Fate line

Cheiro 1897 describes the fate line, which he also calls the Saturnian, as the center upright line on the palm. It runs toward the Mount of Saturn, and he says it relates to worldly affairs: success or failure, the people who influence a career, the barriers in the way, and the final result. Benham 1900 gives it a narrower job. He confines it to worldly progress, and to whether that progress comes through struggle or with little effort.

Cheiro insists that the hand type changes the weight of the line. In his view it is less marked on the elementary, square and spatulate hands, and more marked on the philosophic, conic and psychic. He says a strong line on a conic hand counts for far less than a small one on a square hand, and he reports that owners of philosophic, conic and psychic hands tend to believe in fate while owners of square and spatulate hands rarely do.

He reads the starting point of the line as well. A line from the life line that grows strong afterward he reads as success won by personal merit, and one from the wrist running straight to Saturn as extreme good fortune. A line from the Moon mount he reads as success resting on the fancy of other people. A line set low and tied beside the life line he reads as early years given up to the wishes of relatives.

Calling this a career line is modern shorthand. Cheiro's range was wider, and Benham's was narrower.