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Downloaded License Aries – Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 21 (2021) 69–93 ARIES brill.com/arie Proximal Authority The Changing Role of Leah Hirsig in Aleister Crowley’s Thelema, 1919–1930 Manon Hedenborg White Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden [email protected] Abstract In 1920, the Swiss-American music teacher and occultist Leah Hirsig (1883–1975) was appointed ‘Scarlet Woman’ by the British occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), founder of the religion Thelema. In this role, Hirsig was Crowley’s right-hand woman during a formative period in the Thelemic movement, but her position shifted when Crowley found a new Scarlet Woman in 1924. Hirsig’s importance in Thelema gradually declined, and she distanced herself from the movement in the late 1920s. The article analyses Hirsig’s changing status in Thelema 1919–1930, proposing the term proximal authority as an auxiliary category to MaxWeber’s tripartite typology.Proximal authority is defined as authority ascribed to or enacted by a person based on their real or per- ceived relational closeness to a leader. The article briefly draws on two parallel cases so as to demonstrate the broader applicability of the term in highlighting how relational closeness to a leadership figure can entail considerable yet precarious power. Keywords Aleister Crowley – Leah Hirsig – Max Weber – proximal authority – Thelema 1 Introduction During the reign of Queen Anne of Great Britain (1665–1714), Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (1660–1744), was the second most powerful woman in the kingdom. As the queen’s favourite, the Duchess overcame many restrictions hampering women of the time. Sarah’s relationship with the queen eventu- ally soured due to a combination of political differences and Anne’s growing © manon hedenborg white, 2020 | doi:10.1163/15700593-02101008 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0Downloaded license. from Brill.com10/01/2021 01:55:40AM via free access 70 hedenborg white preference for Sarah’s cousin Abigail Masham (c. 1670–1734), leading Sarah and her husband to be dismissed from the court.1 Almost two centuries later, 1960s America witnessed the emergence of a new religious movement initially known as the Children of God and, later, as The Family International, founded by David Brandt Berg (1919–1994). In 1969, Berg began a sexual relationship with his secretary and convert Karen Zerby (b. 1946), known as Maria within the movement. This prompted a revelation for Berg, who declared that his then- wife, Jane (née Miller, 1922–2011), represented a corrupt ‘Old Church’. He cast her out of his inner circle to make way for the ‘New Church’, to which he linked Maria, who became his second wife. Berg elevated Maria to a central position within the movement, and she effectively became its spiritual leader after his death.2 Early-twentieth-century esotericism provides a similar case of influence gained and lost via shifting personal affections: that of the Swiss-American music teacher and occultist Leah Hirsig (1883–1975); disciple, magical partner, and lover of the British occultist Aleister Crowley (1875–1947). As Crowley’s appointed ‘Scarlet Woman’ from 1920, Hirsig was his right-hand woman during a formative period when Crowley co-founded (with Hirsig) a religious com- mune devoted to his religion, Thelema; underwent a key initiation; and penned numerous important texts, several of them with Hirsig’s aid. However, Hirsig’s position shifted when Crowley appointed a new lover as his Scarlet Woman in 1924. Despite her own efforts to the contrary, Hirsig’s importance in Thelema waned over the following years, and she distanced herself from Crowley and the movement in the late 1920s. The present article will analyse Leah’s chang- ing status in Thelema 1919–1930. I will propose the term proximal authority in order to highlight how relational ties to a leader can both enable and condi- tion a precarious form of secondary leadership, and suggest that this term has broader applicability within the study of esotericism and religion. 2 Theoretical Framework Max Weber defines authority as ‘the probability that certain specific com- mands (or all commands) from a given source will be obeyed by a given group of persons’.3 He distinguishes between three types of authority based on the differing legitimacy claims typically made by each. The first type, charismatic 1 Harris, Passion for Government, passim. 2 Chancellor, ‘Family for the Twenty-First Century’; Vance, Women in New Religions, 77–100. 3 Weber, Theory of Social and Economic Organization, 324–325. Aries – Journal for the Study of Western EsotericismDownloaded from 21 Brill.com10/01/2021 (2021) 69–93 01:55:40AM via free access proximal authority 71 authority, is accorded a person due to some (perceived) talent, trait, or aspect perceived as inherent in their being. Charismatic religious leaders are often viewed as divinely appointed.4 Emerging religious movements are frequently characterised by charismatic authority. Following the leader’s death or loss of charisma, new religions are faced with the challenge of the ‘routinisation of charisma’, that is, the transmission of authority to new forms of leader- ship.5 These generally follow what Weber indicates as two other main types of authority: traditional, where the leader is selected via (what is held to be) time- honoured custom; and rational-legal, where power is bureaucratically derived from a specific office.6 Weber’s model is ideal-typical, and he suggests the pos- sibility for mixed and additional forms of authority. Weber notes that charismatic leaders often enlist ‘disciples’ to help enact their will, selecting them based on these disciples’ own charismatic qualifica- tions.7 This may be taken to suggest that charisma (sensu Weber) is potentially inherent, though Weber takes care to stress that charisma is utterly dependent on others’ acceptance of the charismatic claim.8 Accordingly, Roy Wallis has stressed that charisma should be seen as a ‘social construction arising from the advancement and acceptance of a charismatic claim’. Wallis indicates the cen- tral role of a ‘committed elite’ of adherents in bolstering charisma.9 In singling out followers worthy of particular attention, they too are perceived as cho- sen, thus creating a bond of loyalty compelling ‘elite’ adherents to support and reaffirm the charismatic claim.10 Competition among the charismatic leader’s chosen ones may inspire affection for others close to the leader while they are in ‘good standing’, but also a ‘readiness to … attack them when they fall from favour’, so as to advance one’s own standing.11 This article takes as its starting point the precarious position inhabited by one such ‘elite’ disciple, scrutinising the mechanisms through which relational closeness may simultaneously enable and limit authority. I propose the term proximal authority to denote authority ascribed to or enacted by a person based on their real or perceived relational closeness to a leader.12 As suggested 4 Ibid., 358–360. 5 Weber, Economy and Society, Vol 2, 246–254; Weber, Theory of Social and Economic Organi- zation, 363–366, passim. 6 Weber, Theory of Social and Economic Organization, 328–329, passim. 7 Ibid., 360–361. 8 Ibid., 359. 9 Wallis, ‘Social Construction of Charisma’, 26, 33, passim. 10 Ibid., 35. 11 Ibid., 38. 12 In my usage of the term ‘proximal’, there are parallels to religious studies scholar Erika Aries – Journal for the Study of Western EsotericismDownloaded 21from (2021) Brill.com10/01/2021 69–93 01:55:40AM via free access 72 hedenborg white by the example of Sarah Churchill in the introduction, proximal authority need not exclusively derive from closeness to charismatic authority; the “pri- mary” leader’s authority may also derive from a traditional or rational-legal claim (though a detailed discussion of such examples exceeds the scope of the present article). This being said, the particular importance of affect in the construction of charisma may render proximal authority more likely to arise from closeness to a charismatic leader. Indeed, monarchs of Queen Anne’s era arguably inhabited aspects of charismatic as well as traditional authority, and future research (based on a broader range of cases) may determine the like- lihood of proximal authority emerging in relation to traditional and rational- legal types of leaders.13 Rather than a fourth type on par with Weber’s three, I suggest proximal authority may represent an auxiliary category, highlighting how other forms of authority tenuously spill over by virtue of relationality. 3 Background: The Scarlet Woman and the Goddess Babalon Growing up within the dispensationalist movement, the Plymouth Brethren, Aleister Crowley studied the biblical Book of Revelation from a young age. Rebelling against his conservative upbringing, he identified himself with the Beast 666.14 Spring 1904 found Crowley on honeymoon in Cairo with his first wife Rose (née Kelly, 1874–1932). One night, Crowley performed an invocation to impress his bride. Instead, Rose went into a trance, repeating ‘They are wait- ing for you’. She later qualified the one awaiting was the god Horus. Scepti- cal, Crowley brought Rose to the Boulak Museum and bid her to indicate the god. He was stunned as Rose led him to an ancient funerary tablet with the item number 666, bearing an image of Horus. On the Spring Equinox, Crow- ley invoked the god. Rose later told him to prepare to take dictation, and over the course of April 8–10, Crowley penned The Book of the Law (later given the technical title Liber al vel Legis), dictated to him by a discarnate entity named Appelros’ notion of ‘religious proximity’, denoting a stratifying mechanism in religious movements that ascribes authority based on perceived closeness to a transcendent other or others. Appelros’ concept has much in common with Weber’s charisma.
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