OUR fate is written on our hands. At least Jackie Chin thinks so.

Chin, a palmist in her 50s who claims she has been reading palms "long enough to want to quit", says the lines on our palms are controlled by our mind.

"A person who comes to me with a lot of stress lines on their palms would be able to come back six months later with a clearer palm and peaceful life if they change their lifestyle to a healthy one," she says.

Chin who has just returned after doing readings for passengers on a Star Cruise ship touring Australia is both a popular and successful palmist.

However her life wasn't all that pretty at first.

"I was a secretary to a corporate CEO for about nine years. It was such a waste. If I had known how to read palms earlier, I would have done something better with my life!" says the jovial Chin.

Then she went into sales and sold tableware. She started off selling coarse tableware and soon moved up to selling fine dining sets used by royalties.

"When the money wasn't enough, I worked part-time as a deejay. It was horrible," she says.

She got her calling when she went to Munich one day.

"I was there selling bags. When I got to the hotel I was feeling so drained and depressed. I knew that this wasn't what I wanted to do."

As she was asking herself for answers she heard her inner voice saying, "Raise your hands and the answer is there."

"At that point I knew what to do. I listened to my inner voice and knew that palmistry is what I'm destined to do," says Chin.

When she got back to Malaysia, she started learning up on palmistry.

"I would wake up at 3am, drive to my office and start studying. Palmistry is not an easy subject to master. Just like Law and Medicine, you need a strong foundation before practising. There is a lot to learn."

Chin, who is still single, studied the subject herself for three years before starting a business with her younger sister Sooby who had left her day job to do tarrot card reading.

"I was 24 when I first had interest in this subject," says Sooby, now in her late 40s.

Sooby was always interested in the occult and things of the metaphysical since she was eight.

"I used to have visions of friends or relatives in trouble and the visions would eventually come to pass," she says.

Sooby trained under her master, Y.F. Chan, for a year before studying up on the subject on her own.

"I would practise what I have learnt on close friends and family members. Ten years later my husband passed away. It was then that I decided to go full-time into tarrot card reading," says Sooby who has a 15-year-old daughter.

Chin and Sooby started out small by making guest appearances at product launches and corporate events in shopping malls.

"At one of these events, we were noticed by one of the management staff of Star Cruises who then invited us to do a short stint with them on the Superstar Virgo.

"The response from the passengers was tremendous. We had a continuous stream of people from all over the world. Since then we have been working under Star Cruises every year," she says.

Chin says most of their clients seek answers for their businesses, financial status, career, health and relationships.

"Ninety per cent of males want to know about business and career while 90% of females want to know about love and relationships," says Chin.

While palmistry requires the person to be present, for tarrot card reading, you can even get answers for close family and friends who are not there.

Chin and Sooby agree that both palmistry and tarrot card reading makes life's journey smoother.

"After obtaining the answers they seek, my clients go home feeling uplifted. They have a clearer mind, enabling them to make better decisions in life," says Sooby.

"Palmistry gives you information on the "battle of life" to come, so that you can take corrective measures to counter it," says Chin.