In Praise of the Scarlet Women 2: Leah Hirsig

Leah Hirsig photographed soon after taking 

the magical name Alostrael in 1919 

 

O ma Lady Babalon / O ma beauté, ma divine ...

 

 

I. Opening Remarks   

 

As we discussed in part one of this post, the goddess Babalon features prominently in Aleister Crowley's philosophy, magical practice, and, indeed, his love life; for Babalon can conveniently take the human form of an attractive young harlot and these Scarlet Women are naturally inclined to seek him out as the (one and only) living embodiment of The Great Beast as their lover [1].  

 

Crowley designated several of his mistresses with the title Scarlet Woman whom, he believed, would play a crucial role in helping him invoke the coming age known as the Aeon of Horus (whilst also satisfying his own perverse sexual appetites). 

 

As Crowley writes in The Book of Thoth (1944):

 

"She rides astride the Beast; in her left hand she holds the reins, representing the passion which unites them. In her right she holds aloft the cup, the Holy Grail aflame with love and death. In this cup are mingled the elements of the sacrament of the Aeon". [2]  

 

Just to be clear: when Crowley refers to the elements of the sacrement, he is referring either to a mixture of female sexual fluids and semen, or, alternatively, menstrual blood (the effluvium of Babalon) and semen; hygrophilia is arguably the kinky secret at the heart of sex magick.    

 

 

II. Leah Hirsig (1883 - 1975) 

 

Leah Hirsig is arguably the most famous of Crowley's Scarlet Women. 

 

In part, that's because she stood by (and put up with) Crowley for the longest period of time compared to the others and in part it's also because she was the one who kept  a detailed written record of her experiences in the role and her relationship with him [3].  

 

Hirsig was born in Switzerland, but her family moved to the United States when she was two-years-old and so was raised in NYC. Interested in occultism from an early age, she decided in the spring of 1918 to pay a visit to the Beast himself who was at that time living in Greenwich Village. 

 

The two felt an immediate connection upon meeting and before long he was not only painting portraits of Hirsig - often as a dead soul, at her request (as seen in the photo above) - but had decided to consecrate Leah as his new Scarlet Woman with the magickal name Alostrael. This name, meaning the womb of God, indicated how Crowley saw her role developing (i.e., as a broodmare) [4].    

Hirsig certainly embraced this new role with gusto, writing in her diary: 

 

I dedicate myself wholly to The Great Work. I will work for wickedness, I will kill my heart, I will be shameless before all men, I will freely prostitute my body to all creatures. 

 

Part of killing her own heart presumably meant learning to forget about her old life and agreeing to move with Crowley to Sicily where they established the Abbey of Thelema in April 1920, in a rented house [5]. More than just a pretty face, Sister Alostrael was instrumental in helping Crowley organise life at the Abbey and help him reach a deeper understanding of the way of the gods. 

 

Crowley, who rarely acknowledged the contribution of others, confessed that Hirsig had rescued him from a period of depression and self-doubt, enabling him to see that it was vital not to "look to the dead past, or gamble with the unformed future" but live in the actual present and be "wholly absorbed in The Great Work" [6].

 

When other members of Crowley's magickal family proved themselves not up to the mark by dying [7], Leah remained 100% devoted to him and to her desire for a life that transgressed all boundaries; a desire which led her, for example, into an unsuccessful attempt to copulate with a he-goat as part of an ancient pagan ritual. 

 

Not even Crowley's financial problems and poor health could dent her faith in him, although she did note in her diary that his rasping voice following surgery to try and alleviate his acute asthma symptoms got on her nerves to the point that she wanted to scream.  

 

Again, so touched was Crowley by her committment to the Thelemic cause and personal loyalty to him, that he wrote a charming love poem entitled 'Leah Sublime' in her honour: click here. She was, it seemed, the perfect partner and the most crimson coloured of all his Scarlet Women.  

 

Nevertheless, Crowley being Crowley, by the summer of 1924 he was growing tired of Leah and felt it was time to move on and find himself a new woman for the role ... enter Dorothy Olsen [8].  

 

Despite Crowley's terminating their romantic relationship and then essentially abandoning her [9], Hirsig continued with her magickal studies and practices, deciding that if she were no longer able to be consort of The Great Beast, she would make herself the Bride of Chaos instead. And just to prove that she bore Crowley no ill will, Hirsig readily agreed to serve as his secretary the following year.         

 

However, in 1928 her older sister Alma published an amusing exposé of the American Tantric occultist Pierre Bernard, of whom she had been a keen follower, taking the opportunity also to shit on Crowley [10]. One suspects that Leah was secretly complicit in this, as she later rejected Crowley's status as a prophet and brought his Beasthood into question (albeit whilst still affirming the Law of Thelema). 

 

Back in the United States, married and with a son, Hirsig resumed her earlier career as a schoolteacher and some say she even converted to Roman Catholicism. Whatever the truth of this, she lived a long (and one hopes happy) life, before dying in Switzerland, aged 91, in 1975.     

 

Whatever one might think of Miss Hirsig, at some level one has to love her and admit she was an extraordinary woman.  

Portrait of Leah Hirsig by Linda Macfarlane 

(Acrylic on canvas board 24 x 25 in.) 

lindamacfarlaneart.com

 

Notes

 

[1] In The Law is for All - a series of commentaries upon The Book of the Law - Crowley is at pains to point out that whilst he alone is The Great Beast incarnate, the Scarlet Woman is a role that can be played by any young lovely he cares to designate as such and is thus replaceable as need arises. This suggests, does it not, that male chauvinism plays a part in Thelema and that sexism is central to sex magick. 

 

[2] Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth (Ordo Templi Orientis, 1944). This text is a short essay on the Egyptian tarot and was first published in The Equinox Vol. III, number 5. The so-called Thoth Tarot was a deck conceived by Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris between 1938 and 1943. Crowley would sometimes refer to Leah Hirsig (presumably with affection) as the Ape of Thoth.

      The lines quoted appear in Crowley's description of the card Lust (associated with the Thelemic concept of Babalon) and it highlights the the merging of the carnal and spiritual aspects of the Scarlet Woman. 

 

[3] See for example The Magical Record of the Scarlet Woman (1924). This text by Hirsig gives a unique insight into her life with Crowley at the Abbey of Thelema. It was serialised over four issues of The Scarlet Letter (a journal published by the Scarlet Woman Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis) in 1993-95: click here.

 

[4] Hirsig had a daughter with Crowley, born in January 1920, whom they nicknamed Poupée. Sadly, she died nine months later in October of that year. 

 

[5] The Abbey of Thelema founded by Aleister Crowley and Leah Hirsig in Cefalù (Sicily, Italy) in 1920 was intended to be a kind of spiritual training centre; those who attended were expected to study Crowley's writings, practice yoga, carry out certain rituals, and help with the domestic chores. In devoting themselves to The Great Work they would discover their True Will.

 

[6] Aleister Crowley, quoted by Frater Hippokleides writing in a biographical entry on Leah Hirsig on the website of the US Grand Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis: click here.  

 

[7] Such as Raoul Loveday, a 23-year-old Oxford graduate and poet who perished from acute enteritis after foolishly drinking from a contaminated water source, although his wife, Betty May - a singer, dancer, and model well-known in London's bohemian circles - held Crowley responsible, claiming that Raoul had been forced to drink the blood of a sacrificed cat as part of a ritual (Crowley denied this).

      When May returned to London, she gave an interview to the Sunday Express, which had been running a series of articles attacking Crowley for some time. Eventually, rumours of the goings-on at the Abbey reached Mussolini's ears and he demanded that Crowley and company leave Italy at once.

      After Crowley's departure, the Abbey was left abandoned and local residents whitewashed over Crowley's murals. The building still stands, but is now in poor condition. 

 

[8] Dorothy Olsen (1892 - 1963) was a young American woman travelling in Europe when she first met Crowley, immediately capturing his attention. After Hirsig renounced her title as the Scarlet Woman, Crowley gave Dorothy the gig. By the time she was abandoned in turn by Crowley two years later, Olsen found herself significantly poorer, pregnant, and addicted to drink and drugs.     

 

[9] Leah was forced to fend for herself after Crowley and his new Scarlet Woman ran off to Tunis and she lived for a period in Paris, where she is alleged by some to have worked as a prostitute in order to pay the bills.  

 

[10] See My Life in a Love Cult: A Warning to All Young Girls (1928), although written by Alma Hirsig, it was published under the pseudonym Marion Dockerill.

      Pierre Bernard (1875 - 1955) was an American yogi and mystic, known to the public as The Great Oom or The Omnipotent Oom. So closely was Alma Hirsig associated with Bernard that he named her as the High Priestess of Oom. Despite accusations made against him, Bernard remained popular with upper-middle class women and the high society of New York throughout the 1930s. 

 

 

Readers might be interested to know that The Magical Diaries of Leah Hirsig, 1923-1925: Aleister Crowley, Magick, and the New Occult Woman, ed. Manon Hedenborg White and Henrik Bogdan  is due for publication by Oxford University Press in September of this year. Click here for details.     

 

 

In Praise of the Scarlet Women 1: Leila Waddell

Leila Waddell prepares to perform  

The Rites of Eleusis in 1910

 

 O ma Lady Babalon / O ma beauté, ma divine ... 

 

 

I. Opening Remarks

 

Writing in a late essay on pornography and obscenity, D. H. Lawrence famously asserts: 

 

"If a woman hasn't got a tiny streak of a harlot in her, she's a dry stick as a rule." [1] 

 

And so no surprise that we should find him singing the praises of the Scarlet Woman in his reading of Revelation, that final mad book of the Bible [2]:

 

"Only the great whore of Babylon rises rather splendid, sitting in her purple and scarlet upon her scarlet beast. She is the Magna Mater in malefic aspect, clothed in the colours of the angry sun, and throned upon the great red dragon of the angry cosmic power. Splendid she sits, and splendid is her Babylon." [3] 

 

Warming to his subject, Lawrence praises those precious metals, stones, and spices that belong to this harlot-goddess who offers those men with the courage to do so the chance to drink  from "her golden cup of wine of sensual pleasure" [4] held triumphantly aloft in her right hand.  

 

It's a passage that might bring a smile to the face of the Great Beast himself ...

 

 

II. To Mega Therion 

 

English occultist Aleister Crowley - author of The Book of the Law (1904) and founder of Thelema [5] - gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime as the wickedest man in the world and he has remained a highly influential figure within western esotericism and the counterculture.

 

Although Crowley enjoyed sexual relationships with men in his youth - and advocated complete sexual freedom for both men and women in defiance of both public opinion and religious prejudice [6] - he mostly had an eye for the ladies. 

 

This was particularly the case if they were exotic looking and willing to become a Scarlet Woman; an honorific title he gave to several young women who played a significant role not just in his love life, but in his esoteric and creative work also [7].    

 

Of all these women, there are two who particularly interest: Leila Waddell and Leah Hirsig. Here, I shall speak of the former; in part two of this post, I'll discuss the case of the latter: click here. 

  

 

III. Laylah

 

Leila Waddell (1880-1932) was a girl from Down Under who, as one commentator says, "entered the world stage as an acclaimed violinist - and left it having influenced magical practice into the 21st century" [8]. 

 

In 1908, fate took her to London as part of a touring orchestra and here - for better or for worse - she met Crowley [9] and this opened the door into another world; one of drink, drugs, and sex magick. Charmed by his intelligence and supernatural charisma - just as he was deeply impressed by her musical ability - they soon became lovers. 

 

Of course, Waddell was also obliged to join Crowley's new magical order - the Astrum Argenteum (est. 1905) - in which she would be known by other members as Sister Agatha, although Crowley called her Laylah and designated her as his Scarlet Woman; "a sort of anti-Virgin Mary who transgressed the boundaries of feminine virtue by wallowing in excess" [10].    

Waddell and Crowley made a fascinating couple and were soon thinking of ways in which they could incorporate music, poetry, and dance into magical rituals. This resulted in the Rites of Eleusis; a series of seven public rites written by Crowley, with original music composed by Waddell, and performed in semi-darkness at Caxton Hall, London, in the autumn of 1910. 

 

Not quite theatre, not quite an occult ceremony, the Rites of Eleusis nicely blurred such distinctions -though whether it roused the audience into a state of spiritual ecstasy is debatable; music lovers were delighted with Waddell's virtuosity, though critics not quite so moved by Crowley's "turgid paeans to the god Pan" [11]. 

 

Others were outraged by what they considered an immoral display that was both blasphemous in nature and obscene in suggestion. Reflecting afterwards, Crowley concluded that the mixed reception given to the Rites of Eleusis - particularly his contribution - was due to the audience's inability to effectively channel the magical forces unleashed on the night. 

 

Whilst continuing her occult studies and musical engagements in both Europe and the United States, Waddell also became involved with Irish nationalism (born of Irish famine refugees she was naturally sympathetic to the republican cause). This culminated in the staging of what some might see as an absurd stunt and others as a kind of proto-Situationist event that even Malcolm Mclaren would have admired [12]. 

 

On 3 July 1915, Waddell, Crowley, and a group of Irish revolutionaries "sailed down the Hudson River to the Statue of Liberty, with the intention of declaring Irish independence and war on England" [13]. Unfortunately, the guards wouldn't let them land on Liberty Island, but, like the Sex Pistols' river boat adventure on the Thames 62 years later, it was an amusing idea.   

 

Whilst Crowley headed off after this to California on his own, Waddell continued to perform and to make new literary friends, including Rebecca West and Frank Harris. She also greatly enjoyed playing lunch time concerts in factories for the (mostly male migrant) workers who would sometimes sing along and present her with wildflower posies after the show; indeed, she considered these shows the highlight of her career (and not the performance at Caxton Hall). 

 

In 1924, and now in her mid-40s, Waddell decided it was time to return Down Under: for one thing, her father was seriously ill and needed care; and for another, Crowley had set up a magical abbey in Sicily accompanied by a new Scarlet Woman, Leah Hirsig.

 

Alice Gorman provides an excellent note on which to conclude, that I agree with entirely: 

 

"Waddell is often relegated to a character in Crowley’s life. But if we assess her life on its own terms, we see a brilliant musician, a philosopher of magic, and a rebel who was unafraid to take risks and be true to herself." [14] 

 

This is in stark contrast to Crowley's characteristically dismissive remark made of his former muse, lover, and creative collaborator, referring to Waddell as no more than a fifth-rate fiddler. 

 

Waddell died, from uterine cancer, aged 52, in 1932 and was buried next to her parents in Sydney. 

 

 

Laylah as seen in Aleister Crowley's 

The Book of Lies (1913) [15]

 

Notes

 

[1] D. H. Lawrence, 'Pornography and Obscenity', in Late Essays and Articles, ed. James T. Boulton (Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 236. 

 

[2] The Book of Revelation - or the Apocalypse as it is also known - is traditionally attributed to John the Apostle, but the identity of the author remains disputed. See chapter 17 in which judgement is passed on Babylon the Great; Mother of Harlots and Abominations. Readers can click here to access the King James Version (KJV) online. 

 

[3] D. H. Lawrence, Apocalypse and the Writings on Revelation, ed. Mara Kalnins (Cambridge University Press, 1980), p. 121.  

 

[4] Ibid. I have discussed Lawrence's reading of Revelation 17 before on Torpedo the Ark; see the post entitled 'The Goddess, the Whore, and the Policewoman' (31 July 2020): click here.  

 

[5] Liber AL vel Legis - commonly known as The Book of the Law - is the central sacred text of Thelema (see below). Crowley wrote it in 1904, claiming that the book was dictated to him by a spirit, Aiwass, whom he later referred to as his own Holy Guardian Angel. 

      For Crowley, publication of the work marked the dawning of a new stage in the spiritual evolution of humanity, to be known as the Æon of Horus. The primary teaching of this new age (as found in The Book of the Law) is: Do what thou wilt and thus the discovery and following of what constituted one's True Will - i.e. a divine individual purpose that transcends ordinary desires - was at the heart of his new religion and occult philosophy, Thelema. 

      Crowley termed this setting out on a path towards self-becoming the Great Work and whilst he certainly subscribed to an order of rank (i.e., a natural hierarchy) when it came to assessing the value of individuals, he also maintained Every man and every woman is a star (see The Book of the Law I. 3). Magick - which Crowley liked to spell with the letter k added, just as he liked to spell Babylon with an a in place of the y - is a central practice in Thelema, along with certain other physical, mental, and spiritual exercises. 

      Various figures and followers of Crowley have sought to develop Thelema by introducing new ideas, practices, and interpretations. This includes, for example, Jack Parsons, who, in 1946, conducted the Babalon Working in order to invoke the goddess Babalon (later believing his wife-to-be Marjorie Cameron to be the human incarnation of such, and thus a Scarlet Woman). Parsons - working in collaboration with his pal at the time L. Ron Hubbard - based the Babalon Working on Crowley's description of a similar undertaking in his novel Moonchild (1917). Afterwards, Parsons wrote a brief text - Liber 49 - which was intended as an additional fourth chapter for The Book of the Law. 

      Readers who are interested in knowing a bit more about Parsons - and his wife - might like to see the recent post entitled 'Cameron: the Woman Who Did' (15 June 2025): click here. And for my post written in memory of Crowley - 'The Great Beast is Dead' (1 December 2021) - click here.    

 

[6] Like many radicals, Crowley was of the view that spiritual enlightenment and individual freedom arises through transgressing socio-sexual norms. We now know this is naive, simplistic, and mistaken.  

 

[7] Whilst Crowley thought that he and he alone was human manifestation of the Great Beast 666, he believed that the Scarlet Woman - i.e., the true mistress of the Beast - could physically manifest as any number of women that he happened to take a shine to - which is convenient, to say the least; for Crowley was a man who fell in love passionately, but also frequently, and soon got bored within a monogamous relationship. Thus, as he notes in his commentary on The Book of the Law, the Scarlet Woman is replaceable as need arises. 

      Some of the women that Crowley at one time or other considered to be Scarlet Women include Rose Edith Kelly; Mary d'Este Sturges; Jeanne Robert Foster; Roddie Minor; Marie Rohling; Bertha Almira Prykrl; Leah Hirsig and Leila Waddell.  

 

[8] Alice Gorman, 'Hidden women of history: Leila Waddell, Australian violinist, philosopher of magic and fearless rebel', The Conversation (23 September, 2019): click here. 

      Waddell was an extremely talented musician; not only did she teach violin at some of Sydney's most prestigious schools, but her concert performances earned her a devoted following and she quickly established a reputation as one of Australia's leading violinists.   

 

[9] Most likely they would have met at the Café Royal, which was then the favourite haunt of writers, artists, musicians, and occultists - even D. H. Lawrence once held a dinner party there for a group of old friends, though it didn't end well when the port he'd been drinking made him vomit over the table before passing out.  

 

[10] Alice Gorman ... op. cit.  

 

[11] Ibid. 

 

[12] In Situationist theory a situation is a deliberately constructed event aimed at disrupting the boredom and alienation of every day existence and a model of reality mediated via images and commodities. Such an event blurs the lines between performance art and political protest and aims to create the possibility of authentic experience. 

      Malcolm McLaren - in collaboration with Vivienne Westwood, Jamie Reid, and a group of disaffected teenagers - applied this theory to a project known as the Sex Pistols in the mid-late 1970s.

     

[13] Alice Gorman ... op. cit.   

[14] Ibid. 

 

[15] Apart from this iconic photograph there are several references to Leila Waddell (Laylah) throughout The Book of Lies. 

   

 

Readers who want to know more about Miss Waddell might like to order a copy of a new biography by Darren Francis - Laylah: The Life of Leila Waddell (Hadean Press, 2025) - which is being published on the 26th of this month.   

 

The Goddess, the Whore, and the Policewoman (Notes on D. H. Lawrence's Apocalypse)

Hans Burgkmair the Elder's depiction of Babylon the Great;
Mother of Prostitutes and Earthly Abominations, etc.
One of a series of woodcuts for Martin Luther's translation of the New Testament (1523)

Coloured and uploaded to Wikipedia by Shakko (2008)

According to D. H. Lawrence, if the ancient Jews hated pagan gods on the one hand, then, on the other, they "more than hated the great pagan goddesses" [120]. Which is why the author of the Book of Revelation found it tricky trying to reconcile the overtly pagan figure of the woman clothed with the sun with his own religious misogyny.

This wonder-woman, writes Lawrence, "was too splendidly suggestive of the great goddess of the east, the Great Mother" [120], for John of Patmos. So, whilst he reluctantly allows her into the Bible, he makes sure she is soon chased off into the wilderness by a dragon and presents us with the alternative figure of the Scarlet Woman, whom we are encouraged to curse and call vile names, rather than revere. 

As Lawrence notes, this marks a real turning point in the text:

"There is a great change. We leave the old cosmic and elemental world, and come to the late Jewish world of angels like policemen and postmen. It is a world essentialy uninteresting, save for the great vision of the Scarlet Woman, which [...] is, of course, the reversal of the great woman clothed in the sun". [120]

He continues:

"Only the great whore of Babylon rises rather splendid, sitting in her purple and scarlet upon her scarlet beast. She is the Magna Mater in malefic aspect, clothed in the colours of the angry sun, and throned upon the great red dragon of the angry cosmic power. Splendid she sits, and splendid is her Babylon." [121]

Alas, the exiling of the goddess, with her feet upon the moon and crowned with the stars of heaven, and her replacement with the Scarlet Woman - magnificent as she may be holding her golden cup filled with the wine of sensual pleasure - has had negative consequences for us all - but particularly women.  

For women are not only obliged to deal with the virgin/whore dichotomy that these myths help to entrench within our thinking, but they are also the ones who remain most bitterly trapped, according to Lawrence, in the folds of the Christian Logos:

"Today, the best part of womanhood is wrapped tight and tense in the folds of the Logos, she is bodiless, abstract, and driven by a self-determination terrible to behold. A strange 'spritual' creature is woman today, driven on and on by the evil demon of the old Logos, never for a moment allowed to escape ..." [126]

Worse, she has lost her nakedness and is condemned to wear a police-woman's uniform: "Let her dress up fluffy as she likes, or white and virginal, still underneath it all you can see the stiff folds of the modern police-woman's uniform ..."* [127]

I'm not sure if that's true, or fair, or even if I quite know what Lawrence is driving at here, but on that note I'll say evening all and close the post ...

Notes

D. H. Lawrence, Apocalypse and the Writings on Revelation, ed. Mara Kalnins, (Cambridge University Press, 1980). All page numbers given in the text refer to this edition. 

* Of course, some readers might find that thought to their liking: click here for a post on the fetishistic appeal of women in uniforms