YOUR HEALTH IS IN YOUR HANDS
by Mark Seltman

Many health problems are natural predispositions to specific character types. Understand the character type and you will also understand the corresponding potential health problems. A competent hand analyst can readily identify character types by the shape, proportions, and gestures of the hands. The fingers, their lengths, proportions, shapes of tips, knots, and nails, reveal the ways in which that archetype relates to the world. The consistencies of the hands, the color, texture, and elasticity of the skin shows the kind of energy the individual has to work with. The lines provide insight into the directions, qualities, and details of a person's choices and circumstances. All of these factors serve to help a hand analyst to understand a client's physical, mental, and emotional makeup, the major influences which affect his (her) life and the degree to which he is fulfilling his potentials. The symbolism in our hands discloses information about sexuality, creativity, and intuition, as well as health. It also maps the past and present and provides important insights into probable future events and trends.

Western palmistry clearly defines seven character types, which correspond to heavenly bodies in our solar system. These planets are symbolized by Greek and Roman mythological archetypes: Our Sun (Apollo) is represented by the ring finger, Earth's Moon is located at the heel of the hand, Mercury symbolizes the pinky, Venus is the ball of the thumb, Mars consumes the middle of the palm from the thumb to the percussion of the hands, Jupiter is the index finger, and Saturn is the middle finger. These planets are metaphors for those personality traits, which the mythological figures embodied.

If you have a dominant index finger, you are proud, ambitious, generous, and love nature. You also like being boss, hate criticism, and enjoy eating. Many 'Jupiterians' are of medium height, body large and well formed, inclined to become portly, chest wide, forehead high, eyes widely spaced and kindly, and hair dark and wavy with a round face. This type likes to marry young and needs a partner as much as a lover. Their physical sense is taste. Their instrument is voice. They need to be professionals and often choose politics, religion, acting, singing, teaching, promoting, banking, and food businesses. As far as physical weaknesses: they are prone to blood disorders, liver trouble, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, problems with hips, thighs, and throat. In general, they are healthy types. Many of their physical problems result from overindulging in food and drink.

If you have a dominant middle finger (Saturn), you are dependable, organized, and efficient. You may also be easily frustrated, fearful. Or depressed. Your physical weaknesses are skin problems, teeth with age, knees, ligaments, secretion of bile, skeletal, left ear (deafness), rheumatism, gout, paralysis, hardening of the arteries, hemorrhoids, and varicose veins.

If the ring finger is dominant (Apollo), you are versatile, creative, and charming. You can also be spread too thin, a jack of all trades, and ostentatious. Apollo is a healthy type, but is prone to problems with eyesight, heart, and blood circulation.

If you are a Mercury type (little finger), you are communicative, curious, and intellectual. You can also be superficial, fickle, and even deceitful. Your physical weaknesses are nervous system, bronchial system, thyroid gland, headaches, loss of memory, speech impediments, and respiratory difficulties.

If the ball of the thumb is dominant (Venus), you are loving, affectionate, and sympathetic. You can also be self-indulgent, procrastinating, and unable to say "NO". Your physical weaknesses are with the throat, lymphatic System, venereal diseases, heart, circulation. You are also prone to nervousness, but are usually healthy.

If the heel of the hand is dominant (Moon), you are imaginative, intuitive, and nurturing. You can also be moody, oversensitive, and lazy. Your physical weaknesses are problems with bodily fluids, stomach problems, tumors, female disorders, epilepsy, mucous membranes, gout and rheumatism, kidney and bladder, and also mental illness.

If Mars is dominant, you are persistent, courageous, and assertive. You can also be jealous, possessive, and macho. Your physical weaknesses are inflammations and acute fevers, infections, muscular disorders, blood diseases, hemorrhage, infectious and contagious diseases in general, throat and chest trouble, and high blood pressure.

In the days before computerized medical diagnosis, doctors used their intuition, tasted a patient's urine, looked into their eyes, examined the tongue, skin, and especially the hands to diagnose illness. Dozens of illnesses can be diagnosed from the fingernails alone that are considered windows to a person's health. Some of the health problems which can be diagnosed by studying the nails are: anemia, thyroid disease, malnutrition, carpal tunnel syndrome, psoriasis and eczema, disease of the liver, heart, lungs, or colon, chronic respiratory disease, lymph system problems, diabetes, Raynaud's disease, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcers, Hodgkin!s disease, and sickle-cell anemia. Dozens of other diseases such as stress related problems and some types of cancer can be detected from the finger prints and skin ridge patterns (dermatoglyphics). Lines in the hands can indicate conditions of the head, brain, kidneys, liver, stomach, and male and female systems.

The value of hand analysis lies in its capacity to objectify our personality traits and internal struggles. By understanding our natural strengths and weaknesses, we can avoid many of the pitfalls of our archetypes while embracing our positive potentials. The beauty of hand analysis is that hands change as our thinking and circumstances change. We can exercise our free will and alter our thinking, and these changes will manifest themselves in our hands over time. As we influence our destiny, we will observe our own healing process in our hands.