Reading the hand

What is the mystic cross in palmistry?

The mystic cross is a small X in the middle of the palm, between the head line and the heart line. Here is what the tradition says it means, how to tell a real one from a chance crossing, and what it does not show.

What the mystic cross is

Between the head line and the heart line there is a band of palm that most hands leave fairly plain. Sometimes a short line slants across it and meets another, forming a small cross or X. Palmists call this the mystic cross. It is not one of the three major lines, and it appears on a minority of hands.

What the tradition says it means

In the working tradition the mystic cross is associated with an interest in the hidden, the intuitive and the spiritual: curiosity about dreams, symbols, or the unexplained. Older writers sometimes went further and called it a mark of a gifted seer. Treat that as colour, not fact. Palmistry has no demonstrated predictive power, and the meaning given to this cross is a convention passed between readers, not something anyone has measured.

A real cross or a chance crossing?

• Position. A mystic cross sits in the gap between the head and heart lines. A cross lower on the palm or on a mount is a different mark with a different reading.
• Clarity. Two distinct short lines that meet at a clean angle count. A tangle of fine creases does not.
• Size. It is small, roughly the width of a fingertip. A long line that simply passes across the gap is not a cross.
• Both hands. Check the other hand. A cross on one hand only is read more lightly than one on both.

Why a photo can fool you

Fine creases come and go with how the palm is held. Cup the hand and the gap between the two lines folds into extra creases, and a cross appears that is gone when the hand relaxes. Flat light and a tilted camera do the same. If you are checking your own, relax the hand, keep it flat and use even light. How to photograph your palm covers the setup, and what a palm reading scanner really does explains why a clear picture matters.

If you do not have one

Most people do not, and it means nothing either way. The head and heart lines carry most of the reading. How to read palm lines shows the order to look in, and is palm reading real is the honest version of what any of these marks can and cannot tell you.