Aleister Crowley Panic Gets Stirred Up Over Boleskine House

Satanic panic grips Loch Ness as an innovative historian attempts to conserve the “not so good” name of England’s most controversial occultist, Aleister Crowley. Back in November the  Daily Record  said “Fears are growing” that Boleskine House, the former Loch Ness home of the controversial English ceremonial magician, Aleister Crowley, would soon become “a black magic hub.” And it looks like new plans to restore the fire damaged roofless building that was Boleskine House will be passed next week, causing a similar stir locally, as also happened in 1904 AD when the occultist visited Boleskine House.

Aleister Crowley as Magus, Liber ABA, in 1912 AD. (Public domain)

Aleister Crowley as Magus, Liber ABA, in 1912 AD. ( Public domain

Aleister Crowley And The Way The Media Portrays Controversy

Aleister Crowley  (1875-1947 AD) was a British occultist, writer, and mountaineer who practiced ceremonial “magick.” He called himself “ The Beast 666”  after he calculated a numerical process by which the letters of his name totaled the Biblical number associated with Satan,  666.

And it should be held in mind that Crowley was a dedicated media antagonizer and a marketer trying to sell books, so he chose this name to shock, and of course the suckers at daily newspapers at the time took his bait hook line and sinker. Hence: wickedest man in the world, who “drank blood and staged huge orgies there fueled by heroin and cocaine,” according to the  Daily Record .

Adding to this tiresome media narrative, that so predictably only defames Crowley, the  Daily Record  described the poet only as an “orgie-loving, drug fuelled occultist” and refer to him as the “ wickedest man in the world .” This name was another sensationalist, and naive, term coined by reporters in London to sell papers in the early 20th century.

However, what you won’t read often is that Crowley is repeatedly called a “literary  genius,” for example, by Los Angeles-based composer/librettist  David Hertzberg  after his successful 2017 opera, “ The Wake World: A Tale for Babes and Sucklings .” Hertzberg was inspired by Aleister Crowley’s outstanding work of the same name telling the story of the internal journey of Lola as she travels through the magical tree of life with her  guardian angel .

Boleskine House was destroyed by fire in 2019 and this is what’s left today. (Boleskine House Foundation)

Boleskine House was destroyed by fire in 2019 and this is what’s left today. ( Boleskine House Foundation )

Boleskine House: Where Crowley Lived For 5 Months In 1904 AD

The Loch Ness  property known as Boleskine House is currently managed by London lawyer and academic Keith Readdy. And in November 2020 AD, protesters demanded the local council reject his plans to restore the once glorious but now neglected  estate.

Crowley lived in Boleskine House in 1904 for 5 months. The house was later bought by Led Zeppelin’ guitarist Jimmy Page. And now, Mr Readdy wants to build ten holiday lodges on the property. The  Daily Record  said opponents fear the sprawling lake side property will become “a pilgrimage site for occultists and Satanists.” However, as a great majority of us know, there´s a BIG difference between an “occultist” and a “Satanist.”

Mr Readdy´s non-profit charity  website is very clear about its aims which are to “use the estate to promote education on the heritage of the house, to welcome the enjoyment of its structure and surrounding gardens.” And he is openly “not affiliated with Aleister Crowley or  Thelema” and runs an independent organization “with primary secular interests to restore the house.” However, the  Daily Record  stated:

“Many Thelemites know Boleskine House as the significant place in history where Aleister Crowley underwent the intensive ceremony known as The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage in an attempt to contact his Holy Guardian Angel.”

The Hypocrisy Regarding Crowley Is Quite Unreal Here

Read that last sentence again and you might see the hilarity in all this. Crowley was attempting to contact his “Holy Guardian Angel,” the same one he wrote about in  The Wake World , that famous opera. Yet, none of the tens of thousands of opera fans shared this “fear” of the Holy Guardian Angel. And, perhaps more ridiculous is that every single Christian who has ever attended a church has attempted to commune with their “Holy Guardian Angel,” which is generally referred to as Jesus in the Christian context.

To Crowley, communicating with “his” Holy Guardian Angel was achieving a higher state of  consciousness, and he followed an old ritual laid out in a 16th-century-AD German-Jewish alchemic book. That medieval work describes facing one’s inner fears, as conceptual demons, by physically raising them, containing them, and then banishing them. Nothing more than Sabrina does on every episode of the hit Netflix series.

What Boleskine House once looked like and will hopefully look like again. (Boleskine House Foundation)

What Boleskine House once looked like and will hopefully look like again. ( Boleskine House Foundation )

Looks Like There Are Two Problems Here, And I am One

If Mr Readdy IS trying to attract “Satanists” to Loch Ness, then so am I! For the 70th anniversary of Crowley’s death, I filmed a documentary at Boleskine House titled  Alistair Crowley Demystified , telling the story of Crowley´s 1904 ritual on the banks of Loch Ness. Although Crowley attempted to raise “ the Grand Dukes and High Princes of Hell, ” my film explores the burnt architecture and mind of one of the most misunderstood “psychonauts” in modern history.

And having spent the day in the fire-shattered historic building, with not a spirit to be seen, I am delighted, supportive and impressed by the bravado of Mr Readdy and his efforts to preserve a deeply historic building on the banks of Scotland’s premiere monster haunt. And according to a more recent article in  The Times , the plans “are set to be approved next week.”

Ohhhh, you better watch out for here come the Thelamites screaming their terrifying slogan: “ Love is the law / Love Under Will .” You see, Crowley and modern followers of his religion, Thelema, regard “Love” as the highest form of being and existence, “pure love,” not the one you have for your partner, or your dog, but a more universal kinda love. 

Top image: The outline of Boleskine House in Scotland, which burnt down in 2019 and is now being restored, despite protests and fear mongering.            Source: Aaron Sneddon /  CC BY-SA 4.0

By Ashley Cowie

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