Lives of our Hands |
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Two Different Views
"I enjoyed your palmistry article dealing with the Life Line," writes Mr. Mahabal. "After 15 years of study on this crease, my research unhesitatingly proves to me that it most certainly begins from the bottom (tamasic) part of the palm." I have written in this column numerous times that the Life Line begins between the thumb and index finger and continues, like a timeline, down to the base of the palm, curving around the Mount of Venus. This is the common viewpoint of the chronology of the Life Line shared by most Western palmists from Cheiro and Adolphe Desbarrolles to Noel Jacquin and William Benham.
Mr. Mahabal refers to another author that I have also cited in this column. "The great palmist, Julius Spier, also believed that it started from the bottom," he writes, "but did not elaborate most probably because he did not approach palmistry from the astrological/metaphysical standpoint, but from the psychological one." Mr. Mahabal is correct.
In his book, The Hands of Children (Routledge & Kegan Paul: 1955), Julius Spier writes that it "is the Line of Life, which according to my interpretation springs from the ball of the thumb, the Mount of Venus, and ends at the first line across, the Head Line." Spier acknowledges that his interpretation "differs from that of all other exponents of chirological systems," but he makes a strong case in point.
"My entirely new interpretation, which is the fruit of many years experience," writes Spier, "is mainly based on the fact that the impressions and experiences of childhood, which play an important part in my system, are always to be found in the neighborhood of the Mount of Venus." Spier also draws upon the Saturn Line, or Fate Line (sometimes called the Career Line) running straight up the palm to the finger of Saturn to reinforce his point.
"The Line of Fate" writes Spier, "as is universally accepted, commences in the lower part of the hand, and it therefore seems reasonable to suppose that the Life Line should have its starting point in the same region of the hand for, after all, the fate of a person begins with his entry into life." Spier's viewpoint is entirely reasonable and Mr. Mahabal elaborates quite logically upon this idea.
"In my opinion," writes Mr. Mahabal, "the lifeline actually deals with our primal feelings, and is a barometer of sexual and sensual energy. This would make good astrological sense as it starts from the Earth, Venus or Moon planetary points. Seen in this light, this crease takes on an entire new window of understanding which is so much more rich and conclusive, and which fills in the gaps of its serious misunderstanding."
In consulting a text by V.A. Ayer on Sariraka Sastra, the Indian science of hand reading based on the Kartikeyan system, the Life Line, reddish in color, is referred to as the "Rohini" which passes through the center of the palm and goes up to the index finger. Other texts on Indian hand reading use the Western chronology of the Life Line.
Spier does note in his discussion that "this disagreement about the starting point of the Life Line is of little consequence in practical chirology because, with the exception of childhood impressions, all other phenomena connected with the Life Line can be studied equally well at its beginning as at its end." I will be communicating with Mr. Mahabal and will keep readers of this column informed as to developments in this discourse on the chronology of the Life Line.
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