What do you think?
Rate this book
Runic Palmistry
Think about the many different things you do with your hands each eating, writing, gesturing, caressing a loved one. Now take a close look at your hand. Is your palm round or square? The shape reveals your instinctive reactions to life. Square hands are generally "thinkers," while round hands are more likely to be "feelers." Are your fingers short and plump or long and thin? Your fingers reveal how you approach the world around you.
The hand is the visible agent of the brain―an extension of the mind―and through our hands we manipulate the world around us. Our hands reflect our moods and thoughts. Over time, through habitual mannerisms and gestures, our unique personalities are recorded on our hands.
Runic Palmistry describes a system of palm reading handed down orally through the women of four generations of the author's family. In this system, lines of the palm are called "branches" and the mounts of the palm are named after Norse deities. This unique book will show you how
• Find runic symbols within the palm and discover how to tell which ones are active at any given time in a person's life.
• Combine palm reading with a runecast to provide a complete picture of someone's past, present, and future.
• Discover the meanings of the 24 runic symbols, how to construct your own set of runes, and how to handle them to respect their energies.
Those new to palmistry will find that Runic Palmistry provides a complete and detailed system for accurate readings. Experienced palmists will discover valuable new insights into the way symbols work in the hand.
In the following excerpt, author Jon St. Germain describes how he developed Runic Palmistry based on his family's unique traditions.
Knowing that the techniques and traditions I had learned had been passed down in my family for generations, I became very curious about the origins of our unusual palmistry system. I remembered the stories my grandmother told about the Norse gods and heroes. Where had she learned them? Unfortunately, Grandma had passed away years before and couldn't answer my questions.
All I knew for sure was that my family possessed a hitherto unknown method of reading palms based on ancient Norse divination techniques. The origins of this system appeared to be lost in the mists of time. Since I couldn't find any reference to the Norse Palmistry system anywhere else, I decided to take the scraps of information and record them, before they were lost forever.
When runestones (an ancient Norse method of divination) became available to the public I began incorporating runecats into Norse palmistry readings. The two seemed to go hand in hand, so I gave a set of runestones to my Aunt Eliza for her 96th birthday. She seemed delighted with her new toys and immediately threw herself into studying them.
A few months later I received a letter from Aunt Eliza containing many pages of notes and drawings. She had discovered the Runic symbols could be found in the palm of the hand itself. This breakthrough, the most important component of Runic palmistry, came as a natural evolution of the family tradition! The last piece had fallen into place. Thanks to Aunt Eliza's observation, I've seen that almost everyone has Runes hidden in their hands.
The hand is the visible agent of the brain―an extension of the mind―and through our hands we manipulate the world around us. Our hands reflect our moods and thoughts. Over time, through habitual mannerisms and gestures, our unique personalities are recorded on our hands.
Runic Palmistry describes a system of palm reading handed down orally through the women of four generations of the author's family. In this system, lines of the palm are called "branches" and the mounts of the palm are named after Norse deities. This unique book will show you how
• Find runic symbols within the palm and discover how to tell which ones are active at any given time in a person's life.
• Combine palm reading with a runecast to provide a complete picture of someone's past, present, and future.
• Discover the meanings of the 24 runic symbols, how to construct your own set of runes, and how to handle them to respect their energies.
Those new to palmistry will find that Runic Palmistry provides a complete and detailed system for accurate readings. Experienced palmists will discover valuable new insights into the way symbols work in the hand.
In the following excerpt, author Jon St. Germain describes how he developed Runic Palmistry based on his family's unique traditions.
Knowing that the techniques and traditions I had learned had been passed down in my family for generations, I became very curious about the origins of our unusual palmistry system. I remembered the stories my grandmother told about the Norse gods and heroes. Where had she learned them? Unfortunately, Grandma had passed away years before and couldn't answer my questions.
All I knew for sure was that my family possessed a hitherto unknown method of reading palms based on ancient Norse divination techniques. The origins of this system appeared to be lost in the mists of time. Since I couldn't find any reference to the Norse Palmistry system anywhere else, I decided to take the scraps of information and record them, before they were lost forever.
When runestones (an ancient Norse method of divination) became available to the public I began incorporating runecats into Norse palmistry readings. The two seemed to go hand in hand, so I gave a set of runestones to my Aunt Eliza for her 96th birthday. She seemed delighted with her new toys and immediately threw herself into studying them.
A few months later I received a letter from Aunt Eliza containing many pages of notes and drawings. She had discovered the Runic symbols could be found in the palm of the hand itself. This breakthrough, the most important component of Runic palmistry, came as a natural evolution of the family tradition! The last piece had fallen into place. Thanks to Aunt Eliza's observation, I've seen that almost everyone has Runes hidden in their hands.
240 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2001
4 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 28, 2016
Well, this does appear to be the only book out there on this topic, So if you're interested in learning about this method of palmistry, this does seem to be the only way to do it, and therefore I have to recommend it. However, after having finished the book, I find myself lacking enough information to move forward. Based on case studies at the end of the book, I can say that what I see when I look at somebody's hand is very different from what the author sees when he looks at someone's hand. I am not sure if this is due to unclear explanations in the book, unclear prints of hands in case studies, Or if it's normal to expect wide variation in interpretations from different palmists.
Just looking at my own palm while reading the book, I will say that much of the information here is hit or miss: more hits than misses, but the misses were WAY off.
I feel that many of the features one looks for in the hand could've been better explained in the book. That is to say, after reading the author's descriptions of the different hand shapes, I still find myself unable to tell what shape my hand is, not because I can't see my hand or what shape it is, but because the descriptions in the book do not provide a solid frame of reference. They give you features to look for, but no middle ground to compare them to. This is true for other elements of the hand as well: how do you determine whether fingers are long or short? Whether a mount is large or small? Whether branches are deep or faint?
In the end, I am glad I read this book, because it has sparked my interest in palmistry (I have never thought much of it before, but I'm very interested in runes, so had to buy this book when I found it at half price books), and I suspect I will use the "runic" system of palmistry in the end, but I will need to read some classical palmistry books to flesh out my knowledge before I even feel like I can get a good read on myself.
If you're wondering why "runic" is in quotes, that would be because I believe it to be a bit of a misnomer. Most of the palmistry system is not runic, so to speak, so much as it is Norse, or rather, classical palmistry adapted to line up with Norse mythology. It's not so much a different system, as it is the same system with different names, as best as I understand it. There is a section on reading runes in the palm, but it is not very well-developed, and the author's understanding of the runes is sorely lacking.
I will continue to use the information in this book, and I'm glad I read it, and it seems to be a good enough introduction to palmistry. However, it is just that: an introduction. For selling itself as a whole new system of palmistry, I would've liked to see a little more in-depth information, and more clarification, If for no other reason than that this is the only book on this type of palmistry. It's not like there are other resources out there for this information. I suppose I should be grateful that this one exists at all, but I feel that as an author introducing a new system to his readers, it is his duty to provide the best and most in-depth information possible. There are several points in the book where he mentions that he'd like to go more in-depth on something, but didn't to avoid the book being too long. I think he could've left out the rune casting and rune meanings altogether, Except for how runes can apply to palmistry.
A minor note, but I will also say the author's tone bothered me in places, A bit like he was speaking to a child.
What I recommend this book? Yes, but only alongside a better rune book and a more complete palmistry book. For runes, I highly recommend Edred Thorsson's book Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic.
Just looking at my own palm while reading the book, I will say that much of the information here is hit or miss: more hits than misses, but the misses were WAY off.
I feel that many of the features one looks for in the hand could've been better explained in the book. That is to say, after reading the author's descriptions of the different hand shapes, I still find myself unable to tell what shape my hand is, not because I can't see my hand or what shape it is, but because the descriptions in the book do not provide a solid frame of reference. They give you features to look for, but no middle ground to compare them to. This is true for other elements of the hand as well: how do you determine whether fingers are long or short? Whether a mount is large or small? Whether branches are deep or faint?
In the end, I am glad I read this book, because it has sparked my interest in palmistry (I have never thought much of it before, but I'm very interested in runes, so had to buy this book when I found it at half price books), and I suspect I will use the "runic" system of palmistry in the end, but I will need to read some classical palmistry books to flesh out my knowledge before I even feel like I can get a good read on myself.
If you're wondering why "runic" is in quotes, that would be because I believe it to be a bit of a misnomer. Most of the palmistry system is not runic, so to speak, so much as it is Norse, or rather, classical palmistry adapted to line up with Norse mythology. It's not so much a different system, as it is the same system with different names, as best as I understand it. There is a section on reading runes in the palm, but it is not very well-developed, and the author's understanding of the runes is sorely lacking.
I will continue to use the information in this book, and I'm glad I read it, and it seems to be a good enough introduction to palmistry. However, it is just that: an introduction. For selling itself as a whole new system of palmistry, I would've liked to see a little more in-depth information, and more clarification, If for no other reason than that this is the only book on this type of palmistry. It's not like there are other resources out there for this information. I suppose I should be grateful that this one exists at all, but I feel that as an author introducing a new system to his readers, it is his duty to provide the best and most in-depth information possible. There are several points in the book where he mentions that he'd like to go more in-depth on something, but didn't to avoid the book being too long. I think he could've left out the rune casting and rune meanings altogether, Except for how runes can apply to palmistry.
A minor note, but I will also say the author's tone bothered me in places, A bit like he was speaking to a child.
What I recommend this book? Yes, but only alongside a better rune book and a more complete palmistry book. For runes, I highly recommend Edred Thorsson's book Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic.
June 9, 2015
I guess I got my hopes up with the story of this being a new method of palmistry passed down as a family tradition to the author. But either the author or one of his relatives just whitewashed the usual Western palmistry system trying to squish it into Norse mythology and make it work. It will work. So if you're super into those Gods you can use this book as your only manual to palmistry. It's other redeeming quality is that looking for runes in the lines of the palm really is a good idea. But it's as straightforward as it sounds and he saves it for the very last chapter.
August 19, 2007
This is a fantastic book for both beginning and experienced palm readers. I had been practicing for a few years before I read it, but once I started applying the interpretations from this book, I began receiving many more comments on the accuracy of my readings. I very much like the idea of applying Norse mythology and history to the art of palmistry; it was much more intuitive for me than the traditional Roman approach.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews