The Heart Line

Upon entering our bodies through the finger of Jupiter, the first line reached by the Electric Current is the line of Heart. It is so named because it accurately reflects the heart’s condition and operation.

It deals with that central life-sustaining mechanism which pumps and controls the blood stream, which, by its quantity and quality, so largely affects our health and temperament.

The line of Heart rises from some point under or near the finger of Jupiter.

• It traces its way across the hand under the Mounts, ending on the percussion.

This line does not have any normal starting or stopping place.

• What might be normal with one subject would not be with another.

The line of Heart must always be considered in relation to the individual on which it is seen.

The old saying, that a person has a “warm heart” or a “great deal of heart,” has become synonymous with the idea that these persons are affectionate and sympathetic.

This is largely true, for we have already seen that the action of a strong heart is followed by pink color, indicating warmth and health, and this we know produces genial, sympathetic people.

Plenty of blood, pumped by a strong heart, means the antithesis of whiteness and coldness.

So a “warm heart” really refers to the physical health of that organ, and the warmth that follows good blood supply, which condition produces the consequent attraction towards its fellow-men peculiar to such natures.

Thus:

• a strong physical heart means not only health, but a strong attraction for and to others.
• conversely, a weak, flabby heart, pumping the blood current with lifeless force, produces white color which indicates a lack of warmth, and consequent weak or less magnetic or energetic quality of affections.

The Heart line is a revealer of:

• the muscular, vital strength and action of the heart itself,
• the strength and character of the affections, a result of these conditions

Sometimes, the Heart line is absent.

You will occasionally see only one line crossing the hand below the Mounts, and will be at a loss to tell whether it is the Head or Heart line.

I have only seen the Head line entirely absent once. But a Head line had appeared in that hand after about a year.

The lines are controlled by the brain and not by the heart. This is why the Head line will nearly always be present.

For this single line to be considered the Heart and not the Head line, it must:

• rise high on the Mount of Jupiter (24), or in that vicinity, and
• trace its way across the hand just under the Mounts, and not by any means low enough to be in the location of the Head line.

Absent Heart Line

A missing Heart line shows a lack of sympathy and affection.

• It warns of one who is coldblooded, selfish, and who desires personal success even at the expense of others.
• It is a bad marking, which easily leads from mere selfishness into hypocrisy, deceit, lack of candor, and positive dishonesty.

If this marking is seen in the hand of a bad Mercurian, or even of an unusually shrewd specimen of this type, it will at once mean natural temptation toward dishonesty.

If the finger of Mercury is crooked and twisted, and the nails are narrow or short, you may be sure that the subject cannot be trusted. He will lie, swindle, cheat, steal, or do anything to get money. This is the hand of typical cold-blooded dishonesty.

On a Martian, the absence of the Heart line means he is unscrupulous, cold-blooded, and even on provocation bloodthirsty and dangerous. He will burn with physical ardor, and will gratify his lusts with no thought of the consequences to his victim.

On a Saturnian, it is a distressing indication. It will add to his natural hatred of mankind, his desire to get even with them, his avarice; and, consequently, his chances of being dishonest will be increased.

The Jupiterian will rarely be found with such an indication; when he is, some one of the three types just mentioned will be strong also, and the traits indicated by the absent Heart line will come from their side of the house.

The Apollonian may have a defective Heart line, but it will not be found entirely absent with him.

Neither will it be with the Venusian, as these two types have too much sympathy and feeling ever to be absolutely deficient in heart.

The Lunarian may have the Heart line absent or badly deficient, as he is naturally cold and selfish.

Fortunately, you are not likely to meet many Lunarians.

So the absent line of Heart will tell you that the subject lacks heart in a moral way, is cold and selfish, and that he will also be cowardly and sneaking in his disposition, though sometimes a great “bluffer.”

Staring Points

The Heart line generally rises from some point on or near the Mount of Jupiter, sometimes extending over and rising on the Mount of Saturn.

Sometimes the line has forks at its beginning, all of which may start from Jupiter, and sometimes these forks spread like a fan, extending over as far as Saturn.

There are 3 well-verified readings attached to three starting points, and these should be used as a basis for your work, modifying and changing them in accordance as you see the starting points vary.

1. Rising from Mount of Jupiter: Sentiment (25)

This shows the development of the sentimental side to the affections. The subject’s love is ideal. Love is an adoration. Love, even with poverty attached, is attractive.

2. Rising between Jupiter and Saturn: Common sense (26)

The line shows the common-sense, practical, “middle ground” with the affections. It shows one is not carried away with sentiment. He views love from a practical standpoint. He is not “soft” or “spoony”. He thinks that love in a cottage without plenty of bread and butter is a myth.

This person is never carried away by sentiment. He is strong in affection, but is sensible and not foolish.

3. Rising from the Mount of Saturn: Passion (27)

This shows sensualism in love, tinged with sexual pleasures.

This is infallible if it goes with:

• a large Mount of Venus of pink or red color, and
• strong Life and Mercury lines.

These will tell of physical desire by the point at which the Heart line starts, and of physical strength sufficient to carry out these desires by the other indications.

Where the Heart line rises from all 3 of these sources (28) we have indicated the union of sentiment, common-sense, and passion, showing that heart is the strongest factor in the make-up of your subject, and a very fine Head line and a strong thumb must be present to prevent heart from ruling head.

With this strong formation you can, by noting which of the three lines is the deepest at the starting point, tell whether the strongest force is:

• sentiment
• common-sense
• passion.

This always produces an affectionate person, who has a warm heart, a great deal of it, and loves friend, relation, and mankind in general.

His danger is too much heart, and he does not always look after his own interests when considering those of others.

This will be increased if the fork from Jupiter is strongest, and decreased if the middle branch is strongest, because the practical side will then be prominent.

The fork of the Heart line will not always be so pronounced as that shown in the illustration, but every variation of it can be read based upon the full indication here given. Sometimes the line will start in several forks on Jupiter alone, in which case it increases the sentimentality of a single line starting from that point.

The same rule applies to the other starting points. The general rule applies that a single line tends to make the affections more self-contained, and the subject loves family and friends strongly, but does not reach out to everybody as does the one whose Heart line forks at the start. The deeper and clearer the line at the start, the deeper, but more likely to be selfish, are the affections. The more the branching, the more they go out to many people. The line beginning with a fork makes a successful subject, for he has many friends.

Sometimes the line of Heart inclines to fall toward the line of Head at its start (29). This shows the head to be powerfully in the lead, and that when it comes to a choice between sentiment and utility the heart will be second best.

Sometimes the line starts from the line of Head (30), in which case it will show that head has control of heart and completely dominates it. This is especially true if the Head line be deeper and clearer than the Heart line.

If it is so marked, read with confidence that the head completely rules. If the lines of Head and Heart are marked as in the above two cases, there will be a continual struggle between them for supremacy, with the chances in favor of the head as the Heart line droops or takes its source from it.

The constant effort in our study of the hand is to discover what forces are strongest in the subject, and what ones will most influence him. In this battle between head and heart, reason and sentiment, minutely inspect the source of the Heart line and with it the comparative strength of the two lines, Head and Heart, in order to tell which will rule. Note in practice that the Heart line when rising from the Head line does not always do so just at the start, as in the illustration, but may rise farther along in the course of the Head line (31).

In this case, the time at which the Head line obtained control of the Heart line can be read by the point on the Head line from which the Heart line starts; the age at which it occurred being read from the line of Head according to the rules laid down in Chapter 4