Palmistry 101
In the recent resurgence of esoteric and occult practices, palmistry seems to have drawn the short straw. Tarot cards, astrology, and ritual practice have all enjoyed a renaissance, but palm reading (or chiromancy) still remains a fringe interest.
Maybe it’s because we’re reticent, these days, to believe our physical bodies have much, if any, connection to our spiritual selves or our path through life. After all, chiromancy had a surge in popularity around the same time that phrenology really took off – you know, the practice of reading bumps on the head famously leveraged by racists to justify European superiority? Yikes!
I came to palmistry later in my practice, picking it up mostly because the New Orleans psychic shop I was working at required me to do so. As an intuitive healer, palms also seemed a strange tool for reading people – something about reducing a client’s personality and fate to the lines on their hands felt reductive to me, less spiritual and magickal than working with cards or planetary positions.
But, over time I learned to really appreciate palmistry as a tool for guidance and healing. Like so many divinatory practices, the accuracy and utility of palm reading is all in how you approach it!
THE HISTORY OF PALM READING
Scholarly records of palm reading are scant and vague prior to 350 BCE, when Aristotle discovered a treatise on the subject, penned by Anaxagoras, on a temple altar. However, its origins are thought to trace back to India and a 5th Century BCE book of poems written by Valmiki (who is thought to be the author of the epic spiritual poem, the Ramayana).
Some scholars speculate that the practice moved from India through to China, Tibet, Egypt, and Persia via the peripatetic Roma people, which explains the modern association between “gypsy fortune tellers” and palm reading (note: many folks consider gypsy to be an ethnic slur, which is why I put it in inverted commas – I don’t make a habit of using the term!)
During the Middle Ages, chiromancy became synonymous with witchcraft and was demonized by the Catholic church. During the Renaissance, chiromancy (along with necromancy, and many other methods of divination) was classified as a forbidden art, despite the rise in popularity of ceremonial magic.
SPIRITUALISM AND FORTUNE TELLING
Palm reading as we know it got its start in the west during the Spiritualism movement of the early 19th century. During that period, Western thought was getting a huge shake up due to the advent of major scientific discoveries. Books like Darwin’s Origin of the Species challenged traditionally held religious views and left room in the cosmos for wonder, doubt, and fresh perspectives. The Enlightenment period saw an increase not only in scientific theories but also in mythology, magic, and spirituality: suddenly the world was strange, unknown, and infinitely more complicated than people had previously realized. A return to magic was an organic extension of scientific discovery.
During this time, palmistry got its kick-off in Captain Casimir Stanislas D'Arpentigny's 1839 book La Chirognomie. From there its popularity steamrolled: Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari, Mark Twain, and even Thomas Edison were all said to be believers in chiromancy!
It’s interesting to think of fortune telling and psychic reading enjoying such astronomical popularity at the same time as Darwin was blowing everyone’s minds with the idea that man didn’t walk straight out of the Garden of Eden fully formed. But we have the writers, philosophers, artists, mystics, and scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries to thank for expanding our understanding of the transcendental from religious (and primarily Christian) to something murkier, broader, and more mysterious – something that draws from science as well as philosophy, from religious practices as well as folklore and mysticism.
People were looking for a way to understand the world, something that could shed light on the self through a practice equal parts biological and spiritual. Palmistry was a perfect fit.
HANDS UP FOR THE FUTURE
Will palmistry, like tarot reading, astrology, and witchcraft, start seeing more popularity as the new age bubble continues to swell? It’s possible! There are plenty of people who still practice the art, and since offering the service I’ve found many folks who are still fascinated by the idea that you can tell them something about themselves based on the shape, texture, and topography of their hands. Clients who are nervous about tarot cards or tea leaves (“what if you tell me something bad about my future!?”) seem more at ease with palms, perhaps because they’re familiar – after all, you grew them yourself!
In the next Palmistry 101 installment we’ll look at how palmistry differs from other forms of divination, and how I personally utilize it in a way that avoids clichés (“you’re going to get married three times and have five children!”) and focuses instead on personal growth and autonomous decision making.
Remember folks: the future isn’t set in stone! Our choices are what define us.
Till next time,
xoxo Celeste