Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Capricorn1/15/1929 – Aries 4/4/1968) was martyred for his fervent beliefs. “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” As a Baptist Minister and passionate Social Rights Activist, Dr. King led the black civil rights movement in the United States from the mid 1950’s until his assassination in 1968. Dr. King’s mission was the pursuit of truth, peace, justice, and equality for all. His dream has become his racial legacy and a legal holiday.
You don’t need a Capricorn sun, moon, rising, planets, houses, or aspects to be Capricorn. Dominant types have flat square palms, short stiff fingers, square fingertips, and a combination of loop and arch finger prints. Self-assured handshakes, firm hand consistency, and pale pink hard working skin embody practicality, responsibility, and reliability. When a middle finger leans or crooks toward a ring finger, you see seriousness and responsibility for all types.
A combination of dominant middle fingers and prevailing first and middle phalanges makes Capricorn more practical and pragmatic than Aries, Cancer, and Libra. Every thought and action must have a rational reason and purpose. Successful business leaders and managers embrace their responsibilities with commitment and dedication, carrying out the specifics of mundane business while maintaining a long-range vision of their goals. As structured, focused, disciplined, and dependable beings, they expect you to be on time and do as you say. Saturn has little patience for excuses. As natural skeptics, they don’t trust slick and flashy types. As workaholics, they don’t think twice about coming in early or staying late to finish tasks. They patiently wait for the right conditions, relationships, and timing.
Middle fingers should always be longest. No matter what type, a short middle finger means a life out of balance and control. Middle fingers embody our need for structure and reveal our abilities to focus, discipline, be responsible, and practical. Middle fingers show us how serious and reliable we are and how to best manage our restrictions, obstructions, obligations, and guilt.
Saturnians are well organized, efficient, patient, dependable, and faithful. Obsessive order, methodology, punctuality, and perfectionism can be seen in stiff knotty joints, bent middle fingers, long middle phalanges, square tips, and short broad nails. The most self-critical of all types, Capricorn must habitually “lighten up and smell the roses”. Traditional music and dry humor helps. Many Saturnians are cynical and sarcastic with a fatalistic sense of humor rooted in a pessimism they’d prefer to hide. Practical, prudent, and persistent, Saturn becomes quickly frustrated and aggravated when their strategies don’t go according to plan. Inflexible ideologies, too many responsibilities, and overdeveloped senses of obligation make them feel guilt, shame, and depression. They can be offensive and defensive at the same time. Pure types pride themselves on their ingenuity, but they rarely stray from provincial, traditional, and conventional.
Dominant middle-fingered folk are tall, slender, and angular in appearance. They may have dark hair, large bones, stern features, and bland complexions. As loners, they need private time, including family, friends, and partners. The prevailing physical sense is smell. Purists love string instruments and prefer classical music tinged with sadness.
Saturn rules all structure. Saturnians eventually have maladies with teeth, knees, ligaments, rheumatism, hardening of the arteries, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, or deafness in the left ear. When a middle finger leans toward a ring finger, there’s perfectionism and a need for personal space. I’ll bet Donald Rumsfeld is always cranky and irritable. Check out the inner frustration that goes with this face. Many conservative businessmen, distinguished scientists, technical specialists, researchers, writers, craftsmen, therapists, night watchmen, undertakers, morticians, and derelicts have dominant middle fingers.
“Father Time” is about quality, not quantity. The Hermit is alone, but not lonely. Turning lead to gold is a metaphor for shining the brilliance of the Sun on Saturn. Where structure, discipline, and focus are required, Saturn is present. Saturn can be prosperous, healthy, happy, wise, and compassionate. He can also be extremely frustrated, controlling, greedy, and self-destructive. Capricorn must do the work or suffer the consequences.
The most famous Capricorn of all time was Jesus Christ. This not for profit prophet was the first self-styled Jewish self-help guru. Jesus would have reformed the business of religion had he stuck around. Who needs rules, regulations, dogmas, codes, and doctrines when you have spirituality? Jesus shared God’s essence as he spoke, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Jesus was crucified and martyred for loving too much.
Capricorn Mel Gibson irreverently exploited the dark side of love in his ‘The Passion of the Christ’. Jesus’s spirit writhes in heaven as Mel continues to punish and blame us for torturing him to death. Mel can capitalize on Dr. King’s final moments. He can call it LETHAL WEAPON 666 and give us even more reasons to spread shame, guilt, fear, hate, and terror. Mel would be less harmful as a used Hummer salesman. He could sell ‘already been road-warriored’ models, like worn jeans or distressed furniture.
Capricorns strive to be number one. Muhammad Ali was King of Boxing. Elvis Presley was King of Rock ‘n Roll. Tiger Woods was Prince of Golf. David Bowie and Rod Stewart are musical stars. Daniel Day-Lewis (Taurus / Saturn) played Abraham Lincoln, a Saturn type. Clint Eastwood is a Gemini with dominant Saturn. Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse were Saturnian Post and Neo-Impressionist French artists. Albert Schweitzer was a humanitarian. Louis Pasteur pasteurized.
Master criminals are Saturn ruled. They don’t depend on cleverness like Gemini, spontaneity like Aries, or grandiosity like Sagittarians. Saturn strategizes and waits. Scrooge is the epitome of his darkest, stingiest, greediest, and least generous self. Relationships are only important as they relate to profit.
Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future haunt Bernard Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom. Ebbers contributed to society by making telecommunications competitive. He compromised his principles to reach his goal of power and worldly achievement. Bernie played both sides against the middle and got caught in the squeeze.
Janet is a Capricorn with crooked middle fingers and separated head and life on her dominant hand. This combination makes her a very independent freedom loving perfectionist with over developed senses of responsibility, obligation, and guilt. She’s great at what she does, but there’s always a ‘should’ or ‘supposed to’ in the way of the adventure she’d prefer to be having.
Wielding logic, diplomacy, and tact like Samurai swordsmen, Librans analyze, rationalize, and compartmentalize their thoughts and feelings until they fulfill their desires. A wide space between head and life lines reveals initiative and spontaneity. Wide spaces care less what others think of them. Changing a Libran’s mind is a game of mental monopoly. You must be direct and make good sense. Don’t get emotional. You’ll regret it.
Athena is a Libran archetype with Aquarius and Gemini backup. Greek for Wisdom and Justice, Athena rules the strategic thinking required in combat. Scales of justice and an owl on her shoulder symbolize balance and wisdom. Odysseus (Libra) and Achilles (
Athena’s square palms, long fingers, strong pinkies and well-balanced phalanges are great for commerce. His long unobstructed straight headline is innately practical, honest, and reliable. Ambitious strong index fingers embody a strategic hardworking nature. His strong stiff thumbs show determination and persistence. Separation between his head and life lines reveals initiative, impatience, and independence. I would never have seen his problem in foresight.
Few of us are pure types. Many behave contrary to our sun signs. My brother, Gary, is 
Carly Fiorina, former fortune 500 CEO is a conservative Virgo. Despite bad publicity over her tenure at HP and a failed presidential attempt, Carly practices what she preaches. Whether you agree with her or not, her intuitive hands with short fingers, along with her Virgo sun are saying, “Challenge the mind and capture the heart”. Aristaeus `Guardian of the flocks and farming’ in Greek myth is a Virgo archetype. Aristaeus taught bee-keeping. He embodies the capacity to dedicate selflessly in service to others.
Virgos who have worked and been rewarded include: Writers Agatha Christie & Leonard Cohen; Lawyers Alan Dershowitz & Marcia Clark; Financiers J.P. Morgan & Warren Buffet; Actors Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Paul Walker, Keanu Reeves, Blake Lively, and Cameron Diaz; Singers Michael Jackson & Beyonce’ Knowles; Political figures Margaret Trudeau, Lyndon Johnson, George Wallace, Yasser Arafat, & John McCain with Taurus hands, 
Your health is in your hands. In the days before computerized medical diagnosis, doctors used their intuition, tasted a patient’s urine, looked into their eyes, and examined their tongue, skin, and especially their hands to diagnose illness. Hands reflect a person’s physical, mental, and emotional health. I encourage seekers to examine and reflect on their own hands and the hands of people they care about. There’s much to see in a mirror.
Fingernails are windows to a person’s health. Illnesses that can be seen in nails are anemia, thyroid disease, malnutrition, carpal tunnel syndrome, psoriasis, eczema, liver disease, heart, lungs, colon, chronic respiratory disease, lymph system problems, diabetes, Raynaud’s disease, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcers, Hodgkin’s disease, and sickle-cell anemia.
Bernie Serotta was a Pisces with Virgo hands and matching character. Bernie passed from the physical plane in 2004. It’s easy to see his warm, open, friendly, hardworking, and practical nature from his dominant hand. His muscular square palm and short fingers are saying, “Hello, goodbye, and I’ve got nothing to hide”. Despite my being peculiar to Bernie, I always felt honored and embraced by him.
One dreary mid-winter day in 1998, I was drinking tea from a cobalt blue mug decorated with an orange and yellow sun surrounded by stars. It had been a gift for speaking at a National Council for Geocosmic Research (
A talisman is anything (including a simple piece of paper) with a design on it that’s symbolic of what you want to impress on your psyche to catalyze change or reinforce something that needs to be strengthened. Amulets and hex signs are solar symbols used for protection. You see a lot of Amish hex signs blessing barns and homes and protecting livestock from harm.
Bill Clinton is a Leo. Born three months after his real father died in 1946, Bill was raised by an abusive alcoholic stepfather. Like so many Leos, Bill spent much of his life searching for approval from father figures. His was mentally and emotionally absent during Bill’s formative years. Bill’s quest is a hero’s journey to conquer his fears of failure, abandonment, and disapproval and become a devoted parent who loves unconditionally and without expectation. Bill’s Sun, Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto are in Leo. Like many Apollonian types, Bill’s hands sport strong 
At the end of her letter, Cass asked George not to send her a signed picture of his head. I altered what she got back as my contribution to exposing the true nature of a beast that has no clue how beastly he is. Truly no child should be left behind. We must all be more loving, helpful, and attentive to all children at all times.
Barack Obama is a Leo. Born August 4, 1961, Barack’s Sun, Mercury, Uranus, and North Node are in Leo. With a warm heart and a smile, Barack practiced healthier Leo merits than his predecessors while setting new precedents for future Leo ruled presidents. Despite the constant barrage of partisan prejudicial politics, Barack served with nobility, integrity, and dignity. His intuitive hands reveal an Arian personality. His narrow less meaty hands reveal a warrior of ideas and ideals. Barack is independent, freedom loving, energetic, enthusiastic, takes calculated risks when inspired, and can accomplish anything with enough inspiration. Passion is contagious and optimism eternal. Barack does his best at what he chooses and doesn’t take rejection personally. As a naturally rebellious type, he detests bullies and bureaucrats. Barack’s Holy Grail was taking responsibility for a damaged bureaucracy aimlessly racing towards bad shit happening.
Donald Trump is a 
You don’t need a Cancer sun, moon, planets, or planetary placements to be Cancerian. All 
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’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.
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.
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.
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”.
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”.
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.
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. 
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 the motivation for their career choices. Family and personal values will drive these individuals.
Would you buy a used car from this guy? 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.
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 69, Grace Jones is still an exotic Taurus with her Mercury conjunct Uranus in Gemini.
The most important tool in my kit is a magnifying glass. There’s never enough light ~ especially at special events. Most of my income is from giving five-minute quickie readings at exclusive events. My hand held lighted magnifiers always needed to be plugged in. Most venues have few unused outlets. Wires are unsightly and people can trip on them. I used to arrive early and bring my own extension cords, plug adapters, and duct tape (in various colors) to securely fasten cords to carpeting. I’ve had to pass on many wonderful opportunities because of no electricity. LED lights freed me from bondage by solving my logistical problems. September to January and March to June, I hone my counseling skills at parties with only seconds to observe a person’s hands before speaking. This is the magnifier I use. It uses two AA batteries and has three light settings. I normally get four hours of bright light from two batteries. I purchased it from Brookstones for $40.
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 
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 8th 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.
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.
Adolph Hitler (4/20/1889) was responsible for over thirty million deaths. Hitler transformed the world by harnessing the power of fear and terror and linking them to the power of symbolism to control and manipulate masses. The darkest depths of Taurus catalyzed a German dictator from 1933 to 1945. Taurus can be a cruel zealous fundamentalist in desperate need of spiritual intervention. Jim Jones (5/13/31), fanatic cult leader, led 1,000 people to mass suicide in 1978. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (4/23/68) showed no remorse for evil. Saddam Hussein (4/28/37), a dictator, was humiliated and publicly slain by US.
Pope John Paul ll (5/8/20) radiated the heavenly light of Taurus when he asked the rich to share their wealth with the poor. As the first Pope to visit a synagogue, John Paul ll encouraged Catholics and Jews to love one another. He survived countless chaotic messes and reforms in the church along with an attempted assassination. In this picture, his hand looks Arian, adding abundant courage and initiative to his solid values.
William Randolph Hearst and Orson Welles (bulls) battled stubbornly over the making and release of ‘Citizen Kane’. Kane was a Midas who Welles irreverently modeled after Hearst. Despite his natural charisma, brilliant acting, and serious directing abilities, Welles was no match for Hearst’s fortune or power to influence masses. Hearst was stubborn, acquisitive, possessive, and controlling. Welles was determined and persistent in his righteous defiance of Hearst. Hearst tortured Welles with too many legal obstacles and bludgeoned him with bad publicity until Welles could not afford to practice his principles (values) or rise to his challenges (procrastination) or control his self-indulgences (peril).
When a child becomes thirteen in Jewish tradition, he or she becomes a man or woman after performing a religious rite of passage. Rituals take place in synagogues and require terrified adolescents to read Hebrew from the Torah, sing, and earn their adulthood. I’ve read many thousands of hands at bar and bat mitzvah parties. I’ve worked at many hundreds of modest family gatherings and massive extravaganzas. I’ve performed alongside the world’s best mentalists, magicians, caricaturists, and esoteric readers. Costumed with my black velvet purple satin lined cape, crystal ball, and lighted magnifying glass, I’m a five-minute best friend and bull-shit detector. It’s amazing how much value can be given in five minutes.