Tag Archives: PHYSIOGNOMY
12.PHYSIOGNOMY
12.PHYSIOGNOMY
CHARACTER ANALYSIS FROM THE FACES HEADS,
AND OTHER FEATURES
The art of studying heads and faces as a guide to individual personality is of very ancient origin and rather obviously so, since facial expressions can register every mood from kindliness to ferocity; and facial formations are frequently responsible for such expressions. As for head shapes, modern anthropologists have typed the skulls of mankind from prehistoric ages up to the present, finding them indicative of various stages in human development.
From the occult standpoint, physical appearance has long been linked with the various signs of the zodiac as studied in astrology; and persons have been classed as planetary types on a similar basis. But, like palmistry, which also was once closely allied to astrology, the subject of physiognomy has branched off in its own right, it is from physiognomy that modern methods of character analysis have developed.
The pioneer in this field was a Swiss mystic, Johann Kaspar Lavater, whose keen power of observation convinced him that the deepest of human traits could be determined from individual faces. He worked out a system of physiognomy which was published at the beginning of the American Revolution. Others took up the work during the century that followed; and modern character analysis, which developed during the early 1900s, was the result.
1.PSYCHIC SCIENCES – INTRODUCTION
The lure of the unknown and the lore of the hidden things have long intrigued the human mind. Along with such skills as throwing rocks and fashioning flintstone spearheads, primitive man developed more subtle crafts, as foretelling the weather by the ways the birds flew or the winds blew. From those beginnings came modern sciences like ballistics and meteorology and the same applies in many other instances.
Two factors were present in most primitive sciences; the psychic and the occult. The practitioner of a craft usually claimed and often believed that he possessed a special faculty not given to ordinary mortals, enabling to gain unique results and issue reliable forecasts. He backed this by professing knowledge of secret subjects which he was pledged not to reveal.
This combination of psychic power and occult learning has persisted into modern times. Skilled artists often regard their work as “inspired” or rely on “trade secrets” for results. So the pattern is similar, even though many things that once created awe and wonderment are explainable by modern science. Now the cycle may be bringing us to new wonders, perhaps including some revivals from the past.
