Personality Types And Shape of The Hand by O.P. Verma

Article by O.P. Verma

Faculty Member I.C.A.S Delhi chapter II

CAPTAIN D’ARPENTIGNY, the French master of the science of Cheirognomy classified hands into seven basic types. But with the passage of time the human psyche has changed and these seven basic types are not met with exactly. So we have broadly classified the hand as a whole, as four basic types analogous to the four triplicities of astrology viz.Fire, Earth, Air and Water. These four triplicities broadly represent four basic personality types. We take the earth type first for it is met with more abundantly.

The Earth type

It is the square hand or practical or useful hand. Ideally its length for 5′ tall man should be 18 cms(measured from the tip of the Saturn’s finger to the first bracelet adjacent to the palm).For every 4” increase in height of a person the length of the hand increases by 4 cms.So, for a 6 inch tall man, the length of his hand will be 21 cms. For a 5′ tall woman, the ideal length of her hand will be 17 cms and for a 6’inch tall woman, it will be 20 cms.The length of the palm is measured from the base of Saturn’s finger up to the first bracelet and length of fingers is known from the length of Saturn’s finger, while the breadth of the hand is measured from the root of the thumb across the palm up to the edge of  percussion. The length and breadth of the earth type palm should be in the ratio of 5:4.i.e, if the length is 10 cms, the breadth should be 8 cms.The ratio of the length of the palm and the length of the fingers should also be 5:4.i.e, for a 10 cm long palm, the ideal length of fingers would be 8 cms. Any deviation from this ideal measurement generates the other Fire, Air and Water types.

The subject with above described Practical hand is directed towards the “animal like” and “worldly life”. Being practical he keeps his feet on the ground is matter of fact tends to dryness; likes repetitive, hard and practical work in which he finds pleasure in direct contact with earthy things.

He is careful; believes in honesty, effort and integrity of purpose; is guided by an innate knowledge of righteousness of the things and believes that crime does not pay. He delights in continuous effort and has a basic craving for rhythm and regularity in day to day affairs and work. He tends to do routine things at fixed hours. He tends to be impatient of small details and has a penchant for outdoor work.

The smoothness of skin refines him to engaged in refined practical occupations like engineering, high class craftsmanship or utility type business. As much short the fingers are, as much rashness in action and love of material is there. With coarser skin he may be a Peasant or an unintelligent worker incapable of originality and fitted only for menial work requiring bodily rhythm for expression. In emotional life he is prone to herd instinct of primitive essentials.

Astrologically Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn stand for Earth triplicity. A Taurean is possessive, conservative, steadfast and careful. He is ruled by Venus, so is with feminine qualities. A square handed female reveals a homely well balanced nature. She is best occupied in the actual routine of keeping the home clean and spruce and in economical shopping buying cheap food for she is instinctively suspicious of anything not common or ordinary. The earthy equivalent of hospitality incites her to have someone in for chatting. A Virgoan is slightly reserved, practical and intelligently critical especially when having a mess of lines in his hand; so would be adaptable, exciting and changeable, for having an array of ideas. A Capricornian is prudent, quietly, aspiring, strictly orderly and almost a hard utilitarian, for Saturn is cold, restrictive and adds thought, meditation and moodiness to the earthy sense of tenacity and purpose.

According to modern psychological approach, “like poles attract” in marriage. Therefore marriage between Earth types tends to be steady, orderly and tied to strict routine of events. An admixture of Fire or Water with Earth will certainly add variety to the union.

The Fire type

The Fire type or intuitive hand is composed of a long palm and short fingers with an agile, flexible and elastic texture. The palmer surface has multitude of fine energetic lines along with a fine quality of skin ridges. A Fire type subject is active, keen, brilliant, versatile, and full of movement and excited life and with his presence he warms up the people and environment around. He needs constant activity along with a strong needs for variety, so a changeable personality, hence unreliable. He is too ambitious and emotionally needs recognition of his abilities. He is a leader, a charioteer who resents any restrictions. He does not fit easily into the society. He is egoistical in nature, vigorous in activity and hypersensitive. His emotional instability is clearly depicted in his fragmented line of heart and can be counteracted by the strong and sympathetic line of head.

He delights in variety in his job, in friends, likes going to parties to establish new contacts. His home life must also be filled with variety and so his partner has to allow great latitude to make marriage a success. He is always in need for outlet of his intuition and also above all self expression, for his mount of Apollo dominates over other mounts. He is a creative person, a designer, a dancer, actor, artist or a journalist with an adjunct of variety. He cares little for minutiae but exhibits an incredible attention to detail in his field of creativity. A wide diversity of the type range from a talented artist to a profligate and extravagant criminal.

Astrologically Aries, Leo and Sagittarius constitute the Fire triplicity. An Arian is energetic and initiative taking, so directly incisive,satarical and invective in speech. A Leonian is a self assured powerful organizer and leader. A Sagittarian is intellectual freedom loving.

A Fire type is flame like in quality and doing things; practicality of the Earth type is too slow for his liking, for the dry weightiness of the earth does not restrict him, nor does he like Water which extinguishes him; he is attracted to Air which spreads him with his wealth of ideas.

Like the male Fire type, the female Fire type takes pride in her own individuality; there is no feeling for a repetitive or uninteresting job, for she craves variety in all things, and for this reason does not settle down easily in uninteresting married life. Ideally she should marry a Fire type as there will not be a danger of explosion. It is entirely satisfactory for a male Fire type to marry an Air type girl. It is not advisable for a strong intuitive female to marry a male Air type, unless, of course she finds one who likes the constant excitement and variety she demands.

The Watery type

The Watery type or sensitive hand has long palm and long fingers, is usually soft and flexible, sometimes elegantly aristocratic in appearance, with long tapering fingers and a smooth refined skin. It is often quite narrow, particularly in woman. The palmar surface has four distinct principal lines along with a multitude of multiple fine lines. The head line always curves down towards the mount of Moon.

The Watery type individual is passive, emotional, unstable,sensitive,given to sullen moods, a reflector of stronger other personalities influencing him than himself, controlled by others more active than himself. With his close relationship to his deeper levels, and with his natural sensitivity and strong intuition, he is highly introverted, secret and sealed up within himself and often gives impression of being cold. His moods change with changing conditions, because of the feminine principle of receptivity. A calm and peaceful environment is essential to his emotional balance and stability. Strong imagination and desire to escape from toughness of life results in fantasy thinking. The presence of girdle of Venus deepens his desire to escape reality and wish to live in fantasy, inspiration and direct contact with the subconscious working of mind is one of his chief characteristic. He is predominantly imaginative and his extreme sensitivity enables him to be a sympathetic friend, instinctively feeling the need of others.

Like the intuitive Fire type, the sensitive Water type person is also a child of emotions, the difference lies in activity and passivity. The emotions of the intuitive type are always alive moving, investigating and enthusiastic; in totality he acts upon life, while the emotions of the sensitive Water type are always less active, introspective, protective, secretive and lassitudinous; in totality he is acted upon life. Thus, Water type does not get well with the Fire type, whom he finds too “hot” and too active.

Astrologically, Water is related to Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces, the Water triplicity. Cancer is sensitive and protective, Scorpio is emotional and deeply penentrating, while Pisces is idealistic and confused. The fourth and twelfth house in a horoscope are Watery houses, which represent places of retirement and escape and refer to home, hospital, prison and asylum.

The sensitive or Watery hand is essentially a feminine hand, exhibits roundness of form and softness of texture and due to its narrowness gives impression of being very long. A female of Watery hand loves home, comforts and ease of living. She makes an excellent wife by virtue of her ability to put herself in her husband’s shoes. She reflects his moods, his anxieties, even his activity and is always ready to submerge her individuality for harmony or unison. A Watery type female is in most harmony with the Earth type, the resting place, where she finds shape and form.

The Air type

The Air type or intellectual hand has a square palm and long fingers. It is usually flexible, and in a print has characteristically spread out fingers. The skin texture is usually fine. The masculine hand is always large, with thick, though delicate fingers, whilst the feminine hand is small with delicate long fingers. The thumb is long and strong; the lines on it give a healthy feeling and little of neurotic feelings of Water and Fire types. The long fingers and refined skin suggest that the type is evolved Earth or the Earth qualities are refined to give a higher type of individual.

The chief characteristic of Air is communication and the Air type expresses himself in terms of thought, likes to be free; in movement wishes to connect things, places and ideas, has an innate distrust of emotions; is adaptable, so easily moves from one job to another and wishes to establish order in every activity or situation, a prelude to exact communication. In society and in politics, he attempts to establish his own sense of order through his abstract unworkable theories and often makes the mistake of not taking emotions of others or masses into account. Being with long fingers, he has infinite patience and an aptitude to communicate in details. With softness of the hand, he will rarely be belligerent about his ideas and allows sentiments and emotions to take the place of reason, hence, a gentle person who prefers a quite but active life. The Intuitive Fire type tends to be versatile emotionally and is often intellectually superficial, while the Air type is versatile intellectually often emotionally superficial and having his head in the cloud of theories. The Fire type directs his energies through self expression and the Air type towards communication, hence, the Air type can be a good public relations officer, improving relationships through communication.

Astrologically Air is related to Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. Gemini is quick witted, intelligent, versatile and inquisitive; Libra is companiable, attractive and soothing, and Aquarius is original minded, independent and freedom loving. In a horoscope the third, Seventh and eleventh houses are Airy houses. The third house connotes mental communication such as writing or reporting; the seventh house refers to relationship by direct contact and the eleventh house relates to distant communication and contacts in clubs and societies.

Air is attracted to Fire, which provides it added life through its heat. Air does not like to be wet by Water through its indiscipline, disordered emotions and sentimentality. Nor does it feel attracted to drying Earth, which slows down communication and thinking. A girl with the Air hand would do well to marry an Airy male, to be in harmony and peace as both will tend to sort out problems through better communication. Her marriage with a Fire type would be more exciting and lively, for she will play a second role to her more active husband, by communicating and receiving his ideas in an exact and refined manner.