As I explain in the section on Metaphysics and Mysticism, I decided to have my palm read to feel a connection to my grandfather, about whom I know very little other than his unusual occupation. This was in August 2017, before I understood the treasure trove that I discovered after my uncle’s death.
When I visited Richard Unger for a hand analysis, I didn’t know what to expect. I had no burning question or issue, just curiosity about the process. My husband Paul drove me to my appointment in Sausalito and we planned to have a nice dinner afterward, so that the trip wouldn’t be a complete waste of time. Instead, as soon as the session was over, Paul tells me that I ran to the car and couldn’t stop talking about the amazing experience I’d just had.
Much of Richard’s approach is the same as has been done by palm readers for thousands of years: distilling from the shape of and markings on a person’s hand their personality, character, and temperament. I was amazed by the specificity and clarity of Richard’s reading. He quickly identified key parts to my personality and the sometimes contradictory things that motivate me to act in life, helping me understand how these traits and characteristics had led me down the path my life’s choices had taken me on thus far. The reading validated things I knew about myself and helped me embrace even those aspects I am less fond of.
In addition to following in the footsteps of ancient palmists, Richard has developed a theory of “Soul Psychology” based on fingerprint patterns that identify one’s purpose in life as well as the obstacles that prevent us from achieving that purpose. This sounded awfully lofty to me. Particularly when Richard told me that my fingerprint pattern indicates that my life purpose is “woman with a message to the masses.” Although his description of my personality, motivations, and character had been spot on, I had trouble wrapping my mind around such a “highfalutin” purpose.
As I delved more deeply into my family’s papers, I realized that my grandmother had spent her life trying to get people to listen to her. She’d always wanted to be a writer, perhaps inspired by the newspaper her father published each week; she’d written thousands of letters, only a small portion of which I have; she’d written stories of her childhood in the late 1800s; she’d told the story of her imprisonment to officials and reporters; she’d even submitted some of the things she’d written to journals, but was never published.
Clearly, my grandmother was a Woman With A Message. Slowly, I came to realize that my purpose was indeed to be a woman with a message, in order to share my grandmother’s story with the world.
My grandmother writing in the back of her stationery shop at the desk where my grandfather did his readings.