Self · Palmistry
Palmistry, read with care.
The lines of the hand read as cultural history, what palmistry has classically claimed, and where it stops.
The pieces
To read in this practice
The vocabulary
Words worth knowing
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Dominant hand The dominant hand, in palmistry, is the one a person uses to write and act: it is also called the active hand.
- Palmar creases Palmar creases are the furrows that score the palm.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Mount of Jupiter The mount of Jupiter is the pad at the base of the index finger, the finger of Jupiter.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Explore further
Every line, one by one
The questions people ask
Short answers, straight to the point.
- Which hand should you read?
- Both, and that's the whole point: tradition reads in the non-dominant hand what you were given, and in the dominant one what you make of it. Comparing the two palms often tells more than either hand alone. Start with the dominant one if you have to choose. Learn to read a palm →
- What does the life line mean?
- Contrary to the rumor, it doesn't measure longevity: its length says nothing about how long you'll live. Tradition reads vitality in it, the way you inhabit your energy, your grounding in the concrete. A thin or short line describes an economy of means, not a life cut short. Browse the lines of the hand →
- Do the lines of the hand change over time?
- Yes: the major creases are set before birth, but the secondary lines shift over the years, with the use of the hand and with age. A reading is therefore a snapshot, not a permanent engraving. That's good news: the palm lives alongside you.
- Can palmistry predict the future?
- The tradition of the fairgrounds long promised it, and that's precisely what we won't promise you here. A palm reads like a portrait: dispositions, appetites, caveats, never a calendar. What you do with your hands stays your hands' own business.
- Where does palmistry come from?
- The Greek word says it all: kheir, the hand, and manteia, the reading. The practice goes back to ancient India, passes through ancient Greece (Aristotle already describes the lines of the palm in his History of Animals), then flourishes in the Middle Ages and the salons of Europe. A long conversation between the palm and the eye, of which we keep the contemplative part.