Megan Atwood - Palm Reading

Megan Atwood is an author and creative writing professor in South New Jersey. She loves spending time reading peoples palms, calculating their numerology, understanding their astrology, and reading their tarot cards. When she is not writing or teaching, she is playing with her cats and dreaming up new ways to learn about the psychic arts.

Rachel Tesch is a graphic designer from Waconia, Minnesota. She found a love for book design while exploring typography and found photos in art school. When she is not working, she is watching Hulu, researching unexplained phenomena, and crushing her friends at Nintendo games.

Have your parents or guardians check out these books for you!

1. Altman, Nathan. Palmistry: The Universal Guide. 2nd ed. New York: Guapo Publishing, 2017.
2. Mendoza, Staci. The Art of Palm Reading: A Practical Guide to Character Analysis and Divination Through the Ancient Art of Palmistry. Leicester, UK: Lorenz Books, 2014.
3. Southgate, Anna. The Art of Palmistry: A Practical Guide to Reading Your Fortune. New York: Sterling Ethos Publishing, 2016.

Maybe you want to figure out what your future holds or why youre always daydreaming about travel. Or maybe you want to read your friends hands so you can see if youll be best friends forever. Or you have a crush and need an excuse to hold hands.... Whatever your reason, youve come to the right place. Lets get you powered up and reading palms like a pro. Palm reading, also known as palmistry, also known asif youre fancychiromancy, has been around for thousands of years. Whats the appeal? If you picked up this book, you know: Who wouldnt want to read futures, divine pasts, and delve into personality traits? The coolest thing, though? Palms and hands can change over time, so nothing is ever totally set. Just like life! You wont be the same person at 13 that youll be at 40so why would your hands stay the same?

YOUR BODY, YOUR FUTURE

Palms aren't the only body parts read through the ages. Check out these other (sometimes supergross) ways people have tried to tell the future using their own bodies:

GASTROMANCY

Those sounds coming from your stomach? Well, your gut could literally be talking to you! See if you can hear your future between lunch and dinner. (Nowadays, gastromancy means crystal ball gazingmuch more appetizing!)

MOLEOSOPHY

Some people think that moles are just a bunch of cells clustered together on your body. But those people have no imagination! Pay attention to the placement and patterns of your moles, and you just might see what your future holds.

OMPHALOMANCY

If anyone ever accuses you of belly-button gazing, tell them youre doing important work: Youre predicting the future!

ONYCHOMANCY

Before you clip your fingernails, take a look at their shape, texture, color, and all sorts of things to figure out exactly who you are at your core.

PEDOMANCY

You know what else has lines besides palms? Your feet! Step right up to your future by reading the lines on the bottoms of your feet.

ITS SOLE ENLIGHTENING!

Once you learn some techniques, you may be tempted to read everyones hands all the time, even if they havent asked you to. After all, you worked hard to get this power, right? So, why not use it?

1. First of all, its ESSENTIAL that the person whose hand youre reading has asked you to do it. This is a new power you havemake sure not to abuse it!
2. Second, remember that this book is only an introduction to palm readingtheres a lot more to learn if youre really interested. Make sure to check out this books additional resources to find out more.
3. Third, palm readingand all the psychic arts, reallyhave a lot of gray areas. That is, people things differently. If you read a line one way in a palm, someone else may see it in a different light. You want to make sure that if youre reading other peoples hands, they understand that. And if you see something in a palm that seems really grim, remember: You are only getting glimpses of things. Never tell people they are going to die, or that a tragedy will befall them. You dont know for sure, and believing something bad is in their future could be devastating.
4. Fourth, remember that people who are asking you to read their palms may be looking to you for some wisdom. Treat them kindly and as you would want to be treated. Activate your !
5. Last but not least, fifth, make sure not to share what youve read with others. The reading should stay between the two of you.

Now to the fun part: THE ART OF PALM READING!

People have been obsessed with their own hands for centuries. Do you know there is a cave in Borneo, Spain, where ancient people made a bunch of handprints? This happened around 8,000 BC. Thats a LONG time ago. So, who read the first hand?

Though there is no specific date for when the art of reading hands started, practitioners believe it may have begun in India with the Roma people more than 4,000 years ago. Some say that ancient Hindu holy scriptures, the Vedas, contain directions and references to reading palms.

Around the same time that ancient Indians and Roma started reading palms, Chinese medical texts began mentioning the importance of the lines on hands. Palmistry became an part of Chinese medicine. Chinese people understood the importance of hands in more than one way: According to a document about crime found in 3rd century BC China, the Chinese knew that fingerprinting could be used to solve crimes.

The Fortune Teller, painted by Caravaggio in 1571

replica of prehistoric rock art from the cave of Altamira

ancient book at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India