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Fludd gives some basic details about the geomantic figures.

Of the Names, Forms and Natures of the Geomantic Figures

those figures which can be drawn from the series of four geomantic lines are sixteen in number, which are distinguished from one another by name and form, as follows:¹

Name	Form
First: Acquisitio	* * * * * *
Second: Amissio	* * * * * *
Third: Laetitia	* * * * * * *
Fourth: Tristitia	* * * * * * *
Fifth: Caput Draconis	* * * * *
Sixth: Cauda Draconis	* * * * *
Seventh: Albus	* * * * * * *
Eighth: Rubeus	* * * * * * *
Ninth: Puer2	* * * * *
Tenth: Puella	* * * * *
Eleventh: Major Fortuna (sic)	* * * * * *
Twelfth: Minor Fortuna (sic)	* * * * * *
Thirteenth: Populus	* * * * * * * *
Fourteenth: Via	* * * *
Fifteenth: Conjunctio	* * * * * *
Sixteenth: Carcer	* * * * * *

And these figures are obviously referred to the signs of the Zodiac:

Figure	Zodiac Sign
Acquisitio	Aries
Laetitia and Fortuna Minor	Taurus
Rubeus and Puer	Gemini
Albus and Populus	Cancer
Via	Leo
Caput Draconis and Conjunctio	Virgo
Puella	Leo
Tristitia and Amissio	Scorpio
Cauda Draconis	Sagittarius
Populus	Capricorn
Fortuna Major	Aquarius
Carcer	Pisces

Similarly they are given to:

Planet	Figures
Mars	Rubeus (D), Puella (R)3
Sun	Major (fast), Minor (slow)4
Venus	Puer (D)5, Amissio (R)
Mercury	Albus (D), Conjunctio (R)
Moon	Populus (D), Via (R)6
Jupiter and Venus	Caput Draconis (D)
Saturn and Mars	Cauda Draconis (R)

These Figures are also:

Element	Figures
Fiery, assigned to the South	Rubeus Minor Amissio Cauda
Airy, assigned to the East	Laetitia Acquisitio Puella Conjunctio
Watery, assigned to the North	Populus Via Puer Albus
Earthy, assigned to the West	Major Caput Carcer Tristitia

The Figures are:

Value	Figures
Always positive and fortunate	Major Laetitia Caput Albus Puer Acquisitio
Always negative and unhappy	Tristitia Rubeus Puella Amissio Cauda Minor Carcer
Neither always good nor always evil, but middling, that is, neither exceptionally good nor exceptionally bad	Populus Via Conjunctio

The Figures are however:

Stability	Figures
Strong and stable	Major Acquisitio Laetitia Puer Albus Caput
Weak and moveable	Amissio Tristitia Puella Rubeus Cauda
Mediocre, that is, neither strong nor weak	Populus Via Conjunctio Carcer7

Rule I
Strong and firm figures make a thing stable and firm, for better or worse, depending on whether the figure is found in a good or evil house.

Rule II
Weak figures are so called, because they render a weak judgement without stability, neither are they so good and stable as much as they are mediocre,⁸ whether in a question of illness or incarceration or pregnancy.

Rule III
Mediocre figures are so called, because they are between strong and weak figures, and they make a situation mediocre, that is, neither totally good nor totally bad.

MQS

Footnotes

1. Fludd was fond of using tables. I will try to make the layout of the translation as clear as possible ↩︎
2. Fludd gives here to Puer the form we typically assign to Puella and vice versa. ↩︎
3. ‘D’ is for ‘direct’, ‘R’ for retrograde.
   ↩︎
4. The Sun cannot go into retrogradation, which is why some sources, like Fludd, attribute the two Fortunes to the Sun at different speeds. This is still somewhat odd, considering the Sun is always rather constant in its speed (which is probably behind the traditional symbolic view of the Sun as a source of stability, as opposed to the Moon’s changeability). ↩︎
5. Generally, today, we would assign Venus to Puella and Mars to Puer. It is unclear to me the extent to which Fludd was making a mistake or providing a blind to challenge the reader’s thinking. He is not the only traditional authority who swaps Puer and Puella, though. ↩︎
6. The Moon cannot go into retrogradation. Usually, Populus is assigned today to the waxing Moon, Via to the waning Moon. ↩︎
7. There exist other lists with partially different attributions. ↩︎
8. It is unclear to me whether Fludd means that weak figures are mediocre or that they are worse than those called mediocre. Logic would dictate that the latter interpretation is correct. ↩︎