Category Archives: Hand Reading

SAGITTARIAN HANDS

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You don’t need a Sagittarius Sun, Moon, houses, aspects, planets, or planetary placements in your natal astrology to be Sagittarian. Sagittarian hands are healthy looking with mildly flexible wrist joints, pink firm elastic skin, and a confident hand shake. Elastic hands with rectangular palms and short flexible fingers reflect Intuitive  and  mutable personalities. Pure types tend to have long straight  index fingers that stand away from the hand. No matter what your basic type, strong index fingers point to ambition, leadership abilities, self-pride, confidence, spiritual affinities, religious affiliations, idealism, truthfulness, and generosity. Pink color under index fingers adds energy and enthusiasm and reveals a desire to make a difference.

I’m generalizing from my personal experience when I tell you that I see a lot of smooth finger joints, round and conical fingertips, and loop and whorl fingerprints on Sagittarians. I’ve read many tens of thousands of hands over forty years, but I haven’t documented enough statistically to call my experience scientific. One thing I can say for sure is that healthy Sagittarians are idealists, enthusiastic, and self-assured. They’re eternal optimists, honest, and sincere, with friendly charismatic voices designed to persuade. Good luck and positive thinking support them in achieving their goals.

Sagittarians are philosophical, expansive, generous, passionate, principled, proud, truthful, and spiritual. They’re irresistible when they truly believe in themselves. Sagittarians are often accused of seeing life through rose colored glasses because they tend to see people and circumstances as they want them to be instead of how they really are. They love travel and take time to explore and seek food and adventure when they arrive at a new destination. Inherently nature lovers, they’re also naturally healthy types.

Jupiter’s dominant physical sense is taste. Sagittarians love exotic foods, luxurious desserts, and fine wine. Many of the world’s finest and worst chefs have dominant index fingers. Depending on the length and thickness of the bottom phalange, temptation is a force that emerges from deep within the psyche. Loving rich food and fine wine is a potent temptation that can lead them down that dark path of excess that leads to the palace of wisdom. Most of their physical problems result from overindulging in food, drink, and other temptations. Gluttony makes them prone to blood disorders, liver disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and troubles with throat, thighs, and hips. Vanity is tactless, insincere, judgmental, opinionated, hypercritical, hypocritical, impractical, grandiose, arrogant, dictatorial, vain, gluttonous, and philandering. Many dominant index fingered people are of medium height with generously proportioned bodies. More than a few have wide chests, high foreheads, and widely spaced kindly eyes on roundish faces with wavy hair.

When a dominant hand’s index finger is long, (past midway to tip of top phalanx of middle finger), projects forward, has a pinkish color beneath (all races), that person loves being boss and hates being criticized. As planners, setters of goals, and natural leaders, they’re attracted to other ambitious career minded professionals, and go-getters (like themselves). They must steer far from strays and fixer-uppers who are attracted to them. Anyone needing a free ride or unable to carry their own weight quickly loses credibility and respect.

Healthy Sagittarians enjoy being married. They need a partner as much as a lover. Setting goals, planning, and dreaming about the future together is essential to having a loving relationship. Their personal problems often result from practicing obsessive and controlling behavioral patterns, and expressing judgmental and critical attitudes. False pride, gluttony, vanity, and bossiness are weaknesses these individuals must overcome by practicing moderation and steadily earning self-esteem and success. Sagittarians must choose a philosophy that helps them be an integral part of a working society instead of tilting at windmills like Don Quixote or being someone who always has everyone else’s answers.

A short index finger is less than half way to the middle of the top phalange of the middle finger. A person with a short index finger must work harder to achieve the same results as a long index fingered person. Many short index fingered people don’t value themselves enough because they were not valued during their formative years. Where was support and encouragement when they needed it? Their challenge is to learn to ask enough for themselves. Plenty of very successful individuals have had to contend with very short index fingers. They earned every drop of whatever they were able to achieve. Nothing came easily, but it was well worth the risk and work.

Scientific studies relate short index fingers to homosexuality. Click if you’re curious about my take on the subject.  Click on this minute long YouTube video if you want to see how understanding index fingers altered our child’s destiny. Basic hand shape reveals whether a person is more intuitive, practical, thinking, or feeling. Whoever cultivates and nourishes a dominant index finger is honest and direct, shows pride in their work, and takes calculated risks. Many strong index fingered people are successful managers, journalists, judges, lawyers, politicians, singers (musical instrument is voice), producers, promoters, priests, chefs, speakers, and salespeople.

Every finger and fingerprint needs to be considered when examining a person’s character. Proportions of individual phalanges, knots, and nails are important. For instance, spatula shaped fingertips with whorl fingerprints embody philosophical, unconventional, and original thinking. Square tips with arch prints are practical, responsible, reliable, and dependable. Round and conical tips with loop prints are adaptable and communicative. Skin ridge patterns rarely change, except under sudden  extreme circumstances. Depending on your basic type, normal and peripheral lines change gradually as thinking and circumstances change. Careful examination of dermatoglyphics requires a quality set of hand-prints and/or hi-res digital photos, a powerful magnifying glass, and precise measuring tools. You can still give a great reading without peripheral details once you know the gestalt of a person. Additional detail affirms and confirms the basic character and behavior of a person and provides valuable information as to current events and timing.

Skin ridge patterns are beyond the scope of this post. Richard Unger has devoted his career to the subject. Richard is a practicing hand reader, palmistry teacher, and finger print expert on the west coast. We’ve stayed in touch and shared our  work and palmistry experiences for many years. If you want to learn more about fingerprints, I recommend Richard’s book LIFEPRINTS as valuable reading for any student of palmistry, metaphysics, and human destiny. 

ME TOO

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I was the hand reader at Harvey Weinstein’s and Georgina Chapman’s wedding celebration. It felt ironic to watch an old stale bagel (Pluto) with a fresh young pastry (Persephone). Harvey produced an unforgettable extravaganza, gilded with flowers, dazzling with fireworks, and flooded with incredible food, fantastic entertainment, and myriad ‘ME TOO’ movie stars. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement saying I’d never say anything about anyone to anyone. I’ve read many famous people over many years, but none that day. I wish I’d strolled around and spoken with guests instead of parking my butt at a café’ table. Celebrities often avoid me when I’m seated because it’s not private enough and they fear I might see what they don’t want anyone to see. For quickie readings, celebrities are best captured on the hoof where I can charm and disarm them before grabbing their hands. Many missed opportunities strolled by me that day as I read the hands of friends and families who lined up for miles to hear the good things I had to say about them. Every person walked away with something of value.

Harvey is a Pisces with Taurus hands. Broad square palms, short plump fingers, and large pink fleshy balls of thumb reveal an acquisitive pleasure loving nature. I’ll bet the widely spread freedom loving thumb in Harvey’s dominant hand is stiff. His date of birth (3/19/52) puts natal Mars in Scorpio square Pluto in Leo. One interpretation of this combo is ‘Sexual Predator’. Harvey’s time of birth is unknown. When he was arrested on May 25, 2018, transiting Jupiter (philanderer) in Scorpio was conjunct Harvey’s natal Mars square Pluto. Transiting Pluto (loss) was square Harvey’s natal Jupiter. Pluto is final resting place for secrets, deceptions, and betrayals.

Harvey isn’t looking too good these days. His greedy pussy grabbing era began to end as his hands got caught in the honey pot. I wonder how many ME TOO’s he’s grabbed. Only Pluto knows for sure. Many favorite actors and actresses passed by me that day. I wanted to reach out and grab their hands. Most stars are hyper-aware of being observed, watched, and temporarily held captive.

 

 

As an entertainer, my mission is to be caring, constructive, and leave people feeling hopeful. Each person is the most important person in the world for five-minutes. Once you understand the basic gestalt of a person, there’s always something that stands out in a person’s hands. Small anomalies in the morphology and topography of hands embody huge changes in a life. I can instantly know what a person needs to hear in the moment because I know how to look and can choose what to say. When I’m holding a person’s hands in mine and looking into their eyes, I try to be as frank, direct, and compassionate as possible. Reading many people has taught me that it’s not what you see, but what you say and how you say it that matters in the final analysis. No one escapes human frailty no matter how famous, wealthy, or what they say.

 Click photos to view my favorite moments with Martha Stewart and Star Jones

HAND of SCORPIO

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You don’t need a Scorpio Sun, Moon, houses, aspects, planets, or planetary placements to be a Scorpio. Scorpio is a fixed feeling type with long rectangular palms and long fingers. In my experience, Scorpios have stiffer fingers and thumbs, denser consistency to their palms, and less elastic skin than their feeling sisters, Cancer and Pisces. Head and life lines closely intertwining at their beginnings embodies a tendency to procrastinate at starts and finishes. ‘Letting go’ is a huge challenge. Scorpios care too much what other people think (no matter how they protest or behave). Long and  broad nails and straight pinky fingers can be heartlessly open and frank. I’ve observed many Scorpios with dominant first and third finger phalanges, rounded and conical tips, loop prints, developed knots on second joints, and few vertical lines within the lifeline. Balls of thumb with no vertical lines parallel to the lifeline are untrusting and correspondingly untrustworthy. Scorpio has many wonderful qualities. Today I’m focusing on Scorpions. The tail of the Scorpion is a tale of fear and terror.

Pluto was the Roman god of sex, transformation, and death, ruler of Scorpio, lord of darkness, and master of the sexual orgasm (little death). In ancient Greece, Hades was god of the underworld. In tarot, the High Priestess, Queen of Cups, and Death cards rule Scorpio. Voldemort, Darth Vader, the Mummy, and the Big Bad Wolf are modern versions. Religious extremism, politics, and business are Pluto’s playgrounds. Getting away with prejudice and punishment excites, terrifies, and beckons Donaldemort’s Dementors. Join Harry Potter at the polls November 6 2018 ~ EXPELIOSIS!

Scorpions are controlling, compulsive, jealous, possessive, fearful, resentful, obstinate, manipulative, subversive, secretive, and suspicious. They seduce, covet, and betray our sacred trust. The seduction turns Pluto on, but the betrayal gets Puto off. He encourages terrorists, rewards rapists, and reveres religious raiders while inviting them to join him in an eternity in hell. The path of too many dark secrets leads to the palace of sociopathy. From first breath to final exit, Pluto awaits with a kiss of death. Executioners, undertakers, coroners, morticians, garbage men, power hungry plutocrats, ideologically ill leaders, and spiritually bankrupt human beings live in Scorpio and are ruled by Pluto.

Scorpions make manipulative bosses, mean spirited jailers, abusive parents, and jealous partners who hide their true feelings, especially the shadowy unstable side of their emotions. 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. Truth becomes transparent in hindsight.

 

False tweets and fake facts create opacity and distract US from the real secrets about greed, hatred, and sex. Tyrants rationalize the most bizarre behaviors, believing they can get away with them, and they do, if we let them. Their deepest darkest fears and desires propel them towards mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual illness, perversion, and bankruptcy. Evil Priests feign love and compassion as they physically and spiritually rape the innocent souls they were entrusted to protect. Fear, guilt, shame, and remorse safely guard their evil secrets.

 

“Money talks and bullshit walks”. I’m disappointed by both political parties. Republican partisan politicians have become morally and spiritually bankrupt sadists who get their greatest pleasures from harming have nots. Too many fearful Democrats and poverty minded masochists are desperately scraping at the bottom of the barrel and begging for pennies as we sign their petitions, fill out surveys, and pledge loyalty to too many urgent causes. Joanna and I sign many petitions and give as much as we can afford to worthy causes, but it’s like applying Band-Aids to compound fractures. Whatever we do is a just drop of potable water in an ocean of poison. No matter who wins in the November elections, expect more philandering, sexism, insider trading, evangelical hypocrisy, and partisan political power plays until Plutocrats no longer control humanity’s destiny. Humanity’s ideological, philosophical, and spiritual paradigms must shift.

Money is power. There are over 1,500 billionaires. Many are financing greed and hatred. Humanity needs a billionaire or three to back loving and giving. Our world, societies, and social cultures have been corrupted by a handful of greedy moguls who own our food, healthcare, energy, communications, transportation, raw materials, manufacturing, marketing, retailing, finance, religion, and politics. Plutocrats devalue our democracy by placing greed over giving, embracing religious fundamentalism and fanaticism over real and true faith, and by choosing consumption, waste, and denial over truth, good sense, and human and planetary good health.

“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 always lose what we’ve not valued enough or taken for granted in order to cherish it?

LIBRA & HANDS

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You don’t need a Libra sun, moon, planets, aspects, or houses to be Libran. As Thinking Types, Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius hands have square palms and long fingers. Libran hands frequently have long clear downwardly curving unobstructed headlines that fork at the end. Librans can see every side of an idea or situation. That’s one reason they’re notorious for resisting making up their minds. Anyone who has long straight strong dominant pinkie fingers and large broad nails communicates clearly, frankly, and effectively. Strong index fingers are common on ambitious hardworking managers, directors, and leaders. Dominant bottom and middle phalanges are well designed for banking, real estate, and food businesses. Dominant top phalanges make great public speakers, lawyers, directors, journalists, educators, and religious leaders. Librans tend to be idealistic, romantic, aesthetic, and refined. Thinking types in general dominate PR, political, publishing, marketing, sales, and entertainment fields.

Wielding logic, tact, and diplomacy like Samurai swordsmen, Librans compartmentalize, analyze, and rationalize their thoughts and feelings until they achieve their desires. Having wide spacing between head and life lines reveals spontaneity, love of freedom, and a desire to initiate. The wider the space, the less the person cares what others think. Changing a Libran’s mind is like mental monopoly. Be direct and make good sense. Don’t get emotional. You’ll regret it.

Healthy Librans have firm sincere handshakes. Pink elastic skin with long graceful heart lines flow from the pinkie to the base of the index finger and embody a romantic and sentimental nature. A branch at the end of the heart line that reaches down to touch the head line means that the person may rationalize, analyze, and compartmentalize their feelings. Black and white and love and hate are cut from the same cloth, opposite only by degree. Librans with gently curving vertical lines within their life lines are lucky in love. Anyone with long vertical lines parallel to their life lines has intimate family ties and friendships. They’re wealthy in relationships.

Athena is a strong Libran archetype with powerful Aquarius and Gemini backup. She’s the Greek archetype for Wisdom and Justice. Clasping the ‘Scales of justice’ in one hand and the sword of thinking in the other, she balances ethics with action. Athena rules the strategic thinking required to win in war. Great warriors like Odysseus (Libra), Achilles (Aries), and Theseus (Gemini) worshiped Athena. Often pictured as a handsome Goddess in battle armor, she sports the shield of Intuition and supports the owl of Wisdom on her shoulder. Athena’s mighty sword is applied with icy detachment. She discards emotion for clarity of thought and cuts to the quick.

 

Libra is the Autumn Equinox, 7th sign of the zodiac, 7th house of marriage, a time for partnership, sharing, and giving. Librans strive for balance, idolize harmony, dislike discord, and despise unnecessary confrontation. As negotiators, they’re very decisive when it really matters. They’re notoriously indecisive when it doesn’t matter… where to eat, what to wear, and when to go… Librans can be annoyingly aggressive and vague at the same time. Most Librans prefer being frank and direct, but then they can’t figure out why some people don’t like them. ‘Nice’ is easy, but safe is not satisfying. It isn’t easy to be honest, but honesty is what makes good sense in the final analysis.

All of us have Libra, Venus, and 7th houses in our symbolism. Deep down, we know what’s true and fair. We must set ethical and moral values and boundaries in order to know right from wrong and see truth. It’s too easy to compartmentalize, rationalize, and analyze our feelings, thoughts, and actions. Some Libran aphorisms are: “Laws keep honest people honest.” “Locks keep honest people out” “Contracts are as good as the people who sign them”.  Why must we lose what we value to not take it for granted?

“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 understood the truth behind the folly. It’s ironic that Libra rules our Laws and their execution. Legal power enables rich players to shirk social responsibility, manipulate laws, and justify personal and social behaviors and actions. Haves are innocent until proven guilty. Have nots are guilty until proven innocent. The American Dream is a birthright only for folk who can afford it. Poor folk will forever be scraping for pennies at the bottom of the barrel.

Librans must find a balance between ethics and honesty. Maybe a Libran knows something that would change an outcome, but fails to mention it. Philip Morris always knew cigarette smoking was unhealthy. Monsanto knows that ‘Roundup’ causes cancer. Bayer knows they’re killing butterflies. The powers-that-be in Flint knew they were poisoning the people who depend on their protection. Short-sighted Republicans care more for themselves than democracy. Our self-appointed Emperor has deceived, exploited, and manipulated the huddled masses with mountains of alternative facts, hordes of toxic pussy grabbers, and a limitless supply of poisonous propaganda.

Libras with square palms, long fingers, strong pinkies and well-balanced phalanges are well-suited for commerce. You’ll see them in chic designer clothing taking clients to trendy restaurants. Long unobstructed straight headlines are innately practical, honest, and dependable. Strong index fingers embody an ambitious strategic hardworking nature. Strong stiff thumbs along with a firm percussion under the pinkie finger reveal strong will power, dogged determination, and relentless persistence. A wide gap between head and life lines at their beginnings exposes an impatient, independent, freedom loving individual with plenty of initiative and corresponding need to take action.

The most challenging task in reading hands is learning to judge hands. One person’s long is another’s short. Your firm may be my soft, depending on the particular person. Rigorous practice (reading thousands of hands) and asking the right questions is essential to observing and interpreting human character as reflected in the topographical maps of our hands. The counseling part is another story.

Many of us behave contrary to our sun signs. Few of us are pure types. My brother, Gary is a Pisces, a mutable feeling type. Neptunian on the inside, Gary’s hands reveal a Libran character. His behavior is rooted in cardinal thinking.

Gary is a psychiatrist who specializes in geriatric clients. He’s a practical philosopher with an adventurous spirit. I used to threaten that I’d go completely nuts with age, but then (luckily for both of us), as a Gemini, I decided not to get old. Gary’s analytical and logical thinking graciously and gracefully merges with his intuition and compassion, enabling him to nourish and heal the most stressful of clients and situations. Pisces gives Gary a natural empathy that many Librans lack. They’re too busy analyzing, rationalizing, and compartmentalizing their feelings to trust them. Gary is a devoted husband, father, son, brother, friend, human being, and an awesome psychiatrist.

The first two hand illustrations in this post belong to Gary’s daughter, Andrea, my niece, a healthy Libra and person. When the sun sign and hands match, that can be very good or very bad or both depending on what the person chooses to do with their choices and free will.

VIRGO ~ HANDS ~ HEALTH

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“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”  Stephen King (Virgo ~ 9/21/47)

You don’t need a Virgo Sun, Moon, planets, aspects, or planetary placements to be a Virgo. Virgo has square palms and short fingers. Dominant middle phalanges and square fingertips are less meaty and more flexible than Taurus types and pinker and more elastic than Capricorn types who have whitish flat palms, well-developed first knots, and lean fingers. Virgo is the most adaptable of three practical types.

Virgo is well-known for their methodical hands-on natures and for being critical. No matter what your type, square fingertips, enlarged second knots, and short fingernails add physical and mental order, practicality, and responsibility.

Individuals with strong middle fingers that crook or lean toward ring fingers at the first joints strive for perfection and need personal  space. Depending on what element is rising, or moonsign, or balances and imbalances of elements they manifest certain gifts and curses. People who chew their nails are self-critical and critical of others (many lines crisscrossing under middle finger enhances that). Compulsively bitten nails belong to contrary people who choose the other side of an argument to make a point, even if they agree with you.

Virgo is best where discriminating, reliable, modest, and orderly service is required. Famous for cleaning up everyone else’s messes, Virgo sometimes obsess on details while being overly thorough and meticulous. Contrary to popular belief, Virgo doesn’t really like details. Short fingered people in general (Practical and Intuitive) dislike details and prefer to see the whole picture. Details are a nuisance; something others should do, but few can do them better than Virgo who selflessly reasons and wills themselves to do what needs to be done. Virgo must be valued and appreciated. Virgo asks too little for themselves. They know their value, but reticent to ask for it. Ego gratification is not a motivation. Never ever take Virgo for granted. Virgo works hard to feel useful, but must be valued and appreciated for hard work. Virgo must learn to cherish every molecule of what they earn. Careers like accounting, medical, nursing, social work, maintenance, cleaning, and health food are magnets for Virgo.

Virgos who have worked hard and been rewarded for their efforts: Writers Agatha Christie & Leonard Cohen; Lawyers Alan Dershowitz & Marcia Clark; Financiers J.P. Morgan & Warren Buffet; Actors Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Paul Walker, Keanu Reeves, and Cameron Diaz; Singers Michael Jackson & Beyonce’; Political figures Margaret Trudeau, Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace, Yasser Arafat, & John McCain. McCain’s hands are more Taurus than Virgo. His short index finger, slightly crooked pinky, and intuitive tips say what you see is not necessarily what you get.

 

Mercury, winged foot messenger, holds a caduceus (medicine) ruled by Virgo (healthcare). Gemini rules communications. Virgo is earthy and practical. She represents more scientific and technical aspects of thinking and empathy. Virgo is feminine in gender, logical, and healthier than Gemini, more masculine, intellectual, and cleverer. Imagination is more important to Gemini than practicality. I’m very Gemini.

 

 

 

I was practicing palmistry in my early thirties. One day, a young man showed up and asked “When will I die?” He was a healthy looking Virgo, very well built, energetic, handsome, smart, and a multi-talented craftsman. He appeared in excellent health. His well-balanced square palms were pink and firm with short straight fingers. Pink elastic skin, resilient palms, flexible wrists, and mildly flexible finger joints revealed a healthy balance between determination and adaptability. His basic lines were clear and deeply engraved. How lucky he is, I thought, but fate had sealed his future when he got AIDS.

AIDS was a death sentence at that time. I couldn’t see his illness in his hands. Nothing stood out. I lacked experience to counsel him. Instead, I said, “I’m sorry, only god has the answer to your question. You’re a naturally healthy type. If anyone can beat this disease, you can.” Awkwardly, I talked about his positive qualities, but he wasn’t interested in hearing about them. We chatted about what he planned to do about his situation. He wanted to be proactive. I helped him to decide to begin a regimen of healthy diet, exercise, sleep, more meaningful relationships, and quality time management. There was no charge for his session.

My curiosity about AIDS and desire to make a difference motivated me to volunteer weekly at Bailey House, an AIDS housing organization. I showed up twice weekly for two years to read hands, astrology, and cards for clients and staff. I use metaphysics as a lens to view issues and challenges in a symbolic way to help choose what’s next.

I printed hands of AIDS victims monthly to monitor the progress of the disease. I began noticing changes in skin ridge patterns on the percussion of hands. Lack of adequate funding, limited time, and not enough statistical data made it difficult for me to be thorough or scientific. Most people with AIDS suppress their potentials because they obsess on the harsh realities of their fragile impending mortality. I affirmed their talents and strengths and tried to inspire as many as possible to continue making positive choices and taking positive actions. We all looked forward to our weekly sessions.

Your health is in your hands. In the days before computerized medical diagnosis, doctors used their intuition, tasted a patient’s urine, looked into their eyes, and examined their tongue, skin, and especially their hands to diagnose illness. Hands reflect a person’s physical, mental, emotional, philosophical, and spiritual health. I encourage seekers to examine and reflect on their hands and the hands of people they care about. There’s so much more to see in a mirror than a reflection.

Fingernails are windows to a person’s health. Some illnesses seen in nails are anemia, thyroid disease, malnutrition, carpal tunnel syndrome, psoriasis, eczema, liver disease, heart, lungs, colon, chronic respiratory disease, lymph system problems, diabetes, Raynaud’s disease, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcers, Hodgkin’s disease, and sickle-cell anemia. Whew…

Dozens of stress related problems and types of cancer can be seen in skin ridge patterns (dermatoglyphics). Conditions of lines indicate conditions of heart, brain, kidneys, liver, and stomach in male and female systems. Palmistry is prescriptive, but I never diagnose or prescribe. When I observe a potential health problem in hands, I let my clients know I’m not a health expert and suggest they see a specialist.

Many health problems are natural predispositions to specific character types. Know the type and understand the corresponding potential health problems. Here’s a generalized list of health issues that correspond to particular fingers. Click links to learn when and how a finger is dominant and what other qualities in addition to health are represented. No health problems are easy. Good News ~ forewarned is forearmed! Free Will Rules.

Dominant index finger ~ blood disorders, liver trouble, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and problems with hips, thighs, and throat. A huge challenge and temptation is refraining from overindulging in rich food and drink.

Dominant middle finger ~ skin problems, teeth with age, knees, ligaments, secretion of bile, skeletal, left ear deafness, paralysis, rheumatism, gout, hardening of the arteries, hemorrhoids, and varicose veins.

Dominant ring finger ~ eyesight, heart, and blood circulation.

Dominant pinkie ~ nervous system, bronchial, and respiratory systems, thyroid gland, headaches, memory loss, and speech impediments.

Dominant ball of thumb ~ throat, lymphatic system, venereal diseases, heart, circulation, and nervousness.

Dominant heel of hand ~ bodily fluids, stomach, tumors, female disorders, epilepsy, mucous membranes, gout, rheumatism, kidney, bladder, and mental illness.

Dominant thumb and percussion of hand ~ inflammations, acute fevers, infections, muscular disorders, blood diseases, hemorrhage, infectious and contagious diseases, throat and chest trouble, and high blood pressure.

Scorpio ~ reproductive system, ruptures, hemorrhoids, ulcers, venereal diseases, and problems with prostate or urethra.

Aquarius ~ ankle weakness, anemia, cramps, heart weaknesses, nervous diseases, varicose veins, and sensitive skin.

Pisces ~ feet and toes including bunions and gout, colds, mucous discharges, tumors, drug addictions, and liver troubles.

MY CANCER BEST FRIEND

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LLOYD WILSON

Cancer is a feeling type… instinctual, empathic, emotionally complex, and hard to comprehend. Pry into their private lives and watch them retreat into their shells. Cancers hide their most vulnerable selves beneath a facade of nurturing actions. Cautious and vulnerable, Cancers avoid emotional confrontation wherever and whenever possible, although, they prefer being frank and direct over tactful and diplomatic. Their feelings can swing from loving, devoted, and nurturing, to secretive, obsessive, and fearful of the future. Their smartest option is always choosing satisfying over safe. Cancers can become dark and moody when they feel controlled or confined. They must feel protected and secure before they can fully trust. Once trust is earned, loyalties run deep. Cancer needs to cultivate intimacy wherever and whenever they can. Healthy families, close friendships, and satisfying work nourish and support them. Creating structure, organization, and detail also helps them feel stable and secure.

Healthy Cancers are loving, compassionate, and devoted. They’re compatible with other feeling types (Scorpio & Pisces). They feel safe with practical types (Taurus ~ Virgo ~ Capricorn) who are reliable, responsible, and dependable. They’re challenged by thinking types (Gemini ~ Libra ~ Aquarius) who compartmentalize, rationalize, and analyze their feelings. They’re cautious around intuitive types (Aries ~ Leo ~ Sagittarius) who are passionate, spontaneous, and impatient, and afraid they’ll be left holding the psychic garbage bag (they are) and scared of dealing with the collateral damage when idealism, optimism, enthusiasm, and logic wane (and they do). Cancers are acutely consciousness of everyone else’s emotional needs. When they feel insecure, they can become internally secretive and externally aggressive at the same time. Cancer works hardest when income matches output. Motivated by good food, emotional security, and cozy surroundings, their mission is to nurture family, home, and creative imagination.

The impudent young guy on the left in this picture is me, captured forty-four years ago in a photo booth at Kennywood Amusement Park in Pittsburgh, Pa. Lloyd and I met while working part time at a model making shop where we fabricated preschool children’s learning devices for the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning, Research, and Development Center. We made toys for ourselves and our loved ones on our own time. About to graduate from different colleges, I was to become an industrial designer. Lloyd would continue being an artist. We were a couple of Peter Pans on our way to Neverland.

Lloyd didn’t get much nurturing as a child. He developed his quick wit and sense of humor while trying to avoid extreme physical abuse. When his mother was happy, Lloyd was safe. When she was unhappy, she’d incite Lloyd’s rage filled father to beat him up. Lloyd tried hard to fix his broken parents, but they were too sick to support his efforts. Instead, they judged, criticized, and abused him. Lloyd’s mother finally abandoned him by killing herself; his father was committed to a mental institution, and years later, his lovely sister who I had met in Florida (two beautiful children, great husband, and an apparently idyllic life), suddenly and unexpectedly blew her head off with a shotgun.

Lloyd’s slender rectangular palms and long fingers embody his Cancer sun, which is conjunct my Mercury. His Gemini ascendant and my Gemini sun harmonize with one another. Lloyd’s head and life lines tightly intertwine at their beginnings. That reveals his need to feel appreciated and his tendency to take things too personally, even when they aren’t. A sensitive child, Lloyd desperately craved love and support, but didn’t get any.

Lloyd survived childhood without much approval. Meanwhile, he thrives on love and appreciation. Lloyd will give you the shirt off his back if you need it, but you had better never take him for granted. I know because Lloyd has literally given me the shirt off his back in my moment of need. I was on my way to an important meeting and got a nasty stain on the front of my shirt. Before I could blink, Lloyd took off his shirt and traded with me. What I love about him is that it never occurred to him not to do that.

Cancers are collectors. Some stockpile food in case of shortage or emergency. Lloyd collects art books, literature (most well-read person I know), religious art, art supplies, tools, raw materials, and clothing. When wealthy people die, their families donate their wardrobe to Goodwill or the Salvation Army. Lloyd has a keen eye for the finest designer clothing. He skillfully sorts through the merchandise for great finds. I call him my personal dresser. We wear the same sizes. Lloyd chooses suits, coats, and jackets with me in mind and has gifted me with outfits worth thousands of dollars that he paid ten or fifteen dollars for. Many had never been worn. He’s a master bargain hunter.

Lloyd’s very flexible thumbs symbolize his ability to adapt to the most horrible of circumstances. They also embody his frequent generosity of heart and spirit. It’s very hard for Lloyd to say “NO”. The gold ring on the bottom phalange of his middle (Saturn) finger on his unconscious hand symbolizes his need to have clear boundaries, be frugal, and learn how to be less available so that he won’t be taken for granted. Of course, Lloyd knows that, but it’s still fun to see his character, motivations, and challenges embodied in the morphology and topography of his hands.

Lloyd would say to me, “People who tell the truth don’t need to have good memories”. I’d reply, “We may be bastards, but at least we’re honest”. Over fifty years of friendship have witnessed many challenging lessons in humility for us. We delayed finding balance between our outer and inner worlds by always choosing to learn the hard way. We had to let go of our need to be more than we were. We learned there are no shortcuts.

Lloyd Wilson is Pittsburgh’s best kept secret because he loves his anonymity. His artwork reveals a magical spirit, but few will truly get to know it. Lloyd personifies Cancer’s best qualities. He’s supportive, sympathetic, receptive, reflective, intuitive, imaginative, extremely devoted to friends and family, and my best friend (male).

MOTHER OF GEMINI

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There are lots of Geminis out there, but few are aware of their potentials. My mom and I were born under the sign of Gemini, ruled by Hermes. Mom was a cultivated Gemini and poster child for the geriatric crowd at seventy-seven. I remember mom saying she had “healthy neuroses”. Being her healthiest and happiest self was the only thing that made sense to her. She maximized her best qualities and minimized her worst.

The luckiest thing mom ever did was to marry my dad. They met at a bus stop. He had just returned from WW2 as a hero. It was love at first sight. She was a twenty-one year old virgin princess. He was a twenty-five year old former bad boy turning good. She played Eurydice to his Orpheus and Persephone to his Pluto. I was conceived on their wedding night and born nine months and one day later. Mom wanted to have a natural childbirth, but after thirty-six hours in labor, I was cut out. She came within inches of dying and spent weeks convalescing. When I first discovered astrology, I sought an eminent astrologer for my first reading. “This is a death chart” she told me. “Your life is about transformation.” A person’s horoscope is also their mother’s transits at birth.

Mom once said to me, “Most parents make most of their mistakes on their first child”. That certainly was true in my case. It wasn’t easy being her son. If the definition of a genius is an average kid with a Jewish mother, ours was father, but that’s this story. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel loved by my mother, but I felt more loved when I was making her look good. Being my freedom loving mischievous self, interfered with mom being her very carefully cultivated self. My brother, Gary (four years younger), and sister, Jennifer (seven years younger), were spared mom’s inexperience and impatience. They don’t believe me when I tell them tales of my childhood trials and tribulations with their mom.

Mom considered raising her children one of her greatest accomplishments in life. I certainly did my best as a young child to make her proud of me. When I turned twenty, I confronted mom to tell her that we weren’t perfect and that she had made plenty of mistakes during my formative years. She replied, “Well son, I’m sorry for anything I did which caused you any harm. My mistakes were not intentional. I tried my best to be a good parent. You’ll understand when you’re a parent. You’re an adult now. You must grow up. Let go of what holds you back. You need to be as healthy as you can be.”

What could I say? She was right. Apology accepted. In the final analysis, my siblings and I turned out well in ways that matter most. Mom’s optimism and idealism, relentless frankness, and loving encouragement compelled all of us to be true to ourselves.

Although mom stayed at home during my childhood, she also stayed busy. Mom supplemented dad’s income by writing from home. One year, she won twenty-five contests by saying something in fifty words or less, finishing a sentence, writing jingles, or winning crossword puzzles. She published articles in consumer magazines like Redbook and Ladies Home Journal. Mom was a ghost writer for syndicated cartoons. The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Family Circus were clients who frequently purchased her gags. She worked with a local artist. Our family was the source of her materials. That’s me below and this actually happened…

One of Gemini’s notable qualities is true friendship. Mom attributed her ability to make friends quickly to moving frequently in her childhood. With so many changes involving multiple schools, mom learned to adapt and develop social skills to make new friends. If you examine the balls of thumb on her very Thinking hands (square palms with long fingers), you’ll see many long lines parallel to her lifeline. Mom maintained lifelong bonds from early childhood. She and her friends loved each other through Heart Attacks, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Diabetes, Cancer, and other diseases of old age. Mom’s friends were her riches. I too, cherish my friendships.

Gemini remains forever young. Hermes reputedly lived over three hundred years in the flesh. That means I’m an adolescent at 71. I do feel like it. Mom stopped aging at 39. Everyone joked, but no one questioned her decision to remain young until she was on her deathbed. In her last few days of life, mom’s intensive care doctor told us that in all his years, he’d never had a patient who was so sick and so determined not to look sick. Wheeling mom around the hospital, people thought I was her husband. She’d say “Thanks for the compliment, but he’s my father”. “Pleased to meet you”, they’d say. Even then, I was a potential embarrassment to mom. Some things never change.

Geminis are thinkers and communicators. Mom was one of the most well-read people I ever knew. She was interested in psychology. When I was ten years old, mom read Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. It reinforced what she already knew and confirmed her most significant value in her life, which was the knowledge and understanding that while you can’t always control what happens to you, you have the power to choose what you think, feel, and do about what happens to you. When I went to Carnegie Mellon University to study industrial design, mom went to graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh to get a master’s degree and become a psychiatric social worker at the Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. She was an innovator who was famous for her crystal clear case notes, ultimately becoming a matriarch in the hospital system.

Geminis have a unique sense of humor. While mom was lying in her hospital bed with tubes going in and out of her, she said to me, “What worries me is how nice everyone is to me. Do they know something I don’t?” Jennifer warned, “You’re not allowed to die until you finish raising my (teenage) kids”. She joked about buying mom’s casket at Costco. Mom loved the idea. Gary told her, “I’ll start worrying when you stop putting on your makeup”. He believes he prolonged her life by threatening to taxidermy her and display her in a corner of his living room. If you want a real taste for mom’s humor, you’ve got to check out this exercise ball video she made in response to my extremely health conscious sister giving her the ball. For whatever it lacks in quality, it makes up for in laughter.

When mom turned 80, she wrote, “Eighty years of age does not seem old to me. Old is when one is again dependent as we were in infancy – needing help as a constant to feed and care for oneself. I may die from an illness before I ever get old, then on to the next adventure.”  I wholeheartedly concur. Mom was eighty-three when she passed. She continued to maintain her humor and to ponder the meaning of life until her final moments as she battled metastasized breast cancer. I promised her I’d ‘pull the plug’ if necessary. She let go on her own. I’m honoring our birthdays this year by asking anyone to contribute to her favorite charity ~ Southern Poverty Law Center

GEMINI & HANDS

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It’s virtually impossible to accurately foretell from a natal astrology chart how a person will embrace their symbolism and manifest their free will. Astrology reveals a person’s potentials. A Gemini sun, moon, stellium of planets, dominant signs, house placements, or powerful aspects between certain planets or points in a horoscope may or may not reflect what a person chooses to integrate into their character and behavior.

Meanwhile, hands are topographical maps that actually disclose a person’s character in past, present, and future. As we embrace our strengths and weaknesses and exercise our thinking and free will, our evolving characters, stories, and changing circumstances are reflected in the morphology and topography of our hands over time.

You don’t need a Gemini sun, moon, ascendant, planets, or house placements to be Gemini. No matter what your astrology says, pure type Gemini hands have widely spread long fingers, flexible tips, and supple thumbs. All thinking types have square palms with long fingers. As a mutable modality, Gemini is more mentally adaptable than (fixed) Aquarians and (cardinal) Librans. Geminis and Librans are dual air signs that frequently have split head lines resulting from always having too many choices and needing to make decisions. Cancer and Pisces are dual water signs whose ambiguous feelings are often embodied in split heart lines. Anyone can have any split line for many reasons.

Healthy Geminis have long straight strong pinkie fingers that symbolize logical thinking, honest communication, and good sense. Gemini hands feature firm pink elastic skin and long straight widely spread fingers with dominant first phalanges and loop prints. Long ring fingers with whorl prints add talent, attractiveness, irresistibility, salesmanship, and luck. Strong middle fingers with square tips and developed first knots add technical and scientific attributes. Powerful index fingers dramatically increase writing, oratory, and other professional skills. Geminis make great lawyers, bankers, doctors, orators, writers, engineers, teachers, salesmen, accountants, and shopkeepers. I work at special events with amazing magicians who have dominant pinkie fingers. They surprise and astound audiences by deceiving the eye and mind of the beholder. Dominant pinkie people prefer small musical instruments that require a lot of dexterity. Music makes sense because hearing is Gemini’s physical sense.

The pinkie is the shortest finger. If the tip is longer than the crease between the first and second phalange of the ring finger, it’s long. If shorter, it’s short. Hermes (Mercury) was the shortest god. A dominant pinkie fingered person is often short in stature (Ed Harris) with a slender body and face. Pure types have animated hands, dark hair, and penetrating eyes with crow’s feet in the corners. Gemini is the most youthful of all types. They’re eternally childlike and love children. Men often have thin beards like Johnny Depp (Gemini). Michael Jackson, a Virgo (ruled by Mercury), and a genuine Peter Pan, actually lived in ‘Neverland’. In real life, Peter marries Wendy or a parental type. Someone’s got to be practical and responsible.

Our pinkie finger shows our ability to communicate. It also indicates truthfulness. Our early family dynamic may be observed in the way the pinkie is set on the hands. If it is very short or low set, trust is a major issue. Some women who have very low set pinkies have told me that they have trouble having orgasms. Their real challenge is in trusting someone enough to have real intimacy. The length and proportions of our pinkie finger symbolizes technical, language, family, and sexual potentials.

Gemini rules hands and governs our nervous and respiratory systems. Gemini health issues revolve around the nervous and bronchial systems. Geminis have potential problems with headaches, thyroid glands, memory loss, and speech impediments. I’m very Gemini and have been coping with Tinnitus (ringing in my ears) for several years.

Gold and diamond rings are often found on the pinkie finger of acquisitive people. Pinkie rings can symbolize the sublimation of sexual energies in order to accomplish something requiring a lot of libido. I once examined a group of fifty young men and women who were born into very wealthy families in the 80’s. Considering the prosperity of the period, it seemed paradoxical that every one of them had an obviously short phalange on the bottom segment of the little finger of his or her dominant hand.  Money will never be a motivation for their career choices. Family and personal 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 dominant pinkies (most inwardly curving). When there’s a telltale yellow coloration in the palms, there’s nastiness somewhere. The trickster is a master at hiding his dark side. There are many wonderful people with curved pinkies who learned as children to ‘act nice’ and are still doing their best to avoid confrontation.

Cultivated Geminis are consummate communicators, social and intuitive geniuses, and great judges of character. Most social of all types, they’re frequently accused of being impractical dreamers because they love ideas so much. They can detach themselves from mundane realities and be objective about anything. They overvalue their intellect and undervalue emotion (everyone’s). They’re threatened when their opinions are ignored. They accept your viewpoint, even when they disagree with you. They get mad when their ideas are challenged without good reason. They’re easily distracted and don’t like being responsible for their decisions. They resist focus, discipline, and structure. They long for freedom and love to be unrestricted.

Geminis are androgynous. In Greek mythology, Hermes and Aphrodite had a fling that resulted in Hermaphrodite. Dominant Hermes (whether he or she knows or admits it) is often bi-sexual. David Bowie was a Capricorn with powerful Hermes. Mick Jagger is a very Mercurial Leo. Kate Blanchett is a Mercurial Taurus. Boy George is a Gemini. At 70, Grace Jones is still an exotic Taurus with her Mercury conjunct Uranus in Gemini.

TAURUS HANDS

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You don’t need a Taurus sun, moon, ascendant, aspects, or house placements to be a Taurus. ‘Pure types’ have firm, pink, elastic skin, a dense consistency of the hands, and bulging percussions under the pinkie finger. Large stiff thumbs and stiff fingers embody stubbornness, determination, and tenacity. A full rosy ball of thumb symbolizes love of family, nature, children, comfort, luxury, art, music, and all things beautiful. When the ball of thumb is surrounded by a long clear deep life line, the person is blessed with inherently good health. With a long clear deep fate line there’s strong purpose.

Deep lines and skin ridge patterns are maps that can be navigated by anyone who learns how. Pure Taurus types have few peripheral lines. Taurus loves security and stability. They think and feel in uncomplicated practical ways. A long graceful heart line ending under the index finger is romantic and sentimental. Being ‘old fashioned’ is natural for them. People with long graceful heart lines tend to see others as they want them to be, instead of how they really are. A head line closely intertwined with a life line needs to be appreciated and never taken for granted. Loop and arch fingerprints add adaptability and practicality. Square finger tips reinforce a need for order and stability. Depending on size, second knots are more or less obsessed with having everything organized and in its place. Dominant middle and bottom phalanges confirm a practical and sensual person. The hand pictured above belongs to a Pisces with dominant Taurus character.

Taurus is driven by physical senses. As responsible, practical, pragmatic, objective, dependable, and reliable individuals, they understand how the material world works. They only trust what they can see and feel, not ideas, intuitions, or inspirations. As creatures of habit, they can get addicted to routine and order. They get bogged down with practical and mundane matters that limit their abstract abilities and imagination. They procrastinate at beginnings and endings because they get stuck in their habits and patterns and care too much what other people think.

Taurus is a feminine archetype. Aphrodite’s need for comfort and beauty are powerful. She gives form to visions of wealth and power. She loves her family, friendships, home, food, nature, art, and music. Her need for physical security drives her practical attitudes. Honest, dependable, and trustworthy, she’s valued for her natural warmth and good sense. She won’t bend the truth or perform a song and dance act for anyone. She’s loyal, affectionate, and charming, but can also be controlling, jealous, and possessive. She thrives in real estate, banking, food, and fashion businesses. She’s not the best salesman as she takes rejection personally. Her greatest challenges are to trust her gut, give up control, and let go when it no longer makes sense to hold on. Taurus can be the best bull or the worst Minotaur.

Pope John Paul ll embodied many fine qualities of Taurus. He tried to get the rich to share their wealth with the poor. He was the first Pope to visit a synagogue. He encouraged Catholics and Jews to love one another. He survived one assassination attempt that nearly killed him and still rose to address countless chaotic messes and reforms in the church.

J. Krishnamurti, a spiritual guide, shared good sense with whoever would listen

Leonardo da Vinci was the original hipster and a great artist and inventor

Sigmund Freud was father of modern psychoanalysis

Karl Marx developed the theory of socialism

Martha Graham was mother of modern dance

Katherine Hepburn was Grande Dame of American stage and movies

Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Tony Blair are anchors for 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 manifested a monster from 1933 to 1945. Responsible for over thirty million deaths, Adolph Hitler transformed our world by channeling anger, fear, and terror and blending it with the magic of imagery to control and manipulate the masses.

 

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

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh showed no remorse for his evil

Saddam Hussein (Iraqi President 79~06) was slain and shamed by US

William Randolph Hearst and Orson Welles (both bulls) battled obstinately over the making and release of ‘Citizen Kane’. Kane was a Midas. Welles immodestly modeled him after Hearst. Despite his natural charisma and brilliant acting and directing, Welles was no match for Hearst’s fortune and resultant ability to influence the masses. Welles was determined and persistent in his righteous defiance of Hearst. Stubborn, acquisitive, possessive, and controlling, Hearst relentlessly tortured Welles with legalities and bludgeoned him with bad publicity until Welles could no longer afford his principles. He became unable to rise to his challenges or control his self-indulgences (perils for Taurus).

‘Values’ are the esoteric correspondence for Taurus. Everything and nothing are of equal value; identical in nature, but different by degree. A billionaire dying of cancer would gladly trade his money for youth and good health. A glamorous celebrity with a brain damaged child will graciously scrub toilets in Grand Central Station for a cure. People often ask, “How long is my life?” It’s about quality, not quantity. Everyone dies.

‘Less is more’ learned King Midas as he yearned for the touch of gold, got it, and turned his beloved daughter and their magical relationship into a hunk of metal. His food transformed to gold as it touched his lips. Midas is a lesson in values. How can we be stable, secure, and happy while letting go of wanting more than we need? Too little or too much of anything raises our awareness of what matters. Aphrodite (Greek) rules Taurus. Venus (Roman) loves and values stability, security, sensuality, and splendor.

Alchemy isn’t about turning lead into gold. It’s the art of transforming Saturn into the Sun. We can all be our own best friends and bull shit detectors. Virtue, honesty, integrity, dignity, nobility, responsibility, discipline, structure, focus, determination, and persistence molds heroes. By cultivating healthy attitudes, thinking constructively, setting realistic goals, and taking action, we can positively transform our inner and outer worlds. Everyone has Taurus in their symbolism. Embrace your best qualities, master your darkness, and manage your life.

The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Common sense is not necessarily good sense. Unhealthy values point to unwholesome societies that follow unnatural paths of self-destruction. Our major problems are not physical. They’re philosophical, ideological, and spiritual. People apply formulas for success, yet few are truly successful. Success is a state of mind, heart, and spirit. Our health and the health of our world is a reflection of our thoughts and feelings. Why must we be habitually and eternally challenged to learn to value what we have by losing it?

The New York Stock Exchange and Federal Reserve are bulls. Uranus transited Taurus from 1935 to 1942. The USA went off the gold standard. People began focusing on their values and questioning materialism. President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Labor organized, forming unions that went on strike and engaged in sit-downs across the nation. President Roosevelt defended the Four Essential Freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

People born between 1935 and 1942 have Uranus in Taurus. Many have experienced sudden and unexpected gains and reversals. After transiting the cosmos for 84 years, in 2019, Uranus returns to Taurus for seven years. While polluted partisan politics prevent and pervert our progress (social and national), expect extreme financial fluctuations.

I hate predicting, but am concerned that if our philosophical and spiritual paradigms don’t shift dramatically by mid-2019, we’ll have another Black Tuesday like Oct. 29, 1929, as Saturn opposes the Stock Exchange’s natal Chiron and squares its natal Moon, Pluto squares natal Jupiter, Uranus conjuncts natal Venus, and Neptune opposes natal Mars! Prepare for Trumpaggedon!

Hazards of Interpretive Software

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I’ve been practicing palmistry, astrology, and tarot for over forty years.Recently, as I pondered my outer planetary trials and tribulations for 2018, I examined my three major astrological transits through the lens of the canned interpretations that came bundled with my ‘Solar Fire’ software. The most valuable lesson I’ve learned from recognizing and understanding the hazards of canned interpretations is being responsible for my choices and accountable for my actions.

 

The science and art of palmistry has been carelessly misrepresented and completely misunderstood for over 5,500 years! It’s mind boggling to me that most people still see palmistry as a gypsy fortunetelling scam! Priceless information and precious insight lays buried, silently waiting to be discovered at the ends of our arms. I wonder why the human race hasn’t recognized that hands reveal character and are essential to knowing ourselves and others.

The truth is that palmistry has been relegated to the dark ages until further notice due to a surprising lack of curiosity, important literature, credible schools, teachers, students, certification, counseling skills, public relations, marketing, and spokespeople. Palmistry books are brimming with unreliable recipes, inadequate ingredients, and inaccurate statistics cloaked in esoteric and technical jargon, passed on for millennia. Valuable content is veiled beneath poor illustrations and cluttered with disconnected details.

The paradox is that palmistry is actually a more potent tool for assessing character than astrology, and yet astrology is more credible. The reason is that more credible people have embraced, nurtured, and promoted astrology. “What’s your sun sign?” was a question no one asked until 1968 when Linda Goodman published ‘Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs’. Sun sign columns legitimized, monetized, and popularized astrology.

Astrology has endless permutations and combinations of details. Each and every detail means something, but until you’ve decided on a basic character type and context, the details are superficial. The meaning of any detail can change because of the question asked and the balance of elements, planets, signs, houses, and aspects. Adding outer planets, asteroids, and man-made points to a natal chart can make an accurate reading nearly impossible.

In my metaphysical practice, every detail must be examined within the context of the whole picture and every other detail at the same time. Comparing and contrasting combinations of details is vital for observing, examining, and analyzing behavior. One danger in interpreting isolated details out of context is in substituting one form of predeterminism for another by reducing individuality to cookbook formulas. That’s what most metaphysical authors do. It’s the main reason I don’t make predictions. I believe free-will rules. We can choose what we think and how we feel no matter what happens. Canned readings may be a good place to start, but they’re no substitute for time and experience. Other people’s generalizations should not be taken too literally or seriously.

Herein lays the problem of interpretive software. Having read Solar Fire’s forecasts for my transits, I felt happy to be a seasoned astrologer. Many novices are superstitious and suggestible. Commercial interpretations that use words like “confusion, depression, lethargy, dull, block, painful, stressed, and highly unlikely” can negatively influence an impressionable person to transmute subtle suggestions into self-fulfilling prophecies.

Transiting Jupiter in Scorpio is completing its twelve year cycle and has come home to my first house (opposite Mars in Taurus and trine Mercury in Cancer in the 9th). Jupiter powerfully influences my consciousness. At 70, my quest is for spiritual enlightenment. Nothing is more important than being healthy, whole, centered, peaceful, and loving. I’ve chosen courage, strength, grace, and wisdom as the four pillars of my sanctuary.

Note: I’ve used many different astrological software programs. Solar Fire is my favorite. I love being able to look at astrology graphically. Solar Fire satisfies those needs. I’ve got an older version and realize that the interpretations have probably been updated, but they’re still canned and should be used only as a guide to understanding and not as an official gospel of the symbolism, regardless of the credibility of its author.

I published the Solar Fire interpretation of my transits first, then my version. I’ve italicized words that weren’t helpful to me. Actually, they did raise my consciousness about recognizing, understanding, and responding to gloomy suggestions.My interpretations below have been written as though I know you, but I don’t. Being archetypal and subjective at the same time, each of us can only truly know ourselves. Everyone should create their own cookbooks.

Salvador Dali “Without Hope”

Transiting Saturn Square Radix Neptune (canned)

This is a time of confusion, lethargy and possibly depression. It is as if everything has taken on a dull sheen. If you were a writer you would call it the experience of the writer’s block. Rather than force matters, take some time to contemplate your life in a gentle, reflective light. By the end of the transit you should have a renewed sense of where you are heading, even though right now that seems highly unlikely.

Transiting Saturn Square Radix Neptune (my interpretation)

This is a time for clarifying confusion, dissolving depression, and transmuting lethargy into accomplishment. It’s as if everything is being bathed in bright Neptunian light. Now is the time to observe and examine where and what you’ve been hiding or escaping from (Neptune) and tune into being more whole, centered, and peaceful. By the end of this transit you’ll have clearer vision and a more committed direction in your life because you’ll be more structured, disciplined, focused, and have done the work (Saturn).

Transiting Uranus opposite Radix Chiron (canned)

…later in life you are also likely to be exploring new territories testing your will in the world. You may feel that others are testing your limits, even standing in your path. This could be a painful experience especially as you are determined to push ahead. You need to use your intuition and wisdom to ensure that you are striking the right balance. You need to be true to your inner self, but not so selfish that you walk all over others.

Transiting Uranus opposite Radix Chiron (my interpretation)

This transit will take place a couple of times in your life. Later in life, you’re more aware of where you have healed, still need healing, and have learned how to use your healing abilities. You may suddenly or unexpectedly find yourself in a situation where you need to use those abilities. It’s possible you could face painful early memories or challenges arising from your past. It might be a good idea to seek counseling or a mentor if you do. Perhaps you’ll be a counselor for someone else. The sign and house position of Uranus and Chiron will shed more light on the specific nature of your situation.

Transiting Pluto Opposition Radix Mercury (canned)

You feel that the world is out to stop you communicating your true self and in fact, it is likely that news from external sources is particularly disturbing during this period. Someone else may be forcing their opinions on you or an unexpected crisis may arise stretching your communication skills to the limit. Written negotiations and contracts may not run smoothly as someone puts a cog in the wheels. At times you may feel stressed, irritable and overworked. Relax as much as possible and remember that the time will pass and the reasons behind the mix-ups will become clear.

Transiting Pluto Opposition Radix Mercury (my interpretation)

This is an important time when you must carefully craft your communication skills so that your words and ideas can be most effective. You’ll become more powerful as you wield language more decisively, skillfully, and artfully. When transiting Pluto shows up, power issues also show up. Someone else’s ego trip may be your problem or maybe you fear losing control of someone or something and are acting out. There’s often an obsessive quality to Pluto. You’ll get the best results by choosing good sense, tact, and diplomacy. In Roman myth, Mercury was messenger to the underworld. Depending on the sign and house positions, it’s more or less challenging for Pluto and Mercury to work in harmony. Gemini vs Sagittarius and Scorpio vs Taurus are natural placements.