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.   

 

Cameron: the Woman Who Did

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. 

Meet Rosaleen Norton: Australia's Witch Queen

Rosaleen Norton (1917 - 1979) 

Photo by Ivan for PIX Magazine (21 June 1943)

State Library of New South Wales 

 

 

I. 

 

If I've said it once, I must've said it a thousand times: ultimately, even witches lose their charm [1]. 

 

Nevertheless, I continue to have a soft spot for many of them and was happy - having been pointed in her direction [2] - to read about Rosaleen Norton ...

 

 

II. 

 

Norton was an Australian artist and occultist, known by the tabloids at the time as the Witch of Kings Cross [3], although her friends and fellow coveners called her Thorn (perhaps because she was sharp and to the point, or maybe because she was the kind of prickly character who has a way of constantly getting under the skin of others). 

 

Her paintings, which are exuberant if not terribly assured, often depict various gods and demons; many of whom share her distinctive facial features and seem to have a penchant for illicit sexual acts. Not surprisingly, these works caused a good deal of controversy in Australia during the 1940s and '50s, a period that was characterised by the three Cs: Christianity, Conservatism, and Censorship.

 

The authorities attempted to prosecute Norton for public obscenity on a number of occasions and her works were often removed from exhibitions by the police and any books containing images of the works confiscated [4].

 

As someone whose own work has occasionally got them into trouble with the Google censor-bots [5] and, ironically, the Pagan Federation [6] - as well as a serious reader of D. H. Lawrence, who had 13 of his pictures seized by the filth from an exhibition in 1929 - I naturally sympathise with Miss Norton. 

 

 

III. 

 

Whilst her passport (assuming she had one) said Australia on it, Norton was the child of middle class English parents who had moved to New Zealand, where she was born, in 1917, with a peculiar blue birth mark on her left knee and pointy ears (both signs, she would later insist, that she was a witch by nature and not by choice). 

 

When she was eight-years-old, her family relocated to Sydney, Australia. 

 

By this time, Rosaleen was already an unconventional girl to say the least; she despised most people, including other children and her mother, and, according to her biographer, Nevill Drury, she spent three years sleeping in a tent in the garden, accompanied by several animal familiars, including a large spider [7].

 

Again, it's probably not surprising to discover that she was eventually expelled from the C of E  girls' school that her parents had enrolled her in; her teachers claimed that not only was she disruptive in class, but had a corrupting influence on fellow pupils by, amongst other things, sharing images she had drawn of demons and vampires.       

 

Happily, however, this allowed her to attend a technical college where she could study art under a tutor who recognised her talent and extraordinary character. After leaving art college, aged sixteen, Norton published a number of horror stories in a newspaper who, subsequently, gave her a job as a trainee journalist and illustrator.

 

Unfortunately, her ideas and illustrations were deemed too controversial and she was soon shown the door. Uncertain what to do next, Norton worked several menial jobs in order to supplement her income as an artist's model (and of course during this time she posed for Norman Lindsay, even if she never acquired full siren status). 

 

Norton also began reading books on occultism and comparative religion and her artistic work became increasingly dominated by pagan themes and images, although she once described her paintings as psychic experiments which drew heavily on visions formulated in her own unconscious. Her work, admired by the poet Leon Batt, began to feature in a monthly magazine he edited called Pertinent [8].  

 

 

IV. 

 

During the early '50s, Norton and her toy-boy lover Gavin Greenlees [9], became Kings Cross residents. It was an area of Sydney - as indicated in footnote 3 below - popular with artists, writers, and other avant-garde types (as well as being a notorious red light district). 

 

Here, she felt right at home and she soon associated with many of the Kings Cross characters and several local café owners agreed to display her artworks on their walls. Above the door to the home she shared with Greenlees, was a sign reading: Welcome to the house of ghosts, goblins, werewolves, vampires, witches, wizards and poltergeists. 

 

In other words: Normies keep out!  

 

Again, it's perhaps not surprising that this couple - strange even by the bohemian standards of the area - soon attracted the attention of the police, who were keen to find something they could charge them with; once even arresting Norton and Greenlees for vagrancy.   

 

 

V.  

 

In 1952, Walter Glover - impressed by Norton's artwork and Greenlees's poetry - decided that a book containing examples of both was just what the world needed ... 

 

And so, a high quality limited edition entitled The Art of Rosaleen Norton was published, bound in cloth or, for those who could afford the deluxe edition, red leather. It contained 31 black-and-white reproductions of artworks by Norton (29 of which were full-page or near full-page plates), including her notorious ithyphallic image of the horned demon Fohat (see below) and a number of verses by Greenlees.      

 

The book was immediately banned in New South Wales (on the grounds of obscenity) and its import into the United States forbidden (customs officers were instructed to destroy any copies of the work that they might discover). Glover was charged with producing an obscene publication and Norton was again dragged before the courts and expected to defend and, indeed, justify her artwork. 

 

In the end, a judge decided that only two images were obscene under Australian law - one of which was Fohat - and that they had to be removed from all existing copies. If the case gained a good deal of publicity for Norton, it effectively bankrupted Glover.     

 

 

VI.

 

Is all publicity good publicity? 

 

It's debatable.  

 

And Norton now found herself the regular subject of sensationalist claims in the tabloid press; she was a Satanist who conducted black masses involving vulnerable adolescents; she was a devil worshipper who practiced animal sacrifice; she and her young lover performed unnatural sex acts ... etc. [10]

 

Such was her notoriety, that by the late 1950s people would visit Kings Cross in the hope of spotting a real life witch in the street. Many simply asked for her autograph; others requested she put a spell on someone, which she was happy to do - for a fee. 

 

By the late 1960s, however, the media attention had abated and she was living a more reclusive and private existence (albet still in Kings Cross - and still a worshipper of Pan). 

 

Norton died, from cancer, in 1979 and she is reported to have said words that echo D. H. Lawrence's famous declaration about wishing to die as gamely as he had lived: 'I came into the world bravely; I'll go out bravely.'  

 

Since then, thanks largely to the work of her biographer Nevill Drury and supporters in the worlds of art and film, Norton's fame has spread and she has continued to attract a following amongst those in the know.

 

Rosaleen Norton: Fohat  

The Art of Rosaleen Norton (1952) [11]

  

Notes

 

[1] See the post of this title (18 April 2013): click here. 

 

[2] Thank you Gaelle. 

 

[3] Norton lived much of her later life in the bohemian area of Kings Cross, Sydney; thus the name given her by the press. It was also in Kings Cross where she established her own coven of witches largely devoted to a neopagan worship of Pan, but with a bit of sex magick thrown in for good measure. 

 

[4] An exhibition in 1949 at the University of Melbourne's Rowden White Library, where forty-six of  Norton's paintings were on public display, was raided by the police and they removed four pictures which they deemed obscene. She was charged and her case went to court, but, amazingly, she was found not guilty of any offence and was even awarded compensation from the police department. 

 

[5] See the post entitled 'Torpedo the Ark Versus the Censor-Bots' (1 March 2023); click here. 

 

[6] See the post entitled 'Pagan Magazine Vs the Pagan Federation' (4 August 2024): click here.  

 

[7] See Nevill Drury, Homage to Pan: The Life, Art and Sex-Magic of Rosaleen Norton (Creation Oneiros, 2009), p. 15. See also Drury's entry on Norton in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15  (2000), which has been available online since 2006: click here. Much of the information used here in this post is based on Drury's original research.     

      

[8] Batt established Pertinent in July 1940. He encouraged free expression and the magazine frequently included nude studies, although Batt drew the line at what he considered pornography. With limited circulation, it never achieved a wide audience and it ceased publication in May 1947. 

 

[9] Greenlees was a young, relatively successful poet when he met Norton. Having studied numerous authors including Freud, Jung, Lautréamont, and Aleister Crowley, his poetry combined elements of surrealism, psychoanalysis, and occultism. When he became Norton's lover, c. 1950, she was almost thirteen years his senior.  

      Sadly, his story does not end well; from the mid-1950s onwards, Greenlees endured many prolonged admissions to psychiatric hospitals suffering from hallucinations and paranoia (things that were almost certainly made worse by his regular use of drugs including LSD). To her credit, Norton continued to visit him, even after he had attempted to kill her with a knife during a schizophrenic episode when on temporary release in 1964. 

      Greenlees was permanetly discharged from care in 1983, but died, aged 53, in December of that year.

 

[10] To be fair, whilst the first two claims are untrue, she and Greenlees did like a little light BDSM and she wasn't adverse to a spot of lesbianism. Enjoying the opportunity to play a more active role, Norton also had a penchant for pegging male homosexuals. 

 

[11] This demon with a serpentine phallus was one of her most controversial images. Norton claimed that whilst the goat was a symbol of creative energy, the snake was a symbol of eternity. 

 

 

Bonus: to watch the official trailer to Sonia Bible's dramatised documentary The Witch of Kings Cross (Journeyman Pictures, 2020), starring (athlete turned actress) Kate Elizabeth Laxton as Norton, click here.  

 

For a sister post to this one on Our Lady of Babalon, Marjorie Cameron, please click here. 

 

 

Meet the Lindsays

Norman Lindsay and Rose Soady photographed in his studio 

(Sydney, Australia, 1909)

 

  

I.

 

Someone from Down Under writes to say how pleased they were to see a reference to the Australian artist Norman Lindsay in a footnote to a recent post on D. H. Lawrence and Frieda Weekley [1]. 

 

The same correspondent goes on to persuasively make the case that, actually, Lindsay and his mistress and muse, Rose Soady - who went on to become his second wife and business mananger - deserve to have a post of their very own. 

 

And so, let's meet the Lindsays ... [2]  

 

 

II. 

 

Born in 1879, Norman Lindsay was one of the most prolific and popular Australian artists of his generation; a painter, sculptor, and cartoonist, he was also a novelist, children's writer, and art critic who - as an amateur boxer - knew how to use his fists if need be. 

 

I might be wrong, but I suspect that most readers will probably know of him and Rose thanks to the 1994 film Sirens, written and directed by John Duigan, starring Sam Neill as Lindsay and Pamela Rabe as Rose. 

 

Set during the interwar period and mostly filmed at what was the Lindsays' real life home in the Blue Mountains and is now the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum, the movie gives a fictionalised insight into the kind of life led by Norman and Rose; one that might be described as pagan libertine (i.e., sexually liberated and at odds with conventional morality and societal norms) [3].  

 

 

III.

 

Despite his bohemian lifestyle and his battles with the forces of what Australians term wowserism (i.e., moral and social conservatism) [4], Lindsay was a vociferous Aussie nationalist and became a regular contributor to The Bulletin [5] at the height of its cultural influence, mixing his staunchly anti-modernist views as an art critic with reactionary and racist concerns to do with the red menace and yellow peril.

 

However, whilst Lindsay may have defended traditional art forms and white western culture on the one hand, he liked to cause controversy as an artist and author on the other. 

 

Thus, for example, his 1912 pen and ink drawing The Crucified Venus created a good deal of fuss when it was shown at the Society of Artists exhibition in Melbourne the following year [6]; just as his illustrated comic novel, Age of Consent (1938), which details the relationship between a middle-aged male painter and an adolescent girl was (briefly) banned in Australia [7].

 

For reasons probably best-known to himself, it amused Lindsay to adopt a larrikin [8] public persona and to produce work that to some was sexy, stylish, and subversive, but to others was salacious, sensational, and shocking. 

 

 

IV. 

 

But what about Rose? 

 

Born in 1885, she was first introduced to Lindsay in 1902, aged sixteen, and began modelling for him that same year, soon becoming his favourite siren (and lover). It was Rose who posed for The Crucified Venus in 1913. 

 

But Rose, with her fine pale skin, tousled black curls and curvaceous figure - as seen in the photo above - wasn't just a lovely-looker; she was also an intelligent, highly practical and efficient woman who eventually became Lindsay's business manager and oversaw the printing and sale of his etchings [9]. 

 

Rose and Lindsay were married in 1920 (two weeks before his divorce from his first wife, Katie, whom he married in 1900, became absolute) and this unconventional couple lived a long and happy life together: Rose died in 1978, aged 92; nine years after Lindsay, who died in 1969, aged 90.

 

Although a large body of his work is housed at the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum, many works are held in private and corporate collections and his art continues to climb in value. 

 

 

V. 

 

There are, I suppose, many things to admire about Norman Lindsay; hugely energetic and endlessly productive, he was a real monster of stamina whose etchings and drawings displayed great technical brilliance. 

 

I also like that this would-be Dionysian named Nietzsche as a key figure in his thinking, particularly when it came to the question of Christian moral values, which he believed constrained individual freedom unduly. In his early years, Lindsay undoubtedly exercised a liberating force within Australian culture. 

 

Unfortunately, there are many things to despise about Lindsay also; his virulent opposition to modernism for one thing; and the fact that he happily gave visual definition to the Bulletin's nationalism and racism is also something else that is not easy to overlook.        

 

The fact is, Lindsay was a bit of a shit and an extremely poor reader of Nietzsche; a fascist reactionary who attempted to construct a systematic philosophy of art that denied all social and political progress and asserted that the creative mind (masculine in character) was superior to the mass mind (essentially feminine) and had to be defended from attacks upon it which were orchestrated (wouldn't you know) by the Jews.

 

Frankly, I don't know how Rose put up with him! 

 

Fortunately, however, such tedious and pernicious stupidity - combining sexism, elitism, and antisemitism - was rejected by the majority of young Australian artists and writers, who found Lindsay's ideas as old-fashioned as his painting.  

 

 

Norman Lindsay: The Crucified Venus (pen and ink drawing, 1912) 

Norman Lindsay: Age of Consent (cover of the first American edition 1938)  

 

Notes

 

[1] See footnote [a] to the post 'All They Ever Wanted Was Everything' (9 June 2025): click here.  

 

[2] Obviously, I'm only able to provide the briefest of brief sketches here. For those who want to know more, I suggest they consult the shared entry on Lindsay and four of his siblings in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 10 (1986), which has been available to read on the Australian National University website since 2006: click here. 

       An entry on Rose Lindsay, by Ana Carden-Coyne, was published in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplement (2005) and has been online since 2006: click here. 

 

[3] Sirens had what might be described as a mixed critical reception. Hal Hinson, for example, writing in The Washington Post (11 March 1994) - click here - dismissed the vitalist philosophy concerning sex and art presented by the film as "somewhat dated and old hat, like warmed-over D. H. Lawrence".  

      To be fair, Hinson wasn't mistaken to make the connection between Lindsay and Lawrence. For like the latter, Lindsay attracted a mixture of acclaim and controversy for his work which was deemed by some to be not only obscene but  blasphemous. 

      Readers who would like a reminder (or first glimpse) of the movie, can click here to watch the official trailer. 

 

[4] Wowser is an Australian term that refers to someone who seeks to stop others from engaging in allegedly immoral behaviour, such as drinking, smoking, and gambling (i.e., having fun). Lindsay fought many battles with wowsers over the overtly erotic content of his work.

 

[5] Known as the 'bushman's bible', The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine based in Sydney and first published in 1880. It featured articles on politics, business, poetry, fiction and humour and exerted significant influence on Australian society and culture, promoting the idea of a national identity distinct from its British colonial origins. Lindsay and his brother Lionel joined the staff of the Bulletin in 1901 and his association with the publication - providing cartoons and illustrations for stories and editorial features - would last fifty years.

      D. H. Lawrence (and his fictional surrogate Richard Somers) was a regular reader during his short stay in Australia; see his novel Kangaroo (1923), or click here for a post from September of last year in which I mention the Bully. 

 

[6] The Crucified Venus is Lindsay's (less than subtle) attempt to expose Christianity as a sexually repressive force; a monk is shown nailing a naked woman to a tree, to the approval of a mob of exultant clerics and wowsers watching on. The drawing provoked such hostility from church figures and the press that it was removed from the exhibition, only to be reinstated a few days later after the president of the Society of Artists threatened to withdraw all the New South Wales paintings from the exhibition in protest at its removal.  

      Unfortunately, The Crucified Venus was later destroyed in a fire, although a preparatory pencil sketch is part of the collection at the Norman Lindsay Gallery and Museum (NSW). 

 

[7] Age of Consent is one of the best known of Lindsay's novels, partly because it was made into a 1969 film of that title, directed by Michael Powell, and starring 60-year old James Mason as the painter and 22-year-old Helen Mirren (in her first credited screen role) as his teenaged model, muse, and mistress. Click here to watch the (profoundly pervy) trailer. 

      Age of Consent wasn't the first of Lindsay's books to attract the attention of the censors; Redheap (1930) was banned until 1958 and The Cautious Amorist (1933) was banned for twenty years. Readers who wish to know more, might care to see the blog post by Joan Bruce on the State Library of Queensland website (25 may 2017): click here.  

 

[8] Larrikin is an Australian term which in the 19th and early-20th centuries referred to a young urban hooligan or gang member, but which now refers to someone who may be a bit mischievous and fond of using foul-language, but essentially has a good heart; i.e., a bit of a rascal or scallyway who likes to lark about rather than cause serious mayhem. 

      It might be argued that the term punk, whilst not exactly synonymous, is closely related in meaning; larrikins and punks both, for example, like to defy convention and have a healthy disdain for the authorities.    

          

[9] In the 1960s, Rose compiled seven albums of hundreds of pencil sketches and proof etchings by Norman Lindsay; an almost complete record of his etchings from the early 1900s until the 1950s. 

      She also published two volumes of autobiography during this decade - Ma and Pa (1963) and Model Wife (1967) - which have since been republished as a single work entitled Rose Lindsay: A Model Life, ed. Lin Bloomfield (Odana Editions, 2001).