Helen Parsons Smith (born Mary Helen Northrup) was an American occultist, entrepreneur, editor, and publisher who was a central figure in the mid-20th-century American occult movement. Born in 1910, she became deeply involved in the teachings of Aleister Crowley's Thelema movement. She served as a Priestess of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica at the Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) in Pasadena, California, during the 1940s, and later co-founded the independent Church of Thelema in Malibu during the 1950s with her second husband, Wilfred Talbot Smith.
Smith's personal life was closely intertwined with key figures of her era. She was the sister of Sara Northrup Hollister (wife of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard) and the first wife of Jack Parsons, a pioneer in rocket engineering and occultism. Marrying Parsons in 1935, she supported his groundbreaking work in rocket propulsion, which led to the founding of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Aerojet Engineering Corporation, while actively participating in his occult rituals and serving as Priestess in The Gnostic Mass.
In the 1970s, Smith transitioned into a significant editorial and publishing role to preserve and disseminate Thelemic teachings. Through her own imprint, Thelema Publications, she oversaw the publication of several issues of The Equinox (Volume III), a seminal serial publication of the O.T.O. Her efforts as a publisher and editor ensured the survival and expansion of Thelemic literature, cementing her legacy within the modern occult tradition.
