Not all palms are shaped like perfect squares or rectangles. Some are noticeably wider at the top than the bottom, or vice versa. Each of these characteristics adds to our understanding. We take the underlying shape as either a square or rectangle and use that to gage basic character and then add the information gleaned from the shape variations.

First, let us straighten out some nomenclature. If we referred to the top or the bottom of the hand we might only confuse others. Is the person standing or lying down and are the arms above or below the head? Which direction does the hand point and what if the hands point in both directions? Anatomy gives us a simple solution, distinguishing differing parts of the hand in relation to their distance from the shoulder and trunk of the body. The part of the hand that is at the wrist is closer than the fingers and so it is called proximal. The fingertips are more distant and are distal. The base of the fingers is distal to the wrist and proximal to the fingertips. Because the palm occupies the space from the wrist to the base of the fingers, the area just below the base of the fingers is the distal part of the palm. It is all very simple.

In some people the proximal part of the palm is noticeably smaller than the distal palm. When the hand is held up, the palm looks like a flattened V. These people have a hard time marshaling and directing their energy. Such people have the forcefulness of a garden hose with a fully opened oversize nozzle. They can be constantly “busy” but their efforts are on the edge of exhaustion. I call it the diarrhea hand because the subjects just can’t seem to control the loss of energy. It is useful for those people to hold their fingers together and even form loose fists when the exhaustion overtakes them as it will do often.

The opposite formation, the A shaped hand, has a large base at the wrist that tapers as it approaches the fingers. I call this the constipated hand. These subjects frequently have few lines on their hands and are more prone to anxiety. Their eyes are often intense, as if their looks could burn holes. One would expect them to suffer from apoplexy. They can’t release all of their energy. Advise then to relax and spread their fingers some and watch their eyes soften as they follow this direction. We will come back to this, but think of the body as a great battery and the hands are a major control of the flow of life energy, the chi or qui as it is sometimes called.

Q – LETTER OF THE DAY: I have an M in my hand. Does that mean I’m destined for money?

A- It might help if you got a job. I have heard of all sorts of words and letters in the hand. Many a “fortune teller” can lead one on with such tails as M stands for money. I observe it may just as well stand for misfit. While I do use hand analysis to forecast some future possibilities, it also has very serious psychological, medical and scientific uses. More later.