When reading a palm, three lines catch the eye first: the heart line crossing the upper palm, the head line running below it, and the life line curving around the thumb. Usually the heart and head lines flow separately, above and below; but rarely these two merge into a single line that crosses the palm straight across. This is called the Simian Line. The name comes from how, when the hand is clenched, the crease sets as one straight line.
Traditionally the Simian Line was seen as a hand where feeling and reason are not at odds but bound into one. So once the mind is made up, emotion and thought align in the same direction, giving a power to push forward with striking focus and will. Indeed there is a long-told notion that some who achieved great things bore this line, and it earned nicknames like the “presidential line” or the “line of success.”
Yet the old view did not see this line only kindly. Since feeling and reason are tied into one line, it was also held that one might dwell too much on a single thing, find it hard to bend the mind flexibly, and be clumsy at modulating the swells of emotion. Put kindly, a single-minded tenacity; put carefully, a want of flexibility.
Seen with today’s eyes, this singularity of the Simian Line is no flaw but a distinct character. That feeling and thought flow in one direction can also mean quick decision, tenacity toward a goal, and the temperament of a specialist who digs deep into one field. In places where immersion is a strength — research, technology, art, founding a venture — the power of focus this line marks becomes a great asset. What matters is where that strong energy is poured, and whether one adds the ease to loosen it now and then and tend the heart.
Yet what must not be forgotten is that a single line does not fix a person. The hand changes little by little as one lives, and the temperament held in the lines is completed, in the end, by the daily life of the one who notices and steers it. Even with a Simian Line, it is only a tender whisper: “you have a strong power to gather your heart on one point, so choose its direction wisely.” Herein lies FortuneLeaf’s reason for introducing it — not to frighten or flatter over an unusual line, but to stand beside you as you understand the energy held in your own hand clearly and tend it kindly.