Also called: Hridaya rekha (హృదయ రేఖ) · Bhavodvega rekha (భావోద్వేగ రేఖ) · Line of Heart · Line of Affection · Mensal · Line of Fortune · Table line
Where on the hand: Most commonly begins at the percussion below the little finger, above the Mercury mount's lower boundary, runs transversely across the upper palm above the Head line and under all four finger mounts, forming the top boundary of the Quadrangle, and ends anywhere from the Mount of Mercury (very short) to the base of the index finger, or curving up into the web between index and middle finger.
What it looks like: The uppermost of the transverse creases — either strongly curved and rising toward the fingers, or running straight and flat across the palm; often forked or three-pronged at its radial end.
Emotional nature, capacity for affection, how love is given and received, romantic and sexual temperament, loyalty and sympathy; and physiologically the heart and circulatory system. Indian sources add bhava (emotional disposition), mental and emotional stability, and susceptibility to hriday rog (heart disease).
Direction convention
- **Western practice** usually reads it **from the percussion toward the index finger** — the reading direction is radial.
- **Some Indian and some modern readers reverse this.**
- **Be consistent and say which convention you are using**, or your endings and beginnings will invert.
The four classic terminations
- **Ending on the Mount of Jupiter (base of index finger)** — idealistic love; high standards; loyalty; devotion to an ideal of the beloved; leadership in affection; can over-idealise and therefore be disappointed.
- **Ending between the index and middle fingers** — the most balanced and generally the most fortunate: realistic, warm, faithful, capable of both idealism and practicality.
- **Ending on the Mount of Saturn (under the middle finger)** — sensual rather than romantic; physically driven; older sources read materialism and self-interest in love; also read as a partner chosen for security.
- **Very short, ending under Apollo or Mercury** — narrow emotional range, difficulty expressing feeling, or emotion confined to a small circle.
Curved versus straight — the key temperament axis
- **Strongly curved, rising sharply to the fingers** ("physical / expressive heart line") — warm, demonstrative, initiating, passionate; expresses feeling readily; sexually forward.
- **Straight and flat across the palm** ("mental / receptive heart line") — reserved, receptive rather than initiating; intellect governs emotion; feelings run deep but are not shown; needs to be approached rather than approaching. A straight line under Jupiter is described as loving humanity broadly while avoiding deep entanglement.
- **Curved toward Apollo** — passionate, magnetic, attracts partners easily.
Depth and quality
- **Deep, clear, unbroken** — steady, dependable affections; a strong emotional constitution; also read as healthy early maternal bonding.
- **Chained throughout** — emotional repression; flirtatiousness in old sources; difficulty sustaining or communicating feeling; many small attachments; also read as anaemia or heart weakness.
- **Broad and shallow** — shallow feeling, easily moved and easily forgotten.
- **Faint or barely present** — emotional coldness or, more kindly, emotion so private it leaves no mark.
- **Thicker or heavier than usual at the start** — excessive maternal attachment.
- **Weak or thin at the start, or islanded / chained at the start (percussion end)** — childhood emotional neglect, maternal illness or maternal rejection.
Forks
- **Two-pronged fork at the Jupiter end (one prong to Jupiter, one between the fingers)** — the standard, benign form: balance of head and heart in love.
- **Three-pronged fork (trident) at the Jupiter end** — considered highly fortunate in both traditions: charm, popularity, good fortune in relationships, success and love combined.
- **Fork with one prong dropping to the Head line** — the emotions are governed, sometimes suppressed, by reason.
- **Multiple branches at the terminus** — capacity for several simultaneous loves; a preference for spiritual over exclusive attachment.
Branches
- **Upward branches anywhere along it** — happy relationships, joys, successful affections at those dates.
- **Downward branches** — disappointments, losses, grief; a downward branch reaching the Head line = a heartbreak that changed the person's thinking.
- **A downward branch cutting through to the Life line** — a loss with a physical or health consequence.
Breaks
- **Break under Saturn** — a serious rupture; older sources read fatality in love, or heart trouble.
- **Break under Apollo** — a loss through pride, vanity, or the partner's career.
- **Break under Mercury** — a rupture through business, communication, or a move.
- **Overlapping break** — the relationship is repaired or replaced without collapse.
Islands
- **Position-specific** — an island marks a period of emotional stress or, medically, cardiac or circulatory weakness at that point.
- **Island under Apollo** — an old association with weak eyesight, as on the Head line.
Doubled Heart line (rare)
- **Two parallel transverse lines above the Head line** — an unusually large emotional capacity, protective of the affections, and (as with all sister lines) insurance against breaks in the primary line.
- **The domukhi dissent** — some modern Indian media sources read a "*domukhi*" (two-mouthed) heart line as divided affections or infidelity. This is a popular rather than classical reading and it directly contradicts the sister-line principle; note the disagreement, do not repeat it as doctrine.
The Heart line and the Quadrangle
- **Wide quadrangle (Heart and Head lines far apart)** — broad-minded, generous, open, sometimes indiscreet.
- **Narrow quadrangle (lines close together)** — narrow-minded, secretive, prejudiced, constricted; the emotions and intellect crowd each other.
- **Quadrangle widest at the Jupiter end** — generous in principle.
- **A Mystic Cross floating free in the quadrangle** — the classic occult marking.
Western reading: Cheiro applies the same four mount-sections used on the Head line; the four terminations and the curved-versus-straight axis are the core Western reading. Read from the percussion inward by convention.
Read with care: The line carries heart-disease, anaemia and eyesight claims, and older sources read a break under Saturn as "fatality in love". These are traditional correspondences, not medical or predictive statements. The popular Indian "domukhi = infidelity" reading contradicts the classical sister-line principle and is recorded as a disagreement.
Palmistry is a traditional interpretive art, not a science. Offered for reflection and self-understanding — not medical, legal or financial advice.