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Did Aleister Crowley Unleash Demons at Loch Ness?

The atmospheric 9-minute film above, by Brian Butler, depicts a magical ritual on the grounds of Boleskine House at Loch Ness – a former residence of the infamous magician Aleister Crowley (and later, of rock guitar legend and occult enthusiast Jimmy Page). Most people know of the famous loch only through its alleged resident monster, but the Fortean roots of this Scottish location run deeper than that, as the film above suggests.

Situated in the north of Scotland, Loch Ness is nearly 24 miles in length, and at some points around 300 metres in depth – more than enough to conjure up all sorts of fears in human minds of what may lie beneath. And as paranormal researcher Nick Redfern pointed out in an article in Darklore Volume 2 (Amazon US or Amazon UK), there’s no shortage of weirdness to dip into in the history of the place, including “encounters with UFOs, Men in Black, shape-shifting water-horses known as kelpies, demons, spooks, specters, fairies, and much more.”

In his article, Nick notes the dark history of Crowley’s former residence and the central location it plays in many of the location’s legends:

Originally a hunting lodge for noblemen, Boleskine House was constructed more than two centuries ago on the southern side of the dark loch. During his time at Boleskine, Crowley was engaged in a magical sequence that was designed to create a “knowledge and conversation with the holy guardian angel.” The ritual was an elaborate one, consisting of several weeks of purification and ritual
work for Crowley.

Interestingly, at the site of what is arguably the world’s most famous monster, Crowley’s actions (which included black masses and wild orgies) led to some disturbing phenomena. In his autobiography, Crowley described how the spirits he summoned at Loch Ness got wildly out of hand, causing one housemaid to leave, and a workman to go mad. Crowley also insinuated that he was indirectly responsible for a local butcher accidentally severing an artery and bleeding to death. Crowley had allegedly written the names of demons on a bill from the butcher’s shop.

Across from Boleskine House is a graveyard with a reputation for strange activity, and which was established long before Crowley even set foot on the scene. One legend suggests a tunnel exists linking Boleskine and the graveyard, and that is said to be the haunt of a band of unholy witches.

Crowley’s summoning of strange entities, mixed with the strange legends and folklore surrounding Fortean occurrences at Loch Ness, have led some, including cryptozoologist Richard Freeman, to ask whether the famous occultist’s ritual “worked in a way that Crowley had not foreseen?”

Jimmy Page himself has noted the sulfurous stench that pervades Boleskine House. “A man was beheaded there and sometimes you can hear his head rolling down,” he said in a 1975 interview. “That sort of thing was there before Crowley got there. Of course, after Crowley there have been suicides, people carted off to mental hospitals.”

But in truth, Crowley was late to the party when it comes to trying to harness the demons of Loch Ness. A century previous, in 1833, the Inverness Courier newspaper reported that a local resident, one George MacGregor (alias “Willox the Warlock”) had passed away. As Nick Redfern notes, found among his possessions was a “piece of yellow metal resembling a horse’s bridle, which in the days of yore was sported by a mischievous water Kelpie, who haunts the banks of Loch Ness and Loch Spynie.”

In other words, spirits have been called from the vasty deep of Loch Ness for a long, long time now…

For Nick Redfern’s complete article about Loch Ness, “What Lies Beneath”, see Darklore Volume 2 (Amazon US or Amazon UK).

Editor
  1. The Real Monster’s the Fault Everything Lies On
    “spirits have been called from the vasty deep of Loch Ness for a long, long time now…”

    If not indeed from the very bowels of the Earth herself Greg.

    I only started taking Nessie more seriously myself when I finally recently cottoned onto the significance of the fact the whole Ice Age glacier gouge the loch is stands over an enormous fault hundreds of millions of years old.

    In other words Greg the real monster whether or not Nessie exists in any form’s the fault itself.

    And what a big bastard it is.

    [To quote the website Legend of Nessie.

    [The fault is not a simple fault and is complex for 3 reasons:-

    [(a) It is a transcurrent (tear) fault.

    [(b) Movement has produced a zone of shattered rock half to a mile wide.

    [(c) There is also a vertical component with uplift (and erosion) to the north of the fault.

    [The fault is a very old feature and has been active since Mid Devonian times (c.400 million years ago). A concensus of the evidence for movement along the fault would suggest that the north moved c.80 miles to the SW (sinistral), followed by an adjustment of c.18 miles in the opposite direction (dextral). This latter firth being out of alignment. With regard to the sinistral movement, much interest has also centred on the similar Foyers and Strontian granites presently 66 miles apart which may have originated as one intrusion.

    [The shatter belt of rock produced by the fault movement is mostly under Loch Ness, and the ease with which erosion could remove this rock accounts for the wide straight trench of the Great Glen. Shattered rock is very evident in road cuttings by the loch at Castle Urquhart and Foyers. There are deposits of mylonite to the SW of Fort Augustus, proving the heat and pressure produced by the movement].

    I remember ardently following the whole Jimmy Page purchase of Boleskin House circus in the British music press as a teen in the Seventies (though as a Bowie fan Led Zeppelin never really did it for me) and couldn’t work out the attraction such a tiddler as Nessie and an Ice Age duck pond like the loch held for Crowley.

    Now I finally understand.

    Thanks Greg/Nick.

  2. so…
    the lock ness monster is a demonic entity, eh?

    [quote=]…cryptozoologist Richard Freeman, to ask whether the famous occultist’s ritual “worked in a way that Crowley had not foreseen?”[quote/]

    I held out a lot more hope for cryptozoology, c’mon guys you are supposed to have a “scientific mind”

    poor nessy 🙁

    1. I wonder if Nessie is similar
      I wonder if Nessie is similar to the creatures sighted at that ranch in New Mexico where all sorts of oddities would slip in through some kind of portal and cavort around killing cattle and such and then go back where they came from. If Bigfoot too is a time sensitive entity so to speak who can manifest with time tricks then Nessie could be too. The problem with opened portals is that the opener does not usually have much control over what comes through. I would say that Crowley probably had little control.

      1. Good question
        The problem is that tears in the fabric of time and space tend to be controlled more often by “beings” on the other side of that portal, and they are not going to close it anytime soon. As for the animal part, I do believe animals can sense and see the “other side” and various other dimensional beings popping in and out. Perhaps Nessie is a warning of something much worse to come through. Time like this I wish I had these:
        http://www.therpf.com/attachments/f9/hellboy-troll-viewer-schufftein-glasses-reference-build-hbabeglassesly2.jpg-41936d1294022467

      2. Skinwalker Ranch
        That was in Utah, if I’m not mistaken.

        And it’s an interesting idea, couple with what Alan Borky has mused re. the loch’s unusual geological features.

    2. ‘Scientific Mind’
      I hear you, and yet it’s difficult not to start considering more outré explanations when it comes to some of the most famous cryptids, like Nessie and Bigfoot; when you take into consideration how (a) Cameras and equipment appear to breakdown or refuse to function just when the monster hunters have the beastie in sight, and could take the perfect picture of it; and (b) how after so many decades one single carcass of Bigfoot has never surfaced, and in fact there are accounts of people shooting Bigfoot and the bullets ‘bounce off’ of it.

      Between the ‘well-grounded’ cryptozoologists who see these creatures as nothing but unknown biological species, and the fringier Forteans who see them as denizens of alternative realities, I still choose to sit on the fence, and wait 😉

      1. get ur shovels
        [quote=red pill junkie] and (b) how after so many decades one single carcass of Bigfoot has never surfaced, and in fact there are accounts of people shooting Bigfoot and the bullets ‘bounce off’ of it.[/quote]

        I always thought it could be possible that they bury their dead which is why we don’t find the bodies. Bigfoot seem to be very sentient beings living in small tight knit families like we do, so it makes sense. Another possibility is that other animals such as large cats, wolves, coyotes, etc. carry off pieces of the dead creature and scatter it’s bones. Carrion eaters also tend to cache or bury food underground, so we should start digging. And in the heat of the summer, things decompose twice as fast, especially in the forest. Then smaller animals like rodents also carry off bones, fur, and pieces to line there nests and feed.

      2. Unexplored Forest Area’s?
        Red Pill

        In the northwest part of North America, Northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, there are large tracts of forest that have never been explored. In this forested area, especially the British Columbian part, you see many strange things like frogs with tails, giant beaver, etc.. So, there is still hope for Big Foot!

          1. Northwestern North American Virgin Forest Beavers Are Unique!
            Red Pill

            You haven’t seen Beavers until you’ve seen Northwestern North American Virgin Forest Beavers!

            Giant Beavers were very common in North America until they were hunted to extinction. The died out in the part of the 19th century, by about 1820; but, there are still some Giant Beavers in the area from Northern California through British Columbia, mainly in British Columbia. {~Es Verdad~}

          2. Castoroides
            Imagine the utter disappointment of Bobo & Co., all ready to hunt down Bigfoot, just to find themselves with a giant beaver instead —why, they might not even bother to film it at all! 😉

  3. Yes Skinwalker Ranch came to
    Yes Skinwalker Ranch came to mind. The interesting question is: what constitutes these anomaly-areas? Is something like intense geographical eletromagnetic field required?

  4. As soon as I read “black
    As soon as I read “black masses” I lost interest. Whenever someone starts talking about Crowley you can be sure they know very little about the Occult or Crowley. (96% of the Time)

      1. Time slips are probably as
        Time slips are probably as natural as rain falling and wind blowing. There is a big taboo about this stuff because knowing something about it empowers one to have other skills and assets, and it appears that power structures do not want to let those cats out of the bag.They regard populations that have acquired this knowledge to be ungovernable in the manner they wish to govern.
        As an orgoniteer myself I know from first hand experience how easy it is to unlock aetheric power and how it can be used and is being used to alter reality in a good way that frees people of their fear based conditioning. The reason Wilhelm Reich was singled out for especially intense tar and feathering is that he was “on to something.” He was not a harmless quack or even a quack period. He had opened the door to something very, very big and very, very easy for Everyman to access. That is why the government’s reaction to him was so violent and swift. When they are afraid that is how they act. What they probably fear about Bigfoot et. al. is not that it would precipitate a religious or metaphysical crisis, but that such discovery will open Pandora’s Box and hint at powers that enable people to alter reality according to their liking independent of the current fear based power structures.
        By the way, creeps, it is too late. The train done left the station. We are well on our way to a higher freedom though the road will no doubt be bumpy.

          1. from the Syrinx-Esophageal-Dance-Dept.
            i do hope it won’t be by a monotheist — i wouldn’t think they would be able to handle shaking hand-equivalents with a being that is covered in pubic hair :3

          2. Speaking of time slips here
            Speaking of time slips here is an episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories related by the actor Daniel Stern who apparently fell into a time slip with his new wife on their honeymoon in the town of Widdicombe, England. This Youtube has dicey sound, and maybe its not all there, but you get the idea. Both Stern and his wife sear to this day that they fell into a bizarre time tunnel, and later found out that Widdicombe is considered haunted by the general region who counseled him not to go there anymore not that he need much convincing in that regard.

          3. from the Close-By-Sound-of-Thunder-Dept.
            the Archeological value to this is immense, if one could learn (and then teach?) how to do this voluntarily :3

        1. Switching timelines
          I have never encountered the phenomena of time slips myself, although I have to confess I would love to have done it. However, I have encountered another phenomena with time numerous times although I don’t really have a name for it. I have switched or jumped timelines many times in my life. Well, maybe 10-15 years or so. It could have happened long before that although I haven’t been aware of it. Because it is not exactly like in Hollyweird pictures with loads of sound and flashes and such. I don’t know how or why it happens. I’ve never figured that out. But I agree with you that it is probably as natural and spontaneous as you suggest with time slips though. I’ve never jumped back or forth in time. It’s always the contemporary line but to another parallell timeline to the previous one. Still feels a bit weird though but perhaps not as strange as time slips.

    1. Crowley Was A Renegade
      Yes, I agree, anyone who has thoroughly studied Crowley, will realize that alot of propaganda has been written about a “rebel” of late Victorian English society.
      He loved to ‘blow their minds’…hypocritical, prudish, Christians of 19th century England..loved to diss him for his paganism..and his spirited life style.
      He broke social taboos…he was a Victorian *Jim Morrison *…a break on through type guy, a writer and poet,one of the great minds of the times.
      He studied Hinduism, and Buddism Tantra.. Yoga.
      John Lennon and Yoko Ono studied Crowley…and Lennon put him on the cover of Sg Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Album.
      John Lennon was a peaceful, utopian kind of guy..abundance for all..Imagine…Mind Games…ta ta ta
      Crowley was the epitome of the Victorian Rebel…and a
      Fabulous Magician.

      “all men and women are stars”–Crowley

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