Palmistry as a Divination Tool

by Anne C. Ortelee

Your Palm is God’s road map to your Soul.

...said my Palmistry Teacher, Ellen Goldberg during an introductory lecture.

Following her lecture, I went up to compliment her on the quality of information conveyed. She said “Stick ‘em up!”. So, I raised my hands!! Ellen made a few amazing and very pithy observations from a 4 second observation. I was hooked!! I formally signed up and studied Palmistry with Ellen for over 7 years. I’ve worked with the science and art of chiromancy virtually every day since I met Ellen.

Each of us has unique hands. They are as unique as our astrological chart. Perhaps our hands are MORE unique existing as portable charts tied to our physical body! Our hands reflect where we are in time and space as well as our physical, mental, spiritual and emotional evolution during the course of our life. Our hands show our sensitivities, our blocks, our skills, our talents, where we shine, where we fall down as well as how we relate and work with the world. Ellen reads your astrology chart and asks to see your hands to check how you are evolving and choices made at crossroads.

J. Edgar Hoover mandated the FBI train Police Departments using one small part of a hand. The FBI installed fingerprinting across the nation when he realized criminals left their fingerprints behind at the crime scene. When you observe someone’s hands, you can learn an enormous amount about them.

First up, you observe the consistency of the hand ~ flabby, soft, elastic and hard ~ to determine the nature of the person’s energy and vitality. Next, you pay attention to the rigidity of the hand and how it holds itself to see what the hand tells. Fingers spread wide; the person is open. Tightly held fingers makes for a controlled person. And once the hand or the person knows you are observing their hand, it frequently changes to show you a different story.

The seven archetypes used in astrology pertain to the hand. Each of the seven visible planets are located in the hand. By knowing astrology, you already know palmistry!

The Fingers of the Hand represent four Planets. The index finger is Jupiter ruling pride, career, ambition, and faith. Jupiter talks about how bossy you are, indicates leadership abilities, desire to be in charge as well as the ability to plan one’s career and know the next steps to take.

Tall Man or the middle finger is Saturn who takes care of finances, security, work or study. Saturn’s finger describes the soul’s yearning for wisdom, philosophical thinking, tendencies towards melancholy and brooding, research skills and sense of humor.

The ring finger is the Sun focused on ego, artistic expression, reputation and affairs of the heart. That’s why we put a ring on the Sun finger to signify the heart is held or taken. The Sun finger indicates creative abilities, fun, risk taking, gambling and spending.

Mercury rules the Pinky and takes care of money, business and family. Crooked Mercury? Watch out the person might be crooked. Mercury describes problem solving abilities, cleverness with money, knowledge of human nature, level of intelligence as well as whether it is hidden or not. Like our astrology chart, the fingers tell the story!

Palmists look at the shape of the fingers to see who works with who? Do they lean together? Are they separate? How deep are the fingers set? Who is bent? Who is solid? Hold the fingers together and see gaps between them indicates money flows through the person freely. Whom is taller than who? How thick or thin are they? How flexible? How stiff? Bent? How hairy? Any unusual bends or waists? Smooth versus knotty? What is going on with the knuckles? Thick or thin? All those questions provide information about the person.

The mounts of the hand in palmistry:
Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo, Mercury, Mars positive, Mars negative, plain of Mars, Luna mount, Neptune mount, Venus mount

The size of the phalanges, the parts of the fingers relative to the other parts, can vary from finger to finger. Each finger has three worlds. The first phalange ~ top of the finger ~ shows the mental world. The middle phalange shows the practical world. The third phalange, attached to the hand, shows the physical and sensual world. All those details are easily observed by looking at their hand.

A friend who reads palms chose her surgeon based on the hair on his hands ~ it indicates attention to detail, the ability to concentrate, strength as well as stamina. The hairs on his fingers indicated his ability to concentrate for long periods of time. Unfortunately, Mercurial people often shave or wax their hands so sometimes that helpful hair indicator is removed!!

Dr Spock on Star Trek “invented” the Vulcan greeting of the V where the Index/Middle and Ring/Pinky fingers are joined but separated from each other. Leonard Nimoy told a story that as a young boy his father told him to close his eyes but he peeked during a Jewish ritual invoking Shekhina, the feminine aspect of God. He observed the Rabbis’ using the now famous Vulcan hand gesture to call Shekhina into the service. The split fingered gesture of the greeting entranced him. He learned to do it because it felt magical. When Gene Roddenbery, the creator of Star Trek, was looking for a Vulcan Greeting, similar to the handshake humans use, Nimoy suggested the V shape. Leonard Nimoy had Jupiter and Saturn forming a t-square to Sun / Mercury conjoined tightly in his astrological chart ~ so the symbolism of the planets in his astrology chart matched the Vulcan greeting!

Fingertips have shapes which can vary from finger to finger. If the finger tips are the same shape, that represents a consistency in the person. Usually, fingertips are mixed which makes sense as most of us are a mix of energy. Tapered fingers let the life force flow easily while broad finger tips have more resistance to the life force and want to do things their own way. Spatulate fingertips ~ which DO look like spatulas ~ are active, practical, enthusiastic, original, inventive, enterprising, idiosyncratic, independent and obstinate. Square finger tips are practical. Their fingers are methodical, precise, orderly, comforted by routine, resistant to change and perfectionist. Conic fingertips are intuitive, receptive, impressionable, idealistic, heart centered, sympathetic, creative and love beauty. Pointed fingertips are psychic, intuitive, receptive, sensitive, inspirational, impractical, spiritual, connected, idealistic, love beauty. The pointed fingers tend to be dreamers and wish for the moon. If a fingertip seems difficult to classify, it CAN have one shape on one side and a different one on the other. Blend the interpretation for the planet/finger/ archetype to include both shapes to describe the attributes.

One of my personal favorites is “sensitivity pads”. Turn your hand so you can look at it from the side. Notice if there are any “bubbles” or pads on your fingertips. Sometimes they look like droplets of water. Sensitivity pads amplify the five senses. Under extreme stress, the pads can actually swell! And if they appear on a finger, they heighten the finger’s sensitivity in the finger’s areas. You can have them on multiple fingers or just one.

The Moon is located at the bottom of the hand under Pinky finger near the wrist. When Moon turns red or a deeper pink than usual, that is called a psychic blush. It indicates you are receiving information from your intuition. The Moon part of the hand reports on health matters too~ cuts in the moon from lines can indicate illnesses as well as the severity. The Moon is divided into three parts, similar to the phalanges in the fingers. The upper part talks about stomach and intestinal difficulties. The middle part talks about bones, joints and arthritis. The lower part covers reproductive organs, kidneys and bladder.

Venus rules the section of the palm under the Thumb. It is actually the third phalange of the thumb. Venus can be smooth or grilled (covered with lines). The grilled Venus acts as a sexual magnet, passionate, desirous and attractive to others. Smooth mounds of Venus’s tend towards highly romantic ideals with a sense of esthetics, music, sentimentality. They are warm and charming but not deeply sexual.

Mars rules the entire plain of the hand under the Fingers ~ Aggressive Mars is between the Thumb and index finger ~ a big mound there makes for a potentially violent or aggressive nature while the area between Pinky and the Moon is the refined nature of Mars ~ assertive, direct, gets things done in a strategic manner. The entire plain between the two edges of Mars describes energy, anger, directness, temper and sexuality. Mar’s relates to each location or mount where the finger attaches to the hand. The size, shape and lines on those areas tell a story too about how the planet takes action in the world.

Once in a diner, I was reading a friend’s palm when a man overhearing our conversation came over and asked me to look at his hand. He had a huge deeply grilled Mound of Venus and an enormous Plain of Mars ~ to this day they were the biggest I have ever seen! After he left the diner, the waitress informed me he played for the New York Knicks Basketball Team. That enormous Mars brought him wins on the Basketball court and oodles of Venus with his highly grilled mound of Venus ~ both in dollars and women.

Some of the lines of the hand in palmistry:
1. Life line
2. Head line
3. Heart line
4. Girdle of Venus
5. Sun line
6. Mercury line
7. Fate line

The Thumb represents will ~ big thumb, big will. Wiggle your thumb if you are trying to muster up some courage! One of my student’s sisters had an enormous club shaped thumb which is actually called a “murder’s thumb”. Her sister had a volcanic, erupting temper and was physically abusive to her when they were children. There could be a whole book written just on the thumb and how important its shape, size, features, flexibility, and indicated skills are to describe how one moves through the world.

Palms have lines in them. The lines are very helpful with predictive matters. The lines describe various areas of your existence: life, head, heart, life, influence, Saturn, Sun, Mars and Mercury. There are minor lines too ~ Ring of Solomon, Ring of Saturn, mystic cross, Via Lascivia, children, Girdle of Venus, intuition, rascettes, travel and affection. Each line has ages. You can see the age when changes, new things arrive, illness, accidents or health events will take place. The lines show difficult times, when you will fall in love as well as when your heart will be broken. The lines describe the approximate length of your life as well as how you are taking care of your health. You can see both the promise and the reality by comparing your hands ~ recessive hand for promise and dominant hand for current reality.

The lines have various marks, interruptions, indents, islands, breaks and cuts in them that indicate all sorts of events, changes and shifts in fortune. Depending on where the marks occur on the line, you can pinpoint the age of the event described. By knowing the line’s function, you can talk about the area of life affected. When the marks occur at a particular age, you can be as confident of predicting events as you are with an astrology transit.

A friend had a long life promised but wasn’t taking very good care of her health, as signified by her very broken-up life line with separate “islands”. I pointed the out the differences in the lines in her two hand to her. She made conscious changes to improve her health. As a result, her life line “healed”. Her life line is now connected, unbroken, deep and solid reflecting the new choices she made in her life. It is back to matching the deep, solid, unbroken line promised in her life line.

Similar to the astrology chart’s first breath capturing the moment of life, babies are born with their hands closed. At their first breath, the hands open to receive and reveal the life force as it flows through spirit into their being.

Our hands change over time. As they change, they mark the evolution of our soul and the impact that our mind has on our consciousness. Hopefully, this brief introduction to the divinatory nature of the hand intrigues you to learn Palmistry and add it to your skill set. I promise you won’t be disappointed at what hands around you reveal!

Note:
My teacher Ellen Goldberg’s book, “The Art and Science of Hand Reading: Classical Methods for Self-Discovery through Palmistry” is a wonderful place to start to explore the magic of Palmistry at amazon.com

Published in: The Career Astrologer, June 2021.

Author:
Anne Ortelee is a certified Palmist from the School of Oracles as well as a certified astrologer by OPA, ISAR-CAP, NCGR-PAA Level 3 and PMAFA. Her website is AnneOrtelee.com.

Images:
Palmreading: Psychic 2Tarot, CC BY 2.0 'https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0', via Wikimedia Commons
Mounts: Sara Sirolli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Lines: License free by ArtLibre http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en/ via Wikimedia Commons

© 2021 - Anne C. Ortelee - The Career Astrologer

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