A Life of Aleister Crowley

Author/Guide: Lawrence Sutin

Why a Booktrail?

1875 – 1947: Aleister Crowley, known as The Beast, owned a certain house on the banks of Loch Ness

ISBN: 978-0312288976
Genre: Biography/memoirs, Ghost/supernatural

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What you need to know before your trail

Aleister Crowley was a blustery coward, an arrogant, misogynistic racist with fascist leanings, and a callous user, as often threatened by his sexuality as he claimed to be liberated by it. But he was also a groundbreaking poet and an iconoclastic visionary whose literary and cultural legacies extend far beyond the limits of his reputation. This controversial individual, a frightening mixture of egomania and self-loathing, has inspired passionate–but seldom fair–assesments by historians. Sutin, by treating Crowley as a cultural phenomenon, and not simply a sorcerer or a charlatan, convinces skeptic readers that the self-styled “Beast” remains a fascinating study in eccentricity.

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Travel Guide

BookTrail Travel to Loch Ness

Boleskine House

Boleskine House really is a manor on the south-east side of Loch Ness. The house is famous for many reasons; in particular, home of author and occultist Aleister Crowley. Led Zeppelin guitarist and producer Jimmy Page has also lived at the house.

Aleister Crowley

Crowley purchased Boleskine House from the Fraser family in 1899. Crowley believed the location was ideal as he wanted to lock himself away from the world and dabble in his version of black magic. He believed in many things concerning spirits and believed that they needed a secluded lodge where they could congregate. Rituals were performed to invoke spirits, figures from the underworld which he would then banish to protect the land and the people in the house. However, the experiment failed as he was called away on business concerning the rituals and belief system and so the spirits he had conjured stayed in the house, and never left.

Strange events had said to have happened to Crowley and staff in the house and anyone who has had dealings with the house ever since. Legend has it that death, murder, hauntings and strange behaviours have affected subsequent inhabitants and their families.