THE POINTED HAND

The most beautiful hand is the intuitive or pointed one.

It has the beauty of fragile porcelain, and its weakness.

You will very rarely see anyone with the intuitive hand in its pure form, but many have hands so nearly approaching the type that I shall list it as one of the basic shapes.

It is long and narrow, with slender, tapering fingers and long, oval, pointed nails.

The pointed hand is the hand of spiritual fervor.

It goes with a trusting overcredulous nature. It has the intense emotionalism of a child, to whom everything is black as pitch one moment, radiant the next.

There is no anger in this type, nor any feeling of energy or fury.

Those with pointed hands are mild and forgiving, easily hurt, but easily forgetting.

They are not so much illogical as without logic or cool judgment.

They have no idea how to be businesslike or practical.

Yet, persons with pointed hands have a compensatory gift. What they are unable to reason out logically, they often grasp more directly.

They are highly intuitive, extremely sensitive to feelings and impressions.

They are attuned to receive waves or currents too delicate for other persons and even too delicate to register on the most sensitive instruments so far devised by man.

For this reason, they make excellent mediums, though frequently they are unaware of their sixth sense.

Love of beauty and disgust with ugliness are often guiding principles in the lives of those who have intuitive hands. The authors of our most inspired lyrical poetry have often had this type of hand.

They live through their feelings. Their emotions swing from ecstasy, when they are loved, to despair when they feel themselves lonely and useless.

COMBINED TYPES

There are few persons nowadays whose hands are of one type alone. Most of us are much more complex than that.

There are various combinations, such as a square hand with exceptionally long, though still squaretipped fingers (see plate 6). Such a combination is an excellent one, the long fingers adding an inquiring mind and keen observation to the practical nature which goes with a purely square hand.

Knotty fingers on a square hand (see plate 7) will add mental and daring to the qualities indicated originality, a sense of justice by squareness.

Spatulate fingers with a square hand give originality and energy.

Such a combination is excellent ior an inventor. A square hand with conic or pointed fingers is a good indication for creative art work, the square palm giving method and perseverance, the tapering fingers contributing sensitiveness and love of beauty.

Even in this combination, however, the force and drive of energy are needed to make for real accomplishment.

THE MIXED HAND

More common even than a hand combining only two types is the thoroughly mixed or versatile hand (see plate 8).

In this, the fingers often belong to different types, and the palm may be of still another shape, or combine characteristics of a number of different ones.

The outside edge may, for example, tend to the oval, the other be rectangular.

To analyze such a hand, the student must determine what its dominant forces are. I shall discuss that in the chapter on the mounts and in the one about the fingers. Aside from what the individual fingers tell us, we can consider certain tendencies common to all mixed hands.

The mixed hand shows versatility combined with a variability of purpose which often negates the former. People with mixed hands are facile, resourceful, adaptable. They are restless and inquisitive, enthusiastic and inventive.

But they often fail to develop any one of their many gifts to its limit and so become jacks of all trades and masters of none.

The weaknesses in a mixed hand are lessened by energy and purpose and magnified if the will is not strong.

In studying a hand, try to classify it according to one of the 7 types.

If, as is most often true, you decide that your subject is of the mixed type, then determine what the dominant traits are.