Aquarius Hands

Posted on January 23, 2018 by markseltman

You don’t need an Aquarius sun, moon, planets, house placements, or aspects to be Aquarian. Aquarius is a ‘thinking’ type. Pure types have square palms and long fingers, medium to low set stiff thumbs, inflexible fingers, mixed round and square fingertips, broad nails, and head and life lines closely intertwined at their starts. Analytical, technical, and scientific types have long first phalanges with prominent first knots on middle fingers.

I’ve seen successful business types with long straight pinkies, dominant first and second phalanges, and smooth knots. Many inventors and designers have long second phalanges, bulging second knots, whorl fingerprints, spatulate tipped ring fingers, and square tipped thumbs. I’ve seen lots of practical types with square looking index fingers, square fingertips, and loop fingerprints. Pure Aquarians have less peripheral shallow lines than Gemini and more deeply etched basic heart, head, life, and fate lines than Libra. Various signs have various topographical and tactile qualities of hands.

Many people think Aquarius is a water sign. They see a water bearer and a symbol that looks like waves. Air waves are geometric, sharp, and precise. Aquarians are fixed thinking types. Water embodies unconscious. 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. Aquarians can be highly sociable individuals. They can also be private, cool, and detached. Aquarians avoid intimacy by spending time in a world of their own ideas and inventions. They need to become more aware of their Leo opposition. Aquarians think they can solve problems better than others (and many can), but their egos get in the way. They value free speech, but overvalue their opinions, which may be obsessive, extreme, or obnoxious.

Uranus, ruler of Sky and Father of Titans in Greek myth was first son of Gaea and Chaos. Uranus is sudden change. Aquarians can suddenly become erratic and unpredictable. My close Sun Uranus conjunction in Gemini in my 8^th house has seen a lifetime of internal and external revolution. I’m a magnet for Uranian types. Many of my personal heroes are astrologically Aquarians: Jules Verne ~ Buzz Aldrin ~ Helen Gurley Brown ~ James Dean ~ Charles Dickens ~ Michael Jordan ~ Franklin Roosevelt ~ Charles Lindbergh ~ Bill Maher ~ Mozart ~ Paul Newman.

Uranus takes 84 years to return to its place of birth. Betty Friedan completed her Uranus cycle a year before she died on her 85^th birthday (2/4/06). Betty published ‘The Feminine Mystique’ in 1963. She catalyzed the women’s movement and revolutionized women’s rights. As a founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Betty planned the first International Feminist Congress in 1973. She summarized most women’s quandary when she described their situation, “It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.” Betty’s Aquarian war cry was “Make policy not coffee”.

Aquarians relish a revolution when the cause is right. They’re independent progressive thinkers who pride themselves on their originality and sometimes flaunt their eccentricities. Aquarians must learn to value their uniqueness for what it is and not for the sake of being different. They attract other unconventional, unusual, and free spirited types. In order to change an Aquarian’s mind, you must be extremely logical and make good sense. Encourage them to be innovative. They’ll be happier.

Neptune exited Aquarius in 2012. Our great delusion and deception was that public policy was getting better for old, poor, and sick people. Sadly, have-nots were desperately searching for physical and spiritual answers and finding nothing. Profits from false prophets control the masses.

Plutocrats finance political campaigns, purchase politicians, own health care, manage welfare, gamble with pensions, and jeopardize social security. Relatively few greedy capitalists control politics, energy, banking, communications, transportation, housing, food, healthcare, insurance, and religion while demoralizing billions of people who need their help. It’s mind-boggling how someone in power could choose hate over love. What sense does arrogance, selfishness, and being untruthful make?

We’re loved for loving. Hubris will never win friends and influence people.

DONALDEMORT and his DEMENTORS

Feigned competence rules!

Intimidation only works when we choose to feign incompetence

My Fearless Prediction for the Future

Pluto will pass into Aquarius in 2024. Personal and planetary inequities will transmute into an Aquarian Age of love and brotherhood. Humanity will proactively, profoundly, and proudly see, hear, and know what’s fake and what’s real. We will no longer take others, ourselves, or this tiny speck in time and space we call Earth for granted.

Our future is in our hands. Priceless information and insights about our characters, values, thinking, feelings, will power, health, relationships, creativity, philosophy, purpose, hopes, fears, and spirituality lie waiting for us at the ends of our arms.

Scorpio Hands

Posted on October 29, 2017 by markseltman

You don’t need a Scorpio Sun, Moon, houses, aspects, planets, or planetary placements to be a Scorpion. Scorpio is a fixed feeling type with long rectangular palms and long fingers. In my experience, pure Scorpions have stiffer fingers and thumbs, denser palms, and less elastic skin than Cancer and Pisces. When head and life lines closely intertwine at their start, Scorpions procrastinate at beginnings and endings and care too much what others think (no matter what they say or how they act). With long broad nails and straight pinky fingers, they tend to be almost ruthlessly open and frank. I’ve observed a lot of Scorpions with dominant first and third phalanges, rounded and conical tips, loop prints, developed knots on second joints, and very few vertical lines within the lifeline. Scorpios with no vertical lines are untrusting and untrustworthy. Scorpio has many wonderful qualities. I’m focusing on the dark side today.

Author’s note: I’ve used Donald Trump to illustrate this post, though he has nothing in Scorpio except his I.C. If you’re curious about my symbolic take on D.T. – click here.

Hands share the same mythology as astrology and tarot. Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, lord of darkness. As the Roman god of sex, death, and transformation, Pluto is master of the sexual orgasm (little death). In ancient Greece, Hades was god of the underworld. In tarot, Death, High Priestess, and the Queen of Cups are Scorpio ruled. Voldemort, Darth Vader, The Mummy, and The Big Bad Wolf are modern versions. Religious extremism is the Devil’s playground.

Scorpio is black, controlling, compulsive, jealous, possessive, fearful, resentful, obstinate, secretive, suspicious, manipulative, and subversive. Scorpio seduces, covets, and betrays your sacred trust. Seduction turns him on, while betrayal gets him off. Pluto tantalizes terrorists, rewards rapists, and reassures religious predators. An eternity in hell excites, terrifies, and beckons them. A path of many dark secrets leads to the palace of sociopathy. From your first breath to your final exit, Pluto awaits your arrival. Executioners, coroners, undertakers, and morticians 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 hidden pornographic literature, secret love letters, sado-masochistic sexual supplies, illegal drugs, and concealed money in his possession. The truth becomes transparent in hindsight.

False tweets and fake facts create more opaqueness and distract us from real secrets about sex, money, and greed. A troll rationalizes the most bizarre behaviors, believing he will get away with them. His deepest and darkest fears and desires propel him towards mental, emotional, and spiritual bankruptcy and perversion. Like an evil Priest, he feigns love and compassion while physically and spiritually raping the innocent souls he has been entrusted to protect. Guilt, Shame, Remorse, and Fear faithfully guard his evil secrets.

Scorpio rules my unconscious. Gemini rules my sun, hands, and corresponding behavior. Scorpio rises in my natal chart conjunct the asteroid, Chiron (hand). Jupiter in Scorpio in my first house is a singleton in that hemisphere of my natal chart. Pluto in Leo is in my tenth house closely conjunct Saturn in Leo in my ninth. Sun Uranus and Venus Node conjunctions are in Gemini in my 8^th house, along with Vulcanus, my Vertex, and a few asteroids.

When Saturn in Scorpio transited my ascendant in November of 2012, it also squared my Midheaven and natal Saturn and compelled me to deepen my foundation, build a stronger structure, and commit my life to less distraction and more discipline and focus. Saturn forced me to achieve realistic goals and challenged me to let go of everything and everyone that wasn’t working for me. I did. Thinking critically, listening carefully, and seeing clearly enabled me to rise like a phoenix from my ashes.

Jupiter is in and will remain in Scorpio until Nov. 2018. It’s transiting exactly conjunct my ascendant at this moment and will be transiting its natal position in my horoscope for much of 2018. Having spent the past seventy years with Jupiter in Scorpio, I want to share my take on the subject. Jupiter in Scorpio has been both a blessing and a jinx for me. My natal Jupiter is within minutes of opposing my stubborn 7^th house Mars in Taurus and trine my sensitive ninth house Mercury in Cancer. Looking for shortcuts and finding easy paths to success has been my nemesis. Always coming out the shithouse smelling like a rose has been my blessing. William Blake said, “The path of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”. I tend to learn the hard way.

Before After

I was the hand reader at Harvey Weinstein’s wedding celebration. It was mind boggling to observe an old stale bagel and a fresh young pastry as a couple. Harvey must have spent millions creating an unforgettable extravaganza packed with famous people. I’ve read many celebrities, but none on that day. In hindsight, I wish I’d convinced the event planner to let me stroll instead of parking myself in a corner. Famous people frequently avoid me because they fear I may see what they want no one to see. Many of my favorite actors and actresses were within inches of me and yet so far away. I’m sure I’d have enchanted a few if I had been free to approach them. I sat at my station for four hours as many celebrities walked by. I mostly read the hands of their curious friends and family who lined up for miles.

Harvey Weinstein is a Pisces. Harvey’s time of birth is unknown; however, according to his day of birth (3/19/52), Mars is in Scorpio closely square Pluto in Leo. One interpretation of that combo is being a ‘sexual predator’. Harvey’s hands are Taurus with broad square palms, short plump fingers, and large fleshy pink balls of thumb revealing an acquisitive and pleasure loving nature.

I expect to see much more sexism, philandering, insider trading, evangelical hypocrisy, and partisan political power plays by November 2018. Here is my biased Scorpio perspective on our political landscape. I’m unhappy with both political parties. Republican politicians are spiritually bankrupt sadists who only smile when they’re hurting us. Democratic leaders are poverty conscious masochists, who desperately beg for a dollar or three as you sign their petitions, fill out their surveys, and pledge loyalty to their urgent causes. I sign plenty of petitions and have given a lot of $ (for me) to my favorite causes such as the ACLU, SPLC, NRDC, Sierra Club, etc., but as the saying goes, “Money talks and bullshit walks”.

Sadly, money truly is power in our world. Plutocrats are devaluing our democracy by betting on their present and ignoring our future and the future of our planet. Our entire world, society, and culture has been corrupted by a handful of greedy moguls who own our raw materials, energy, communications, transportation, food, healthcare, finance, religion, and politics. There are over 1,500 billionaires.

Many of life’s most painful lessons are a result of choosing money over values. 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. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

CANCER HANDS

Posted on June 24, 2017 by markseltman

You don’t need a Cancer sun, moon, planets, or planetary placements to be Cancerian. All feeling types have long narrow palms and long fingers ~ often held closely. Healthy Cancer hands are firm and consistent with pink elastic skin. Finger joints are less stiff than Scorpio and less flexible than Pisces. Cancer head and life lines tend to separate at their beginnings on pure types. If head and life lines are closely connected at their beginnings, the individual has (mother) issues around losing control, fear of criticism, and need for approval. Anyone with that combo should never allow themselves to be taken for granted. Cancer is sensitive. More lines add more sensitivity. Long gently sloping head lines are compatible with developed heels of hands and personify a healthy balance between intuition, creativity, and practicality. Heart lines that gracefully curve toward the index finger embody a romantic, idealistic, and sometimes unrealistic vision of other people. I’ve observed lots of round or conical fingertips with long broad nails and loop fingerprints on Cancer types. Emotionally stable Cancers offer firm sincere handshakes.

Note: I’m generalizing details from my own personal experience.

Cancers are intuitive, empathetic, complex, and well aware of the needs of others. They can be hard to understand because they hide their most vulnerable selves beneath a facade of nurturing actions. Try to pry into their private lives and they’ll retreat into their shells. Cautious and vulnerable, Cancer needs to be frank and direct, rather than tactful and diplomatic. The only thing that makes sense is to choose satisfying over safe. Although they often try to avoid emotional confrontation, they need to cultivate intimacy wherever and whenever they can. Their feelings may swing from loving and devoted to secretive, reclusive, obsessive, and fearful of the future. When Cancers are feeling controlled or confined, they may become dark and moody. They must feel protected and secure before they can fully trust. Once trust is earned, loyalties run deep. Healthy family connections and close friendships nourish them. The more structure, organization and detail in their lives, the more stable and secure their feelings.

Healthy Cancerians are loving, compassionate, and devoted beings. They’re most compatible with other feeling types. They feel safe with responsible, reliable, and dependable practical types. They’re sorely challenged by thinking and intuitive types. They’re nervous they’ll be left holding the psychic garbage bag (and they often are) and forced to deal with the consequences when idealism, optimism, enthusiasm, and logic wane (and they do). Cancers are acutely consciousness of everyone’s emotional needs. When feeling insecure, they can become internally secretive while becoming externally ambitious. Cancers work hardest when income matches output. Motivated by good food, emotional security, and fertile soil, their mission is to nourish their family, home, and creative imaginations.

Demeter, Greek earth goddess of grain and the harvest, is a combination of Virgo and a powerful overprotective Cancerian mother. When Pluto abducted Persephone, Demeter asked her siblings for help, but ended up exercising her power over both gods and man by creating winter (death). All gods need to be worshiped, so they negotiated a deal.

“You’ve got to play to lose”

The old guy above is the young guy with me in this picture captured forty three years ago in a photo booth at an Kennywood Amusement Park in Pittsburgh, Pa. Lloyd and I met while working part time at a wood, metal, and plastics model making machine shop where we fabricated preschool children’s learning devices for the University of Pittsburgh. We made toys for ourselves on our own time. Soon to graduate from different colleges, I was to become an industrial designer and Lloyd would continue to be 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. Lloyd’s mother committed suicide, his father was committed to a mental institution, and his beautiful sister, who I’d met in Florida with her two young children, great husband, and apparently idyllic life, suddenly and unexpectedly blew her head off with a shotgun.
Lloyd’s slender rectangular palms and long fingers match his Cancer sun, which is conjunct my Mercury. His Gemini ascendant harmonizes with my Gemini sun. Lloyd’s head and life lines are tightly intertwined at their beginnings and reveal his desire to feel appreciated. He was a sensitive child who needed love and support, but didn’t get any.

Lloyd tried hard to fix his broken parents, but they were too sick to support him. Instead, they judged, criticized, and abused him. Lloyd survived without anyone’s approval, though he thrives on appreciation. He’ll give his friends the shirt off his back, but they had better never take him for granted. 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 my shirt. Before I could blink, Lloyd took off his shirt and traded with me.

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

Lloyd would say to me, “People who tell the truth don’t need 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 balancing our outer and inner worlds by always choosing to learn the hard way. There were no shortcuts. We had to finally let go of our need to be more and greater than we were.

Lloyd’s very flexible thumbs symbolize his ability to adapt to the most horrible of circumstances. They also embody his generosity of heart and spirit. It’s very hard for Lloyd to say “NO”. He probably doesn’t realize it, but the gold ring on the bottom middle finger of Lloyd’s unconscious hand symbolizes his need to have clear boundaries, be frugal, and not give everything away.

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

Pluto (god of sex, death, and transformation) transited Cancer from 1913 to 1938. Partisan politics, nationalism, and isolationism transformed the world. World War I became World War II. In 1913, President Wilson pressed a button in the White House and blew up the Gamboa Dike in the Isthmus of Panama, creating a canal between oceans, and transforming travel by sea. Wilson legislated the Carter-Owen Bill that established a Federal Reserve System to transform the strangle hold on the nation’s currency and credit system by banks.

Daylight Saving Time transformed the nation’s clocks. Transcontinental telephone service transformed communications. World infrastructures and atomic energy transformed humanity. NBC was the first Nationwide Broadcasting Company. Wall Street prospered from war while soldiers earning $16 per month died in the trenches. President Wilson established a lottery style draft promoting patriotism. Congress passed the Espionage Act fining draft dodgers $10,000 and imposing a twenty-year jail sentence. No child was left behind.

“Do your bit” was an encouragement to buy Liberty Bonds. There were wheatless-meatless days. The end of 1919 marked the end of the Influenza pandemic that caused half a million deaths and a quarter of the nation’s population to be sick. Prohibition banned liquor for all citizens. Black markets and bootlegging industries flourished. Black leader Marcus Garvey organized ‘The Empire of Africa’ with 500,000 followers. He led the largest mass exodus of Blacks with the least sense of brotherhood in U.S. history.

In 1929, doubt, fear, and panic upset a stock market that faced its darkest hour and most difficult time. Foundations and structures of home and family transformed. People born during this period spend much of their lives taking care of family. Parents with overdeveloped senses of responsibility, guilt, and obligation have motivated children of this generation to be dropouts and runaways.

As the planet Uranus transited the sign of Cancer from 1949 to 1955, Mothers stopped staying at home and went to work. Women began wearing the “bikini”, a fashionable French bathing suit. ‘I Love Lucy’, a comic show about a housewife and her Cuban bandleader husband became the most popular show on TV. Ranch houses and basement playrooms were popular. The subconscious mind was explored in psychology. Born between 1949 and 1955? You’re somewhere between oversensitive and fearful and rational and aware.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?

We may want to think twice before we elect (or appoint) another Cancer President. Four USA Presidents were born under the sign of Cancer. Our most recent, George W Bush has intuitive hands and an egocentric character to match his Leo rising. George revealed the worst qualities of Cancer and Leo in his behavior, presidential intentions, and actions.

Like George Bush and Al Gore, John Quincy Adams finished second in popular vote behind General Andrew Jackson. There was no majority. A choice was put before the House of Representatives. The Speaker, Henry Clay, swung the election to Adams. When Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State, Jackson followers cried, “Corrupt bargain”.

“Of all the men whom it was ever my lot to accost and to waste civilities upon, he was the most doggedly and systematically repulsive. With a vinegar aspect, cotton in his leathern ears, and hatred in his heart, he sat like a bulldog among spaniels”.
W.H. Littleton.

The 30th President, Calvin Coolidge, shared a birthday with the Declaration of Independence. He was famous for “holding his tongue”. That earned him the title, “Silent Cal”. Two of his infamous sayings were: “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it” and “The business of America is business”.

“He was an economic fatalist with a God given inertia. He knew nothing and refused to learn”. William Allen White “He was weaned on a pickle” Alice Roosevelt Longworth

The 38th President, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., didn’t know he was adopted until he was seventeen. His wife, Betty performed all the domestic chores as Gerry wouldn’t lift a finger around the house. As Speaker of the other house, Ford passionately pleaded for an escalation of the war in Vietnam. He urged to “unleash devastating air and sea power”. His failed crusade to impeach liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas was a favor to his buddy Richard Nixon. Ford granted Nixon a “full complete and absolute pardon” for all crimes relating to Watergate. Ford blamed democrats for a disastrous rate of inflation and warned that electing more would “jeopardize world peace”. He admitted to never reading books, but did find time to watch football on TV.

“I cannot dislike him personally — he’s cordial and gracious, but he’s consistently wrong and consistency is a virtue of small minds. He’s never proposed a constructive solution to anything”. Congressman Robert Drinan

Lyndon Johnson said Ford “had played too much football with his helmet off” ~ “Jerry’s the only man I ever knew who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time”.

“Ford isn’t a bad man, but he’s dumb—dumb. He shouldn’t be dumb either. He went to school just like everybody else”. Reverend Duncan Littlefair

“The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life… it should be something useful, something good”

The Dalai Lama (Cancer) is “The Reborn Soul of Buddha”. Orpheus, a singer, priest, healer, poet, and musician in Greek myth, charmed and enchanted Death into letting him enter the matrix of collective unconscious to find his beloved Eurydice. A moment of weakness caused Orpheus to look backward after death warned him that he’d lose Eurydice if he did. The wounded healer cannot heal himself but can heal others. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 to live as a “simple monk” in a remote corner of Northern India. Unable to go back, he chose to promote world peace and love over returning to Tibet. Is our debt to China a threat to Tibet?

Thoughts on Being an Esoteric Reader in an Exoteric World

Posted on May 11, 2017 by markseltman

I spoke with students at Bennington College about the esoteric science and art of palmistry one cold dreary evening a couple of weeks ago. Though the event was publicized, I had my smallest turnout of all time – only six people. You’d think a Gemini would learn not to schedule events on Mercury retrogrades. The six students who did show up were curious, diverse, and very smart. Fortunately for all of us, all four basic psychological types (intuitive, practical, thinking, and feeling) were represented. After briefly introducing the basic science of palmistry, I led a ‘hands on’ demonstration.

Everyone volunteered. I asked each person to come up with a question like ‘what can I do to…?’ or ‘how can I…?’ (NO yes or no answers). I digitally projected large high resolution images of their hands on a huge screen. Together, we examined the morphology and topography of each hand within the context of the questions asked and through the lens of the science of palmistry. I shared how I was looking, what I was seeing, thinking, and feeling, and how I was choosing what to say next. Insights were shared as we compared and contrasted current facts with past, present, and future possibilities. I demonstrated how no detail should be viewed in isolation and how combinations of details comprise myriad permutations, possibilities, and probabilities.

I asked for questions. Everyone wanted to know if, when, and how I read my own hands. They were curious whether other palmists and I read each other’s hands. I usually trade with bodyworkers and other practitioners in the healing arts. I told a cautionary tale of a bad trade with another reader. We debated how much of fate and destiny is genetic and how much is nurture and free will. In my experience, healthy genetics is important, but nurture and free will are powerful forces that can alter a destiny.

Most palmists are esoteric social workers. Palmistry is using knowledge of hands to help others. It’s easy to see other people’s problems. It’s not so easy to know what to say. In my practice, I blend psychology, astrology, numerology, tarot, and palmistry. Palmists sometimes point out markings in their hands and ask me what I think. I reply, “What does it mean to you? Let’s see how that fits first”. It’s not so easy to be objective about oneself. I choose the best possible outcome I can see in my personal mythology and project that on myself. I try to remain vigilant of often unforeseeable and unavoidable downsides. Few readers I’ve met are truly critical thinkers, though many think they are.

Sun sign astrology is superficial and yet tens of millions of people read their horoscopes daily in magazines and newspapers. Astrology has earned global respect because it has created ethical standards, educational opportunities, and certification programs. Astrology is shared at conferences, colleges, museums, bookstores, community centers, and online forums.

One huge obstacle for palmistry is that it lacks credibility. Palmistry is still relegated to the dark and nebulous world of red neon handed storefronts behind which gypsy scam artists beckon to remove your curses and money. There are very few good palmistry schools. The literature of palmistry is uninspiring at best. I’m one of very few spokespersons.

Palmistry students have often come to me to hear what I have to say about their hands. I require them to participate in their readings by answering whatever questions I have about what I see. I begin worrying when they want to impress me with their knowledge of palmistry and ask to see my hands. Not a single student has ever ‘gotten me’. Anyone can read a book, call him or herself palmist, and hang out a shingle. Lousy ingredients and flawed recipes will never create a nutritious meal. Some students tried to ‘type me’ by comparing me to some celebrity or other who I had no obvious connection to. When I disagreed, they attempted to persuade me that they were right. Others focused on interpreting a particular line or marking taken out of context of my basic character.

Many clients are impressionable, gullible, and oversensitive. They believe that if a reader has credibility, he must know what he’s talking about. When clients don’t disagree with something a reader has said that is not right, readers think they must be right. I frequently warn students to be cautious what they say to clients and not to say anything if they have nothing positive to say. I encourage them to look at a lot of hands, ask a lot of questions, and leave hopeful people in their wake.

In an earlier lifetime when I was an industrial designer, a palmist looked at my hands and blew my mind. She was reading my mind while seeing my truths in my hands. She described my character perfectly, kindled a burning curiosity in me, and catalyzed my passion to learn more. She became my teacher. I became her apprentice and best student. I was also studying astrology, numerology, tarot, and psychology at the time.

Over many years, I’ve observed two basic types of readers: head ruled and heart ruled. Extremists and fundamentalists populate the outer limits. The rest of us are, by degree, somewhere between extremes. Extreme head ruled types tend to be analytical, anal, and anti-social. Rationalization replaces reason. Compartmentalization contains compassion. Examination eradicates empathy. Head ruled people make up their minds quickly, fight ideological change, take pride in knowing a lot, and believe they have the answers to everything. They dispense advice authoritatively and act offended when their ideas are challenged. They rarely touch the people they read, within or without, but they do believe they know what’s best for them.

Alternative facts catalyze alternative fates. Pollyanna is alive and well in the esoteric healing arts. Pure heart types are empathic, oversensitive, and sentimental. Heart rules head. Feeling rules thinking. Love and trust are the only foundation for good health, financial security, emotional stability, and all other positive structures. Being helpful is prerequisite to achieving one’s own destiny. Giving is a path to grace, dignity, and wisdom, where healthy choices are made and manifested. Not feeling appreciated and being taken for granted is unhealthy and must always be addressed.

I began seeing the best palmists in NYC in the late 1970’s. My first palmist was still practicing in her mid-eighties. A student of William Benham (father of modern palmistry), she typed me “Saturn #1”. More head than heart, she carefully printed, measured, and charted every detail in my hands before saying a word. She was a bit premature in her assessment of my character. I wasn’t hard enough on myself yet. My strong middle fingers along with Saturn conjunct Pluto closely straddling my Leo Midheaven in my natal chart has impelled me to become more Saturnine over time. Once I realized I was actually a late bloomer, I began to see Saturn as the shortest and most challenging path to satisfaction and fulfillment. Structure, discipline, and focus were my prescriptions and eventual remedies. My job was to buckle down and do the work.

Experts don’t necessarily agree on what archetype is dominant, but can still give great readings. Everyone is a blend of twelve archetypes. Different types can be dominant at different developmental stages in life. My next two hand readings were very different from my first and from each other.

In my next reading I was “Venus #1”. My large pink balls of thumb, flexible spatulate tips, whorl finger prints, and discomfort at saying “No” revealed Venus as a strong influence, but not dominant. This head ruled palmist went straight for my empathy and sentiment. Realizing the strength of my Venus made me aware of how far I had to go to find balance between my desire for love, freedom, creativity, and my overdeveloped sense of responsibility, obligation, and guilt. I tried to balance shame and guilt with empathy and compassion by blending Saturn with Venus. Fortunately they’re sextile in my chart.

On my third reading I was dubbed “Mercury #1”. This palmist, astrologer, and tarot reader was closest to getting me. My long straight pinky fingers, stellium of Gemini planets including Sun Uranus and Venus North Node conjunctions in the 8^th house, and my incorrigible need to be frank makes Hermes a dominant player in my story. “The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding.” I wasn’t ready for him then, but I am now. Hermes lived for three hundred years in the flesh. That makes me an adolescent at seventy and explains why I feel like a teenager.

I believed that all three readers were wrong because in my mind, I was “Apollo #1”. My long ring fingers, whorled spatulate tips, clear deep sun lines, curly brown hair, medium height, and my lean muscular build are Apollonian. I saw myself as combining my Mercury, Venus, and Saturn with Apollo as an artist, musician, and inventor.

Unexpectedly, I learned how many readers have many different ways of reading people. An astrology addict showed up one day for a hand reading. Over the years, she’d been to all of the reputable readers she could find. It was my turn. I had never really considered what other readers said before or how they counseled their clients. I couldn’t imagine my client didn’t know what I was going to talk about. She asked if she could record our session. I agreed, but urged her to listen and take notes.

I’m rational, practical, compassionate, empathic, and a good listener. I asked her why she was spending her hard earned money to hear what she already knew. What did she hope to learn? She told me that she was curious. I stretched myself inside out to think of things others may not have said, but realized that what I really needed to do was let go and be fully present with her. When we finished, I asked her if she had taped all or her other sessions and if I could borrow her collection and listen. I was surprised when she said yes. I pondered if I was unethical to spy on my peers (what if they found out), but borrowed her tapes anyway, to satisfy my nagging curiosity about what other readers had to say to her. I became ethically, morally, and instantly bound to secrecy at that moment.

I became confused and concerned as I listened to the tapes. There’s no shortage of reputable readers. What surprised me was how formulaic so many were. Their counsel was impersonal. I heard explanations of sun signs and planets, spoken in esoteric jargon, mostly unfamiliar to the client. Most clients don’t need to hear about their Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto. I listened to elaborate descriptions of moon signs, ascendants, aspects, and houses. Meanwhile, many readers were clueless to the gestalt of the client in the moment. There was a very specific reason the client was there, but few people (including the client) realized what that reason was. Everyone was too busy trying to figure her out by picking at symbols like leaves, and not seeing the forest from the trees. You can have a thorough knowledge of esoteric sciences and be oblivious to the arts and crafts of counseling. The essence of the reading should have been about abusive childhood family relationships that were still binding the client to her chronic fear of trust and intimacy and influencing her choices.

Peers who I’d respected for many years had made this client cry uselessly as they unleashed childhood pain and then failed to link it to current pain. Listening to other readers has reinforced my belief that people should learn to read themselves. Knowing hands has enabled me to clearly see and know myself and others better. My challenge has been to choose what to do with what I know. My mission has been to give everyone a helping hand, their own. So far, I’ve been mostly unsuccessful at reaching the masses. Any thoughts, ideas, and suggestions on ways to raise mass consciousness and popularize palmistry will be greatly appreciated and valued.

Pisces and Hands

Posted on February 22, 2017 by markseltman

You don’t need a Pisces Sun or Pisces planetary relationships or placements in your natal horoscope to be Piscean. Pure types have dominant top phalanges on long narrow fingers, smooth joints, conical tips, and loop prints, especially on index fingers. All feeling types have long rectangular palms and long fingers. Pisceans have medium set mildly flexible shapely thumbs, sensitive looking fingers, a combination of round and conical fingertips, long narrow nails, and their head and life lines interwoven at their beginnings. Pinkies with tiny bottom and middle phalanges and no knots symbolize not having any need for physical order or material wealth. Feeling types with inwardly curving pinkie fingers hate emotional confrontation. In my experience, Pisceans tend to have more hand and finger flexibility, more peripheral shallow lines, and less deeply etched basic heart, head, life, and fate lines than Scorpio and Cancer types.

Pisces is a personification for spiritual growth. As the astrological home of Neptune (Poseidon, King Triton), ruler of the seas. Pisces embodies emotion, instinct, personal feelings, and the collective unconscious. Neptune can be a calming or destructive force in nature. The King of the Sea rules substances like prescription and recreational drugs, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, or anything that alters consciousness, produces illusions, and feeds delusions. Pisces mundane correspondence is religion. Spirituality is its esoteric match. Spirituality without religion is fine. Religion without spirituality is blind.

Pisces is the most sensitive, least acquisitive, and most introverted of all types. She’s often misunderstood because she communicates through a lens of feeling. Less sensitive, more practical Pisces have strong earth, air, fire, and deep clear basic lines, large thumbs, stiff joints, square fingertips, developed knots, broad nails, and arch and whorl fingerprints. When head and heart are balanced, Pisces can be extremely powerful. George Washington was a Pisces. Former CEOs of Citigroup, IBM, Merck, DuPont, and Bank One were Piscean. One intriguing Pisces CEO is Michael Dell of Dell Computer. Like Ariel, daughter of King Triton, ruler of the Seas and the unconscious, Michael imagines whatever he wants as he swims into collective unconscious. He intuitively knows what the public needs and hones in on that. He must keep a watchful eye on Ursula (octopus conglomerate) who lusts for control of his empire.

Pisces is well suited to teaching, human resources, and helping professions. Many are at home in visual arts and music. Hand qualities will vary depending on their natural talents and abilities, decisions, and actions. Piscean strengths include compassion, humility, and faith. Not known for mental or emotional decisiveness, Pisces are private, spiritual, and hard to be intimate with. Their trust must be earned. Impressionable and easily influenced, some Pisces attempt to escape reality when circumstances get too hard. Many become substance abusers like Johnny Cash, Jerry Lewis, and Liza Minelli.My father was Pisces, along with my brother and daughter. I’ll love and cherish them unconditionally for eternity.

Pisces is intimately connected to the collective unconscious and mundane events. Uranus was the only outer planet to pass through Pisces in the twentieth century from 1919 to 1928. Uranus completed its eighty-four year cycle through the zodiac in 2003 and began its path through Pisces, crossing into Aries at the end of 2011. Let’s observe the cultural similarities as Uranus passed through Pisces in the 20^th and 21^st Centuries.

When World War I ended in 1919, discrimination, immigration, and consumerism grew. Uranus left the sign of Aquarius and moved into Pisces. A new kind of rebellion began. Over four million steel workers and miners walked off the job to protest too many work hours with “inhumane pay”. Three Presidents held office during Uranus’s first transit through Pisces (Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover). The 30^th President, “Silent Cal” Coolidge (born on the 4^th of July) said, “The business of America is business”. He told us, “Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend”, speaking of the “inferior races” of Asia. While focusing on and promoting ‘government business partnerships’, they all put material wealth and unobstructed corporate power in the forefront of the nation’s political, social, and cultural fabric. Government was in bed with big business. On its recent return through Pisces, George W. Bush gave our healthcare Industry to the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, energy to big oil companies, and security for airports and seaports in the hands of private enterprise. He even tried to bequeath our Social Security to the Stock Market.

When Uranus transited into Pisces, traditional thrift and austerity gave way to neo-consumerism and buying on credit. Two out of three Americans had electricity, refrigerators, and washing machines. Spending on recreation tripled. Henry Ford announced cars in Green and Maroon as well as black. Mass produced foods: Rice Krispies, Lender’s Bagels, Mounds Bars, Betty Crocker, and Peter Pan Peanut Butter influenced mass taste. Consumerism and credit created the illusion of an easier more convenient life. Movie houses, chain stores, and radio advertising proliferated. By the end of Uranus’s transit through Pisces, movie attendance had outstripped church attendance. Consumer magazines like Modern Romance challenged moral codes. Many critics believed consumerism was driving Americans into a soulless existence of materiality and conformity. Sinclair Lewis, author of ‘Babbitt’, highlighted the delusion of Uranus in Pisces. He blamed mass production and consumption for “having created a bloodless, loveless, and standardized world”.

The Ku Klux Klan had a resurgence that targeted African Americans, blacks, immigrants, Catholics, and Jews. The Klan marched on Washington DC In 1925 with over 40,000 hooded members. New immigration laws reduced the stream of immigrants to a trickle when congress decided to reduce the flow of immigrants based on quotas of 150,000 new immigrants a year.

Uranus in Pisces symbolizes a conflict between science and religion. Modern science clashed with Intelligent Design and Creationism as Uranus transited Pisces in both centuries. Tennessee legislators voted that it was unlawful for any teacher in a state supported school “to teach any theory that denies the story of man’s creation as taught in the bible”. Man was too intelligent to descend from a lower order of animals. One high school biology teacher named John Scopes taught the theory of evolution. As the defendant in the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial” legal battle, John Scopes lost.

Culture clashed with school curriculum, obscenity, censorship, race, and sexuality in theater and literature. The German Bauhaus School of Architecture, with its less is more design philosophy, influenced architecture and products around the globe. When I graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1969 as an industrial designer, ‘intelligent design’ was about making and saving money for manufacturers. No one cared about waste, except for disposal and financial cost. Truly ‘Intelligent design’ is when designers create useful products, choose sustainable resources, determine how much energy will be used in production, know what pollutants are generated, what remedies are available, and how the product will ultimately be disposed of, reused, or recycled.

Common sense is not good sense. The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Donald Trump has taught us that it’s not what you do, but what you get away with that really matters. Why do we continue to nourish a perverse society with a morbid sense of reality and humor? We can be a lot healthier and happier by taking better care of our planet, ourselves, and each other.

Here are some similarities between the past two transits of Uranus in Pisces:

1919 – The worst baseball scandal (Black Sox) in history occurred when a grand jury brought indictments against eight players from the Chicago White Sox. Accused of throwing the 1919 World Series, they were eventually found not guilty.

2003 – The illicit use of steroids became the biggest scandal in modern baseball.

1919 – The eighteenth amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors, which encouraged home brewing and bootlegging.

2003 – George W. Bush prohibited Medicare from negotiating drug prices. A black market for drugs from India and Canada began to thrive.

1921 – First formal investigations of the Teapot Dome oil scandals were initiated.

2003 – USA invaded Iraq under false pretenses in order to secure oil resources.

1924 – The worst tornado in US history obliterated 35 towns in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois.

2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

Much has happened since 1919. Not much has ideologically changed.

Neptune takes 164 years to completely cycle through our zodiac. Neptune returned to its home base in Pisces on April 4, 2011 and will remain in Pisces until April 1, 2025. It’s hard to predict what Neptune will symbolize in Pisces because Neptune dissolves the illusion of reality. Many astrologers say that Neptune in Pisces symbolizes the dawn of a new age of spiritual enlightenment. This may be true, but it appears we may have to get there the hard way. Our culture must first lose what we value in order to appreciate it.

Pluto transited into Capricorn in 2008. Uranus transited into Aries in 2011. These three outer planets together symbolize a total transformation of business, energy, politics, and religion. I don’t feel comfortable making predictions about Neptune because it’s so nebulous and fickle, but we can already see in six short years how the illusion of power resulting from extreme wealth has nourished a delusion and disillusion of the 99%.

Neptune rules HMO’s, hospitals, and pharmaceutical industries that value profits over people. Prisons have been privatized for profit and packed with predominantly black petty criminals. Religion has abandoned spirituality, becoming more fundamentalist, fanatical, and violent. Even bacteria and viruses have become a lethal threat to the fabric of humanity. The USA has a president who is certifiably insane and cabinet members whose mandates are contrary to the purpose of their positions. Before Uranus leaves Aries in 2018, we could see a religious war, designed to stimulate our economy, fought by the have nots, and created to pack the burgeoning pockets of the haves.

The Future of Hands ~ Books

Posted on December 14, 2016 by markseltman

Your character and corresponding destiny is incarnate in your hands. You don’t need to be an expert palmist or know millions of details to learn what you need to know about yourself from your hands. Asking the right questions and interpreting what you see in your hands is the challenge. As a palmist, I mostly address questions about relationships, career, health, children, and whether anything can done to be more fulfilled and happy.

Palmistry is not about ‘this detail means this and that detail means that’. A series of five workbooks should be created to address what matters. The content must be compelling; crafted with fascinating narrative and straightforward illustrations, handy diagrams, and blank pages where readers can participate in interpreting their own hands and issues.

I printed 500 copies of “Your Life is in Your Hands” before my child was born, almost a quarter of a century ago. I gave most of them away. I hoped to make palmistry more real for people by sharing my knowledge and experience as a serious professional palmist in NYC. I created ‘Real Palmistry’ (e-book), and ‘Hand Book’ (paperback) to inspire people to want to learn more. Very few people have read any of my books, despite my best efforts to market them. Perhaps I should have named them ‘Sun Sign Palmistry’ or Palmistry 101’. I’m not sure that would have made a difference. I have several books ready for publishing, but I’ve decided to wait until I’ve figured out the best way to do it. Meanwhile, here’s my latest book concept.

Five Volumes: 25,000 words each

Delivery: Book One: April 1, 2017

Other four: Every six months following.

Ideal Format: Workbook ~ 8 1/2 X 11 to allow full size hand prints and charts.

BOOK ONE

WHAT’S IN A HAND?

Your life is in your hands

The key to knowing and unlocking your potentials is in your hands. Reading hands (palmistry) helps you know and understand your character. Gain insight into your physical, mental, and emotional attributes, major influences which affect your life, and degrees to which you are fulfilling your potentials. Hands disclose information about your basic character, values, intelligence, emotions, health and healing abilities, career aptitudes, relationship capabilities and limitations, spirituality, creativity, and intuition. Your hands are topographical maps of your past and present and furnish valuable information and insights into possible future events and trends.

While other symbolic systems such as astrology and numerology show a person’s potentials, palmistry shows what a person is actually doing with those potentials. The value of reading hands lies in the capacity to objectify our personality traits and internal struggles. Knowing our natural strengths and weaknesses can help us avoid the hazards of our negative personality patterns. We can embrace our positive potentials. The beauty of hand analysis is our hands change as our thinking and circumstances change. As we exercise our free will and alter our thinking, our changes will manifest themselves in our hands over time. As we influence our destiny, we get to observe our successes and failures reflected in the mirrors of our hands. I’ve observed noticeable changes in hands in a matter of weeks.

My ultimate goal is to turn everyone on to palmistry. I hope to shed the light of day on hands and transform the paradigm of palmistry as a gypsy fortune telling scam. I want to share my unique methods for observing the essence of a person before getting caught up in superfluous details. I want to address frequently asked questions including: Will I be happy? Will I find my soul mate? Can you tell me about past lives? What career should I be in? Do you ever read yourself? What can and cannot be seen in the hands?” I want to share stories of people who transformed their lives, incorporating `before and after’ hand prints and interpretations. I’ll include examples of celebrities including actors, musicians, sports figures, politicians, religious figures, business people, and maybe a terrorist or two.

People can benefit by learning to observe and understand themselves, their talents, positive potentials, and limitations. Most people can learn to read hands.

BOOK TWO

HOLDING HANDS

A Guide to Hand Analysis and Palmistry for Lovers

Relationship compatibility is my all-time favorite application of palmistry. Examining the hands of two people together reveals the strengths and weaknesses of that relationship. Healthy compromises can be unveiled within minutes of observing both sets of hands. By examining hands of couples, I can instantly see ways of improving their relationships.

We don’t have to look any farther than the ends of our arms to identify our relationship potentials. While examining our hands, we can gain insight into our sexuality, ability to trust and have real intimacy, and our emotionality. We often experience challenges because of conflicts within ourselves. Why do we choose insecurity over security? Why abuse over nurturing? Why guilt and obligation over freedom and fun-loving?

Who are you attracted to and why? What kind of person are you likely to marry? What kinds of relationships will you have with your families, friends, and neighbors? Examine your hands and your partner’s hands and see where compromise is possible and where it’s not.

BOOK THREE

TAKE MY HAND

A Look at your Child’s Future through Palmistry

Children’s hands change dramatically during the first five years of life. It’s no surprise they’re called “formative years”. Reading your child’s hands puts your own needs under the microscope. By knowing your children’s natural potentials, talents, and abilities, you can encourage and guide them in their natural directions. No matter what age, your child’s hands can help you understand his or her real needs and concerns. Knowing children’s hands helps them choose an educational plan, career direction, and ultimately a life direction. Learning to read hands will teach you to be more patient and tolerant.

I lent a helping hand to deliver my child at birth. I pulled her body from my wife’s womb and cut her umbilical cord. Joanna was blown away that I was reading our baby’s hands before knowing what sex she was. Her beautiful little hands already had a story to tell with tales that lie ahead, her character, strengths, weaknesses, talents, goals, and dreams. On closer scrutiny of her tiny hands, I felt confused and disturbed. Joanna and I have long heart lines (romantic, sentimental, and needing to express our feelings). Our daughter’s was short (serious, untrusting, and unable to verbalize feelings). Her index finger was also short which symbolized future problems with self-esteem. Her first two years of life were characterized by fear, lack of trust, and clinginess. Joanna and I imagined she must have had horrible role models in a past life and we were determined to transform that. Armed with foresight, we loved, respected, nurtured, and helped her unfold as who she wanted and needed to be. Our decision and commitment empowered her to lengthen her index finger and grow her heart line longer during her formative years. Self-assured, fiercely independent, healthy, and happy, she no longer has problems expressing herself.

Did you ever hear or say “I don’t want to make the same mistakes on my kids as my parents made on me”. The best way to avoid that is to learn to read your child’s hands.

BOOK FOUR

SHAKE HANDS

A Hand Analyst’s Guide to Business and Career

I’ve seen headlines and advertisements in newspapers such as the National Enquirer like “YOUR HAND HOLDS THE SECRET TO LOTTERY MILLIONS”, or “A FORTUNE MAY BE HIDING IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND”. These are sensational scams. Your fortune truly is no farther than the end of your arms. That’s the irony. Our hands carry out the messages of ours mind. They also reveal our nature. Career choices, work styles, and even success and failure are natural predispositions to specific types. Understand the type and you will understand the corresponding career capabilities and challenges.

We will cover work and career issues for all twelve types. An examination of fingers is key to pinpointing a person’s profession or work. Case histories and illustrations are essential to understanding how myriad details affect the whole picture.

BOOK FIVE

HEALTHY HANDS

Healing Yourself and Others through Palmistry

People are naturally predisposed to specific health problems. Understand the character and you’ll understand the potential health problems. Readily identify character through the shape and proportions of hands. Fingers, their lengths, proportions, shapes of tips, knots, and nails reveal how we relate to our world. The consistency of our hands, along with the color, texture, and elasticity of our skin shows the kind of energies we have to work with. Lines provide insight into the directions, qualities, and details of our life choices and circumstances. Gestures reveal attitudes in the moment. All factors help us to know our physical, mental, and emotional selves, and how we are fulfilling our potentials.

In the days before computerized medical diagnosis, doctors used their intuition, tasted a patient’s urine, looked into their eyes, and examined the tongue, skin, and especially the hands to diagnose illness. Dozens of illnesses can be diagnosed from fingernails, which are considered windows to health. Some health problems which can be diagnosed by studying nails are: anemia, thyroid disease, malnutrition, carpal tunnel syndrome, psoriasis and eczema, disease of the liver, heart, lungs, or colon, chronic respiratory disease, lymph system problems, diabetes, Raynaud’s disease, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcers, Hodgkin’s disease, and sickle-cell anemia. Diseases such as stress related problems and some types of cancer can be seen in finger prints and skin ridge patterns (dermatoglyphics). Lines in hands can indicate conditions of the heart, brain, kidneys, liver, stomach, and male and female systems.

Hands Columns

Posted on December 6, 2016 by markseltman

Character of the Month

The archetypes that our hands embody are metaphors for our corresponding personality traits. Our inner and outer characters and the internal and external dramas they play out embody our positive and negative potentials. By knowing the myths of our archetypes, we can understand what kind of person we tend to marry; what kinds of relationships we have with our families, friends, and neighbors; what work we are likely to choose; whether we will be rich or poor; and even what kinds of potential health problems we may have. Armed with knowledge and insight, we can employ our free will to embrace the positive aspects of our characters in order to revise our hands and restage a bad script in our lives. We can choose the right kinds of people and roles for ourselves. Click on the hands below for a full description of each type.

Greek and Roman and contemporary fairy tale characters will be explored. Superficial profiles of twelve fairy tale heroines have been used as illustrations for the purpose of elucidating this idea. Copyright permissions would be required for mass publishing.

April / Aries ~ Belle (Beauty)

As an adventurous, independent, and freedom loving type, Belle makes up her mind and fearlessly pursues her desires. Her impatience and impulsiveness get her in trouble as she instinctively charges forward. Belle becomes bored and restless when she gets caught up in mundane details. She needs to grasp the whole picture. Ultimately, she somehow manages to turn a beast into a prince.

May / Taurus ~ Princess Jasmine

Princess Jasmine is practical, responsible, reliable, dependable, charming, and affectionate. She’s also stubborn and obstinate and doesn’t like change. She enjoys good food, comfortable surroundings, art, music, and sensual pleasures. She’s attracted to Aladdin (Aries) types because they spice up her fantasy life, but in real life, she knows they don’t make the best long term partners for her.

June / Gemini ~ Pippi Longstocking

Pippi is smart and very clever. Her restless nature ensures she’s always on the go. She’s fiercely independent and unafraid to speak her mind. She can conjure up a reason or rationalization for almost anything. Adaptable to all circumstances, Pippi is elusive when anyone tries to pin her down. Her animus is Peter Pan.

July / Cancer ~ Snow White

Snow White is soft and emotionally vulnerable. Controlling or overprotective mothers compel her to become over-sensitive and emotionally cautious. She does her best to avoid confrontation and repress difficult feelings. Cutting ties with controlling females helps her become healthier and happier. She’s a great friend once trust is earned.

August / Leo ~ Goldilocks

Goldilocks loves being center of attention. She wants to be adored and worshipped and can be a drama queen. She needs to be appreciated and must never be taken for granted. Pure types may have fathers who were emotionally or physically absent during their formative years. Goldie craves healthy male role models, but attracts fixer-uppers. Because she so stubbornly fights change, she must learn to recognize that when the bears come home, it’s time to let go.

September / Virgo ~ Cinderella

Cinderella is a practical hard working type. Discriminating, meticulous, and orderly, she needs to feel useful. She’s service oriented, often straightening up other’s messes. She can be overly fastidious and critical sometimes. She’s a good communicator who needs to be valued and appreciated for her integrity. Though her work is often mundane and her rewards meager, Cinderella needs to cherish whatever she earns.

October / Libra ~ Sleeping Beauty

Sleeping Beauty searches for balance. She loves harmony, fears discord, and is often indecisive as a result. She can be charismatic and beautiful. She seeks her Prince Charming to help her feel complete, but needs to see him for who he is and not who she wants him to be. Unfortunately, there are way too many frogs and beasts out there and very few princes ready, willing, or able to save her.

November / Scorpio ~ Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood has powerful emotions and a strong sense of purpose. She’s imaginative, captivating, and resourceful. You’re happy being yourself when you’re with her. When she truly wants something, she manages to get it one way or another. She has a mysterious dark side that attracts and is tempted by Big Bad Wolves who desire to corrupt her feigned innocence.

December / Sagittarius ~ Alice in Wonderland

Alice is a traveler and philosopher. She’s friendly, sincere, optimistic, and open minded. She loves her freedom and needs a lot of space to explore her ideas and environment. Alice has a tendency to see life through rose colored glasses. She must take care not to be overly opinionated, judgmental, or self-indulgent.

January / Capricorn ~ Maleficent

It’s not easy to find a positive female fairy tale character that’s pragmatic, ambitious, structured, disciplined, and focused. Capricorn types are planners who make it to the top of whatever field of interest they choose. As serious withholding types, their dark side is frequently represented by Scrooge like characters that are cold, selfish, and rigid. Maleficent is Capricorn with strong Scorpio backup. Her dark side is depressive and diabolical; she’s a person who plans carefully and tries to avoid the negative consequences of her evil actions. These types are late bloomers. They get younger while their peers get older.

February / Aquarius ~ Pocahontas

Pocahontas is outgoing, progressive, independent, and revolutionary. As a community minded individual, she loves in a kind of detached way. Her unconventional freedom loving nature can get her into awkward situations. Spending much time in her private world of ideas and inventions, she prides herself on being unique and eccentric. She’s opinionated, but makes an exciting friend.

March / Pisces ~ Little Mermaid

Ariel is the most sensitive and least acquisitive of all types. Capable of incredible foresight, she’s often misunderstood when she conveys her spiritual visions to others. It’s not easy for others to let go and take a leap of faith. Ariel can swim anywhere in the ether and dream whatever she pleases. She must be sure not to escape from reality and must also watch out for Ursula the Octopus who wants to possess her.

Hands of the Month

Stories of individuals whose corresponding character and career matches the nature of their hands and astrological sign of the month. Applicable themes will be covered:

MONTH CAREER ESOTERIC

April Sports Character

May Banking Values

June Education Thinking

July Psychology Feeling

August Acting Will Power

September Medicine Health

October Law Partnerships

November Sex / Death Creativity

December Politics Philosophy

January Career Purpose

February Technology Dreams

March Religion Spirituality

Philosophical & Spiritual Advice Column

Readers send in hi-resolution pictures of their faces and hands and ask personal questions to be answered by a master palmist from practical, philosophical, and spiritual perspectives. Questions such as, “How can I…?” or “What can I do to…?” are better than “What’s going to happen?” Queries requiring yes or no answers will be rejected. I’d like to write this column if I can find the right venue and way to market the project. Ideas?

Stay tuned for modern palmistry book concepts.

Palmistry for Astrologers ~ Truth vs Fiction

Posted on June 17, 2016 by markseltman

“How long will I live?” “When will I die?”

We all die. Life is about quality, not quantity. No one can or should tell you when. I’ve seen very long life lines on people who have died young and short life lines on very old people. You’re very lucky if you have a strong full life line. No matter what your life line says, you can exercise your thinking and free will and transform your circumstances.

FICTION ~ there’s no connection between astrology and palmistry

TRUTH ` Assuming a date, time, and place of birth is correct; natal astrology reveals positive and negative potentials, challenges, life cycles, patterns, habits, and timing. Hands reveal what we’ve done, do, and are likely to do with all of the above.

FICTION ~ you can see when a person will marry, how many children they’ll have, and what genders

TRUTH ~ accurately and consistently predicting partnerships and children is not a right use of palmistry. Behavior is predictable. It’s good to examine partnerships through that lens. A combination of hands, astrology, and tarot reveal a person’s basic potentials, and how they relate. Check out our marriage ‘You’ve Got’ ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch

FICTION ~ the left hand is the hand you read

TRUTH ~ hands must be read together. The hand you write with is your dominant hand. The other reveals your subconscious mind. Both morphology and topography of hands tell us who we are, what we have, what we’ve done, are doing, and are likely to do with what we have. As we change our thinking and circumstances, our dominant hand changes. The other hand changes less because inner space is harder to change.

FICTION ~ mystic crosses are magical

TRUTH ~ Mystic crosses are independent X’s between head and heart lines. Many palmists will tell you that you’re mystical, psychic, blessed, gifted, or fated for greatness. Between ages 35 and 47, crosses symbolize the trials of mid-life. As people are searching for deeper meanings in their lives, they sometimes turn to esoteric sciences and arts for insights and answers. For those folks, an X is a mystic cross. For everyone else ~ they’re challenges and obstacles that need to be seen, figured out, and overcome.

FICTION ~ you can see past lives in a hand

TRUTH ~ clients have told me that some palmist or other told them that a certain marking revealed they’d been a high priestess, witch burned at the stake, or other notable person in a past life. I can’t confirm or deny such pronouncements. They’re not from the science of palmistry. Hands are topographical maps of character with their corresponding propensities, probabilities, and possibilities in past, present, and future.

FICTION ~ you can see a person’s career in their hands

TRUTH ~ No reader can consistently pinpoint career. Knowing a dominant type, modality, finger, phalanx, and print patterns gives enough information to see career potentials. I get lots of practice at corporate special events. People often say, “That’s what I always wanted to be” or “That’s what I studied in college”. They didn’t pursue it for practical or social reasons. The illustration is from William Benham’s book “How to Choose Vocations in the Hands” and shows some careers for the early 20th Century.

FICTION ~ you can accurately predict the future

TRUTH ~ you can accurately judge a person’s character and project that character and behavior into the past, present, and future. History frequently repeats itself. As people exercise their thinking and free will, their behavior patterns, habits, and destiny will be reflected in their hands. In my opinion, that’s the most important application of palmistry.

FICTION ~ you can see other people in hands

TRUTH ~ you can only see the person whose hands you’re reading and how they relate to others. My calling as a quickie counselor includes role playing. When I look at hands, I can see who a person attracts, why, and what that person actually needs to be happy and fulfilled in relationships. I play different roles to help my clients define their boundaries, recognize their capabilities, and set realistic expectations.

FICTION ~ you can see wealth in hands

TRUTH ~ you cannot see money in a hand. You can see potentials for finances and what a person values. I’ve read many hands of millionaires and billionaires. I expected to see a lot of practical and intuitive types with powerful index and strong pinky fingers. I did. I also saw deficient index and pinky fingers on individuals with challenging histories. They toiled ceaselessly with strength, courage, and dignity to overcome enormous odds and achieve success. Many had powerful wills (strong thumbs) forged by determination (bulging percussion) and tempered with virtue (healthy ball of thumb).

FICTION ~ you can see what a person thinks in their hands

TRUTH ~ you can anticipate what a person may think when you understand how a person thinks. A head line starts somewhere, ends somewhere, and follows the path of mind between. Once you get a gestalt for a person, you can observe the processes of their mind while interpreting the directions and qualities of their head line and thinking.

FICTION ~ you can know what a person feels from their hands

TRUTH ~ feeling is embodied in the morphology and topography of our hands. Once a basic type is known, you can judge that person’s feelings from the position, direction, and qualities of their heart line. The heart line is a path to how and why we feel what we feel. It’s easy for thinking types to analyze, rationalize, and compartmentalize feelings. Practical types hold back feelings when they interfere with what they must accomplish. Intuitive types hang on to inspiration and learn about feelings in hindsight. Heart lines that curve gently up from pinkie to index finger are sentimental and romantic. Bearers tend to see people and circumstances as they want them to be.

FICTION ~ you can see unimportant events in hands

TRUTH ~ a hand is a small space for a whole life. A tiny change in a line can embody a huge change in a life. “Will I pass the test?” “Win the game?” “Get the girl?” People are incredulous when I tell them I don’t have a clue. I’m mind boggled when I ask them about their major relationship and career issues and they’re clueless.

FICTION ~ you can see age in hands

TRUTH ~ many people are surprised when I don’t know their age. “How old are you?” I ask. “You don’t know?!!” they respond. I’ve seen young looking hands on the oldest and old looking hands on the youngest. Palmistry is a powerful path to truly knowing oneself and others. Judging accurate timing is nearly impossible without astrology.

Cancer and Hands – Search for Mother

Posted on June 30, 2015 by markseltman

Cancer is a feeling type. Feeling types have the strongest potential of the four basic types for expressing their highest spiritual nature. They’re intuitive, empathic, sensitive, and very aware of the needs of others. They can be very hard to understand because they tend to hide their true selves. They take cover in their shells when you try to pry into their private lives. They’re cautious because they feel deeply vulnerable. Cancer types must learn to be frank and direct, rather than wield tact and diplomacy to avoid emotional confrontation. Avoiding confrontation doesn’t mean they won’t cultivate intimacy wherever and whenever they can. Cancer feelings can swing from loving and devoted to secretive and reclusive to obsessive and fearful. When Cancer types are feeling controlled or confined, they can become dark and moody. They need to feel protected and secure before they can fully trust. Once trust is earned, loyalties run deep. Healthy family ties and close friendships nourish their naturally nurturing natures. Having organization, structure, and detail helps them feel more stable and secure.

Healthy types have no problem expressing love, compassion, sympathy, and devotion. They communicate best with other feeling types and feel safe with practical types who are responsible, reliable, and dependable. Feeling types are thinking and intuitive type challenged. They’re nervous they’ll be left holding the psychic garbage bag and forced to deal with the emotional fallout when idealism, optimism, enthusiasm, and logic wane, and they do. Having acute consciousness of one’s own emotional needs is essential.

Pure types tend to be internally secretive and externally ambitious at the same time. They’ll work extremely hard as long as income matches output. That income provides food, family security, and fertile ground for their roots and resourceful imaginations.

Demeter is the Greek earth goddess of grain and the harvest. I chose her to represent Cancer and water because she’s a powerful mother. Cancer mothers (not all) are thought to be controlling and overprotective of their children. When Pluto abducted Persephone, Demeter exercised her mother power over all the gods, goddesses, and mankind by creating winter (death of flora) for the months that Persephone is with Pluto.

You don’t have to have a Cancer sun to have Cancer hands and behavior. Rectangular palms and long fingers (often held closely together) indicate dominant feeling types. Healthy Cancer hands are firm in consistency and moderate in flexibility with pink elastic skin. Joints are less stiff than Scorpion and less flexible than Piscean types. Healthy types have a firm sincere handshake. More lines add more sensitivity. Head and life lines may separate at their beginnings. Long head lines gently slope downward toward well-developed heels of the hands while long heart lines gracefully curve upward toward the index finger. I’ve observed a lot of round or conical fingertips with long nails and a majority of loop fingerprints, but not enough to generalize.

“You’ve got to play to lose”

Forty-one years ago, this moment was captured in a photo booth at Kennywood Amusement Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lloyd and I met while employed part time at a metal, plastics, and woodworking machine shop where we fabricated preschool children’s learning thingamajigs. We made toys for ourselves on our own time. We were about to graduate from different colleges. I’d become an industrial designer. Lloyd would continue to be an artist. We were actually a couple of Peter Pans on our way to Neverland.

Once upon a time, we hitchhiked to a local auto drive-away place, surveyed some pins on a map, and impulsively decided to drive a brand new black Cadillac Fleetwood limousine from Pittsburgh to Miami Beach. We had three days to get there. With a lot of caffeine and humor, we made it in twenty-four hours. We visited Lloyd’s older sister when we arrived, pretending we were successful entrepreneurs. While we were out shooting skeet and racing go-carts at the local track, Lloyd’s sister thoughtfully washed our laundry for us. We came home to find our ragged underwear and socks hanging on her clothes line. The jig was up. Then we drove the Caddy to the beach in search of horny females, but didn’t enchant any.

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”. Fifty years of friendship have witnessed many challenging lessons in humility for us. We delayed our outer world from harmonizing with our inner world by always choosing to learn the hard way. There were no shortcuts. We had to finally let go of our need to be more and greater than we were.

Lloyd’s slender rectangular palms and long fingers harmonize with his Cancer sun, which is conjunct my Mercury. His Gemini ascendant harmonizes with my Gemini sun. Lloyd’s head and life lines are tightly intertwined at their beginnings and reveal his desire to feel appreciated. He was a sensitive child who needed love and support, but didn’t get any. Lloyd tried hard to fix his broken parents, but they were too sick to give him approval and appreciation. Instead, they judged, criticized, and abused him. Lloyd can survive without anyone’s approval, but he thrives on appreciation. He’ll give his friends the shirt off his back, but they had better not take him for granted. 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 my shirt. Before I could blink, Lloyd took off his shirt and traded with me.

Lloyd’s a quick thinker and extremely clever with words. Soon after we met, he was on the TV word show “Jeopardy”. When the host asked, “What do you do Mister Wilson?” Lloyd replied, “I’m a sculptor”. “What kind of sculpture do you make?” Not having a quick easy explanation for his broad eclectic mind and artwork, Lloyd sized up the marketing opportunity and responded in his deep resonant voice, “Expensive Sculpture”.

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

USA PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY

Mission Accomplished?

There have been four US Presidents born under the sign of Cancer. The most recent and worst (in my opinion) President in history was George W Bush. His intuitive hands and personality match his Leo ascendant. George manifested the worst qualities of Cancer and Leo in his presidential intentions and actions. Here’s my rant I featured him in.

There were three previous Cancer Presidents. It’s interesting to look at the similarities.

Like George W. Bush vs. Al Gore, the 6^th President, John Quincy Adams finished second in the popular vote behind General Andrew Jackson. No one had a sizable majority. The choice was put before the House of Representatives. The House Speaker, Henry Clay, swung the election to Adams. When Adams appointed Clay as Secretary of State, the Jackson followers cried, “Corrupt bargain”.

Unlike Bush, Adams was not re-installed. Here’s a quote on Adams by W.H. Littleton. “Of all the men whom it was ever my lot to accost and to waste civilities upon, he was the most doggedly and systematically repulsive. With a vinegar aspect, cotton in his leathern ears, and hatred in his heart, he sat… like a bulldog among spaniels”.

The 30^th President, Calvin Coolidge, shared his (July 4) birthday with the US Declaration of Independence. His most famous characteristic, “holding his tongue”, earned him the title, “Silent Cal”. Two infamous sayings of his were, “If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called on to repeat it” and “The business of America is business”. William Allen White described him, “He was an economic fatalist with a God given inertia. He knew nothing and refused to learn”. “He was weaned on a pickle” declared Alice Roosevelt Longworth

The 38^th President, Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., didn’t learn that he had been adopted until he was seventeen years old. His wife Betty performed the domestic chores because Gerry wouldn’t lift a finger around the house. As Speaker of the other house, Ford passionately pleaded for escalation of the war in Vietnam. He urged members to “unleash devastating air and sea power”.

Ford launched an unsuccessful crusade to impeach liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas as a favor to his buddy Richard Nixon. Ford ultimately granted Nixon a “full complete and absolute pardon” for all his crimes relating to the Watergate scandal. Ford also blamed the democrats for the disastrous rate of inflation and warned that electing more democrats would “jeopardize world peace”. He admitted that he almost never read books, but did find time to watch football on TV. Here are a few quotes from some of his celebrated critics.

“I cannot dislike him personally — he’s cordial and gracious. But he’s consistently wrong and consistency is a virtue of small minds. He’s never proposed a constructive solution to anything”. Congressman Robert Drinan

Lyndon Johnson accused Ford of “playing too much football with his helmet off”. “Jerry’s the only man I ever knew who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time”.

“Ford isn’t a bad man, but he’s dumb—dumb. He shouldn’t be dumb either. He went to school just like everybody else”. Reverend Duncan Littlefair

“The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life… it should be something useful, something good”

In contrast to George W Bush, the Dalai Lama is “the reborn soul of Buddha” and Nobel Prize winning pacifist. In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a singer, priest, healer, poet, and musician who could charm anyone. Orpheus enchanted Pluto into letting him enter the collective unconscious to retrieve his beloved Eurydice. In a moment of weakness, Orpheus looked back at death after being warned not to by Pluto. Orpheus lost Eurydice. He symbolizes the wounded healer who can heal others but not himself. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee Tibet in 1959. He lived as a “simple monk” in a remote corner of Northern India. His lifetime goals are to promote peace and love in the world and return to Tibet. You can bet whatever we owe China that it won’t happen anytime soon.

As the planet Pluto (god of sex, death, and transformation) transited the sign of Cancer from 1913 to 1938, partisan politics, nationalism, and isolationism transformed the world. World War I ended. World War II began. In 1913, President Wilson pressed a button in the White House that blew up the Gamboa Dike resulting in the destruction of the Isthmus of Panama. That action transformed travel by sea by creating a canal between oceans. Wilson legislated the Carter-Owen Bill that established a Federal Reserve System that transformed the strangle hold on the nation’s currency and credit system by banks.

Daylight Saving Time transformed the nation’s clocks. Transcontinental telephone service transformed international communications. World communications and atomic energy were developed. NBC became the first Nationwide Broadcasting Company. Wall Street prospered from the war while soldiers earning $16 per month died in the trenches. President Wilson established a lottery style draft promoting patriotism, while Congress passed the Espionage Act fining draft dodgers $10,000 and imposing a twenty-year jail sentence. No child was left behind.

Everyone was encouraged to “Do your bit”. Liberty Bonds and wheatless-meatless days were promoted. By the end of 1919, the Influenza pandemic had peaked causing over half a million deaths while almost one quarter of the nation’s population were sick. Prohibition banned liquor for all U.S. citizens. A huge black market and bootlegging industry began to thrive. Black leader Marcus Garvey organized The Empire of Africa that attracted over 500,000 followers. He led the largest mass exodus of Blacks in U.S. history. There was little sense of brotherhood.

In 1929, doubt, fear, and panic upset the stock market which faced its darkest hour and most difficult crisis in history. Traditional foundations of home and family transformed. People born during this period spent much of their lives taking care of family. Parents with overdeveloped guilt and obligation trips motivated children of this generation to become dropouts and runaways.

As the planet Uranus transited the sign of Cancer from 1949 to1955, Mothers stopped staying at home and went to work. Women began wearing the “bikini”, a fashionable French bathing suit. ‘I Love Lucy’, a comical show about a housewife and Cuban bandleader husband became the most popular show on TV. Ranch houses and basement playrooms became popular. The subconscious mind was explored in psychology. People born between 1949 and 1955 with Uranus in Cancer may be oversensitive and easily hurt by irrational fears, or they may be rational, aware, and strong by choice.

Stay tuned for LEO – Search for Father…

Tale of how Mercury Exorcised Pluto, his Evil Twin

Posted on November 20, 2014 by markseltman

The gods and goddesses of western myth were created in the ideals of ancient Greece. Too bad they abused their morals, ethics, nobility, and power. As greedy, narcissistic, and incestuous gods, they tempted fate and influenced human destiny forever. Those same gods and their dysfunctional families are in the here and now, incarnate as us with new names, scripts, roles, sets, and relationships. Nothing else has changed.

Pluto is death. He’s the last stop on the train to never ending nothingness. The shit doesn’t stop until it gets to Pluto where it gathers for all eternity. Imagine the stench. Ravenous vampires mercilessly await us along the banks of the River Styx, anxious to suck our souls. The myth of Pluto tells us that he got tired of hanging out with corpses and decided to reward himself with a tasty perk from the world of the living. Persephone was the tastiest perk of all. She’s the feminine side of Pluto. The well-guarded daughter of Demeter, earth goddess, was sniffing a narcissus in a meadow one day when Pluto (the ultimate narcissist) erupted from the earth in his chariot and abducted her to be his High Priestess and Queen of the Underworld.

Persephone was off limits. In desperation and panic, Demeter pleaded with her brothers and sisters for help. Unfortunately, no one dared take initiative because they all feared Pluto. Demeter took matters into her own hands and killed all vegetation on the earth. That’s how we got winter. The gods began to worry. If we perished, who’d worship them? They went to bat for mankind, intervened, and negotiated a compromise between Pluto and Demeter. Persephone spends spring and summer with her mom and winters with Pluto as his Queen of the underworld and High Priestess of the unconsciousness.

Venus was married to Vulcan (Hephaestus), lame god of the forge in mythology. Beauty wedded Craftsmanship. Vulcan got his muse, however, Venus needed a lot more than craft. She craved sensual and sexual satisfaction, resulting in casual flings with Mars, Mercury, and her other brothers who fathered many different children with her. Mars and Venus produced Phobos (fear) and Deimos (terror), the twins who served Mars in battle. Their daughter, Harmonia, and son, Cupid (Eros) served Venus. Hermes (Mercury) and Aphrodite (Venus) conceived Hermaphrodite, androgyny of hetero-bi-homo-sexuality.

In this particular story, Mercury and Venus were happily married. Mercury needed a lot of intellectual stimulation, along with emotional and physical freedom. Venus had no problem giving that to him. Venus required emotional stability, consistency, reliability, affection, and sensual pleasure. Mercury gratefully embraced his responsibilities.

Venus and Persephone met through a mutual friend. They bonded as soon as they found out that they shared a passion for the arts, beauty, and nature. Venus, the muse in music, was goddess of fine art. Enchanting and quixotic, Persephone was an extraordinary artist. They decided to collaborate on an art project together. Persephone and Pluto offered Venus a full scholarship for a summer residency at their country home.

Persephone embodies the hypnotic power of the personal and collective unconscious. Plutonian types have mesmeric personalities and healing powers. It’s easy to feel special when you’re with them. They can bring out the best and worst in each of us. Helen of Troy (Persephone) was so charismatic; men fell hopelessly in love with her. The Trojan War occurred when young Paris wrongly chose Venus in a goddess beauty contest and as a result, fell foolishly in love with Helen, Queen to King Menelaus.

Pluto and Persephone were Scorpios. Pluto had Sun and Moon in Scorpio and Leo rising. That’s a recipe for double trouble with a heaping helping of the melodramatic. Persephone was making art all over the world when she and Pluto first met. Many princes had wooed Persephone, but all turned out to be frogs or beasts. Desperately, she craved true love, but Persephone was still as emotionally innocent as Little Red Riding Hood who met the Wolf (Pluto) in the forest on her way to Grandma’s house.

Persephone had a long graceful heart line ending under her index finger. She saw people and circumstances as she wanted them to be. Pluto, Emperor of Darkness, presented himself as the Prince of Lightness. He was physically strong, intelligent, handsome, expressive, funny, adventurous, and a talented craftsman. Pluto beguiled Persephone with caring words and loving actions. He treated her like a real goddess and fulfilled her soul mate fantasy. Persephone’s lust for love literally attracted the man from Hell.

Pluto and Persephone had a waterfront estate on the outer banks of the River Styx, far from Mount Olympus where Mercury and Venus had grown up. Mercury and Pluto were instantly compatible. In myth, Mercury had escorted departed souls to Death’s door and couriered messages from Mount Olympus to the underworld. Mercury had planned to spend the summer by himself, but Venus pleaded. “These people are incredible. You won’t believe this place and community. I’ve met a couple who you’re going to love. You must come”. Community had been an occasional weekend barbecue with the locals for Mercury. Venus described Pluto and Persephone in flowery superlatives. “Sounds too good to be true” Mercury responded. It was and took over fifteen years and a series of very painful character building experiences for absolutely everyone to unveil that truth.

Mercury changed his plans after Venus’s call. He spent his summer with her. Maybe she was right. People were warm and friendly. Strangers waved when they drove by. Pluto was one of the kindest people Mercury had ever met. His words were thoughtful and his actions generous. Mercury thought Persephone was Pollyanna. Warts were beauty marks to her. She saw the best in everyone. Mercury put his skepticism and sarcasm on a back burner when she was around. She softened him. Who was he to be cynical while she was embracing the best? Mercury grew to adore Persephone. Pluto and Persephone were surrounded by fascinating friends and loving families. Mercury and Venus began to wonder if maybe they had found their Shangri-La.

Mercury rules hands and palmistry (with Chiron). Mercury had known Pluto for a while before Pluto asked him to look at his hands (most people want that as soon as they find out you read hands). Pluto’s large rectangular palms, long stiff fingers, and tightly tied head and lifeline confirmed he had a Scorpion personality. Like Manuel (the child serial killer), Pluto’s ball of the thumb (Venus) had no lines parallel to his lifeline. His heart line dipped to touch the beginning of his head and life lines.

Mercury felt confused. A large ball of the thumb person can fool even the best judge of character with feigned warmth and generosity, but not Mercury. He asked Pluto if he was challenged by intimacy and by verbalizing his true feelings. Pluto replied that he had no idea what Mercury was talking about. Everyone knew he was a loving person and caring community member. Mercury decided that Pluto must have risen above his challenges and his intimate relationships would eventually show up in his hands. They never did. Mercury continued to ignore Pluto’s other ambiguities and incongruities.

Pluto was a hugger. Mercury was androgynous, but Mercury wasn’t comfortable with so much physical affection so soon. It didn’t take long for Pluto to catch on to Mercury’s uneasiness. His mission became to hug and kiss Mercury regularly and turn this “Man of Steel” into “Organic Man”. He was successful. Pluto helped Mercury become a more trusting person as he passionately cultivated his friendship. Holding Mercury squarely by the shoulders, Pluto would gaze straight into Mercury’s eyes and say, “You’re the greatest” “I love you sooooooooooooooooooo much” “I can talk with you about things that I can’t say to anyone else”. Sometimes they laughed so hard that they cried.

Mercury loved Pluto like a real brother. He would have freely given him anything. He and Venus cherished Pluto’s friendship. Pluto, however, methodically exploited their love and trust as he covertly plotted their individual seductions and betrayals. Pluto prepared Mercury and Venus, like virgins, to be spiritually raped on the altar of hell.

The twisted handwriting was always on the wall. Pluto recited poetry from his journal for Mercury and Venus. His delivery was dramatic, but his content seemed contrived and cliché. He wrote for the reader, not for the writer. Mercury and Venus were reticent to criticize Pluto’s art. It somehow made him even more lovable. They giggled as they recited corny poetry when he left; not realizing their friendship was also bad poetry.

Pluto asked Mercury to spread his tarot cards. Concerns of gossip, betrayal, and painful endings would arise. Mercury interpreted them hopefully. It never occurred to him to put himself and his family in that picture. Mercury looked at Pluto’s hands many times over the years and always blocked the truth. Why shouldn’t he trust Pluto? Pluto had certainly made them feel lovable and they were positive that Pluto loved them.

Pluto would show up with huge dark circles under his eyes. In hindsight, they were polluted pools of deceit reflected in a murky swamp. Terrified of dying, he secretly wished he could, but that wasn’t an option. Mercury and Venus comforted Pluto. In a moment of weakness, Pluto blurted “One day you’ll hate me and turn against me”. Mercury and Venus recited in chorus, “You’re crazy”. Turned out everyone was right.

When Pluto’s indiscretions first surfaced, Mercury and Venus rationalized his behavior. Everyone makes mistakes they thought. They figured that by successfully seducing his best friend’s life partner, Pluto had unconsciously killed off his father and married his mother. Pluto had grown up in a suburb of Metropolis with a very loving, sensitive, and artistic father (a beautiful man) who feared his own shadow. Pluto’s powerful mother (Scorpio) wore the pants in the family. Pluto had climbed every mountain and hiked every trail in search of his manhood but hadn’t found it.

Even when the connections that Pluto and Persephone had worked so hard to create began to unravel and disintegrate, Mercury and Venus were still protecting Pluto. They thought they were ‘special’ and different from everyone else. They were. They had indulged Pluto in his narcissistic fantasies and kept his treacherous secrets from everyone including themselves and each other. There’s a very thin line between perpetrator and victim. Masochists and sadists are co-dependent. Voyeurs and exhibitionists are magnets for one another. Just watch Jerry Springer for live action.

Pluto and Mercury nourished each other’s ‘Pig Dogs’. They drank home brewed beer and ate hot buttered popcorn while they watched porn and fantasized erotic sexploits. Once in a while they’d find a sleezy lounge where they’d watch people lap dancing. While sitting in front of a crackling fire late one night, Pluto turned to Mercury and asked, “Would you mind going upstairs and fucking my wife?” Privately, Pluto had been priming Persephone by saying that Mercury was hot for her, even though he wasn’t. Mercury declined. He loved their polyamorous fantasies, but they were just fantasies. It wasn’t the same for Pluto. Mercury learned that Pluto had actually lusted over, coveted, seduced, or tried to seduce almost every female they’d ever fantasized about including their good friend’s wives. Mercury felt ashamed and remorseful for “his part”. He’d encouraged Pluto’s pathology by indulging in the sick fantasies that turned them both on. He’d have had clearer boundaries had he known the truth about Pluto, and himself.

Hindsight dealt everyone a challenging blow. Mercury realized that he and Venus were just like everyone else when a mutual friend confided to Mercury that Pluto had foolishly bragged about how he had attempted to seduce Venus. Mercury confronted Venus, “Why didn’t you tell me?” Venus told him she didn’t want to hurt their friendship. “It’s been so long since you had a real buddy”. She assured him that she had no intention of indulging in Pluto’s persistent advances. Mercury and Venus had been living in Pluto’s home for the first year and a half of that relationship. Venus had hidden Pluto’s behavior and kept a secret from Mercury for fourteen of the fifteen years they’d known Pluto.

Venus told Mercury about the first time that Pluto attempted to seduce her. Mercury had sworn off physical labor, but he felt compelled to try to help Pluto and his partner save their failing custom furniture making business. They were wonderful craftsmen, but didn’t know how to get paid well for their work. Being a natural salesman, Mercury offered to bring work from Metropolis. When possible, he’d help make, deliver, and install jobs. One day, they were all hard at work in the shop when Pluto exclaimed, “Damn, I forgot something at home (Venus was home alone). I’ll be back soon”.

In hindsight, Mercury remembered Pluto forgetting things a lot. Venus was back at the house taking a bath (in the only bathroom) when Pluto arrived home. He knocked on the door and asked if she could please close the shower curtain. He needed to use the toilet. She said OK. The next thing she knew, Pluto abruptly drew the shower curtain, and stepped confidently and completely naked into the bathtub with a huge smile on his face. “What are you doing?!!!” yelled Venus. Pluto pretended he had been in some kind of trance. His master plan hadn’t worked out yet, but he’d seen what he intended to see and shown what he intended to show.

The whole community became hip to Pluto. One distraught wife told Venus that the usual topic and focus of female get-togethers was, “Who was Pluto hitting on at that moment and how bad was his influence on their husbands?” Persephone had no clue that Pluto was betraying her mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, every single day of their marriage. She blamed herself for his selfish behavior. Pluto’s inability to truly love her remained his secret. Other wives tried to enlist Persephone into group discussions; however, she declined, maintaining a ‘hands off Pluto’ attitude.

Pluto used every technique in the book to get what he wanted. Flattery worked. Mercury could see how Pluto boosted Venus’s self-esteem. He wanted her to feel queenly and goddess like. His behavior taught Mercury how to be a more passionate and desirable husband. Dishonesty worked too. Pluto would innocently offer to physically “wrestle” female anxieties and frustrations away. That notorious ‘walk in the woods’ was his favorite venue. He was infamous for saying, “I just want to kiss you”.

Once Mercury and Venus stopped protecting Pluto, reluctant females peered cautiously from cloistered closets, confessing that Pluto had seduced or attempted to seduce them. One more irreverent pastor had faked faith and tempted trust. By driving an invisible psychic wedge into his friends’ marriages, Pluto fostered guilt and shame and forced everyone to hold onto their secrets. Pluto’s `beloved’ victims were full of remorse. One tearful woman told Mercury that she had spent nearly twenty years of her marriage feeling guilt, shame, and fear that her husband would eventually find out about her and Pluto.

The last straw for Mercury was when he observed Pluto seducing his good friend’s wife, right under everyone’s noses. She was another Persephone type and artist. Pluto was trading in Persephone 1 for Persephone 2, the sequel. The speediest path into her panties was through her vanity, so he immortalized her artwork. Mercury had confused Shangri-La with Xanadu. Pluto was Citizen Kane, incapable of truly loving while endeavoring to turn his conquest into a star. Pluto urgently wished to love and be loved, but only knew lust. Rosebud was the love he so deeply desired but could never have.

Years prior to Persephone 2’s conquest, a friend told Mercury that he had walked in on Pluto while he was jerking off over pictures of Persephone 2. Persephone 1 was in the next room. Even though Pluto had fantasized about, lusted over, coveted, and carefully plotted the seduction of Persephone 2, he still pretended they “fell in love”. Unless Pluto has actually transformed his severely damaged character, it will be a very sad day in hell for Persephone II when she discovers that her cup is half fool.

Mercury, Venus, Pluto, and Persephone were destined to share a very powerful love experience, followed by a very negative outcome. Trust would forever forward be an issue. Pluto betrayed Mercury, Venus, and Persephone by working so diligently to make them love him while he was unable to truly love them back. He brought out the best and worst in them. If Pluto’s love was real, you’d see the lines in the ball of his thumb. Pluto was in Mercury’s. He stops at a perpendicular cross line, the roadblock where Mercury exorcised his evil twin. Mercury had pondered who, what, and when that might be.

Mercury and Venus chose not to confront Pluto in person because Pluto had no real remorse for his actions. He was in denial, explaining that he was sorry for “his part”. He made himself into a victim and even seduced a female psychotherapist into believing his stories. What Pluto could have used was a no bullshit male therapist who’d help him to see himself through the eyes of the loving beings he had so pathologically deceived.

Mark Seltman's Real Palmistry Blog

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