Palmistry is the practice of telling fortunes from the lines, marks, and patterns on the hands, particularly the palms.
Palmistry was practiced in many ancient cultures, such as India, China and Egypt. The first book on the subject appeared in the 15th century. The term 'chiromancy' comes from the Greek word for hand (cheir). The most famous nineteenth century palmist went by the name of Cheiro.
Palmistry was used during the middle ages to detect witches. It was believed that certain spots on the hand indicated one had made a pact with the Devil. Palmistry was condemned by the Catholic Church but in the 17th century it was taught at several German universities (Pickover, 64). Britain outlawed palmistry in the 18th century. It is popular enough in America in the 20th century to deserve its own book in the Complete Idiot's Guide series.
According to Ann Fiery (The Book of Divination), if you are right handed, your left hand indicates inherited personality traits and your right hand indicates your individuality and fulfillment of potential. The palmist claims to be able to read the various lines on your hand. These lines are given names like the life line, the head line, the heart line, the Saturne line. The life line supposedly indicates physical vitality, the head line intellectual capacity, the heart line emotional nature, etc.
Some palmistry mimics metoposcopy or physiognomy. It claims that you can tell what a person is like by the shape of their hands. Creative people have fan-shaped hands and sensitive souls have narrow, pointy fingers and fleshy palms, etc. There is about as much scientific support for such notions as there is for personology or phrenology. All such forms of divination seem to be based on sympathetic magic and intuition.
The authors of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Palmistry, Robin Giles and Lisa Lenard, claim that "palmistry works because your hand changes as you do." They claim to have a few anecdotes to back them up on this, but fail to produce any scientific support for the claim. They also think that cloning makes it much easier for us to understand how palmistry works. "Palmistry is possible because you are represented in your hand. No two hands are alike because you--and your cells--are unique." True, and they are as likely to discover whether I will marry a rich woman or find the job of my dreams by looking at my cells as by looking at my palms.
Although you can often tell a lot about a person by examining his or her hands, there is no scientific support for the claim that you tell such things as whether you will inherit money or find your true love from the lines or marks on your hands. I suspect that many of those who think they have found support for palmistry are guilty of confirmation bias and have found it in the form of anecdotes.
The desire for knowledge of the future seems to be at the root of palmistry and other forms of divining secret knowledge through paranormal revelations. Also, fortune tellers relieve us of the obligation to gather evidence and think about that evidence. Our palmists and graphologists, etc., also relieve us of the difficult task of evaluating the consequences of taking various actions. They absolve us of the responsibility of decision-making. They are great comforts, therefore, to the insecure, the lazy, and the incompetent. Of course, they can also be data points, i.e., they provide one more piece of data that a person can use to make a decision. Some writers even use divination such as the Tarot or the I Ching to give them ideas for characters or plots (Pickover, 40-41). They probably could do just as well by thumbing through the Bible, a newspaper, a poetry anthology, an encyclopedia, or a skeptical dictionary.
A knowledge of palmistry allows the hand reader to assess individual human traits and characteristics, as well as offering some guidance on past, present and future life patterns. ...
Contrary to popular opinion palmistry is not just a way telling what will happen but also a way of finding out why things happen. This is so true when we look at the heart line. ...
Although the head line shows how a person thinks it does not show how intelligent you are. An average head line ends somewhere under the ring finger. ...
The life line does not indicate how old you will live. What the line reveals is the quality of your life.
It is an index of how much vitality, strength and energy you have. ...
Strong fate lines belong to people who settle into a pattern of life early. Weak fate lines tend to belong to people who are unsettled and tend to change jobs a lot.
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The simian line runs across the hand replacing the heart and head line. It is a sign of inner tension.
It may be destructive or creative or even both. ...
SQUARE FINGER TIPS : People who have these fingertips tend to be careful and methodical thinkers. These people take a rational view of life. However on the down side they tend to lack creativity. ...
The Apollo line is sometimes known as the line of sun. The line is not present in every hand but when it is it is a sign of happiness and achievment. ...
This rare marking is a semicircular pattern above the heart line that covers the two middle mounts. It is often fragmented and shows a person who is highly sensitive......
Smooth knuckles are found on hands of people are very meticulous about their appearance and there home. People with uneven knuckles tend to have a more balanced and calm approach to life. ...
Mount of Jupiter indicates positive masculine qualities. This signifies pride, ambition, and competitiveness. In addition, such a person has a love of art, ritual, and information. ...
Well defined mount indicates a sign that the person has good powers of logical thought and proceeds steadily toward goals. Such a person is likely to have leadership qualities and a great deal of patience....
This mount forms a bridge between the conscious subconscious selves. People with a firm, high and well-defined Mount of Neptune are compassionate, able to communicate well on most levels, and have an instinct for making correct decisions in most situations.
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The science of cheiromancy has oft been the ill-reputed recipient of skepticism, scorn, and disdain. It is true, that this practice at one time fell from the favor of the general populace......
