History of Palm Reading

The practice of palm reading is believed to have originated in India. The earliest record in the practice of palm reading to tell a person's character or future was written in a book by Valkimi, a Hindi sage at least 5000 years ago. His work, "The Teachings of Valkimi Maharshi on Male Palmistry," spread to the other parts of Asia including Tibet, China, Persia up to Egypt. Chiromancy had later spread to Europe and then to the Americas. It was in 3000 BC when palmistry reached China and the Tibet.

From China, palmistry spread to Greece through the practice of Anaxagoras between 500-400 BC. He is a Greek philosopher who lived before the time of Socrates. He was known for the cosmological concept called Nous (which means "mind"), or the ordering force. Anaxagoras lives in Asian Minor and, although he is a Greek, he was believed to have been a soldier of the Persian army for the Ionian Revolt. Although he had some property, he gave up all of these believing these would get in the way of his search for greater knowledge. He also lived in Athens where he met Pericles and Euripides, which could have been the start of the spread of chiromancy along with his other teachings.

Chiromancy has evolved many years after that. The practice of modern-day palm reading now also incorporate other forms of divination as well as some techniques in holistic healing and psychology. Scientific studies were later done on the practice of chirology and books were published on the topic.

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