Cameron (1922 - 1995)
'I shall plunge down into the abysmal horror of madness and death -
or I shall walk upon the dawn.'
I.
I'd no sooner published the post on the Kings Cross witch Rosaleen Norton [1], than someone wrote to say that if I liked her, then I was gonna love Marjorie Cameron ... the American artist, actress, and occultist - known simply by her surname - who, along with her handsome rocket scientist husband, Jack Parsons, was a dedicated follower of Aleister Crowley's new religion (Thelema), central to which is the idea of discovering and following one's True Will (i.e., a divine and individual purpose that transcends ordinary desires).
II.
Born in Iowa in the spring of 1922, Cameron characterised herself as a rebellious child prone to thoughts of suicide. Nevertheless, she did okay at school; excelling in art, English, and drama, even if failing in algebra and Latin (which can be forgiven, I think).
As an adolescent, she had sexual relationships with various men and endured at least one illegal home abortion performed by her mother. After leaving high school, she worked as a display assistant in a local department store, before volunteering for a role in the navy when the US (finally) entered the Second World War [2].
After this independent-minded young woman was court martialed for going AWOL and discharged from the military in 1945, she decided it was time to head west and so moved to California, which is where her story really begins ...
III.
It was in Pasadena - a city northeast of downtown LA - that Cameron met Parsons and, after a brief (but intense) romance, they were married in 1946. Their relationship was often strained, as they say, but it was Parsons who initiated Cameron into the world of Thelema, believing her to be the elemental woman that he had invoked in a series of sex magick rituals called the Babalon Working [3].
The naturally sceptical Cameron at first had no real interest in Thelema, or any other religion, but she was eventually won over by (at least some of) Crowley's ideas and became increasingly interested in occult practices such as tarot reading.
Essentially, however, it's hard not to think of her as an artist first and foremost - happier to produce illustrations for fashion magazines and to party in the company of singers, beat poets, filmmakers, and other artists, rather than hang around with (often boring) occultists.
Unfortunately, Parsons was killed in an explosion in the summer of 1952 (don't ask) and this seems to have left Cameron a little unhinged; she came to believe that her husband had been assassinated and began blood rituals - which involved her cutting her wrists - to communicate with his spirit. When these didn't work, she experimented with out-of-body techniques or astral projection.
Cameron also established an occult circle which dedicated itself to sex magick rituals with the intent of producing mixed-race moon children who would be devoted to the god Horus, a central deity within Thelema, which is certainly one method of overcoming grief during a period of mourning.
This group was soon dissolved, however; not least because members found Cameron too outré even for their tastes [4]. And so she moved to LA and established herself within the city's avant-garde artistic community, befriending filmmakers Kenneth Anger - who cast her as the Scarlet Woman in his Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) - and Curtis Harrington, with whom she made The Wormwood Star (1956) [5].
Her relationship with Anger certainly had its ups and down; at one point he even launched a campaign against Cameron, labelling her the Typhoid Mary of the occult world - which isn't a very nice thing for a friend to say. They later reconciled, however, and he introduced her to a delighted Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan and a big fan of hers.
IV.
Sadly, Cameron's later life was pretty much marked by ill health and she ended up living in a small bungalow (with her daughter) in an impoverished area of Hollywood known for its levels of crime, sex shops, and adult movie theatres.
When not smoking dope, walking the dog, or looking after the grandkids, Cameron practiced Tai chi and played the harp. Her faith in Thelema remained strong, however, and as well as entertaining old friends who came to visit, she enjoyed meeting with younger occultists influenced by Crowley - these included (rather amusingly) Genesis P-Orridge [6].
Cameron also co-edited a collection of Parsons' occult and libertarian writings, which were published as Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword in 1989, the same year that an exhibition of her work was held at the
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, at which she performed a candle-lit reading of
her poetry.
Cameron died, from lung cancer, in 1995, aged 73. A high priestess of the Ordo Templi Orientis [7] carried out Thelemic last rites.
V.
So, what then are we to make of this obviously talented - if rather unstable (and arguably damaged) - individual, described by some as charismatic and alluring, but by others as domineering, dangerous, and an out-and-out witch ...?
Writing in a review of Spencer Kansa's biography - Wormwood Star: The Magickal Life of Marjorie Cameron (2010) - Tim Pendry describes her as a "minor but iconic figure" who would not "merit enormous interest in herself [...] if she were not at a very interesting place at an interesting time" [8].
I think that's a little unfair and selling Cameron and her beautifully composed art work [9] - which is far superior in my view to that of Rosaleen Norton (to whom she is sometimes compared) - short. For unlike Leonard Zelig, she was not merely a passive nobody attempting to fit in as best she could, whenever and wherever she could.
On the contrary, I think she expected the world accommodate itself to her and I rather admire Cameron for that and don't particularly find her "intrinsic nuttiness, irresponsibility and narcissism" [10] objectionable; for the nice and intelligent women that Pendry privileges only take you so far ...
Our Lady Babalon
Notes
[1] 'Meet Rosaleen Norton: Australia's Witch Queen' (13 June 2025): click here.
[2] Just to be clear, this didn't mean Cameron was fighting overseas on board a ship; rather, after training, she was posted to Washington, D.C., where she served as a
cartographer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before being reassigned to the Naval Photographic Unit where
she worked as a wardrobe mistress for propaganda documentaries and had the opportunity to meet various Hollywood stars.
[3] The Babalon Working was a series of magickal rituals performed from January to March 1946 by Parsons in collaboration with his pal L. Ron Hubbard (who would go on to become the founder Scientology).
It was designed to manifest an individual incarnation of Babalon (or the Scarlet Woman) and was based on the ideas found in Crowley's novel Moonchild (1917). Parsons, keen to believe that his lover and soon to be wife should have a cosmic role to play, declared Cameron to be this Thelemite goddess made flesh and gave her the name Candida (shortened to Candy). Crowley, who corresponded with Parsons and essentially acted as his mentor, was less than convinced and would often deride the latter's magickal efforts to his close associates.
[4] Many of Cameron's followers known as The Children distanced
themselves from her because of the increasingly
apocalyptic nature of her pronouncements; she claimed, for example, that Mexico was about to invade the United States, that a race war was about to break out in the Europe, and
that a comet was heading towards the Earth (although, fortunately, she was able to reassure her followers that a flying saucer was on the way to transport them to safety on Mars).
It might not surprise readers to discover that Cameron was taking large quantities of numerous drugs at this time, including peyote and magic mushrooms.
[5] Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) is a 38-minute avant-garde short film by Kenneth Anger, who later made two other cuts of the film (one
in 1966 and one in the late 1970s). Inspired by the teachings of
Aleister Crowley, it has acquired cult status amongst followers of
Thelema and those who are drawn to this kind of thing. Click here to watch on YouTube with a newly added soundtrack by StoneMila.
The Wormwood Star (1956), is a spooky (even shorter) film shot by Curtis Harrington at the home of
multi-millionaire art collector Edward James, which features images
of Cameron's paintings and recitations of her poems: click here.
In 1960, Cameron appeared alongside Dennis Hopper in Harrington's first
full-length film, Night Tide, which was a critical success
and, like Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, quickly became something of a cult classic.
[6] For those who are unfamiliar with the name, Genesis P-Orridge was an artist and occultist who rose to notoriety
as the founder of the radical arts collective COUM Transmissions and lead
vocalist of seminal industrial band Throbbing Gristle.
[7] The O.T.O. is an occult secret society and hermetic magical order founded at the beginning of the 20th century and at one time headed by Aleister Crowley, who significantly changed its guiding philosophy (i.e., brought it into line with his own thinking).
[8] Tim Pendry, review of Spencer Kansa's biography - Wormwood Star: The Magickal Life of Marjorie Cameron (Mandrake, 2010) on Goodreads: click here.
[9] Examples of Cameron's often exquisite art work can be found here on the website of the
Cameron Parsons Foundation, which was established in 2006 in order to
bring attention to and conserve the work of Cameron and her first
husband, Jack Parsons.
[10] Tim Pendry ... op. cit.
Bonus: Cinderella of the Wastelands - a short film posted on YouTube which includes a nice sampling of Cameron's art and has commentary provided by her friends; the sculptor George Herms and the filmmakers Kenneth Anger and Curtis Harrington: click here.
