Since the beginning of time, people from all walks of life and from all over the world have been drawn to spiritual practices.
According to Chopra, “Spirituality is an inward journey that involves a shift in awareness rather than some form of external activity. As such, spirituality is much more about inner understanding than outer worship.”
Originating in Europe and Asia, ancient palmistry was first used to answer questions about illnesses and diseases — a way of diagnosing before modern medicine — and it is still used for medical reasons along with fortune telling today.
Palmistry is the study of people’s lines and indents on the palm and fingers, with each part of the palm representing something about one’s life. Although today modern palmistry is being used frequently, it is derived from ancient palmistry.
According to Modern Hand Reading Forum, the art and the science of palmistry is spiritual, since it allows people to see deeper within themselves regarding a person’s health, spirit and fortune.
Deborah Voith is a spiritual advisor, tarot reader, conjurer, root worker, spirit communicator and palmist who often practices from home and at Altered State of Mind in Milwaukee. She said that many of these practices intertwine and are all influenced by spirituality by helping people reach a deeper connection within themselves.
Voith had a career as a registered nurse for a long time and with her knowledge of spirituality and her knowledge that came from nursing, she was able to notice a correspondence between people’s palms and physical health.
“I was a nurse for 25 years at the psychiatric crisis service, so we had a lot of different doctors come through for internships, and there were a lot of doctors from India actually who would have me read their palms, because it’s a lot more popular there,” Voith said.
Cheiro, often called the founder of modern palmistry, is a form more commonly used today because we live in the modern age, so it adheres more to the current time — although this form came into existence around the 1800s.
“I think modern palmistry was really influenced by Cheiro, an astrologer and palmist, and I have a lot of his palmistry books from around the 1890s. There’s also an old palmistry book called Benham’s, and a lot of the basic palm reading information they have in there is the same as writers are putting out now,” Voith said.
According to Palmist Manish, “Modern palmistry was developed and made famous by Cheiro to the world, but at the same time, it has always been a way of life in India. Cheiro himself learned palmistry from Indian saints and went back to Europe to present it to the world. This is the reason why we can’t say that Cheiro invented it.”
From ancient palmistry into modern palmistry, there’s a shift from using it for mostly medical purposes to using it for spiritual reasons as well.
“My sister, Beth, has been a palm reader ever since the 70s and she was a professional palmist, so I got inspired by her,” Voith said. “By watching her, I knew enough to do basic palmistry but then I went and took this course by Sue Compton, it’s called palmistry international, and I took that for a couple of years, and I learned a lot from her.”
Voith found her knowledge of palmistry and spirituality useful in her day to day life throughout the years.
“A lot of the time when you see divided energies on one of your palms lines, I’ll say something, and it usually turns out to be someone who gets a lot of headaches. While I worked as a nurse, when I would take people’s blood pressure I would notice certain signs on people’s palms, sometimes people with a lot of built-up anger or a hard time with impulse control,” Voith said.
The lines and indents on palms change over the years, they don’t stay the same throughout one’s life. This is the same for ever-changing personalities and life choices which can lead people towards mental and spiritual growth.
“I think that for palms, things change more slowly, but with your palm, people usually get their palm read every couple of years. It’s interesting because you don’t always realize how much your palms change even through those years,” Voith said.
Practices like palmistry, used by people all over the word is something that let’s people get in touch with their inner selves on a higher level, spiritual level.
This story was written by Sofía Cortés. She can be reached at [email protected].
