Also called: Budh Parvat · Mount of the Little Finger
Where on the hand: Beneath the little finger (kanishthika), above the heart line, spilling over onto the percussion. Its ulnar boundary is the hand's outer edge, where the marriage and affection lines are found; below it, further down the percussion, begins Upper Mars. Centre roughly x 0.85, y 0.92.
What it looks like: The smallest of the four finger-base pads, often crossed by fine short vertical lines. A cluster of three to five such lines, sometimes cut by a slanting bar, is the Medical Stigmata.
Mercury is the mount of quickness — of tongue, of mind, of hand and of money. It governs commerce, science, eloquence, wit and shrewdness, and it is the mount most associated with healing aptitude. Its excess turns the same quickness into cunning and trickery.
Well developed
- **Quickness, shrewdness, mental agility.**
- **Eloquence, wit, humour** — tact and skill in persuasion.
- **Business acumen** — commercial and financial magnetism.
- **Science, mathematics, statistics, invention.**
- **Adaptability and industry** — love of travel and change.
- **Medical Stigmata** — fine vertical lines on Mercury with a long Mercury finger: natural aptitude for healing.
- **Samaritan lines** — the Indian name for the same cluster: healing talent and deep empathy.
- **Benham** — Mercurians are the quickest and most active of all the types.
Flat / deficient
- **Difficulty expressing oneself and one's emotions.**
- **Poor commerce** — failure in accounting, business thinking and scientific work; financial struggle.
- **Reserve, dullness of speech, gullibility.**
- **Indian reading for a flat or compressed Budh** — superstitiousness.
Over-developed
- **Cunning, trickery, deceit, thieving** — classically strongest when the mount is high AND the hand soft and flabby.
- **Quackery and charlatanry.**
- **Talkativeness, manipulation, dishonesty.**
- **Deeply mad pursuit of wealth** — by any means whatever; self-interest in money-making without scruple.
Displaced / leaning (apex migrated)
- **Toward the fourth finger (upward)** — sense of humour; the eloquent speaker.
- **Toward the Sun / Apollo** — flowery eloquence; business blended with art.
- **Toward the percussion (outward)** — success in business.
- **Toward Upper Mars (downward)** — the mercenary: courage and fighting sold for money; the soldier of fortune.
Professions & temperament
- **Medicine and surgery** — Benham ranks Mercurians highest of all types among successful physicians.
- **Law and advocacy**; **oratory and public speaking**.
- **Science, mathematics, statistics and accountancy.**
- **Commerce, trade, brokerage, sales, marketing.**
- **Writing and journalism**; **psychology**; **acting**; **teaching**.
- **Travel and transport**; **invention**.
- **Physique** — compact, small-to-medium (Benham gives about 5 feet 6), quick-moving, with restless eyes.
- **Indian note** — the Budh type stays young-looking longer and smiles constantly.
Body parts governed
- **The nervous system** — mental and nervous disorders; sleeplessness and insomnia.
- **The throat, vocal cords and larynx**; **the nose**.
- **The gall bladder**; **the liver in its digestive role**; **the stomach and digestion**.
- **The bone marrow and ligaments.**
- **Chinese-derived table** — reproductive and respiratory function.
- **Combination rule** — Venus mount and Mercury mount both afflicted points to throat ailments.
Marks on this mount
- **Star** — success in commerce, science or oratory; in some Indian readings, detective ability and skill in gathering information.
- **Medical Stigmata** (3–5 short vertical lines, sometimes crossed by a slanting bar) — natural aptitude for healing and medicine.
- **Samaritan lines** (the same cluster, Indian name) — healing talent and deep empathy.
- **Triangle** — skill in diplomacy and in creative or inventive work.
- **Square** — protection in business; organised, methodical work.
- **Vertical line** — aptitude for medical study.
- **Cross** — dishonesty, or health problems.
- **Grille or net** — criminal tendencies; cunning; theft.
- **Island or dot** — nervous or throat trouble; failure in business.
Western reading: Benham makes Mercurians the quickest of the seven types and the most successful physicians of all, and ties the criminal reading specifically to a high Mercury on a soft, flabby hand.
Read with care: The over-developed reading (theft, quackery, criminality) is a character judgement of the old texts, not a diagnosis, and the health list is traditional correspondence rather than medicine.
the quickest and most active of all the typesBenham
Palmistry is a traditional interpretive art, not a science. Offered for reflection and self-understanding — not medical, legal or financial advice.