I’d started to learn how to read palms from my eldest sister when she decided to stop altogether.
She had been having a recurring dream.
In the dream, she was surrounded by demons who were pinching and snarling at her.
After a number of these, she decided that it must’ve been because of her palm-reading. According to the theory she presented, one’s fortunes are the domain of heaven, not to be divulged by humans to humans.
The Chinese word for it is 天機 / 天机 tiān jī / “heaven’s plan”. There's a phrase covering this: 天機不可洩露 / 天机不可泄露 / tiānjī bù kě xièlòu / mysteries of heaven must not be revealed.
So, by telling people what their futures might hold, she was being punished for revealing these secrets.
(Singapore, 1960s)
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