate II Pars II preserves the Latin form with worked examples, citing Alchabitius; Crane records the medieval calibration of Ptolemy's equal-weight scheme into the 5-4-3-2-1 weighted form. Lehman extends the per-degree almuten to chart-cusps and house-cusps; the figure-wide application appears in Lilly's Christian Astrology and the Persian-school sources translated by Dykes.

Etymology

Origin: Arabic / Latin. Meaning: From Arabic al-mubtazz ('the victor, the winner') via medieval Latin almuten / almutes / almutem ('the most powerful'); 'figure' (figura) is the medieval-Latin term for the natal chart taken as a whole..

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading