Glossary 16 terms

Palmistry

  1. Palmistry (chiromancy) Palmistry, also called chiromancy, is the art of reading the lines, mounts, and shapes of the hand to draw a portrait of a person: temperament, drives, inner resources.…
  2. Life line The life line is the line that arcs around the base of the thumb, from the edge of the palm between thumb and index finger down toward the wrist. Palmistry tradition reads it…
  3. Heart line The heart line is the highest horizontal line on the palm, running beneath the base of the fingers from the edge of the hand toward the index or middle finger. Palmistry…
  4. Head line The head line is the middle line of the palm, starting between the thumb and index finger and crossing the hand toward the opposite edge. Palmistry tradition reads it as the…
  5. Fate line The fate line, also called the line of Saturn, is the vertical line rising from the base of the palm toward the middle finger. Palmistry tradition reads it as one’s…
  6. Mounts of the hand The mounts of the hand are the fleshy pads of the palm, found at the base of the fingers and along its edges. Palmistry tradition names them after the planets: Venus, Jupiter,…
  7. Chirognomy Chirognomy is the study of the overall shape of the hands: the length of the fingers, the width of the palm, the texture of the skin, the shape of the nails. Codified in the…
  8. Dominant hand The dominant hand, in palmistry, is the one a person uses to write and act: it is also called the active hand. Tradition reads it as the present in motion, what each person…
  9. Palmar creases Palmar creases are the furrows that score the palm. They form in utero, during the first trimester of pregnancy, marking the zones where the hand folds. Anatomy describes three…
  10. Hasta samudrika shastra Hasta samudrika shastra is the Indian branch of hand reading, drawn from samudrika shastra, the traditional science of the body’s signs attributed to the sage Samudra. Often…
  11. Sun line (Apollo line) The Sun line, also called the Apollo line, is a vertical line rising from the base of the palm toward the ring finger, the finger of Apollo. It runs parallel to the fate line…
  12. Mount of Venus The mount of Venus is the fleshy pad at the base of the thumb, the rounded rise that the life line encircles in an arc. It is the largest of the palm’s mounts. Palmistry…
  13. Mount of Jupiter The mount of Jupiter is the pad at the base of the index finger, the finger of Jupiter. Palmistry tradition reads it as ambition, self-confidence, and one’s relationship to…
  14. Mount of Apollo (mount of the Sun) The mount of Apollo, or mount of the Sun, is the pad at the base of the ring finger, the finger of Apollo. Palmistry tradition reads it as a sense of beauty, creativity, and a…
  15. Hand types by element The elemental classification sorts hands into four types using two measurements: the shape of the palm (square or oblong) and the length of the fingers compared to the palm.…
  16. Ring of Solomon The Ring of Solomon is a curved line encircling the base of the index finger, running in a half-circle around the mount of Jupiter. A rare special marking, palmistry tradition…