Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

 

“…I confess I have had to pay the price of whatever little fame I earned, and especially in later years. As my name became more and more known, so did the penalty at times become all the greater. I made legions of friends, but that very fact made me also legions of enemies, and the wildest and, at times, the cruellist stories were circulated about me.

Some put my success down to “black magic,” others to “spirits, “others, again, to the agency of the Devil. Few, if indeed, any put my success down to something so very simple, so very commonplace, that they would never have thought of it-simply hard, earnest work and nothing but work…”

From Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer by Cheiro

 

 

The name of ‘Cheiro’ instantly brings to the mind, knowledge and art of ‘Palmistry’. An aura of mystique surrounds his personality. He operated at the time of height of British Empire. He enjoyed fame and reputation of an accuracy, which surpasses the incoherent prophecies of Nostradamus.

 

When I was 8 years old, I was introduced to a person who shaped my future intellectual developments. Abdul Mannan Khan, originally hailing from the Sialkot (Punjab) was a vociferous reader and an original thinker, tossing and bouncing his ideas one after another on an unsuspecting listener. I respected him and our relationship progressed from his being my teacher, then my mentor and finally a good friend. He gifted me a book, an Urdu translation of a book on ‘Hypnotism’. That was it. I was introduced to the ‘Occult’ side of existence.

 

One day I bought my first book on Palmistry. An Urdu translation of ‘Cheiro’s Guide to the Hand’.

 

Who was ‘Cheiro’?

 

Unfortunately it is very difficult to piece together the correct and reliable ‘history of Cheiro. His flair for romanticizing and storytelling clouds what might have been the truth.

 

Anyhow, based on gleaning from his books, memoirs and recent research by the seekers for truth, what follows is my understanding of the ‘Cheiro’.

 

The real name of Cheiro was ‘William John Warner’. Later in his career, he maintained that his real name was ‘Count Louis Hamon’. His claim to aristocracy brings smile to lips of researchers when they come to know that ‘Cheiro’ married late in his life and in one of the book it is mentioned that his wife ‘Countess Mena Hamon’ is the legal owner of copyrights of his books.

 

As an occultist, ‘Cheiro’ mingled with rich, aristocratic and royal families. Perhaps his emphasis on his ‘aristocratic’ beginnings was his ploy to gain confidence of those people who otherwise might have been reluctant to trust a person of humble beginnings.

 

‘Cheiro’ was son of a parish cleric and was born in ‘Bray’ (County Wicklow), Ireland on 1^st of November, 1866.

 

Cheiro’s mother was interested in ‘occult’ and maintained a small library of books on astrology, palmistry and numerology. His mother handed over her little library to her son when he was 11 years of age. From then on, he spent all his spare time on reading books and hands and his spare cash on buying books related to occult.

 

Cheiro’ was tutored privately, however, he caused sensation in his family when he wrote a small pamphlet on Palmistry at the age of 12 years and proudly showed it to his parents. His father though, tolerant of occult interests of his wife was shocked by the extent of his son’s interest in an art which he considered of ‘heathen’ origins. He made arrangements and his son was admitted to a strict school of religious and worldly training.

 

Being an iconoclast, religious training was not to ‘Cheiro’s interests. Fate agreed with him and just before he could have received a degree enabling him to be admitted to a religious calling, his father lost heavily in an investment in ‘land’. This temporary poverty time compelled his family to call back their son.

 

Nothing else to do, Cheiro drifted like sands. Sometimes, composing poetry and cognizant of the fact that he had no career and future plans, he was mostly depressed. One day he entered his father’s study and made a request that he wanted to venture into this world and steer his own sails.

 

Father and a son had many differences in the past, but this time his father agreed to his request. He handed him a small sum of money and with blessings, freed him from the family ties.

 

 

Cheiro was free to go anywhere at the age of 14.

 

Cherio had gained what he wished and asked for. He loathed any relationship and associated responsibility which could hinder his free spirit.

 

Freedom.

 

A life uncluttered with family and familiar ties. He was master of his own fate.

 

He was not clear what his new life might be, however, he had vague notions of embarking upon a career which might establish him as a writer and poet of some repute. The only place in those times where people realized those dreams was ‘London’. A hub of commercial and literary activities.

 

Capital of the British Empire.

 

He took the first train to London. Before getting on board, he saw an English translation of a German book on Palmistry named ‘Die Kunst Ciromanta’. This happened to be the first book on occult published after the invention of printing machine.

 

He quickly checked the ‘contents’ and finding it interesting was engrossed in reading the book, noting illustrations and comparing them mentally with those hands which he had examined and studied in past. When he finally laid it down, he saw a man looking intently at him.

 

The person staring at him started a heated discussion regarding occult and palmistry. It appeared that he was skeptical of the predictive powers normally associated with the ‘Palmistry’. He challenged the 14 years old ‘Cheiro’ who accepted his challenge and read his hands on the spot. Apart from other things, Cheiro told him that he would lose his reputation because of a steamy love affair in future. Sure of himself, that person scoffed at the idea and said that the person leading a life like him had no time for a woman. At the end of the journey he handed over his visiting card to Cheiro which revealed that he was ‘Charles Stewart Parnell’, an Irish statesman.

 

 

I would leave recounting Cheiro’s memoirs for a time and discuss few issues related with the sequence of the events.

 

We have no other source to corroborate the truth of above except taking the words of Cheiro that he saw the hand of ‘Charles Stewart Parnell’ 10 years before his downfall and correctly predicted his down fall due to his involvement and fathering three illegitimate children with a married woman.

 

The thing which confuses me and lends an air of farce to Cheiro’s relating of the above incident is that German book on palmistry ‘Die Kunst Ciromanta’, the English translation of which he enjoyed during his journey by train, was not rendered into English language at that time.

 

Few people know that famous Indian astrologer Bangalore Venkata Raman (‘B.V.Raman’) dabbled in Palmistry and numerology at his young age. In his book ‘My Experiences in Astrology’ he relates an incident.

 

Going through his Grand Father’s old papers, young B.V.Raman found out that ‘Cheiro’ had corresponded with him some time ago. This fact emboldened B.V.Raman and he wrote a letter to Cheiro stating that he was grandson of Mr. so and so and was interested in Palmistry, numerology and astrology. He gave his birth details, impressions of his hands and sought Cheiro’s opinion regarding the length of life.

 

He did get a reply from Cheiro, however, instead of focusing on his hand impressions, Cheiro told B.V Raman that 8 and 2 being his fadic numbers, he would live up to the ripe age of 82 when these 2 numbers would come together. B.V.Raman died at the age of 86, well past the predicted age of 82. People who are aware of the predictive powers of Cheiro would be amazed with this incorrect prediction, however, Mrs. Cheiro wrote to B.V.Raman that cheiro had lost his predictive powers due to misplacing of a Talisman which he used to wear.

 

When Cheiro reached London, he drifted for a time, however, one day on a spur of moment he sneaked-hiding from the gaze of captain and the sailors-on to a steamer bound for a journey to the lands in the Far East.

 

Once the excitement of boarding on a steamer- bound to unknown seas-had worn off, Cheiro felt the pangs of hunger and before midnight he dared to step into Captain’s cabin.

 

The stowaways were treated harshly in those days, but Cheiro found out that the Captain needed a hand in trying to maintain the correct record of receipts and payments associated with cargo given to his trust. Pouncing on the opportunity he offered his help. He was hired on the spot.

 

It was a happy journey, but like all good things it ended at the port of Mumbai (Bombay, India).

 

Waiting at ‘Apollo Bunder’ (Mumbai port), he was all alone. But fate gave him a chance and he was befriended by a Brahmin, who saw Cheiro’s interest in occult and especially Palmistry. He offered Cheiro to stay with him and study the arts of Palmistry, numerology and astrology.

 

Cheiro spent 2 years with the Joshi tribe, north of Mumbai, and learned their arts. He returned to his homeland when he received the news that a relative who had died had left him a small inheritance.

 

Cheiro’s stay in India is questionable on many accounts.

 

I have yet to see an Indian friend or source confirming Cheiro’s stay in India.

 

India, the jewel of British Empire, was considered at the time of Cheiro’s supposed brief stay, a mysterious land steeped in the ways of occult. Few things go against Cheiro’s version when he wants people to believe his story.

 

Cheiro did not have any knowledge of the Indian languages and dialects.

 

In his book Cheiro’s World Predictions in 1925, several passages speaking of strained relationship between Muslims and Hindus are quite meaningful. To quote;

 

“…Brahmin priests will find new translations of Buddha’s precepts to meet the demands of the new age.” (Emphasized by me)

Page 215, Cheiro’s World Prediction, Sagar Publications, India

 

“That Buddhists and Mohammedans will join together to make India a united nation, is out of question…” (Emphasized by me)

1. 217, op cit

 

I cannot imagine that someone who claims to have lived in India would confuse Hindus with Buddhists and Hinduism with Buddhism.

 

Strangely, it came from the pen of ‘Cheiro’.

 

In his book, ‘Cheiro’s Language of the Hand’, he writes in ‘A Defence’;

 

“It may be interesting to describe here, in few words as possible, an extremely ancient and curious book on the markings of hands, which I was allowed to use and examine during my sojourn in India. This book was one of the greatest treasures of the few Brahmans who possessed and understood it, and was jealously guarded in one of those old cave temples that belong to the ruins of ancient Hindustan.

This strange book was made of human skin, pieced and put together in the most ingenious manner. It was of enormous size, and contained hundreds of well-drawn illustrations, with records of how, when, and where this or that mark was proved correct.

One of the greatest features in connection with it was that it was written in some red liquid which age had failed to spoil or fade. The effect of those vivid red letters on the pages of dull yellow skin was most remarkable. By some compound, probably made of herbs, each page was glazed, as it were, by varnish: but whatever this compound may have been, it seemed to defy time, as the outer covers alone showed the signs of wear and decay…” (Emphasized by me)

 

Hindus cremate their dead, Muslims bury them and Parsees leave them open in a place to be devoured by the vultures.

 

It must have taken a sizeable corpses and their peeled skins to compile a book of such antiquity.

 

Unfortunately, Cheiro has confused books written-with the help of red ink-on Palm leaves and wooded peels, which are glazed and bound together by threads. Such ancient books are common in South India and are dedicated to the Gods and are placed in Temples. These Books are called ‘Nadi’. Some books are related to astrology, while few relate to Palmistry.

 

B.V.Raman has written extensively about ‘Nadi’, while Mir Bashir, a noted Hand Analyst has written about his experiences with ‘Augusthia Nadi’, in his book ‘Dastan-e-Taqdeer’ (The Story of Fate).

 

It is evident that Cheiro has based his supposed experiences In India on inaccurate written accounts penned by another writer.

 

At the age of 16-roughly coinciding with the year 1883-, young Cheiro, after receiving news that money had been bequeathed to him by a relative, returned to UK.

 

For one and a half year, he kept himself busy in amassing Hand Prints for his own study. He visited, prisons, asylums and hospitals and collected thousands of prints.

 

He had an ample time to test ‘theories’ of Astrology, Palmistry & Numerology which he had learned in India. To his amazement, the system of fadic numbers, which in a mysterious way tells about the significant years of important happenings in life, was also relevant on European dates of births.

 

Cheiro was also interested in ‘Archaeology’. He entrusted management of his money/property to his manager and travelled to Egypt in order to study and explore, ruined Pyramids, tombs and temples.

 

In ancient times, Egypt seemed to be the first choice of people who were interested in learning occult and mystical arts. There are two versions to account for the lost (18) years of Jesus Christ. One group is certain that ‘Jesus’ spent this time in India, whereas the other group says that he spent his lost years in Egypt.

 

It has been also purported that ‘Pythagoras’ and ‘Plato’ also learned their occult arts in Egypt.

 

In one of my another series, Djinns, the truth about supernatural beings (see here ) , I will demonstrate that ‘Draco’ and ‘Reptilian Aliens’ are the first patrons of those people who are interested in ‘Occult’. The key for the practitioner is to recognize and avoid them.

 

Contrary to people who believe that Deluge took place in Middle East, I was told in my early years that Egypt was the place inhabited by the ‘Humans’, after the deluge which destroyed ‘Atlantis’.

 

Coming back to the ‘Life and Times’ of Cheiro.

 

In one of a temple, the guide betrayed Cheiro and locked him in a temple to die of hunger.

 

On the verge of impending death due to thirst and hunger, Cheiro used the power of mental concentration which he had learned in India, to communicate telepathically with a person in his hotel, who came and saved his life.

 

One day when he returned from his excavations to Cairo, he received the news that the money he had left with a person he trusted had been embezzled. Cheiro was without any resources, however, he made practical use of his knowledge of Palmistry. He started his ‘Palmistry’ practice in the hotel’s room. He earned and saved enough money enabling him to return to UK.

 

There was more dismal news awaiting him in UK. He was told that all his money had gone and the person who did this had committed suicide.

 

Nothing else to do, he tried his hands in writing poetry, but now to his chagrin editors stopped entertaining him. One day, in October 1885 (a month before he returned 19). He was stopped by one of his client in Egypt. It transpired, that his former client was a government official.

 

He urged Cheiro to practice as a ‘Palmist’. Seeing that Cheiro was reluctant due to problem of finances, he proposed that he would offer him money to set his office as a Palmist, in return for share of 50% in all his income from Palmistry, for the 12 years to come. A contract was immediately drawn, signed and notarized.

 

Cheiro did not want to assume his family name for practicing as a Palmist, he dreamed one night of a hand and Greek words of ‘Cheir’ shining. He took it as an omen. That was the birth of what the world knows now as ‘Cheiro’.

 

Luckily, the first person to casually stroll in his office was ‘Arthur James Balfoure’. He was impressed with what Cheiro had to say. The following night, he referred Cheiro to many people of import and influence.

 

From then on, Cheiro’s office was besieged with people interested in their hands being read.

 

Cheiro’s early success was the matter of talk of the town. The same was taken up in the Parliament regarding Palmists in London. People-most probably envious of the initial success of Cheiro-requested authorities to invoke the provisions of the Vagrancy Act, 1824.

 

One day, a police constable visited his office and told him to close his office by the end of the following weekend. He also handed him copy of the act, which read as under;

 

“Any person or persons found guilty of practicing Palmistry, Astrology, Witchcraft, or all such works of the devil, is hereby deemed a rogue and vagabound to be sentenced to lose all his goods and possessions, to stand for one year in the Pillory, and to be expelled from the country, or to be imprisoned for life”.

 

Not wanting to cross the ‘Law’, Cheiro made arrangements to cease working as “Cheiro the Palmist”.

 

One of his client, urged him to attend her party where he was required to demonstrate his prowess in Palmistry and read hands of the guests behind the curtain. He accepted the challenge free of cost. During the show, one guest was so impressed with his predictive powers that he offered him to help with his career.

 

Obeying the instructions, Cheiro forwarded the business card of the guest which happened to be Sir George Lewis, head of the law firm ‘Lewis and Lewis’ to the police authorities and continued his practice as ‘Cheiro, the Palmist’ without any further visits from the police.

 

Some of my own thoughts.

 

‘Cheiro’s You and Your Star’, in my opinion is the only book written by our mysterious ‘Count’ which helps a fledgling occultist. In this book he combines the descriptions of the ‘Zodiac signs with the dates of births and has produced a magnum opus worthy of consideration. The original edition of the book mentions famous personalities and Cheiro’s experiences with them. Surprisingly, there is no mention of any persons he might have encountered in 1886-1891 period. Now this appears to be a mystery.

 

One would expect that after his initial success with future Prime Minister of UK ‘Arthur James Balfoure’ and prowess at a party, other people of note might have been his clients. But we find no evidence. Only at one place we see that Lord Kitchener visiting him in 1894 said that he had visited Cheiro in 1888 as a Colonel (as per Cheiro’s account) .

 

It appears that in 1891, he published his first book on Palmistry, ‘Cheiro’s Book of the Hand’. I bought this book in 1991. I was so enamored with Cheiro in my teenage, that anything having a remote connection with the ‘Mysterious Cheiro’ was a valid justification for me to spare no expenses. But speaking of content. It was a huge disappointment. As his other books on Palmistry are.

 

When I meet a professional palmist, one of the few questions I ask him are about his favorite book on Palmistry which has helped him the most. If someone names one of the ‘Cheiro’s book’, well I know the depth of his knowledge and experience.

 

It takes a very little time for a Professional Palmist to realize that as far as ‘knowledge’ and application on palmistry is concerned, the Cheiro’s book are the big no. One expects that the fame and accuracy of prediction which Cheiro enjoyed might have induced him to write about his method and few techniques in his books. Unfortunately this is not the case. There is very little in his books which is original.

 

Let’s take an example from one of his famous book (published in 1894), ‘Cheiro’s Language of the Hand’.

 

An unsuspecting and a beginner gets impressed by his flowery language, anecdotes and romanticizing, however, what he does not know is that the whole impressive ‘A Defense’ comprising good 40 pages is nothing but the summary of ‘Preface’ and ‘Introductory Argument’ written by Edward Heron Allen in his book ‘The Guide to Study Palmistry’ published in 1885. The difference is that the style of Edward is much engaging and he takes more than 100 pages to write about his ‘Arguments’.

 

The examination and structure of the physical aspects and shape of the hands is called ‘Cheirognomy’. The section on ‘Cheirognomy in Cheiro’s book is faithful reflection of the system introduced by ‘Captain Casimir Stanislas D’Arpentigny (1798-1865). If we take ‘Cheiro’s word that he learned Palmistry while his sojourn in India, then the system of physical examination of shape of the hands as practiced in India is quite different from the system introduced by ‘D’Arpentigny’.

 

The examination of the lines on the hands belongs to Chiromancy portion, of the Palmistry. Here we also see that Cheiro adheres to the findings and system introduced by ‘Adrien Adolphe Desbarrolles’ (1801-1886). Desbarrolles’s, ‘Revelations Completes’ remains the most interesting book on Palmistry which is replete with personal experiences of the author. Unfortunately the book is in French and has not been translated in English, except some portion which has been plagiarized by ‘Comte Saint Germain’ in his book ‘The Study of Palmistry for Professional Purposes’ published in 1897.

 

It is evident that ‘Cheiro’ used a different system while reading hands, but want of honesty in his character forbade him to write about it in his books.

 

If we are to believe that Cheiro had his first season in London in 1885 (as per his entry in ‘Cheiro’s You and Your Star), we face another inaccuracy in his accounts. In his ‘Memoirs’ he mentions that the singer Nellie Melba   (1861-1931)  met him in 1888 during his first season in London. BTW, Nellie Melba was dead by the time Cheiro’s “Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer” was published in 1932. Lord Kitchener and Dame Nellie Melba were not alive to approve or contradict Cheiro’s accounts.

Dame Nellie Melba

 

 

There are certainly some lost years which we have to account for in ‘Cheiro’s’ life. I have a theory or two which I would like to share with my readers at the end of this post.

 

Another reason for his lost years (1885-91) might be that he was practicing professionally but most of his clients belonged from Middle and Business class.

 

Late Victorian era was class conscious in UK. There were four distinct classes.

 

• Lower Class (servants, miners etc.)
• Middle Class (Working class. White colored jobs)
• Business Class (Rich people without any honor attached)
• Elite (Famous writers, Famous Singers, Landed gentry, Member of Parliaments, Honored class and last but not the least Royalty)

 

If one did not belong to the elite he was certainly not included in ‘Who’s Who’ of the ‘Victorian era’, liable to be dismissed as nobody.

 

The ‘Patrons of Arts’, have always been elite. Cheiro was waiting for his break and he did receive it in a very surprising manner.

 

In 1892, he was visited by a French lady who wore a heavy mantilla to disguise her person. Her ‘hand lines’ were unusual. They told ‘Cheiro’ of a woman belonging from an elite but in a rather vague/obscure way. The lines further told him that the lady was connected with the most famous.

 

His analysis of her Palm was a success. To his surprise the visitor was no one else than ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ (1845-1923).

 

French Actress Saarah Bernhardt

 

 

Being a passionate person, Saarah talked about this incident in her elite circle. Speaking of the event, the Era issue of 23^rd of July 1892 wrote:

 

Sarah Bernhardt and Palmistry

Madame Sarah Bernhardt recently had a professor of Palmistry to see her. His nom de plume is “Cheiro”. He has in his possession, now, it is said, a mould of the great French actress’s right hand which he pronounces the most extraordinary hand he ever saw. […]Altogether, “Cheiro,” who has been reading palms for many years, and who went into business professionally on Monday at Eastbourne, claims to have a wonderful insight into the human mind through the human hand  

 

Suddenly, Cheiro was talk of the town. The elite wanted to meet and show their hands to him. The North-Eastern Daily Gazette wrote on 17^th of October 1892:

 

London Notes

It might generally be supposed that the days when professors of the “Black Art” could earn a princely competence are passed and done with. This is by no means the case, however. In New Bond street a gentleman calling himself “Cheiro Palmist” holds a daily levee in a suit of rooms at No. 106, and his visitors, mostly if not entirely of the gentler sex, submit the palms of their hands to his view, from which he proceeds to enlighten them as to their immediate future. Mr. “Cheiro” asks no fee for his confidences, leaving it to his clients to pay him what they will out of gratitude. As he is patronized by “society ladies”, and is more or less “the things”, I suppose he will escape the fate of the gipsy fortune-teller        

 

Cheiro styled his rooms in a very pompous style. He wanted to emphasize his learning from India, hence he styled his room in an Asian manner, however, one writer has remarked that his waiting room resembled the ‘brothel house’. I am posting a picture, you must decide for yourself.

 

 

Cheiro’s Waiting Room

 

 

Now, I feel it’s time to come to the important point of discussion.

 

The proverbial predictive powers of ‘Cheiro’.

 

What made him ‘Cheiro the great’?

 

A normal session with Cheiro lasted not more than 30 minutes. In that short time, after the exchange of short pleasantries, he glanced at Palms, and made a quick calculation with the date of birth. The result was an accurate account regarding of past, present and future events along with dates and years.

 

What system did he use?

 

I will quote few paragraphs from Cheiro’s ‘Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer’.

Note: The following text has been underlined and emphasized by me.

 

Asking his date of birth I then tested his vibrations by the Chinese tablets I had with me. I found they were higher than those of any man I had ever met, indicating that the man before me must be a reincarnation of some unusual personage of some far-distant past (p.17)

 

During this talk, he got me to work out, without my knowledge, the charts of the Kaiser and the Czar of Russia, as well as those of members of British Royal Family; he gave me the date of birth, but not the name of any person (p.42)

 

Taking small key from the end of his chain, he opened the case, and to my amazement laid on the table by my side the identical sheet of paper with my own writing and numbers on it which I had jotted down in King Edward’s library, and had seen once in my consulting-rooms in the hands of the man now sitting opposite to me (p.64)

 

…I have explained that by finding the key to the number which seems to govern a person’s life, I was able with considerable accuracy to foresee what year, and, in some cases, in what month, the climax of the life’s career would be attained. (p.145)    

 

From a peculiar system of my own, in which dates, numbers, and time can be worked out to remarkable extent, it seemed to me that my late visitor would be threatened with a serious danger from something in the nature of fire on that very evening….No real fire took place. But her pet dog which she left behind in her bedroom was during the night asphyxiated by an escape of gas which occurred under the floor in this very room. (p.151)    

 

All the writers and practitioners of occult have put down ‘Cheiro’s success to his vivid imagination. I am bewildered how an active imagination might give you an astounding accuracy client after client 24/7/365.

 

An important aspect in Cheiro’s life has been down played.

 

A possibility of;

 

• Guildship or
• Apprenticeship.

From time immemorial, secret arts are imparted in a close ‘teacher and student’ relationship. This relationship has to be special. A student working his way through dedication, loyalty and perseverance, gains confidence of his ‘teacher’ and subsequent knowledge.

 

The ‘teacher’, carefully assesses his student’s progress and reveals ‘secret keys’ in a gradual way. The final key is revealed under the strict vows of secrecy. The arrangement is necessary to guard the secret, to preserve the tradition and to respect the elders.

 

Cheiro, might not have gone to ‘India’, but he was member of some secret society.

 

Was he a ‘free mason’?

 

Was he a member of ‘Rosicrucian order’?

 

It appears that his main ‘tool’ was the system of ‘numerology’ he used. He decided upon the important numbers and then used them in various combinations. It was done with two methods. But first a brief introduction of numbers and astrology.

 

All the occult arts have been derived from ‘astrology’. The traditional astrologers used following luminaries, planets, and bodies:

 

Body                      Number                               Astrological Periods

Sun                        1                                              23-07 to 23-08

Moon                    2                                             22-06 to 23-07

Mercury               5                                              21-05 to 22-06 & 23-08 to 23-09

Venus                   6                                              20-04 to 21-05 & 23-09 to 24-10

Mars                      9                                              21-03 to 20-04 & 24-10 to 23-11

Jupiter                  3                                              19-02 to 21-03 & 23-11 to 22-12

Saturn                   8                                              22-12 to 18-02

Nodes                   4                                              Not Applicable

Moon (-)              7                                              Not Applicable

 

In first method, we have to decide the strength of the planetary bodies, classifying them as strong, average and neutral for a client. The help is taken from the quick glance at birth chart or his hand. There are varying degrees of strength and same has to be taken in to account.

 

Once we decide the strength issue, we try to assess which planetary bodes are positive and negative. This is again ascertained from the birth chart or the hand.

 

Now the combinations.

 

Let’s say that after our initial analysis we concluded that

 

Mercury is strong and positive

Saturn is strong and negative &

Moon is weak and positive

 

Taking help from the above table.

 

Body                      Number                               Astrological Periods

Moon                    2                                             22-06 to 23-07

Mercury               5                                              21-05 to 22-06 & 23-08 to 23-09

Saturn                   8                                              22-12 to 18-02

 

The important events would be the combination of above numbers and they would fall in to any one of the above period.

 

For example (by way of addition):

20 (2), 23 (5), 26 (8), 29 (2), 32(5)…and so on

 

For example (by way of coming together):

22, 25, 28, 52, 58…

 

In second method, we know by experience that certain years are important (by way of constant) for every individual. The good and bad events would happen on those particular years.

 

For example (I am hiding the correct years under oath)

 

Moon                                                    2, 11, 26

Mercury                                               17, 25, 47

Saturn                                                   16, 32, 44, 57

 

In Palmistry, Cheiro used a system which divides every line into certain number of fixed divisions (one can do it mentally). Every section thus divided deals with only a particular thing at the time of analysis.

 

For example. Dividing Line of Life into 7 sections, the 4^th section will tell you about secret affairs or mistresses. Dividing line of head in 7 sections, the 3^rd section will tell you about the stress brought about on nervous system due to financial problems or its absence.

 

In astrology, Cheiro used tropical system along with Indian ‘period system’ called ‘Dasa’. Sometimes he used Persian period system called ‘Firdaria’.

 

1892 was a momentous year for a 26 years old Cheiro. He was lucky enough to strike acquaintance and favor of Saarah Bernhardt, Blanche Roosevelt and Lady Arthur Paget. Saarah Bernhardt and Blanche Roosevelt were the brief time liaisons of Prince Albert Edward (future King Edward VII), heir apparent to the British Crown. The ladies might have talked about Cheiro to the future King but it was Lady Arthur Paget, Lady-in-Waiting to the wife of Prince Albert, who arranged the meeting.

Lady Arthur Paget, dressed as Cleopatra for a costume Party.

 

 

 

The meeting was shrouded in secrecy. The matters were arranged in such a manner that Cheiro was required to observe the lines of an anonymous gentleman sitting behind the curtain and was told to be candid about whatever he saw.

 

The lines of the gentleman intrigued Cheiro, who saw an unusual life etched in the palm, indicative of not normal but privileged birth and an influence of an outstanding measure. By some quirk of fate the curtain fell and Cheiro was shocked and surprised to see the Prince sitting in front of him not less than 3 feet apart. Prince helped him in gaining his composure. He was thoroughly impressed by his predictive powers.

 

It is to be noted that in the first meeting, Cheiro determined that 6 and 9 were the principal numbers for the Prince. These were arrived at without taking the help of date of birth. Number 6 relates to ‘Venus’, whereas number 9 relates to Mars. Mount of Venus and Mars (positive) are contained in the ball of thumb and are separated from the rest of hand by the line of life. The combination of Mars and Venus also tell about the passionate nature of the person and it is no wonder that ‘Prince’ ranks high on a list of those monarchs who had lot of mistresses.

 

 

 

‘Prince’, wanted to have another meeting with ‘Cheiro’. In next meeting, he asked Cheiro to work on his date of birth i.e. 09^th of November 1841. He also asked him to work on date of births of different people (mostly royals). It was in that meeting that Cheiro told him about his date of coronation and date of death. The nervous Prince brushed aside the topic.

 

In almost all the books dealing with the life of Cheiro, he has been praised for accurately predicting the date of death of Queen Victoria and King Edward the VII. It must be remembered that ‘Cheiro’ never predicted the date of death of the Queen Victoria. However, by logical conclusion coronation of King Edward VII would have been not possible unless and until his mother ‘the Queen’ died.

 

There is one strange fact which many people have not noticed. The beginning of the successful career of Cheiro coincides with his first meeting with the ‘King Edward VII’ and his career ended the time ‘King’ died in 1910. I have few speculations regarding this coincidence which would be made at the end of this post.

 

In 19^th century, the heir apparent to the British Crown was related to almost all the royal heads in Europe. If you gained his favor you were definitely given entrance into the elite circle. Soon Cheiro was sought by the ‘Who’s Who’ of the Victorian era. His consulting rooms were thronged with clients desirous of knowing their future.

 

With royal acclaim came the perks and privileges associated with the high social life. Cheiro was befriended with many women who were not satisfied with professional relationship and wanted it to extend it to an intimate one. Cheiro went headlong into it. Soon he was in trouble.

 

In 1893 he planned a professional tour of America. All the arrangements were made with an agent, however, in August 1893 Cheiro was served with a notice requiring his attendance in a court as a co-respondent. For many readers who don’t know. When a person is suspicious of his partner’s fidelity and he can identify a person with whom this might be happening, that person name is given as a justification of dissolving the marriage.

 

Cheiro has given detailed account of his purported innocence in his ‘Memoirs’, however, his date of birth shows that 1892-93 were the years when he was most susceptible to the ‘affairs’.

 

He sought opinion of Sir Edward Marshall Hall, and due to his opinion and intervention, the matter was hushed up.

 

There was nothing further to detain Cheiro. He sailed for America in the later part of the year 1893. His stories of awesome powers of prediction had preceded him and the time he reached New York, his name was everywhere. He set his office. Americans being ingenious nation, his claim to success was tested by the reporter of New York World. He was asked to submit his findings on hand prints of 13 unknown people. He commenced with the task, here is what follows; (taken from ‘Cheiro’s Language of the Hand)

 

‘I had described the character and careers of perhaps a dozen of these test cases, when the impressions of a strange-looking pair of hands were put before me. I was struck by the fact that the lines on the left were in every way normal while those on the right were as abnormal as possible. I particularly noticed that on the left hand the line of hand lay clear and straight across the center, whereas on the right it appeared to have twisted out of its place, closing in against the heart-line under the base of the third finger.

 

I summed up the impressions before me by stating: “Judging from these hands, the owner of them undoubtedly commenced his career in a normal way. He is likely to have been a religious man in his early years”. I thought that it was probable he might have commenced life as a Sunday-school teacher and later become interested in science or medicine.

 

I went on to describe how the man’s entire nature slowly and steadily had changed under the continual urge to acquire wealth at any cost, until he was finally prepared even to commit murder for money.

 

My remarks noted down by the reporters were as follows: “Whether this man has committed one crime or twenty is not the question, as he enters his forty-fourth year he will be found out, arrested, tried and sentenced to death. It will then be proved, that for years he has used his mentality and whatever profession he has followed to obtain money by crime and has stopped at nothing to achieve his ends. This man in his forty-fourth year will pass through some sensational trial, he will be condemned to die, yet his hands show that he will escape this fate and live on for years-but in prison”.

 

Cheiro was spot on.

 

Brief history of this particular person, for those who are interested is as under.

 

 

Dr. Henry Meyer, was born in year 1849-50. Nothing is known about his early years except that when he arrived in Chicago in the year 1876, he had a diploma from a German institute for the practice of Medicine. He boarded with a family, completed a course from an American institute and married the daughter of his landlady in 1877. From 1878, he started on the spree of killing people whom he had insured for a considerable money. He was ruthless and extremely greedy. He married three times and killed two of his wives. His modus operandi was to use poison which could not be detected when autopsy was performed. It is strange that after every murder he was the main person under suspicion but was acquitted. On July 20^th 1893, he was formally arrested and charged with murder. When Cheiro saw his hand prints, Dr.Meyer was waiting his trial.

 

Coming back to account given by the Cheiro (‘Cheiro’s Language of the Hand)

 

“When the interview with me appeared the following Sunday in the New York World, the paper disclosed that the hands I had read were those of a Dr.Meyer from Chicago. He had that very week been arrested on suspicion of having poisoned wealthy patients whom he had insured for considerable amounts of money.

The trial, as might be expected, was a sensational one, but in spite of the efforts of the best lawyers, he was sentenced to die by the electric chair. The conviction was appealed against. Three trials in all took place, but at the third he was again condemned to death without hope of a reprieve.

A week before his execution, he requested that I should go and see him. I was taken to his cell in Sing Sing prison. As long as I live, I shall never forget the interview.

“Cheiro,” gasped the now completely broken man, “at that interview you gave the reporters, what you said about my early life was true. But you also said that although I should be sentenced to the electric chair, I should live on for years-but in prison.

“I have lost my third and last appeal-in a few days I am to be executed. For God’s sake, tell me if you stand by your words-that I shall escape ‘the chair’”

 

Even if I had not seen his line of life going on clear and distinct well past his forty-fourth year, I believe I would have tried to give him hope. To me it was torture to see that poor wretch before me, to feel his cold clammy hands touching mine, and see his hollow eyes hungry for a word of comfort.

 

Although I could hardly believe what I saw, I pointed out that his line of life showed no signs of any break, and so I left him, giving the hope that some miracle could still happen that would save him from the dreaded “chair”.

 

Day after day went pass, with no news to relieve the tension. Mentally I suffered almost as much as the poor man in the condemned cell. The evening papers, full of details of the preparations for the execution fixed for the next morning were eagerly bought up. I bought one and read every line.

 

Midnight came. Suddenly boys rushed through the streets screaming “Special Edition.” I read across the front page, “MEYER ESCAPES THE CHAIR, SUPREME COURT FINDS FLAW IN INDICTMENT”. The miracle had happened. The sentence was altered to imprisonment for life. Meyer lived for fifteen years. When the end did come, he died peacefully in the prison hospital.

 

It would be interesting to study here the print of right hand of Dr.Meyer, and try to find out how ‘Cheiro’ might have arrived at his stunning predictions. It must be remembered that Cheiro did not know Dr.Meyer’s date of birth at the time of ‘test’.

Dr.Meyer’s right hand

 

 

Thumb is long and refined, telling us that the person is refined which is evidenced from the manner he murdered people. Refined. Not striking with force but using poison.

 

Fingers are twisted, especially middle and ring finger, indicating twisted morals. Line of head abruptly turns up and meets line of heart below the ‘ring finger’ area. This indicates a greedy nature and love of money and acquisition. His line of heart is very short, starting from the mount of ‘Saturn’. It indicates that Dr.Meyer, was bereft of any human emotion. He did not love anyone. He once strolled in the room of his wife’s toddler, picked him up and quietly put him in bath tub, drowning him to death.

 

There is a very long line of ambition starting from the 22^nd year, from the line of life and ending on the mount of Jupiter. That was the time that he enrolled in a medical institution. Early on, he had noble intentions, but that period of study coincided with years of poverty, misery and dependency. Line of life from age 22 to 26 is islanded. Line of fate is tied with the line of life from the beginning. Notice, lines of influence travelling along line of life, distancing and curving inwards. There are two major periods in life when he worked hard to improve his life situation. 27 and 42. At the age of 27 he sat for an American course whereas at the age of 42, he planned his major fraud. Line of fate is islanded when it reaches line of head and that was the time when he was finally put into prison. His long and unbroken line of Sun confirms that his trial would be well known but he will survive the major punishment.

 

Lines coming out of line of life at the end and lines of influence trying to merge with line of fate indicate that more than money, poisoning any one was his major hobby and it provided him with necessary adrenaline pumping. Diabolical influence is also pointed out by a line starting inside the line of life at the beginning and ending on mount of Saturn. Doubling of line of Sun at the end show that he was continuously sending money to one of his relative, back to his country of origin.

Lillian Russell 1897 (Source: Wikipedia)

 

 

During his travel to America on a ship, Madame Nordica had introduced Cheiro to a singer known as Signor Perugini who was planning to withdraw into a monastic life. Cheiro examined his palms and surprised him by saying that he would be married in short time after landing at New York but his marriage would be short. Perugini married Lillian Russell, a famous actress and singer within few months. This incident along with his success with the reporter of ‘New York World’ made his name known in elite circles.

 

Cheiro set his office in New York, where people thronged to book an appointment with him.

 

Mark Twain (1835-1910), an American author and humorist met Cheiro in his New York office. At that time Mark Twain was in financial trouble due to his heavy investment in a printing machine which had become obsolete. He was trying to avoid the impending bankruptcy and was impressed with Cheiro’s reading of his hand. He wrote following words in his visitors’ book;

 

“Cheiro has exposed my character to me with humiliating accuracy. I ought not to confess this accuracy, still I am moved to do it”.

 

Being a natural skeptic, he might have ascribed Cheiro’s powers to a devilish agency. He asked questions regarding the probability of future being seen in advance. Cheiro explained with the help of two sets of prints belonging to a mother and her daughter. The finger print patterns were almost same in both sets. Cheiro told him that events in the lives of the mother and daughter also bore resemblance. This gave an idea to Mark Twain and made it a central plot in his novel Pudd’nhead Wilson, which he completed hurriedly from November 12 to December 14, 1893.

 

From New York Cheiro went to Boston, the environment being intellectual he decided to extend his stay. He delivered his first lecture in his life in Boston. He also published his first volume on poems. His poem ‘If we only knew’ had been very popular at that time but few people knew that it was written by a Palmist and an astrologer. The link is ‘here’ to read that poem.

 

From Boston he went to Chicago and set his office in ‘Hotel Auditorium’. Chicago was the hub of commercial and industrial activity in late 19^th century. He was visited by many rich clients and it was in Chicago where Cheiro had the real taste of wealth’ and its attendant benefits.

 

Cheiro charged a fortune for a time that he gave to ordinary people. When Mark Twain, met Cheiro for consultation, he said following at the end of his allotted time;

 

“The one humorous point in the situation is, that I came here to lose money by my foolishness, but I have gained a plot for a story, which I certainly think should be ‘a winner’”

 

To have a fair idea of how much fees was charged by Cheiro for his services. I want to make comparison with famous Hand Analyst Mir Bashir (1907-1997). In 1955, Mir Bashir charged following (Picture attached). Price adjusted for the year 2015.

An advertisement by Mir Bashir in 1955

 

 

-Personal consultation for a problem analysis

21 British Pounds= 32 US Dollars=3365 Pakistan Rs

 

-A detailed hand analysis covering all important aspects of your life

42 British Pounds = 64 US Dollars=6730 Pakistan Rs

 

-A detailed hand analysis with fuller details

63 British Pounds =96 US Dollars=10,096 Pakistan Rs

 

-Complete Life Study

105 British Pounds =160 US Dollars= 16,826 Pakistan Rs

 

Cheiro was booked in advance. The procedure was to take an appointment from his secretary, who sold numbered cards at 100 US Dollar each. No names were booked. The meeting with Cheiro lasted only 30 minutes. The 100 USD charged in the year 1894 equal 2,735 USD in 2015 (Source for conversion  ).

2,735 US Dollars= 1,799 British Pounds= 287,175 Pakistan Rs.

 

Cheiro also gave lectures on Palmistry at night to a packed audience. His each lecture on average brought him 1,500 US Dollars in 1894. If we adjust this amount to the year 2015. It brings in a hefty amount.

 

41,025 US Dollars=26,990 British pounds=4,307,625

 

After the conclusion of his successful tour of America, Cheiro returned to Great Britain in the summer of 1894 and resumed his practice in London.

 

On 23^rd of June, 1894, Cheiro met Joseph Chamberlain, a British politician and statesman and his son Austin Chamberlain. He noted similarities between the hands of the father and that of a son and told Sir Joseph that his son would have a career similar to him but his impact of personality on the events of the country would be less than his father.

 

A surprise was awaiting him. He was informed through a messenger of High Courts of Justice that he was required to attend the office of Lord Chief Justice on 19^th of July 1894. Cheiro had escaped being nominated as a co-respondent a year ago. He was naturally worried and amidst mixed feelings attended the office. After a considerable wait he was made to appear before the Lord Chief Justice.

 

 

He was preparing to argue his innocence, when the Lord Chief Justice spread his hands before him and said’

 

“I am willing to keep my promise; you can have impressions of my hands now”

 

Suddenly Cheiro recognized Lord Chief Justice to be one of his former client, Lord Russell of Killowen, who went to see him 3 years ago and on hearing that he was destined to reach top of his profession in the month of July 1894, promised that if the event happened he would give his hand impression to Cheiro for collection.

 

 

Two days after meeting Lord Russell of Killowen, Cheiro went to see Lord Kitchener on 21^st of July, 1894, at that time an Egyptian Sardar equal to the rank of local Brigadier. Kitchener told him that he had visited his consultation room in Bond Street in 1888. Cheiro told him that according to his hand prints and date of birth, he was fated to die by water with an attendant chance of capture, from which he could not recover, at the age of 66.

 

The hand print of Lord Kitchener, has been reproduced which sheds light on his complex personality

 

 

Fingers are long and slender, basically a hand of a person who has a keen eye, love of detail and observation powers. We see no defect in his mount of Jupiter and first finger, which tell us that his observation did not suffer any defect.

 

The line of head is long and level headed, denoting Kitchener’s penchant for careful planning and plugging any loopholes. He was basically a philosopher with a stoic like attitude to the life. His line of head throws branches in its beginning to the mount of Jupiter, which tell us about his convincing powers as an orator. The line of head is forked with straight line curving slightly upwards. This shows us his love of ‘acquisition’ and collector of rare items. Kitchener had a lifelong habit of porcelain vases. The slight upward curve also shows that in order to satisfy his habit of collection, he can easily steal. Some of his biographies hint that he was Kleptomaniac. I would tend to agree with his biographers in that account.

 

Line of life is strong and curved. Showing strong constitution and good digestion. There is one peculiar line which shoots from the later part of the line of life and goes to the mount of moon. The print is not clear but Cheiro took it as ‘danger from water’. The line of fate and line of Sun are perfectly formed. His Line of Sun shows why he was able to overcome many criticisms over his actions. His line of heart is very poor. Starts from mount of Saturn and is islanded. Showing selfishness, cruelty and contempt of opposite sex. Kitchener was ‘homosexual’. One strong branch from heart line touches the initial part of line of life, showing that his sexuality was based on his unfortunate events in the beginning of his life. He had an abusive childhood.

 

Kitchener’s friend ship and intimacy with Sir Baden Powell was questionable. Sir Baden Powel, who founded ‘Boy Scouts’ was also a pedophile.

 

 

In the summer of 1894, Cheiro was visited by an ordinary looking English gentleman who showed him a sheet of paper with notes on it, which Cheiro remembered were the same jotted down by King Edward VII, when he gave different dates of births for knowing their future. The gentleman wanted to know Cheiro’s reasons for making predictions. That man was no other than Nicholas II, Czar of Russia.

 

From 1894 to 1897, Cheiro practiced his occult arts alternating between London and Paris with a brief interlude, being another visit to United States of America in late 1896. His fees being exorbitant, only rich and famous consulted him and sought his opinion.

 

One particular strange incident happened at that time which he has mentioned in his memoirs but due to strange turn of events he concealed the identities of people involved.

 

Before talking about the incident. Let us discuss the ‘double lines of head’. Cheiro had two lines of head on his right hand, we will discuss his hand print later on. Cheiro offers following explanation for the double ‘lines of head’ in his book ‘Cheiro’s Language of the Hand’ (p.125)

 

“A double line of head is very rarely found, but when found it is a sure sign of brain power and mentality. Such people have a perfectly double nature, one side sensitive and gentle, the other confident, cold and cruel. They have enormous versatility, great command of language, a peculiar power for playing and toying with human nature, and generally great will and determination”.

 

In 1991, I was studying in Fauji Foundation College, Rawalpindi. Our principal ‘Syed Dilshad Hussain Shah’, was an ex-Vice Principal of Cadet College Hasan Abdal.

Syed Dilshad Hussain Shah

 

 

 

A very stern man. His face showed constant signs of scowling and frowning.

 

Wonder if he ever laughs. He was the terror, and in an already disciplined college, visits to his office were the most feared events in the lives of the students. Somehow, my father had good terms with him and they met on several occasions. At one time my father told him that his son-that’s me- had an interest in occult. He confided in father that he also had a keen interest in ‘Physiognomy’ and ‘numerology’.

 

Bingo.

 

“So that explains why he has constant forced vertical furrows between his eyebrows, which in my limited studies of ‘physiognomy revealed a person of renown”, I thought. Maybe he artificially maintains those furrows. He expressed a desire to meet me unofficially. Out of 1,000 students in college, he had still not met me or recognized me.

 

 

In the summer of 1991, we were participating in NCC (National Cadet Course), an optional military training of short duration. Classes were off, but we used college grounds for taking military lessons. One day, tired and profusely sweating, a group of boys sat in an empty class, fans on, and were drying their sweat. Maybe we were making noise, I remember that I was telling some anecdote to a group of students sitting in front of me, when suddenly principal appeared. He asked us the reason and we told him that the period was off and we were just cooling off. I don’t know but in a spur of moment, and unawares, he just slapped me, with full force. For some time I was short of hearing and by the advent of evening had a searing pain in my left ear.

 

We got it checked from a hospital. The result. My tympanic membrane was ruptured. Many people who were pissed off by the ‘Principal’, advised my father to file a case, which if done would have dire consequences for Syed Dilshad Hussain Shah, who had accidently and unintentionally hit an army man’s son in an army administered institution. But my family decided that since the principal belonged from our tribe ‘Syed’ and was on good terms with him, we should not press charges against a person who had spent his life in imparting knowledge.

 

One noon, he visited our house and met me. During the general chit chat he revealed his interest in occult and graciously allowed me to examine his hands. Unfortunately I did not take his hand prints. Which If I had asked he would not have refused.

 

Working from memory. His hands were small and he had two lines of hand on his right hand. One line was attached with line of life for a considerable distance and was small while the other one was independent and straight. Double lines of head. He gave me his date of birth 1^st of July, 1932. I explained him the general meaning of double lines of head and looked inquiringly at him. He told that he was born in India (British India) and his father served in police. He certainly had a double life. In early 1950’s when he was the young lecturer at cadet College Hasan Abdal, he tried his best to overcome his extremely shy nature and gave vent to building an outward confident personality who had love for debating, but inwardly he was still shy and sensitive. His sensitive nature was evident in his home life. Where he was occasionally swept by emotions and wept. He also told me that he had a highly religious private life and was biased for people belonging from his own tribe but hid it in his daily routine. His only regret being that he was eligible for Principal ship of Cadet College Hasan Abdal but was unfairly bypassed.

 

After some years we heard that he was appointed ‘Principal’ of Cadet College Hasan Abdal.

 

In the same year i.e 1991, I happened to meet a businessman from Karachi. He had a humble beginning but by dint of hard and honest work had become rich. He also had double lines of head. His business life was stern, confident and calculating but inwardly he loved arts and occult arts. His hands displayed that he would ruin his life by indulgence in alcohol in his late 40’s.

 

So, double lines of head mean a ‘double life’.

 

In June 1896, Sir William Standish (names concealed by Cheiro), a noted philanthropist, sent a note to Cheiro expressing his desire to meet him for a palmistry session. Cheiro preferred to meet people who did not reveal their names and status. He believed that if he knew who the person was, he was at disadvantage because the real nature of people was far different from the one which was generally known.

 

The meeting took place. Sir William was not interested in knowing about his past or future. He told Cheiro that he had ‘double lines of head’ on his right hands but he was not cruel, or confident.

 

Cheiro, examined his conic hands and as every palmist knows that ‘lines of the hand’ are to be read in conjunction with the shape of the hands, he told him that he had two natures. One which was practical and was spent in daily round of philanthropic and charitable activities while he had another life which was feminine in nature.

 

Sir William invited Cheiro to a dinner at his home. After dinner he revealed that he had a secret flat where he did sewing and darning just as a woman does. But there was a problem. He told that he had periods of time when he did not know where he spent his time. The time and memory lapse ranging from few days to months.

 

In late 1896, Cheiro had another tour of United States of America, he returned in summer 1897. One day he happened to meet in a park, his eccentric friend. Algy, was a poet who wrote absurd poems. Calling for the need to platonic love and distaste for physical pleasures. He slept in day time and wandered all night telling people that night excursions or labors required less fatigue and less food. He told Cheiro, about his new found love. He had accidently met a woman who seemed to be in tune with his aesthetic and ascetic nature. He invited Cheiro to his home for a dinner. When Cheiro, went there, he thought he knew the woman but was unable to recognize the exact time when he had met her. When he accidently had a look at her hands. He was astonished that the woman was no other than Sir William Standish in a disguise of a woman.

 

Cheiro, was worried at the turn of events and feared the tragic end of Sir William Standish’s happy family life, if his wife ever come to know about the real reason for periodic disappearance of her husband on general plea of some business exigencies.

 

Anyway, the feared event happened. Algy, temporarily deserted by his love, tried to find her and chasing her, caught her/him in front of Lady William Standish.

 

 

In July 1897, Cheiro was introduced to Dorothy Tennant, a British painter who happened to be married to Henry Morton Stanley, a British explorer. She invited him to a party where he was formally acquainted with Sir H.M.Stanley. Stanley took a keen interest in Palmistry and being impressed with the session with Cheiro, promised to introduce him to then retired from public life but 4 times Prime Minister of England, William Ewart Gladstone.

 

Cheiro met Gladstone on 3^rd of August, 1897 and was astonished to know that Gladstone used to discuss matters of Higher Mathematics with Robert Hamon, father of Cheiro. Gladstone was feeling very ill and only noticeable thing for him in that year was his first time shaking hands with Queen Victoria. Cheiro, also demonstrated the power of thoughts to move material objects via a machine made by his French friend, ‘D’Odiardi’, a technician.

 

 

In 1898, working from his London office, Cheiro met a sixteen year old girl named Katie Florence Bilsborough. Her hands showed that she would be married within one year, lose husband in some mysterious way, would want to marry second time- but after repeated failures-to a man she liked. The girl said that she was interested in him and if she could not have him for the first she would want to marry him the second time. That girl later married Cheiro in April 1920 and was known as Countess Mena Hamon.

 

The turn of 20^th century was celebrated with much fanfare in Europe. French government decided to hold an exhibition of much wider scale which attracted more than 50 million visitors. As expected, Cheiro arranged matters and moved to Paris and stayed there for a year. It was somewhere in the beginning of 1900 that one night, returning from a party arranged by an NGO, voicing cause for the safety of stray cats and dogs, that he saw a beautiful woman, shivering from cold and warming her hands on the fire lit by janitors. Cheiro introduced himself and offered to provide her a safe sanctuary and food for the night.

 

That woman turned out to be ‘Mata Hari’.

Mata Hari

 

 

 

By strange quirk of fate, Cheiro has appeared in the life of celebrities at the time of their crisis.

 

Instrument of Fate?

 

5 feet 10 inches tall. Plump but not over weight, curvaceous, Black hair, olive complexion, vain, witty, intelligent, originator of striptease dance, pretended female spy and a sting in her voice. That sums up Margretha Geertruida, a Dutch, better known by her pseudonym ‘Mata Hari’.

 

Cheiro relegates half a page in his memoirs, giving his reasons for why he did not fall for ‘Mata Hari’, a bewitching woman. Judging from his life, I have reason to believe that Cheiro was also one of the lover of ‘Mata Hari’, who was smitten by her beauty and charms.

 

Cheiro writes following about ‘Mata Hari’ in his book ‘Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer’ (p 248)

 

In my unusual career I met many so-called “bad women”, but although it may sound an extraordinary thing to say, I believe I can truthfully state that I never met a “bad woman” who had not some redeeming feature of self sacrifice, love, or affection that ran like a golden cord through her life.

Mata Hari was the one exception; she was handsome as a queen, fascinating, intelligent, beautiful.

My curiously constructed nature, however, called for sentient. To that call there was no answer-that was the only reason I escaped.

 

 

Far from the truth.

 

Mata Hari lost her life just because of the reason that the people who had imprisoned her ‘true love’, asked her to pretend as a ‘spy’. She met her death bravely. Refused to be blinded at the moment of her death and blew the kiss to the squad who fired at her. I would post picture of her hand and you can judge for yourself.

 

Now, let me return to the saint, the ‘Cheiro’, and explain his curiously constructed nature (picked from the quote).

 

If you are interested in astrology but do not want to learn it properly by constructing proper charts, I would advise you to read ‘Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs’. Though I do not approve her book ‘Linda Goodman’s Star Signs’. Her book on Sun Signs is a must read. In that book detailed descriptions of zodiac signs have been given. Readers are sometimes confused that how to identify a ‘good’ version of zodiac sign from the ‘bad’ version of the zodiac sign. It is easy. Draw a chart. Use help of astrological software. If the ‘sun’ in the birth chart is tainted, i.e. having an adverse aspect from Saturn or one of the node, then that person is a ‘bad’ version of that zodiac sign, otherwise he is ‘good’.

 

Cheiro was ‘bad’ version of the Scorpio sign. Jealous, vindictive, unfaithful, sexually promiscuous and emotionally cold when he wanted to punish someone who had an interest in him. It was a blow to his ‘manliness’ that the person with whom he had sexual relations also had relations with prominent people and enjoyed. Mata Hari, boasted about her conquests. And it hurt ‘Cheiro’, that’s why Cheiro called her ‘without heart’-after her death- to get even with her.

    

His interest in ‘Mata Hari’ should have been quite natural. We find resemblances in their persona and career.

 

Both;

• Had humble beginnings but rose to be associated with the best and elite of the society.
• Severed all ties from their family
• Had a pseudonym.
• Lied consistently about their beginnings
• Had magnetic appeal and persuasive powers.
• Claimed to possess an exotic art learned from the east.
• Had a voracious sexual appetite as if they were compensating for the restraints in their early life
• Re-invented themselves several times in their life.
• Worked or agreed to work as spy in some point of their life.

 

Mata Hari’s beginnings and her life story have been the subject of many speculations. At the time of her death, the mystery was still there but subsequent years and research about her life has finally revealed the truth. She also gave account of her early life to Cheiro, which he reproduced in his Memoirs. We will compare it to what research has revealed. Sentences in ‘Italics’ would be her statement given to Cheiro followed by the correct version.

 

She was born on 31^st of March 1879.

Current researches say that she was born on 7^th of August, 1876. More about it later on.

 

She was a ‘half caste’. Her father, a Dutch planter and mother a Japanese.

Both of her parents were Dutch, settled in their own country at the time of her birth.

 

Her father died when she was only a few months old.

Her father died when she was ‘31’ years old.

 

Her mother took her to Burma.

False. She was raised by her relatives when her mother died when Mata was 12 years old and her father remarried.

 

She was trained as a ‘religious dancer’ when her mother placed her in a Burmese Temple.

False.

 

She married a person holding a very prestigious position.

Her husband was only a ‘Captain’.

 

The most interesting thing is that in 1900, Mata Hari had not made any plans of taking on a dancing career. Maybe Cheiro in his romanticizing has mixed up the dates.

 

Cheiro went so far, that he advised Mata Hari on her date of birth i.e. 31^st of March, 1879. It always bothered me that how he worked on a wrong data if Mata Hari’s real date of birth was 7^th of August, 1876 till I constructed charts for both of the dates of births.

 

Strangely 31^st of March, 1879, matches with her events in life. Failed marriage. Notorious. And inventor of striptease. These all are confirmed from 31^st of March 1879, and not from 7^th of August, 1876, agreed currently to be her correct date of birth.

 

Maybe she hid her true date of birth at the time of her marriage, claiming to be at least 18 years of age.

 

Let us read hand print of Mata Hari.

Hand print of Mata Hari

 

 

 

Hand is conic.

Artistic nature. Love of luxury.

 

Thumb strong but not refined.

A person of strong habits. Likes and dislikes. She stood her ground in the face of adversity and refused to act ‘diplomatically’.

 

‘Line of Head’ independent.

Confident. Dramatic nature. Flair for ‘stage performances.

 

Marriage lines stooping.

Failed relationship at the time of print i.e. 1900. Sexually unsatisfied.

 

Line of Sun, starts brilliantly but stops in the beginning.

Promise of a brilliant career, doomed in early life due to financial troubles faced by father.

 

A line from heart bends down and meets line of head.

Tells us about a person who would be non-communicative if he/she is in a relationship.

 

Line of Head looped at the end.

Mata Hari suffered from ‘insomnia’ at the time of taking of prints i.e. 1900.

 

A cross on the mount of Saturn, along with a line cutting life line below the mount of Saturn.

Tragic end.

 

Lien of fate stops at line of head.

A person who habitually makes blunder. Foolhardy.

 

Line of Life good.

Good digestion.

 

Line of life good with a clear line of health.

No problem with ‘orgasms’. Maybe that’s why she was most sought after when she had relationships with ‘elite’.

 

Line of Head, disturbed below the mount of ‘Saturn’.

Worries due to financial problems at the time of taking prints. i.e. 1900.

 

 

Cheiro had a longing to meet Pope in his Vatican office, but he could not see it being fulfilled owing to the profession he followed. He knew Prince Marco Colonna of Italy for some time. Colonna family had been traditionally associated with service to the reigning pope whoever he might be.

 

One day in 1900, Prince visited him. The conversation drifted to Cheiro’s unfulfilled wish. Prince remarked that he could be an instrument for granting such wish. Matters were arranged. Appointments with clients were cancelled and one fine day, Cheiro was ushered into the presence of Pope in Vatican.

Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903)

 

 

Pope Leo XII (1810-1903), was interested in numerology and wanted to know how Cheiro proved accurate just juggling with anonymous date of birth. Cheiro was alert to not reveal his true system. Whenever, he was asked to give the rationale behind his predictions, he gave examples of published cases in other numerology books.

 

In order to satisfy Pope, he took the case of St. Louis and Louis XVI, and showed to the pope that despite the difference of 539 years between these two men, there was a remarkable synchronicity of the events. The Pope seemed satisfied and allowed him to use the library of ‘Vatican’.

 

It must be noted that during the persecution of witches in Europe and other religious reformations, the people in their zeal to shut all what was occult, confiscated books dealing with occult nature. These books were then sent to ‘Vatican’ for destruction but many manuscripts ended up in the ‘Library’. Thus Vatican which was supposed to be against the work of all occult had in fact became the greatest library of those books which dealt with palmistry, numerology and astrology.

 

Paris Exhibition 1900, called by the name ‘Exposition Universelle’ was planned to run from April 15 to November 12, 1900. Apart from general public, head of States, Kings and foreign dignitaries attended the exhibition. It was the first time in his life that Cheiro, read the hand of so many ‘Kings’ and Head of States in the year 1900.

 

In April 1900, just after the official opening of the ‘Exposition Universelle’, Cheiro was commanded to appear before the King Humbert of Italy known as ‘Umberto I’ of Italy. His only question was relating to the length of his years. Cheiro made a prediction that every indication in his hand pointed to violent end within 3 months.

King Humbert of Italy (Source: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

We have to admit that it requires not normal courage for making such statement. King Humbert was assassinated by an Italian-American on 29^th of July 1900 and Cheiro was in much greater demand by all the Head of States who were present in Paris to watch the exhibition.

 

Just before the fulfillment of prediction regarding ‘King Humbert’, Cheiro met King Leopold II in a private party where King spotted him for making an excellent impromptu speech.

 

 

King Leopold II (1835-1909), exemplifies the ‘colonialism’ at its worse. Known popularly as a builder King, he was the most corrupt and doomed monarch. He took ‘Congo Free State’ and laid his claim for improving the lives of the natives, but made it a source of extorting Ivory and Rubber and in the end being indirectly involved with the 10 million lives of the Congo people.

 

King Leopold II was not aware, that the person he admired most was in fact an occultist. When he came to know, he visited Cheiro’s office announced and joined him in a lunch of ‘Irish Stew’. Cheiro examined his hands but King wanted to know more. He invited him to his country, where he privately cooked ‘Irish Stew’ for Cheiro and resumed the hand analysis where it had been left.

 

Cheiro, told him about his failed marriage and many love affairs, he also told him about his ‘exacting’ nature which had ruined his personal life as well as resulted in the loss of 10 million people of Congo. He finally predicted his death resulting from digestion troubles at the age of 74.

 

King Edward the VII and King Leopold II have been the subject of many caricatures and cartoons depicting the lecherous behaviors of the two monarchs.

 

The successful prediction regarding King Humbert’s death immediately arrested attention of ‘Shah of Persia’, Muzaffer Uddin Shah Qajar.

 

His prime Minister was warned by Cheiro that a similar attempt would be made on the life of ‘Shah of Persia’. The Prime Minister took notes, increased the guards and the subsequent attempt on the life of Shah was averted.

Mozaffar Uddin Shah Qajar (1853-1907)

 

 

 

Cheiro met Shah of Persia in August 1900, and on request started reading hand of the Shah. Cheiro has an interesting way of delineating the complexities of the character. This is what he writes about the Shah in his Memoirs (P. 115).

 

“They were remarkable hands, and the lines were distinctive of a man who was at once weak and strong in will; swayed by self, yet easily led; crafty yet simple-in short, a bundle of temperamental contradictions”

 

The ‘Shah’ listened attentively. But perhaps there was nothing secret about his past life. He had to wait for 35 years as Crown Prince for his turn to rule. All his time was spent in the pursuit of ‘pleasures’. The Kingdom was handed to him already in heavy debt. Being short of experience, he aggravated the situation by further contracting loans for which he had to grant concessions to Russia and other states. There was unrest regarding his rule.

 

‘Shah’ thought that what Cheiro was telling might be written in some book. To test powers of Cheiro, he asked him to predict something which might be happening then in his country. Cheiro took handkerchief in possession of the ‘Shah’. Held it few moments in his hands and told the ‘Shah’ that at that moment his capital was ruled by mob who had jailed the governor.

 

‘Shah’ got furious and dismissed Cheiro by saying that he was an impostor.

 

After few days ‘Shah’ again called for Cheiro, and apologized for his rude behavior. He told Cheiro, that his prediction regarding current state of affairs in his Capital i.e. Tehran’ had been verified by an emergency cable. Cheiro was given a decoration of the ‘Order of the Lion and Sun of Persia’, by the ‘Shah’.

 

Shortly after the conclusion of ‘Exposition Universelle’, the death of Queen Victoria on 22^nd of January 1901, marked the end of ‘Victorian era’, known for its relative peace, prosperity and British supremacy. Cheiro, was an Irishman but inexplicably the vicissitudes of his career are connected with the periods of British Monarchs. We can divide his career in following manner

 

Victorian Era                                       Occultist

Edwardian Era                                   Entrepreneur

Georgian Era                                      Writing about his reminiscences and past glories.

 

The beginning of 20^th century, brought certain changes in Cheiro’s outlook. Previously he gave an air of an occultist who looked like a diplomat. Now he decided to venture into active business and move into ‘elite’ class which his humble beginnings forbade him to do.

 

He was earning well from his occult practice. Many celebrities, dignitaries and continental royal class vied with each other to have good terms with him. The ‘Paris Exhibition’ showed him how well he was sought after by people belonging from the royal circles. Some wanted him to taste dishes cooked by them. Some felt no shame in discussing their ‘amours’ with him. He talks boastingly about his double line of head which according to his account, appeared around 30 years of his age, however, he never published prints of his left hand to verify his claims. The upper (double line of head) in his right hand has a wide distance from the line of life. Which tells us that he had traits of being a good promoter and at enticing people to invest in his business and ideas, however, the same line of head by its idealism, requires prudence and calculation which he lacked. Wide distance between line of heart and line of head denotes another characteristic. His broad mindedness and lack of responsibility. He went into ventures which were beyond his means and over the time were difficult to handle.

 

As every businessman knows that ‘credit’ is the part and parcel of a successful business. And if you are well connected, you are almost certain to succeed. Cheiro, used his connections-well earned from the confidence reposed in him by his clients-to further his business interests. But when his businesses failed, the people realized that Cheiro, the entrepreneur was a different person from Cheiro the occultist with whom they were acquainted. With his failed businesses he lost the trust of those whose names he used to gain confidence of his business clients and customers.

 

Records show that Cheiro ventured into following business.

 

• Champagne business
• News Papers
• Finance Company &
• Chemical Company.

 

It could be debated how long he might have continued to exert his influence if he had not ventured into business. The business brought him losses, disrepute and disappointment. Those people who were interested in having terms with him were now loathed to have any terms with him.

 

In 1902, Cheiro bought a Newspaper called ‘American Register and Colonial World and started managing it from his offices in Paris. At the same time he got into business of supplying Champagne to the hotels in Paris.

 

In scramble for Africa, European powers competed with each other to gain control over different parts of the Dark Continent. In late 19^th century, British and French Army met heads on near ‘Fashoda’ (Sudan). The strategically position of England was strong and hence French withdrew their claims. The feeling in France was bitter. French people thought and considered ‘British’ people as usurpers and bullies. In 1903, the tensions were high. Cheiro, conducted a survey in his News Paper, to get an idea of his French readers of what they thought ‘King Edward the VII, would get a reception if he visited France. The opinions were mixed. He handed over the survey along with letters sent to his editor in a pack to British ambassador to France.

 

Cheiro, was surprised to hear, that British government took the survey seriously and it was heard that King Edward VII would visit Paris in May 1903.

 

The atmosphere was such charged up that Cheiro, got an impetus to launch another News Paper called ‘Entente Cordiale’, a journal dedicated to the efforts for peace. However, it proved too expensive for him and he had to stop its circulation after one year.

 

Cheiro, selected Russia, as another country where he could do business. In 1904, he visited Russia, for the first time and was pleased with the reception he got. Czar invited him to the private chit chat and dinner. He was also able to gain confidence of the Foreign Minister of Russia. At that time, one needed a concession to start business in Russia. Cheiro was literally handed many concessions which he sold to interested parties for a hefty gain.

 

In January 1905, he met Rasputin. According to his accounts, he predicted for him a violent death within a palace, by poison, knife and bullet and the icy waters f Nivea’ flowing over his dead body. Cheiro, unknowingly made Rasputin an enemy, the result of which was that he mysteriously lost many businesses and investments in the coming years.

Rasputin

 

 

 

It is unfortunate that ‘Rasputin’, who was in fact ‘Protector’ (see here) of Czar, his family and all the Russia, has been portrayed negatively. He had ties with ‘Spiritual Warriors’ and acting on their behest, reluctantly agreed to protect. Someday, true account of his life-unblemished by the false reports which were circulated about him to malign his name- would be written to bring justice to his name. The moment he was forcibly removed by the forces of evil, the Russia, caved into to the forces of anarchy, bloodshed, and God-less Revolution.

 

Rasputin’s spiritual impact was much greater than the Cheiro, whom the world has already forgotten albeit he made correct and stunning predictions for all and sundry. It is no wonder, that Rasputin in his meeting with Cheiro, correctly judged him as an impostor, con-man and an opportunistic person.

 

In 1905, Cheiro, started a Finance Company under the name and style of ‘Hamon and Co’. Its functions were simple. He obtained stocks and monies from people and invested them in other businesses guaranteeing a sizeable return to the investors.

 

Cheiro’s business one by one, started failing. His offices were raided and looted by the angry investors. A warrant was issued in his name on charges of embezzlement and misappropriation of money, in January 1909. He became fugitive. In 1910, he was declared bankrupt and it was found out that his business owed creditors 215,000 USD (currently equivalent to 5.5 Million USD) as against paltry sum to repay them.

 

That was the end of the Cheiro’s life as an investor and entrepreneur. He had used names and connections of influential people but after bankruptcy he found out that he was rightly shunned by all.

 

 

A writer and his days of past glory

Living In 21^st century, we have no idea how, good reputation mattered to a person, trying to move into elite class in the early part of the 20^th century. British Empire was considered the super power and gold looted from the temples of south India had enriched its ‘International Bankers’. The Victorian era- just ended- was noted for its insistence on keeping the formality and high morals. Appearances mattered more than the intentions.

 

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), a famous playwright, known as the lion of the parties, lost his place and status when he lost a lawsuit where hint was made to his ‘homosexual’ leanings. He was imprisoned and died shortly afterwards, penniless and friendless.

 

Unfortunately, Cheiro by the end of 1909 was dubbed as an unreliable. As a consequence, people kept their distance from him. He was invited less and less to parties and those formerly having any connections with him were now reluctant to continue as friends.

 

As a professional occultist, Cheiro’s living (his fees were on the higher side) depended upon recommendations and references which his rich clients provided. Seeing that his career as a professional ended, he tried to re-invent himself as a writer on occult subjects.

 

One has to marvel at the Cheiro’s energy and resourcefulness in re-inventing himself from time to time.

 

Before embarking on a new career as a writer, first of all, he wanted to tell all the world how many famous people he had met and how successful he had been with them.

 

In the early 19^th century, democracy had yet to gain its ground in most of the developed world. People revered and looked up to the Royal class, celebrities and elite. Cheiro during his career as an occultist had met all, dined with them and had occasional flings with their willing women.

 

He decided to write about his encounters with the elite and rich. But with one thing in mind. He wrote only about them who were dead by the time of publication of his book.

 

Up till then he had written three books on Palmistry

 

“Cheiro’s Book of the Hand” -1891

“Cheiro’s Language of the Hand”-1894 &

“Cheiro’s Guide to the Hand”-1900

 

In 1912, he published a book about his meetings with rich, illustrious and famous, called “Cheiro’s Memoirs: The reminiscences of a Society Palmist”. In writing his memoirs he was careful not to divulge too much personal details and who he really was. It is ironic that in this book and later in an updated memoirs published in 1931, called “Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer”, he did not mention that his father was a Parish Clerk. He is verbose where his family’s supposed connection with a prestigious line of ancestors might lie, but when it came to personal details, he wrote:

 

 

“ from the letters I have received from all parts of the world, I feel compelled to hurry through these more personal episodes and get as quickly as possible to the “confession” and experiences concerning my professional experience” –(emphasized by me) p. 21 Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer, 1931

 

Cheiro took care to avoid those details, which could have told us about how and why a famous occultist like him had his beginnings. All we are entertained to are details which are bordering on fantasy and are unverifiable. He could have easily written about his sojourn in India, and I am sure it would have made his memoirs more interesting, but as his Indian sojourn was based on fantasy, he carefully avoided any details by writing following about the Apollo Bunder, Bombay (renamed as Mumbai);

 

“I will not attempt to describe the great city that stretched in the distance before me. Histories of India and guide books have already painted the better, perhaps, than I could do” ibid p.32

 

He also avoids his supposed occult training in South India by writing;

 

“It was here, under circumstances too long to relate in a book of this nature, that I took a vow that if I would devote myself for a period of three Sevens, namely, twenty-one years, as a kind of Missionary of Occultism and more especially as an exponent of the study of the Hand” ibid p.33

 

So, are there real confessions of his illustrious clients in his Memoirs?

 

No.

 

He was more interested in telling how he met Mr or Ms so and so, how successful he had been in reading their fate and what they told him about how great an occultist he was.

 

He wrote about some interesting experiences but as he withheld the real names, we are unable to verify whether those experiences really occurred or were the figments of his deliberate imagination.

 

An astrologer needs exact birth details to cast a birth chat. He mentioned in his ‘Memoirs’ that he read birth chart of Mata Hari and Whittaker Wright ( an entrepreneur, promoter and a swindler) , but the birth data he gave is different from what later research has proved it to be.

 

The most interesting part of his memoirs published in 1931, is the foreword supposedly written by Major W.H.Cross a mining engineer working in Tsong Mines of Mongolia in 1930. Strangely the Major, writing in Cheiro’s style, is full of praise for Cheiro, talking about his former life of a personage of high Spiritual standing. Major according to his claims had ancient tablets (I’ Ching?) made by Confucius. Taking Georgian birth chart of Cheiro, he wrote that Cheiro’s vibrations were of the much higher nature.

 

It appears that Cheiro not considering his self-boasting to be sufficient wanted another person to talk great things about him. Pundit Narayan Dutt Shrimali follows a similar approach in writing his book called “Practical Palmistry”.

 

In 1914, the world was treated to the first war of great magnitude. Little is known about the Cheiro’s whereabouts during the war except that he passed his time reading books on ‘Occult’ and wrote one more book on Palmistry in 1916, called ‘Palmistry for All”.

 

Did Cheiro ever marry?

 

Cheiro led an unusual life. With an abhorrence bordering on apathy, he detested any human bonds which could interfere with his whims and fancies. In late 1919 he fell ill and for the first time realized what loneliness meant when you have an aging body. He was almost on the verge of a death but luckily his former client-a woman friend-nursed him back to life.

Countess Mena Hamon

 

 

 

We are told nothing about the original name and date of birth of his friend, except, that he married her in the month of April 1920. She has been called by the fictitious name of ‘Countess Mena Hamon in his memoirs. Cheiro talks about meeting with her for the first time in 1898. He wrote; (Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer pp. 294),

 

“…there came one day to my rooms in London as a client, a young girl whose small and beautifully formed hands attracted me even more than she did herself…

…I fortold that this young girl would have a cruel fate before her; she would marry within year, lose her husband in some mysteriously way that would for a long time prevent her remarrying. She would meet again and again the man she would eventually marry, but be prevented from doing so for many years; finally, overcoming all difficulties, she would be successful in the end.”

 

Later on Cheiro has given the brief bio of Countess Mena Hamon (of course omitting the necessary details). He talks about Countess’s Interest in enameled Jewellery, Chemistry and Entomology.

 

Looking at the picture of Countess Mena Hamon, she appears to be an ethereal heroine of silent movies era. There seems to be another worldly quality about her.

 

Who was Countess Mena Hamon and what is her real life story?

 

Countess Mena Hamon was born as ‘Katie Florence Bilsborough’ in 1882, in Derby UK. Her father was a timber merchant. She married ‘Henry Archibald Hartland’ in June 1899. The couple had a son named ‘Jack’ who was born on 17^th of November 1900.

 

Henry moved to America in 1901 and later on his family joined him. He was working as a ‘Shipping Clerk’ in Manhattan, while he housed his family in Boston. In June 1902, some strange events happened. ‘Katie’ was told that her husband had gone missing and later on died, while ‘Henry’, was told that his wife had disappeared under bizarre circumstances. ‘Katie’, moved to UK and told Cheiro that she was free to marry him. Since ‘Henry’, had gone missing and nobody knew about his whereabouts, she had to wait few years to be legally able to marry someone else. It seems that Cheiro regarded her just one of the acquaintance and put off marriage on one pretext or another.

 

Birth Chart of Cheiro confirms that he did fall in love with her in late 1919 and married her. After the death of Cheiro in 1936, ‘Katie suffered from poverty and tried to sell short biography about Cheiro but nobody was willing to publish it. She had to sell some jewelry and antiques and in 1942, when her Son died succumbing to wartime injuries, she out of nowhere (really?) heard that ‘Henry’ was still living. She tried to annul his marriage but failed, she filed for divorce and alimony. ‘Katie’ ended her days in a nursing home and died in 1969.

 

Coming back to the events after her marriage with Cheiro.

 

‘Katie’ (Countess Mena Hamon), was short, stout and an energetic woman. She was definitely of a choleric temperament. The way she ran away from her first marriage and actively pursued Cheiro for 18 years speaks volume about her energy and doggedness. The unending energy in her matched the inventiveness of her husband the ‘Cheiro’. And for the first time in life Cheiro had to play a second fiddle which he happily did. He set up a Chemical factory for her. The factory set up in Ireland was destroyed by the members fighting for the ‘Free Irish State’. Cheiro filed suit for the compensations to be paid to him but it is not clear that if he ever did get some compensation. It appears that after the gap of 10 years he returned to his writing table and penned few more books dealing with occult .

 

 

Cheiro’s Book of Numbers by Cheiro publishing year -1926

Cheiro’s you and Your Star by Cheiro publishing year -1926

 

These were shortly followed by the following

 

Cheiro’s World Predictions by Cheiro publishing year -1928

Cheiro’s When were you born by Cheiro publishing year -1930

Cheiro’s you and Your Hand by Cheiro publishing year -1931

 

In 1930, couple moved to America and settled in Hollywood, Los Angeles. For some time Cheiro tried to make some money by pursuing interests of his wife and its appears that she hit upon the idea of preservation of Bananas for the long distance journey, however it is not clear whether they did make to the negotiation table. Cheiro and his family reverted back to the ‘occult side of his life. He started seeing movie stars and told them about their fortunes. One of the stars urged him to do some script writing for the movies. It appears that all things said and done they were managing the financial side of their life very well. Cheiro dreamt of making a movie about the study of hand ‘a sort of lecture’ but nobody was interested in investing in his venture.

 

He wrote two more books.

 

Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer by Cheiro publishing year -1932

Mysteries and Romances of the World’s Greatest Occultists by Cheiro publishing year -1935

 

The end was near. Cheiro struggled with overweight and was found many times loitering aimlessly on the streets and was returned to his home. One night close to midnight on 8^th of October 1936, he breathed his last and thus ended a brilliant and successful career.

 

Human history is yet to give an example of a person (other than Cheiro) who was so consistent in making accurate predictions.

 

What was the mystery behind Cheiro?

 

I would be using Palmistry, Astrology & Numerology to unravel the mystery behind the Cheiro.

 

Cheiro published print of his right hand in “‘Cheiro’s Language of the Hand” and “Cheiro’s you and Your Hand”. It is unfortunate that we don’t have print of his left hand, as it would have made us enable to know about the ‘Private’ side to his life. The Print seems to be deliberately doctored to present a different set of lines as they would be normally present in his hand. Maybe print in original edition was clear. I have also taken help from the sketch drawn by K.C.Sen in his Book “Hast Samudrika Shahstra” (the knowledge given by God Samudri regarding Hand). I will advise readers of this post to read my relevant post ‘9 Misconceptions about Palmistry

 

Following features are prominent in his hand.

 

 

Double lines of Head (brain), one line is independent.

Wide distance between Line of Head and Heart

Long line of heart

Double lines of fate

A line from line of life merging with the initial part of his line of fate.

Line of Intuition.

Small lines rising from the line of life up to the age of 45.

 

There are two lines of head on Cheiro’s hand. One is attached with the line of life up to a considerable distance and making a graceful arch. In print it appears as if suddenly bends down to the mount of moon. It does not. Actually the bending line is line of fate. The Other line of head is separate. It starts from the mount of Jupiter and is long. According to Cheiro the independent line of head started developing when he was about 30 years of age. The circumstances brought him before pubic as speaker and entrepreneur. He had to overcome his extreme sensitiveness. We all get through phases of life but it seems that the ‘Other side’ to his life was diametrically opposite to his original personality. More would be discussed when we see his birth chart.

 

There is a great distance between his line of heart and line of head. Broad minded, liberal and unbiased person. However, since his Sign of Scorpio is bad in his birth chart (would be explained later on). The wide space related to his loathing and unwillingness to raise family and take on additional responsibilities. A sign of a selfish person as far as family life is concerned.

 

His line of heart is long. Line of heart is ‘about passions’ but love affairs are not the primary avenue in which they are expended. All the truly successful people in this world have long line of heart. You need to be passionate about whatever you are doing to be successful in it. ‘Labors of love’.

 

There are double lines of fate. One starts from the mount of moon, while the other starts from close to the wrist. It denotes two natures but more towards the hidden side of a person’s life which he dare not want to expose. These people get into trouble once these two lines cross. It happened in the life of Mata Hari at the age of 38. It also happened in the life of Cheiro at the age of 38 when he was exposed by Rasputin.

 

There is a major line from the line of life which merges into the earlier part of line of fate. Ancient texts term it as ‘Vegetative end of life’. It appears into those hands where people deliberately become recluse and start shunning the active side of life. In Cheiro’s case from the age of 45, he stopped seeing clients and devoted his time to writing books on occult and led uneventful life right up to the age of 70.

 

Line of Intuition is clearly marked on Cheiro’s hand. It is more related to his ability to be in contact with the 4^th dimensional world. Coupled with his double line of head and double line of fate, he was under the diabolical influences which guided his life but left him high and dry at the age of 38 when he met the stronger person in the form of Rasputin. Rasputin sucked his ‘powers’. From 39 to 45 Cheiro tried to thrive on his deep study of occult but he was devoid of the help which he got from ‘Devi Paanch Ungli (the Goddess of Five fingers) in his daily consultations.

 

The small lines rising from the line of life belong to a person who is an opportunistic. And he would go to any length to achieve his aims. You are free to take it as positive or a negative indication. Positive for the person on whose hand this indication is found and negative for persons who have to deal with this sort of person.

 

In short, this is the hand of a person, who forever changed the way Hand Reading was viewed. After Cheiro people expected too much from the Palmists which they were unable to deliver realistically.

 

Cheiro was born on 1^st of November 1866 in Bray (Dublin) at 10: 53 hours. As far as the calculation of his temperament is concerned he was predominantly ‘Melancholic’.

 

 

Ascendant 19 Sagittarius= 2 Points for Hot & Dry= Choleric

Lord of Sagittarius=Jupiter=I point for Hot & Moist=Sanguine

Almuten of 19 Sagittarius=Jupiter= 1 point for Hot & Moist=Sanguine

Moon in the Sign of Virgo= 2 Points for Cold & Dry=Melancholic

The lord of Virgo Mercury in Scorpio= I point for Cold & Moist=Phlegmatic

Moon Phase= Last quarter= I point for Cold & Moist= Phlegmatic

Sun Phase=Third quarter= 2 points for Cold & Dry=Melancholic

 

Total

Melancholic= 4 Points

Choleric= 2 Points

Sanguine= 2 Points

Phlegmatic= 2 Points

 

 

Anti-social, pessimistic, analytic, studious and a loner. Herein the double line of head becomes handy, which shows how he was dramatically able to hide his original temperament. Astrologers are predominantly ‘Phlegmatic’ (last night I analyzed 20 charts of astrologers). But when someone is melancholic and deliberately tries to cultivate his studious side of life he can achieve much. But where do we find ‘sad’ tinge to his nature? He hides it in his Memoirs and books but they are exposed in his book of poems. Read his poem “If we only knew”.

 

Saturn is present along with Sun in the Sign of Scorpio. His sign of Scorpio becomes negative. Revengeful, vindictive, Jealous and schemer. Coupled with his melancholic nature. No doubt he forced many of his clients to ‘die’ on the date he mentioned just to prove to the world of his accurate predictions. He was a hypnotist (line of Intuition).

 

His Moon is in Virgo and if we combine it with certain indications. He had a choice in his life, and from all indications it did appear he sold his soul to the devil (‘Draco’) to gain fame. Pandit Dr. Narayan Dutt Shrimali has explained it in his book ‘Practical Palmistry’.

 

Cheiro was primarily a person who depended upon precise ‘calculations’ to make predictions. He had learned some secret system of Numerology where he was able to predict events with precision. People who have visited South India know about such secret systems.

 

In manners, Cheiro was primarily influenced by Venus. Dark skin than the usual. Effeminate touch to his personality. His Mars is opposite to Jupiter. Iconoclast, breaking all taboos and adventurous.

 

Did he visit India?

 

No he did not, as explained in previous posts. There is a high chance that he tried his hands in stage acting in London before he become Palmist and there he met a person, who taught him numerology along with ‘Worship of Devi Paanch Ungli’.

 

Cheiro is a suspect of working as a spy for British government. His career strangely coincides with his first meeting with King Edward VII (then Prince) and ended with this death. King Edward VII was related to almost all the monarchs of the Continent of Europe. King Edward VII was a negative Scorpio, and among other things he loved to spy on his acquaintances. Last King of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi (also a negative Scorpio), loved to photograph his guests in their private bathroom moments (as told by Mukhtar Masood in his book ‘Loh-i-Ayyam’). Cheiro had access to the secret files and his personality and cult was deliberately developed to help him launch his career as a Palmist. Members of Irish Free State burned his chemical factories just because of these suspicions.

 

In numerological calculations, Cheiro, tried to emphasize 8^th house of his birth chart. 8^th house among other things is related to ‘Occult’.

 

Cheiro=355127=23

Count Louis Hamon= 37654 37613 51475=25 20 22= 7 2 22=31

 

‘23’ is symbolized as ‘The Royal Star of Lion’. It promises success and help from those who are in high places.

 

‘31’ is symbolized as ‘The Recluse and the Hermit. It agrees with his original temperament. He was a melancholic.

 

Self-styled ‘Count’, an occultist, a spy, an entrepreneur, a loner, a hard working student, a person who used active help from Spirits. In short an opportunistic con-man.

 

 

People love those people who appear Larger than Life. Cheiro had all the ingredients of a romantic life. Alas this romance was short lived. After 80 years of his death, people have almost forgotten a person who’s ‘on record’ predictions were more accurate than any occultist in the entire history of human life.

 

 

 

-THE END-

Part Sixteen: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Apollo Bunder (Mumbai), According to Cheiro that was his first introduction to India

 

 

This post is part of series which discusses different aspects of Cheiro (1866-1936), a most celebrated Palmist and an Astrologer. His life and times.

 

Part One: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Two: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Three: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Four: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Five: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Six: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Seven: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Eight: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Nine: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Ten: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Eleven: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Twelve: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Thirteen: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Fourteen: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Fifteen: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

 

A writer and his days of past glory

 

Living In 21^st century, we have no idea how, good reputation mattered to a person, trying to move into elite class in the early part of the 20^th century. British Empire was considered the super power and gold looted from the temples of south India had enriched its ‘International Bankers’. The Victorian era- just ended- was noted for its insistence on keeping the formality and high morals. Appearances mattered more than the intentions.

 

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), a famous playwright, known as the lion of the parties, lost his place and status when he lost a lawsuit where hint was made to his ‘homosexual’ leanings. He was imprisoned and died shortly afterwards, penniless and friendless.

 

Unfortunately, Cheiro by the end of 1909 was dubbed as an unreliable. As a consequence, people kept their distance from him. He was invited less and less to parties and those formerly having any connections with him were now reluctant to continue as friends.

 

As a professional occultist, Cheiro’s living (his fees were on the higher side) depended upon recommendations and references which his rich clients provided. Seeing that his career as a professional ended, he tried to re-invent himself as a writer on occult subjects.

 

One has to marvel at the Cheiro’s energy and resourcefulness in re-inventing himself time and time again.

 

Before embarking on a new career as a writer, first of all, he wanted to tell all the world how many famous people he had met and how successful he had been with them.

 

In the early 19^th century, democracy had yet to gain its ground in most of the developed world. People revered and looked up to the Royal class, celebrities and elite. Cheiro during his career as an occultist had met all, dined with them and had occasional flings with their willing women.

 

He decided to write about his encounters with the elite and rich. But with one thing in mind. He wrote only about them who were dead by the time of publication of his book.

 

Up till then he had written three books on Palmistry

 

“Cheiro’s Book of the Hand” -1891

“Cheiro’s Language of the Hand”-1894 &

“Cheiro’s Guide to the Hand”-1900

 

In 1912, he published a book about his meetings with rich, illustrious and famous, called “Cheiro’s Memoirs: The reminiscences of a Society Palmist”. In writing his memoirs he was careful not to divulge too much personal details and who he really was. It is ironic that in this book and later in an updated memoirs published in 1931, called “Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer”, he did not mention that his father was a Parish Clerk. He is verbose where his family’s supposed connection with a prestigious line of ancestors might lie, but when it came to personal details, he wrote:

 

 

“ from the letters I have received from all parts of the world, I feel compelled to hurry through these more personal episodes and get as quickly as possible to the “confession” and experiences concerning my professional experience” –(emphasized by me) p. 21 Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer, 1931

 

Cheiro took care to avoid those details, which could have told us about how and why a famous occultist like him had his beginnings. All we are entertained to are details which are bordering on fantasy and are unverifiable. He could have easily written about his sojourn in India, and I am sure it would have made his memoirs more interesting, but as his Indian sojourn was based on fantasy, he carefully avoided any details by writing following about the Apollo Bunder, Bombay (renamed as Mumbai);

 

“I will not attempt to describe the great city that stretched in the distance before me. Histories of India and guide books have already painted the better, perhaps, than I could do” ibid p.32

 

He also avoids his supposed occult training in South India by writing;

 

“It was here, under circumstances too long to relate in a book of this nature, that I took a vow that if I would devote myself for a period of three Sevens, namely, twenty-one years, as a kind of Missionary of Occultism and more especially as an exponent of the study of the Hand” ibid p.33

 

So, are there real confessions of his illustrious clients in his Memoirs?

 

No.

 

He was more interested in telling how he met Mr or Ms so and so, how successful he had been in reading their fate and what they told him about how great an occultist he was.

 

He wrote about some interesting experiences but as he withheld the real names, we are unable to verify whether those experiences really occurred or were the figments of his deliberate imagination.

 

An astrologer needs exact birth details to cast a birth chat. He mentioned in his ‘Memoirs’ that he read birth chart of Mata Hari and Whittaker Wright ( an entrepreneur, promoter and a swindler) , but the birth data he gave is different from what later research has proved it to be.

 

The most interesting part of his memoirs published in 1931, is the foreword supposedly written by Major W.H.Cross a mining engineer working in Tsong Mines of Mongolia in 1930. Strangely the Major, writing in Cheiro’s style, is full of praise for Cheiro, talking about his former life of a personage of high Spiritual standing. Major according to his claims had ancient tablets (I’ Ching?) made by Confucius. Taking Georgian birth chart of Cheiro, he wrote that Cheiro’s vibrations were of the much higher nature.

 

It appears that Cheiro not considering his self-boasting to be sufficient wanted another person to talk great things about him. Pundit Narayan Dutt Shrimali follows a similar approach in writing his book called “Practical Palmistry”.

 

In 1914, the world was treated to the first war of great magnitude. Little is known about the Cheiro’s whereabouts during the war except that he passed his time reading books on ‘Occult’ and wrote one more book on Palmistry in 1916, called ‘Palmistry for All”.

 

 

To be Continued…

Part Seventeen: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Capt Ajit Vadakayil: A single man’s efforts in rewriting Indian subcontinent’s and World’s History

 

 

 

Capt Ajit Vadakayil

 

“Talanga, stop your mischief”

 

“What Talanga means?”

“You, who else”

 

My grandmother’s frustrated efforts to discipline her grandchildren, introduced us to words which were not common in our mother tongue ‘Hindko’. For those of my cousins, who are having a good laugh right now, all of you were from time to time referred to as ‘Talanga’.

 

In 2008, I came across books published by Dr.Mubarak Ali on ‘Indian Sepoy Mutiny/Indian War for Independence, 1857. It transpired that ‘Talanga’, was a derogatory term used by locals of North India for ‘Sepoys’ of British East India Company.

 

We belong from a village in Khyber Pukhtoon Khawa (KPK), situated at least 90 Kilometers from the nearest cantonment of former British Army, ‘Rawalpindi’. It was strange that a derogatory word used for their ‘Sepoys’ before 1857 A.D, was still in vogue after 130 years. It is understandable why locals were wary of sepoys of British Army. Businessmen and people depending on agriculture are always uncomfortable with those who receive ‘Salary’ month after month. Sometimes for doing something and most of the times doing nothing, whereas businessmen and farmers are not paid for sitting idle.

 

And people wonder that why Punjabis and Pukhtoons had a hatred and almost no support for ‘Indian War for Independence’. The reason being that locals thought that ‘Sepoys’ were just angry against their masters and nothing else.

 

There are different versions for the single incident in the past but recorded and popular version is not always the ‘correct’ one.

 

I am writing a blog series on ‘Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist ‘.  I know a lot about Cheiro, but was still looking for more references. His so called brief sojourn in India in late 19^th century was the subject of my first post and I came across this blog

 

Capt Ajit Vadakayil

 

Though I do not agree with Capt. Ajit’s treatment of Cheiro’s stay in India, but I was intrigued by his other posts in his blog. I kept on reading his posts for straight 12 hours. So much time spent for confirming single entry in Cheiro’s history

 

 

Lets look at some of the interesting posts by Capt Ajit.

 

Tipu Sultan ransacked Indian temples to amass the largest reservoirs of gold, which was deceptively taken by the Rothschild.

Tipu Sultan unmasked by Capt Ajit

 

 

Mahatma Gandhi was a stooge placed by British East India Company (Rothschild) to stop Indian people taking action against the usurping British rule.

Mahatma Gandhi, re-writing Indian history by Capt Ajit

The Diabolic brain washing process of Mahatma Gandhi by Capt Ajit

 

 

An interesting post about what we perceive to be real and what in actual reality might be.

Perception and Reality by Capt Ajit

 

 

And one of his controversial post

Sir Muhammad Iqbal Knighted for scuttling the Khilafat Movement by Capt Ajit

 

 

We don’t need to agree with everything posted by Capt. Ajit Vadakayil but at least we can make an independent research to arrive at the ‘TRUTH’. It is far better than posting selfies and pictures of what you had for your breakfast.

 

 

Adieu

Part Seven: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

This post is part of series which discusses different aspects of Cheiro, his life and times.

Part One: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Two: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Three: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Four: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Five: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Six: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Now, I feel it’s time to come to the important point of discussion.

The proverbial predictive powers of ‘Cheiro’.

What made him ‘Cheiro the great’?

A normal session with Cheiro lasted not more than 30 minutes. In that short time, after the exchange of short pleasantries, he glanced at Palms, and made a quick calculation with the date of birth. The result was an accurate account regarding of past, present and future events along with dates and years.

What system did he use?

I will quote few paragraphs from Cheiro’s ‘Confessions: Memoirs of a Modern Seer’.

Note: The following text has been underlined and emphasized by me.

Asking his date of birth I then tested his vibrations by the Chinese tablets I had with me. I found they were higher than those of any man I had ever met, indicating that the man before me must be a reincarnation of some unusual personage of some far-distant past (p.17)

During this talk, he got me to work out, without my knowledge, the charts of the Kaiser and the Czar of Russia, as well as those of members of British Royal Family; he gave me the date of birth, but not the name of any person (p.42)

Taking small key from the end of his chain, he opened the case, and to my amazement laid on the table by my side the identical sheet of paper with my own writing and numbers on it which I had jotted down in King Edward’s library, and had seen once in my consulting-rooms in the hands of the man now sitting opposite to me (p.64)

…I have explained that by finding the key to the number which seems to govern a person’s life, I was able with considerable accuracy to foresee what year, and, in some cases, in what month, the climax of the life’s career would be attained. (p.145)    

From a peculiar system of my own, in which dates, numbers, and time can be worked out to remarkable extent, it seemed to me that my late visitor would be threatened with a serious danger from something in the nature of fire on that very evening….No real fire took place. But her pet dog which she left behind in her bedroom was during the night asphyxiated by an escape of gas which occurred under the floor in this very room. (p.151)    

All the writers and practitioners of occult have put down ‘Cheiro’s success to his vivid imagination. I am bewildered how an active imagination might give you an astounding accuracy client after client 24/7/365.

An important aspect in Cheiro’s life has been down played.

A possibility of;

• Guildship or
• Apprenticeship.

From time immemorial, secret arts are imparted in a close ‘teacher and student’ relationship. This relationship has to be special. A student working his way through dedication, loyalty and perseverance, gains confidence of his ‘teacher’ and subsequent knowledge.

The ‘teacher’, carefully assesses his student’s progress and reveals ‘secret keys’ in a gradual way. The final key is revealed under the strict vows of secrecy. The arrangement is necessary to guard the secret, to preserve the tradition and to respect the elders.

Cheiro, might not have gone to ‘India’, but he was member of some secret society.

Was he a ‘free mason’?

Was he a member of ‘Rosicrucian order’?

It appears that his main ‘tool’ was the system of ‘numerology’ he used. He decided upon the important numbers and then used them in various combinations. It was done with two methods. But first a brief introduction of numbers and astrology.

All the occult arts have been derived from ‘astrology’. The traditional astrologers used following luminaries, planets, and bodies:

Body                      Number                               Astrological Periods

Sun                        1                                              23-07 to 23-08

Moon                    2                                             22-06 to 23-07

Mercury               5                                              21-05 to 22-06 & 23-08 to 23-09

Venus                   6                                              20-04 to 21-05 & 23-09 to 24-10

Mars                      9                                              21-03 to 20-04 & 24-10 to 23-11

Jupiter                  3                                              19-02 to 21-03 & 23-11 to 22-12

Saturn                   8                                              22-12 to 18-02

Nodes                   4                                              Not Applicable

Moon (-)              7                                              Not Applicable

In first method, we have to decide which planetary bodies are good, which are bad and which are neutral for a client. The help is taken from the quick glance at birth chart or his hand. There are varying degrees of being good or bad and same has to be taken in to account.

Once we decide well and bad, we try to assess which planetary bodes are positive and negative. This is again ascertained from the birth chart or the hand.

Now the combinations.

Let’s say that after our initial analysis we concluded that

Mercury is good and strong

Saturn is bad and strong &

Moon is good and weak

Taking help from the above table.

Body                      Number                               Astrological Periods

Moon                    2                                             22-06 to 23-07

Mercury               5                                              21-05 to 22-06 & 23-08 to 23-09

Saturn                   8                                              22-12 to 18-02

The important events would be the combination of above numbers and they would fall in to any one of the above period.

For example (by way of addition):

20 (2), 23 (5), 26 (8), 29 (2), 32(5)…and so on

For example (by way of coming together):

22, 25, 28, 52, 58…

In second method, we know by experience that certain years are important (by way of constant) for every individual. The good and bad events would happen on those particular years.

For example (I am hiding the correct years under oath)

Moon                                                    2, 11, 26

Mercury                                               17, 25, 47

Saturn                                                   16, 32, 44, 57

In Palmistry, Cheiro used a system which divides every line into certain number of fixed divisions (one can do it mentally). Every section thus divided deals with only a particular thing at the time of analysis.

For example. Dividing Line of Life into 7 sections, the 4^th section will tell you about secret affairs or mistresses. Dividing line of head in 7 sections, the 3^rd section will tell you about the stress brought about on nervous system due to financial problems or its absence.

In astrology, Cheiro used tropical system along with Indian ‘period system’ called ‘Dasa’. Sometimes he used Persian period system called ‘Firdaria’.

To be Continued…

Part Eight: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Three: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

This post is part of series which discusses different aspects of Cheiro, his life and times.

Part One: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Two: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Once the excitement of boarding on a steamer- bound to unknown seas-had worn off, Cheiro felt the pangs of hunger and before midnight he dared to step into Captain’s cabin.

The stowaways were treated harshly in those days, but Cheiro found out that the Captain needed a hand in trying to maintain the correct record of receipts and payments associated with cargo given to his trust. Pouncing on the opportunity he offered his help. He was hired on the spot.

It was a happy journey, but like all good things it ended at the port of Mumbai (Bombay, India).

Waiting at ‘Apollo Bunder’ (Mumbai port), he was all alone. But fate gave him a chance and he was befriended by a Brahmin, who saw Cheiro’s interest in occult and especially Palmistry. He offered Cheiro to stay with him and study the arts of Palmistry, numerology and astrology.

Cheiro spent 2 years with the Joshi tribe, north of Mumbai, and learned their arts. He returned to his homeland when he received the news that a relative who had died had left him a small inheritance.

Cheiro’s stay in India is questionable on many accounts.

I have yet to see an Indian friend or source confirming Cheiro’s stay in India.

India, the jewel of British Empire, was considered at the time of Cheiro’s supposed brief stay, a mysterious land steeped in the ways of occult. Few things go against Cheiro’s version when he wants people to believe his story.

Cheiro did not have any knowledge of the Indian languages and dialects.

In his book Cheiro’s World Predictions in 1925, several passages speaking of strained relationship between Muslims and Hindus are quite meaningful. To quote;

“…Brahmin priests will find new translations of Buddha’s precepts to meet the demands of the new age.” (Emphasized by me)

Page 215, Cheiro’s World Prediction, Sagar Publications, India

“That Buddhists and Mohammedans will join together to make India a united nation, is out of question…” (Emphasized by me)

1. 217, op cit

I cannot imagine that someone who claims to have lived in India would confuse Hindus with Buddhists and Hinduism with Buddhism.

Strangely, it came from the pen of ‘Cheiro’.

In his book, ‘Cheiro’s Language of the Hand’, he writes in ‘A Defence’;

“It may be interesting to describe here, in few words as possible, an extremely ancient and curious book on the markings of hands, which I was allowed to use and examine during my sojourn in India. This book was one of the greatest treasures of the few Brahmans who possessed and understood it, and was jealously guarded in one of those old cave temples that belong to the ruins of ancient Hindustan.

This strange book was made of human skin, pieced and put together in the most ingenious manner. It was of enormous size, and contained hundreds of well-drawn illustrations, with records of how, when, and where this or that mark was proved correct.

One of the greatest features in connection with it was that it was written in some red liquid which age had failed to spoil or fade. The effect of those vivid red letters on the pages of dull yellow skin was most remarkable. By some compound, probably made of herbs, each page was glazed, as it were, by varnish: but whatever this compound may have been, it seemed to defy time, as the outer covers alone showed the signs of wear and decay…” (Emphasized by me)

Hindus cremate their dead, Muslims bury them and Parsees leave them open in a place to be devoured by the vultures.

It must have taken a sizeable corpses and their peeled skins to compile a book of such antiquity.

Unfortunately, Cheiro has confused books written-with the help of red ink-on Palm leaves and wooded peels, which are glazed and bound together by threads. Such ancient books are common in South India and are dedicated to the Gods and are placed in Temples. These Books are called ‘Nadi’. Some books are related to astrology, while few relate to Palmistry.

B.V.Raman has written extensively about ‘Nadi’, while Mir Bashir, a noted Hand Analyst has written about his experiences with ‘Augusthia Nadi’, in his book ‘Dastan-e-Taqdeer’ (The Story of Fate).

It is evident that Cheiro has based his supposed experiences In India on inaccurate written accounts penned by another writer.

To be Continued…

Part Four: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Part Two: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

This post is part of series which discusses different aspects of Cheiro, his life and times.

Part One: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist

Cherio had gained what he wished and asked for. He loathed any relationship and associated responsibility which could hinder his free spirit.

Freedom.

A life uncluttered with family and familiar ties. He was master of his own fate.

He was not clear what his new life might be, however, he had vague notions of embarking upon a career which might establish him as a writer and poet of some repute. The only place in those times where people realized those dreams was ‘London’. A hub of commercial and literary activities.

Capital of the British Empire.

He took the first train to London. Before getting on board, he saw an English translation of a German book on Palmistry named ‘Die Kunst Ciromanta’. This happened to be the first book on occult published after the invention of printing machine.

He quickly checked the ‘contents’ and finding it an interesting read was engrossed in reading the book, noting illustrations and comparing them mentally with those hands which he had examined and studied in past. When he finally laid it down, he saw a man looking intently at him.

The person staring at him started a heated discussion regarding occult and palmistry. It appeared that he was skeptical of the predictive powers normally associated with the ‘Palmistry’. He challenged the 14 years old ‘Cheiro’ who accepted his challenge and read his hands on the spot. Apart from other things, Cheiro told him that he would lose his reputation because of a steamy love affair in future. Sure of himself, that person scoffed at the idea and said that the person leading a life like him had no time for a woman. At the end of the journey he handed over his visiting card to Cheiro which revealed that he was ‘Charles Stewart Parnell’, an Irish statesman.

I would leave recounting Cheiro’s memoirs for a time and discuss few issues related with the sequence of the events.

We have no other source to corroborate the truth of above except taking the words of Cheiro that he saw the hand of ‘Charles Stewart Parnell’ 10 years before his downfall and correctly predicted his down fall due to his involvement and fathering three illegitimate children with a married woman.

The thing which confuses me and lends an air of farce to Cheiro’s relating of the above incident is that German book on palmistry ‘Die Kunst Ciromanta’, the English translation of which he enjoyed during his journey by train, was not rendered into English language at that time.

Make up your own mind.

Few people know that famous Indian astrologer Bangalore Venkata Raman (‘B.V.Raman’) dabbled in Palmistry and numerology at his young age. In his book ‘My Experiences in Astrology’ he relates an incident.

Going through his Grand Father’s old papers, young B.V.Raman found out that ‘Cheiro’ had corresponded with him some time ago. This fact emboldened B.V.Raman and he wrote a letter to Cheiro stating that he was grandson of Mr. so and so and was interested in Palmistry, numerology and astrology. He gave his birth details, impressions of his hands and sought Cheiro’s opinion regarding the length of life.

He did get a reply from Cheiro, however, instead of focusing on his hand impressions, Cheiro told B.V Raman that 8 and 2 being his fadic numbers, he would live up to the ripe age of 82 when these 2 numbers would come together. B.V.Raman died at the age of 86, well past the predicted age of 82. People who are aware of the predictive powers of Cheiro would be amazed with this incorrect prediction, however, Mrs. Cheiro wrote to B.V.Raman that cheiro had lost his predictive powers due to misplacing of a Talisman which he used to wear.

Coming back to the History of Cheiro.

When Cheiro reached London, he drifted for a time, however, one day on a spur of moment he sneaked-hiding from the gaze of captain and the sailors-on to a steamer bound for a journey to the lands in the Far East.

To be Continued…

Part Three: Cheiro, a mysterious Palmist