Palmistry is the science of studying the hands of human beings. This incorporates the external features of the hands, e.g. the shape, texture, suppleness, finger formation, nails etc., as well as the lines within the palm itself. A good Palmist should be able to draw a clear picture of your life from your hands and should relate this to you when reading your palm.
Our hands are the basic instrument of touch and play a crucial roll in conditioning the brain, body and emotions to develop certain responses to the world around us. As infants we touch everything and the impressions we receive are recorded in our brain. The speed of the neurons between the nerve endings in our finger tips and those of the brain are too fast to quantify and it is thought, that because of this remarkably close relationship, impressions that are left on the brain are also recorded in the palms.
Palmistry was thought to have originated from ancient China approximately 3000 years B.C. Details of palmistry can also be found in Indian Scriptures approximately 500 years B.C. The ancient Chaldeans, Tibetans, Sumerians, Babylonians, early Hebrews, Persians and Egyptians all studied palmistry. The Greeks were also keen students of palmistry and it is through them that palmistry found its way to Europe in the early 14th Century.
Palmistry can be divided into three main areas: CHIROGNOMY, CHIROMANCY and DERMATOGLYPHICS. CHIROGNOMY deals with the basic personality characteristics reflected by the size, shape and outward appearance of the hand. CHIROMANCY offers the ability to predict the past, present and future, based on the lines in the palms itself. DERMATOGLYPHICS is the name given to the study of the skin ridges and patterns covering the palm and fingers. This is used by police world wide to identify people through their finger prints.
Amongst the famous names in palmistry were Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Claudius Galen, Anaxagoras, Hippocrates, Artemodoros of Ephesus and Claudius Ptolemaeus. One of the best known later day palmists was Count Louis Hamon, better known as "Cheiro" meaning 'hand'. Cheiro was the author of several books which predominantly followed the theories of two other well established authorities, D'Arpentigny (1798-?) and Desbarrolles (1801-1886). Desbarolles advertises His practice within Les Mysteres De La main.
There is a school of thought which holds that the true basis of chiromancy is the study of the astral signatures. A 19th-century illustration will give the reader a clearer picture of them. It will be found on the opposite picture. On the Mount of Jupiter (index finger) the picture represents royalty : ambition, pride and worldly honors. The Mount of Saturn (middle finger) is shown as being related to mining: Saturn is thought to impart an aptitude for mining, prospecting and agriculture. The personal qualities it is associated with are independence and melancholy. The chiromantists of ancient times regarded it as a representative of fate.
The Mount of the Sun (ring finger) has Apollo, with his lyre. The sun confers on people an aptitude for the arts, peace of mind, dignity, a spirit of justice and clarity of thought.
The Mount of Mercury (little finger) is the lawyer. Mercury gives eloquence, diplomacy, business ability, skill, deviousness. The Mount of Mars is the mount which shows Spartacus holding a sword; it expresses the warlike spirit, physical and moral energy, and in general the will to resist and attack (the picture of Spartacus should be placed on the same line as the battle which is supposed to take place only in the middle of the plain of Mars, in the middle of the palm).
The Mount of the Moon, symbolized by the sea, signifies a long sea-voyage to far-off places, as well as dreams, poetry, imagination, inconstancy. The appearance of the moon is itself constantly changing. In music, it represents harmony.
The Mount of Venus, designated by the lovers, is the mount of love, a taste for form in art, architecture and sculpture, and for style in literature; it also is also associated with the soul, with tenderness, kindness, charity and grace, and in music with melody.The drawings which can be seen along the Life Line show, by means of the positions of the cradle the adolescent, the young man, the grown man the middle aged man, the old man and the grave, the various ages through which human life passes.
For the chiromantist, the thumb is vitally important, because it represents will and logic. Logic, situated on the second phalange, is carrying a type of bullhorn, in order that its advice may be all the more easily heard by the will, which from its position on the first phalange, in a commanding posture, is issuing orders to Saturn (fate).
The bracelet in the engraving represents the rascette lines, which some people also call the magic bracelet.
