Jane Wolfe

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Jane Wolfe in her "kite seat " asana on Cefalù in Sicily.

Jane Wolfe (born March 21, 1875 as Sarah Jane Wolf in St. Petersburg , Pennsylvania , † March 29, 1958 in Gelandale ) was an American actress and thelemite . She co-founded the Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis in Southern California.

family

Wolfe was of a Pennsylvania Dutch descent , a group of German-speaking immigrants. She was the middle child, her older brother John born the previous year and her sister Mary K. born a year and a day later, the same year that her father died. John lived in Montana for many years while Wolfe and Mary K. were closely related for much of their lives. When Wolfe was eight, the family lived in McKnightstown , just four miles from their grandfather Bill's farm, with whom they had a close relationship. At the age of 19, Wolfe attended Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie to prepare for shorthand work and met her first flame, a Spanish woman from Puerto Rico.

Acting career

As a young girl, Wolfe went to New York City to begin a career in the theater, but soon became familiar with acting in the fledgling film industry. She dropped her first name Sarah and called herself Jane Wolfe from then on. She made her film debut in 1910 at the age of 35 at Kalem Studios in A Lad from Old Ireland , directed by Sidney Olcott . In 1911, Wolfe was part of the cast of the Kalem Company in New York City, which moved to the company's new manufacturing facilities in Hollywood . Wolfe went on to become one of the leading actresses of the decade, starring in more than a hundred films. Wolfe starred in more than ninety films by around 1920, after which her acting career ended when she moved to Cefalù , where she lived with Crowley and studied Thelema and magic . Wolfe often expressed a desire to make a film about magic and thelema in the years that followed. After not appearing on screen for 17 years, Jane Wolfe had a small role in a 1937 B-movie western called Under Strange Flags . From May 1937 Wolfe taught drama and speech development at an evening class in Pasadena . From 1938 Wolfe was chair of the Cultural Arts Program of Los Feliz Womens' Club , chair of the Drama Section of the same club and chair of the Observers Club .

Spiritism and Thelema

In the fall of 1913, while Wolfe was working in Hollywood, she was given the book Magic, Black and White by Franz Hartmann to read, which marked the beginning of her occult interests.

Wolfe had been using a Ouija board since 1917 . She attributed some of her greatest spiritual communications to the use of this instrument. In August 1917, while Wolfe was using the ouija board, she made contact with a ghost called "Bab" and another called "Gan", a Chinese man who gave her certain messages and then disappeared. After that they appeared in different spirits, gave messages and called Wolfe "the chosen one". In 1917, Wolfe met a person named LV Jefferson. She was a medium and had contact with a ghost called "Fee Wah". She held the séance by means of automatic writing . Jefferson told Wolfe that she would like to take her on as a student. In early 1918 she tried her own automatic writing.

In October 1918, Wolfe ordered Aleister Crowley's books The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 1 and Book 4. She tried pranayama for some time and had a yoga teacher for about three weeks, but found it unsatisfactory. In early 1919, Wolfe began writing to Aleister Crowley.

Life in Thelema Abbey

In 1918, at the age of 43, Jane Wolfe began correspondence with Aleister Crowley, and two years later she gave up her Hollywood career to join Crowley at his "Abbey of Thelema" in Cefalù , Sicily. She lived there from 1920 until the abbey was closed in 1923.

In Cefalù Wolfe was inducted into the A∴A∴ order by Crowley , under the magical name Soror Estai. She engaged in various practices such as yoga, dharana, and pranayama, of which she kept a detailed diary which was later published by the College of Thelema of Northern California as The Cefalu Diaries . The municipality of Cefalù, which is only about half a mile from the "Villa Santa Barbara", which had become the Abbey of Thelema, was on the slope of the mountains south of Cefalù and was in an olive grove. The abbey residents spent many hours climbing the mountain to try themselves out and meditate. During her stay in Cefalù, Wolfe often went mountain climbing with Crowley, who was teaching her. On December 4, 1921, Crowley gave Wolfe a particular talisman with a seal of the spirit "Marbas" engraved on it. Wolfe's job was to meditate on it. In her diaries of that time she wrote that after a few attempts she had made contact with the spirit of the talisman and often spoke to it.

Their daily routine consisted of performing the ritual Liber Resh, which was performed four times a day, with all residents of the abbey participating unless they were sick. The Abbey residents were every morning at 6 am by the beating of tom-toms aroused. The work that was assigned to her usually lasted until after 10 p.m., so she only got 6 hours of sleep. Her body asked for more than that, and she often had to take naps during the day. After getting up, Wolfe spent about 20 minutes in her asana and then imagined the yellow square of the Tattva for another 20 minutes. This was followed by visualization exercises and then breakfast. The same sequence of movements was repeated after dinner around 7.30 p.m. and ended around 10 p.m. Talking to Crowley after dinner sometimes helped Wolfe understand the assignment. During her magical retreat on the beach near Cefalù, which lasted a month, Wolfe started the asana meditation for 30 minutes each in the first week and increased it to two hours in the last week. In the final week of her retreat, Wolfe added a number of new asanas to her yoga practice, which she performed naked on the beach every day. Her other exercises were to go from the tent to the sea, swim, and relax. Wolfe worked with Crowley's education system in Cefalù for three years. She later worked as a personal representative for Crowley in London and Paris.

Foundation of the Agape Lodge

Wolfe is considered to be one of the most important female figures in magic because, in addition to her friendship and work with Crowley, she was involved in founding the Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis in Southern California and was lodge master there. On June 6, 1940, Wolfe accepted Phyllis Seckler as a student and made her a trial candidate for the A∴A∴, which later founded the Soror Estai line .

death

Wolfe died eight days after her 83rd birthday.

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • David Shoemaker : Jane Wolfe: The Cefalu Diaries 1920–1923 , Temple of the Silver Star, 2017 ISBN 978-09976686-3-6
  • Phyllis Seckler: Jane Wolfe: Her Life With Aleister Crowley (Parts 1 and 2) , Red Flame # 10, 2003
  • In The Continuum II-5, College of Thelema (1979). ITC Vol. II, No. 5. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum III-4, College of Thelema (1983). ITC Vol. III, No. 4. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum III-5, College of Thelema (1984). ITC Vol. III, No. 5. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum III-6, College of Thelema (1984). ITC Vol. III, No. 6. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum IV, College of Thelema (1989). ITC Vol. IV, No. 5. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum V-4, College of Thelema (1993). ITC Vol. V, No. 4. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum V-9, College of Thelema (1996). ITC Vol. V, No. 9. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum V-10, College of Thelema (1996). ITC Vol. V, No. 10. California: College of Thelema Publishing.

Web links

Commons : Jane Wolfe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ n The Continuum II-5 1979, p. 7
  2. ↑ n The Continuum II-5 1979, p. 9
  3. ↑ n The Continuum II-5 1979, p. 12
  4. ↑ imdb.com Jane Wolfe
  5. ↑ imdb.com Under Strange Flags
  6. ↑ In The Continuum III-5 1984, p. 30
  7. ↑ In The Continuum III-5 1984, p. 32
  8. ↑ In The Continuum II-5 1979, p. 10
  9. ↑ In The Continuum II-5 1979, p. 11
  10. ↑ In The Continuum II-5 1979, p. 12
  11. ↑ In The Continuum II-5 1979, p. 16
  12. ↑ In The Continuum II-5 1979, p. 35
  13. ^ Order of the Lion and Eagle: Phyllis Seckler
  14. ↑ David Shoemaker, Jane Wolfe: The Cefalu Diaries 1920-1923. Temple of the Silver Star, 112
personal data
SURNAME Wolfe, Jane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolf, Sarah Jane (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English actress and thelemite
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 1958
Place of death Gelandals