To see a world in a grain of sand,
Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

When William Blake spoke these prophetic words about infinity in the palm of your hand, and his reference to eternity, it sums up the palmists view of reincarnation, the search for who we are.

The Hindus believe palmistry to be a sacred tool to discover our life tasksand where we stand on the wheel of life, and why certain decisions were made in our lives. Here in the west, largely devoid of any real spiritual input in our lives, we view Palmistry and Astrology as parlour games, but in the East, these things are seen as underpinning the very fabric of life.

How right William Blake was, for past present and future are all there, for those with eyes to see. Look at the hand print shown, notice any anomalies. The fingers have 3 divisions called phalanges, these relate loosely, to the 3 worlds of body mind and spirit. These 12 finger divisions relate to the Zodiac signs, and these in the Middle Ages were seen by the Christian monks as the omens and voice of the 12 apostles, and it is this that was inferred by Blake’s mention of Heaven in a wild flower. Being also the 12 major British flowers, they give clues, to what the coming 12 months of the year may contain for us.This is handy in palmer-counselling.

• The hand-print shown has on the Apollo or ring finger unusually, 4 phalanges. (1) This has been documented by Prof. Penrose in the Lancet as being a congenital atavistic marker.
• The head-line which is the lower of the two crossing lines, known to medicine as, (the lower transverse crease) curves up out of its normal path towards the upper or line of heart. (2)
• The line of heart is islanded, feathered, straight, short and lies low in the hand. (3)
• The line of health curves across from under the little or Mercury finger down to hit the lifeline, in a wavy, meandering way. (4)
• The ancients called the line that curves in from the heel of the hand, (Mount of the moon) the Via Lasciva, it is not a good omen and is often seen as showing a decline of the health from around this point where it meets the line of life.(5)

But what does it all mean?

40 years ago people would ask the palmist about emotional matters, during the economic recession in the mid eighties the questions were all about careers, but new the trend is now all for spirit and health guidance. William Blake’s mention of infinity in the palm of your hand, is a clue to why Indian palmists base so much importance on these palmer configurations.

This handprint of a top Muslim complementary therapist, who was very much at a crossroads in his life and needed some outside assistance, let’s see what his hand suggests.

• The 4 divisions in the ring finger governing the emotions, tell of some relationship anomaly which coupled to the upturning head line means money worries, the added faulty heart line shows both a cold calculating nature, and latent cardio-vascular difficulties, this with the prominent healthline reaching to the lifeline at age 53-54 mean an oncoming life crisis.This hard working and well respected hospital doctor had 3 wives and 5 children, he also was supporting his family financially back in India, this difficult situation was made worse by his buying of quantities of lottery tickets, in the hope of a big win to solve his economic difficulty. The worry of his situation meant he was working too many hours, and thesignposts were that this was affecting his health particularly hiscardio-vascular system as shown, Luckily, he was open minded enough to seek help. Most fortune tellers today number psychology and counselling qualifications amongst their skills basket, we are seeing more and more with issues of economic debt, mainly from the student and lower income brackets. Debt counselling can be a lifesaver. This doctor was so lucky he sought help in time.

T Stokes
Palms read by post or email at Palmist@fsmail.net