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

Series · 2 reads

Palmistry: Reading Your Hand, Palm Wide Open From ancient India to Cheiro’s London salons: what palmistry reads in your lines, what your life line really says, and how to open your own palm and read it. Open the series →

Palm Lines: Life, Heart, Head, and the Rest

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.

The full glossary →

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