- Madeline Montalban
-
Madeline Montalban (1910-1982), who had been born as Dolores North and was also known as Sylvia Royals, was an influential English ceremonial magician known for founding the occult organisation known as the Order of the Morning Star, through which she taught her own form of Luciferian magic.[1]
Contents
Biography
Early life
She was born as Madeline Sylvia Royals on 8 January 1910 in Blackpool.[2] During the 1930s, she became a journalist for Reuters Press Agency and the Daily Express, and it was through the latter that she was sent to interview the famous occultist and founder of the Thelemite religion, Aleister Crowley. When she first visited him at his lodgings in Jermyn Street, he was suffering from an asthma attack, and having had experience with tis ailment from a family member she was able to help him, earning his gratitude. They subsequently went to the expensive Café Royal in Regent Street, where after their lunch, he revealed that he was unable to pay, leaving Montalban to sort out payment.[3] A number of years later, in the late 1940s, Kenneth Grant, one of Crowley's followers, knew Montalban, and along with his wife they performed rituals together at Montalban's flat.[4] Meanwhile, in 1939 she married a man named George E. North in London.[5]
In the late 1940s, an English Wiccan named Gerald Gardner decided to publish a novel entitled High Magic's Aid, in which he had included many of the practices that the Witches he had encountered in the New Forest coven adhered to. Deciding to publish it through the Atlantis Bookshop, which was then run by Michael Houghton, the original manuscript was edited by Montalban, who was associated with the shop.[6] Gardner himself incorrectly believed that "she claimed to be a Witch; but got evrything [sic] wrong" although credited her with having "a lively imagination."[7] She meanwhile had little respect for him and his tradition of Gardnerian Wicca, considering him to be "a 'dirty old man' and sexual pervert."[3]
The Order of the Morning Star
In 1956, she founded the Order of the Morning Star, or Ordo Stella Matutina. She believed that in a former life, the group's members had been "initiates of the Babylonian and Ancient Egyptian priesthood" from where they had originally all known each other.[3] According to later members of her Order, Montalban’s basis was in Hermeticism, although she was heavily influenced by Mediaeval and Early Modern grimoires like the Picatrix, Corpus Hermeticum, The Heptameron of Peter d'Abano, The Key of Solomon, The Book of Abramelin, and Cornelius Agrippa's Occult Philosophy.[1] A Witch known as Rolla Nordic, according to her own accounts, was a member of Montalban's group.[8]
In 1967, a young man who was interested in witchcraft and the occult known as Michael Howard wrote to Montalban after reading one of her articles in Prediction magazine. Whilst she did not usually respond to enquiries, something made her decide to do so in Howard's case, and invited him to visit her at her home at Queen Alexandria's Mansions in Grape Street. The two became friends, with Montalban believing that she could see the "Mark of Cain" on him. Over the coming year, he spent much of his time with this older woman, and in 1968 went with her on what she called a "magical mystery tour" to the West Country to visit such places as Stonehenge, Boscastle and Tintagel. In 1969, he was initiated into Gardnerian Wicca, something she disapproved of, and their friendship subsequently "hit a stormy period and we went our own ways for several years."[3]
Religion and Magic
Montalban "totally disliked the theatrical rites of Golden Dawn-type magic and thought a lot of it was just play-acting."[3]
References
- ^ a b "Madeline Montalban and the 'Luciferian Order of the Morning Star', often simply referred to simply as the Order of the Morning Star". SheridanDouglas.co.uk. http://www.sheridandouglas.co.uk/OMS.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- ^ Heselton, Philip (2000). Wiccan Roots. Chieveley, Berkshire: Capall Bann. Page 300.
- ^ a b c d e Howard, Michael (February 2010). "A Seeker's Journey" in The Cauldron #135.
- ^ Grant, Kenneth (1977). Nightshade of Eden. Muller. Page 123-124.
- ^ Heselton, Philip (2000). Wiccan Roots. Chieveley, Berkshire: Capall Bann. Page 300.
- ^ Valiente, Doreen (1989). The Rebirth of Witchcraft. London: Robert Hale. Page 49.
- ^ Gardner, Gerald, quoted in Heselton, Philip (2003). Gerald Gardner and the Cauldron of Inspiration: An Investigation into the Sources of Gardnerian Witchcraft. Milverton, Somerset: Capall Bann. Page 246.
- ^ Howard, Michael (1997). "Gerald Gardner: The Man, the Myth, the Magick" in The Cauldron.
Categories:- 1982 deaths
- English magicians
- 1910 births
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