Wormwood Star the Magickal Life of Marjorie Cameron Paperback – Illustrated, April 23, 2020

If you read and enjoyed the book "Strange Angel" by George Pendleton about scientist, Jack Parsons, this is the perfect follow-up read! It's about Parsons (3rd & final) wife who was an artist, a self-confessed witch (after living with Parsons and joining the OTO), an exotic, eccentric and fascinating person. Again, I learned so much about the LA scene back in those days. At first I was a bit disappointed in the book. It seemed like the author was regurgitating abbreviated content from George Pendleton's book. Credit was given to all his sources including Mr. Pendleton. Once you get past the brief history of Cameron and Jack's relationship it takes off! This author really researched his subject and it is amazing!

This book is a valuable, rare and comprehensive resource for information and insight into this unique and reclusive woman. Spenser Kansa states that he spent about three years gathering data for his book. It contains insightful details that I'm sure would have been lost forever had he not devoted himself to this chronicle of her life. Cameron was eccentric, self-possessed and in the company of the cream of hip society in the 60's...yet hardly anyone has heard of her. She practiced magic and produced art. She lived with David Meltzer, was in films by Kenneth Anger and Curtis Harrington, knew L.Ron Hubbard, was married to Jack Parsons, murdered co-founder of JPL and, acted with Dennis Hopper...just for starters. This book also pulls no punches, and tells the good, the bad and the ugly. Fascinating story, important for those interested in 1960's art, poetry, and California culture.

I enjoyed the book, which seem very well researched. It's a side of Los Angeles you won't find chronicled in too many places. I still find Cameron a bit of an aloof, enigmatic presence, even after learning more about her. I enjoyed the writing and peek into her world, and the eccentric characters around her. I did have a slight issue following timelines. The author would focus on a block of time in Cameron's life in a chapter, then jump about within the period--for example, dealing with the rise of the beat generation and events of '57-59, then segue to meeting James Dean shortly before his death in '55, then forward again, so that the anecdotes all became displaced in time. Add the rare anachronistic gaff--Cameron plays the Camelot soundtrack for Jack Parsons, who died eight years before the show debuted--and I sometimes found myself rechecking to see when something occurred. Still, a great read if you are interested in Cameron or the esoteric subculture of LA.

For fans of Kenneth Anger's 'Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome', John Carter's 'Sex and Rockets' and 'Strange Angel' by George Pendle who have long awaited a biography on Marjorie Cameron (1922-1995), Jack Parsons' divine consort, wife and magickal partner. The Aeon has arrived with this work by British artist and occultist Spencer Kansa. Kansa is to be commended for his on-site research conducted throughout the U.S. crossing and crisscrossing the places Cameron knew, lived and loved.From her early years in rural Iowa where her artistic and eccentric temperment was formed, to her service during WW2 and her move to California where her family had relocated. We see an initially reluctant student of Magick who only gradually assumed her occult life through the tutelage of aerospace pioneer and Thelemite Jack Parsons. With his untimely and tragic death in 1952, Cameron embarked on a singular path as Magician, lover, artist and actress who never looked back in regret on her chosen path in life.Kansa is correct when he says Cameron easily stole the show and became the central image in Anger's phantasmagorical film 'Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome'(1954). Her appearance as the Scarlet Woman burns itself into the mind of the viewer forever. Interviews with those friends and students who knew her best provides a three demensional figure fully human and noble in her refusal to compromise her views on the inner life and tragic in her lack of common sense. She remained a tenacious survivor through all that life threw at her. Interviews with Curtis Harrington and Dennis Hopper on Cameron's appearance in the 1961 cult movie classic 'Night Tide' is revealing as to her powerful presence on camera though she appears for less than 10 minutes on screen.If I have any complaint about this book it is that Kansa fails to provide details or analysis on her magickal practices and her personal thoughts on the Thelemic system of magick developed by Aleister Crowley. Tantalyzing hints are in the book of an extensive correspondence between Cameron and Jane Wolfe, silent film star, OTO member and resident at the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, Sicily with Crowley. These letters and any surviving magickal diaries kept by her may yet see the light of day and would provide further insight into this remarkable magickal woman.

Spencer Kansa has written an entertaining account of the life of Jack Parsons' widow Cameron which is both fascinating and an object lesson to any who toy with the idea of devoting themselves wholeheartedly to the creeds of Aleister Crowley. Composed mostly of interviews with those who knew Cameron best, the book takes in a wide swathe of the "underground" West Coast movie scene; it's fascinating to read about - and hear from - folk such as Curtis Harrington, Allen Midgette, Kenneth Anger, Paul Mathison, Samson De Brier, Renata Druks, and Anais Nin, among others. This book should be mandatory reading for those interested in Underground Movies, the history Thelema, the OTO and AA in America, and the pre Beatnik scene in Hollywood post World War II.