In face reading the mouth is the busiest of the many seats of the face. Eating, speaking, laughing, kissing — all the coming and going of life pass through this small gate. So people of old called the mouth the “Organ of Receipts and Disbursements” (chulnap-gwan), a gate where wealth and words, food and affection come and go, and when reading a face by the flow of age, they generally saw it as mirroring the fortune of later years past sixty. That in reading the mouth one commonly reads together a person’s fortune of food and wealth, their eloquence and affection, is for this reason.
First the size of the mouth is seen to signify the vessel of the heart and one’s ambition. A mouth fittingly large and firmly closed was taken as one of large mettle and drive, generous too in spending; conversely a small mouth is seen as a delicate and careful temperament — yet this reads as a firm thrift or prudence, so it is no matter to divide big and small hastily into better and worse. What matters is not the size itself but how firm and strong the mouth sits.
The thickness and shape of the lips are looked at too. Lips fittingly plump and glossy are seen as one of much warmth and affection with a favor for people; upper and lip meeting in balance is read as heart and expression in harmony. Lips too thin may be intellectual and firm of speech while showing less affection outwardly; too thick may lean toward emotion as much as their affection runs deep. Either way it is no flaw but each one’s temperament, so understanding its grain comes first.
The direction of the mouth’s corners was thought to sway impression and fortune especially greatly. A mouth whose corners lift softly upward gives a warm, ever-smiling impression and was seen to draw people and fortune; corners drooping down, seeming full of worry, were read as a counsel to keep the heart bright. Interestingly, the corners are the part most swayed by the expressions we wear, so the mouth of one who smiles often truly comes, over the years, to bear a softly lifted grain.
Yet the most important principle in face reading is that the mouth is never judged alone. However fine the mouth, if the nose and eyes, forehead and chin are not in harmony, that fortune hardly shows in full; and conversely, even if the mouth is somewhat wanting, when the whole face is balanced, that lack is readily filled. The mouth comes into its full meaning only when it blends with the other parts within the single landscape of a face.
Yet what must not be forgotten is that the shape of the mouth does not nail down and set a person’s fate. A face is made as lived time and heart pile in layers upon the bone one is born with, and the expressions often worn and the stance toward life gradually shift its grain over long years. The mouth especially is the seat most swayed by expression, so it is also a part where one can tend that fortune oneself with kind words and frequent smiles. So to read a face is less to confirm a fixed fortune than to raise a mirror that reflects who you are now.
Herein lies FortuneLeaf’s reason for introducing the reading of the mouth — not to line people up by whether the mouth is big or small, whether there is fortune or not, but to help you understand, clearly and tenderly, the energy held in this gate where words and affection come and go. For the many seats of a face are no hardened fate, but a living landscape that today’s expression and heart reshape, a little anew, each day.