Chiromancy is also known as palmistry and palm analysis.

Chiromancy is an age old art which aims to learn about a person’s future through the characterization and study of his palms.

This term is derived from two Greek words, cheir and manteia, which mean hand and divination, respectively.

Chiromancy is also known by other popular names such as palmistry, palm reading, chirology, and hand analysis.

The main idea behind chiromancy is that the left hand is the one that a person is born with while the right hand is the hand which the person becomes.

This is because of the fact that the right hand is used more often and incorporates the changes that one undergoes in life.

Naturally, the opposite is held to be true for left handers.

The chiromancy types of hands are as follow:

Practical hand

This hand has a palm which is square in shape, with the fingers being short. People with this kind of hand are generally considered to be hardworking and down to earth. In short, they are practical people.

Intuitive hand

This hand has a palm which is long and yet the fingers are still short. People with this kind of hand are generally considered to be energetic and active, with quick wits.

Sensitive hand

This hand is a combination of the two hands described above – the palm and fingers are long. People with this kind of hand are considered to be creative, emotional, and largely dependent on their moods.

Intellectual hand

This hand has a square palm and long fingers. People with this kind of hand are generally considered to be smart, logical, and largely depend on reason.

There are 3 major lines which hold meanings. These are as follow.

• Heart line
• Head line
• Life line

Aside from these major lines, people who practice chiromancy look into other variations of the lines in order to read more detail about the person’s future.

There are also other minor lines to be found in a person’s palms, all of which give additional information about his future.

One factor is the classification of the hand, and the other is the lines which can be found on a person’s hand.

Palmists generally classify the hands into the four elements:

• Earth
• Air
• Water
• Fire

Each of these elemental classifications carries distinct features, like the shape of the hand, the length and shape of the fingers and the skin color.

The heart line

This line can be found just below the fingers of the hands. Palmists generally refer to this line to find out about the person’s emotional inclinations, including their views on romantic relationships and other matters of the heart. They also use the heart lines to determine the health of the person’s physical heart.

The head line

This is the line just below the index finger and runs towards the outside edge of the hand. Palmists interpret these lines to gain some sort of knowledge to the person’s mind and the part of his personality that is associated with it.

The life line

The line that can be found above the thumb and arcs towards the wrist, this line is used by palmists to determine a person’s overall well-being and health. They also interpret these lines as indicative of future changes in one’s life, which may include personal tragedies.

Other minor palm lines

• Sun Line
• Girdle of Venus
• Union Lines
• Mercury Line
• Travel Lines
• Other Markings (stars, triangles, crosses, tridents, squares and rings)
• Apollo Line

They said though scientific studies have been made to correlate palmistry to several physical and mental disorders, there have been no significant results to the studies that would support the claims made by palmists as to the validity of the art. These skeptics contend that there is no evidence to link the palm lines to a person’s character.

In addition, some palmists have found themselves as being labeled as false physics that practice cold reading. Defenders of palmistry say that even though fortune telling is one of the practices in palmistry – palmists study the fingers to tell a person’s future – chirognomy is focused on reading a person’s character rather than guess what his future holds for him.

Unfortunately, skeptics tend to associate the art with the more common fortune telling rather than character reading.

Some take chiromancy sessions with palmists just to test what these clairvoyants could say accurately about them.

These skeptics generally regard palmistry as a pseudoscience due to the unorthodox and non-scientific methods that palmists use to derive their divinations.

Chiromancy, also known as cheiromancy and chirology, means hand in Greek. For this reason, it is also termed as palmistry, palm-reading, or hand analysis. Practitioners of this art or science are called chirologists, palmists, palm or hand readers or palm or hand analysts.

Indian origins

Chiromancy is said to have originated in India where Hindu and astrology is strongly believed and practiced. Hindu believes that about 5,000 years ago, poet Valmiki wrote a book that teaches male palmistry. Chiromancy then influenced other countries like China, Tibet, Egypt, Persia, and as far as Greece.

Divination

Chiromancy is a form of divination. Most modern palm readers integrate the traditional and psychology, holistic healing and other divination techniques. However, chiromancy remains to be a pseudoscience or a fake science. This is because of the lack of accuracy and its unsupported claims.