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66-477: William John Warner (also self-identified as Count Louis le Warner de Hamon ), popularly known as Cheiro (1 November 1866 – 8 October 1936), was an Irish astrologer and colourful occult figure of the early 20th century. His sobriquet , Cheiro, derives from the word cheiromancy , meaning palmistry. He was a self-described clairvoyant who said he learned palmistry, astrology , and Chaldean numerology in India. He

132-674: A Russian émigré living in the United States who founded the religion of Theosophy . The article was published in the American Spiritualist magazine, Spiritual Scientist . Various twentieth-century writers on the subject used the term occultism in different ways. Some writers, such as the German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno in his "Theses Against Occultism", employed the term as a broad synonym for irrationality . In his 1950 book L'occultisme , Robert Amadou  [ fr ] used

198-419: A clear pool of water, asked Mr. Heindel, and see the trees and skies repeated therein? And did you ever cast a stone into that pool and see it clouded and turmoiled, so it gave no reflection? Yet the skies and trees were waiting above to be reflected when the waters grew calm. So God and your husband's spirit wait to show themselves to you when the turbulence of sorrow is quieted. Several months later she composed

264-461: A disenchanted world or, alternatively, by people in general to make sense of esotericism from the perspective of a disenchanted secular world". Hanegraaff noted that this etic usage of the term would be independent of emic usages of the term employed by occultists and other esotericists themselves. In this definition, occultism covers many esoteric currents that have developed from the mid-nineteenth century onward, including Spiritualism, Theosophy,

330-504: A distribution of 50,000 copies, according to its publisher, Elizabeth Towne . The following statement expresses Wilcox's unique blending of New Thought, Spiritualism, and a Theosophical belief in reincarnation: "As we think, act, and live here today, we build the structures of our homes in spirit realms after we leave earth, and we build karma for future lives, thousands of years to come, on this earth or other planets. Life will assume new dignity, and labor new interest for us, when we come to

396-506: A fight for his life, talking about the battle surrounding the Titanic sinking. It becomes a study not contrary to the dictates of reason, but in accordance with those natural laws that we observe in the shaping of the even inanimate objects, which, by demonstrating the effect of a heretofore cause, are in themselves the cause of a hereafter effect. – Cheiro So popular was Cheiro as a "society palmist" that even those who were not believers in

462-543: A little mantra or affirmative prayer which she said over and over "I am the living witness: The dead live: And they speak through us and to us: And I am the voice that gives this glorious truth to the suffering world: I am ready, God: I am ready, Christ: I am ready, Robert." Wilcox made efforts to teach occult things to the world. Her works, filled with positive thinking, were popular in the New Thought Movement and by 1915 her booklet, What I Know About New Thought had

528-527: A palmist. Cheiro was reluctant to marry but was aware that he was destined to marry late in life. This did happen after a woman took care of him during a serious illness. A separate chapter is devoted to this matter in his memoirs. Cheiro had a wide following of famous European and American clients during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He read palms and told the fortunes of famous celebrities like Mark Twain , W. T. Stead , Sarah Bernhardt , Mata Hari , Oscar Wilde , Grover Cleveland , Thomas Edison ,

594-556: A political "system of occulticity" that was directed against priests and aristocrats. In 1853, the Freemasonic author Jean-Marie Ragon had already used occultisme in his popular work Maçonnerie occulte , relating it to earlier practices that, since the Renaissance , had been termed "occult sciences" or "occult philosophy", but also to the recent socialist teachings of Charles Fourier . The French esotericist Éliphas Lévi then used

660-508: A substantivized adjective as "the occult", a term that has been particularly widely used among journalists and sociologists . This term was popularised by the publication of Colin Wilson 's 1971 book The Occult . This term has been used as an "intellectual waste-basket" into which a wide array of beliefs and practices have been placed because they do not fit readily into the categories of religion or science. According to Hanegraaff, "the occult"

726-498: A teenager, he travelled to the Bombay port of Apollo Bunder. There, he wrote that he met his guru , an Indian Chitpavan Brahmin , who took him to his village in the valley of the Konkan region of Maharashtra . Later Cheiro was permitted by Brahmans to study an ancient book that has many studies on hands. After studying thoroughly for two years, he returned to London and started his career as

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792-464: Is "knowledge of the hidden". In common usage, occult refers to "knowledge of the paranormal ", as opposed to "knowledge of the measurable ", usually referred to as science. The terms esoteric and arcane can also be used to describe the occult, in addition to their meanings unrelated to the supernatural. The term occult sciences was used in the 16th century to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The earliest known usage of

858-459: Is a category into which gets placed a range of beliefs from "spirits or fairies to parapsychological experiments, from UFO-abductions to Oriental mysticism, from vampire legends to channelling, and so on". The neologism occulture used within the industrial music scene of the late twentieth century was probably coined by one of its central figures, the musician and occultist Genesis P-Orridge . The scholar of religion Christopher Partridge used

924-445: Is cited in the anthology of bad poetry, Very Bad Poetry . Sinclair Lewis indicates Babbitt 's lack of literary sophistication by having him refer to a piece of verse as "one of the classic poems, like ' If— ' by Kipling , or Ella Wheeler Wilcox's 'The Man Worth While.'" The latter opens: Her poem "Solitude" opens: The Winds of Fate Wheeler Wilcox cared about alleviating animal suffering, as can be seen from her poem, "Voice of

990-535: The Comte de Paris , Joseph Chamberlain , Lord Russell of Killowen , Robert Ingersoll , Ella Wheeler Wilcox , Lillie Langtry , W. T. Stead, Richard Croker , Natalia Janotha, and other prominent people of his era. The book Titanic's Last Secrets includes a detailed account of one of Cheiro's palm readings with William Pirrie , chairman of Harland and Wolf, builders of the Titanic . Cheiro predicted that he would soon be in

1056-753: The German Empire , Austria-Hungary , and the Kingdom of Italy . Unlike older forms of esotericism, occultism does not necessarily reject "scientific progress or modernity". Lévi had stressed the need to solve the conflict between science and religion, something that he believed could be achieved by turning to what he thought was the ancient wisdom found in magic. The French scholar of Western esotericism Antoine Faivre noted that rather than outright accepting "the triumph of scientism", occultists sought "an alternative solution", trying to integrate "scientific progress or modernity" with "a global vision that will serve to make

1122-563: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , New Age , and the left-hand path and right-hand path . Use of the term as a nominalized adjective ('the occult') has developed especially since the late twentieth century. In that same period, occult and culture were combined to form the neologism occulture . The occult (from the Latin word occultus ; lit. 'clandestine', 'hidden', 'secret')

1188-538: The Middle Ages , for example, magnetism was considered an occult quality. Aether is another such element. Newton 's contemporaries severely criticized his theory that gravity was effected through "action at a distance", as occult. In the English-speaking world, notable figures in the development of occultism included Helena Blavatsky and other figures associated with her Theosophical Society, senior figures in

1254-553: The Prince of Wales , General Kitchener , William Ewart Gladstone , and Joseph Chamberlain . He documented his sittings with these clients by asking them to sign a guest book he kept for the purpose, in which he encouraged them to comment on their experiences as subjects of his character analyses and predictions. Of the Prince of Wales, he wrote that "I would not be surprised if he did not give up everything, including his right to be crowned, for

1320-513: The "traditional esotericism" which accepted the premise of an "enchanted" world. According to the British historian of Western esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke , occultist groups typically seek "proofs and demonstrations by recourse to scientific tests or terminology". In his work about Lévi, the German historian of religion Julian Strube has argued that the occultist wish for a "synthesis" of religion, science, and philosophy directly resulted from

1386-481: The 20th century, the term 'occult' was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors. By the 21st century the term 'occultism' was commonly employed –including by academic scholars in the field of Western esotericism studies – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in the mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Qabalah , Spiritualism , Theosophy , Anthroposophy , Wicca ,

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1452-521: The Countess Lena Hamon, said her 70-year-old husband, who had been a friend and adviser to film actors late in life, and to European aristocracy and royalty in his early career, had predicted his own death to the hour the day before he died. The occult books Cheiro wrote centred on fortune telling. Many of Cheiro's books on occultism and fortune telling are still in print today and are available in both English and foreign language editions. In 2006,

1518-511: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn like William Wynn Westcott and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers , as well as other individuals such as Paschal Beverly Randolph , Emma Hardinge Britten , Arthur Edward Waite , and – in the early twentieth century – Aleister Crowley , Dion Fortune , and Israel Regardie . By the end of the nineteenth century, occultist ideas had also spread into other parts of Europe, such as

1584-553: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and the New Age. Employing this etic understanding of "occultism", Hanegraaff argued that its development could begin to be seen in the work of the Swedish esotericist Emanuel Swedenborg and in the Mesmerist movement of the eighteenth century, although added that occultism only emerged in "fully-developed form" as Spiritualism, a movement that developed in

1650-494: The United States during the mid-nineteenth century. Marco Pasi suggested that the use of Hanegraaff's definition might cause confusion by presenting a group of nineteenth-century esotericists who called themselves "occultists" as just one part of a broader category of esotericists whom scholars would call "occultists". Following these discussions, Julian Strube argued that Lévi and other contemporary authors who would now be regarded as esotericists developed their ideas not against

1716-508: The University of Tampa Press issued a critical new edition of his fictional work, A Study of Destiny , as the second volume of the series Insistent Visions – a series dedicated to reprinting little-known or neglected works of supernatural fiction, science fiction, mysteries, or adventure stories from the 19th century. The new edition is edited with an introduction, afterword, and notes by Sean Donnelly. Occult The term occult sciences

1782-638: The Voiceless". It begins as follows: She made an appearance during World War I in France, reciting her poem, The Stevedores ("Here's to the Army stevedores, lusty virile and strong...") while visiting a camp of 9,000 US Army stevedores . Several of Wilcox's poems were the basis for silent films: The titles for the ten episodes of the final, fifth season of the science fiction television series Orphan Black come from Wilcox's poem, "Protest". The lines "Laugh and

1848-468: The background of an esoteric tradition in the first place. Rather, Lévi's notion of occultism emerged in the context of highly influential radical socialist movements and widespread progressive, so-called neo-Catholic ideas. This further complicates Hanegraaff's characteristics of occultism, since, throughout the nineteenth century, they apply to these reformist movements rather than to a supposed group of esotericists. The term occult has also been used as

1914-440: The concept of science. From that point on, use of "occult science(s)" implied a conscious polemic against mainstream science. Nevertheless, the philosopher and card game historian Michael Dummett , whose analysis of the historical evidence suggested that fortune-telling and occult interpretations using cards were unknown before the 18th century, said that the term occult science was not misplaced because "people who believe in

1980-401: The context of contemporary socialism and progressive Catholicism . Similar to spiritualism, but in declared opposition to it, the emergence of occultism should thus be seen within the context of radical social reform, which was often concerned with establishing new forms of "scientific religion" while at the same time propagating the revival of an ancient tradition of "true religion". Indeed,

2046-449: The context of theoretical frameworks that relied heavily on a belief in occult qualities, virtues or forces." Although there are areas of overlap between these different occult sciences, they are separate and in some cases practitioners of one would reject the others as being illegitimate. During the Age of Enlightenment , occultism increasingly came to be seen as intrinsically incompatible with

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2112-723: The couple lived before moving to New York City and then to Granite Bay in the Short Beach section of Branford, Connecticut . The two homes they built on Long Island Sound , along with several cottages, became known as Bungalow Court, and they would hold gatherings there of literary and artistic friends. They had one child, a son, who died shortly after birth. Not long after their marriage, they both became interested in Theosophy , New Thought , and Spiritualism . Early in their married life, Robert and Ella Wheeler Wilcox promised each other that whoever died first would return and communicate with

2178-504: The early modern Lutheran thinker Jakob Bohme , and seeking to integrate ideas from Bohmian theosophy and occultism. It has been noted, however, that this distancing from the Theosophical Society should be understood in the light of polemical identity formations among esotericists towards the end of the nineteenth century. In the mid-1990s, a new definition of "occultism" was put forth by Wouter Hanegraaff. According to Hanegraaff,

2244-713: The emergence of both modern esotericism and socialism in July Monarchy France have been inherently intertwined. Another feature of occultists is that – unlike earlier esotericists – they often openly distanced themselves from Christianity, in some cases (like that of Crowley) even adopting explicitly anti-Christian stances. This reflected how pervasive the influence of secularisation had been on all areas of European society. In rejecting Christianity, these occultists sometimes turned towards pre-Christian belief systems and embraced forms of Modern Paganism , while others instead took influence from

2310-401: The few other pieces of literature that were to be had in her home). Around the age of 8, Wilcox turned to writing poetry as an outlet. When she was 13 years old, her first poem was published. After losing her subscription to The New York Mercury , and being unable to afford to resubscribe, Wilcox thought that if she could get a piece of literature published, she would at least receive a copy of

2376-440: The knowledge that death is but a continuation of life and labor, in higher planes." Her final words in her autobiography The Worlds and I : "From this mighty storehouse (of God, and the hierarchies of Spiritual Beings) we may gather wisdom and knowledge, and receive light and power, as we pass through this preparatory room of earth, which is only one of the innumerable mansions in our Father's house. Think on these things." Wilcox

2442-533: The leader of the Rosicrucian Philosophy in California , he made very clear to me the effect of intense grief. Mr. Heindel assured me that I would come in touch with the spirit of my husband when I learned to control my sorrow. I replied that it seemed strange to me that an omnipotent God could not send a flash of his light into a suffering soul to bring its conviction when most needed. Did you ever stand beside

2508-534: The mid-19th century and their descendants. Occultism is thus often used to categorise such esoteric traditions as Spiritualism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and New Age. A different division was used by the Traditionalist author René Guénon , who used esotericism to describe what he believed was the Traditionalist, inner teaching at the heart of most religions, while occultism

2574-490: The mirror, she suddenly recalled the sorrowful widow. It was at that moment that she wrote the opening lines of "Solitude": She sent the poem to the Sun and received $ 5 for her effort. It was collected in the book Poems of Passion shortly afterward in May 1883. This collection was reported to have made $ 2000 that year. In 1884, she married Robert Wilcox of Meriden, Connecticut , where

2640-568: The most highly gifted of all. He helps as well as astonishes." -  Ella Wheeler Wilcox . "You are wonderful. What more can I say" - Madame Nellie Melba . After some years in London, and many world travels, Cheiro moved to America. He spent his final years in Hollywood, seeing as many as twenty clients a day and doing some screenwriting before his death there in 1936 following a heart attack. From Time magazine of 19 October 1936: His widow,

2706-737: The nineteenth century and their twentieth-century derivations. In a descriptive sense, it has been used to describe forms of esotericism which developed in nineteenth-century France, especially in the Neo-Martinist environment. According to the historian of esotericism Antoine Faivre , it is with the esotericist Éliphas Lévi that "the occultist current properly so-called" first appears. Other prominent French esotericists involved in developing occultism included Papus , Stanislas de Guaita , Joséphin Péladan , Georges-Albert Puyou de Pouvourville , and Jean Bricaud . The idea of occult sciences developed in

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2772-550: The occult had their hands read by him. The skeptical Mark Twain wrote in Cheiro's visitor's book: Cheiro has exposed my character to me with humiliating accuracy. I ought not to confess this accuracy, still I am moved to do so. – Mark Twain Other mentions in the visitors book include: "The study of people gifted with occult powers has interested me for several years. I have met and consulted scores. In almost ever respect I consider Cheiro

2838-519: The older term occult , much as the term esotericism derives from the older term esoteric . However, the historian of esotericism Wouter Hanegraaff stated that it was important to distinguish between the meanings of the term occult and occultism . Occultism is not a homogenous movement and is widely diverse. Over the course of its history, the term occultism has been used in various different ways. However, in contemporary uses, occultism commonly refers to forms of esotericism that developed in

2904-502: The other. Robert Wilcox died in 1916, after over thirty years of marriage. She was overcome with grief, which became ever more intense as week after week went without any message from him. It was at this time that she went to California to see the Rosicrucian astrologer, Max Heindel , still seeking help in her sorrow, still unable to understand why she had no word from her Robert. She wrote of this meeting: In talking with Max Heindel ,

2970-501: The paper wherein her piece was printed. The piece that she submitted is lost, and Wilcox later admitted that she could not recall even the topic of the poem. Wilcox became known as a poet in her own state by the time she graduated from high school. Her poem "The Way of the World" was first published in the February 25, 1883, issue of The New York Sun . The inspiration for the poem came as she

3036-407: The perspective of cybernetics and information technologies. Philosopher Eugene Thacker discusses Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa 's Three Books of Occult Philosophy in his book In The Dust Of This Planet , where he shows how the horror genre utilizes occult themes to reveal hidden realities. Ella Wheeler Wilcox Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850 – October 30, 1919)

3102-469: The possibility of unveiling the future or of exercising supernormal powers do so because the efficacy of the methods they employ coheres with some systematic conception which they hold of the way the universe functions...however flimsy its empirical basis." In his 1871 book Primitive Culture , the anthropologist Edward Tylor used the term "occult science" as a synonym for magic . Occult qualities are properties that have no known rational explanation; in

3168-470: The religions of Asia, such as Hinduism and Buddhism . In various cases, certain occultists did both. Another characteristic of these occultists was the emphasis that they placed on "the spiritual realization of the individual", an idea that would strongly influence the twentieth-century New Age and Human Potential Movement . This spiritual realization was encouraged both through traditional Western 'occult sciences' like alchemy and ceremonial magic , but by

3234-436: The religious or philosophical belief systems on which such practices are based. This division was initially adopted by the early academic scholar of esotericism, Antoine Faivre, although he later abandoned it; it has been rejected by most scholars who study esotericism. By the 21st century the term was commonly employed – including by academic scholars of esotericism – to refer to a range of esoteric currents that developed in

3300-505: The result of her father's failed business aspirations and speculation. Wilcox's family held themselves to be intellectuals, and a mastery of the nuances of the English language was prized. During her childhood, Wilcox amused herself by reading books and newspapers, which may have influenced her later writing (most notably William Shakespeare , The Arabian Nights , The Diverting History of John Gilpin and Gulliver's Travels , in addition to

3366-503: The sixteenth century. The term usually encompassed three practices – astrology, alchemy, and natural magic – although sometimes various forms of divination were also included rather than being subsumed under natural magic. These were grouped together because, according to the Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff , "each one of them engaged in a systematic investigation of nature and natural processes, in

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3432-411: The start of the twentieth century had also begun to include practices drawn from non-Western contexts, such as yoga . Although occultism is distinguished from earlier forms of esotericism, many occultists have also been involved in older esoteric currents. For instance, occultists like François-Charles Barlet  [ fr ] and Rudolf Steiner were also theosophers , adhering to the ideas of

3498-461: The term occultism can be used not only for the nineteenth-century groups which openly self-described using that term but can also be used in reference to "the type of esotericism that they represent". Seeking to define occultism so that the term would be suitable "as an etic category" for scholars, Hanegraaff devised the following definition: "a category in the study of religions, which comprises "all attempts by esotericists to come to terms with

3564-516: The term occultism is in the French language, as l'occultisme . In this form it appears in A. de Lestrange's article that was published in Dictionnaire des mots nouveaux ("Dictionary of new words") by Jean-Baptiste Richard de Radonvilliers  [ fr ] in 1842. However, it was not related, at this point, to the notion of Ésotérisme chrétien , as has been claimed by Hanegraaff, but to describe

3630-427: The term as a synonym for esotericism, an approach that the later scholar of esotericism Marco Pasi suggested left the term superfluous. Unlike Amadou, other writers saw occultism and esotericism as different, albeit related, phenomena. In the 1970s, the sociologist Edward A. Tiryakian distinguished between occultism, which he used in reference to practices, techniques, and procedures, and esotericism, which he defined as

3696-719: The term in an academic sense, stating that occulture was "the new spiritual environment in the West; the reservoir feeding new spiritual springs; the soil in which new spiritualities are growing". Recently scholars have offered perspectives on the occult as intertwined with media and technology. Examples include the work of film and media theorist Jeffrey Sconce and religious studies scholar John Durham Peters , both of whom suggest that occult movements historically utilize media and apparatuses as tools to reveal hidden aspects of reality or laws of nature. Erik Davis in his book Techgnosis gives an overview of occultism both ancient and modern from

3762-414: The term in his influential book on ritual magic , Dogme et rituel de la haute magie , first published in 1856. Lévi was familiar with that work and might have borrowed the term from there. In any case, Lévi also claimed to be a representative of an older tradition of occult science or occult philosophy. It was from his usage of the term occultisme that it gained wider usage; according to Faivre, Lévi

3828-401: The vacuousness of materialism more apparent". The Dutch scholar of hermeticism Wouter Hanegraaff remarked that occultism was "essentially an attempt to adapt esotericism" to the " disenchanted world ", a post-Enlightenment society in which growing scientific discovery had eradicated the "dimension of irreducible mystery" previously present. In doing so, he noted, occultism distanced itself from

3894-483: The woman he loved." Cheiro also predicted that the Jews would return to Palestine and the country would again be called Israel. In his own autobiographical book, Cheiro's Memoirs: The Reminiscences of a Society Palmist , he included accounts of his interviews with King Edward VII , William Gladstone , Charles Stewart Parnell , Henry Morton Stanley , Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, Professor Max Muller , Blanche Roosevelt ,

3960-453: Was "the principal exponent of esotericism in Europe and the United States" at that time. The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, where it came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , The earliest use of the term occultism in the English language appears to be in "A Few Questions to 'Hiraf'", an 1875 article by Helena Blavatsky ,

4026-535: Was an American author and poet. Her works include the collection Poems of Passion and the poem "Solitude", which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone." Her autobiography, The Worlds and I , was published in 1918, a year before her death. Ella Wheeler was born in 1850 on a farm in Johnstown , Wisconsin , east of Janesville , the youngest of four children. The family later moved north of Madison , after losing its wealth, as

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4092-605: Was an advocate of animal rights and vegetarianism . She died of cancer on October 30, 1919, in Short Beach, Connecticut . None of Wilcox's works were included by F. O. Matthiessen in The Oxford Book of American Verse, but Hazel Felleman chose fourteen of her poems for Best Loved Poems of the American People, while Martin Gardner selected "The Way Of The World" and "The Winds of Fate" for Best Remembered Poems . She

4158-421: Was celebrated for using these forms of divination to make personal predictions for famous clients and to foresee world events. The son of William Warner and Margaret Thompson Warner, Cheiro was born William John Warner in the village of Rathdown , outside Dublin , Ireland. He took the name Count Louis Hamon (or Count Leigh de Hamong ). As mentioned in his memoirs, Cheiro acquired his expertise in India. As

4224-534: Was travelling to attend the Governor's inaugural ball in Madison, Wisconsin . On her way to the celebration, there was a young woman dressed in black sitting across the aisle from her. The woman was crying. Miss Wheeler sat next to her and sought to comfort her for the rest of the journey. When they arrived, the poet was so depressed that she could barely attend the scheduled festivities. As she looked at her own radiant face in

4290-404: Was used in 16th-century Europe to refer to astrology , alchemy , and natural magic . The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France , among figures such as Antoine Court de Gébelin . It came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus , and in 1875 was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky . Throughout

4356-427: Was used pejoratively to describe new religions and movements that he disapproved of, such as Spiritualism, Theosophy, and various secret societies . Guénon's use of this terminology was adopted by later writers like Serge Hutin and Luc Benoist . As noted by Hanegraaff, Guénon's use of these terms are rooted in his Traditionalist beliefs and "cannot be accepted as scholarly valid". The term occultism derives from

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