by Katelan Foisy
Last year I wrote a series of blogs on the history of Valentine’s Day, some recipes inspired by aphrodisiacs, and ritual for anyone choosing to spend it alone. You can find them here.
Valentine’s Day: Dinner & History
Valentine’s Day: Dessert & Charms
This year I thought I’d focus on body maps, especially the hands. Palmistry or Chiromancy has been around for thousands of years. although the origins of it remain a mystery. It is believed to have roots in India and spread to China, Tibet, Persia, Egypt, and Greece. From there it traveled through Europe and later into the US. Aristotle supposedly wrote about it in De Historia Animalium (History of Animals) saying “Lines are not written into the human hand without reason.” There is some dispute on this since some say Aristotle found a missing treatise on palmistry and others say that when his work was published in 1738 by a London publisher it included a treatise on palmistry, supposedly written in 350 BC but it was not confirmed to be Aristotle. It’s said that when Aristotle found this treatise he shared it with his pupil Alexander the Great. Medieval Europe became fascinated with it for medical reasons and published a number of journals on the practice. The National Library of Medicine owns a number of them and shared a few here.
The rise of Christianity looked down upon palmistry as a pagan practice. It remained popular within the Romani and Jewish communities who sold their services to the well to do as a way to make ends meet and survive. This did not always keep them safe. Britain had the vagrancy act in 1822 which targeted fortune tellers and mainly Roma. This act sentenced Joseph Powell and astrologer to six months in prison for fraud. On the website Victorian Web it’s written that in the 20 July 1893 issue of the Gloucester Citizen it reported the case of Clair St. Clair, alias Professor Francisca. St. Clair who was arrested and charged with “unlawfully using a certain subtle craft, to wit, palmistry, to deceive and impose upon her Majesty’s subjects contrary to the Vagrant Act”. As St. Clair was led away from her dwelling, she reportedly “called upon the Deity to send down fire and damnation upon the Metropolitan Police for robbing her of her means of living”. Later, in a seemingly calmer state of mind, she defended her chosen profession, declaring: “I simply expound what many learned and eminent men have written about. Their works are high priced, but I give the public the benefit of my study of them for 1s”. She stayed in Holloway Prison while her sanity was questioned. This was originally gathered by Mimi Mathews from “Divination, Witchcraft, and Mesmerism.” The Eclectic Magazine. New York: Eclectic Magazine Publishing, 1853. While the act was mainly set in place to disband Roma communities, it more or less dispersed them and made it harder for the government to track. Palmistry gained attention during the 19th century Victorian interest in the occult and became part of pop culture where it has remained ever since.
Palmistry is the art of deciphering the lines and features of our hands to show personality traits and decipher what the future may bring/ what we are likely to accomplish (left hand) as well as what we have already accomplished (right hand). By reading both hands you are getting a full report on how you may utilize or even change the map that is being shown to you. For this palmistry edition we’re focusing on the love aspects to help you focus on the greatest potential for you to both tap into your characteristics and gifts but also tend to any wounds you may have regarding love. As we grow older the lines on our plans change with our experiences. If you find something on your palm that you would like to change, simply work on that wound and the map will begin shift.
The areas we’ll be focusing on are the heart line, the line closest to your fingers. The girdle of Venus which lies under the middle and ring fingers, the mount of the Sun or Apollo under the ring finger, the mount of Jupiter under your index finger, the mount of Venus, the mound closest to the thumb, and the mount of Luna or moon which is right across from Venus on the lower palm. We’ll start with the heart line. The heart line shows how we relate to ourselves, self love and how we relate to relationships. It’s important to look at everything happening with the line in order to get the big picture. For instance if someone has a short line but lots of breaks and chains it may indicate that there was an abusive situation that keeps them distant or they are unable to see their own attractiveness. There’s no bad readings with palmistry, only maps that give you guidance. The heart starts at the percussion and ends somewhere on the palm…
Read full article at The Vardo
CHAOS OF THE THIRD MIND 