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Three traditions looked at the same five fingers and each built a complete cosmology onto them. Put the three maps side by side and they barely agree.

One Hand, Three Maps

Yogic hasta mudra assigns the thumb to fire, the index finger to air, the middle finger to ether, the ring finger to earth, and the little finger to water. Japanese Shingon Buddhism, whose hand seals descend from the same Indian Buddhist source, assigns the thumb to space, the index to wind, the middle finger to fire, the ring finger to water, and the little finger to earth. Western chiromancy ignores the elements and reads the four fingers as Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo and Mercury, with the thumb answering to both Venus and Mars at once, one planet for its mount and another for the ridge that runs beneath it.

Descent Without Agreement

Shingon descends directly from the yogic tradition and still lands on the same element as its source on only one finger of the five, the index, which both call air or wind. Everywhere else the two schemes part ways, fire against space on the thumb, fire against ether on the middle finger, water against earth and earth against water swapped between the ring and little fingers. A closer relationship produced less agreement, not more, which is the opposite of what a reader might expect and is exactly what the record shows.

Where To Read More

• ThumbThe one finger with a Western planetary reading split between two planets
• IndexThe only finger where the yogic and Shingon element assignments agree
• MiddleFire in one hand tradition, ether or space in the other