RIGHT OR LEFT HAND?: Which One Should I Read and What Do They Mean?

One of the most common questions I hear when people first sit down for a reading with me is “do you want to see my right or left hand?” Both! Is what I always answer. Both hands are greatly linked to the brain. Both hands have unique dermatoglyphics (fingerprints) and both hands lines are created by the nervous system.

The dominant hand

The hand your write with is the dominant hand, for 90% of people this is the right hand. The dominant hand shows your outer world persona, it is who your work colleagues and friends see on a daily basis. This hand reveals how to primarily interact with the world and how the world sees you.

The passive hand

Unless you are left handed, this is your passive hand. This shows our inner self, our personal and private side who only close friends, family and a partner get to see. This is how we are when we are alone, what we feel like to ourselves and they way close relations will understand us. Sometimes people are ambidextrous, when this is the case, check the thumb strength, the strongest thumb is on the dominant hand when people use both. All markers on the hand can be read in context of the right and left hands, below I look at examples of why it is important to understand the difference.

Example 1

These are the hands of a right handed 58-year-old woman. Notice the difference between the Emotion line on both hands. On the active, outer world hand it is curved meaning people will see her as an open book emotionally. She will be bubbly, very expressive and people will perceive her as being easy to read and very open, clear and animated with her feelings. But the left had shows something different, an entirely straight Emotional Line that cuts all the way across the upper hand. This means that once people get close to her and really get to know her, they see an emotionally different person. Someone who keeps things more beneath the surface and it much more intense and deep emotionally. As the line is straight, emotions are thought about and analysed rather than quickly expressed. As the line is so long, this process would happen constantly and compulsively, thinking, feeling emotions all the time, with all interactions and building these up over years. Because there is an emotional compulsion, it will be very hard for this person to say no or let anyone close to them down. They will be constantly giving, helping and passing their time on to anyone close to them who needs it. Romantically, despite coming across as, clear, open and expressive with her feelings. When a partner gets to know her, they will experience the constant depth of her feelings and find it harder to see exactly what she is experiencing as these feelings are not clearly expressed, rather they are constantly felt and thought about.

Example 2

These hands belong to a right handed 30-year-old man. See how his Head Line is longer on the inner (left) hand. This shows someone who in the outer-working world, would be focused on success, building his business and making money. As the Head Line is short it means the immediate surroundings are the most important for him and he will prioritise what is efficient and get results. But the left hand’s Head Line is longer, this shows a deeper thinking, someone who will go beyond the mundane and start to analysis psychological, philosophical or spiritual matters. The fingers on each hand can, and often are, different lengths. Here we can see a shorter middle finger on the left hand and a longer little finger. These add to the differences between his working persona and his privet life. The shorter middle finger makes him rebellious, anti-authority, questioning and rule breaking. The long little finger gives a depth of knowledge, deeper and more unusual interests and enhanced communication skills. This aligns with his character and lifestyle as at home, he is very interested in spiritual practices and teaches courses in tai chi and qi gong, is very knowledgeable on alternative world views and conspiracies and loves to discuss philosophy and politics. For his work he runs a production company, where the shorter outer Head Line is more focused on success, his co-workers do not see the deeper thinking, rebellious insight of the inner hand.

Example 3

This is a right-handed lady, in her mid-fifties. We can see the difference between her Life Line on both hands. Looking at the outer world (right) hand, we can see an interesting pattern. The Life Line is being supported by the stronger Fate Line, showing a massive importance placed on work. This is a lady whose stability and structure clearly comes from her profession, her work makes her feel stable and grounded, because the Fate Line is doing the job of the Life Line. She will appear confident, focused and strong. But, the left (her inner hand) shows something else. The Life Line is weak, without any support. This shows internally she feels no structure, no stability and has no roots or solid connections to make her feel grounded. The lack of distinction and strength of the line means that she will feel fragile, despite appearing in the outer world to be very secure and driven. When discussing this in our session the lady explained to me how she has never felt at home anywhere and was constantly moving trying to get the feeling of having a base. The outer hand shows a workaholic, due to the superordinate Fate Line and this was the case. By explaining the short Life Line pattern on her inner hand I was able to explain how to develop the Life Line, ameliorating the instability and focus her energy on the areas that need developing, rather than moving house and over working as a means to try and vicariously get balance.

Example 4

Lastly, we have a 27-year-old left handed women. We can see she has a simian line on her inner (right) hand and contrast in index finger lengths. The simian is such a prodigious feature in permeates throughout both hands, although on first impressions, people may not see the levels of intensity and focus she has as her active (left hand) displays a typical Head and Heart Line balance on her Water hands. This was in part true and everyone at her university perceived her as a typical student/friend, however she explained to me her obsessiveness, staying up painting for hours every night, studying astrology and powering through her PhD to finish a year a head of schedule. The disparate index finger length is significant, as the index finger shows the sense of self, she has a different persona in the outer world to what she internally feels. The outer large index shows someone who will be confident, bossy and responsible. But internally, the smaller index shows someone who is more passive, lacks confidence, has more self-doubt and can feel much more insecure than people would ever perceive or expect. Relationships are very important to Water Handed people and within a relationship this is a complex pattern as she would appear more confident, dominant and powerful on the outside, than what she would feel inside. There would be a vulnerability that her partner would get to know and she would be a very different person around the house to around the office based on the index finger length.