Also called: Budha rekha (బుధ రేఖ) · Arogya rekha (ఆరోగ్య రేఖ) · Line of Mercury · Line of Health · Hepatica · Liver line · Line of Liver

Where on the hand: In Benham's ideal form it starts on the Mount of Moon and runs upward along the percussion to the Mount of Mercury. In its common actual form it rises near the Life line, the Fate line, or from the centre or base of the palm in the Plain of Mars, and runs diagonally up and outward to the Mount of Mercury. It forms the ulnar side of the Great Triangle.

What it looks like: A diagonal or near-vertical line on the ulnar half of the palm heading for the base of the little finger; frequently broken into segments, laddered, wavy or chained rather than clean — and in the healthiest hands not present at all. Some sources describe the same line read in the opposite direction, running from below the little finger down and across toward the base of the thumb.

Digestion, liver and gall function, the nervous stomach and general constitutional health; and — because Mercury governs commerce and speech — business acumen, memory and communication. Benham links the two: proper digestion and bile regulation give the mental clarity needed for business.

Western reading: Western sources after Benham insist it is a conditional line — present because of current stress — and refuse it any prognostic power over lifespan. Benham's ideal form runs from the Mount of Moon up the percussion to Mercury.

Read with care: This is the most medically loaded line in the reference: liver disease, jaundice, bowel and chest disorders, heart disease and, in the old texts, sterility in women. All of these are traditional correspondences and none is a diagnosis. The sterility reading is explicitly noted as abandoned by modern practitioners of both traditions; the sources also insist the line must never be read alone.

should start on the Mount of Moon and run upward on the percussion to the Mount of Mercury.Benham

I do not regard the absence of the Mercury line as necessarily a detrimentBenham

one of the most unfavourable markings.Benham

close to the Life line = heart disease.Mrs J. B. Dale

covetousnessMrs J. B. Dale