Palmistry is the science and art of knowing self and other through a visual and tactile examination of hands. Our hands are topographical maps of our character in past, present, and future. Hands reveal our current and major life issues, talents, abilities, challenges, and the degrees to which we are fulfilling our potentials. Hands provide detailed information about our values, thinking, feelings, health, relationships, sexuality, creativity, philosophy, career, purpose, hopes, dreams, and spirituality. Palmistry is simple and fun. Everyone can learn to navigate their map and chart their course.

Astrology’s ‘house system’ offers a powerful framework for examining hands. Astrology uses planets, signs, aspects, and houses to symbolize human nature. Hand size, shape, and proportions disclose four basic elements and corresponding archetypes. Skin texture, elasticity, colors, hand consistency, and finger flexibility provides three modalities that explain how we take action, maintain the status quo, and adapt to changing conditions. Finger lengths and proportions, shapes of tips, knots, and nails, reveal how twelve unique types function in the world and communicate with others. Lines and gestures offer detailed information about our life choices and circumstances. The arts and crafts of interpretation and counseling require study and practice.

Whether you’re using astrology or palmistry, you must first understand the gestalt of a person before proceeding to details. Until a natal chart is understood, adding outer planets, asteroids, and man-made points to horoscopes provides endless combinations, permutations, and possibilities. It’s the same with hands. Every detail means something, but getting bogged down in details confuses the basic issues. Every detail must be examined in the context of the whole and all other details at the same time. All questions are in every detail and every detail is in all answers.

It’s best to progress from issues to details, rather than details to issues. Details provide valuable insight into a person, but the meaning of any detail can change depending on the question asked and a person’s character. The danger in interpreting details out of context is in substituting one form of pre-determinism for another by reducing individuality to cookbook formulas. Many astrology and most palmistry books do that.

All hand details have meaning, even rings, scars, warts, and birthmarks. Until you’ve determined a person’s basic character, however, the details are superficial. No matter what our socio-economic background is, we can choose to exercise our free will and modify our thinking, feelings, and actions. We cannot alter our past, but we can change our present and influence our future. Our hands change as our thinking and circumstances change.

Hands are like a Meyers Briggs personality test incarnate. When you know a basic type and their corresponding challenges, you also understand what they need. Large hands enjoy detail and organization. Small hands hate detail and love big ideas. Small handed folk must learn to delegate detail work to avoid frustration, boredom, and impatience.

Shapes and proportions of hands reveal one of four basic types

INTUITIVE

Rectangular palms ~ Short fingers. These highly spirited and enthusiastic individuals dislike details, need to grasp the whole picture, pride themselves on their honesty, and require a lot of freedom to express their true selves naturally. They’re easily bored when life gets mundane or routine. They need to feel inspired and passionate and cultivate clear vision and enduring patience. They enjoy taking chances when they’re inspired, and become impatient, restless, and bored when they’re not. As extroverted, very busy, objective, independent thinkers, they must learn to set clear goals to accomplish clear objectives. They’re frequently accused of being opinionated because their point of view is so very important. Communicating clearly and effectively is a must. In order to flourish and blossom, intuitive types must learn to trust their intuition, behave responsibly, act naturally in relationships, and express themselves creatively.

PRACTICAL

 Square palms ~ short fingers ~ developed bottom knots. Skin ridge patterns are coarsest of the four types. Pure types have few peripheral lines in their palms and few interruptions on the head, heart, and life lines. Square fingertips and arch fingerprints are often seen, along with stiffness in joints of fingers and thumb. Work dominates their life. They’re logical, methodical, pragmatic, and make decisions based on objective reality. As the most responsible, reliable, dependable, pragmatic and objective of all types, they have an innate understanding of how the world works. They trust what they can see and feel, not inspirations, ideas, or intuitions. They can become so involved in practical matters that any imagination or abstract ability is limited. They must be careful not to get addicted to routine and order. Their biggest challenges are learning to trust their gut and let go of circumstances beyond their control. Driven by their physical senses, they love their homes, yards, cars, family life, friendships, and food.

THINKING

Square palms ~ long fingers ~ widely spread. Thinking types love the idea stage of development before projects materialize. They can detach themselves from mundane reality and gain objectivity and a fresh perspective on almost anything. They overvalue the intellect and downplay emotion. Most social of all types, they’ll acknowledge your point of view, even if they don’t agree with you. Capable of plenty of analysis, detail, and research, they’d rather be free of mundane realities. Often accused of being impractical dreamers, not much new happens without them. They often spread themselves too thin because they’re interested in everything. They’re easily distracted, scattered, and resist remaining focused, disciplined, and structured. Uncultivated types are infamous for being fickle, nervous, restless, superficial, and unreliable.

FEELING

Long rectangular palms ~ long fingers ~ held closely. Most intuitive, empathic, and sensitive of all types, feeling types live in a world of deep emotions. They’re hardest of the four basic types to understand because they hide their true selves. Most are very vulnerable and have a strong need to feel protected and secure. They embrace detail, structure, and organization to help them feel more stable. Feeling types avoid emotional confrontation whenever possible. Feelings are an integral part of their decision-making process. Naturally cautious, they must learn to allow others to earn their trust. When trust is earned, loyalties run deep. Feeling types get along best with other feeling types and with practical types who are responsible, reliable, and dependable. It’s challenging for feeling types to trust intuitive and thinking types. They’re afraid they’ll get stuck with the emotional fallout when idealism, enthusiasm, and interest wane and they do.

Stay tuned for the three modalities as seen in the hands…