Occult -
Aleister
Crowley - Black Magic at Boleskine House?
 Aleister Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley, on 12 October 1875,
in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. Crowley was an occultist, prolific writer, mystic,
astrologer, poet, painter, hedonist, and social provocateur, as well as
an expert mountaineer and chess master. An influential and controversial
character, Crowley is known today for his occult writings, including The
Confessions of Aleister Crowley, Magick without Tears and The
Book of the Law. The latter work was 'received' by Crowley from a an
entity named Aiwass in Cairo, Egypt in 1904, and represents the fundamental
sacred text of his philosophical / religious / occult system known as
Thelema, whose central concept was 'Do What Thou Wilt shall be the whole
of The Law'.
During his
lifetime Crowley was vilified by the popular press as 'The
Wickedest Man in the World', and the tabloids regularly carried
sensational stories of his latest shocking exploits in occult
experimentation. Naturally, when he purchased a mysterious old mansion
on the shores of Loch Ness, allegedly to perform some strange secret
rites, the press were fascinated.
Boleskine
House is located on the south-eastern shore of Loch Ness, close to the
village of Foyers, Inverness shire, Scotland.
 The mansion was constructed
in the late 18th century by Archibald Fraser.
According to a local legend, there was once a
church on the site, which caught fire trapping its whole congregation
inside, burning them all to death. Aleister Crowley purchased the
foreboding Boleskine House in 1899 and styled himself 'Laird of Boleskine
and Abertarff'. He remained there until 1913, and bizarre tales of odd
goings on at Boleskine House during his occupancy are legion, though the
majority probably originate in local folklore.
One story
concerns a local butcher who called at the house for the meat order
while Crowley was involved in the lengthy difficult ritual of Abramelin
(see below). The butcher's incessant ringing of the bell broke Crowley's
concentration and, irritated and frustrated, he hastily scrawled the meat order
on the nearest piece of paper, which happened to have a spell written on the
back. Shortly afterwards, when the butcher was cutting up the meat for Crowley's
order back at his shop, he apparently lost concentration and sliced all the
fingers off his right hand with the cleaver. Other stories tell of the
unexplained disappearance of Crowley's housekeeper and a local workman who went
out of his mind after being tormented by the dark spirits conjured up by
Crowley's rituals.
 The actual magical
ritual which Crowley attempted to perform at Boleskine had nothing to do with
black masses or black magic. It is known as the 'Abramelin Operation', taken
from ' The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage', a famous grimoire
(book of magical knowledge), dating back to at least the middle of the 15th
century. Crowley seems to have become aware of the ritual from the 1897
translation of the book by occultist Samuel Liddel Mathers, one of the founders
of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which Crowley had joined in 1898,
before falling out with most of its members, including Mathers, a few years
later. The purpose of performing the lengthy and intense Abramelin ritual was for the magician to communicate with his 'Holy
Guardian Angel' or Higher Self. Unfortunately for Crowley and those around him
the Abramelin rites seem to
have succeeded mainly in summoning 'demons' or 'the Abramelin
devils' as Crowley calls them. During Crowley's occupancy there were reports of
a heavy, oppressive atmosphere at Boleskine, dark eerie shadows filled the
house, fierce winds blew through the rooms despite calm weather outside, and
strange figures were seen in the area. There is also a legend of an underground
passage way linking the house with a nearby graveyard, said to have been
utilised by Crowley for some unknown reason, perhaps to scare off intruders.
Crowley later sold
Boleskine House and it subsequently had a series of private owners including, in
the 1970s, Led Zeppelin guitarist and Crowley fanatic Jimmy Page. Even today the
property retains a slightly sinister atmosphere. To many modern occultists the geographical
and spiritual significance
of Boleskine remains extremely important. In fact, practitioners of Thelema,
Crowley's religious philosophy, are still instructed to 'turn and face north to Boleskine'
when conducting certain magical ceremonies.
Sources and Further
Reading
Booth,
M. A Magick Life: The Life of Aleister Crowley. Coronet Books. 2001.
Crowley,
Aleister. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, Routledge & Kegan Paul.
1979.
Kaczynski, R. Perdurabo:
The Life of Aleister Crowley.
Sutin, L. Do
What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister
Crowley. Griffin Trade Paperbacks. 2002.
Copyright 2006 by Brian Haughton. All Rights Reserved.
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