Marjorie Cameron

Cameron
Born Marjorie Cameron
April 23, 1922
Belle Plaine, Iowa, U.S.
Died June 24, 1995 (aged 73)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Known for Drawing, painting, poetry
Movement Beat Generation, Psychedelia, Occultism, Surrealism

Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel (April 23, 1922 – June 24, 1995), known simply as "Cameron," was an artist, poet, actress, occultist, and wife of rocket pioneer and occultist Jack Parsons. After serving in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, Cameron settled in Pasadena, California, and met Parsons, who believed her to be the "Elemental woman"—an earthly incarnation of the Thelemite goddess Babalon—that he and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had invoked in the early stages of a series of sex magick rituals called the Babalon Working. She is now regarded as a countercultural icon and key figure in the development of postwar Los Angeles art.

Biography

Early life: 1922–1945

Cameron was born in Belle Plaine, Iowa, on April 23, 1922.[1] Her father, the railway worker Hill Leslie Cameron, was the adopted child of a Scots-Irish family, while her mother, Carrie Cameron (née Ridenour) was of Dutch ancestry.[2] She was their first child, followed by three further siblings: James (b. 1923), Mary (b. 1927), and Robert (b. 1929).[3] They lived on the wealthier north side of town, although life was nevertheless hard due to the Great Depression.[4] Attending Whittier Elementary School and then Belle Plaine High School, where she did well at art, English, and drama but failing algebra, Latin, and civic lessons, she also joined the athletics, glee club, and chorus.[5] She enjoyed going to the cinema, and had sexual relationships with various men; falling pregnant, her mother performed an illegal home abortion.[6] In 1940 the Cameron family relocated to Davenport in order for Hill to work at the Rock Islands Arsenal munitions factory. Cameron completed her final year of high school education at Davenport High School, there having romantic relations with both a man and a woman.[7] Leaving school, she worked as a display artist in a local department store.[7]

Following U.S. entry into the Second World War, in February 1943 she signed up for the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, a part of the U.S. Navy. Initially sent to a training camp at Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, she was then posted to Washington D.C., where she served as a cartographer for the Joint Chief of Staff, in the course of his duties meeting U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill in May 1943.[8] She was reassigned to the Naval Photographic Unit in Anacostia, where she worked as wardrobe mistress for propaganda documentaries, in the course of which she met various Hollywood stars.[9] When her brother James returned to the U.S. injured from service overseas, she went AWOL and returned to Iowa to see him, a result of which she was court martialed and confined to barracks for the rest of the war.[10] For reasons unknown to her, she received an honorable discharge from the military in 1945, traveling to Pasadena, California, where her family had relocated, with both her father and brothers securing work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory there.[11]

Jack Parsons: 1946–1952

In Pasadena, Cameron ran into a former colleague, who invited her to visit the large American Craftsman-style house where he was currently lodging, 1003 Orange Grove Avenue, also known as "The Parsonage." The house was so-called because its lease was owned by Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist who had been a founding member of the JPL who was also a devout follower of the new religious movement founded by English occultist Aleister Crowley in 1904, Thelema. Parsons was the head of the Agape Lodge, a branch of the Thelemite Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO).[12] Unbeknownst to Cameron, Parsons had just finished a series of rituals utilizing Enochian magic with his friend and lodger L. Ron Hubbard, all with the intent of attracting an "Elemental" woman to be his lover. Upon encountering Cameron, with her striking red hair and blue eyes, he considered her to be the individual whom he had invoked.[13] After they met at the Parsonage on 18 January 1946, they were instantly attracted to each other, and spent the next two weeks in Parsons' bedroom together. Although Cameron was unaware of it, Parsons saw this as a form of sex magic that constituted part of the Babalon Working, a rite to invoke the birth of Thelemite goddess Babalon onto Earth in human form.[14]

Crowley was Parsons' guru.

Cameron briefly traveled to New York City to see a friend, there discovering that she was pregnant, and again decided to terminate the pregnancy.[15] Parsons meanwhile had founded a company with Hubbard and his girlfriend Sara Northrup, Allied Enterprises, into which he invested his life savings. It nevertheless became apparent that Hubbard was a confidence trickster, who tried to flee with Parsons' money, resulting in the break-up of their friendship.[16] Returning to Pasadena, Cameron consoled Parsons, painting a picture of Sara with her legs severed below the knee.[17] Parsons decided to sell 1003, which was then demolished, and the couple instead moved to Manhattan Beach. It was there, on 19 October 1946, that he and Cameron married at San Juan Capistrano courthouse in Orange County, in a service witnessed by his best friend Edward Forman.[18] Having an aversion to all religion, Cameron initially took no interest in Parsons' Thelemite beliefs and occult practices, although he maintained that she had an important destiny, giving her the magical name of "Candida", often shortened to "Candy", which became her nickname.[19]

Cameron decided to travel to Paris, France, with the intention of studying art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, hoping that they would admit her with a letter of recommendation from Pasadena's Art Centre School. She also hoped to use the trip to visit England and meet with Crowley, to explain to him Parsons' Babalon Working. Traveling via New York aboard the SS America, upon arrival she learned that Crowley had died, and that she was unable to join the college. She found post-war Paris "extreme and bleak", although befriended Juliette Greco before spending three weeks in Switzerland and then returning home.[20] When Cameron developed catalepsy, Parsons suggested that she read Sylvan Muldoon's books on astral projection, also encouraging her to read James Frazer's The Golden Bough, Heinrich Zimmer's The King and the Corpse, and Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces.[21] Although she still did not accept Thelema, she began to be increasingly interested in the occult, and in particular the use of the tarot.[21]

Parsons and Cameron felt that their relationship was breaking up, and contemplated divorce.[22] She decided to spend some time away, traveling to the artistic commune at San Miguel de Allende, there befriending the artist Renate Druks. Parsons meanwhile moved into a house known as the "Concrete Castle" on Redondo Beach, having a brief relationship with an Irishwoman named Gladis Gohan before Cameron returned.[23] Parsons and Cameron moved to the coach house at 1071 South Orange Grove, while he began work at the Bermite Powder Company, where be began constructing explosives for the film industry.[24] They began holding parties once more that were attended largely by bohemians and members of the beat generation, with Cameron attending the jazz clubs of Central Avenue with her friend, the sculptor Julie Macdonald.[25] Earning some of her own money, Cameron produced some illustrations for fashion magazines, also selling some of her paintings, with a number being purchased by her friend, the artist Jirayr Zorthian.[26] Parsons and Cameron had decided to travel to Mexico for a few months.[27] On the day before they planned to leave, June 17, 1952, he received a rush order of explosives for a film set, and he begun work on it at his house.[28] In the midst of this project, an explosion destroyed the building during which Parsons was fatally wounded, and upon being rushed to the Huntingdon Memorial Hospital by emergency services was declared dead.[29] Cameron did not want to see the body, instead retreating to San Miguel in Mexico, asking her friend George Frey to oversee the cremation.[30]

Mental instability: 1952–

In Mexico, Cameron began performing blood rituals in which she cut her own wrist, in the hope of communicating with Parsons' spirit. As part of these rituals, she claimed to have received a new magical identity, Hilarion.[31] When she learned that an unidentified flying object had been seen over Washington D.C.'s Capitol Building she considered it a response to Parsons' death.[31] After two months, she returned to California, where she committed a failed suicide attempt.[32] Increasingly interested in occultism, she read through her husband's papers, coming to understand the purpose of his Babalon Working and furthermore believing that the spirit of Babalon had been incarnated into herself.[33] She came to believe that Parsons had been murdered by the police or anti-zionists, and continued her attempts at astral projection to commune with him.[34] Her mental stability was deteriorating, and she became convinced that a nuclear test on Eniwetok Atoll would result in the destruction of the Californian coast.[35] Though unproven, there is evidence that she was institutionalized in a psychiatric ward at this period, before having a brief affair with African-American jazz player Leroy Booth, a relationship that would have been illegal at the time.[36]

Emergence in the Southern California Beat Culture

After Jack’s death, Cameron retreated to Lamb Canyon near Beaumont, California where she lived without water or electricity. She embarked on a series of magical workings in an attempt to make contact with her deceased husband. She also established a relationship with Jane Wolfe, another devotee of Aleister Crowley, and Wolfe ultimately became her mentor. She produced a series of illustrations for a book of poetry Jack had written for her before his death “Songs for the Witch Woman”. After several years, Cameron eventually moved back to Los Angeles where she lived in Venice Beach and Topanga Canyon. The Beat Culture was prevalent in both places, and she met the artists Wallace Berman and George Herms.[4] She became a friend and artistic inspiration to both men. Her artwork appeared in the first issue of Berman’s literary and artistic journal Semina in 1955 and Berman’s photograph of Cameron appeared on the cover of the same 1955 issue. [5] Cameron’s image “Peyote Vision” was included in a solo exhibit of Berman’s at the Ferus Gallery in 1957 and was cited as the reason for the gallery being temporarily closed by the LAPD Vice Squad. [6] Berman was arrested, stood trial, convicted of displaying lewd and obscene materials, and fined $150. It was the last public gallery show for both Berman and Cameron.

Filmography

Paul Mathison and the actor Samson DeBrier introduced Cameron to film maker Kenneth Anger, who cast her in a leading role opposite Anais Nin in his film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954), a depiction of an occult initiation rite as envisioned by Aleister Crowley. With red hair and heavy eye makeup, Cameron played both Kali and the Scarlet Woman wrapped in a red Spanish shawl. Cameron collaborated with filmmaker Curtis Harrington to commemorate her output as a visual artist in The Wormwood Star (1955), a short film recording the art and atmosphere of her candlelit studio. Most of the paintings and drawings documented in this film were later lost or destroyed. She also co-starred alongside Dennis Hopper as the Water Witch in Harrington’s feature film Night Tide (1961). In 1969 she appeared in an unreleased short film shot in New Mexico, Thumbsuck, by artist John Chamberlain.

Later Years and Death

Cameron spent several years in the late 1960s in Velarde, New Mexico. She returned to Los Angeles and eventually resided in a small bungalow in West Hollywood, CA. She continued her writing and artwork based on her mystical visions and dreams. She was an ardent student of astrology and incorporated her astrological impressions into a major body of work “Pluto Transiting the Twelfth House” (1978-1986). She became an adept practitioner of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, and remained a strong presence in the life of her daughter Crystal and her grandchildren. In 1989 Cameron co-edited with O.T.O. leader Hymenaeus Beta an edition of the occult writings of Parsons. Also that year, Cameron’s artworks were surveyed in an exhibition, titled The Pearl of Reprisal, at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery curated by Edward Leffingwell. [7] Cameron died of cancer at the VA West Los Angeles Medical Center in 1995.

Artistic Legacy

Cameron is regarded as a key figure within postwar Los Angeles art and counterculture. Her mystical life and art, which often depicts images of an otherworldly nature drawn from the Elemental Kingdom and the astral plane, are the subject of "Cameron: Songs for the Witch Woman," a retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA).[37] Her work has also appeared in group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Getty Museum, the Centre Pompidou, Martin-Gropius Bau in Berlin, and other museums around the world.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Kaczynski 2010, p. 538; Kansa 2011, p. 9.
  2. ↑ Kaczynski 2010, p. 538; Kansa 2011, pp. 9–11.
  3. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 11–12.
  4. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 12, 15.
  5. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 13–14.
  6. ↑ Kansa 2011, p. 17.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kansa 2011, p. 18.
  8. ↑ Kaczynski 2010, p. 538; Kansa 2011, pp. 18–22.
  9. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 22–23.
  10. ↑ Kaczynski 2010, p. 538; Kansa 2011, p. 24.
  11. ↑ Kaczynski 2010, p. 538; Kansa 2011, p. 27.
  12. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 28–29.
  13. ↑ Pendle 2005, pp. 259–260; Kansa 2011, pp. 35–37.
  14. ↑ Pendle 2005, pp. 263–264; Kansa 2011, p. 29.
  15. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 37–38.
  16. ↑ Pendle 2005, pp. 267–269; Kansa 2011, pp. 38–39.
  17. ↑ Kansa 2011, p. 39.
  18. ↑ Pendle 2005, pp. 275, 277; Kansa 2011, p. 39.
  19. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 39–41.
  20. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 43–45.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Kansa 2011, pp. 48–49.
  22. ↑ Kansa 2011, p. 48.
  23. ↑ Pendle 2005, p. 288; Kansa 2011, pp. 51–53.
  24. ↑ Pendle 2005, pp. 294, 297; Kansa 2011, p. 57.
  25. ↑ Pendle 2005, pp. 294–295; Kansa 2011, pp. 57–63.
  26. ↑ Kansa 2011, p. 61.
  27. ↑ Pendle 2005, pp. 296–297; Kansa 2011, p. 64.
  28. ↑ Pendle 2005, p. 299; Kansa 2011, p. 65.
  29. ↑ Pendle 2005, pp. 1–6; Kansa 2011, pp. 65–66.
  30. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 67–68.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Kansa 2011, p. 74.
  32. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 74–75.
  33. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 75–77.
  34. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 77–79.
  35. ↑ Kansa 2011, p. 79.
  36. ↑ Kansa 2011, pp. 80–81.
  37. ↑ ""MOCA Presents "Cameron: Songs for the Witch Woman"". Retrieved 2 August 2014.

Sources

External links