Boleskine House
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Boleskine House (boll-ESS-kin; Scottish Gaelic: Both Fhleisginn) was the estate of author and occultist Aleister Crowley from 1899 to 1913. It is located on the South-Eastern shore of Loch Ness in Scotland, two miles east of the Village of Foyers. The house was built in the late 18th century by Archibald Fraser.
Background
Crowley purchased the home in order to perform the operation found in The Book of the Sacred Magick of Abra-Melin the Mage. To perform it, Crowley says,
One must have a house where proper precautions against disturbance can be taken; this being arranged, there is really nothing to do but to aspire with increasing fervor and concentration, for six months, towards the obtaining of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
In The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (Chapter 22), he continues:
The first essential is a house in a more or less secluded situation. There should be a door opening to the north from the room of which you make your oratory. Outside this door, you construct a terrace covered with fine river sand. This ends in a "lodge" where the spirits may congregate.[1]
Crowley eventually sold the manor in order to fund the publication of The Equinox, Vol. III. However, he later alleged that the funds were stolen by the Grand Treasurer General of Ordo Templi Orientis, George MacNie Cowie.
Kiblah of Thelema
Aleister Crowley considered Boleskine to be the Thelemic Kiblah. This is an Arabic word which refers to the direction of Mecca, the holiest shrine of Islam. It has a slightly different meaning in Thelema, as it is mentioned in several rituals written by Crowley where it is identified with the East. The Gnostic Mass and Liber Reguli both identify the principal orientation (sometimes known as "Magical East") as being towards Boleskine. It is considered to be the focal point of the magical energies (also called the "93 Current") of the Aeon of Horus. In this way it is similar to Jerusalem in Judaism and Mecca in Islam.
As Sabazius X (1998) notes:
Thus, the location of Boleskine House is to be the Omphalos or Center of Power for Thelema, and is to continue as such for the duration of the Aeon of Horus, regardless of the physical presence of the Stèle or of the house itself. Thus, O.T.O. Lodges, Profess-Houses and Gnostic Mass Temples are ideally to be oriented towards Boleskine.[2]
House and grounds
Boleskine House is located on the South-Eastern shore of Loch Ness in Scotland.
Crowley describes Boleskine in Confessions:
The house is a long low building. I set apart the south-western half for my work. The largest room has a bow window and here I made my door and constructed the terrace and lodge. Inside the room I set up my oratory proper. This was a wooden structure, lined in part with the big mirrors which I brought from London.
The home includes the entrance hall, five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a drawing room, dining room, family room, kitchen, utility room, and the cellars. The grounds (about 47 acres) includes the Gate Lodge, which was originally the home for a coachman. It has a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom, as well as a pond, small garden and an orchard.
Ownership by Jimmy Page
From the early 1970s until 1991 Boleskine was owned by famed Led Zeppelin guitarist and Aleister Crowley enthusiast, Jimmy Page, who once called Crowley "a misunderstood genius of the 20th Century" [citation needed].
Page's fantasy sequence in the Led Zeppelin concert film The Song Remains the Same was filmed at night on the mountainside directly behind Boleskine House.
Page claimed that the house was haunted by a severed head.[3]
Boleskine House in fiction
The novel The Sword of Moses by Dominic Selwood (Corax, London, 2013, ISBN 978-0992633202) has several scenes set at Boleskine House.
Boleskine is featured in Caitlín R. Kiernan's novella "Random Notes Before a Fatal Crash."
References
- ↑ Crowley, Aleister (1929). The Spirit of Solitude: an autohagiography: subsequently re-Antichristened The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. London: Mandrake Press.
- ↑ Sabazius (1998). "The Kiblah". The Invisible Basilica of Sabazius. Retrieved 2013-02-25.
- ↑ "A-Z of Led Zeppelin". Herald Scotland. 2007-11-10. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
Sources
- Crowley, Aleister (1979), The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, Routledge & Kegan Paul
- Crowley, Aleister (1997), Magick: Book 4, Weiser
- Sabazius. (1998). The Kiblah. Retrieved on 14 May 2006.
- Thelemapedia. (2004). Boleskine House. Retrieved 2 May 2006.
External links
- The Kiblah, by Sabazius X°
- Aleister Crowley at Boleskine House