Also called: Angular wavy line · Lightning-bolt line
Where on the hand: Along the course of any line, most often noted on the head line.
What it looks like: The angular counterpart of the wavy line: the line runs in sharp alternating diagonal segments, like a lightning bolt.
Read as an aggravated form of the wavy or serpentine line — instability and erratic operation. No independent classical tradition treats the zigzag as its own named mark; it is a descriptive variant.
On each line
- **Head line** — wavering purpose in its sharpest form; where the zigzag head line is crossed by bars, Saint-Germain's severe register gives “headaches; danger of insanity.”
- **Life line** — uneven vitality, as with the wavy line but more marked.
- **Fate line** — an erratic career.
- **Health / Liver line** — digestive and liver irregularity.
- **General** — Benham's evenness principle applies inversely: the less evenly a line runs, the worse it is.
On each mount
- **Not a mount mark** — the zigzag is a property of a line's course.
- **Saturn, by analogy** — the Indian sarpa chinha near the Saturn line reads the undulating form positively (a warrior or hero), but that reading is given for the smooth serpentine, not the angular zigzag.
- **Compare crossbars** — a zigzag is the line itself misbehaving, where crossbars are external strokes cutting it.
Where it is positive
- **No positive reading** — the sources give the zigzag no benefic placement.
- **Its weak attestation as mitigation** — since no classical tradition names it independently, little interpretive weight should rest on it.
- **The serpentine cousin** — the smooth wavy form does have one positive Indian reading (sarpa near the Saturn line), which the angular form does not inherit.
Read with care: “Bars crossing a sloping head line = headaches; danger of insanity” belongs to Saint-Germain's severe Victorian register and has no evidential basis. The zigzag itself is a descriptive variant, not a classical mark, so readings built on it are especially weakly founded.
Palmistry is a traditional interpretive art, not a science. Offered for reflection and self-understanding — not medical, legal or financial advice.