Palm Reading

I thought I would share a little about the history of Palm Reading from my book

The Emergence of Palmistry

As I looked into the history of where palmistry started, I began to feel like an archaeologist, the more I dug the more I found. There is no one point of focus in history that heralds palmistry’s arrival it’s more like an evolution of multicultural beliefs and practices through the centuries. My Spirit Guide leans close to me and whispers “there is no beginning and no end just a trail to follow”

I feel that the hand itself draws attention for the nonverbal communications like waving to “oh you can tell he is a hard work just look at his hands”. So much information is imparted by the hand without us ever realising, as I thought about the implications, I realised that most of our skills and creative abilities flow through our hand and into the world. Where would an artist be without his hands? Or a sword maker. It is of little wonder that the hand become regarded as a sacred place to look at the journey of life.

The fingers, nails and hands are often examined as part of a medical examinations, often revealing circulation, autoimmune and breathing conditions. There is no scientific evidence to support Palmistry, maybe this is the challenge to be looked at for the future, but it would be a shame to take the personal touch, the intuition, and the Soul Compass away from this ancient art.

Versions of Palmistry as we know of today appears to started around 3000 to 5000 years ago. I believe that the Druids sacred finger Ogham may have well been one of the major contributions to Palmistry as we know it. The Ogham involves looking at certain patterns within the palm and connecting these with the divine consciousness. Another school of thought is that Palmistry finds it origins in early India, I do feel there is some validly here as the chakra system as we know it finds it origins in India and the hands also contain chakras or energy centres.

From this point palmistry weaves its way through Mesopotamia, Persia, Tibet, China and Egypt. My Spirit Guide urged me to look carefully into the Egyptian and early Roman cultures as contributing majorly to Palmistry as we know it today. As I researched along the direction, he pointed me in. I did indeed find reference to an interesting book/manuscript held in the British Museum written around 1775 on old Egyptian fortune-telling techniques.

It is at this point I realise that this Spirit Guide in his lifetime on earth gained experience with Palmistry, he has always told me he was an Egyptian trader/traveller. My mind wanders and my clairvoyance shows me visions of the Nile, lush and fruitful against the back drop of sand dunes and Intensely blue sky. There my Guide sits astride a camel, behind them is a caravan of several other camels loaded with brightly coloured mats and blankets, he smiles and waves.

This experience leaves my heart full with the warmth of his smile and a rather large smile on my face. I am always truly grateful for his help and support, in the next breath I realised he is packed and ready to go on a journey. I am suddenly surrounded by a vision of pages and realise that the journey is the pages of this book, one that I am delighted to share with him.

The arrival of the 17^th century sees Palmistry being used as evidence in witch hunts. These were dark times as hands and bodies were searched for moles, spots and scars, these blemishes were seen as the mark of the devil.

Thankfully this time passed, and the Renaissance saw Palmistry now often referred to as Chiromancy become a more uniform as information about the lines of the hand was shared. Palmistry had become a source of entertain for royalty and the upper classes, now was the rise of the fortune-tellers and Gypsies. This conjures up magical images of large crystal balls and lavishly clad fortune-tellers, their large earrings and Turbans adding an extra dose of mysticism.

This surge of popularity continued into the early 19^th century with Palm Readings being one of the main attractions at social gatherings and events. It was very fashionable to have your palms read, even though there were bizarre laws in place, that risked jail time. Palmistry slowly drew back into the shadows making way for the rise of Mediumship (giving messages from deceased loved ones ) astrology and more card focused psychic readings like tarot.

Palmistry appears to be slowly making a comeback since early 2009, I believe its about using intuition in combination to connect with the lines.