Cast & Chart

Line

Life line

Everything here reports what named old books claimed about hands. None of it is a statement about you or about anything to come.

In an older source

The line of life should be long, narrow, and deep, without irregularities, breaks, or crosses of any kind.

Cheiro, The Language of the Hand (1897)

About this entry

Cheiro 1897 says the life line rises under the Mount of Jupiter, goes down the hand and curves around the Mount of Venus. He writes that time is marked along it, and that events pointed to by the other main lines are checked against it. Heron-Allen 1885 and St Hill 1893 also have it encircling the Mount of Venus and set out a similar ideal form.

All three ask for a long line. Cheiro and St Hill want it narrow and deep, Heron-Allen wants it strong and neither too broad nor too fine, and Cheiro and Heron-Allen rule out breaks and crossings. All three tie such a line to a long life. The old books also attached many health claims to this line, and this page leaves those out. A question about health belongs with a doctor, not with a palm. Cheiro adds that a line sweeping far out into the palm gives the Venus mount more room and counts as a sign of physical strength.

The books agree on a rule that line length goes with length of life, and they differ on how far it can be pressed. Heron-Allen 1885 stated the rule flatly and treated it as exact. Cheiro 1897 repeats Heron-Allen's opening words on shorter lines and then qualifies them. In his account the line gives a natural term apart from accidents, and other lines can cut a life short. Cheiro 1916 says only that it foretells length of life from natural causes. Benham 1900 reads length as vitality and says no one should make firm statements about a time. Baughan 1891 also reads a short line as a short life.

Two modern studies measured the line against age at death. Lucas, Dhugga and Henneberg 2019 measured life line length and total hand length in 60 cadavers and report no significant correlations, with no difference by sex or by side. Newrick and colleagues 1990, writing from the Bristol Royal Infirmary, measured life line length in 100 consecutive autopsies and report a highly significant association with age at death, stronger once hand size was taken into account. The two results differ. Both studies looked only at life line length and age at death, and neither tested character, events or any other line. This page does not use the life line to say how long anyone will live.

Features the books describe

  • Long and deep

    Cheiro 1897 gives a long, narrow, deep line without breaks or crosses as the ideal form and ties it to long life, good health and vitality. That is his claim, not a forecast.

    Source: Cheiro, The Language of the Hand (1897)

  • Sweeping wide into the palm

    Cheiro 1897 reads a line that swings far out, leaving the Mount of Venus more room, as going with good physical strength and long life, again his claim and not a forecast.

    Source: Cheiro, The Language of the Hand (1897)

  • Short

    Benham 1900 ties a short line to strength that runs down sooner. He adds that no one should ever name a date from it.

    Source: William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading (1900)

  • Forked at the end

    Cheiro 1897 reads a wide split, with one branch around the Venus mount and the other toward the base of the Moon mount, as a great change from the native land to another.

    Source: Cheiro, The Language of the Hand (1897)

  • Marked by a square

    Cheiro 1897 calls a square found anywhere on the life line a mark of preservation.

    Source: Cheiro, The Language of the Hand (1897)

Where this text comes from

Statements credited to an older writer follow the scanned or typed text named here, and those writers often disagree. Modern practice is labeled as modern.

Our own plain wording. Quoted lines keep the spelling of the scanned source.