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 Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

, and a powerful historical figure in

magick Ceremonial magic (also known as magick, ritual magic, high magic or learned magic) encompasses a wide variety of rituals of Magic (supernatural), magic. The works included are characterized by ceremony and numerous requisite accessories t ...

and

Thelema Thelema () is a Western esotericism, Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and a new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial ma ...

in her own right. While biographer Toby Creswell posited that Leila was part- Maori,. he provides no evidence of this; in fact NSW birth deaths and marriages records show she was the granddaughter of John Crane (Coventry, England) and Janet McKenzie (Fort William, Inverness-shire, Scotland) and John Waddell and Elizabeth McAnally (both of County Monaghan, Ireland).

Musician

Leila Ida Bathurst Waddell was born in Bathurst,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Waddell. She began her professional career as a violin teacher at Presbyterian Ladies' College,

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

, and Ascham and Kambala schools. 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

. They studied the occult and took

mescaline Mescaline, also known as mescalin or mezcalin, and in chemical terms 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine, is a natural product, naturally occurring psychedelic drug, psychedelic alkaloid, protoalkaloid of the substituted phenethylamine class, found ...

together.

Crowley's muse

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) ''Magick, Liber ABA, Book 4'' is a book by 20th-century occultist Aleister Crowley with Mary Desti and Leila Waddell. It is widely considered to be Crowley's ''magnum opus''. ''Magick'' is a lengthy treatise on ceremonial magic (which he anac ...

'' 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. Laylah was probably Aleister Crowley's most powerful

muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

, as she inspired numerous poems in addition to numerous chapters in ''The Book of Lies''. Crowley based two of his short stories on Leila – "The Vixen" and "The Violinist".. In 1915, Crowley stood at the base of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

(formally ''Liberty Enlightening the World'') and declared an Irish Republic in a long and impassioned speech accompanied by Waddell on the violin. The relationship with Crowley disintegrated as a consequence of his infidelities.

Later life

In 1923, Waddell returned to Sydney to nurse her ailing father. She performed with JC Williamson Ltd Orchestra at Her Majesty's Theatre and the Criterion, and with the Conservatorium and Philharmonic Societies Orchestras. In between times she resumed teaching, this time at the Convent School of the Sacred Heart in Sydney's Elizabeth Bay. She died, unmarried, of cancer at age 52. ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' noted: "Besides possessing an excellent technique, Miss Waddell's style as a violinist was particularly marked by charm and refinement.".

References

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