Jane Wolfe
Jane Wolfe, Sarah Jane Wolfe, Estai (“I will become the creative Force of the Universe”); student of Aleister Crowley, resident at the Abbey of Thelema, member of A∴A∴ and Ordo Templi Orientis
America 1875 - 1958
Events
Comments
Thelemite; contacted Aleister Crowley in 1918; Silent Film Star, most famously Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917); Ouija Board;
The motto Fiat Yod is often mistakenly attributed to Jane Wolfe because of a confusion about the letters in Magick Without Tears being addressed to several students, including Wolfe and Anne Macky (Soror Fiat Yod).
“Since 1918, I had been in correspondence with this lady, Jane Wolfe, of Pennsylvania Dutch stock, about my own age, by profession originally an actress, but now a star of the screen. In order to test her courage I had told her to meet me on the day of the summer solstice at Bou Saâda. She cabled consent and then my heart smote me. It was rather rough to ask a woman to take that uncomfortable journey to a place, which at that time of the year was frequented chiefly by the devil and the more favoured of the damned for hell on account of the heat. So I wired and wrote proposing Tunis instead. She never received this message. I stayed a fortnight in Tunis wondering where she could be. She sweated in Bou Saâda equally perplexed. In the end she decided to come to Cefalu. The Ape and I met her at Palermo and took her to the abbey — and then the fun began!”—Chapter 89
“The Ape and Jane Wolfe are the best nurses I ever struck. They do everything just right. I never had to ask for anything I wanted, they had foreseen the need and supplied it in advance. They never showed the faintest sign of fatigue and anxiety, which they must have felt.”—Chapter 96
“the following later writing by Jane Wolfe is of interest in that it relates to the events of this final chapter:
A villifying report of what took place at the time of the death of Raoul Loveday, at the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, having come to my attention, leads me to write a brief account of that unhappy event, as I was not only there during Raoul's brief sojourn at the Abbey, but I took care of him on his deathbed.
He arrived in Cefalu from London late in November, or early December, 1922, pale and aenemic, and had just recovered from a rather severe septic throat.
The weather at the time was sunshiny and warm. Raoul basked in this sunshine, spent much time out of doors, and soon showed signs of improvement.
By January he was taking long walks, and one one of these occasions, being thirsty, drank water from a small stream which was 'polutted', and was therefore taboo. No one round about touched this water, and Raoul had been cautioned about it, but forgot it, no doubt, at the time of his thirst.
A diarrhea set in, which after 10 or 12 days, became suddenly acute on the day of his death, causing a sloughing off of the mucous membrances of the intestines.
During this period he had been under medical care, but without avail.
That ceremonies of a sensational or ridiculous character were performed during the passing, is a part of the desire of some people to defile whatever they touch.
As a matter of fact, no ceremonies of any nature took place during his illness, or at the time of his death.
(signed) Jane Wolfe”—Chapter 96
“This is where I want to have you, with us who are come thus far, in a state utterly detached from the Ego, so that you appear the plain Jane Wolfe5) “doing your duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call you” and consequently unremarked—like a Rosicrucian, “wearing the habit of the country in which you are travelling”—but trembling with interior illumination, so that the first relaxation of the constant conscious burden of Jane Wolfe, Soror Estai is automatically released, a pillar of Creative Light.”—Chapter LXIII: Fear, a Bad Astral Vision
“I have been revising the Comment on 'Liber Legis,' with the aid of Alostrael, Iacchaion, & Jane Wolfe.”—The Cephaloedium Working
“The Gnostic Mass was celebrated every Sunday evening at Agapé Lodge by Smith and priestess Regina Kahl (1891-1945) from 1933 until 1942, when the Lodge moved to a new facility in Pasadena, California. Jane Wolfe (1875-1958), who had studied with Crowley personally during the 1920s in Cefalù, assisted Smith and Kahl in developing a standard of performance for the Gnostic Mass, and frequently served as deacon in the ceremony.”—T. Apiryon, History of the Gnostic Catholic Church
“The business about the Priest's subtle anatomy is entirely external to both the text of the Mass and to the Agape Lodge tradition informed by Jane Wolfe's exposure to Crowley's ritual technique in Cefalu, and I find it out of accord with my own practice as a priest.”—Addenda to Advice for Deacons
“(The following is not a part of Liber XV) With love we honor them that did of old adore thee and manifest thy Victory unto the World: … Lady Jane Wolfe”—An Analysis of the Gnostic Mass; see also gnostic-saints-of-james-a-eschelman
Connections
Influences
Aleister Crowley; George Cecil Jones; Karl Germer; Sascha Germer; Wilfred Smith; Regina Kahl; Theodor Reuss; Oscar Schlag of the the Zurich 'Sapere Aude' Masonic Lodge and the Hermetische Gesellschaft (Hermetic Society);
Influenced
Jack Parsons; Phyllis Seckler AKA (“Soror Meral:” 1917-2004) ; Helen Parson Smith; Jerry Cornelius; James Wasserman; Michael Ripple; James Graeb; Sharon Morton; Lola Dewolf AKA Lola Kaye Lewis; Diane Champp×××y aka Sr. Thea Soror Aima of the OTO Mithras Lodge; Grady McMurtry; James A Eshelman; David Shoemaker;
Organizations
OTO AKA Ordo Templi Orientis (founding member of 2nd Agape Lodge, CA); one of the more important surviving “bloodlines” of the A∴A∴ or Argenteum Astrum (the Silver Star), June 11, 1921; Abbey of Thelema at Cefalù, Sicily, 1920;
Author
her Magical Record published as The Cefalù Diaries, now formally published as “Jane Wolfe: The Cefalu Diaries 1920-1923, with Commentary by Aleister Crowley”, 2010;
Search
References
- Chapter LXIII: Fear, a Bad Astral Vision—Jane Wolfe (Soror Estai), Hollywood actress in the 1920s; briefly resident at the Abbey of Thelema; later a member of Agapé Lodge #2 in California. Some of the other letters in Magick Without Tears may have also been originally written to her, though most were for Ms. Anne Macky (Soror Fiat Yod) – T.S.“
- Bookmark this page on these social networks—”The author, James Eshelman, has been an initiate of A∴A∴ for over 20 years and is a student of Phyllis Seckler, who at 84 years old is one of the seniormost living representatives of A∴A∴. The Jane Wolfe or Soror Estai lineage of A∴A∴ which derives through Phyllis and her own teacher Jane Wolfe has been initiating now for something like 30 years, and Eshelman therefore brings his own and his lineage's significant experience to the text. The book is not written only for Estai initiates, however, though it does provide much facinating information on the history and protocols of the author's own A∴A∴ line. The book details the normative system as laid out by its' founders which is held in common, at least in spirit if not in detail, by all A∴A∴ groups. There is also prevision for solo individual working of the system.“
External references
- Jane Wolfe Her Life With Aleister Crowley; Part 1: A Thelemic Research Journal, Volume 10 097123762X and Part 2: A Thelemic Research Journal, Volume 11 0971237638
- https://www.instagram.com/p/CovGst4Olbf/ “This is a beautiful portrait of her clipped from the New York Dramatic Mirror newspaper, June 10, 1914.”