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Leila Waddell
Leila Ida Nerissa Bathurst Waddell (born Leila Ida Bathurst Waddell, 10 August 1880 – 13 September 1932), also known as Laylah, was an Australian violinist who became a Scarlet Woman of Aleister Crowley, and a powerful historical figure in magick and Thelema in her own right. While biographer Toby Creswell posited that Leila was part-Maori, he provides no evidence of this; in fact, New South Wales births, deaths, and marriages records show she was the granddaughter of John Crane (of Coventry, England) and Janet McKenzie (of Fort William, Inverness-shire, Scotland) and John Waddell and Elizabeth McAnally (both of County Monaghan, Ireland).
Leila Ida Bathurst Waddell was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Waddell.
She began her professional career as a violin teacher at Presbyterian Ladies' College, Croydon, and Ascham and Kambala schools.[citation needed]
In 1908, Waddell was a member of the gypsy band in A Waltz Dream at Daly's London Theatre. It was while in London that she met Aleister Crowley. They studied the occult and took mescaline together.
Waddell was familiarly addressed by Crowley as "Laylah", and he immortalised her in his 1913 volume The Book of Lies and his 1929 autobiography The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. Crowley referred to her, variously, as "Divine Whore", "Mother of Heaven", "Sister Cybele", "Scarlet Woman", and "Whore of Babylon". His Book of Lies was largely dedicated to Waddell, with poems like "Duck Billed Platypus" and "Waratah Blossoms". A photograph of her in ritual is reproduced in the volume.
Waddell herself was an accomplished writer and magician. In October and November 1910, Crowley starred Waddell and other members of his magical order the Argenteum Astrum in his series of dramatic planetary-based magical rites, the Rites of Eleusis, at London's Caxton Hall.
In 1912, Waddell, and fellow Crowley students Mary Desti and Mary Butts, were given co-authorship credit on Crowley's Magick (Book 4) as they wrote down his words, helped shape them by asking defining questions, and elicited Crowley's commentary on pertinent points.
Crowley also starred Waddell, along with other 'fiddlers', in a septette called "The Ragged Ragtime Girls" on the London stage. This vaudeville troupe also toured Europe, the US and Russia, promoted by Crowley.
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Leila Waddell
Leila Ida Nerissa Bathurst Waddell (born Leila Ida Bathurst Waddell, 10 August 1880 – 13 September 1932), also known as Laylah, was an Australian violinist who became a Scarlet Woman of Aleister Crowley, and a powerful historical figure in magick and Thelema in her own right. While biographer Toby Creswell posited that Leila was part-Maori, he provides no evidence of this; in fact, New South Wales births, deaths, and marriages records show she was the granddaughter of John Crane (of Coventry, England) and Janet McKenzie (of Fort William, Inverness-shire, Scotland) and John Waddell and Elizabeth McAnally (both of County Monaghan, Ireland).
Leila Ida Bathurst Waddell was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Waddell.
She began her professional career as a violin teacher at Presbyterian Ladies' College, Croydon, and Ascham and Kambala schools.[citation needed]
In 1908, Waddell was a member of the gypsy band in A Waltz Dream at Daly's London Theatre. It was while in London that she met Aleister Crowley. They studied the occult and took mescaline together.
Waddell was familiarly addressed by Crowley as "Laylah", and he immortalised her in his 1913 volume The Book of Lies and his 1929 autobiography The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. Crowley referred to her, variously, as "Divine Whore", "Mother of Heaven", "Sister Cybele", "Scarlet Woman", and "Whore of Babylon". His Book of Lies was largely dedicated to Waddell, with poems like "Duck Billed Platypus" and "Waratah Blossoms". A photograph of her in ritual is reproduced in the volume.
Waddell herself was an accomplished writer and magician. In October and November 1910, Crowley starred Waddell and other members of his magical order the Argenteum Astrum in his series of dramatic planetary-based magical rites, the Rites of Eleusis, at London's Caxton Hall.
In 1912, Waddell, and fellow Crowley students Mary Desti and Mary Butts, were given co-authorship credit on Crowley's Magick (Book 4) as they wrote down his words, helped shape them by asking defining questions, and elicited Crowley's commentary on pertinent points.
Crowley also starred Waddell, along with other 'fiddlers', in a septette called "The Ragged Ragtime Girls" on the London stage. This vaudeville troupe also toured Europe, the US and Russia, promoted by Crowley.
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