Palm reading guide: how to read palms, step by step
A plain palm reading guide for beginners: pick a hand, read its shape, then its lines, mounts and marks, with one sample hand read from start to end.
This palm reading guide teaches a method, in the order a reader works: pick a hand, read its shape, then its lines, mounts and marks. Most guides on how to read palms stop at a list of lines. Here you also get one example hand read from start to finish, what to do when the signs disagree, and how to read someone else without making things up.
One thing to know first: palm reading is a tradition, and no good evidence shows it predicts anything. Learn it as a way of paying attention, and as a set of old stories that give you something to talk about. The evidence page has the details.
Before you start
You need good light and a pen. Daylight from the side is best, because low light across the palm throws the creases into relief. Relax your hand and open it without stretching: a stretched palm flattens the lines and pulls the mounts level. Writing down what you see before you decide what it means is most of the discipline.
Which hand do you read? Books disagree, and some of them split it by gender, as the left or right page sets out. Cheiro's rule is the useful one: "Both the hands should be examined together", with the left for natural tendencies and the right for what you have developed. Start with the hand you write with and compare the other at the end. About 1 person in 10 is left-handed, by the best overall estimate of 10.6%, so if that's you, a right-hand rule was not written with you in mind. Use the hand you use.
The six steps, in order
Follow them on your own hand and tick things off as you go. The checklist remembers where you got to in this browser.
Shape
Palm's proportions, then the fingers against the palm.
Fingers and thumb
Index against ring. How the thumb stands off.
Main lines
Heart, head, life, then fate if there is one.
Minor lines
Sun line and the palm's edge. Often faint or absent.
Mounts
Press each pad. Note which stand out.
Marks
Last, because they are easiest to imagine.
0 of 14 looked at
Shape comes first
Look at the palm before any line. Is it closer to square, or clearly longer than wide? Then judge the fingers against it. Sources measure this differently: one popular test folds your fingers over the palm and calls them long if they cover three-quarters or more, another compares the middle finger with the palm's length. Pick one and stick to it, or let the hand type test measure those two proportions from a photo.
Then the fingers and thumb
Hold your fingers together and compare the index and ring. Old books give each finger to a planet: Jupiter for the index, Saturn for the middle, Apollo for the ring, Mercury for the little finger. They also read the thumb's top joint for will and its second joint for logic. You're collecting impressions here, so don't hurry to a conclusion.
The main lines
Bend your hand a little and the deepest creases show themselves. These are your heart, head and life lines. Look for a fate line running up the middle after that, and don't worry if it is faint or missing. For each line, write down three things: where it starts, where it ends, and how clear it is. Only then look up what the shapes are said to mean, line by line, on the palm reading lines page, and use the palm reading chart if you lose your bearings.
The minor lines
Look for a line running up towards the ring finger, which Cheiro called the line of success, and for short lines on the outer edge of the palm below the little finger. Plenty of hands have neither. If you want a closer look at any faint line, the line tracer lets you place it on your photo and snaps to the crease it finds.
The mounts
Press, don't just look. Feel the base of your thumb, the heel opposite it and the four pads under your fingers, then do the same on your other hand. You're noticing which stand out. The mounts of the hand page shows where each one sits and how to tell full from flat.
The marks, last
Look for clean crosses and rings. Marks come last because every palm has crossing wrinkles, and once you are looking for a cross you will start to find one. Count a mark only if it stands out without squinting.
A worked example: one hand, read from start to finish
Here is what those steps sound like on one hand. The hand is invented, and so is the reader's voice, but every reading comes from the book named. Read it with the letters on the plate.
Example
- a
- Shape. This is a long palm with long fingers, which makes it a Water hand in the modern four-type system. That type gets read as sensitive and inward, so I'd start there and see if it holds.
- b
- Fingers. The ring finger reaches a little further than the index. Markun's books give the ring finger to Apollo, for a love of beauty, and the index to Jupiter, for a love of rule. So the tradition would lean this hand towards making things over running things.
- c
- Heart line. It curves up to end between the index and middle fingers. Cheiro called that "a calmer but a very deep nature" in matters of affection, and added that such people are not very demonstrative. So: feels plenty, shows less of it.
- d
- Head line. It starts joined to the life line, then slopes gently towards the heel of the hand. Cheiro reads the join as a sensitive, cautious start, and a gentle slope as imagination the person controls. So: a careful thinker who thinks in pictures, and who may undersell their own ideas.
- e
- Life line. A wide arc, well out into the palm. Readers take that for outward energy, an appetite for people and things. I'd say nothing about length, because the one thing this line has been tested for is lifespan, and that didn't hold up.
- f
- Fate line. It rises out of the life line, which Cheiro reads as success made "by personal effort and merit." This is someone who built their own direction, by the old book's account.
- g
- Minor lines. A short sun line above the heart line, and one clear line on the palm's edge. I'd note an interest in being recognised for the work. The edge line is one strong bond in the book's vocabulary, and it says nothing about who or when, so I'd leave it there.
- h
- Mounts. Venus and Luna feel full, Jupiter flatter. That repeats the theme: warmth and imagination ahead of the wish to lead.
- i
- Mark. A small cross between the heart and head lines. Cheiro read this as a talent for mystical subjects. I'd ask rather than tell: is that something you've ever been drawn to?
Said out loud, it comes to this
"By the old books, your hand belongs to someone who feels a lot and shows less of it, thinks in pictures, and has made their own way. The question they'd leave you with is whether you back your own ideas out loud. Does that fit, or not?"
What if the lines contradict each other?
They will. On our example hand, the Water type and the full Venus and Luna say inward and dreamy, while a fate line rising out of the life line says self-made and driven. Beginners tend to think they have made a mistake at this point. Here is what to do instead:
- Compare both hands. Cheiro wanted to see if the two "accord", and when they do, the sign counts for more. Markun reports the same rule. If a sign is on only one hand, the books give you a story for that as well: what you started with, against what you made of it.
- Let the clearest thing lead. A deep, clean line outweighs a faint mark. Cheiro goes further and makes the head line the "needle in the compass" for the whole hand.
- Say the tension out loud. "The shape says inward, and this line says driven. Which one sounds like you?" is a better reading than either half alone.
There is no hidden answer to find. Markun, comparing authorities who disagree on the heart line, wrote: "My readers, having paid their money, may proceed to take their choice."
How to read someone else's palm without making things up
Start by asking what they'd like to think about. Then describe before you interpret: "your head line slopes towards the heel of your hand" is a fact they can check. Follow it with "the old books read that as imagination", and ask whether it fits. Keep those three moves apart and you can't mislead anyone by accident.
Watch out for cold reading, the set of techniques that lets readers appear psychic, working from body language, age and clothing. Markun noticed the classic one in 1927: a wedding ring, a clue fortune tellers "watch for" with very keen eyes. Don't fish with vague guesses and then build on whichever one makes them nod.
Ray Hyman's story is the one to remember. A young palm reader who believed in his readings, he took a friend's suggestion and began telling clients the opposite of what their palms showed. In his words: "To my surprise and horror my readings were just as successful as ever." So when someone says "that's so me", enjoy it, and don't take it as proof of anything.
Check your work against the scanner
Once you have your notes, run the palm reading scanner on the same hand and compare. It finds your hand, flattens the photo and follows the strongest crease for each line. On a clear photo of an open hand, it usually finds the three main lines, and it tells you when it isn't sure.
It is weak on the fate line and doesn't try to find the minor lines by itself, so those are yours to place. A place where you and the trace disagree is the most useful part: look again, and drag the line to where you see it.
Common beginner mistakes
- Putting dates on it
- Old books do offer timing, and Cheiro divides lines into seven-year stretches. Leave that alone. Markun points out that authorities don't even agree which end of the heart line is the start. Dates turn a reflection into a forecast, and forecasts are the part with nothing behind them.
- Reading a missing line as bad news
- Many hands have no fate line or sun line. Cheiro himself wrote that some "appear to have no Fate, and others who seem to carve their Destiny from day to day." Absent means absent.
- Treating every wrinkle as a line
- Researchers working on palm images separate principal lines from wrinkles, which they describe as "much thinner than principal lines and much more irregular." If you need to squint at it, it probably isn't a line anyone would name.
- Scaring someone
- Never say anything about illness, death, pregnancy or how many children someone will have, even as a joke. Nothing in a hand tells you, and people remember.
Sources
Practise on your own hand
The free scan traces your lines and reads one in full, so you can practise on your own hand. The Complete Palm Reading does the rest of them.
Complete Palm Reading$9.99One payment. No subscription.
Questions people ask
- How do you read palms for beginners?
- Work in a fixed order: the hand's shape, the fingers and thumb, the three main lines plus the fate line, the minor lines, the mounts, then any marks. Write down what you see before you look up what it is said to mean, and compare both hands at the end.
- How do I read my own palm?
- Sit in good side light, relax your open hand, and go through the six steps with the checklist on this page. Note where each line starts and ends. Then look up the shapes on the palm reading lines page and compare your notes with the scanner's trace.
- What do you look at first on a palm?
- The shape of the whole hand, before any line. Is the palm closer to square or clearly longer than wide, and are the fingers long or short against it? It keeps you from reading a single line out of context.
- What are the main lines on a palm?
- The heart line under the fingers, the head line across the middle and the life line round the thumb. Research on palm images treats those three as the principal lines. Many hands also have a fate line up the middle, though plenty don't.
- How long does it take to learn palm reading?
- You can follow the method on your own hand as soon as you've read this page. After that it is practice on more hands. There is no exam and no agreed standard, and the books disagree with each other, so you are learning a vocabulary rather than a settled set of facts.
- How do I give a reading without making things up?
- Separate three things: what you can see on the hand, what the tradition says about it, and what the person thinks of that. Describe first, attribute the meaning to the books, then ask. Leave out timing, health, death and anything about children.
Now read your own
Six looks at one hand, in order. Yours is the only one you can press.