A friend of mine is a handwriting analyst. His name is Father Myles Colgan. I met him at an Apple computer store one day while looking at the Macintoshes. One thing led to another, and today we are good friends.
In the course of knowing him, I have come to respect the insight he is able to gain from the form of people's handwriting. His observations have always proved to be insightful and describe characteristics of a person that one only comes to know after knowing a person well for a long time. He's been working on handwriting analysis for thirteen years, and has translated a book "How to Analyze your own Handwriting" by Fr. Norman Werling (you can order a copy by emailing me), and is a recognized leader in the field - called upon to give seminars to other analysts throughout Canada and the U.S. He has also been certified as a "Master Graphoanalyst" by the International Graphoanalysis Society of Chicago.
Now that I've thoroughly expounded on his qualifications, let me proceed to the main point of this article. I recently read Crowley's Book of the Law (and unwisely failed to destroy it after first reading). As you know, he stipulates within the text that every copy of the book should contain a photofacsimile of the original *handwritten* manuscript. Additionally, whilst reading H.P. Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine," I noticed it contained a copy of her signature on the front cover. You can guess how I wondered what these scribblings might reveal about the personalities of these two infamous persons. I decided to ask my friend what he saw in them.
Father Myles was completely unfamiliar with either Crowley or Blavatsky, and after stating, "So, who are these people? They must be famous if they wrote a book," began what he called a "cursory and superficial" analysis. This was simply an analyst giving his first impressions without going into any serious study of the handwriting. I've basically managed to jot down, in point form, the comments he made about the handwriting as he was looking it. The results are nonetheless interesting, and I thought it may be worth sharing with others who are familiar with these two personalities. It is important to note that handwriting is much like a photograph - a snapshot revelation of the person's personality at the time of the writing.
His comments are as follows:
Blavatsky - From her signature on the cover of "The Secret Doctrine"
¨
she's sociable, and very enthusiastic.¨
she is an extremely energetic woman, sensual.¨
she's sensitive to criticism, and argumentative (the upward stroke of the "K")¨
she shows artistic talent, and intuition (breaks between letters)¨
it shows a fluidity of thought (the "y") and she has a good memory, and loyalty (the "." and "." )¨
she's physically minded, she likes to run and play lustily.¨
she's very alert to the here and now. she really lives in the present.¨
she's not proud¨
she's got very high goals; principles and ethics.¨
she's got a very probing mind, always thrusting and seeking new knowledge.¨
very emotional¨
she doesn't shy away from being noticed, or showing her talents off¨
she's a very tenacious rascal (hooks at end of "y" stroke)¨
again, she's a very fluid thinker¨
there's no deceit or deception of any kind¨
she's frank.Crowley - From a facsimile edition of "The Book of the Law"
¨
this guy has a real sense of humour.¨
he's extremely egocentric and proud as a peacock (first hump of "M")¨
he's really "way up there". he likes to probe the metaphysical.¨
he's sharp. he's sharp and he knows it.¨
when he thinks, he isn't mulling it over, he's immediately on to the next thought.¨
there's a lot of aggressiveness / drive in him.¨
yes, he's really driven. fast.¨
he's got a really good sense of humour.¨
tremendous powers of concentration¨
the downslant concerns me >> fatalism or pessimistic?¨
he doesn't have a really strong self will [as opposed to "magickal will"?].¨
he's restless; agitated¨
very quick¨
tremendous concentration¨
he's *really* talkative¨
and *lots* of drive - wow!¨
he's not morally uptight, or repressed¨
there's nothing soft about him¨
kind of testy¨
very sharp, no doubt about that¨
he could be very defiant¨
argumentative beyond belief¨
he would argue just for argument's sake - about things of the mind.¨
he's argumentative in the extreme¨
there's almost an imbalance between the uz (upper zone) and mz (middle zone) - between his concentration [on the present?] and then taking off into flights of thought way up into the philosophical.¨
he keeps leaping out of the here and now, and way up into the atmosphere¨
it's incredible, he's shooting up there with such tremendous energy.¨
he could be a loner¨
not very sociable¨
he's determined¨
really sharp (thinker)¨
the downward slant is pretty constant, he could be almost despondent. there's a couple places where it's almost level, it'd be interesting to see what he was writing about there.¨
he could almost be diplomatic, but maybe not, i'd almost take that back [charismatic orator?].¨
he's organized¨
very clever¨
there's tremendous concentration, racing thoughts, but not pausing to ponder them, but already rushing onto the next thought¨
like they're just gushing out of him, like he can't get it down quick enough.¨
he really doesn't seem to be in a passive or receptive mode, and he's definitely not a passive or receptive person. he's radiating, rather than accepting, which would indicate that the text is sourced in a wildly racing head, bursting with creative thought, rather than something that is being received, and transcribed - which is a passive activity; unless whoever was dictating this was extremely demanding, and sending it faster than he could write, and he was extremely keyed-up on it.¨
he's definitely not a passive person.¨
he's of about light to medium vigour (health). his drive and energy don't come from his health, but from within him.¨
he's not deceptive. but he's really talkative. there's no deception at all; not of himself, or of others, he's pretty straight-forward.¨
he's not very sensual, he lives in his mind.¨
he's determined. decisive.¨
it's like he has almost unbounded energy.Father Myles is a Carmelite priest originally from Chicago, who now lives at Mount Carmel Spiritual Centre in Niagara Falls.
John Penner works as Documentation Manager for Side Effects Software. He lives in St. Catharines, Ontario.
This article originally appeared in Pagan's Wake,
Winter Solstice 1996.Other Spirit Weavers' Pages
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