Palmistry is a divination practice used to study a person’s characteristics, major life events, preferences, etc. by studying the lines of the palms and other attributes of one’s hand(s).
The History of Palmistry:
Like some other metaphysical practices, it is likely that palmistry’s beginning stages happened in India, but this is unclear. Like astrology, it appears to go back as far as a few of the earliest civilizations. Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world have shown people practicing rituals and using the art of divination.
Find out more about DIVINATION practices by visiting my recent blog post about it here!
Regardless, we do know that it has been used all around the world for thousands of years in both Eastern and Western civilizations. One account that has been recorded was during the century of 300 BC; when Alexander the Great asked Aristotle about his opinion on palmistry. Many people also believe that during Nostradamus‘ life in the 1500’s, he used palmistry (one of his many practices in divination) as a tool to predict the future. These are only a couple examples of incredible and powerful people in history who had a fascination with the palms.
Root Words, Meanings, & Titles:
A person who studies palmistry is usually called a palmist, palm reader, chirologist, or chiromancer. Usually seen or used in a business or more “professional” settings, some groups may refer to palmistry as chirology or chiromancy. Truthfully, it is only a matter of preference.
The word chiromancy comes from the Greek word kheir– which means hand, while obviously –ology is also Greek, which means to speak. Therefore, it would translate to one who speaks about palms.
What Palm Readers Look For:
Someone who practices this art often believes that a person’s personality and life story can be found within the palms of each individual’s hand(s) and that their choices change their lines.
It is thought that on one hand, you may see one’s destiny; while on the other hand, it is instead a more complicated set of lines because of one’s path taken by the use of exercising freewill. This means that our choices, regrets, losses, and even failures will muddy the dominant hand and create smaller, short, and/or more detailed sets of lines that share a personal journey.
For various reasons, (being left-handed versus right-handed, for example), no one seems to be certain on which hand is fate and which is freedom. There is a general consensus, however, that the left hand is the one ”given by God” and the right hand is made by the individual himself.
Personally, I like to see these feats as the left hand is the set of challenges you chose for yourself before your birth here on earth and during this lifetime or a kind of pact you agreed upon with your higher self. On the opposite hand, it appears to me to be how you handled those challenges. In turn, perhaps some of your reactions also influenced or created other events, feelings, lessons, or challenges.
In a sense, that would mean that your palms tell you a story of who you were born as, the karma you came in with, and all that you unconsciously chose, while the other hand tells a different and more personal and human story about who you chose to be, what you learned, the karma you created and/or broke away from, who you transformed into, and who you died as.
Join me on the next blog to find out about the four major lines found on the palms!
From Within the Labyrinth,
-Lakin