Also called: General principles of the mounts · The height and firmness tests
Where on the hand: Applies to every mount on the palm — the pads at the finger bases, the two Mars mounts, Venus, Luna and the base-of-palm mounts.
What it looks like: A mount is judged by four things at once: its height (sighted edge-on), its firmness (pressed with the thumb), its colour, and the direction and kind of lines on it.
The mounts are not read in isolation. Height without firmness is latent rather than active energy; vertical lines feed a mount while horizontal lines dam it; colour tunes the whole reading; and the apex, not the bulge, fixes which mount you are actually looking at.
How many mounts
- **The seven classical mounts** — Jupiter, Saturn, Sun, Mercury, Mars, Moon, Venus — are common to Cheiro, Benham and Hast Samudrika alike.
- **Indian sources routinely expand this to eight** — splitting Mars into Ūrdhva (upper) and Nimna (lower).
- **And often to nine, ten or eleven** — by adding Rahu, Ketu and Neptune.
Reading the height — two standard field tests
- **The height test** — hold the hand horizontally at eye level and sight along the palm to compare elevations.
- **The firmness test** — press gently with the thumb. A firm, springy mount is an active mount; a mount that dents and stays dented is a passive or weak one however high it looks.
Lines on a mount
- **Vertical lines (ऊर्ध्व रेखा, ūrdhva rekhā) strengthen a mount** — Indian sources describe them as conduits drawing the planet's energy down into the life.
- **Horizontal / cross-bar lines block it** — dams across a river: obstruction, stress, failure in that mount's department.
- **General rule for marks** — star, triangle, circle, square, trident and vertical lines strengthen a mount; cross-bar, grille, cross, island, dot and horizontal lines show defects, of health or of character.
Colour and consistency
- **Red and firm** — strong and active.
- **White, flabby, soft** — weak, latent, unrealised.
- **Yellow on a mount** — read as bilious and malefic.
Benham's rule of displacement
- **A mount's true seat is its apex** — the tented convergence of the skin ridges.
- **Apex central** — the mount's qualities are pure and untainted.
- **Apex migrated toward a neighbour** — the two natures blend, and the blend has a specific named meaning (see the master displacement table).
- **A displaced mount is the norm, not the exception.**
The pure type
- **A dominant mount does not just add a trait** — in Benham's system it produces a whole physical and temperamental type: Jupiterian, Saturnian, Apollonian, Mercurian, Martian, Lunarian, Venusian.
- **Each type has characteristic build, face, colouring, voice, diet, health weaknesses and career.**
Mounts are not fixed
- **Indian sources warn that mounts respond to strong therapeutics** — to sustained effort, remedial measures and change of life.
- **Comparison of the two hands over years is what demonstrates this.**
Western reading: Benham supplies the apex/displacement rule and the doctrine of the seven pure types; the height and firmness tests are common to both traditions.
Palmistry is a traditional interpretive art, not a science. Offered for reflection and self-understanding — not medical, legal or financial advice.