I’m honored to bring to you my interview with Markus Thorndike, Master Hand Analyst and Life Purpose Consultant.
Markus Thorndike, Master Hand Analyst
When and how did you start reading hands?
At the end of 1996, my mother paid for a reading for me as a Christmas gift. It was with one of the founders of modern-day hand analysis, Richard Unger. I thought she had been sold down the river, and argued with her to get a refund. After several conversations about this she relented and agreed. But just as she did ~ there at the last minute ~ something deep in me said to trust her. So I did. Five months later I participated in my first Hand Analysis Intensive. So when someone comes to me, skeptical about hand analysis, I can easily relate.
Are you specializing in any particular area of hand analysis? If so, what is it?
Telling the stories of the Key in the Hand, offered in the most loving, challenging and playfully real way I can. I try to get to that key with every single reading I give, whether it is for three minutes or three hours, whether it is their first reading or their twentieth coaching session. We are a single great being with far, far more aspects and dichotomies than we can ever know. But we come from that centered place, and from there we stand on the head of our life’s spiritual pin and, from there, try to dance the story of our lives. The more time I have, the more elements and pieces I weave in to the telling of their story. But I’m really here to offer my heart and my partnership and my compassion as together we face the dichotomous, paradoxical nature of the key to their life. The rest ~ no matter how useful, how helpful, how interesting ~ is really just window dressing. But I get to the key in the hand but cannot express it from a heartfelt, loving place, again, I haven’t done my job. Truth without compassion is a weapon.
What is most meaningful to you about reading hands?
The moment a client recognizes that they are deeply seen. It doesn’t happen every time. If a client refuses to be seen, well, we can’t go there. For me, hand reading isn’t really about reading hands. It is a phenomenal, powerful and useful way for us to meet each other, to see and Know our selves, with a capital K, in the other. And it must be a two way street: I will point out, directly, any resistance I experience in my client ~ in a loving, playful way of course. I encourage my client ~ if they aren’t there naturally ~ to lower their resistances and to instead try to hold me as a loving friend. Further, I seek to see myself, deeply, inside them: If I am not being vulnerable myself, telling one on myself, showing my own humanity, I feel I am not really doing my job, no matter how great my information. From there, we can both be seen and witnessed. Flash! There is the magic!
Has your life lesson ever shown up during a reading? If so, how and what did you learn from that experience?
These days I try to sit with my own life lesson in every reading, reminding myself of it, as if I do not it can get in the way. It most often arises when I have a resistant or difficult client, usually one who has received their reading as a gift, usually from their wife or girlfriend. I suddenly feel less than, awkward, guilty that I have accepted their payment and now suddenly have no idea what to say. I have thoughts in my head wondering how I can possibly help this person, questioning my skill, questioning the art of hand analysis itself. The client has become my parents: welcome to Mr. Not Enough in the Family! What works from there, in that stuck place, is my authenticity: speaking about and feeling into my experience in that moment, and then weaving it into the reading. Once the energy is recognized and honored, it all starts to flow again.
How do you apply your life purpose and your life lesson, in other words, how do you see them work together?
Today I seek to exalt my life lesson and expand my life purpose with it, as one integrated whole. I have Mr. Not Enough in the Family + Intimacy combined with what I call Innovative World Service/Teacher (whorls on Left Apollo plus all five on Right). So I see that I am here to teach both myself and the world an innovative message, through innovatively successful, creative and enterprising leadership. That core message is crafted from my life lesson: that we are all one big family, one big human tribe (Left Thumb), that we are all meant to be loving brothers and sisters (intimacy) of one another, that we are all enough for that family, that we are all sufficient in that family (left Jupiter + Saturn). And that together, we can do anything. Specifically, that we can transform this world into one where no one need ever feel insufficient or less than, or feel that something inside them is broken, or that we are separate or disconnected from one another.
What are your fingerprint patterns?
| Whorl | Whorl | Whorl | Whorl | Whorl |
| Loop | Loop | Loop | Whorl | Super Entwined Loop |
Do you have a bad experience you can share to help others avoid a similar situation?
I used to work the holistic show circuit in Northern California. Sometimes I would wake up the day after a show with a deep depression, anger, sadness or frustration. It felt like I had Picasso face ~ with my nose and ear and mouth out of place. Like I was not myself. And I was not! It can affect me for several days. Sometimes our clients come to us with ~ usually highly unconscious ~ egoic agendas. By this I mean their ego has a predatory nature, akin to a vampire or scorpion. This does not make the client themselves “bad” ~ this is but their karma. However, their energy is NOT ours. There are ways to protect yourself in the first place, but if you ever feel this in you: Take a bath, then shower and wash yourself off with a mix of Epsom salts and honey. The bathwater and Epsom salts will clear your aura of the negativity, and the honey will ground it all away from you.
What advice would you give to new students of Hand Analysis?
Hand Analysis is a powerful tool offering a window or door into our soul. It is not a religion, and though it is a powerful synergist and catalyst for healing, it is not and should not be held as “The Answer” to life. It is a powerful tool and language designed to assist us into seeing ourselves more authentically, nothing more. Every tool can be a crutch. Indeed, initially you will likely need your hand analysis database as that crutch, as you learn to work with clients. But remember, your hand analysis knowledge ~ while powerful, useful and even potentially life altering ~ is not truly the gift you are for your clients. The gift you are for them is your authentic self: your loving, caring Presence. Remember, each client is here to teach you about yourself, too! Be humble but not timid, rise to the challenge, stay in the mystery from a place of loving trust. And dance playfully with your mistakes. And you can’t go wrong.
What intentions do you have for your Hand Analysis practice during the next six months?
I’d like to say I’m going to do more readings for sure, that I will be scheduling an Intensive for new students. I love reading hands, and I love teaching! But the next six months are a bit of a mystery to me (remember, stay in the mystery!). This is because I am nearly ready to send my new book to the editor, and it is a book not about hands, but instead entitled “LEAP: The Global Campaign for Life, Love and the Achievement of Happiness.” A book about the future of our world, a book about us all coming together for a rEvolution of peace on this planet. I see myself focused more upon this “larger” mission specifically, in the next six months. Reading hands and teaching the reading of hands will then find an integrated place within that, in the months and years ahead.
What is the best way for colleagues to contact you? (415) 259-4087 markus@MarkusThorndike.Us
Visit Markus at http://www.MarkusThorndike.Us
Markus lives in Alameda, CA, just across the bay from San Francisco.
