Sun line in palmistry: the line of Apollo
In palmistry the sun line, or line of Apollo, climbs toward the ring finger. See where to find it, why many hands lack it and how old texts described it.
To the head line
Rising from the head line
Cheiro: success from "the mental efforts and qualities", on the hands of "brain workers, students of some particular branch of study, writers, scientists".
Cheiro, 1916
These promises are from 1916. They aren't ours. No line has been shown to bring anyone anything.
The scan doesn't hunt for this line, because it can't do that reliably. It shows your main lines, and you can place this one yourself on your photo.
In sun line palmistry the idea is simple: an upright line running to the ring finger stands for recognition. It's a minor line you may not have, and if you can't find yours after looking properly, nothing is missing from your hand and nothing bad follows. The name is the interesting part, and the promises made for it are charming and untested. Most of what's said about this line is luck talk, in the old books' own word.
Where it rises, and where it can start
Everything agrees on the top end: the base of the ring finger. Markun's sentence is as good as any: it "runs from the ring finger toward the wrist". Below that, the old books give more starting points for this line than for any other: "From the Line of Life, the Line of Fate, the Plain of Mars, the Mount of the Moon, the Line of Head, and from the Line of Heart, or it may only appear as a small line on its own Mount."
Three names, one line, and why it's Apollo's
Cheiro opens his chapter with "the Line of the Sun, which is otherwise called the Line of Success or the Line of Brilliancy". Markun, a decade later, calls it the Line of Apollo first and mentions Brilliancy second. Mrs. Dale's 1895 book has it under yet another name, Via Solis, "a curved line running from root of ring finger to the mount of the Moon", which is Latin for the sun's road. Wikipedia's list today says sun line. Same crease, four labels.
The ring finger is Apollo's because palmistry hands out the fingers to the old planets: Jupiter takes the index, Saturn the middle, Apollo or the sun the ring, and Mercury the little finger. Cheiro says that the Greeks gave the mount under this finger "the name of Mount of Apollo". Markun says the ring finger "is ruled by Apollo", which "confers a love of beauty and nobility". That's the whole logic of the line: it reaches the finger of the god of light and the arts, so it must be about shining. Our guide to the mounts goes through the other fingers.
What the old books promised
Cheiro's claims are grand: people with this line "more easily secure recognition, reward, riches, and honours". He also says what the line really is, in a word most pages leave out.
| Rising from | The promise |
|---|---|
| Life line | Success "from whatever the life is that is led, but not from luck" |
| Fate line | "Recognition for the career adopted", by personal effort |
| Mid-palm | "Success after difficulties" |
| Far side of the palm | "Success as a public favourite": actors, singers, speakers, clergymen |
| Head line | Success from "the mental efforts and qualities" |
| Heart line | Success "depending on, or through, the affections" |
| Its own mount only | "So late in life as to make it hardly worth having" |
The word is luck. "The quality that the Line of Sun denotes is, what is generally called luck," he says, and with one even "a poor Line of Head promises more success". Read that as what it is, a fortune teller's account of who gets lucky, written with no count of anybody. Markun's sources extend it to a star on the line, "a very fortunate indication", and he notes that the success "may simply be success in getting through life without ever being sent to jail". Nobody has shown that any line brings fame or money, and you shouldn't plan on it.
If you have none
Nothing bad follows. On this point the old books split in an instructive way. Cheiro is at his harshest: without the line, "the life has no happiness, no sunshine, as it were". Markun, reading the same tradition, cites a different pair of authors who say the absence "does not always mean poverty. It may show simply that the subject is careless with small sums of money." Then he says what any working palmist must have thought.
Markun, 1927
"For the practicing palmist, the old tradition that the absence of a certain sign indicates anything very definite is rather embarrassing. If a man wears a ring worth a thousand dollars, one cannot very well tell him that the marking of his hand makes it impossible for him to accumulate or to have accumulated or acquired any wealth."
That's the problem with reading an absence: the client is standing in front of you with their life in plain view. Cheiro has his own version of the absent line, and it's harmless fun. People without it, he says, "seldom even notice their surroundings and would live equally happy in the most squalid homes". They "would not trouble whether their curtains were black, green, yellow, or some fearful conglomeration of all three".
If you do care about your curtains and have no sun line, you've already disproved him.
If you have a short one
A small upright mark just under the ring finger is the form you're most likely to find, and it's the one Cheiro was funniest about. His full sentence: "Marked only on its own Mount, the Line of Sun promises happiness and success, but so late in life as to make it hardly worth having." He also says two or three parallel lines there show "success in two or three different lines of work", and that many scattered ones show an "artistic nature", where "multiplicity of aims" gets in the way.
Physically these are the kind of fine marks Liu and Zhang's palm research sets aside as wrinkles. Sites sometimes confuse this line with the fate line next door, and many of them relabel it the money line, which has a page of its own for good reason.
A question it's good for
Strip out the luck and a useful question is left. The line of Apollo is about being seen for something, so: what are you known for? Is it what you'd want to be known for? And who, specifically, would you like to know it? You can answer that with no line at all, and it'll do you more good than any line could.
To check your own hand, the line tracer lets you place this line on your photo and snaps it to the crease. The free reading starts from the main lines, and the overview shows where this one sits among them.
Why the ring finger belongs to Apollo, and which planets got the rest.
The old books read these two together.
A newer name, often for this one.
Sources
Place your sun line, and the reading picks it up
The scan doesn't search for this line. Place yours by hand, and the work chapter of the Complete Palm Reading reads it for what the old books tied to it: recognition for what you do.
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Questions people ask
- What is the sun line?
- A minor line that climbs the palm towards the ring finger. Palmistry reads it for recognition and success. It's also called the line of Apollo, the line of success and the line of Brilliancy.
- Where is the sun line on the palm?
- Look under your ring finger and follow any upright line downward. It can be a short mark above the heart line, or run much further, starting from the heart line, the head line, the fate line, the life line or the far side of the palm.
- Is the sun line the same as the Apollo line?
- Yes. Apollo is the name palmists give the ring finger and the pad beneath it, so the line that runs there is the line of Apollo. The old books say the Greeks called the mount of the sun by that name.
- What does it mean if I don't have a sun line?
- Nothing bad. Many hands don't show one. The oldest books took a gloomy view of this, while Markun's sources said it may only mean someone careless with small sums of money, and he pointed out how awkward the claim was for a palmist facing a rich client.
- Does the sun line mean fame or money?
- The old books promised both, and no one has shown a line brings either. The old phrase was "recognition, reward, riches, and honours". It's luck talk: a story readers told, not a forecast.
- What does a short sun line near the ring finger mean?
- The old books said a line marked only on its own mount promised happiness and success, "but so late in life as to make it hardly worth having", which is about as close as they come to a joke. Physically it's a small upright crease.
What are you known for? Your palm doesn't know. You do.
Scan your hand to see the lines you do have, traced on your own photo.