By Joe Segera
How many people believe in the stars and how many believe in message conveyed in the lines that crisscross the palm of their hands. Although many pretend or for the matter disbelieve and ridicule their significance. The list is also quite long of those who have pinned their faith in them.

In the "Sunday Observer" of the old days one of the most popular and widely read columns in the paper was that under the headline, "What The Stars Foretell" written by an English astrologer named R. H. Naylor. After his death his wife, Mrs. P.I.H. Naylor took over the job of forecasting and guiding people's lives with the aid of the stars. And in those days valuable foreign exchange was spent on this column which was said to be a sound investment which boosted the paper's circulation.

That was just by way of background, but it is a truism, that quite a number of professionals and learned people in this country believed in astrology and had implicit faith in it.

A leading Colombo lawyer, a Queen's Counsel and a master mathematician, a Wrangler from Cambridge who died only a few years ago was a keen student of astrology. He had studied the subject so well that his friends and colleagues in Hulftsdrop not to mention, members of his family and relatives say that he predicted the month and the year in which he would die. As for the exact day and date there was just a minor difference by a couple of days.

Then there was that popular Commissioner-General of Inland Revenue who knew his astrology so well that there were hundreds especially professional men and journalists who consulted him. A devout Hindu, astrology was his hobby. He passed away a few years ago, but his friends and acquaintances still swear that his predictions were dead accurate.

There was also a leading lawyer and Queen's Counsel practising in the deep South who could read people's palms and make many an accurate prediction. He was also an expert in casting horoscopes. His friends used to say that if he practised his astrology and palmistry he could have made as much or even more money than he earned at the Bar.

But the tragic thing about astrology and palmistry is that they are still not regarded as sciences. There is a long history behind this line of thinking. One of astrology's firmest opponents has been the Catholic Church as far back as the year 315 A.D. the Church's Ecclesatical Court issued an Edict warning Catholics with punishment of death if they were caught practising palmstry. Those were the days of the dreaded Inquisition.

Cheiro, one of the world's greatest authorities on Astrology and Palmstry says in one of his classic works on the subject, "the reason that this old science fell into disgrace and into the hands of charlatans, tramps and vagrants, can be very easily accounted for when one remembers that in the early ages it was indicted by the Church."

The influence of the Church in those days was such that it even reached the British Parliament that during the reign of George The Fourth there was an Act of Parliament passed against the practice of palmstry. This is what the Act said, "any person practising Palmstry is hereby deemed a rogue and a vagabond, to be sentenced to one year's imprisonment and to stand in the pillory."

On Palmistry the long-standing argument by those who have studied the subject is that there is a strong connection between the lines in one's palm with the nerves emanating in the brain. The Master, Cheiro reinforces the argument in his book, "Guide To The Hand" as follows, "In the first place it is a well-known fact that, in certain cases of paralysis, long before the attack takes place, the lines of the palm completely disappear, before". Although the hand can continue to fold as before!"

The Catholic Church's consistency in its opposition to astrology could be seen by the statement made a few days ago by Pope John Paul against astrology. The statement which was made at the Pontiff's summer residence, Castel Gondoflo, said, "Horoscopes and magic predictions don't do anything. What is needed is prayer, real prayer which should be coupled with leading a life that conforms to God's law."

The Pope has made this pronouncement against the background of Rome, the Eternal City being overtaken by Astrology. Italians today are now reported to be more involved with horoscopes and their predictions than devotion to God. According to a recent Reuter despatch, "Italians are mad about horoscopes, which are carried daily by every television and radio news bulletin. A popular evening television program includes a woman dressed as a gypsy reading prediction cards."

In this country like our giant neighbour India people of almost every religion including many staunch Catholics still believe in horoscopes and palmistry and this includes auspicious times and auspicious days for weddings and housewarmings. And to cap it all even the State starts its building projects and foundation stone-laying ceremonies at auspicious times.

As for the stars foretelling events, there is the frequent argument by Christians that even the birth of Christ was foretold through a star that took the three Kings to Bethlehem. And in the realms of English literature the significance of stars and comets and what they portray and foretell is found in these famous lines by Shakespeare,"When beggars die there are no Comets seen."