An Introduction to Palmistry / palm reading

When we open up our palms, we can see that there are many lines and creases in our palms. Many will always ask what are the meanings behind these lines and creases. After practising palmistry / palm reading for more than 15 years, I can tell you that these lines can reveal al lot more about you than you can imagine.

palmistry / palm reading is an art that dates back to many thousands of year ago. In the olden days palmistry / palm reading was used as a form of divination to tell about the past and future of a person. However, in our modern society that is driven by science and practicality, telling about the past and future can be something that is viewed as too superstition. Thus many palmist or palm reader has turned this form of art into a more scientific approach towards reading the human psychology.

When you look at your own palms, you can undeniably see a lot of difference between your palms and your friends' palms. If you can do some measurement, you will also find some difference in the shapes and sizes of your palm from your friends'. Your fingers may be longer or shorter, your palm may be longer or shorter, your lines can start from different points or end in different points. It is with all these differences that we tell the differences in the personality from a person to another.

What is palmistry?
In simple terms, palmistry / palm reading refers to the study of the hands’ shapes and sizes and the study of the lines and creases. By studying the hand, we can use it to determine the personality of a person and with the interpretation of the markings and signs, we can also “foretell” (more on this topic later) the future of a person. Logically, when we can foretell the future, we would also be able to tell about the past of a person.

Some common names for this divination method are:

1. Chiromancy or Cheiromancy (The study of the lines and creases in the hands)
2. Chirognomy or Cheirognomy (The study of the hands and shapes)
3. Dermatoglyphics (The study of the prints and ridges, or finger prints in the hands)
4. Palm Reading
5. Hand Analysis
6. Palmistry / palm reading

Basic principles of palmistry / palm reading
When we look at a palm, we will need to look at it from many perspectives, first we will need to determine the basic shapes of the palm, then the fingers, then the thumb. We will next need to compare the length and shapes of the palm and the fingers with one another. Different features of the hands would have different meanings associated to it. At the same time, we will look at the starting and ending points of the main and secondary lines in the palm. Then we will determine if there are any unique signs and shapes formed by the lines. These lines will also have different meanings associated to it.
We will need to study the other features of the palm like the colour, the touch, the fingernails, the feel, the temperature, etc. All these are the things that we will need to analyse when doing a palm reading.

History of palmistry / palm reading
palmistry / palm reading is a form of divination that has been thought to be originated from various sources. One of the most common believe is that it came from India and slowly spread across China, Greece, Europe and some other Asian countries. For a more comprehensive description of the history of palmistry, you may want to search for “palmistry” or "palm reading" in Wikipedia.

In the west, palmistry / palm reading was popularised by Count Louis Hamon (1866-1936). He is commonly known as Cheiro. Cheiro wrote many books on palmistry / palm reading and recorded many of his experience in these books. If you are really serious in learning palmistry, then it will be good if you can find the reprints of his books on palmistry. Though there are not many of them, but they are very good books to start with on palmistry / palm reading

In summary, Cheiro learned palmistry / palm reading directly in India and brought the knowledge with him to the west. He was commonly consulted by the people of the media (famous movie stars and singers) and thus that gave a lot of publicity to his abilities. He also wrote many books on palmistry / palm reading and other topics and recorded much of his experiences. However, if you were to be able to find the original prints of these books, you will find that they are not too fun to read and some of the words he used are really too complex for the commoners like you and me. If you really want to go deeper into palmistry / palm reading, then reading his book will often give you different perspective and ideas on palmistry / palm reading.

The advantages of palmistry / palm reading
One good thing about palmistry is that it allows you to assess a person's personality in a very short time. In palmistry, no complex calculations is needed like those of astrology.  At the same time, you will not need that person to tell you anything about their birth date and time. In certain countries, such information are either wrongly recorded or translated wrongly due to the different types of calendar calculations used. The palm would be a very good guide in revealing the personality and tendencies in these cases.

In our everyday lives, we can easily get to a glance on other peoples palm most of the time. By knowing palmistry, you can quickly and accurately make an assessment on how the personality of that person is and from there, you may also strategise on how you want to deal with this person in the future.

The other advantage of palmistry / palm reading as compared to other form of divination method is that palmistry / palm reading is easy to learn and easy to apply. At the same time, unlike Face Reading Analysis, there are very few people who will alter their palms for cosmetic reasons. Thus palmistry / palm reading is one of the most accurate way of getting an updated reading of a person’s personality.

The Life Line
A general Life Line starts from the space between the thumb and the Jupiter finger (index finger), usually near the middle of this area, and extends toward the middle of the wrist by engulfing the Mount of Venus (the fleshy ball of below the thumb). The Life Line is able to tell us about the following information:

• Vitality
• Health signs
• Life Crisis
• Quality of life
• Important life changes

The Head Line
The Head Line starts at the point between the base of the thumb and Jupiter finger (Index Finger) and extends towards the percussion (the edge of the palm). It may end directly towards the percussion or on the Mount of Moon itself. The Head Line is able to tell us about the following information:

• Types of mentality
• Imaginative or practical
• Concentration powers
• Decisiveness
• Activeness in thought process
• Creativity

The Heart Line
The Heart line starts at the percussion of the palm (outer edge), usually around the Mount of Upper Mars and extend inwards towards the base of the Jupiter Finger (index finger) or the Saturn Finger (middle finger), or the space between the two fingers. The Heart Line is able to tell us about the following information:

• An idea of the ideal partner
• Attitude towards affections
• Mentality towards emotions
• Attention seeking or not

The Other Lines
There are many other lines in the palm and many of them can be rather confusing to explain in words. Below are just some of the other lines mentioned and you can use the diagram below to check which is which:

• Career Line (Line of Fate)
• Line of Apollo
• Health Line
• Marriage Line
• Girdle of Venus
• Ring of Solomon
• Line of Intuition