Chirology! Today we meet the author Erika Luzzi

Let's continue with the interviews! Today we meet Erika Luzzi , author of the book "Getting to Know You Through Your Hands. Practical Guide to Modern Chirology", a book much appreciated by the public that aims to guide you through the history and evolution of this fascinating discipline, revealing the mysteries hidden in the palm of your hands and offering you tools to discover your innate potential.

1. Thank you for this interview, Erika; what inspired you to write a book on chirology accessible to everyone? Chirology is a fascinating discipline, but often perceived as complex and reserved for a few. What was the main drive that led you to make it accessible even to those who are approaching this world for the first time?

When I started studying it, I realized that the information was simpler but divided in a confusing way. This depends a lot on the approach that each author of this subject has in describing what he wants to show. I simply applied my own mental order, which I tested over time and which I noticed was more effective, in addition to making it easier to memorize the information. Feeling overwhelmed when you delve into chirology is normal, there are so many things that you have to remember and it seems very complicated. In reality it is mostly a matter of dividing and classifying. Realizing this was the engine that pushed me to want to share my vision. It seemed incredible to me that there wasn't already someone else who had done it!

2. How did your passion for palmistry and esotericism develop? Often the passion for the esoteric world arises from personal experiences or significant encounters. Was there a moment in your life when you felt that this would be your path?

There has always been a part of esotericism in my life thanks to the fact that my mother and all the women in my maternal family have passed down the formula to remove the evil eye for generations, they believe in energies and have always had a very spiritual vision, albeit inserted in a religious dogma, of life.

Growing up, I felt the need to distance myself from religion but still respond to the spiritual push. I therefore began to read the first books of esotericism and occultism, also discovering the forms of divination.

I felt that this would be my path after a long time, I always understood it as a journey, a passion, something that would never abandon me and so it was. Today I can say that it is my path but until a few years ago I would not have answered so confidently.

3. How much did your childhood in Rome influence your approach to this discipline? The eternal city has a mysterious charm, steeped in history and spirituality. Do you think that living in Rome had a role in igniting in you the desire to explore the world of chirology?

I lived in Rome for the first 13 years of my life but I remember very clearly the tarot and palm reading banquets, as I remember the ever-present religious iconography. There was this constant dichotomy between the sacred and the profane.

Certainly having been able to see these things as a child, accompanied by the fact of having had a family like that, has greatly accelerated my interest, making me predisposed from the ground up. Curiosity did the rest.

4. Your career began in the Venetian clubs, reading people's hands. What was the experience like? Could you feel a special connection with the people you met? Are there any special memories linked to those beginnings?

I started to perceive the particular connection right away but I was not able to understand it. It amazed me a lot and at the same time left me incredulous, I had to spend a lot of time thinking about the fact that what I felt could be reality or just my suggestion. As time went by I understood that it was reality. Being within the spiritual path I also understood what it meant, how my intuition lights up, how I connect with people. I would like to specify, however, that this goes beyond the reading of hands understood as a scheme and notions, which I use and teach and is what I believe in. But I am convinced that all people possess the ability to connect with each other and that hands can be a vehicle. However, it is very important to know the basic discipline.

I remember very well the first intuitions and the first connections with the lines and the mountains. A very vivid memory is the first tears I saw my interlocutors shed. Today it often happens to me that a person gets emotional during a reading, it is an absolutely normal thing and I know how to handle it. But at the beginning it was completely unexpected and I didn't know what to say, I ended up getting emotional myself, it was very surreal for me.

5. How did chirology become a profession for you? Esotericism is not an easy field to establish yourself professionally. What were the main challenges you had to overcome to turn this passion into your job?

The biggest challenges were those with myself and with the feeling of not being good enough, trained or famous enough to be able to establish myself as a professional in this field. Most of them were all paranoias born from low self-esteem, because then the reality was different. The moment I exposed myself publicly, first online with the pages and then in person through the markets, I understood there was a need for this discipline, people believed in me immediately. Another challenge was thinking I was not useful enough, once again it is the people who receive the readings who confirm that instead it is very useful. I am used to comparing myself with other similar but not identical disciplines, such as astrology or cartomancy. Convincing myself that despite the analogies, my discipline is different and that it can make a difference in life, in choices, in the understanding of myself that I leave in people was a bit of a solution to all my fears. It takes a lot of resilience, willpower, perseverance and determination. Look at the bigger picture, have a vision. If you stop at the first snags or rely on numbers, it is difficult to stay on track and you lose the sense of what you are doing.

6. In your book "Knowing Yourself Through Your Hands", you make a historical excursus on palmistry: why is it important to know the origins of this practice? Palmistry has ancient and often obscure roots. What is the most fascinating aspect of its history that you wanted to share with readers?

I have struggled a lot over time to put together coherent historical information that was not taken here and there, that was as verified as possible and that was based on historical findings that actually exist. In most of the books I have read, the history of palmistry is told with a mixture of truth and legend. I felt that justice had to be done because instead it has a rich history and its succession over the centuries has allowed it to reach us in this form. It has resisted over time despite the Enlightenment, it has evolved to give us an incredibly precise tool to investigate through the body, for me this thing has an incredible charm, but it is important to understand that it is a set of objective information. So its modification in history, but above all the need of the human being to investigate himself through this tool is important. Once you understand the history it is inevitable to respect this discipline, you stop seeing it as a system of beliefs, it strips itself of that folkloristic dress, it sheds light on a lot of shadows that are still told today.

7. The pandemic has marked an evolution in your path, taking you to the online world. How has it affected your work and your relationship with your followers? Moving online has allowed many people to reach a wider audience. Do you think it has also transformed your way of practicing and spreading chirology?

English: Certainly the possibility of accessing more people was a revelation for me, both in terms of spreading the message and my way of seeing, and in realizing how many people were interested in this subject. I was used to not having so many interested people around me and therefore I had a point of view strongly limited by what I could see. It was impossible for me to think of talking about esotericism or spirituality in a free and open way, without prejudice. Through the online presence and the opening of my profiles instead I was able to make this change, I was finally able to find people similar to me, similar people, people on the path towards their own inner healing and towards their own (let's call it) awakening, even if I don't really like using this terminology because I believe that it is always a path and that there is not actually an awakening but rather a decision to become aware of one's own path and one's own change, and of the fact of being able to have free will and choose, making conscious choices. This has inevitably influenced my work as I felt an acceleration both in sharing and in creating, this has made my beliefs very solid and has expanded my knowledge and I have been able to have access to many new images of hands and configurations and each time find feedback and confirmations that have made me believe more in myself and in my work.

8. Why and how do you recommend reading this book? What is the ideal approach to approach the topics it deals with? Is there a method or reading order that you suggest to get the most out of this experience?

Since I have structured this book exactly as I would have liked to find it, the reading order is that of the presentation of the topics. I felt the need to follow a precise order precisely because I really struggled over time to find an order. All the books I have found myself studying have an attitude that in my opinion is confusing. I have never found myself comfortable with that type of subdivision and presentation of information and I have often found myself using the books by going back and forth and not being able to connect the information very well between them.

I think that the way I wrote mine at least allows for faster linking.

The approach, in my opinion, is not to remain in the rigid scheme regarding the conformation of the lines or the conformation of the shapes, but to try to see as many hands as possible, which is the most correct and correct thing to do, because our eyes are not trained to distinguish the differences and instead chirology is essentially observation, so once you have learned to observe and you have as many hands as possible to train, you can begin to put together the characteristics and meanings better. This is why it is much easier to learn through the course, because the course is guided through photos that allow you to make a distinction in a much clearer way than any book, which although I have tried to use photos of real hands, can remain unclear in interpretation. This is one of the limits of this subject, unlike subjects that require calculations, unfortunately we have to rely on experience.

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