Aleister Crowley's house is set to re-open to visitors but do you dare? – Scotsman comment

Would you dare set foot in the house that once belonged to “the Great Beast 666, Perabduro, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, the wickedest man in the world” aka occultist Aleister Crowley?

Boleskine House at Foyers near Loch Ness and its former owner, occultist Aleister Crowley. (Picture: SWNS/Creative Commons)

The Boleskine House Foundation has plans to restore the grade-B listed building on the banks of Loch Ness to its original form under the ownership of the Fraser clan, before Crowley fundamentally changed its reputation in the early 1900s.

Tourists will be able to stay in “hobbit huts” sunken into the hillside of the grounds and guided tours of the building will be given to those who, like Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, another occupant, are unafraid of any visitations from beyond the realm of the living.

The foundation stresses its take on Crowley is “not one of sensationalism or alarmist conjecture as many will find in the popular press, but rather academic in nature, seeing [him] as a historical and cultural figure of his time". And it has “no intention for the house to become a place of pilgrimage or ritual, nefarious or otherwise”.

And that’s a relief. In 1923, at his so-called “Abbey of Thelema” on Sicily, the headquarters of his new religion, an Englishman died in what were described as “mysterious circumstances” after a ritual that apparently involved drinking the blood of a cat. Crowley, whose life revolved around the occult, drugs and something called “sex magic”, was expelled from Italy as a result.

In a mostly rational age, we tend to disdain such things. But what if, while cosy in a hobbit hut, there came a sudden bump in the night and a strange light appeared outside… Would you hold your nerve?

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.