Queen Victoria during the 1880s popularised the taking of plaster casts of children’s hands, by doing those of her own children. These casts were then wax filled and often given a sleeve from an old garment to complete the realism, soon the whole country was following suit.

To encounter one of these wax hands in an antique shop today can be a bit of a shock as they can be so realistic, and o ne of queen Victoria’s babies hands was even copied into a door knocker, a ring stand and a paperweight.

The trend in the nineteen seventies was for a smoke rubbing or hand print of the new born baby, and a written sheet of projections and predictions to follow up as the child grew; a London Vicar by this method, expanded his donations to the missionary fund threefold.

Today’s technology demanded an update from the palmistry craze of the Victorian parlour, so I took a look at a picture of an ultra-sound scan of a baby in the womb, to see what information his palms and hands provided.

The way you hold and move your hands has always been a good guide to your personality, and outlook, but to see these qualities before birth is truly amazing. Before I knew it I was inundated with demands to look at other Ultra-sound scans.

A baby, for 8 months, lays alone with his mother in a watery cocoon, he coos and plays sucks his thumb, touches and kicks his umbilical cord, and listens to the voices of his mother and father. That baby also experience all the emotions of the mother and reacts to voices they know with excited gestures. Babies in the womb absorb far more than what was initially known, as revealed by recent advances in scanning technology.

Daphne and Charles Maurer explained this in their superb book, ” The world of the newborn” and describe putting a tiny microphone vaginally into the uterus- the sounds of mothers heartbeat, lungs and intestines are just incredible.

For the palmist the argument that goes on since Plato's time, has been the question of why some children are left handed? Whichever thumb is mainly sucked in the womb will be the preferential hand in later life.

Another point of interest, is whether a baby will be born with an abnormality such as Downs Syndrome, many doctors belong to the “Catholic medical guild” and will not abort no matter what, putting their own belief before child and patient welfare.

Downs children in a high percentage of cases have the single palmer flex-ion crease, known to palmists as the “Simian line,” as its discoverer Dr. Crookshank noticed it always occurred in “Simians” or Monkeys.

This same configuration which is a recognised sign of chromosome abnormality, and is seen with drug damage such as Thalidomide, overuse of alcohol, nicotine, antibiotics, tranquillisers, the contraceptive pill and painkillers, and 12 months should be allowed to be fully clear of the system before considering pregnancy, one in eighty babies are damaged at birth by alcohol, even more in the Soviet Union.

Bulbous thumbs are another early warning sign of difficulty, Prof. Manning, Dr L Penrose and Dr E Sheiner have all studies palmer lines and given us information.

A baby born to a mother who undergoes a stressful pregnancy can remain with high levels of cortisone until its teens, and single parent families have high incidences of this factor, rendering them vulnerable to mental and physical illness in later life.

Researchers now claim that too much stress to the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, can do a baby major damage. Stress levels can be determined by the hand and its gestures, within the womb on the scan.

A mother's diet plays a crucial role in foetus development, and a disturbed or malnourished baby will make unhappy hand gestures, which can also be picked up, by the baby making silent throat and chest crying motions, and the palmer lineation.

A 1998 Readers digest article, suggests that when a bright light is shone on the mothers stomach the baby will turn his face to the light.

The human ear is the curled shape of a baby in the womb, and gentle stroking of the ear can calm a kicking or disturbed baby, similarly in acupressure, the life line on the palm can be rubbed back and forth to help settle a baby.

The thumb is held inside the hand with babies and those under great stress, when a baby is happy with its independence, its thumb comes out, s o we see that a baby in the womb with his thumb inside is not yet ready to be born.

Winter born babies are bigger stronger, live longer and are more successful statistically than summer born babies, and are longer and heavier, but not as happy, as astrologers have always told us.

Italian researchers who studied 3000 post-menopausal women found the date of the menopause was linked to the date of birth.

Earliest onset was with March births, who reached at 48 years and nine months, and the latest was October births as Autumn born babies were still fertile at 50 years and three months, confirming that prenatal environments have surprising effects in later life, as does the body type.

French studies by Michael Gauguin also showed that the month of birth strongly effected the career, sporting abilities and school work.

A Caesarean birth can give a higher incidence of eczema and asthma, proclivities to these can also be seen on the ultra-scan handprint.

Crucially inherited palmer signals can tell who the real father of a baby is, and even the mother will pass on certain linear formations, useful information in paternity cases. The communications sector in the little or Mercury finger will usually tell if the father has been present during pregnancy.

The baby in the womb may not yet be able to speak, but they sure communicate through other ways, as the palmer gesture can be interpreted into language we all understand.

'HAPPY PALMISTRY'

T Stokes

Lecturer in para-spiritual sciences

palmist@fsmail.net