The next subject to engage your attention is the appearance of the hand as a
whole, and the object of the investigation is to discover whether the hand is
evenly balanced, or is heavier or lighter in certain parts than in others.
The best method of proceeding with this examination is to lay
the two hands wide open before you with the palms up and the fingers straightened
out to their natural length. If the hand is a flexible one, you must not allow
it to bend back, showing its flexibility, for that you have already discovered,
but merely extend the fingers in a natural manner, until they are held straight.
This gives you a full view of the palm, and you fist note whether the fingers
are seemingly long enough just to balance the palm, whether they are shorter
than the palm, or whether they seem to be much longer. This is done
to see whether the hand seems balanced from top to bottom. In this examination,
what we call the Three Worlds of Palmistry first make their appearance. These
three world are based on the supposition that a person is guided either by mind,
by the affairs of every-day life, or by the baser qualities of animal instincts.
We now seek, from an examination of the hand as a whole, to discover which of
these three worlds our subject inhabits. As far back as we can remember, there
have been the three divisions of body, soul, and spirit; mental, abstract, and
material; air, fire, and water, and many other subdivisions into threes or trinities
corresponding to the three worlds of which I have spoken. They all embody the
idea of an ethereal element, a material one, and a baser.
In
the hand, it is constantly and most aptly used to bring out clearly an idea
we wish to convey of the domination of mind, material matter, or baser qualities
in the subject. In the hand, taken as a whole, the finger or upper portion represent
mind; the middle portion of the hand, from the base of the fingers to a
line running across the hand from the top of the Mount of the Moon to Mount
of Venus (34), represents the material, and the base of the hand, from the line
above described to the wrist, the lower elements. These locate the Three Worlds
of Palmistry. In the hand now outstretched before you, - if length of finger
predominates, mind is the ruling factor.
- If the middle portion is most developed, the world of business or every-day
life is strongly prominent.
- If the lower part is strongest, the subject lives on a low, earthly plane,
and is sensual and animal in their instincts.
Mind dominant
We of course know that mind is elevating, therefore if the world of mind is
strongest ,we know the subject is fitted for study, for mental occupation, and
if this development is very pronounced, without anything to back it, they will
be one who lives in a realm of ideas and exaltation, without sufficient of the
practical side present to keep them from following their mental development
to the exclusion of necessary and practical matters. This is why so may literary
men, teachers, and students are such poor business men that they accumulate
nothing. They live entirely in the upper world as palmistry conceives it, and,
while mind is all right, still all mind and nothing practical is a most unfortunate
development for one who has to get through this matter-of-fact world.
Practical dominant The Middle world is the world of practical affairs. This is
because we have in the territory covered by this middle portion of the hand
the qualities of ambition, soberness, wisdom, art, shrewdness, aggression, and
resistance developed. This seems a formidable array of qualities, but to the
one who has to battle with worldly affairs in this century, they are none too
strong. The middle development, if overshadowing both the upper and lower worlds,
will show that business, practical life, every-day ideas, and material success
compose the world in which the subject lives. Thus they are better fitted for
commercial positions, politics, war, agricultural pursuits, or for anything
which is entirely practical. They have a fine contempt for the subject who is
all brains. Money-getting is their moving desire, and they live in the world
of material matters.
Base dominant
If you find the hand developed at the base, you will know that your subject
lives in the realm of low, base desires, and enjoys themselves best when gratifying
their sensual pleasures. This is particularly true if the hand be coarse. They
can appreciate nothing high or elevating. If they acquire money they do not
know how to make a refined use of it. They love beauty, but it is vulgar, showy
kind that attract them: they are fond of eating, but with the gluttony of the
gourmand, not the delight of the epicure. They have no mental recreation; mind
is not a guiding force with them. They are sometimes shrewd, but with the instinctive
cunning of the fox, not the talent of a high and lofty mind. They love display,
and in their home will have profusion, not taste; glaring colors, not harmony.
They are vulgar and common in all their tastes, and among people of refinement
and good breeding is the veritable boor. They do not see how ridiculous they
make themselves to men of mind and elevated thought. They see only from their
earthly point of view, and all their tastes, thoughts, loves, are coarse, vulgar,
and common. This subject lives in the lower world.
You will often find these three developments in the hands you meet, and it
is no unlikely nor impossible types that are given here. Very often you will
not be able to tell at a glance which world predominates. This is a most fortunate
circumstance, for it tells you that the hand is balanced, and in everything
pertaining to the human character balance is most to be desired. Thus, to have
mind, practical matters, and the lower desires so combined as to give neither
one a mastery of the other will show a person who is not one-sided in their
view of life. They will be wise, intelligent, practical, prudent, even-tempered,
and yet not unsophisticated, for they have enough of the base alloy to give
them necessary knowledge. They are thus able to weight all maters, not from
a purely mental standpoint, but can add to their investigations the common-sense
needed to make life successful. This balance of the three worlds, as shown by
the whole hand, enables a person to become a pronounced success in the world.
Consistency must be looked into very carefully, however, for laziness, should
it be present, can destroy any amount of genuine ability and any number of good
intentions. A soft hand may even break a good a combination as one with three
worlds balanced. When you find that a hand is not balanced, you must note which
world is the strongest, and judge whether it is enough more pronounced than
the others to lead them in its wake. Sometimes you will see one world only slightly
in excess of the others. In this case you can say that the subject likes
the matters of that particular world best, but it may not be sufficiently in
the lead to make them follow it. Here, as everywhere else, good sense
and practice must guide you in a judgment of how much one of the worlds predominates
over the others. Of course, it stands to reason that no success can come in
a worldly way unless the middle portion be developed. Mind may win glory, but
not money; or the base qualities may be abundantly present and yet not destroy
financial success. Line the two upper worlds, and you can obtain financial results
from mental strength; line the two lower and you can gain riches though it may
be made in coarse occupations. Take away the middle portion, and you have then
the supremacy of the mind and the predominance of the earthy without the leaven
of common-sense; such developments cannot make successful people. Look, therefore,
to the balance hand for your best results, next to the upper or lower in combination
with the middle.
References
The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading- A practical Treatise on the Art Commonly
called Palmistry 1946 Benham, William. Printed and published by R. J. Taraporevala
for D. B. Tarporevala Sons & Co. Bombay
In
the hand, it is constantly and most aptly used to bring out clearly an idea
we wish to convey of the domination of mind, material matter, or baser qualities
in the subject. In the hand, taken as a whole, the finger or upper portion represent
mind; the middle portion of the hand, from the base of the fingers to a
line running across the hand from the top of the Mount of the Moon to Mount
of Venus (34), represents the material, and the base of the hand, from the line
above described to the wrist, the lower elements. These locate the Three Worlds
of Palmistry. In the hand now outstretched before you, - if length of finger
predominates, mind is the ruling factor.