Mercury line meaning in palmistry

Is the Mercury line a health line? Not a medical test

No. This page is about palmistry, a tradition for reflection. It is not a medical test, and no palm line can show the health of your body.

If you have a health worry, see a doctor. A doctor can help; a line on your hand can’t.

Palm lines are creases in the skin. A 1986 study by Kimura and Kitagawa found that most palm creases form before birth, as the hand grows in the womb (Kimura and Kitagawa, 1986). The science of creases is on our page is palmistry real.

Why is it called the health line?

Early palmists did read this line for health. Its old names come from that: the health line, the liver line and the hepatica, from the Greek word hepar, liver. Cheiro (1916) even called it “the thermometer of the life”.

Even in its own day, the health reading failed. Markun (1927) quotes a working palmist, Holmes Whittier Merton, who admitted he had found the line’s warning signs “all absent when there was known heart trouble and disease”.

We use the name Benham (1900) preferred: the line of Mercury, after the mount it ends on. Benham read it for health too, so we keep only its name and its place.

The Mercury line is a crease with an old medical name. It is read here for where it runs, never for your health.

Mercury line types and what the books say

The Mercury line is a minor line, so it varies a lot from hand to hand. Match your own hand to the cards below. Each drawing is in gold because the PalmSays scanner doesn’t trace this line; the photo at the top shows none.

How long is your Mercury line?

• Long Mercury line, up to the little finger

  Ends on the mount of Mercury. Its old health readings are refused.

  Do you have this? Does a line run from low on your palm up to your little finger?

  What the books say

  Benham says the line should rise from the mount of the Moon and run up the outer side of the palm to the mount of Mercury. In practice, he adds, it often starts nearer the middle of the palm. He also linked a clear line with a head for business, but he reasoned through digestion, so we leave that out.

  Source: William G. Benham (1900)

• Short Mercury line under the little finger

  Only part of the line shows. No timing is read from its length.

  Do you have this? Is there only a short line just below your little finger?

  What the books say

  Benham reads the line’s length as how much of life it covers, and reads health years from it. We never read dates or health from a line, so a short Mercury line has no separate meaning here. It may also be the top of a longer line that is too faint to see.

  Source: William G. Benham (1900)

• No Mercury line

  Normal. Benham thought at least half of all hands have none.

  Do you have this? Is there no line at all running up to your little finger?

  What the books say

  Benham guessed, without an exact count, that at least half of all hands have no Mercury line. He did not see its absence as a drawback, and Cheiro called a missing line a good sign. If yours is missing, there is nothing to look for.

  Source: William G. Benham (1900); Cheiro (1916)

Mercury line vs the lines near it

Three other lines sit close by, and they are easy to mix up:

• The sun line runs up towards the ring finger, beside the fate line. Its forms are in sun line meaning.
• The marriage lines are short lines that run in from the edge of the palm, just under the little finger. They lie across, not up: see the marriage line guide.
• The via lasciva is a rare short line that Cheiro calls the “sister health-line”. He says it is often confused with the Mercury line.

The minor lines in one place, with a chart, are on our page about the lines on your palm. New to palm reading? Start with how to read palm lines.

Marks on the Mercury line

The old books read islands, crosses, breaks and colours on this line almost only as illness. None of that is repeated here. These marks are also only a few pixels wide in a phone photo, so a photo can’t show them reliably.

Mercury line in the left and right hand, for women and men

The Mercury line is read the same way for everyone. There is no separate Mercury line for women or men. Look at both hands: Markun notes that the lines are not exactly the same on both.

Tradition reads your writing hand as the life you are making, and the other as what you started with. Which hand to read explains why.

Myths about the Mercury line

MythThe Mercury line shows liver or stomach problems.

Reality

No palm line can show that. Even a palmist in Markun’s book found its warning signs missing in people known to be ill. For health, see a doctor.

MythNo Mercury line means poor health.

Reality

A missing Mercury line is common. Benham and Cheiro both treated it as no drawback, and no line is a health test.

MythA broken Mercury line means illness is coming.

Reality

A gap in a crease can’t foresee anything. Shadows and creases can also make a line look broken in a photo.