Category Archives: Hand Reading

GEMINI & HANDS

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You don’t need a Gemini sun, moon, ascendant, planets, or house placements to be Gemini. No matter what your astrology says about you, pure Gemini types have square palms, widely spread long fingers, flexible joints, supple thumbs, dominant first phalanges on slightly knotty fingers, and rounded and spatulate fingertips. Thinking types sport square palms and long fingers. More mentally adaptable than Aquarius  (fixed) and socially adaptable than Libra (cardinal), Gemini is mutable. Lines in thinking hands that split at their ends symbolize being able to see many outcomes and having many choices and decisions to make.

Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces are water signs. Ambivalent feelings are embodied in chains and islands on heart lines, especially when they’re magnetically drawn toward head lines. When the end of the heart line reaches down to touch the beginning of the head line, analyzing, rationalizing, and compartmentalizing feelings is much easier than verbalizing them. Most people have challenging journeys. Having a physically or emotionally absent parent as a role model during the formative years is a recipe for a lifetime of questioning and struggling to learn to value oneself. Look for a short index finger to go with the head ruled heart. Most split lines are split for many reasons.

It’s impossible to accurately foretell your future or what you will do with your potentials from a natal horoscope. Astrology reveals potentials. Your astrological symbolism may or may not reflect what you choose to integrate into your character and behavior. Hands are topographical maps of character  in past, present, and future. When you embrace your strengths and acknowledge your weaknesses, you can exercise your free will, change your thinking, modify your behavior, re-script your story, and observe the results over time, clearly reflected in the ever changing morphology and topography of your hands.

Healthy Geminis have long straight pinkie fingers. Pragmatic minds, critical thinking, clear communication, and the ability to focus can make good sense out of nonsense. Common sense isn’t working well these days.

Gemini has firm pink elastic skin and long fingers with loop prints. Long ring fingers  with whorl prints add attractiveness, salesmanship, risk taking, talent, and good luck. Knowing when to stop is key to winning. Dominant  middle fingers with square tips and developed first knots add technical, scientific, and pragmatic attributes. Strong index fingers increase writing and oratory abilities, career opportunities, and ambitious goals.

I’ve worked at special events with magicians with dominant pinkie fingers. They astound audiences while deceiving the eyes and minds of their beholders. Geminis make great lawyers, bankers, doctors, orators, writers, engineers, teachers, salesmen, accountants, and shopkeepers. Dominant pinkies play small musical instruments that require physical and mental dexterity, which makes sense since hearing is Gemini’s physical sense.

Cultivated Geminis are consummate communicators, social magnets, intuitive geniuses, and great judges of character. Most social of all, Gemini is often accused of being an impractical dreamer because he loves ideas so much. He can detach himself from mundane reality while remaining objective about everyone and everything else. He overvalues intellect and undervalues emotion and feels threatened when his ideas and opinions are ignored without good reason. He can accept your viewpoint, even when he disagrees with you. He’s easily distracted and doesn’t like being responsible for making decisions before knowing the consequences. Longing to be free and unrestricted, he desperately needs to stay focused, disciplined, and structured. Being rewarded requires doing what needs to be done with courage, strength, wisdom, and grace.

Hermes (Mercury) was the shortest god. The pinkie is the shortest finger. When the tip is longer than the crease between the first and second phalanx of the ring finger, it’s long. If shorter, it’s short. Dominant pinkie people are often short in stature like Ed Harris (Sag) with a slender body and face. Pure types are animated, with dark hair and penetrating eyes with crow’s feet in the corners. Gemini is the most youthful of all types, forever childlike and loving children. Men sport thin beards like Johnny Depp (Gemini). Michael Jackson (Virgo, ruled by Mercury) was a Peter Pan who actually lived in ‘Neverland’. Peter needs Wendy. Someone must be practical and responsible. Peter had Brooke, Liza, and Liz.

Gemini is androgynous. In Greek myth, Hermes & Aphrodite (siblings) had an incestuous fling that created Hermaphrodite. Dominance of Hermes in a psyche (known or not) creates bi-sexual tendencies. David Bowie was Capricorn with strong Hermes. Mick Jagger is Hermes with Leo sun. Kate Blanchett is Mercury with a Taurus sun. Bob Dylan is Gemini. Boy George is Gemini. Grace Jones (71) is Taurus with Mercury conjunct Uranus in Gemini. She didn’t get eccentric from Taurus!

Our pinkie finger reveals our ability to communicate. It indicates truthfulness. Early family dynamic can be observed in how the pinkie is set and held. Very short or low set pinkies reveal lack of trust as a major issue. Many women with low set pinkies have told me they have trouble having orgasms. Their real challenge is in trusting someone enough to have real intimacy. Lengths and proportions of pinkie fingers symbolizes technical, language, sexual, and family potentials.

Gemini rules hands and governs our nervous and respiratory systems. Health issues revolve around nervous and bronchial systems. Geminis have potential problems with headaches, thyroid glands, memory loss, and speech impediments. I’m Gemini. I’ve coped with Tinnitus (ringing in my head) for many years. It’s the worm in my apple.

Gold and diamond rings are normally found on the ring finger. They’re often on the pinkie fingers of acquisitive people. Pinkie rings symbolize sublimation of sexual energies to accomplish something that requires libido. I once examined a group of fifty young people born into powerful families in the 80’s. Considering the prosperity of the period, it seemed paradoxical that every one of them had short phalanges on the bottom segment of their little fingers on their dominant hands. Money will never be their motivation for career choices. Family, personal matters, and values will drive these individuals.

Would you buy a used car from this Gemini? I wouldn’t. Gemini’s liabilities are deceitfulness, trickiness, fickleness, nervousness, restlessness, and shallowness. People preaching on soapboxes, pickpockets, and most con artists have powerful pinkies (mostly inwardly curving). Don’s curve inward, confirmed in his natal astrology by a close Mercury Neptune square. It’s not what you do, but what you can get away with that matters. Our trickster is not masterful at hiding his dark side. We’re the conned contractors, jilted beauty queens, and fired apprentices. Our Emperor is grabbing our pussies while abusing our mother. If you think mom is happy about what’s happening to her body, respiratory system, circulatory system, and spirit, you’re the crazy one!

NOTE: Many wonderful people have curved pinkies. They learned as children to ‘act nice’, avoid confrontation, and be peacemakers. A lifelong challenge is to learn to say ‘NO’ (especially with large ball of thumb). They must stop trying to please and being what everyone else wants and needs them to be. If you’re pretending everything is OK and it isn’t, check your pinkies.

Virtual Metaphysics

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I can’t think of many activities more intimate than reading hands. In the past, I refused to read anyone remotely. I turned away numerous virtual metaphysical opportunities. It was hard to imagine not holding a client’s hands in mine, looking into their eyes, and having a meaningful conversation. For over forty years, I’ve given five-minute readings to more than 75,000 guests at corporate special events and exclusive private parties. I’ve also served over 1,000 private clients. Every person is the most important person in the world for five minutes or two hours. After examining a client’s hands for a few moments, I’m able to address their challenges, analyze their underlying issues, define and refine their current circumstances, and give them wise counsel according to their personal needs and concerns. It’s not only what you see, but what you say and how you say it that matters.

Palmistry is not gypsy fortunetelling. Hands are topographical maps of a person’s character, values, thinking, feelings, relationships, health, creativity, purpose, hopes, dreams, fears, and spirituality. The value of reading hands is in understanding basic character and what a person has done, is doing, and is likely to do with that character. A hand is a small amount of space to interpret a whole life. A tiny change in a direction or quality of a line can symbolize a huge change in a life. The magic of palmistry is in seeing hands change as thinking and circumstances change. The power of palmistry is in making decisions, exercising free will, and then seeing the corresponding changes reflected in the morphology and topography of hands over time.

Favorite reviews from clients: https://blog.markseltman.com/2017/01/10/my-favorite-reviews/

‘As Above, So Below’

Hermes law of polarity teaches us that astrology is a harmonic system that resonates innate potentials for everyone and everything that has a correct date, time, and place of birth. Natal horoscopes are cosmic maps of specific GPS locations in time and space that correspond to specific character types, behavioral patterns, and life cycles that enable us to make choices such as exercising our free will and selecting auspicious timing. We can observe and interpret natural talents, abilities, challenges, and purposes through the Cosmic Science and Art of Astrology. Many people are seeking clarity about their behavior, relationships, responsibilities, obligations, career, health, and spirituality. Positive personal and collective transformation is about tweaking our consciousness, affirming what we already know, see, and understand, and then choosing the healthiest options we can envision.

Choose Tarot to examine hidden things. Other people’s motivations and behaviors can not be seen in charts or hands. Tarot reveals subconscious knowledge, motivations, and desires. I wish everyone could read their own hands, cast and interpret their charts, and choose their tarot cards, but that’s not possible these days. If you want to learn, you can search online for opportunities to grow and stretch in healthy ways. Beware scams.

Stuck at home? Want to explore your symbolism? I’m confident in my ability to guide you on a symbolic journey through who you’ve been, are, and are becoming. My metaphysical mission is to affirm, confirm, and inform you in hopeful, helpful, and meaningful ways. Call or email.

I’ll be happy to return your money if you’re unsatisfied with my work.

Wishing you good health and personal fulfillment during this incredibly challenging time!

markseltman1@gmail.com H. 518 677-3513 C. 917 656-8119 www.markseltman.com

HOW TO SET UP A VIRTUAL CONSULTATION

HAND READING CONSULTATION

Take hi-res photos of both hands (held perpendicular to camera lens). Take close ups of your palms and fingertips. Attach and send them to markseltman1@gmail.com. I need as much detail as I can get. The hand you write with is your dominant hand. We’ll observe your gestures and feel your hands for flexibility, elasticity, and consistency. You’ll need to spend at least an hour with me. Ask questions. I’ll address them first, then examine other issues. I can also look at your parent’s, partner’s, children’s, and friend’s hands… a wonderful gift. $150

HANDS ~ ASTROLOGY ~ TAROT

A full metaphysical consult is normally 1 1/2 ~ 2 hours. I’m not a clock watcher and never back appointments up against each other. I’ll spend whatever time it takes to see and address whatever needs to be seen and addressed. $250

ASTROLOGY

Give me your accurate birth info ahead of time. I need your full birth name, date of birth, exact time of birth, and location of birth (city). Tell me what you hope to gain insight into by consulting with me. I’ll cast and examine the corresponding charts before we speak.

TAROT

No ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers please. Give yourself agency by asking questions like ‘How can I?’ or ‘What can I do to?’ I prefer you pick your own cards, but no matter what or how you choose, I’ll interpret your cards using your deck or mine. Tarot will dig deep into your psyche for insight into your questions. Your past, present, and future life are reflected in your cards, hands, and horoscopes.

After we choose a date and time to meet, I’ll bill you on PayPal, prepare, and look forward to meeting you.

TAURUS & HANDS

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You don’t need a Taurus sun, moon, ascendant, aspects, or house placements to behave like a Taurus. ‘Taurus archetypes’ have square fleshy palms, large stiff thumbs, and short stiff fingers representing stubbornness, determination, and tenacity. Their firm, pink, elastic skin, and dense bulging percussion of hands under pinkie fingers embody their relentless persistence. Having full rosy balls of thumbs symbolizes love of family, nature, children, comfort, art, music, luxury, and all that’s refined, graceful, and beautiful. When a ball of thumb is surrounded by a long clear deep life line, that person is blessed with a healthy body and attitude. Long clear deep fate lines reflect strong purpose, goals, and destiny.

Deeply engraved life, heart, head, and fate lines and clear skin ridges are distinct paths on the topographical maps of our hands that can be navigated by anyone who wants to learn to see and interpret the cartography. Taurus has less peripheral lines than feeling, thinking, and intuitive types. Needing security and stability, Taurus feels, thinks, and intuits in practical ways. Long graceful heart lines ending under the index fingers are romantic and sentimental. Being ‘old fashioned’ comes naturally, like crying while watching old movies is typical. Long heart lines see others as they want them to be, instead of how they really are. Time is Taurus’s friend. They must make others work to earn their trust and love or risk being taken for granted.

People with closely intertwined lines of head and life procrastinate, care too much what others think, and need to feel appreciated. Being taken for granted is the beginning of the end. Fingers with loop prints and flexible first joints add mental adaptability. Arches and stiff joints embody fixity and practicality. Square finger tips represent a need for order and stability. Developed second knots are about needing everything in its place. I’ve seen folk with very large second knots stealthily adjusting something you picked up and moved a few molecules from where it had been. Middle phalanges embody practicality. Bottom phalanges embody physicality and sensuality. The hand pictured above belongs to a Pisces with a Taurus character. Dreamy, visionary, and spiritual on the inside, he’s extremely practical on the outside.

Taurus is driven by their physical senses. Responsible, practical, pragmatic, objective, dependable, and reliable, Taurus manages and maintains our material world. Taurus trusts what they can see and feel, not ideas, intuitions, or inspirations. As creatures of habit they get addicted to routine and order. The more bogged down in practical and mundane matters, the harder it becomes to access abstract abilities and imagination. A huge challenge is procrastination at beginnings and endings. It makes no sense as it opposes a basic need to get things done. Taurus needs to be stable, responsible, caring, and appreciated.

Aphrodite’s desire for comfort and beauty manifests in Taurus. She gives form to wealth and power. Venus loves family, friendships, home, food, nature, art, and music. Her need for physical security and stability drives her practical attitudes. She’s honest, dependable, trustworthy, and valued for her natural warmth and good sense.

A healthy Venus won’t bend the truth or perform a song and dance act for anyone. She’s loyal, affectionate, and charming, but she can also be jealous, controlling, and possessive. She’s charismatic, but not the best salesperson as she takes rejection personally. Taurus thrives in real estate, banking, food, and fashion. Taurus challenges are learning to trust their gut, give up control, and let go when it makes no sense to hang on. Taurus can be the best bull or the worst Minotaur.

TAURUS LEADERS

Pope John Paul ll had many positive Taurus qualities. He got the haves to share with the have-nots. He was the first Pope to visit a synagogue. He encouraged Catholics and Jews to love one another. An assassination attempt nearly killed him and yet he rose to address countless chaotic messes in the church.

J. Krishnamurti, a spiritual guide, shared good sense with all willing to listen.

Leonardo da Vinci, an original hipster, was a great artist and inventor

Sigmund Freud fathered modern psychoanalysis

Karl Marx developed a theory of socialism

Martha Graham mothered modern dance

Katherine Hepburn was Grand Dame of American Stage & Movies

Queen Elizabeth ~ Prime Minister Tony Blair ~ Anchors ~ Great Britain

“The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one”. The darkest depths of Taurus brought humanity a Monster from Hell from 1933 to 1945.  Adolph Hitler transformed our world by inspiring and empowering anger, fear, and terror, and manipulating masses with powerful imagery of strength and unity of pandemic proportions. Adolph Hitler was responsible for over thirty million deaths.

 

Jim Jones, fanatic cult leader, led 1,000 followers to mass suicide in 1978

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had no remorse for his evil actions.

Saddam Hussein, (Iraqi President 1979~2006) was shamed, then slayed.

Alchemy isn’t turning lead into gold. Alchemy is balancing Saturn with our Sun. Virtue, honesty, integrity, dignity, nobility, persistence, determination, discipline, structure, and focus are keys to healthy humanism. Taking responsibility, cultivating healthy attitudes, nourishing cherished values, exercising critical thinking, promoting realistic goal setting, prioritizing planning, and choosing right actions will transform our inner and outer worlds. Taurus encourages us to find clarity in our values, embrace our best qualities, and master and manage our darkness. Everyone has Taurus in their psyche by degree. Taurus gives us the time and space to blend practicality with grace, responsibility with love, and comfort with joy. We can all be our own best friends and bull shit detectors.

ARIES & HANDS

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No need to have an Aries sun, moon, ascendant, planets, aspects, or houses to be Arian. No matter what your astrology says, Aries, Sagittarius, and Leo are Intuitive types with rectangular palms and short fingers. Having an Aries sun with Aries hands is very Aries. Aries hands differ from Leo and Sag hands. Leo hands are noticeably harder and stiffer than Aries hands. Sagittarius hands are softer and more flexible. Aries hands have full firm heels of hands (upper Mars under pinkie). Aries bounces back and lands on their feet after obstacles and hardships. Resilient elastic skin embodies a resilient energetic person. Elastic skin quickly springs back to normal when pushed or pulled.

Pink energizes. Red pressurizes. When a plump red puffy bump bulges where a thumb meets a hand (lower Mars), a person is more aggressive than another person with little or no bump. Red hands embody too much energy, anger, passion, and pressure. Healthy Aries have rosy full balls of thumbs (Venus).

Head and life lines are separate at their beginnings on pure types. These individuals need freedom of thought, action, and to be rebellious when necessary. Mars has plenty of initiative, cherishes his independence, must trust his instinct, and always be true to himself. Many Leos have closely intertwined head and life lines at their beginnings. They’re less free than Aries because they’re motivated to act by and for others. Leos like being in charge, but procrastinate at beginnings and endings because they care too much about what others think. They’re easily hurt when criticized or taken for granted and take opinions of others personally, even when they’re not.

As the most courageous and adventurous of all types, Aries is a fierce warrior and inspired risk taker. His passion is contagious and optimism eternal. Never running out of doors to knock on, he doesn’t take rejection personally. He loves sports and is ready to compete with anyone at any time and place. He has an innate need to catalyze new beginnings and new projects. A freedom lover, he detests bureaucrats.

Note: Aries is male in gender. In practice, he and his is also she and hers.

Cardinal types tend to have low set thumbs. No matter what else is happening in a person’s hands, low set thumbs were designed for quests and causes. Saving underdogs, strays, and fixer-uppers, and rescuing damsels in distress are specialties. Combined with strong index fingers and pinkies, they make great fund raisers. Aries crusades relentlessly and persistently until his objectives are realized. Committing to ideals and working on worthy causes brings deep satisfaction and personal fulfillment.

Aries is not detail oriented. They’re easily bored, restless, and impatient. Stay out of their way when they’re bogged down in mundane activities, especially if you can’t help them. They need to stay far from controlling, possessive, and jealous types. Trust is a must. Intimate relationships require good physical chemistry. The football player (Mars) and cheerleader (Venus) are hot for each other. Aries must not be impulsive or in a hurry to ‘fall in love’. Unhappy marriages follow unplanned pregnancies. Aries must be patient, trust their intuition, and set sensible goals. Unafraid of blood and sharp tools, Aries make the best soldiers, butchers, and surgeons. Mars rules executives, salesmen, barbers, sportsmen, military leaders, soldiers, policemen, firemen, and anyone full of fire and burning with desire.

Aries is resilient. They bounce back and landing on their feet, no matter what. Their innate sense of inner strength, courage, determination, and persistence make them formidable foes. Aries conquers procrastination, overcomes inertia, and acts with inspiration, passion, and energy. Health issues tend toward headaches, inflammations, fevers, and high blood pressure.

Aries rules War. Ancient warriors practiced their lustiest mating rituals from late June to late July to seed future generations of Aries warriors. Aries rules Germany, England, and Japan. Hitler created the Aryan race. Britain barbarized, colonized, and ‘civilized’ the globe. Japan was bombed with atoms in World War II. Modern Japan wages battles of commerce, communications, and transportation.

Invincible warriors, lusty lovers, and gods and goddesses of war are symbolized by an erect cock. Aries is Greek. Mars is Roman. Aries is Spring. E veryone has Aries by degree. Mars is in everyone’s symbolism and psyche. Aspects of all types interact with aspects of all other types. Your dominate archetype’s relationships with other types determines your destiny.

Strong, athletic bodies, dominant chests, and rock hard heads embody an Aries psyche. They’re not called ‘Ram’ for nothing. My best half, Joanna, is an Aries with Venus in Taurus rising. I call her ‘Ram-bull’. She’s obstinate and also very grounding for me. I’m Gemini with Scorpio rising. She calls me a ‘piece of work in progress’. We’re both right.

Aries ancestors are warriors and conquerors. King Theseus of Athens, Jason and the Argonauts, Joan of Arc, Xena, Mulan, Robin Hood, and his eastern cousin, Aladdin, orphaned son of the king of thieves, handsome adolescent street rat, diamond in the rough, destined to be a prince. Above is a real life Aladdin. Click here for his story.

Al Gore may be history these days, but his rectangular palms and short fingers reveal a link between his intuitive nature and his Aries Sun. Al’s Mars, Saturn, and Pluto in Leo and Jupiter in Sagittarius are a bundle of fire. Inspiration motivates Al as he educates consumers about the hazards and truths of Global Warming and Climate Change. Al and his Argonauts bagged the coveted Nobel Peace Prize while opening masses of minds to massive consumption, extreme waste, and our need to shift our paradigm of ‘me first’.

Al is a conceptual thinker. He loves the idea part of his process. Al can sell anything he believes in. His greatest asset is his ability to see the whole picture. He has no time and little aptitude or patience for details. His long index finger embodies his egocentricity, ambition, and obsessions. Al knows what he wants, gets the facts, and makes the case for his cause. Fortified with lightning bolts from Zeus, Al has great personal influence, privilege, and wealth. It’s vital that Al remain vigilant about the size and quality of his own footprint. Al must practice what he preaches to be truly powerful and effective.

Ex-Secretary of State, ex-General Colin Powell is an Aries with Sun and Mercury in Aries (April 5, 1937). His short fingers, rectangular palms, and widely separated life and head lines embody the spirit of King Theseus of Athens. Theseus escorted Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece. Colin defeated the dreaded Minotaur, Saddam Hussein, a Taurus, who controlled the warring Arabic factions under his rule.

Secretary Powell’s powerful and practical personality persuaded Americans to keep the faith while we invaded Iraq. Powell believed he could make a positive difference, but was goldenly fleeced by the Bush administration. Emperor George II, pulled the golden wool over everyone’s eyes as he proudly wore Powell’s threads of charisma, credibility, and principles on the front lines of international diplomacy. General Powell’s greatest battles are yet to come as he approaches the end of his life and wages war with his personal loyalties, honesty, integrity, dignity, and truth.

Rest assured Colin Powell is horrified by our current leadership! An evil empire can take revenge on a person’s family and force even the truest hero to remain silent and keep secrets forever. Colin must cleanse his karma by shining the light of absolute truth on the many shades of gray in his life. Maybe he should publish a brutally honest auto-biography to be released posthumously by his family when they’re ready.

HAND READING & SOCIAL DISTANCING

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“The Lips of Wisdom are Closed, except to the Ears of Understanding”

I’m practicing social distancing. It’s a challenging experience for me as I have a basic need to touch, feel, and spend intimate quality time with people. It feels unreal to not be holding a client’s hands, looking into their eyes, and having a meaningful dialogue about their current and major life issues, challenges, responsibilities, and rewards. In the past, I’ve refused to give remote readings, except for long term clients. I never envisioned using Skype and choosing PayPal to communicate with clients. Now I’ve been forced to rethink my choices and decisions.

I discovered palmistry well over forty years ago while I was designing and building custom furniture in a loft in NYC. My client’s wife was a serious professional palmist. She looked at my hands and began to tell me about myself. I was totally mind-blown! My perfect teacher had appeared at the perfect time. I soon became her best student. She taught me that hands are topographical maps of a person’s character in past, present, and future. Anyone can learn to navigate their map and chart their destiny with the right information, instruction, and guidance.

As I was learning to read hands, I also began taking astrology and tarot classes and workshops. I felt inspired by several amazing teachers, and by how easily accessible the information was and how precise interpretations of esoteric sciences and arts can be. Differences between the metaphysical languages quickly became evident. While astrology shows a person’s potentials, hands reveal what a person has actually done, is doing, and is likely to do with their potentials. Valuable information and precious insights are in plain sight at the ends of our arms. There’s no need for accurate birth info, complex calculations, or infinite combinations, permutations, and probabilities.

Astrology is a symbolic language that I use primarily for identifying behavioral patterns, examining life cycles, and understanding timing. Hands are much better for revealing basic character. Tarot is best for getting at hidden issues, like learning about other people, what’s actually happening in a particular situation, and examining what can’t be seen in hands or horoscopes. A seasoned reader can readily see a person’s issues and know how to guide them to change their thinking and behavior. The rest is counseling and doing the work.

Astrology was obscure for thousands of years. In 1968, with no e- social networking to make astrology go ‘viral’, Linda Goodman published “Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs” and popularized astrology. Everyone was suddenly asking, “What’s your sun sign?” Magazines and newspapers everywhere began publishing horoscope columns.

Palmistry is older and more accessible than astrology. As I learned to read hands, I was mind boggled that everyone wasn’t asking, “May I see your hands”? I decided my mission was to popularize palmistry. I’d write a book. I called Linda Goodman’s literary agent to secure an endorsement from him. He told me he wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything esoteric. He didn’t need the money or the hassle. He’d become wealthy by stealthily acquiring e-rights for all the best selling authors and their works before the big paperback publishers realized they had never addressed e-rights in their original publishing contracts.

I self-published HAND BOOK, a paperback, which took a lot of work and time and ended up awakening me to the fact that I was unable to generate public interest in palmistry. I printed books because low-tech esoteric folk asked to see, smell, and feel a ‘real book’. My e-book version is called REAL PALMISTRY. It’s much better than the paperback because it’s less expensive, better quality, full color, and has links to corresponding information. I poured my time, energy, and resources into promoting books and sold less than 5,000 copies.

I remember how my family used to joke about kids from Pittsburgh who left home to find their Guru or better yet, to become a Guru, and then flaunt it. Yet here I was, a serious palmist, trying to share a language with many, that few will ever know or understand, and hoping that people would somehow get it. As a young person, I would not have imagined being on ‘The View’, ‘Martha Stewart Living’, CBS News, Fox’s Good Day NY, cable, and satellite TV. I was surprised at how many people were impressed and excited about my being on TV, but not curious about their own hands. I was interviewed by major magazines and newspapers everywhere and featured in dozens of articles about reading hands to no avail. Perhaps palmistry is destined to remain a gypsy fortunetelling scam in most people’s minds.

Palmistry has been good to me. I’m not complaining. I love my clients and they love me. We can have intimacy and clear boundaries. There are no ‘me too’ complaints. As a five-minute hand reader at special events, I get to go right to the gusto and directly address a person’s current and major life issues and challenges. My goal is to be constructive, helpful, and leave my clients feeling hopeful. I’ve read many of the richest and poorest people in the world. All hands are equal. I still dream of palmistry becoming “viral”, but that idea has been relegated to a back burner while survival has become my priority.

If hindsight truly is 2020, now is the time to clearly see everything as it is and not how we want it to be. Hopefully, social distancing and mass consciousness will help us be more introspective, curious, and concerned for ourselves, others, and our planet. Learning to read our own and each other’s hands would certainly help.

If you’re curious about palmistry, check out my refurbished website, read some content, click on some images that link to short videos, and share your thoughts, ideas, opinions, advice, suggestions, and epiphanies. All communication is welcome, appreciated, and valued! www.markseltman.com

AQUARIUS & HANDS

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You don’t need an Aquarius sun, moon, planets, house placements, or aspects to be Aquarian. Hands with square palms and long moderately spread fingers embody ‘Thinking’ types. I’m generalizing, but in my palmistry practice, many dominant Aquarian types have medium to low set stiff thumbs, inflexible fingers, prominent first phalanges, developed first knots, mixed round and square fingertips, broad nails. Head and life lines closely intertwine at their beginnings. Topographically, clear fine lines merge with busy heart lines that dip to touch logical and pragmatic head lines at their beginnings. It’s easy to analyze, compartmentalize, and rationalize feelings when head rules heart.

I’ve known many successful Aquarian business types with long straight pinkies, dominant first and second finger phalanges, and mildly developed knots. Notable analytical, technical, and scientific types have long first phalanges with prominent first knots on middle fingers. Inventors and designers are often supported by long second phalanges, prominent second knots, whorl fingerprints, spatulate finger tips, and square tipped thumbs. I’ve seen plenty of practical tradesmen with square index fingers and loop and arch fingerprints. Aquarius has less peripheral lines than Gemini  and less islands and forks on the heart, head, life, and fate lines than Libra. All hands have their own unique and specific morphological, topographical, tactile, and visual qualities that define human character and correspond to the twelve signs of the zodiac. Astrology offers keys to shedding light and reflecting on the eternal mysteries of self and other.

Many people think Aquarius is a water sign. They see a water bearer and a symbol that looks like waves. Water embodies feeling and symbolizes our personal and collective unconscious. Air waves are geometric, sharp, and precise. Aquarius is fixed thinking. The Water bearer is discarding Feelings in favor of Thinking by pouring them from a jug.

Everyone has thirty degrees of Aquarius in their allegory. Wherever Aquarius is in your symbolism and psyche, you may be very fixed and highly sociable, and private, cool, and detached when necessary. It’s easy to avoid intimacy while spending a lot of time in a world of one’s own ideas and inventions. Thinking is masculine in gender. Aquarians need to become more aware of their Leo opposition to obtain real objectivity and clarity in their thinking. Most Aquarians have no clue how bogged down they can get in their own bullshit. They need mutable Gemini friends like me who can call them on their bullshit and walk away unscathed. Aquarius believes he can solve problems better than others, and many times he can, but his ego gets in the way. He values free speech, but overvalues his opinions that may be brilliant, constructive, helpful, and hopeful, or at the other end of the spectrum, extreme, obsessive, conceited, and obnoxious!

Uranus rules Aquarius and symbolizes sudden unexpected change. Aquarius can be erratic and unpredictable. Ruler of Sky and Father of Titans in Greek myth, Uranus, was first son of Gaea and Chaos. My Sun Uranus conjunction in Gemini in my 8th house is a tale of 72 years of internal and external revolution. I’m always striving to get out of my own way. My favorite Aquarians are: Jules Verne ~ Buzz Aldrin ~ Helen Gurley Brown ~ James Dean ~ Charles Dickens ~ Michael Jordan ~ Franklin Roosevelt ~ Charles Lindbergh ~ Bill Maher ~ Mozart ~ and Paul Newman. I also have close friends who are personal heroes.

Uranus takes 84 years to return to its birthplace. Betty Friedan completed her Uranus cycle before she died on her 85th birthday (2/4/06). Betty authored ‘The Feminine Mystique’ in 1963. She catalyzed a women’s movement and revolutionized women’s rights. Founder of National Organization for Women (NOW), Betty planned the first International Feminist Congress in 1973. She summarized most women’s existential quandary when she described their situation, “It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.” Betty’s Aquarian war cry, “Make policy not coffee”. Meanwhile, chauvinistic partisan old white men still control women’s rights. Hmm…

Aquarians relish a revolution when the cause is right. They’re independent progressive thinkers who pride themselves on their originality. Sometimes they flaunt eccentricities. Aquarians must learn to value their uniqueness for what it is and not for the sake of being different. They enjoy attracting other unconventional, unusual, and free spirited people. They’re a magnet for me. If you want to influence an Aquarian, you must remain extremely calm, be logical, and make good sense. Encourage others to participate, innovate, be more caring, and creative, and we’ll all be happier.

My Fearless Aquarian Vision for our Future

Our Future is in Our Hands

New Moon in Aquarius

1 / 24 / 2020

Personal and planetary inequities will clash as have nots realize they’ve been had. By the time Pluto enters Aquarius in 2024, the time of false prophets and false profits will have come to an end. We will philosophically and spiritually shift our poisonous paradigms into a new Age of Aquarius, Love, and Brotherhood, where Humanity sees, hears, and knows what’s fake and what’s real and proactively chooses to embrace what’s real. We can no longer take others, ourselves, and this tiny speck in time and space we call our planet for granted. Priceless information and insights about our own and each others natures, values, thinking, feelings, will power, health, relationships, creativity, purpose, philosophy, hopes, fears, and spirituality lay waiting to be seen and heard at the ends of our arms.

CAPRICORN & HANDS

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No matter what your astrology says about you, flat square palms, short stiff fingers, square fingertips, developed first knots, and a combo of loop and arch finger prints embodies Capricorn. A Capricorn sun, moon, rising sign, planets, houses, or aspects will enhance pragmatism and other Capricornian traits. Firm hand consistency, coarse skin ridges, and self-assured handshakes embody practicality, responsibility, and reliability. When the middle finger crooks toward the ring finger, discipline, seriousness, and responsibility rule the person.

Middle fingers with dominant first and middle phalanges make Capricorn more practical and pragmatic than his cardinal brothers and sisters, Aries, Libra, and Cancer. He’s more motivated and aggressive than his fixed cousin Taurus and a better manager than his mutable cousin Virgo. Every thought and action must be rooted in rational reason and clear purpose. Capricorn leaders and successful managers embrace responsibility with commitment and perseverance, carrying out the most mundane of tasks while maintaining a long-range vision of their goals. Structured, focused, disciplined, and dependable, Saturn expects you to be on time and do as you say. He has little patience for excuses. As a natural skeptic, he doesn’t trust slick and flashy types. A workaholic, he doesn’t question coming early or staying late to finish a task. He patiently awaits the right conditions, cultivates right relationships, and plans right timing before taking action.

Our middle fingers should always be longest. Short middle fingers represent a life out of balance. Lack of structure, discipline, and focus is a formula for failure. The qualities of the middle finger reveal how serious and reliable we are and how we deal with our frustrations, obstructions, obligations, shame, and guilt.

Saturn is well organized, efficient, patient, dependable, and faithful. Obsessive order, minute methodology, persistent punctuality, and unrelenting perfectionism are embodied in stiff knotty joints, crooked middle fingers, long middle phalanges, square fingertips, and short broad nails. Self-critical types must learn to “lighten up and smell the roses”. Traditional music and dry humor soothes the saturnine soul. Saturn has a cynical or sarcastic sense of humor peppered with a pessimism that can sometimes be offensive and defensive at the same time. The funniest comedians often hide their pain behind humor. Practical, prudent, and persistent, Saturn becomes frustrated when his strategies don’t go according to plan. Rigid ideologies and an overdeveloped sense of obligation and responsibility makes Saturn feel depression, guilt, and shame. While they pride themselves on their ingenuity, it’s ironic they rarely stray from traditional and conventional careers.

Dominant middle-finger types tend to be tall and slender in appearance. Dark hair, large bones, stern features, and bland complexions are common. Saturn needs solitary time including family, friends, and partners. Saturn’s physical sense is smell. Pure types love string instruments and classical music tinged with sadness.

Abraham Lincoln was saturnine. Daniel Day-Lewis (Taurus with strong Saturn) masterfully played Abraham Lincoln. Clint Eastwood is a Gemini with strong Saturn. Elvis Presley, a Capricorn, was King of Rock ‘n Roll. Tiger Woods was Prince of Golf. Muhammad Ali was King of Boxing. David Bowie was a musical master. Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse fathered Post-Impressionism. Albert Schweitzer‘s ‘reverence for life’ was his gift to humanity. Louis Pasteur pasteurized.

“If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Capricorn (1/15/1929) with Capricorn hands. King was martyred for his fervent beliefs. As a Baptist Minister and Social Rights Activist, Dr. King was destined to lead the black civil rights movement in the United States from the mid 1950’s until his brutal assassination in Aries (4/4/1968). Dr. King’s mission was the pursuit of truth, peace, justice, and equality for all. His dream became his legacy as well as a legal holiday.

Saturn rules physical structure. Capricorn weaknesses include skin, teeth, knees, and ligaments. Maladies like rheumatism, hardening of the arteries, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and deafness in the left ear are Saturnine. Middle fingers that lean towards ring fingers symbolize perfectionism and a strong need for personal space. I’ll bet that Donald Rumsfeld is frequently cranky, irritable, and annoyed. Just look at his left middle finger and face. Saturn thrives in conservative types. Most scientists, researchers, mathematicians, technical specialists, and businessmen are saturnine. Writers, craftsmen, therapists, night watchmen, undertakers, morticians, and derelicts frequently have dominant middle fingers.

On Christmas, humanity celebrates Jesus Christ, Jewish guru, and not for profit prophet. God spoke through Jesus, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Jesus would have reformed religion had he stuck around. Who needs dogmas, doctrines, codes, rules, and regulations when you’ve got spirituality? Loving unconditionally and without expectation can have a dire outcome. Jesus was crucified for loving too much!

Mel Gibson (Capricorn) embraced his dark side when he created ‘The Passion of the Christ’. Jesus’s spirit writhes in heaven as Mel irreverently punishes and blames the Jews for torturing Jesus to death. You can see all of Jesus’s suffering and none of his revelations and victories in Mel’s 30 million dollar abomination.

Perhaps Mel can capitalize on Dr. King’s final moments and create another sequel called LETHAL WEAPON 666 ~ even more reasons to feel and spread hate, shame, guilt, fear, and terror. Mel should stick to acting. He’d make a great used Hummer salesman, specializing in ‘already been road-warriored’ models like worn jeans or distressed furniture.

Scrooge is our darkest, greediest, and stingiest side. Relationships are important only as they relate to profit. Master criminals are ruled by Saturn. They have no need for cleverness like Gemini, spontaneity like Aries, or grandiosity like Sagittarians. They strategize, wait, and act when the timing is right.

Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future haunt Capricorn Bernard Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom. Ebbers made telecommunications competitive. He achieved his goal of power and wealth, but compromised his ethical principles in favor of profit. Preaching one thing and practicing another has a gloomy prognosis that can end one in the slammer. Evangelical Christians had better get real soon or risk extinction with Saturn and Pluto still conjunct in Capricorn!

Janet is a Capricorn. Her crooked middle fingers along with head and life lines that separate on her dominant hand at their beginnings embody a freedom loving, independent, perfectionist with a highly developed sense of responsibility, guilt, and obligation. Too many “should’s’ and ‘supposed to’s” get in the way of that adventure Janet craves.

“Do the work or suffer the consequences”. “ Father Time” is about quality, not quantity. The lone hermit is not lonely. Saturn is present where discipline, focus, and structure are required. Saturn can be prosperous, happy, wise, and compassionate. He can also become easily frustrated, compulsively controlling, greedy, and self-destructive. Transforming lead into gold is a metaphor for transforming Saturn into the Sun.

SAGITTARIUS & HANDS

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SAGITTARIUS-HAND

You don’t need a Sagittarius sun, moon, houses, aspects, planets, or planetary placements in your Natal Horoscope to be Sagittarian. All Intuitive hands have rectangular palms with short fingers. Sagittarius hands have strong index fingers, flexible finger joints, pink firm elastic skin, and confident hand shakes. Sagittarius reflects a mutable personality. Pure types have long straight index fingers that stand away from the hand. No matter what your type, strong index fingers point to pride, ambition, desire for power, leadership abilities, confidence, idealism, spirituality, religion, truthfulness, and generosity. Pink color under an index finger adds energy and enthusiasm and reveals a desire to make a difference.

After reading many tens of thousands of hands for over forty years, I can confidently and comfortably generalize from my experience. I’ll never have enough statistical data to call my work scientific, but I can safely say a Sagittarius with a healthy index finger is idealistic, enthusiastic, and self-assured. Many have smooth finger joints and round or conical fingertips with loop or whorl prints. As eternal optimists, they’re honest, sincere, and gifted with voices designed to persuade. Positive thinking helps them achieve their goals, while good luck lights their way. I call Jupiter ‘him’ because it’s his gender, but in practice, Jupiter’s influence is equally powerful in all genders.

Sagittarians are often accused of viewing life through rose colored glasses because they see people and circumstances as they want them to be instead of how they really are. Graceful heart lines, extending from the percussion of the hand from strong pinkies to powerful index fingers make them even more sensitive, romantic and sentimental. As proud, expansive, generous, passionate, principled, truthful, philosophical, and spiritual beings, they’re irresistible when they believe in themselves. Love of travel motivates them to seek adventure whenever and wherever as they search for interesting food experiences. Healthy types love country and city life. Many struggle to find balance.

Jupiter’s physical sense is taste. Jupiter craves rich exotic foods, luxurious desserts, fine wines, and highly erotic sex with mortals. Depending on length and thickness of bottom phalanges, love of nutrition (narrow), or temptation by gluttony (plump) emerges from deep within the psyche. Rich food, fine wine, and kinky sex are potent temptations that lead them down the dark path of excess to the palace of wisdom. Jupiter’s physical problems come from gorging rich food, drinking too much alcohol, and overindulging in sensual pleasures. Dominant index fingered folk are of medium height with generously proportioned bodies. Wide chests, high foreheads, widely spaced eyes, reddish faces, and wavy hair are common characteristics and clues to the mystery of who they are.

Gluttony is prone to blood disorders, liver disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and flaws of throat and thighs. Pride is critical, hypercritical, impractical, grandiose, arrogant, dictatorial, and vain. Blending Pride and Lust induces philandering.

When the dominant hand’s index finger is long, (past middle of tip of top phalanx of middle finger), projects forward with pinkish color beneath (all races), that person loves being boss and hates being criticized. They’re natural planners, setters of goals, and leaders who attract other ambitious career minded professionals. Know that anyone will quickly lose credibility and respect if they’re looking for a free ride or are unable to carry their own weight. Jupiter must steer clear of strays and fixer-uppers who are naturally attracted to them. Long index fingered folk enjoy being married. They need to partner as much as they need a lover. Having both is best! Planning, setting goals, and dreaming of a future together is crucial for their partnership to be meaningful and fruitful.

Jupiter’s personal problems come from practicing obsessive and controlling behavioral patterns, expressing judgmental thoughts, and cultivating critical attitudes. False pride, gluttony, vanity, and bossiness are weaknesses these individuals must overcome by practicing moderation, earning self-esteem, and being successful at being healthy.

Sagittarius needs a philosophy that enables him to be an integral part of a working society, not tilting at windmills like Don. It’s hard being a person who believes he has everyone’s answers, though he has none. Wind, Sun, earth, and water will be available to us when we’re ready to harness their power.

Short index fingers extend less than half way to middle of top phalanx of middle finger. Short index fingered individuals need to work harder to achieve similar results as their long index fingered brethren. Short fingered folk are big picture people. Many tend not to value themselves enough because they weren’t valued enough during their formative years. There was no encouragement and support when they needed it most! Their challenge is to learn to ask enough of and for themselves. Plenty of successful individuals have thrived with very short index fingers. They earned every drop of whatever they achieved. Nothing comes easily, but everything earned is well worth the risk and effort.

A scientific study claims short index fingers are linked to homosexuality. Click if you’re curious. This minute long Youtube video shares my take on index fingers. It’s a look through my wife and my eyes at how knowing our baby’s potentials and possibilities altered her destiny. Basic hand shape reveals whether we’re intuitive, practical, thinking, or feeling. Healthy types are nourished by healthy index fingers. Being honest, direct, taking pride in their work, and calculating their risks transforms Sagittarius into successful politicians, journalists, judges, lawyers, singers (musical instrument is voice),speakers, story tellers, managers, producers, promoters, salesmen, chefs, and priests.

Every fingerprint needs to be examined in the context of each other and the whole hand. Proportions of finger phalanges, development of knots, and size and shape of nails reveal various personality traits. I see many spatula shaped fingertips with whorl prints on Sagittarius types. They embody original and unconventional thinking. Square tips with arch prints are practical, responsible, dependable, and reliable. Round and conical tips with loop prints are adaptable and communicative.

Depending on your basic type, lines change as a person’s thinking and circumstances change. Dermatoglyphics (skin ridge patterns) rarely change dramatically. Sudden or extreme circumstances may catalyze a tiny change. In my experience, the lines in feeling (water) hands change the most while practical (earth) hands (above) change the least. Careful examination of skin ridge patterns requires a quality set of hand-prints or hi-res photos, a strong magnifier, and precise measuring tools. Once you’ve got the gestalt of a person, you can give great readings using details to affirm and confirm the persons basic character, patterns, habits, natural tendencies, talents, and potentials, and provide additional information about current events and timing.

SCORPIO & HANDS

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Scorpio is a fixed feeling type. Having a Scorpio Sun, Moon, houses, aspects, planets, or planetary placements doesn’t guarantee a Scorpio personality. Having Scorpio hands with long rectangular palms and long stiff fingers and large stiff thumbs does. The consistency of those hands is denser and skin less elastic than Cancer and Pisces. Head and life lines interlace at their start, embodying a tendency to fight change and procrastinate at beginnings and endings. ‘Letting go’ is a huge challenge, even when there’s no choice. Another big challenge is caring too much what others think.

No matter your archetype, long broad nails and straight pinky fingers represent more open and frank people. Dominant first and third phalanges on rounded and conical fingertips embody a healthy mix of intuition and practicality. Loop fingerprints symbolize adaptability and social ability. Developed knots on second joints need physical order. Developed first knots need mental order. Very large knots often belong to OCD people.

Vertical lines within a lifeline represent intimate relationships. Balls of the thumb with no lines within the lifeline are untrusting and untrustworthy, though they might not know it. They mistake desire and passion for love and end up becoming jealous and possessive. Scorpio can have many wonderful qualities, but Scorpio is also a tale of the tail of the Scorpion. Now is a good time to tell a tale of Scorpio with Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus currently transiting Scorpio. Mercury will be Retrograde in Scorpio on Halloween. It’s a great time to talk about the mythology of Scorpio and explore how the dark side of Scorpio is affecting our humanity and planet. The ball of thumb on the left in the picture above is simulated. It belonged to a child serial killer. Click here to read his story.

mark seltman

My Gemini sun and hands embody my Gemini behavior. Scorpio ascends in my natal chart, closely conjunct the asteroid Chiron (hand). Jupiter in Scorpio in my first house is a singleton in the bottom hemisphere of my natal chart. Pluto in Leo in my tenth house is closely conjunct Saturn in Leo which straddles my Leo midheaven. My Sun Uranus and Venus Node conjunctions are in Gemini in my 8th (Scorpio) house, joined by Vulcanus, Vertex, and a few asteroids. Scorpio rules my unconscious. As a metaphysical reader and counselor, I hear a lot of secrets. People tell me things they’ve never told anyone else because they believe I already know them. They think I can see more than I can. Of course, in the final analysis, it’s not what you see, but what you say and how you say it that matters.

When Saturn in Scorpio transited my ascendant in November of 2012, it squared my natal Saturn Pluto conjunction, compelled me to strengthen my foundation, build more stable structures, and construct my life with less distraction and more discipline and focus. Saturn forced me to set realistic goals and challenged me to let go of everything and everyone that wasn’t working for me. It wasn’t easy, but I did. Seeing clearly, listening carefully, and thinking critically, has enabled me to rise from the ashes.

Jupiter in Scorpio has been a blessing and a curse for me. My natal Jupiter is within minutes of opposing my very stubborn 7th house Mars in Taurus. It’s trine my very sensitive ninth house Mercury in Cancer. Looking for shortcuts and easy paths to success has been a challenge. Coming out of the shithouse smelling like a rose has been the easy part. William Blake said, “The path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”. I know. 

Where’s Greta? EXPELIOSIS!

Pluto, Roman god of sex, transformation, and death is ruler of Scorpio, lord of darkness, and master of the sexual orgasm. In ancient Greece, Hades was god of the underworld. Hades had the nastiest job because his brothers and sisters were having fun controlling living people. Hades was king of the leftovers and waste. In tarot, the High Priestess, Queen of Cups, and Death card are ruled by Scorpio. Voldemort, Darth Vader, the Mummy, and the Big Bad Wolf are modern versions. Religious extremism, politics, and big business are Pluto’s playgrounds. It’s not what you do, but what you can get away with that matters. Anger, fear, hatred, prejudice, and punishment excite and beckon Donaldemort’s Dementors who are determined to terrify and control the rest of us…  

My question is what responsibility do Mega-Haves have to help support have nots. Billionaires can use their free will to decide what they want to champion, but they must support a humanitarian cause. Who will repair infrastructure? Who will help harness natural energy? Who will promote sustainability? Who will manage communications, push mass transit and alternative transportation, intelligently design and manufacture new products and then plan for their corresponding distribution, consumption, and disposal?  Who will help us acquire healthcare and education for all? What’s the cost of a healthy planet?  How much to feel well? How much does thinking critically and living creatively cost? What’s the cost of having a healthy body and skin? What price for healthy circulatory and respiratory systems?  What about the costs of having a satisfying spiritual life?

REPUGLICANTS

The seduction turns Pluto on, but the betrayal gets him off. By encouraging terrorists, rewarding rapists, and worshipping religious fanatics, we’re all invited to spend an eternity in hell. The path of too many dark secrets leads to the palace of sociopathy. From first breath to final exit, Pluto impatiently awaits you with a kiss of death.

‘MY PRECIOUS’

Scorpions make manipulative bosses, mean spirited jailers, abusive parents, and jealous partners who hide their true feelings. It’s especially hard to deal with the shadowy unstable side of Pluto’s emotions. Executioners, undertakers, coroners, morticians, and garbage men, along with power hungry plutocrats, partisan politicians, and spiritually bankrupt religious fundamentalists and hypocrites have strong Scorpio in their symbolism. Your friendly neighbor, a model citizen, devoted husband, loving father, loyal friend, and faithful parishioner dies. His family finds pornography, secret love letters, sadistic and masochistic sexual supplies, illegal drugs, and concealed money. Alternative facts are opaque, while hindsight is transparent.

False tweets and fake facts create opacity and disguise secrets of greed, bigotry, hatred, and sexual perversion. Tyrants rationalize the most bizarre behaviors because they believe they can get away with them. And they do, if we let them. At this moment, many are getting away with philandering, sexism, insider trading, religious hypocrisy, and poisonous partisan politics. Our deepest darkest fears and terrors are propelling humanity towards mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual bankruptcy. Evil Priests feign love and compassion as they physically, mentally, and spiritually rape the innocent souls they were entrusted to protect. Fear, guilt, shame, and remorse safely guard their secrets.

“Money talks and bullshit walks”. Plutocrats control humanity’s destiny. Republican partisan politicians have become morally and spiritually bankrupt sadists, who derive pleasure from harming have-nots. Fearful poverty minded Democrats desperately scrape the bottom of the barrel as they ask us to sign their petitions, fill out their surveys, and pledge loyalty to too many urgent causes as they beg for a few shekels. I sign and give as much as I can to worthy causes, but it’s like applying a Band-Aid to a compound fracture or placing a drop of potable water in an ocean of poison. Humanity’s ideological, philosophical, and spiritual paradigms must shift as the human race has become a race against horrible bad shit happening.

Our planet and social cultures have been corrupted by a handful of greedy moguls who control our food, shelter, healthcare, energy, communications, transportation, raw materials, manufacturing, marketing, retailing, finance, religion, and politics. Plutocrats devalue democracy by placing greed over giving, by embracing religious fundamentalism over spirituality and true faith, and by choosing consumption, waste, and denial over truth, good sense, and planetary good health. 2,153 billionaires have great social responsibility. Humanity needs them (and everyone else) to embrace caring and meaningful causes.

“It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt”. Many of life’s most painful lessons are a direct result of choosing money over values and religion over spirituality. It’s easy to rationalize the blackest behavior when your head rules your heart. “I never intended to hurt anyone”. “No one did anything they didn’t want to do”. “I may not have told the whole truth, but I didn’t lie”. “I’m sorry for my part”. Why must we lose what we’ve taken for granted to learn to value it? Scorpio holds the key to unlocking our secrets!

LIBRA & HANDS

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You don’t need a Libra sun, moon, planets, aspects, or houses to be Libran. Pure Libra, Gemini, and Aquarius character types have thinking hands with square palms and long fingers. Many Libran hands have carefully engraved gently curving unobstructed headlines that fork near or at their end.

Libra sees every side of an idea or situation. That’s why it’s notoriously hard for them to make up their minds. They hate limiting their options. Librans with straight and strong dominant pinkie fingers and large broad nails communicate clearly, effectively, and frankly. Strong index fingers rule ambitious managers, creative directors, and natural leaders. Dominant bottom and middle finger phalanges are designed for banking, real estate, and food businesses. Prevailing top phalanges make great public speakers, lawyers, directors, journalists, educators, and religious leaders. Librans can be idealistic, romantic, aesthetic, and refined. Thinking types in general dominate political, publishing, public speaking, public relations, marketing, sales, and entertainment fields.

Wide spacing between head and life lines reflect spontaneity, love of freedom, and a need to act. Wide spaces don’t care what others think and do what they want. Librans wield logic, tact, and diplomacy like a Samurai swordsman. They can analyze, rationalize, and compartmentalize their feelings until they achieve their desired goals. Changing a Libran mind is like playing mental monopoly. Be direct. Make good sense. Don’t get emotional or you’ll regret it.

Healthy Librans have firm sincere handshakes, pink elastic skin, and long graceful heart lines that flow from the pinkie to the index finger.  Graceful hands embody a romantic and sentimental nature. Branches at the end of the heart line that reach down to touch the head line means that person probably had a parent who withheld emotions during their formative years. It’s easier for them to rationalize, analyze, and compartmentalize difficult feelings than it is to verbalize them. Black and white, love and hate, good sense and nonsense are threads in the weft and warp of the same cloth, differing only by degree. Strong stiff thumbs and firm percussions beneath the pinkie finger reveal strong will, dogged determination, and relentless persistence. Librans with gently curving vertical lines inside their life lines are lucky because they have intimate family ties and close friendships. Actually, anyone with lines running parallel to and inside the lifeline is blessed with potential to have real intimacy!

Athena is a powerful Libran and Greek archetype of Wisdom and Justice. Backed up by Aquarius and Gemini, Athena clasps the ‘Scales of justice’ in one hand and the sword of thinking in the other. She balances ethics and action. Athena rules the strategic thinking required to win wars. Odysseus (Libra), Achilles (Aries), and Theseus (Gemini) worshiped Athena. Sometimes pictured as a handsome Goddess dressed in battle armor, she sports a shield of Intuition and wears an owl of Wisdom on her shoulder. Athena’s sword is applied with icy detachment as she discards emotion in favor of clarity of thought and cuts to the quick.

Fall Equinox, Libra, 7th sign of the zodiac, 7th house of marriage, offer us an opportunity for partnership, sharing, and charitable giving without any expectation. Librans strive for balance and idolize harmony. They hate discord and despise confrontation. They’re decisive when it matters, and notoriously indecisive when it doesn’t matter. Where to eat, what to wear, and when to go is challenging. Librans can be aggressive and vague at the same time. Many prefer frank and direct and don’t understand why others don’t. ‘Nice’ is easy. ‘Safe’ is not satisfying. Dishonesty is easy. Honesty is hard.

Everyone has Libra in their psyche. As one of twelve equal, but different characters, Venus / Aphrodite rules our 7th and 2nd houses. We know our truths and have ethical values and moral boundaries of right and wrong. That’s how we get aphorisms like “Laws and locks keep honest people honest.” “Contracts are only as good as those who sign them”. 

Librans must balance ethics with honesty.  A lawyer friend often reminds me that rich people are innocent until proven guilty while poor folk are guilty until proven innocent. Great wealth empowers players to shirk social responsibility, manipulate laws, and justify personal and social behaviors and actions that are selfish, greedy, and clearly hurt have-nots. Poor folk will forever be scraping for pennies at the bottom of the barrel. American Dreams entitle the bearer an opportunity to earn a privilege that is a birthright of those who can afford it. Why must we always lose what we value to value what we had?

‘Where’s Greta?’

“Even an attorney of moderate talent can postpone doomsday year after year, for the system of appeals that pervades American jurisprudence amounts to a legalistic wheel of fortune, a game of chance, somewhat fixed in favor of the criminal, that the participants play interminably.” Truman Capote…

The Libran part of you knows something would change an outcome, and yet fails to mention it. Philip Morris knew cigarette smoking was toxic. Monsanto knows ‘Roundup’ causes cancer. Bayer knows they’re killing bees and butterflies. Politicians in Flint, Michigan knew they were poisoning the people who were depending on them for protection. They chose partisanship over public health. Profit is more important than poor people. Donaldemort deceives and exploits us by preaching poisonous political propaganda, empowering spiritually bankrupt religious fanatics, encouraging morally and ethically bankrupt behavior, and enraging hordes of clueless bigots and gun lovers.  

The most challenging task in reading hands is learning to judge hands. One person’s long may be another’s short. Firm can feel soft, compared to hard. Rigorous practice (examining many thousands of hands) and asking the right questions is key to seeing, understanding, and interpreting human character as reflected in the topography of our hands. Even so, it’s not what you see, but what you say and how you say it that matters.

Few of us are pure types. Many people behave contrary to their sun signs. It’s hard to see my brother Gary as a Pisces, a mutable feeling type. He may be Neptunian on the inside, but Gary’s hands reveal Libran behavior rooted in cardinal thinking and supported by a very practical firm thumb, healthy elastic skin, smooth texture, and pink coloring.

Gary is a geriatric psychiatrist, practical philosopher, and prankster with an adventurous spirit. I used to tease Gary that I’d go completely nuts with age and he’d be stuck with me, but then (luckily for both of us), as a Gemini, I decided not to get old. Gary’s analytical and logical thinking merge gracefully with his innate feelings, intuition, and compassion. Gary’s commitment to working with stressful and frustrated clients and situations reveals a natural empathy that many Librans lack because they’re too busy analyzing, rationalizing, and compartmentalizing their feelings to trust them. Gary’s an amazing psychiatrist, devoted husband, father, son, brother, friend, and human being.

Andrea is Gary’s middle daughter, my niece, and a healthy Libran. Independent, likeable, and easy to be with, Andrea is a great mother, care taker, and loving person. When sun signs and hands match, that can vary from very good to very bad, depending on the person’s choice, critical thinking, and right use of free will.

Cousin Richie, Libra extraordinaire, philosopher, sculptor, and inventor; is father of Tangle, the Infinite Sculpture (a series of interactive, interlocking elbows). Our mothers were sisters. We share the ancestral “happiness”, and “seeker” genes, and have similar existential queries. I once confronted Richie, “If you put the same religious fervor into saving the world as you put into plastic elbows, we’d be saved”. Richie replied, “I am saving the world, one Tangle at a time.” He meant it.

Richie has sold tens of millions of Tangles worldwide. I ran into a mutual friend on the streets of NYC who had visited a monastery in Tibet and saw a poster of the Dalai Lama with a chrome Tangle in his lap. I wasn’t surprised. When I visited Richie at his annual gift show booth in NYC, he was selling Tangles to a very conservative buyer from Wal-Mart. I leaned closer to hear what he was saying, “Let me show you the only product in this show worth more than money”. He meant it.

Blending astrology with behavior affects how I view hands. Few of us are pure types. Most of us are mutts. You might see Richie’s fingers as a bit short for a thinking type. They are, but he still has dominant air and lots of fixity in his astrology. Shorter fingers makes him more conceptual and less detail oriented. His Aquarian side is strong, confirmed by his love of new ideas, strong opinions, and incorrigible mental tenacity. I might have viewed Richie’s hands differently if I didn’t know him.

A Libra and Aries opposition is a quest for higher awareness. Libra opposes Aries as autumn opposes spring. Life is a journey from light into darkness and back into light. Odysseus’s wise counsel fanned the flames of Jason’s inspiration on his quest for the Golden Fleece. Richie’s quest is to untangle truth from inspiration, passion, and desire. Right thinking and careful planning will win the fleece.