The major and minor lines of the palm (heart, head, life, fate and their subsidiaries), are the features read in chiromancy. Palm reading is attested in several traditions independently, including Indian samudrika shastra and the Greek and Roman world, and the European system took its modern form in the nineteenth century in the work of writers such as d'Arpentigny and Desbarrolles.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 8
- What Defines This Grouping
- The creases of the palm - heart, head, life, fate and their subsidiaries - each assigned a sphere of life in chiromancy and read for length, depth, breaks and branches. 1
Origins
- Origin Period
- Codified in its modern European form in mid-nineteenth-century France. 1
- Whose Classification This Is
- The line meanings of modern European palmistry are Desbarrolles's 1859 codification of the earlier chiromantic literature. 1
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The Lines of the Palm
The major and minor lines of the palm (the heart line, head line, life line, fate line and their subsidiaries), are the features read in chiromancy, or palmistry. Each line is read for the sphere it governs: the heart line for the emotions and relationships, the head line for the intellect, the life line for vitality and the course of life, the fate line for career and destiny.
Palm reading is attested independently in several traditions, including the Indian samudrika shastra and the Greek and Roman world, and it became a popular divinatory art in Europe, systematised by writers who codified the meanings of the lines and their marks.
Reading the hand
In chiromancy the lines are read together with the mounts, the fingers and the overall shape of the hand, the depth, length, breaks and branches of each line carrying meaning. The atlas describes the lines and their traditional interpretations, presenting palmistry as a divinatory tradition rather than endorsing its claims.
The atlas gives each line its position, the sphere it governs, and the meanings of its features. The mounts of the palm, read alongside the lines, are treated in their own category, within The Body & Its Centres.
Enter a year to compare these entries as the atlas records them at that moment. Leave it empty for the present. A year before the common era is entered with a minus sign, so 44 BCE is minus 44.