Palmistry

The lore dates palmistry to the ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, Sumerians and Babylonians. The "written" eastern (Vedic) references date to approx. 2000 BCE and the western references to Aristotle 384-322 BCE. The term Chiromancy is based on the Greek word cheir = hand and mancy=divination. There are two more forms for the base word –gnomy and –ology, which were perhaps adapted to make it less of a divination and more of a study.

Palmistry or Chiromancy has a connotation of fortune telling, in the 17th century it was a university subject in Germany and outlawed as witchcraft in England. Astrology and palmistry have strong links. There used to be a basic division into seven types of hands, which matched the seven planets known by the ancients.

Chiromancy or 'cheiromancy', is the art of characterization and foretelling the future through the study of the palm, also known as palmistry, palm-reading, chirology or hand analysis. The practice is found all over the world, with numerous cultural variations. Those who practice chiromancy are generally called palmists, palm readers, hand readers, or chirologists.

Palmistry can trace its roots back to Indian (Hindu) Astrology (known in Sanskrit as Jyotish) and Roma (gypsy) fortune tellers. The Hindu sage Valmiki is thought to have written a book, whose title translates in English as "The Teachings of Valmiki Maharshi on Male Palmistry", comprising 567 stanzas, more than 5,000 years ago.

From India, the art of palmistry spread to China, Tibet, Egypt, Persia and to other countries in Europe. Palmistry came to China in around 3,000 B.C. It then progressed to Greece where Anaxagoras practised it. However, modern palmists often combine traditional predictive techniques with psychology, holistic healing, and alternative methods of divination.

The practice of chiromancy is generally regarded as a pseudoscience. It should be noted that the information outlined below is briefly representative of modern palmistry; there are many, often conflicting, interpretations of various lines and palmar features across various "schools" of palmistry.

Chiromancy consists of the practice of evaluating a person's character or future by "reading" the palm of that person's hand. Various "lines" ("heart line", "life line", etc.) and "mounts" (or bumps) (chirognomy) , purportedly suggest interpretations by their relative sizes, qualities, and intersections. In some traditions, readers also examine characteristics of the fingers, fingernails, fingerprints and palmar skin patterns (dermatoglyphics), skin texture and color, shape of the palm, and flexibility of the hand.

A palm reader usually begins by reading the person's 'dominant hand' (the hand he or she writes with or uses the most). In some traditions of palmistry, the other hand is believed to carry past-life or karmic information, as well as hereditary traits which is not the case. One lines form on the palm they remain there. New lines are created as a person experiences life.