- Cheiro
-
William John Warner 
Born November 1, 1866
Dublin, IrelandDied October 8, 1936 (aged 69)
Hollywood, CaliforniaOccupation astrolger, numerologist, palmist and author Nationality Irish
Influences- An Indian Sage
William John Warner, known as Cheiro, (November 1, 1866 - October 8, 1936) was an Irish astrologer and colorful occult figure of the early 20th century. His sobriquet, Cheiro, derives from the word cheiromancy, meaning palmistry. He was a self-described clairvoyant who taught palmistry, astrology, and Chaldean numerology. During his career, he was celebrated for using these forms of divination to make personal predictions for famous clients and to foresee world events.
Contents
Personal life and background
Cheiro was born in a village outside Dublin, Ireland. He took the name Count Louis Hamon (or Count Leigh de Hamong).
As mentioned in his memoirs, Cheiro acquired his expertise in India. As a teenager, he traveled to the Bombay port of Apollo Bunder. There, he met his Guru, an Indian Brahmin, who took him to his village in the valley of the Konkan region of Maharashtra, And later Cheiro was permitted by Brahmans to study the ancient book that has many study on hands and the pages of the book was made by human skin and written with gold and still it is guarded and protected with great care. After studying thoroughly for two years, he returned to London and started his career as a palmist.
Cheiro was reluctant to marry but was aware that he was destined to marry late in life. This did happen after a woman took care of him during a serious illness. A separate chapter is devoted on this matter in his memoirs.
Career
Cheiro had a wide following of famous European and American clients during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He read palms and told the fortunes of famous celebrities like Mark Twain, W. T. Stead, Sarah Bernhardt, Mata Hari, Oscar Wilde, Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison, the Prince of Wales, General Kitchener, William Ewart Gladstone, and Joseph Chamberlain. He documented his sittings with these clients by asking them to sign a guest book he kept for the purpose, in which he encouraged them to comment on their experiences as subjects of his character analyses and predictions.
In his own autobiographical book, "Cheiro's Memoirs: The Reminiscences of a Society Palmist," he included accounts of his interviews with King Edward VII, William Gladstone, Charles Stewart Parnell, Henry Morton Stanley, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, Professor Max Muller, Blanche Roosevelt, the Comte de Paris, Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Russell of Killowen[disambiguation needed
], Robert Ingersoll, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Lillie Langtry, W.T. Stead (of Titanic fame), Richard Croker, Natalia Janotha, and other prominent people of his era.The book "Titanic's Last Secrets" includes a detailed account of one of Cheiro's palm readings with William Pirrie, chairman of Harland and Wolf, builders of the Titanic. Cheiro predicted that he would soon be in a fight for his life, talking about the battle surrounding the Titanic sinking.
“ It becomes a study not contrary to the dictates of reason, but in accordance with those natural laws that we observe in the shaping of the even inanimate objects, which, by demonstrating the effect of a heretofore cause, are in themselves the cause of a hereafter effect. - Cheiro on Astrology[1] ” So popular was Cheiro as a "Society Palmist" that even those who were not believers in the occult had their hands read by him. The skeptical Mark Twain wrote in Cheiro's visitor's book:
“ Cheiro has exposed my character to me with humiliating accuracy. I ought not to confess this accuracy, still I am moved to do so. - Mark Twain. ” Other mentions in the visitors book include:
"The study of people gifted with occult powers has interested me for several years. I have met and consulted scores.In almost ever respect I consider Cheiro the most highly gifted of all. He helps as well as astonishes."- Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
"You are wonderful. What more can I say"- Madame Nellie Melba.
Death
After some years in London, and many world travels, Cheiro moved to America. He spent his final years in Hollywood, seeing as many as twenty clients a day and doing some screenwriting before his death there in 1936 following a heart attack. His widow, the Countess Lena Hamon, said her 70-year-old husband, who had been a friend and adviser to film actors late in life, and to European aristocracy and royalty in his early career, had predicted his own death to the hour the day before he died.
From Time Magazine of October 19, 1936:
- Died. Count Louis Hamon ("Cheiro"), 69, celebrated oldtime palmist; after long illness; in Hollywood. Author of a book on palmistry at 13, he amassed $250,000 from rich female clients, owned an English-language newspaper in Paris, The American Register. On the night he died, said his nurse, the clock outside his room struck the hour of one thrice.
Bibliography
The occult books Cheiro wrote centered on fortune telling. Many of Cheiro's books on occultism and fortune telling are still in print today and are available in both English and foreign language editions.
In 2006, the University of Tampa Press issued a critical new edition of his fictional work, A Study of Destiny, as the second volume of the series Insistent Visions – a series dedicated to reprinting little-known or neglected works of supernatural fiction, science fiction, mysteries, or adventure stories from the 19th century. The new edition is edited with an introduction, afterword, and notes by Sean Donnelly.
Numerology
- Cheiro's Book of Numbers
Palmistry
- Cheiro's Language of the Hand (first self-published in 1894)
- Cheiro's Guide to the Hand
- You and Your Hand
- Cheiro's Palmistry for All
- The Cheiro Book of Fate and Fortune
Astrology
- Where were you Born?
- Cheiro's You and Your Star: The Book of the Zodiac
Others
- Cheiro's Book of World Predictions
- Cheiro's Memoirs: The Reminiscences of a Society Palmist
- Titanic's Last Secrets
- True Ghost Stories (attested tales of paranormal experiences)
Fiction
- A Study of Destiny(also published as The Hand of Fate, first released in 1898)
References
External links
Categories:- 1866 births
- 1936 deaths
- 19th-century astrologers
- 20th-century astrologers
- American astrologers
- American astrological writers
- American occult writers
- Esotericists
- Hollywood history and culture
- Irish astrologers
- Irish occult writers
- Clairvoyants
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