Collins - Palmistry

The marks on your hand may be interpreted in a variety of ways. Experienced palm readers may give different readings of the same hand. Should you be interested in finding out more, please consult a reputable palm reader.

Collins Gem Palmistry reveals the ancient art of palmistry. With easy-to-follow diagrams accompanying clear and concise text, this books lays bare the complexities of hand reading so that even a beginner will soon be able to uncover the hidden truths of the hand. Yet there is enough detail included in the coverage to make the book a must on any palmists shelves, beginner or otherwise.

If the outward forms are the visible aspects of the interior patterns, it is possible from the study of certain external characteristics to go back to the psychic causes to which they are related.

Plato, Greek philosopher (c. 428c. 348 BC)

God has placed signs in the hands of all the sons of men, that all the sons of men may know his work.

The Bible

modern biology does not exclude the possibility that hands, whose shape and function are so intimately connected with the psyche, might provide revealing, and therefore interpretable, expression of the human character

Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (18751961)

Palmistry is a misleading name, for a great deal more than the palm of the hand is considered in this type of prediction. The experts prefer more resonantly impressive terms like cheirognomy, cheirology or even cheiromancy, from the Greek word cheir, meaning hand. But whatever you choose to call it, it remains a process rooted in the belief that you literally hold your future in your hands.

People have always been fascinated by the markings on their hands palm prints have even been discovered in Stone Age cave paintings. Although no physical evidence exists to support their theories, some practitioners have claimed that the origins of palmistry lie far back with the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, Sumerians or Babylonians. It seems likely that palmistry began in the east and spread to the west, perhaps carried by the Romany peoples.

A page from Saunders Palmistry: The Secrets thereof Disclosed

The earliest verifiable references to the art seem to be in Indian literature of the Vedic period (c. 2000 BC) in the east, and in the works of Aristotle (384322 BC) in the west but both these bear witness to a rich history of oral tradition on the subject.

Lines are not written in to the human hand without reason; they emanate from heavenly influences and mans own individuality

Aristotle

Palmistry has had a chequered history: in the 17th century it was taught at the universities of Leipzig and Halle in Germany, while at the same time it was being outlawed in England as a form of witchcraft.

There are thousands of nerve endings in your hands which are in direct contact with your brain, and so there is a constant two-way traffic of impulses along the nerves. Because of this traffic, the lines and marks on your hands are supposed to show a reflection of your personality, to mirror your physical and emotional condition. Palmists have always known this intuitively: todays scientists are finding evidence to support the theory, and some geneticists and psychiatrists already use hand analysis to assist them in the diagnosis of a variety of physical and mental illnesses.

When you are preparing to read someones hands, make sure you have somewhere comfortable for you both to sit. Arrange both the chairs so that you are not awkwardly facing each other but so that you are almost side by side. You should be able to comfortably hold the persons hand in yours without having to analyze it upside down.

Aerial view of a suitable seating plan for giving a reading

As a novice palmist, you may find that you need to take notes or keep a list handy of what to look at on the hand. You can use the following list as a reminder of what needs to considered for a complete reading:

• hand shape
• development of the palmar quadrants
• skin texture and hairiness
• hand position
• fingers: shape, flexibility, set, joints, fingertips, fingernails and fingerprints
• if you have time, an individual assessment of each finger can be very revealing
• the thumb: shape, flexibility, angle, phalanges
• mounts
• lines on the hand
• marks on the mounts, lines and phalanges

The cardinal rule in palmistry, as in all the major forms of character analysis, is that an overall view is essential. You cannot hope to achieve any certain picture of your subjects character and potential from only the shape of the hand, or from any other isolated detail. You must wait until all the clues have been gathered and see then how one factor balances or compensates for another, how different elements are reinforced, others cancelled out and so on.

This paramount rule partly explains why good palmists rarely make sweeping, unequivocal statements along the lines of you will be rich this time next year or you have only six months to live. There are too many factors in a subject as broad and complex as palmistry. They cannot be interpreted simply, in the way of the omens of folk belief, or the flat assertions of newspaper horoscopes. What you achieve, when all the details are collated, is a probable pattern, a set of tendencies, with very little in it of fixed, unavoidable fate. Every reading, like every human being, is a mixture of good and bad.

Therefore, always remember when giving a reading that you should mix positive news with negative news, and be wary of being the voice of doom unless you are more than 100% certain of your analysis. Think first what will the person do with the information you are giving them? If it will just serve to depress and demotivate them, then perhaps you need to reconsider the need to impart every truth you see (or think you see) in the hand.