Wilfred Talbot Smith
Wilfred Talbot Smith | |
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Born | Frank Wenham 9 June 1885 Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom |
Died | 27 April 1957 Malibu, California, United States | (aged 71)
Occupation | Occultist |
Spouse | Helen Parsons |
Part of a series on |
Thelema |
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Wilfred Talbot Smith (born Frank Wenham; 8 June 1885 – 27 April 1957) was an English
Born the illegitimate son of a domestic servant and her employer in Tonbridge, Kent, Smith migrated to Canada in 1907, where he went through a variety of jobs and began reading about Western esotericism. Through Charles Stansfeld Jones he was introduced to the writings of Thelema's founder, Aleister Crowley. He subsequently joined Crowley's Thelemite order, A∴A∴, and the Thelemite wing of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.). In 1915, he joined the O.T.O.'s British Columbia Lodge No. 1, based in Vancouver, and rose to become one of its senior members.
In 1922 Smith moved to
Early life
Youth: 1885–1914
Smith was born as Frank Wenham in
With few ties in Britain, he decided to emigrate to Canada, arriving in Nova Scotia in 1907, where he gained work on a farm in Saskatchewan. From 1909 to 1911 he worked at a confectioner's warehouse, and then for a further nine months at a logging camp, before gaining a job as an accounting clerk at the British Columbia Electric Railway in April 1912.[5] He had come to loathe Christianity and the Victorian moral systems that he associated with it; instead he began reading about Eastern religion, yoga, and Western esotericism.[6] While at work, he met Charles Stansfeld Jones, a Thelemite who shared Smith's interest in these subjects and who lent him copies of Aleister Crowley's Book 4 and volume one, number one of The Equinox.[7] Intrigued, Smith paid to join Crowley's Britain-based magical order, A∴A∴, in doing so obtaining more of Crowley's writings. He began performing many of the practices encouraged by the group, including yoga and the keeping of a diary recording his magical endeavours. [8]
Smith entered into a relationship with a woman twenty years his senior, Emily Sophia "Nem" Talbot Smith, although it remains unclear whether they ever married. With Nem and her daughter Katherine, Smith moved into a specially-constructed house designed by the Thelemite architect Howard E. White, located at 138 East 13th Street, North Vancouver. Smith converted its attic into a temple for Thelemic rituals.[9]
O.T.O. British Columbia Lodge No. 1: 1915–1922
Smith also decided to join
Smith's relationship with Nem was strained, and he began an affair with his step-daughter, Katherine. In November 1916, the three of them tried to resign from the O.T.O. lodge so as to prevent their problems from affecting the group. Their resignations were rejected, and by January 1917 they were once again active within the lodge.[15] Nevertheless, in March the lodge shut down for 13 months, during which time Crowley and Jones scrutinized Smith's diaries to ascertain his magical progress.[16] Katherine became pregnant with Smith's child, who was born in December 1917, and named Noel Talbot-Smith. Jones proclaimed that Noel represented "the Crowned and Conquering Child" prophesied in the main Thelemite holy book, The Book of the Law.[17] Jones was soon named O.T.O. Viceroy for Canada, and in April he re-initiated the lodge at Smith's home, with Smith himself being appointed the lodge's Right Worshipful Master.[18] Jones himself claimed that he had undergone a "Great Initiation" and was now an Ipsissimus; his relationship with Crowley broke down, and he subsequently resigned from the O.T.O., deeply disappointing Smith.[19]
Smith meanwhile continued working towards the A∴A∴ grade of Zelator, while the British Columbia Lodge No. 1 became increasingly moribund following the death of White, a key member, who had succumbed to Spanish flu aged 33 in November 1918.[20] Jones had rejoined the O.T.O. and relocated to Detroit in the United States. When Smith was fired from his job following a bout of flu in February 1920, he decided to join Jones in Detroit, where there was a small O.T.O. community; there he gained work as a clerk with the Detroit City Gas Company. In Jones' absence, Nem was appointed Right Worshipful Master of the Vancouver lodge.[21] In March 1921, Jones and Smith proceeded to Chicago, but in June Smith returned to North Vancouver to see his family.[22] That year, Jones convinced Smith to join an esoteric organization known as the Universal Brotherhood (UB). Smith however was unnerved that rather than expressing a Thelemic viewpoint, the UB adhered to Roman Catholicism, and he also considered its literature purposeless, vague, and grandiose; he soon dropped out.[23] Back in Vancouver, Smith aided one of his initiates, Frank Page, in founding the British Columbia Lodge No. 3 in Kamloops, creating all the furniture for their temple. Nevertheless, the lodge closed after a year, with Smith's own British Columbia Lodge No. 1 also becoming defunct in February 1922.[24]
Los Angeles: 1922–1935
Unable to find work in Vancouver, Smith headed to Los Angeles in California, United States. On the way he stopped at San Francisco, where he met with
Now based in Los Angeles, Smith applied for US citizenship but was rejected, due to the fact that in his application he had claimed to be married but he was unable to prove this with paperwork.[28] Seeking to promote Thelema in the city, he adopted his own student, Oliver Jacobi, whom he mentored in the A∴A∴ system,[29] and in the autumn of 1927, he developed a close friendship with fellow Thelemite and Hollywood actress Jane Wolfe.[30] Although he continued to have sexual relationships with other women, Smith retained his love for Katherine, who came to visit him in Los Angeles, where they were legally married on 24 August 1927 at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, the day before she returned to Montreal.[31] She tried to get Smith to abandon occultism and Thelema and return to her in Canada, but he refused, leading her to file for divorce in May 1930, taking sole custody of their child.[32] Smith continued to have sexual and romantic relationships with other women, and – influenced by Crowley's bisexuality – also experimented with same-sex sexual relations, but felt no attraction to men.[33] From July to September 1929, a married woman named Leota Schneider moved in with Smith, and they had an affair, but she soon returned to her husband, while from July to December 1930, Smith began undertaking sex magic rituals with Wolfe, although their relationship remained platonic.[34] Smith soon met Regina Kahl and her sister Leona "Lee" Watson, whom he initiated into the O.T.O. in early 1931, with Regina also joining the A∴A∴. Smith had sexual relations with both sisters, but while Regina – with whom his activity became sadomasochistic – became romantically attached to him, Lee soon abandoned Thelema.[35]
In 1932, Crowley, now based back in England, fell seriously ill, and believing his death to be immanent, he sent Smith a testament proclaiming that in the event of his death, Smith would become Frater Superior and Outer Head of the Order (OHO) of the O.T.O.; he soon however recovered.[36] In May of that year, Smith and Kahl began renting the large house at 1746 Winona Boulevard in Hollywood, and began to take in lodgers to help pay for it. Kahl and Wolfe began using the attic for Thelemic rituals, and in March 1933 they performed their first public Gnostic Mass in the room, hoping to attract interested persons to Thelema. Crowley was pleased with their progress, and asked them to raise funds so that he could afford to visit.[37] The weekly performances of the Gnostic Mass began to attract increasingly large crowds, with their "Crowley Nights" attracting around 150 guests, among them the film star John Carradine.[38] In April 1934, Smith incorporated the Church of Thelema under US law, although retained the North American O.T.O. as an unincorporated secret society. Crowley however was confused, and believed that Smith had incorporated the O.T.O., something which angered him; he subsequently complained about Smith in letters to other initiates.[39] After an argument, Crowley and Smith ceased correspondence for a time.[40] Smith also attempted to revive the largely defunct North American O.T.O., attracting 15 initial initiates, many of whom were dissatisfied members of the Choronzon Club, which was now in decline.[41]
Later life
O.T.O. Agape Lodge: 1935–1944
With the O.T.O. now being revived in North America, Smith founded the Agape Lodge No. 1, based at his Hollywood home, and brought in 7 initiates to the Minerval level in September 1935.[42] He advertised the foundation of his group through an advert in American Astrology magazine and printed a pamphlet explaining what the O.T.O. was.[42] The Agape Lodge held regular meetings, lectures, and study classes, as well as social events and a weekly Gnostic Mass open to the public.[43] In February 1936 they held a Mass in honour of Wayne Walker, a proponent of New Thought who ran a group known as The Voice of Healing; they had hoped to attract Walker and his supporters to Thelema, but they were put off by the Lodge's sexual openness.[44] Later that year, Smith and Oliver Jacobi's employer, the Southern California Gas Company, discovered their involvement in the Lodge, demoting Smith to bookkeeper and firing Jacobi. Angered, Jacobi left the Lodge altogether, while Smith shut down the group's private ritual activities for the next three years.[45] As a result, the public attendance of the Gnostic Mass plummeted.[46]
Activities picked up again when Kahl, who worked as a drama teacher, brought three of her interested students into the group, among them
By this point, the Agape Lodge was fully operational once more, although Crowley had remained highly critical of Smith, believing that he was failing to raise sufficient funds for Crowley's personal use. He appointed
Smith decided to relocate Agape Lodge to a larger premises, renting the large house at 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena from June 1942 for $100 a month, moving many of the lodge members into the house, living as a form of commune and raising livestock and vegetables in the grounds.[56] Parsons had begun a relationship with Sara Northrup, while Smith consoled Helen, who would become his partner for the rest of his life; nevertheless the four remained friends.[57] Although they had ceased to publicly perform the Gnostic Mass, membership of the lodge continued to grow.[58] A number of prominent members however left, among them Regina Kahl and Phyllis Seckler.[59] Soon, both the FBI and the Pasadena police department began to investigate the O.T.O. and Agape Lodge, particularly as Germer, now leader of the North American O.T.O., was German; ultimately, they decided that the group was no threat to national security, describing it as a probable "love cult".[60] Crowley however had remained highly critical of Smith's leadership of the lodge, and ordered Wolfe to send him on a personal magical retreat; she felt conflicted, but eventually conceded to Crowley's demands.[61] Both Crowley and Germer wanted to see Smith ousted permanently, believing that he had become a bad influence on the other lodge members; many of the members, including Jack and Helen Parsons, wrote to them to defend their mentor, but Germer nevertheless ordered him to stand down, with Parsons appointed head of the lodge.[62]
In April, Helen gave birth to Smith's son, who was named Kwen Lanval Parsons.[63] In May, Smith and Helen left for a two-room cabin in Rainbow Valley with their baby, where Smith undertook his magical retirement.[64] Back in England, Crowley undertook an astrological analysis of Smith's birth chart, and came to the conclusion that he was the incarnation of a god, greatly altering his estimation of him; Smith however remained sceptical.[65] Refusing to take orders from Germer any more, Smith resigned from the O.T.O., while Parsons – who remained sympathetic and friendly to Smith during the conflict – ceased lodge activities and resigned as its head. In a letter informing Crowley of this decision, Smith remarked "Would to God you knew your people better."[66] Germer subsequently appointed Max Schneider head of the Agape Lodge, which remained inactive, while Crowley, Germer, and Schneider began spreading lies about Smith, including that he was responsible for raping initiates, claims that were denied by many Lodge members.[67]
Final years: 1944–1957
In September 1944 Smith went on a second magical retirement, during which he performed
Although they had long disliked each other, Germer recognised that Smith was the only living individual with a good practical knowledge of the O.T.O. degree system, and so put him in contact with
Legacy and influence
The Unknown God was reviewed by Robert Ellwood of the
See also
References
Footnotes
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 2, 4.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 3–5.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 6.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 8.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 8–9.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 9–11.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 14–17.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 18, 31–32.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 37.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 38–40; Churton 2011, p. 199.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 42, 48.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 58–64.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 64–66.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 68, 82.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 88.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 83–84, 90–91.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 91–92.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 96, 103–104; Kaczynski 2010, p. 350.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 107–108.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 17–120.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 120–123.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 125–129.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 131–138.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 140–162.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 138.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 168.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 170–172; Kaczynski 2010, p. 468.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 169–170.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 173–175.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 176.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 176–179.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 180–186.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 188; Churton 2011, p. 308.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 189–195; Kaczynski 2010, p. 468.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 119–200.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 196–200; Kaczynski 2010, p. 485.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 200–201.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 224–226; Kaczynski 2010, pp. 486–487.
- ^ a b Starr 2003, pp. 227.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 237.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 235–236.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 239–241.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 246.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 246–252.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 252–258.
- ^ Pendle 2005, p. 136.
- ^ Pendle 2005, p. 172.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 266; Pendle 2005, pp. 169–172.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 258–262.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 263–264.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 267.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 268–270.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 271–273, 276; Pendle 2005, pp. 207–210.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 274; Carter 2004, pp. 93–94; Pendle 2005, pp. 203–205; Kaczynski 2010, p. 537.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 276–277.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 279.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 283–285; Pendle 2005, pp. 214–215.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 278, 280–282.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 278, 280–282; Pendle 2005, pp. 216–217, 220.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 289; Carter 2004, p. 88; Pendle 2005, p. 221.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 290–291; Carter 2004, pp. 92–93; Pendle 2005, pp. 221–222.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 294–298; Carter 2004, pp. 90–91; Pendle 2005, pp. 221–222.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 299–300; Pendle 2005, pp. 222–223.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 301–302.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 307–310.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 311–314.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 315–315.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 322–323.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 319–320.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 327.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 324.
- ^ Starr 2003, pp. 333–336, 339.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 332.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 338.
- ^ Starr 2003, p. 340.
- ^ Ellwood 2006, pp. 125–126.
Works cited
- Carter, John (2004). Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons (new ed.). Port Townsend: Feral House. ISBN 978-0-922915-97-2.
- ISBN 978-1-78028-012-7.
- Ellwood, Robert (August 2006). "Review of Martin P. Starr's The Unknown God". Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. Vol. 10, no. 1. University of California Press. pp. 125–126. .
- ISBN 978-0-312-25243-4.
- Pendle, George (2005). Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-7538-2065-0.
- Starr, Martin P. (2003). The Unknown God: W.T. Smith and the Thelemites. Bollingbrook, Illinois: Teitan Press. ISBN 978-0-933429-07-9.