Qualities
• Cautious
• Gets the “lay of the land” before taking action
Irregular Letter Spacing
Qualities
• Ambivalent
Getting in “The Zone”
As your pen moves horizontally across the page, the letters you form also move vertically through each of the three zones, which correspond to both your psyche and your body. Each zone embraces a specific sphere of life: mind, body, and spirit, or as Freud would say, the ego, the id, and the superego.
Let’s start with the basics—or, rather, the baseline.
The Baseline
The baseline is the line—the “horizon” or ground—on which handwriting rests. It can be visible, for example when you’re writing on ruled paper, or “invisible,” as when you’re writing on unlined paper. The baseline separates the conscious from the unconscious. It indicates emotional stability, realism, balance, and ability to set goals.
The closer and more consistently writing rests on the baseline, the more stable a personality the writer is likely to have. When the writing strays above the baseline, it reflects an adventurous personality—someone who is not tied to conventions or rules, who prefers to go her own way. When handwriting falls below the baseline, it indicates emotional heaviness, reduced enthusiasm, depressed moods, inappropriateness, and appreciation of money and material things.
A steady and straight baseline reveals a goal-oriented individual. A wavy baseline shows someone who’s more interested in the journey than in the destination. Beware: An overly wavy baseline expresses a personality that can be unstable and capable of many moods.
Steady Baseline
Wavy Baseline
The baseline is also the point from which we can begin to examine the three writing zones.
Zoning In on the Zones
How do you spot a zone? Letters that fall on the baseline (all of the vowels, plus c, m, n, r, s, v, w, and x) are in the middle zone; letters that extend high above the baseline (b, d, f, h, k, l, and t), are in the upper zone; and letters that extend below the baseline (f, g, j, p, q, y, and z) represent the lower zone.
Each zone reflects a different level of consciousness and personality manifestation. To use a metaphor, the upper zone can represent the sky, which reflects our aspirations, creative fantasies, and goals not yet achieved. The middle zone is the horizon—the place on which we rest our feet—our daily existence. The lower zone represents that which is hidden and unconscious but influences us nonetheless. Although we are often unaware of its influence, our unconscious has a powerful impact on our upper and middle zones. Its emphasis, intensity, or prominence in the handwriting reflects the value the writer places on each zone.
The Upper Zone
The upper portions of tall and capital letters, i-dots, and t-bars, usually fall into the upper zone above the small letters. This zone is also where we see the stems and loops of the letters b, d, f, h, k, l, and t. This zone—and the emphasis given it by the shapes and sizes of the upper loops the writer makes—represents the writer’s relationship with authority, father, fantasies, dreams, aspirations, ambitions, concepts, and speculation. This zone deals with intuition, imagination, and sphere of abstraction. Freud would say this represents the superego—rules, regulations, and the standards and ideals to which one is supposed to aspire.
The upper zone also gives clues to the writer’s intellect, interests, and spiritual development.
If there is emphasis on the upper zone, it usually indicates that there’s an issue with the ego, i.e., the need to compensate for ego insecurities and pride. Wide loops in the upper zone reflect an active imagination and mean that the writer might show unrealistic expectations and grandiosity. If a writer has a short upper zone, it usually means that he has issues with authority figures and tends to favor the concrete over the abstract.
Exaggeratd Upper Zone
Short Upper Zone
PEN POINT Capital Letters
Capital or uppercase letters reveal the way one wishes to be viewed by others. If the capital letter is large, followed by small middle zone writing, it shows that the person wishes to present himself as confident but in reality does not feel nearly so secure. Capital letters that are highly embellished or oversized can indicate vanity and artifice, as well as pretense and a desire to overcompensate. Small capital letters reflect modesty or lack of pretension. (See sample of Ivan Boesky on page 38.)
Capital /
In the English language, the capital I is unique. It is not just a letter but also a word—a personal pronoun that represents both one’s self-concept and one’s parents. The capital I represents not only the writer but also feelings about self-worth and how one wishes to be regarded by others.
The Middle Zone
The middle zone is where 90 percent of all writing takes place. Small letters fall within the middle zone, where they are connected on the baseline. These letters are a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, and x, and they do not extend to the upper zone or the lower zone. This zone represents the way one adapts to reality, copes with everyday life, and the expression of the ego. This is also the zone of connection with others, as well as of feeling and emotion. It reveals the writer’s sense of “relatedness.”
If the middle zone is in a harmonious proportion to the rest of the writing pattern, the writer is a relatively well-integrated individual who has made a good adjustment to life. Large middle zone writing shows self-involvement and, to some extent, narcissism. A small middle zone can indicate that the writer tends to underrate his or her gifts and may feel inferior.
The Lower Zone
The letters extending below the baseline belong to the lower zone. These include the letters f, g, j, p, q, y, and z. The lower zone is a deeply personal area, focusing on the writer’s material needs, primal instincts, creative drive, and search for answers to life’s perplexing questions. It can
