Eastern physiognomy (gwansang) has a long tradition of reading character and the grain of a life by examining the placement of moles on the face and body — often called “mole reading.” The old people wove a story into each mole near the eyes, the mouth, the forehead, or beside the nose, and from them guessed at a person’s temperament, ties, and the grain by which they would live.
Traditionally, each mole’s place was given a different meaning. A mole near the brow was read for talent and wisdom; one by the mouth for speech and people-fortune; one on the forehead for aspiration and ambition. There were also sayings that prized moles hidden — under clothing, on the sole of the foot — over those plainly seen. Such readings are traces of an old gaze that looked upon a person’s face tenderly, as a kind of storybook.
But here is something that must be noted. Mole reading is by no means a verdict that fixes a person’s luck or fate. Among the old readings were words that frightened, calling a mole in a certain place “ill-omened,” or that made one treat appearance as a flaw — but that is only an old prejudice, not fact. A mole on the face is, in itself, a natural part of you, and no mole makes you unlucky. FortuneLeaf makes no one’s appearance a blemish.
So may you take mole reading not as a tool to divine fate, but as a light mirror for looking tenderly at the story held in your face and reflecting on yourself. One thing: if a mole’s color or shape suddenly changes or grows, that is not a matter of luck but possibly a signal of health — consult a dermatologist; caring for the body comes first. As FortuneLeaf always does, what mole reading offers is not a measure for judging people by their faces, but a soft reflection that lets you embrace even the small marks that make you up — for the story marked on a face is not a flaw but a tender pattern that forms what is uniquely yours.