num_pages: 25
description: In 1920 the Swiss-American music teacher and occultist Leah Hirsig (18831975) was appointed Scarlet Woman by the British occultist Aleister Crowley (18751947) founder of the religion Thelema. In this role Hirsig was Crowleys right-hand woman during a formative period in the Thelemic movement but her position shifted when Crowley found a new Scarlet Woman in 1924. Hirsigs importance in Thelema gradually declined and she distanced herself from the movement in the late 1920s. The article analyses Hirsigs changing status in Thelema 19191930 proposing the term proximal authority as an auxiliary category to Max Webers tripartite typology. Proximal authority is defined as authority ascribed to or enacted by a person based on their real or perceived relational closeness to a leader. The article briefly draws on two parallel cases so as to demonstrate the broader applicability of the term in highlighting how relational closeness to a leadership figure can entail considerable yet precarious power.
language: English
title: Proximal Authority: The Changing Role of Leah Hirsig in Aleister Crowley’s Thelema, 1919–1930
publisher: Brill