The hand as a little cosmos

The first page does not begin with a prediction about love or money. Saunders begins with seven wandering stars: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. In the astronomy and astrology of his book, the Sun and Moon belong to this sevenfold group. He says these celestial powers govern lower bodies, particularly human hands. This is the premise that makes his later diagrams intelligible. A planet’s name on a finger is therefore a claim about correspondence and influence, not an anatomical label discovered by dissection. Before reading a mark, the reader has to learn the cosmic map that assigns it a place.

OCCULT HALL · INTERPRETIVE ILLUSTRATION

Saunders next introduces the zodiac as an imagined circle divided into twelve signs and 360 degrees. The Sun’s progress supplies his account of seasons, generation and decay. On the second printed page he arranges the signs into spring, summer, autumn and winter, three signs to a season. This sequence matters because his hand will carry several calendars at once: seven planetary places and twelve zodiacal divisions. He is not simply decorating a hand with stars. He wants the hand to summarize changes that occur in the larger world, so that a local feature can be connected to a season, a power and a proposed event.

Printed page 2 lists seven lines or parts, but the list is mixed. It includes the Table line, middle natural line, line of Life, hepatic or stomach line, a sister of the vital line, the percussion and the wrist. The percussion is a region along the striking edge of the hand, rather than an ordinary crease. Saunders immediately adds that only four lines are principal. This distinction prevents a common reading error: counting visible creases and trying to force every palm into seven identical lines. His categories describe a system of important structures and places; they do not promise seven equally obvious grooves on every hand.

The first engraved hand on printed page 3 turns the opening theory into a visible arrangement. The roots of the fingers carry planetary mounts; the center includes a triangle and a table or quadrangle. The explanation below assigns different subjects to different places. Mercury’s mount concerns arts and actions, Venus’s area concerns love and marriage, and Mars’s area concerns strength and conflict. These assignments are Saunders’s interpretive conventions. They explain why the same shape can mean different things in different locations. To read his page accurately, record the location first and the shape second; a floating star or cross without its setting loses much of the book’s meaning.

Open the book

01

Printed page 1 · scan 35

Seven planets and the zodiac form the opening premise.

Open the book

02

Printed page 2 · scan 36

The seasons and mixed list of seven lines or parts.

A useful way through this unfamiliar system is to separate three operations. First describe what the plate actually shows: a line, branch, raised area or engraved symbol. Next identify the planetary or zodiacal territory Saunders assigns to it. Only then summarize the conclusion he draws. The first operation is visual description, the second uses his symbolic map, and the third is his divinatory claim. Keeping those stages separate lets you understand the magic he believed the hand contained without treating it as a proven account of a person’s future. Our course follows seven chosen routes through his substantial book; Saunders did not divide the original into these seven lessons.