The mounts of the hand are the pads of flesh that rise along the palm and are different in every hand. These mounds show, by their development, which archetypes are strongest and most fertile.

These archetypal patterns have been with us since the dawn of time. That’s why they’re called archetypal. It means that certain patterns and types of people have always been present within every society–whether you are in a primitive tribe or in a sophisticated urban city, these types show up: the warrior, the priest or priestess, the lover, the intellectual, the trickster, the holy one, the leader. These different types, in variation, are always present.

These patterns have been repeated so often throughout history, they became, as Carl Jung said, a memory deposit in the collective unconscious, connecting the deepest part of our mind to the rest of the world. And so, when we are born, these archetypal patterns are already within us–and, they’re in the hand–but in different proportions for everyone. Some people have one archetype that is so strong that you know that they are the pure archetype and that all the traits associated with that archetype belong to them. However, most of the time, we are a combination.

Reading a hand is a little bit like the way a good cook reads a recipe book. You know these ingredients, and when you see them together, you get a feeling for how they might be. So, it gives you an idea of the personality. What will these archetypes tell us? They’re going to tell us about their personalities, their lifestyle, their romantic tendencies, what kind of work they would be good at, do they like family life, what their health concerns are – there’s endless amounts of information there. By identifying the archetype, you can see what kind of life would be the most satisfying for a person.

(Excerpts from palm reading expert, Ellen Goldberg’s Howcast video, 7 Mounts of the Hand in Palm Reading).

Be sure to check out Ellen Goldberg’s two part series, The Art & Science of Hand Reading for a fun-filled, experiential workshop that will equip us with practical knowledge that we will be able to apply right away to read both our own palms and those of others.