Helen Parsons Smith

Helen Parsons Smith (born Mary Helen Cowley, and growing up as Helen Northrup, 1910 – July 27, 2003) was an American occultist, entrepreneur, book editor, and publisher. She served as Priestess of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica at Agape Lodge of Ordo Templi Orientis in Pasadena, California, during the 1940s, and the independent Church of Thelema in Malibu during the 1950s, which her second husband Wilfred Talbot Smith led. Parsons Smith was the sister of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's wife Sara Northrup Hollister, and was the first wife of Jack Parsons, a prominent figure in both rocket engineering and occultism. She married Parsons in 1935. She participated in his interest in the occult, particularly in the teachings of Aleister Crowley's Thelema movement. Alongside Parsons, she engaged in various rituals and practices associated with Thelema, acting as Priestess in The Gnostic Mass. During the 1970s, Parsons Smith played a role in the dissemination of Thelemic teachings and practices within the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) community. She became involved in the editorial process of The Equinox, a serial publication associated with O.T.O. She ran a small company for publishing books, Thelema Publications.