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
Palmistry is a traditional interpretive art, not a science. Offered for reflection and self-understanding — not medical, legal or financial advice.