The Mixed Hand Shape Palmistry

The mixed hand is the most difficult of all to describe. In the chapter
on the square I gave an illustration of that type with mixed fingers. In
that case, however, the mixed fingers have the foundation of the square
hand, whereas with the true mixed type no such foundation can be cited for
the student's guidance.
The mixed type is so called because the hand cannot possibly be classed
as square, spatulate, conic, philosophic, or psychic; the fingers also belong
to different types—often one pointed, one square, one spatulate, one philosophic,
etc.
The mixed hand is the hand of ideas, of versatility, and generally of
changeability of purpose. A man with such a hand is adaptable to both
people and circumstances, clever, but erratic in the application of his talents.
He will be brilliant in conversation, be the subject science, art, or gossip.
He may play some instrument fairly well, may paint a little, and so on ; but
rarely will he be great. When, however, a strong line of head rules the hand,
he will, of all his talents, choose the best, and add to it the brilliancy and
versatility of the others. Such hands find their greatest scope in work requiring
diplomacy and tact. They are so versatile that they have no difficulty
in getting on with the different dispositions with which they come into
contact. Their most striking peculiarity is their adaptability to circumstances:
they never feel the ups and downs of fortune like others; almost
all classes of work are easy to them. They are generally inventive, particularly
if they can thereby relieve themselves of labor. They are restless
and do not remain long in any town or place. They are fond of new ideas :
one moment they determine to write a drama, the next, perhaps, they invent
a gas-stove or go into politics ; but as they are always changing, and unstable as water, they rarely succeed. It must be remembered that when the
palm belongs to a certain type these characteristics are much modified ; as,
for instance, mixed fingers on the square, the spatulate, the philosophic, or
the conic will often succeed where the pure development of the type would
fail. When the entire hand is mixed it is then that, through versatility of
talent and purpose, the subject is inclined to become the " Jack of all trades,"
to which class of unfortunates the individual possessing this type of hand is
so commonly relegated in works on palmistry.

The Psychic Hand Palmistry

Psychic Hand Shape

The most beautiful but the most unfortunate of the seven is what is
known as the psychic. This in its purity of type is a very rare
hand to find. The name explains itself—that which appertains to the soul.
The very word seems to suggest to one's mind the old fable of the envy of
Venus toward the maiden Psyche—the war of the goddess of passion against
the more spiritual charm of the daughter of the soul. In its pureness of type
it is a hard hand to find: nineteenth-century civilization does not encourage
such rare flowers of lily whiteness and icy purity; the calmness, coldness,
and dreamy chastity of such a type are not sought after by the present-day
sons of the soil, whose heads are bowed in the quest for gold, and whose Blood is heated by the closeness of the cattle. But although the exact type
may be hard to find, yet there are hundreds of men and women who so approach
the psychic that they must be considered part of it, particularly
when the customs that control our present-day life are taken into consideration.
The psychic is the most beautiful hand of all. It is in formation
long, narrow, and fragile-looking, with slender, tapering fingers and long,
almond-shaped nails. Its very fineness and beauty, however, indicate its
want of energy and strength, and one instinctively pities such hands if they
have to try to hold their own in the battle of life.
Individuals with the psychic hand have the purely visionary, idealistic
nature. They appreciate the beautiful in every shape and form ; they are
gentle in manner, quiet in temper; they are confiding, and they instinctively
trust every one who is kind to them. They have no idea of how to be practical, business-like, or logical; they have no conception of order, punctuality,
or discipline ; they are easily influenced by others ; against their will,
they are carried away by the strong rush of humanity. Color appeals to
this nature in the highest possible way ; to some, every tone of music, every
joy, every sorrow, every emotion is reflected in a color. This type is unconsciously
a religious one ; it feels what is true, but has not the power to seek
truth. In religion such people will be more impressed with the service, the
music, and the ceremony than with the logic or truth of the sermon. They
are innately devotional, they seem to dwell on the confines of the spiritual,
they feel the awe and the mystery of life, without knowing why. All forms
of magic and mystery attract them ; they are easily imposed upon, and yet
bitterly resent being deceived. These individuals have the intuitive faculties
highly developed ; they are good as sensitives, mediums, clairvoyants, because
they are more alive to feelings, instincts, and impressions than are their more
matter-of-fact brothers and sisters.
Parents having such children generally do not at all understand how to
treat them. The strange thing is that they are often the offspring of matter of
fact, practical people. The only way in which I would account for such
a fact is by the theory of balance : nature, working through hereditary laws,
finds a point of balance by producing the direct opposite of the parent ; thus
the law of reaction produces the type under examination. Alas ! too often
a temperament of this kind, by the ignorance and stupidity of the parents,
is forced into some business life, simply because the father is in business.
The' utter wrongness of the life so crushes and dwarfs the nature that very
often the result of such environment is insanity or an early grave. There is
no question but that the asylums of the world are largely filled by the utter
inability of parents for such a position of responsibility ; and the sooner this
fact is recognized, the better.
Possessors of these beautiful, delicate hands, the indicators of the purely
sensitive nature, usually feel their position in life so keenly that they too
often consider themselves useless, and become morbid and melancholy in
consequence. Such, however, is not the case ; there is nothing useless that
nature calls into creation; the beauty and sweetness of such temperaments
are often of more use and do more good than those who, by the accumulation
of this world's goods, build a convent or endow a church. They may be
placed here to establish a balance in the laws of humanity ; they may be here
to increase our love and appreciation of the beautiful ; but they are not use less—of that we may be assured ; therefore let us encourage and help them,
instead of crushing and destroying them as we too often do. Alas ! in the
worldly sense they are generally left far behind in the race for fame and
fortune. I cannot refrain from drawing the following picture, as illustrative
of such types;

They are as lilies thrown, by some ruthless hand, upon the tempest-tossed
river of life—they seem so helpless in the onward sweep of that terrible current.
One sees them at times clinging to the banks for pity Ah ! those
beautiful hands have no strength ; they are swept on again by the rising tide
of bubbling, babbling, frothy humanity. A little lower, one sees them, soiled
and stained, crouching beneath the shadow of some rock, trying, as it were,
to look happy amid the weeds that for a moment mock the stream. Again,
it is the rush of the onward tide or the wash of some passing barge that
drags them from the shelter of the stone and hurries them nearer and nearer
to the sea. The river is broader now, quieter, calmer, wider : we expand in
our views as we leave the narrow banks of youth. See, now, as the night
is nearing, how those lilies rest and dream upon the tide. The river is silent
now, the rush is past, the day of life is done. See how it bears the broken
flowers tenderly, as if sorry for the roughness of its early tide. All is quiet
now, all is calm. Wider and wider yet it grows, calmer and yet still calmer.
The end has come. The mists fall now, thicker and closer and whiter. How
still it is ! The silence hangs like a coldness on the heart. The river widens
out into the sea, and lilies and flowers and weeds drift—it may be to the
garden of God

The Conic Hand Or Artistic Hand Palmistry

Conic or Artist Hand Palmistry

The conic hand, properly speaking, is medium-sized, the palm slightly
tapering, and the fingers full at the base, and conic, or slightly pointed, at the
tip or nail phalange. It is often confounded with the next type,
the psychic, which is the long, narrow hand, with extremely long, tapering
fingers.
The main characteristics of the conic hand are impulse and instinct.
People with the conic hand are often, m fact, designated "the children
of impulse." There is a great variety in connection with this type, but it is
more usually found as a full, soft hand, with pointed fingers, and rather long
nails. Such a formation denotes an artistic, impulsive nature, but one in
which love of luxury and indolence predominate. The great fault with
people possessing this type is, that though they may be clever and quick in
thought and ideas, yet they are so utterly devoid of patience and tire so
easily, that they rarely, if ever, carry out their intentions. Such people appear
to their greatest advantage in company, or before strangers. They are good
conversationalists, they grasp the drift of a subject quickly, but they are
more or less superficial in knowledge, as also in other things ; they have not
the power of the student, through want of application ; they do not reason,
they judge by impulse and instinct. It is that quality which makes them
changeable in friendship and affection ; one can easily offend them over little
things. They are also very much influenced by the people they come in contact
with, and by their surroundings. They are impressionable in affaires de
cmur ; they carry their likes and dislikes to extremes ; they are usually quicktempered,
but temper with them is but a thing of the moment. They, however,
when out of temper, speak their mind plainly, and are too impetuous to
study words or expressions. They are always generous and sympathetic,selfish where then* own personal comfort is concerned, it is true, but not in
money matters; they are easily influenced to give money for charity, but,
alas ! here they have not the power of discrimination, consequently the money
is given to anybody or anything which may rouse their sympathies at the
moment. These hands never get that credit for charity which falls to the
lot of the more practical types. To get credit for charity very often consists
m savmg what we give to the beggar and giving it to the church, but the conic
fingers never think of that. The beggar comes, and if the impulse to give is
there—well, they give, and that is all.
This interesting type has been called, and deservedly so, the artistic, but
such relates more to temperament than to the carrying out of the artistic
ideas. It would really be more correct to say that the owners of such hands
are influenced by the artistic, than that they are artistic. They are more
easily influenced by color, music, eloquence, tears, joy, or sorrow, than any
other type. Men and women possessing this class of hand respond quickly to
sympathetic influences; they are emotional, and rise to the greatest heights
of rapture, or descend to the lowest depths of despair, over any trifle.
When the conic hand is hard and elastic, it denotes all the good qualities
of the first-mentioned, but accentuated by greater energy and firmness of will.
The conic hand hard is artistic in nature, and if encouraged for an artistic
life the energy and determination will go far toward making success. It
will have all the quickness of the first, with all the brilliancy and sparkle in
company and before strangers, and it is for that reason that the conic hand
has been chosen to represent those who lead a public life, such as actors,,
actresses, singers, orators, and all those who follow a purely emotional
career. But it must not be forgotten that such people depend more upon
the inspirational feeling of the moment than thought, reason, or study.
They will do things well, but will not know why or how they do them.
The smger will carry away her audience by her own individuality mor&
than by study of the song ; the actress, from her own emotional nature, will
stir the emotions of others ; and the orator will move multitudes by the eloquence
of his tongue—not by the logic of his words. It must, therefore, be
remembered that the type of hand but relates to the natural temperament
and disposition of the individual ; it is the foundation upon which the talent rises or falls. For instance, a woman with square fingers can be as great a
singer, and may often be capable of rising to greater things than the
woman with the pointed formation ; but she will reach that point by different
means—by her application, by her study, by her conscientious work, and
by the greater power of endurance and patience that she possesses. Study
and development are one half the ladder of fame. Genius sits on the rungs
to dream, Study works and rises rung by rung; it is the earthworms alone
who, dazzled by the heights above them, confound the two, and oft crown
Study and call it Genius. The artistic type as a type but relates to temperament
; the variety of fingers indicates only where that temperament is
strongest: as, for instance, the artistic hand with square fingers indicates
more the student, and, consequently, more exactness in foundation, method,
and correctness ; such persons will try and try again until they are successful.
The spatulate fingers on the artistic hand will give, say, to a painter
the greater breadth of design and color, the more daring ideas that will make
the man famous for his originality. The philosophic will give the mystical
treatment of the idea—the tones and semitones that subdue the already subdued
colors. The lights and shades that creep across the canvas, the poem in
the petals of the asphodel, the Benedictus in the hands that soothe the dying
all will be detail, but detail leading to the regions of the spirit ; all will be
calm, but with that calmness that awes one with the sense of the mysterious.

The Philosophical Or Knotty Hand

Illustration

The name of this type explain itself,the word "philosophic"being derived from the greek philos,love,and sopia,wisdom.This shape of hand is easily recoginzed:it is generally long and angular,with bony fingers,developed joints,and long nails.As far as success in the form of wealth is concerned,it is not a favorable type to have;it gleans wisdom,rarely,ifever,gold.People with such a type are,as a rule,student,but of peculiar subjects.They study mankind;they know every chord and tone in the harp of life;they play upon it,and are gratified with its responsive melody more than with the clink of coin.In this way they have as much ambition as other types of humanity,only theirs is of a different kind,that is all.They like to be distinct from other people,and they will go through all kinds of privations to attain this end;but as knowledge of man kind give power over man. Such people love mystery in all things.If they preach over the heads of the people;if they paint,they are mystic;if they are poets,they discard the dramatic clash and color of life for the visionary similes and vaporish drapings of the spirit. Theirs is the peace of the aestheic;theirs the domain beyond the borderland of matter;theirs the cloudland of thougt,where the dreaded  grub-worm of materialism dare not follow.Such hands are found very largely among the oriental nations,particularly in India.The Brahmans,Yogis,and other mystics possess them in great numbers.In England,striking examples are found in the hands of carinal Newman,Cardinal Manning,and Tennyson.They are also largely seen among the Jesuits of the Catholic Church,rarely in the English Church,and more rarely still in Baptists,Presbyterians,and Independents.In character they are silent and secretive;they are deep thinkers,careful over little matters,even in the use of little words,they are proud with the pride of being different from others;they rarely forget an injury,but they are patient with the patience if power.They wait for opportunities,and so opportunities serve them.Such hand are generally egotistical,which is in keeping with the life they lead.When in any excess of development they are more of less fanatical in religion or mysticism.Of this the most wonderful examples are found in the east,where from the earliest childhood the yogi wil separate himself from all claims of relationship and kindred,and starve and kill the body that they soul may live.

With these hands,therefore,it must be borne in mind that the developed joints are the peculiar characteristic of thoughful people,while the smooth,pointed fingers are the reverse.Such development gives the love of analyzing,but it is the shape of type of hand which determines whether that power of analysis be for chemicals or for mankind.The end of the finger being square and conic combined gives solemn tone to their inspiration and fits them specially for the religious thought or the mysticism with which,as a rule,they become associated.Again,these hands,in the pursuit of what they consider truth,will have the patience of the square type,with that love of self-martyrdom which is the characteristic of the conic.It is the blending of these almost opposite characteristics which brings about the peculiar ideas that make men and women with the philosophic type of hands so different from the practical drones in vast hive of humanity.

The Spatulate Or Active Hand

Illustration

The spatulate hand is so called not only because the tip of each finger resembles the spatula that chemists use in mortars,but also because the palm,instead of having the squareness of the preceding,type,is either unusually broad at the the wirst or at the base of the fingers.
When the greater breadth of formation is at the wrist,the palm of the hand becomes pointed towards the fingers;when on the contrary,the greatest breadth is found at the base of the fingers,the shape of the hand slopes back towards to wrist.We will discuss these two points a little later,but we must first consider the significance of the spatulate hand itself.
In the first place,the spatulate hand,when hard and firm,indicates a nature restless and excitable,but full of energy of purpose and enthusiam.When soft and flabby,which often the case,it denotes the restless but irritable spirit.Such a person works in fits amd start,but cannot stick to anything long.Now,in the first place,the peculiar attribute that the spatulate hand has is its intense love of action,energy,and independence.It belongs to the great navigators,explorers,discoverers,and also the great engineers and machanics,but it is by no mean confined to such people,and may be found in almost every walk of life.As a rule,it is a large hand,with fairly long,well-develpment fingers.The most striking characteristic of all is the singular independence of spirit that characterizes individuals possessing such a develoment.It is doubtless this spirit that makes then explorers and discoverers and causes them also to depart from the known rules of engineering and mechanics to seek the unknown,and thus becomes famous for their invention.No matter in what grade or position in life these spatulate hands find themselves,they always in some form strike out for themselves,and assert their right to possess a marked in dividuality of their own.A singer,actress,doctors,or preacher with such a development will break all rules of precedent-not bu any means for the sake of eccentricity,but simply because they have an original way of looking at things,and their sence of independence inclines them to resent suiting their brain to other people ideas.It is from the hand that we get out only our great discoverers and engineers,but also the whole army of men and women we pleased to call cranks,simple because they will not follow the rut made by the centuries of sheep that have gone before them.Such men and women with spatulate hands are the advance agents of thoughts.They are,it true,very often before their time;they are often wrong in the way they set about their work;but they are,as a rule,the heralds of some new thoughts or life what will,years laters,give life to their fellow-men.
This brings us down to the two divisions i have just mentioned.We will now consider their meaning.
The spatulate hand with the broad development at the base of the fingers it the more practical of the two.If he be an inventor,he will use his talents for making locomotives,ships,railways,and all the more useful things of life,for the simple reason thats he comes nearer the formation of the square type.But if he has the greater angular development at the wrist,his bent will be for action in the domain of ideas.He will invent flying-machines if he has the inventive talents,hunt for new flowers if he be a botanist,be the demigod of some new gospel if he be a priest.These people wonder that God took six days to make the earth-with the little power that they possess they would revolutionize the world in a day.But they all have purpose in the evolution of life;they are necessary,therefore they are created.

The Square Hand With Mixed Fingers

Illustration

This is a type that is often seen,and more so among men than among women.It consists of every finger being different in shape,sometimes two or three,sometimes all.It is often found that the thumb of such a hand supple,or bends back very much in the middle joint;the first finger is generally pointed,the second square,the third spatulate,and the fourth pointed.Such a hand indicates great versatility of ideas;at time such a man will be full of inspiration,again he will be scientific and extremely logical;he will descend from the most imaginative idea to the most pratical;he will discuss any subject with the greatest case;but from want of continuity of purpose,he will rarely,if ever,rise to any great height of power or success.

The Square Hand With Psychic Fingers

Illustration

The square hand with purely psychic fingers is rarely found,but an approach to it is often seen in the form of the square palm combined with long,pointed fingers and long nails.Such formation causes people to start well,and mean well,but makes them subservient to every mood and caprice.An artrist with such a type will have a studio of unfinished pictures,and the business man will have his office filled with unfinished plans.Such a blending of type the extreme opposite of each other makes a nature too contradictory to ever succeed.

The Square Hand With Conic Fingers

Illustration

Now,though at first sight it may appear strange to say that musical composition comes under this head,yet a little cosideration will show that such not only the case,but that there is a logical reason that it should be so.In the first place,the square hand is more the hand of the student.It gives more the power of application and continuity of effort,while the conic fingers give the intuitive and inspirational faculties.The musical composer,no matter how imaginative,no matter how inspired in ideas,is certainly not without the student's side to his character.If we consider,for a moment the quality of brain and the disposition which is absolutely necessary,we will understand more clearly why the hand must be thus wonderfully balanced-why the inspirational,imaginative nature must be linked to that of the thoughful,the soild,the methodical,and that which also proceeds from the foundation of the known-as,for instance,harmony and counterpoint-to reach the world of the unknown,through the gates of imagination and idealism.That shape of the hand must be commonly called the conic or artistic;but the smallest observation of life will show that though the people with purely conic or artistic hands have the artistic nature and the appreciation of what is artistic,yet they may not have-and I have most often observed that they have not-the power or the ability to bring their ideas before the world in the same masterful way which the mixid square and conic do.

THE Square Hand With Spatulate Fingers

Illustration

This is the hand of invention,but always on practical lines.Men with this formation run the gamut in invention,but on the practical plane.They make useful things,instruments,and household articles,and are,as well,good engineers.They love mechanica work of almost every kind,and the finest useful mechanism has been turned out by men with square hand and the spatulate fingers.

The Square Hand With Knotty Finger

Illustration

This type is generally found with long fingers,and gives,in the first place,extreme love of detail.It is also fond of construction;it builds plans from any given point to any known possibility;it may not produce great tors ,and if it applies itself to medical work,or to science of any kind,it will choose some specialty and use its love of detail in the perfection of its own particular study.

The Square Hand With Long Square Fingers

Illustration

The next modification is the square hand with very long fingers.This denotes a greater devolopment of mentality then the square hand with short fingers.It donotes logic and method,but in a greater degree then possessed by the purely square type,which tied down by rule and custom,must follow the beaten track.This hand,on the contrary,though submitting everything to scientific examination,will not be so influenced by prejudice,but will proceed cautiously and thoroughly to logical conclusions,and will find its vocation in a scientific career,or in one involving logic and reason.

The Square Hand With Short Square Fingers

Illustration

This peculiarity is very often found,and very easily recognized.The subject with such a type is materialistic in every sense of the term.He would be the kind of man who sould say:"Except i hear wih my ears and see with my eyes,I cannot belive."And even then i very much doubt if such a man would be convinced.It also denotes an obstinate kind of nature,as a rule,narrow minded.These people make money,but by plodding;they may not be miserly,but they are business-like and practical;they like to accumulate wealth;it is the material they seek.

Elementary Hand - Lowest Type of Hand

Illustration

This hand naturally belongs to the lowest type of mentality.In the appearance it is coarse and clumsy
,with large,thick,heavy palm,short fingers,and short nails.It is always important to notice the length of the palm and fingers.Some Palmist state that to show intellectuality the finger should always be longer then the palm;but an examination of this statement show that it is not correct.It has not been proved that fingers have been found longer then the palm.That they may be nearly as long,or as long,there can be no doubt;but it is a very rare case to find them even of the same lenght.when,however in proportion to the size of the palm the fingers are long,it indicates a more intellectual nature then when they are short.The important point in the elementary hand: the palm is always thick and coarse,and fingers short and clumsy.There are also very few lines to be seen on the palm.The people possessing such a type have very little mental capacity,and what they do possess leans more to the order of the brute.They have little or no control over their passions;love of form,color,and beauty does not appeal to them.The thumb of such hands is short and thick,with the upper part or nail phalange heavy,full,and generally square.Such people are violent in temper,passionate but courageous.If they commit murder,it is in the fury and in the spirit of destruction.They possess a certain low cunning,but the cunning of instinct,not reason.These are people without aspiration;they but eat,drink,sleep,and die.

The Shapes Of The Hand

We now leave the domain of what must be considered Palmistry, the study of the Lines of the Palm--or
Cheiromancy, as it was called by the Greeks from the word [Greek: cheír], the hand, and proceed to consider the meanings that can be derived from the shapes of the hands, fingers, etc., which is called Cheirognomy.

These two studies may be taken up separately, but by a knowledge of both the student will be doubly armed, especially in the reading of character.

To a judge of horseflesh the limbs of the horse give him such a fund of information as to the animals' breed,
training, etc., that it enables him to draw conclusions that he could not otherwise obtain.

In the same way the shape of the hand gives an enormous wealth of information as to breed and peculiarities
of human beings.

In a book of this nature I shall be able to give only the leading traits denoted by each type, but if readers wish
to carry out this study further, I must refer them to my larger works on the subject, in which the shapes of the
hands are described in the fullest detail.

The most casual observation of character as shown by the formation of hands will soon convince any person
of the value of this study. Even in itself it possesses the most far-reaching possibilities in helping to a clear
understanding of the difference that exists in races, their various blends of types, that have now spread
themselves by intermarriage and travel over the surface of the earth.

For example, the difference in the shape of the hands of the French and German or the French and English
races would convince any thinking person that temperament and disposition are indeed largely indicated by
the shape of the hand itself.

It is even a remarkable thing that though work and exercise may enlarge and broaden the hand, yet the type to which it belongs is never destroyed, but can be easily detected by anyone who has made a study of such
matters.

The Seven Types or Shapes of Hands are as follows:

(1) The Elementary--or lowest type.
(2) The Square--or the useful hand.
(3) The Spatulate--or nervous active type.
(4) The Philosophic--or jointed hand.
(5) The Conic--or the artistic type.
(6) The Psychic--or the idealistic hand.
(7) The Mixed Hand.