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AQUARIUS & PSYCHE

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Aquarius & Psyche

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Personal & Collective Psyche transform as Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto change Sun signs and personal relationships. Uranus transits each of twelve signs for seven years. It takes eighty-four years for Uranus to pass through twelve signs.

Uranus surprises, revises, and revolutionizes. Uranus entered Aquarius twice in the 20th Century. 1912 to 1919 brought sudden unexpected political and social upheaval, provocative philosophical & spiritual ideologies, loss of faith in humanity, and lack of trust in ourselves.

1912 ~ “The Unsinkable Titanic” sunk on its maiden voyage… karmic lesson in Hubris

1913 ~ Tornadoes & Floods devastated Middle America. 3,000 dead + $100,000,000 in damages… a painful and expensive lesson in preparedness

1914 ~ World War I ~ Greed, Hatred, Fear, and Terror levied a heavy toll on humanity

1915 ~ Jan. 25… Sun, Uranus, Mercury, Jupiter, and Lunar North Node, energized by Uranus and powered by Aquarius. Alexander Graham Bell began international mass communications through the first transcontinental phone call made Jan 25th, 1915. A powerful concept’s time had come. The Dark Side: German submarine torpedoed the British Ocean Liner Lusitania

1916 ~ What kind of wall would have prevented Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary, from invading the USA? President Wilson retaliated by sending 6,000 troops into Mexico.

Official Gazette of London published the names of 80 United States firms suspected of trading with Germany. Prescott Bush (banker) was on the list.

1917 ~ USA declared war on Germany. Hitler’s enemies became our allies. Hatred & Bigotry was bountiful, catalyzing the worst race riot in American history in Illinois.

Congress amended laws that prohibited beer, wine, and liquor from being profitable

1918 ~ Spanish Flu was the worst pandemic since the Bubonic Plague that wiped out one quarter of Europe’s population in the 14th century. Daylight Savings Time was born.

1919 ~ Prohibition was ratified as the 18th amendment to our constitution. Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. President Wilson disagreed and went on public tour to fight the decision. He died trying.

Uranus transited Aquarius again in 1996. The final leg of his journey marked the fall of the World Trade Centers. Had we chosen faith, love, and brotherhood over fear, selfishness, and convenience, we’d be building bridges instead of walls!

Neptune was in Aquarius from Nov 27, 1998, to Apr 4, 2011. Neptune eroticized and romanticized male vanity and virility. ‘Getting it up’ got popular when Pfizer introduced Viagra in 1998.

The stock market created a new form of gambling addiction called “internet day trading” where the present is more profitable than the future. DVDs were the fastest growing consumer electronics product in history. Bribes and drugs tarnished the Olympic Games. Innocence and civil liberties were transformed as our ideals, illusions, and delusions about private and social security and stability dissolved. What we think and how we feel about our past, present, and future is what matters most in the eternal here and now.

Neptune impelled illusion & fantasy to find reality when body piercing & tattoos became popular. President Clinton’s first political act of 1996 was to sign a welfare reform bill that made life harder for poor people. The downtrodden were deceived, divided, and demoralized by the powers that be. Madeline Albright became the first female Secretary of State. Ellen DeGeneres was the first gay star on an ABC sitcom. Taiwan’s first democratic election was held. Four major plane crashes happened.

Neptune rules vision, illusion, delusion, and confusion. In 1998, Neptune in Aquarius represented a House of Representatives who impeached Bill Clinton for giving “perjurious false and misleading” testimony in front of a grand jury. Bill’s Hands, Sun, Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto are ruled by LEO. Rest assured, Hillary mercilessly spanked Bill’s sorry butt after he got caught being careless and cocky. In Leo of 2005, the IRA announced an end to its armed campaign and committed to complete decommissioning of all its weapons. Catholic and Protestant believers, practitioners, and clergymen voted for peace in Ireland.

Outer planets rule the electronic (Uranus) ether (Neptune). The US government and twenty state attorney generals charged Microsoft with anti-trust practices for dominating the Internet access market. Bill Gates has a Scorpio Sun, Venus, and Saturn, with Leo hands. Bill fantasizes about being god, but has much to hide and too many secrets not to be humble. Bill is a god in the underworld.

Andrew Carnegie said, “He who dies rich, dies disgraced.” Imagine having enough power to make gigantic differences for all of humanity and our planet and not do anything of value? What’s the ethical, moral, and spiritual responsibility for knowing the difference? Many people give more time and money to charity than Bill Gates compared to their available time & money.

Neptune entered Pisces in 2012. 1/10 of 1% afflicted and infected the other 99.9% with physical, mental, emotional, ideological, psychological, philosophical, and spiritual pathogens and disease. Our illusions, delusions, and deceptions of becoming old, poor, sick, disabled, and/or unable to afford bad shit happening were dissolving. Individual and collective hatred, fear, and terror prevent us from transmuting our inequities into equities. We must learn to see clearly and take full responsibility for our behavior, values, thinking, feelings, health, relationships, creativity, philosophy, purpose, hopes, desires, fears, and spirituality.

Whether

Look / See ~ Listen / Hear

Haves rule. Neptune in Pisces symbolizes billions of individuals around the world seeking security, stability, and spiritual answers. Neptune is also revealing despair, fear, and terror. Historians will describe the 21st Century as an era of false prophets and false profits. Indentured folks are at the bottom of the barrel scraping for pennies. Plutocrats skim the cream as they bribe and extort the partisan help who permit them to deplete, pollute, and poison our planet, manage our healthcare, regulate our welfare, gamble with our social security, control our pensions, and manage our pretensions. The middle and lower classes are pawns, collateral damage, in a crooked game of chess. If freedom and slavery are white and black, what shades of gray are you?

Pluto enters Aquarius on March 23, 2023, and leaves in 2044. Pluto will expose our dirty little secret agendas and realign humanity’s ideals, hopes, and dreams. Pluto could also hammer the last rusty nail in the impatiently awaiting coffin of humanity’s sanity. It’s up to us…

The human race has become a race against bad shit happening. Never have so few been permitted to influence, manipulate, and control so many.

“The lips of wisdom are closed, except to the ears of understanding.”

Hermes

“All is in THE ALL” “THE ALL is in All”

To him who truly understands this truth hath come great knowledge.

Hermes was the father of the ‘Cell Phone’. Everything is made of cells. Hermes taught that the brain is our hardware whose function is to connect inner with outer cells and fine tune our links.

In ancient Egypt, Hermes was the mystic teacher of Abraham. Hermes reputedly lived to be 350 years old in the flesh as a real person. @ 75, I’m ready to upgrade my operating system from Peter Pan (adolescence) to Hermes (adulthood). Joanna, my ‘Wendy’ (‘Artemis’), calls me “a piece of work in progress”. She says I’m still in my first childhood. Joanna has an Aries Sun with Taurus rising. I call her “RamBull”. Our friends remind us that “We deserve each other!”

“As Above, So Below” Hermes

HAND READING & SOCIAL DISTANCING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GEMINI & HANDS

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You don’t need a Gemini sun, moon, ascendant, planets, or house placements to be a Gemini. Thinking types have square palms with long fingers. No matter what your astrology says, pure Gemini hands have widely spread long fingers, flexible joints, and supple thumbs and fingertips. I’m a pure type. That’s my hand above. As a mutable modality, Gemini is more mentally adaptable than (cardinal) Librans and (fixed) Aquarians. Gemini and Libra are air signs that often have head lines split at their ends, resulting in having too many choices and needing to make too many decisions. Cancer and Pisces are water signs whose ambiguous feelings are embodied in split heart lines.

Author’s note: I’m generalizing based on my personal palmistry experience. Anyone can have any split line for many reasons.

It’s impossible to accurately foretell from a natal astrology chart what a person will choose to do with their symbolism and free will. Astrology reveals a person’s potentials. Your sun, moon, a stellium of planets, dominant signs, house placements, or powerful aspects between planets or points in a horoscope may or may not reflect what you choose to integrate into your character and behavior. Hands are topographical maps that disclose our true character in past, present, and future. As we embrace our strengths and address our weaknesses, we can exercise our thinking and free will, change our behaviors, re-write our stories, and the resulting thinking and circumstances will be reflected in the changing morphology and topography of our hands over time.

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

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

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

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

Gold and diamond rings are often found on the pinkie fingers of acquisitive people. Pinkie rings can symbolize the sublimation of sexual energies to accomplish something requiring libido. I once examined a group of fifty young men and women who were born into very powerful wealthy families in the 80’s. Considering the prosperity of that period, it seemed a paradox that everyone had short phalanges on the bottom segment of their little fingers on their dominant hands. Money will never be their motivation for career choices. Family and personal values will drive these individuals to make healthier choices.

Would you buy a used car from this Gemini? I wouldn’t. Gemini’s liabilities are deceitfulness, trickiness, fickleness, nervousness, restlessness, and shallowness. People preaching on soapboxes, pickpockets, and most con artists have dominant pinkies (most inwardly curving). Yellow coloration added to the palms reveals nastiness somewhere. The trickster is masterful at hiding his dark side. Many wonderful people with curved pinkies learned as children to ‘act nice’ and avoid confrontation. Their challenge is to stop trying to please everyone.

Cultivated Geminis are consummate communicators, social magnets, intuitive geniuses, and great judges of character. Most social of all types, they’re frequently accused of being impractical dreamers because they love ideas so much. They can detach themselves from mundane reality and still remain objective about everything and anything. They overvalue intellect and undervalue emotion. They’re threatened when their opinions are ignored. They can accept your viewpoint, even though they disagree with you. They get mad when their ideas are challenged without good reason. They’re easily distracted and don’t like being responsible for making decisions before they’re clear. They fight focus, discipline, and structure, and long for freedom, love, and being unrestricted. The hardest choice is often the only choice that makes the best sense.

Geminis are androgynous. In Greek myth, Hermes and Aphrodite’s incestuous fling birthed Hermaphrodite. Dominant Hermes (whether known or admitted to) is often bi-sexual. David Bowie was a Capricorn with strong Hermes. Mick Jagger is a Hermes type with a Leo sun. Kate Blanchett is a Mercurial Taurus. Bob Dylan is a Gemini. Boy George is a Gemini. Grace Jones (71) is a Taurus with Mercury conjunct Uranus in Gemini.

SAGITTARIAN HANDS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ME TOO

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

LIBRA & HANDS

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

“Even an attorney of moderate talent can postpone doomsday year after year, for the system of appeals that pervades American jurisprudence amounts to a legalistic wheel of fortune, a game of chance, somewhat fixed in favor of the criminal, that the participants play interminably.” Truman Capote understood the truth behind the folly. It’s ironic that Libra rules our Laws and their execution. Legal power enables rich players to shirk social responsibility, manipulate laws, and justify personal and social behaviors and actions. Haves are innocent until proven guilty. Have nots are guilty until proven innocent. The American Dream is a birthright only for folk who can afford it. Poor folk will forever be scraping for pennies at the bottom of the barrel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

MY CANCER BEST FRIEND

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LLOYD WILSON

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MOTHER OF GEMINI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GEMINI & HANDS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gold and diamond rings are often found on the pinkie finger of acquisitive people. Pinkie rings can symbolize the sublimation of sexual energies in order to accomplish something requiring a lot of libido. I once examined a group of fifty young men and women who were born into very wealthy families in the 80’s. Considering the prosperity of the period, it seemed paradoxical that every one of them had an obviously short phalange on the bottom segment of the little finger of his or her dominant hand.  Money will never be a motivation for their career choices. Family and personal values will drive these individuals.

Would you buy a used car from this Gemini? I wouldn’t.  Gemini’s liabilities are deceitfulness, trickiness, fickleness, nervousness, restlessness, and shallowness. People preaching on soapboxes, pickpockets, and most con artists have dominant pinkies (most inwardly curving). When there’s a telltale yellow coloration in the palms, there’s nastiness somewhere. The trickster is a master at hiding his dark side. There are many wonderful people with curved pinkies who learned as children to ‘act nice’ and are still doing their best to avoid confrontation.

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

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

TAURUS HANDS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sigmund Freud was father of modern psychoanalysis

Karl Marx developed the theory of socialism

Martha Graham was mother of modern dance

Katherine Hepburn was Grande Dame of American stage and movies

Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Tony Blair are anchors for Great Britain

“The great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than a small one”. The darkest depths of Taurus manifested a monster from 1933 to 1945. Responsible for over thirty million deaths, Adolph Hitler transformed our world by channeling anger, fear, and terror and blending it with the magic of imagery to control and manipulate the masses.

 

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

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh showed no remorse for his evil

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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