Inauspicious signbothcommon

Fork

द्विशाखा · dwishākhā / काँटा · kāntā

On about 35% of hands

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Also called: Split end · Writer's fork · Lawyer's fork

Where on the hand: At or near the end of any line, and at the start of the life line; also on the upper Mars mount as deep forked crossed lines.

What it looks like: The line divides into two (occasionally three) distinct prongs, usually at or near its end, each prong of comparable strength and diverging at a visible angle. Where the two prongs curve back together you have an island instead; where there are three deliberate equal prongs you have a trident; where there are many irregular strands you have a tassel.

Division of energy — neutral in itself, and read by where the prongs go. Benham groups it with the tassel as showing “the end of its usefulness,” but notes a fork is a simple split that may continue as an island, whereas the tassel scatters beyond recovery.

On each line

**End of the head line** — the classic writer's fork: versatility, one prong practical and one imaginative. A trident at the end is intellectual versatility.
**Head line forking toward the Fortune/Fate line** — Dale: “subtlety in managing affairs.”
**End of the life line** — a fork toward the Moon means restlessness or travel; a trident means strong vitality.
**Start of the life line** — a forked start is ambition; treated in dedicated chapters by Saint-Germain (“Starting Points and Forks”).
**End of the heart line** — balance of idealism and realism; the three-pronged form is favoured.
**Liver / Health line forking toward the Moon mount** — Dale: “hypocrisy and evil manners.”
**Marriage line** — a forked end reveals significant disagreement between partners; “the fork's size correlates with relationship severity.”

On each mount

**Upper Mars** — deep forked crossed lines here indicate severe throat and bronchial problems (Saint-Germain).
**Moon / Luna** — the destination that matters most: a life line forking toward the Moon is restlessness and travel, while a liver line forking there is Dale's “hypocrisy and evil manners.”
**Not otherwise a mount mark** — the fork is a property of a line's ending; direction toward a mount supplies the meaning.

Where the fork is positive

**End of the head line** — the writer's or lawyer's fork: versatility, practicality married to imagination.
**Head line toward the fate line** — subtlety in managing affairs (Dale).
**End of the life line, as a trident** — strong vitality.
**End of the heart line, three-pronged** — a favoured balance of idealism and realism.
**Start of the life line** — ambition.
**End of the life line toward the Moon** — travel and restlessness, a neutral-to-positive modern reading.

Read with care: Dale's reading of a liver line forking toward the Moon as “hypocrisy and evil manners” is a character verdict of the moralising kind common in the older literature; the marriage-line fork is likewise often relayed as a prediction of conflict rather than as folklore.

subtlety in managing affairsMrs. J. B. Dale, Indian Palmistry

the fork's size correlates with relationship severitysource note

PalmistryAI

Fork

On each line

On each mount

Where the fork is positive

Found on

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Fork

On each line

On each mount

Where the fork is positive

Found on

Read next