Heather Roan Robbins - Everyday Palmistry: The key to character is in your hands

EVERYDAY

PALMISTRY

EVERYDAY

PALMISTRY

The key to character is in your hands

Heather Roan Robbins

This book is dedicated to the memory of Annie Laurie Walker Hemsworth, the grandmother who still guides me through my dreams.

Published in 2016 by CICO Books

An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

2021 Jockeys Fields 341 E 116th St

London WC1R 4BW New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

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Text Heather Roan Robbins 2016

Design and illustration CICO Books 2016

Extract on from The Diary of Anas Nin, Volume 1: 19311934. Copyright 1966 by Anas Nin and renewed 1994 by Rupert Pole. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

The authors moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

eISBN: 978-1-78249-509-3

ISBN: 978-1-78249-373-0

Printed in China

Editor: Marion Paull

Design concept: Louise Leffler

Designer: Geoff Borin

Illustrator: Stephen Dew

Commissioning editor: Kristine Pidkameny

Senior editor: Carmel Edmonds

Art director: Sally Powell

Head of production: Patricia Harrington

Publishing manager: Penny Craig

Publisher: Cindy Richards

PICTURE CREDITS

Images Ryland Peters and Small/CICO Books, photographers as follows: pages : David Merewether

Images Getty Images, photographers as follows: pages : Willowpix

CONTENTS

An easy philosophy of palmistry

My funny, wise high-school art history teacher, Sushil Mukherjee, was also a wonderful tabla player and palmist. One day he pulled me aside and asked me to take special care of Coal, a friend nicknamed for her glowing spirit, because she had a nearly invisible life line, among many other worrisome signs. Just keep an eye on her, he said. I was curious. I had already been studying astrology for several years but now I became obsessed about the hand, and pumped him for all the information I could get. He showed me the lay of the hand and taught me how to use the details to peer into this window of the soul.

Once the word got out, friends started giving me any book on palmistry they found as long as I looked at their hands in return, and my library built up quickly. I collected Xerox copies of hands and old-school palm prints made with an ink roller and wood block ink. I took many prints of my contemporaries hands, young people whose lives and hands were still so malleable, and watched the patterns on their hands change in response to their choices to pick up or give up drugs or to apply their mind to study. In more dramatic cases, I saw their lines strengthen when they walked away from abusive families or gave up thoughts of suicide and chose to live. The lines in our hands change much faster when we are young and still forming the path of our lifes journey, but we can see these changes at any age when we turn a major corner or make an effort to improve our condition.

Coal had many habits that prioritized living intensely (a wiry head and heart line) but not safety or health (faint, barely visible life line with many blocking lines, small mount of the Sun). A few years later she was murdered while hitchhiking alone, manifesting the concerns Sushil saw in her hand, but everybody else had missed.

I came to realize that Coal had a great map for healing in her hand. If she wanted to create more balance, she could use this map to prioritize self-care and probably live a longer time. But palmistry also gave me a map to accept my friend and her choices. Although I missed her dearly, I realized that if Coal truly felt she had only a little energy to spend in this life, she chose to live it with gusto. Since then, I have seen people with faint life lines make healthier choices, grow stronger and more vital, and live a nice long time.

After seeing this evidence of palmistrys validity, I read everything on it I could get my hands on. I found that the early source material, from the late 1800s and early 1900s, had invaluable information from early massive surveys of hands. Both Cheiro (Irish astrologer William Warner) and William G. Benham gave us original theories and some great case histories, but neither had distilled their systems down to an accessible pattern. Several Middle Eastern and Asian books contained great information not found in the West, but you often had to read through sexist misconceptions, such as in a mans hand this brings great scientific insight, in a womans it makes a good housekeeper.

A line of palmistry books came out in the 1980s and 1990s, incorporating a new, humanistic, psychological awareness. A few of them, such as Judith Hipskinds Palmistry: The Whole View, were fresh, clear, and focused, but too many of them just imposed an undigested form of pop psychology combined with personal projection on traditional palmistry.

While my children were young, I took a day job in the human-resources field, worked psychic fairs across New England, and grew my private practice, and this gave me ample opportunity to test out all my theories. I watched the hands of people I met in business, at the store, in schools. I tossed out parts of traditional palmistry that just didnt seem to hold up, and distilled what worked, so I could teach palmistry through understanding rather than memorization.

A few articles were written about my work in palmistry in the 1980s and 1990s, but as I traveled, I found that astrology was an easier tool to use with distant clients than palmistry, although Im always excited when clients send in photographs of their hands. Outside of my work, I use palmistry every day to give me more information to relate comfortably to people I meet.

When I sit with a client in person, I use astrology, palmistry, tarot, and runes to direct my intuition, counsel my clients, and walk with them through the twists and turns of their life. I find astrology describes the overarching patterns of the soul and the influences of this moment; palmistry describes character and the consequences of choices; and tarot and runes allow us to talk to the archetypes and look down each possible way at a crossroads in order to make informed decisions.

In Everyday Palmistry I share with you my accessible, open, and practical system of palmistry, distilled from my decades of experience. It is easily integrated into your daily life to deepen your understanding of the people you meet. Basic palmistry can be helpful to the clerk, body worker, politician, therapist, employer, and lover alike.