Square, Fork, Dot, Chain

The Square (Good)

This is an individual sign. Old palmists use it to indicate protection from some impending danger.

It is always a good sign. No matter what the break in a line, or what its menace to the subject, a square surrounding it will partially repair and mitigate the danger.

It is a box which forms around the break or danger point, and concentrates and boxes in the Current. It makes escape impossible, holding the overflow in check.

It forces the Current to discharge itself again through the regular channel, no matter how great the turmoil inside of the square may be.

Sometimes a square is found on a Mount, where it does not surround a defect in a line.

Such squares will indicate that the defects of the Mount will not predominate with this subject.

If the Life Current has an unobstructed channel across the hand, the life will be unobstructed.

But if the channel shows defects at a certain point we know trouble is going to occur there, and that if the Current is kept in the channel and from breaking its bounds and overflowing, the danger will be overcome.

When the defective place is boxed in by the square, we feel that the Current cannot get out of the box, but must find and discharge itself through its regular channel.

Thus a square is always a protection from danger, a boxing in of the Current, and a repair agent of certainty and reliability. In thousands of examinations I have never failed to verify this estimate of the square.

The Fork and the Tassel

These are at the termination of lines which shows the end of the operation of its peculiar qualities.

Some lines gradually fade away until the line is lost in the capillary lines of the skin; in other cases the line ends abruptly, sometimes with a cross, a star, a dot, or an island, and often it terminates in a fork or tassel.

These tassels may be found on the end of a short Life, Head, or Heart line, and, whenever found, indicate the dissipation and diffusion of the strength of the line and the end of its usefulness.

The Current, instead of continuing, is scattered and diffused.

• It spreads itself like a tassel or fan, dissipating its force.
• It ends the strong operation of the qualities indicated by the line.

If a fork composed of two lines occur in the end of a line, it amounts only to a split.

It is not so bad as a tassel, for this split may form itself into an island and continue the line;

The tassel is composed of many lines. It distributes the Current over so wide a space there is no hope that it will be gathered together again in a single strong line.

But if it occur early in the line and not at its end, you may sometimes find a single thin line continuing after a tassel.

In some cases, you find the tassel protected by a square.

The tassel is always a defect, sometimes overcome, but producing while it lasts great disturbance of the Current.

The Dot

This is a sign which is not frequently seen. It varies in size and depth, some being mere specks, and others large enough to put in the point of a pencil.

Dots are always a defect, either of a line, when seen on one, or they may be found independent of the lines.

On a line the dot forms an obstruction to the flow of the Current. A large one destroys the line by interposing so deep a cavity that the Current cannot pass.

Very small dots are not serious, but often come after severe illness, generally of a febrile character.

Dots on:

• the Life line mark the spot when a severe attack of scarlet or typhoid fever had occurred
• the Head line under the Mount of Saturn shows in deaf and dumb subjects
• the Head line under the Mount of Apollo shows heart-disease subjects
• the line of Mercury shows severe intestinal disturbances

Dots may be red, blue, white, or yellow, and will indicate by their color the disturbances peculiar to the locality or line on which they appear.

They are repaired by a good square.

The Chained line

This is formed by the joining together of a number of links, forming a line not clear, even, and deep, but one which has a continuous series of obstructions from the beginning.

It weakens the line. If it is the Head line, it makes a vacillating subject, lacking in self-control, and liable to headaches and other brain disturbances.

If chains are seen in only part of a line, the weak, poor operation of the line will occur only during the period occupied by the chained condition, though the line following the chain is apt to be thin.

The chains make it impossible for the Current to flow freely and evenly through the line, in which case the channel is full of shallows over which the stream makes its way with difficulty.

It is a labored, strained, obstructed condition, consequently the chain is always a serious defect. It is one of the hardest lines to repair, for, unless the chain is very short, it takes a square larger and more regularly placed than is usual in order to enclose the chain.

In almost all hands the chain is repaired by a sister line, or lines, and in no other way.

The chain is seen on nervous Life lines, and on sentimental and deficient Heart lines, sometimes on Head lines, but not often on the other Main or Minor lines or chance lines.

It is a shallow, obstructed channel, and form your estimate from this basis, applying the weak operation of the Current to that part of the line covered by the chained condition, and estimating how much it is repaired by any sister lines which may be present.

Triangle

This is often a single sign, though triangles are frequently found in the course of a line, in which case carefully note whether the triangle is formed by the splitting of the line, as in the case of an island, or whether it is a sign by itself and has formed over the line.

Triangles are sometimes formed by crossing of the Main lines. In that case they do not have all of the power which belongs to them as single signs.

When a well-marked triangle is not formed by Main or Minor lines, and when the lines at the angles do not overlap each other, but make well-cut points, it shows great mental brilliancy of the line, Mount, or finger on which it is seen.

On the Mount of Jupiter it will tell of lofty ambitions and Jupiterian mental qualities; on the Mount of Moon, of brilliant imagination. It must always be used as showing brilliancy of mental attributes, and is never a health indication.

If the triangle is formed by crossing chance lines it is not as powerful in its operation as when it is a single sign, still it adds greatly to the subject in whatever direction its location indicates. On all of the Mounts a triangle applies only to the upper world of that Mount.

It is not intended here to apply the single signs to the Mounts, fingers, lines, and individual phalanges, giving their meaning in each location, but to outline the general principles governing them, and in a subsequent chapter to apply them.

Remember the strongest triangle is the single sign, that it is always a favorable indication, never applies to health, but adds brilliancy to the mental side of the location where it is found.