Do the candidates’ faces tell us about their abilities and shortcomings? Rose Rosetree, who has practiced physiognomy, or “face reading,” for almost 40 years, gives a read on the nominees.
Judging a book by its cover gets a bad rap, but when it comes to sizing up presidential candidates, we all have to admit: The way they look is a big part of the game.
Turns out, the practice of scrutinizing facial features has a name, physiognomy, or “face reading,” and it’s been in practice for centuries, used by shamans, mystics and healers from China to India to the Middle East.
According to practitioners, who treat physiognomy as more of a science than an art, people’s faces and heads are like maps. Every feature – nose, eyebrows, lips, cheeks, ears and so on – offers clues about personality and character.
Of course, some regard the practice as New Age mumbo jumbo along the lines of astrology or palm reading. Yet face reading is used for many purposes, including selecting juries and determining relationship compatibility or career advancement.
Rose Rosetree, who lives in Sterling, is known as the mother of American physiognomy. She is the author of several books, including the recent “Read People Deeper: Body Language + Face Reading + Auras,” and she has specialized in reading faces and auras for 38 years.
“Face reading is not about taking one quick look and deciding whether a person is good or bad,” she says.
“You have to slow down and look at one item of face data at a time.”
The practice is so complex, she says, that noses alone have 15 categories, each full of different possibilities.
“To do face reading, you have to stop looking at expression, or reading for a beauty contest. It’s to learn about character, not a temporary mood. It cannot be faked.”
We asked Rosetree to tell us what she sees in the four people who’d like to run the White House come January. Using their campaign mug shots, she talked about the characteristics of each that were most striking to her, and we’ve excerpted her comments here.
While she says she never recommends casting a vote solely based on face reading, she feels a strong motivation to help people around election time.
“If you want to go beneath the surface, that’s the real protection from spin.”
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