Marjorie Cameron

Marjorie Cameron
Cameron in the mid 1940s.
Born	Marjorie Cameron April 23, 1922 Belle Plaine, Iowa, U.S.
Died	June 24, 1995(1995-06-24) (aged 73) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Known for	Drawing, painting, poetry
Movement	Beat generation, psychedelia, occultism, surrealism

Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel (April 23, 1922 – June 24, 1995), who professionally used the mononym Cameron, was an American artist, poet, actress, and occultist. A follower of Thelema, the new religious movement established by the English occultist Aleister Crowley, she was also the wife of rocket pioneer and fellow Thelemite Jack Parsons.

Born in Belle Plaine, Iowa, Cameron volunteered for services in the United States' Navy during the Second World War, after which she settled in Pasadena, California. There she met Parsons, who believed her to be the "Elemental woman" that he had invoked in the early stages of a series of sex magic rituals called the Babalon Working. They entered a relationship and were married in 1946. Their relationship was often strained, although Parsons sparked her involvement in Thelema and occultism. After Parsons' death in an explosion at their home in 1952, Cameron came to suspect that her husband had been assassinated and began rituals to communicate with his spirit. Moving to Beaumont, she established a multi-racial occult group called The Children, which dedicated itself to sex magical rituals with the intent of producing mixed-race "moon children" who would be devoted to the god Horus. The group soon dissolved, with many of its members concerned by Cameron's increasingly apocalyptic predictions.

Returning to Los Angeles, Cameron befriended the socialite Samson De Brier and established herself as a figure within the city's avant-garde artistic community. Among her friends were the filmmakers Curtis Harrington and Kenneth Anger. She appeared in two of Harrington's films, The Wormwood Star and Night Tide, as well as in Anger's film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, and in later years she would also make appearances in art-house films created by John Chamberlain and Chick Strand. Rarely remaining in one place for long, during the 1950s and 1960s she lived for periods in Joshua Tree, San Francisco, and Santa Fe. In 1955 she gave birth to a daughter, Crystal Eve Kimmel. Although health problems at times prevented her from working, she produced enough art and poetry to result in several exhibitions. From the late 1970s through to her death from cancer in 1995, Cameron lived in a bungalow in West Hollywood, there raising her daughter and grandchildren, continuing to pursue her interests in esotericism, and producing further artworks and poetry.