Palmistry (Hast Rekha Shastra)
Palmistry is the reading of character and life tendencies from the hand: its shape, lines, mounts, fingers and thumb. In India it is called Hast Rekha Shastra and forms part of Samudrika Shastra, the study of the body’s marks.
Also known as: palm reading, hasta samudrika shastra, chiromancy, hand reading
Palmists look at the whole hand, not just the lines. Shape shows temperament; the three major lines, heart, head and life, show feeling, thinking and vitality; lines such as the fate and sun lines show direction and recognition; and the mounts, fleshy pads named after planets, show where your energy naturally gathers.
The art is old in India, China and the Greek world. Modern Western palmistry was shaped by Cheiro (William John Warner, 1866–1936) and the American William G. Benham, whose The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading (1900) remains a standard reference.
Most palmists today read your dominant hand as the self you have developed and the other hand as the potential you were born with, and compare the two. Traditional Indian palmists often read a man’s right hand and a woman’s left, a custom many now set aside.
Lines are not a fixed sentence. Palmists say they can change over the years, and modern palmists do not read any line as the length of a life. Palmistry is best read as a portrait of tendencies, not a fixed fate.