You searched for: “palmistry
palmistry
1. Telling fortunes from the lines on the palms of the hand; cheiromancy, chiromancy.
2. The art or practice of telling fortunes and interpreting character from the lines and configurations of the palm of a person's hand.

Methods of palmistry

Palmistry is the practice of evaluating a person's character or future life 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 palmist usually begins by reading the person's "dominant hand" or 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.

The basic framework for "classical" palmistry (the most widely taught and practiced tradition) is rooted in Greek mythology.

Each area of the palm and fingers is related to a Greek god or goddess, and the features of that area indicate the nature of the corresponding aspect of the subject. For example, the ring finger is associated with the Greek god Apollo; characteristics of the ring finger were tied to the subject's dealings with art, music, aesthetics, fame, and harmony.

Skeptics often include palmists on lists of alleged psychics who practice a technique called cold reading

Cold reading is cited as the practice that allows readers of all kinds, including palmists, to appear psychic.

Although fortune telling is much less common today in mainstream palmistry as it was in the past, skeptics almost always associate palmistry with "fortune telling" rather than reading character.

This entry is located in the following unit: palm + (page 1)