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Lumber Liquidators is now l L Flooring. These are the floors homes are built on. Man of the Mammoth. When Jack Parsons first heard the name Alista Crowley, he could scarcely have known how much it would change his life. But who was the man once dubbed the wickedest man in the world. With Part two of We Are the Witchcraft, due out on Tuesday, April third, we take a look back at two of the more extraordinary moments of Crowley's life. The story of Bleskin House is inseparable from that of
his most infamous former resident, Alista Crowley. It was a very particular journey that brought Crowley to Bleskin, and it begins a short time before midnight on the twelfth of October eighteen seventy five, with his birth in Royal Leamington, Spa, England. Crowley, who was christened Edward Alexander, was the first of two children born to Edward and Emily Crowley. Their second, a baby girl, would arrive five years later, but would tragically
die after only five hours of life. The family was devoutly religious and belonged to a Christian sect known as the Plymouth Breath. The sect were renowned for their belief in the literal truth of the Bible and their puritanical attitude towards sin and the dangers of temptation. It was into this deeply rigid and conservative environment that Crowley was brought up, an environment which many believe contributed to his
utter rejection of all such beliefs in later life. Owing to his share in the lucrative family brewing business, Crowley's father, Edward, had been able to take an early retirement, and as such divided most of his time between his family and volunteering as a traveling preacher for the sect. Despite the socially claustrophobic upbringing and unhappy childhood, Crowley was utterly devoted
to Edward. In March eighteen eighty seven, Crowley was devastated when his father died after a short battle with cancer. The young Alister was only eleven years old, and the death would prove to be a significant turning point in his life. Crowley's sorrow at the loss of his father soon morphed into anger. That Crowley began attacking the very thing that had made his life such a misery, rejecting what he saw as the zealous and authoritarian scourge of Christianity.
In the years that followed, it would seem that Crowley had developed a pathological yearning to commit the sins he had so studiously been warned against. He started to experiment sexually, dabbled with debauchery, and took any opportunity to point out what he considered to be the many inconsistencies in the Bible to anyone who would listen. Crowley had the sense that he was searching for something, but it wasn't until he arrived at Cambridge University that the pieces began to
shift into place. At some point, Crowley had become interested in the occult, in particular the study of ritual magic, an enthusiasm that was piqued after he read A. E. Waits's The Book of Black Magic and Pacts, an acute interest in alchemy brought him into contact with British chemist and occultist George Cecil Jones, who in turn introduced Crowley to the hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The Order had been established in eighteen eighty eight and was led
by the charismatic Samuel Liddell McGregor Mathis. Some of you may remember that it was to Mathis that the Alpha and Omega group had stayed faithful, the same group to which Netta Fornario had belonged before her death under mysterious circumstances in nineteen twenty nine, As we explored in Episode one, after graduation and with the luxury of his family's brewing dynasty inheritance, Crowley was able to untether himself from the
usual constraints of life. As such, he was free to throw himself into his new and burgeoning obsession of ritual magic. A year after leaving Cambridge, Crowley had moved into a luxury London flat in Chancery Lane and had hired fellow Golden Dawn member Alan Bennett to become his personal magic tutor.
It was Bennett who formerly introduced Crowley to ceremonial magic and the ritual use of drugs, but most importantly to the rituals of the Goetia, the practice of invoking what are commonly known as angels and demons, in particular the urs Goetia, as found in the opening section of the seventeenth century Grimoire The Lesser Key of Solomon, a Grimoire
being another term for a book of magic spells. Maths was impressed by Crowley's dedication and rapid rise through the various grades of the Golden Dawn, and the two became close friends, but Crowley was growing increasingly frustrated with the movement. His frustration was in part due to the reticence that some of the more established members had about Crowley's membership. In what was quite a rarity for the time, Crowley was openly bisexual, a state of affairs that many members
sadly found uncomfortable. But what irked Crowley more than anything was what he considered to be the inherent phoniness of the group, peopled as it was by many esteemed intellects of the day such as W. B. Yates and Brown Stoker. Crowley felt that they were merely playing at magic, and treated the organization as little more than a glorified salon. In what would later become a feature of Crowley's life, he wanted more and to go further than anyone had
gone before. In eighteen ninety eight, Mathers introduced Crowley to a strange nimistical text called The Secret Book of abramel and Magic. The book, which is said to date back to the fifteenth century, recounts the story of an Egyptian carbalistic magician known as Abramelum the Mage and his pupil, Abraham of Vorms in Germany. As the story goes, Abraham found the Maide living in the desert outside a Ratchi,
an Egyptian town near the River Nile. After agreeing to serve and fear the Lord and to live and die in his most holy Law, Abraham was instructed by Abramelin in the divine science and true magic embedded within the two manuscripts. Abraham was warned only to pass this knowledge on to those he knew well and trusted, but now it was in the hands of Alister Crowley. Crucially, the book describes an elaborate ritual known as the Abramelin Operation,
designed to conjure up the magician's guardian angel. It became clear to Crowley that this was the next step that he must take in his path to complete enlightenment. It is a path that many believed to have led to fatal consequences. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, the well healed, Crowley embarked on a lengthy undertaking to find the ideal location for the operation. As Crowley later wrote, the house must be 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. A year after searching, Crowley had failed to find the perfect location. That was until he found himself traveling into the highlands of Scotland along the haunting shores of the
majestic Lochness. A short time later, Crowley arrived at a small grave site by the side of the road overlooking the loch. There, perched a short distance up the hill overlooking the graveyard, he saw it for the first time, the house that would forever become synonymous with his name, Bleskin, the single floored mansion located on the eastern shore of Loch Ness, was built in the late eighteenth century by
a Colonel Archibald Fraser. It is not clear what exactly brought Crowley to Bleskin, though the filmmaker and Crowley aficionado Kenneth Anger has pointed out that he may have been drawn to the name and its similarity to Baal, the Canaan god of gods, later remodeled as the lord of flies. In the Old Testament, Bal is represented by the symbol of the bull, the word Boal from Bleskin, being an
ancient Scottish form of the same animal. Others believe, however, that Crowley had in some way been preternaturally drawn to the house. It was said that a medieval church had once stood on the same site. One morning, with the congregation inside, the church mysteriously caught fire. As the congregation rushed to escape, they found themselves inexplicably trapped inside. Unable to escape, they perished as the church burnt steadily to
the ground. Had something of the event remained, something that Crowley was eager to tap into. It is also said that the graveyard itself was once a meeting point for witches. Reports of a tunnel leading from the house to the grave site, which some claim to have been used by Crowley to conduct his own nighttime rituals, remain unsubstantiated. So convinced was Crowley of the house's suitability that in August eighteen ninety nine, he paid more than twice its value
to secure the property. A short time later, he relocated his possessions and began preparing for the great Operation. It is important at this point to draw the distinction between what many see as Crowley's unhealthy obsession with black magic and satanism, and what, in reality, it was that Crowley hoped to achieve. Whether there is a truth to it or not, Crowley's intention and the sole purpose of the ritual was to seek knowledge and conversation with his own
personal guardian angel. It is, by all accounts, a ritual to invoke positive change, a force for good, but there was one glaringly large catch. In order to do this, Crowley would have to invoke and then bring under his control the twelve Kings of Hell before beginning the ritual, which required him to start in Easter. Crowley spent the intervening month entertaining guests and readying the property in preparation for the ceremony. The final stage was to cover the
outdoor terrace in a fine river sand. The reason was simple. It was so Crowley could see the feat marks of the spirits and demons he was about to invoke. The ritual was to last six months and required the utmost conviction. It would require him to live off little more than bread and water, and to wait regularly at three am to begin the invocations. Chastity had to be observed at all times, and complete abstinence was paramount for the free
spirited Crowley. That in itself would have proved a tall order. However, as the winter snow of eighteen ninety nine began to thaw and with it past the season of death, new life was bursting forth throughout the surrounding hills. Spring had finally arrived, and Crowley's dedication had not faulted. The time had come to begin the ritual. Are you always taking care of your family? Do you often take care of
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get started. That's teladoc dot com slash Unexplained Podcast. Crowley began by preparing the talismans that were essential for the operation. The talismans, which can be found at the back of the Book of Abramelon, are a set of magic word squares required to bring the twelve kings of Hell into order. Crowley had moved to the brightest room in the house
to best complete the task. The room, located at the front of the house, overlooked the terrace and down to the dark and still lockness beyond, Crowley cut the squares from the material vellum, and as a bright sun flooded the room with light, he began to inscribe the squares with Indian ink. When something strange happened, Despite the clear skies, the room began to darken, until the light had been
almost entirely extinguished. From this point on, Crowley was required to use a large array of candles to keep the room alight even during the brightest times of day. With everything in order, Crowley embarked on his sixth month odyssey. Almost immediately he received confirmation that he was on the right path as he began to chant in the room.
Even with all its artificial light, it again began to darken, while all around the lodge and terrace became peopled with shadowy shapes, or, as Crowley writes, the demons and evil forces had congregated round me so thickly that they were shutting off the light. A number of friends had declined to visit Crowley, believing he was going too far meddling with things he couldn't understand, let alone control. The grimoire itself begins with the warning not to attempt any of
the magic contained. Within only a few weeks into the operation, already there were ominous stirrings. One acquaintance named Russia, lasted only two weeks before terror forced him to flee Crowley coming down to breakfast one day, only to be informed that Russia had taken the first boat to in Vaness that morning. At one point, Crowley returned to Boleskin one afternoon to find a Catholic priest waiting for him in
his study. The priest informed him that the day before his lodge keeper, who had not touched alcohol for twenty years, had come home raving drunk and attempted to murder his wife and children. Already, it would seem that the ritual, despite being a very personal pursuit, was provoking forces beyond Crowley's control. Although it may not have been going well for those around him, the ritual seemed to be working
for Crowley. But all that was about to change. Barely two months in, Crowley received a letter from Samuel Mathis requesting Crowley's immediate assistance. In Crowley's absence, the Order of the Golden Dawn had fractured into two opposing schools of thought, with Maths believing he was in great danger of being usurped. Despite only being part way through the ritual, Crowley felt
compelled to offer his assistance. Immediately, he packed his bags and headed straight to London, and with that the magic ritual was broken. It had been Crowley's intention to return and complete the spell, but with one thing leading to another in the summer of nineteen hundred, Crowley instead moved to Mexico. The ritual remained incomplete. As Kenneth Anger notes, if you invoke spirits to help you or teach you, there is something that has to be done afterwards. They
must be banished. But Crowley never did that. It is said that soon after a dark cloud appeared over the house that failed to disperse for many months. Locals refused to go by the house, instead preferring to travel the
entire circumference of the lock rather than pass it. As for Crowley, there are some who believe that failure to complete the ritual left him dangerously open to demonic possession, that the twelve Kings of Hell may well have somehow found their way inside him, using him for their own purpose. Some consider what later became a Crowley to be directly linked to this moment. After breaking off the ritual, Crowley spent some time in Paris with his friend Samuel Mathers,
only for their relationship to ultimately turn sour. He returned to Scotland and became friendly with a young painter known as Gerald Kelly. Kelly would later be known as Sir Gerald Kelly, President of the Royal Academy. After spending some time with Kelly at his family home in Strathpeffer in Scotland, Crowley met and became close to Gerald's sister, Rose Kelly,
a widower now betrothed unhappily to another man. In a characteristically impulsive gesture, Crowley suggested she married him, toward off the unwonted suitor. The pair eloped the following day, on August the twelfth, nineteen o three. Despite the apparent flippancy of the gesture, it would seem that Crowley, a man who had always been enthralled to his own heightened sense
of sexuality, fell to growing magnetism between them. Reveling in the scandalous behavior, Crowley and Rose returned to Boleskin House before embarking on an extended honeymoon to Cairo, and it is there that the story takes a peculiar turn. After arriving in Cairo. In what had become a feature of Crowley's life, Alister adopted the pseudonym Prince Choya Khan. The pair took up residence in an apartment which Crowley had
had partially converted to mimic an Egyptian temple. They told all who cared to listen that they had been granted the rank of prince and princess by an unnamed Eastern sultan. At some time, Crowley attempted a ritual for the benefit of Rose, who was by this point pregnant with Crowley's first child. The operation, known as the Bornless Ritual, is the preliminary invocation to the ars Goetier, which in turn forms the first book of the infamous Lesser Key of Solomon.
The book, also known as the Lemegaton, was compiled anonymously sometime in the seventeenth century and is considered a primary text of demonology, with the ars Goetier detailing no less than seventy two demons for invocation. It is not clear exactly what Crowley had intended with the ritual, though some suggest he had grown impatient with his new wife and had taken to teasing her with his magic obsession. However, after a short bout of chanting, Rose began acting strangely.
She had fallen into some kind of trance and had started to mutter something. They are waiting for you, she said. The irritated Crowley, who at this point, despite years of trying, had never actually made contact with any of the spirits he had tried to invoke, demanded to know who Rose was talking to. It was the ancient Egyptian god Horace, she replied. She told Crowley he had offended the god.
An incredulous Crowley took Rose immediately to the nearby Bulak Museum now known as the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities to identify the deity she claimed to be in communication with. Arriving shortly after at the museum, Rose proceeded to lead Crowley past a number of holy and ancient Egyptian artifacts before finally coming to a stop in front of an intricately decorated piece of wood known as a steely. More precisely, it was the Steely of Revealing and dated from around
six hundred and eighty BC. Sure enough, the beautiful piece of funerary art on the right hand side depicts a recently deceased priest making an offering to the falcon headed god Ra Harakhti, an amalgamation of the sun god Ra and Horace Rose, at least to Crowley's mind, seemed to be telling the truth. Crowley was convinced further when he looked down to find the exhibition number of the artifact.
The number was six six, six six sixty six, as many will know, is equated with the number of the Beast, as depicted in the Book of Revelation. The number has become synonymous with the Antichrist and Satan and all their dark and evil connotations. To Crowley, however, it meant something a little different. It was Crowley's mother who first labeled him the Beast, presumably in reaction to a young Crowley's
burgeoning rejection of the family's Puritanical beliefs. To Crowley, it was a label that he would gleefully come to embrace. To some, it was evidence of Crowley's innate wickedness, but for others it spoke of nothing more than his refusal to accept what he saw as the arbitrary labels and morals of the Christian faith. The Moniker served ultimately as a symbol of Crowley's core belief, a belief that was soon to be articulated in the most extraordinary of circumstances.
After the visit to the museum, the couple returned to their Cairo apartment, where Rose is believed to have instructed Crowley on how to communicate with Horace. On April eighth, nineteen o four, Crowley commenced a new ritual, now under the guidance of Rose. A short time later, he heard a voice that seemed to become from behind his shoulder.
Crowley later claimed the voice belonged to an entity known as I Was, who presented itself as none other than Crowley's own guardian angel, the same entity with which he had been trying to communicate in Bleskan House. I Was told Crowley that he was the messenger of Horace, and instructed Alister to be ready at twelve noon every day for the next three days in order to receive his
word sure enough. Over the course of the next three days, I Was, as believed to have returned to speak to Crowley, who in turn wrote down every word that he received. When the three days were over, Crowley had before him the document that would become his true legacy. The book was titled Liber l l Legis, or the Book of
the Law. Regardless of your belief or its true provenance, the text is a fascinating document which sets out's ideas for a brand new religion that he would later come to call Thelema, which is still followed and practiced today. As the author Colin Wilson points out, there is nothing particularly original about the text, comparing it as he does, to the far Superior Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw, as well as pointing out its clear indebtedness to the
philosophy of Nietzsche. However, it does suggest that Crowley was more than the brainless charlatan his detractors would have him be. Certainly, for Crowley at least, the text was nothing less than the Bible for his new religion, an attempt to obliterate the reigning monotheistic religions and usher in a new epoch for man, one based on liberation without restriction, and one that above all implored people to follow their own path.
It is a philosophy perhaps best summed up by the book's most famous line, do what thou wilt should be the whole of the law, a basic idea that is often greatly misunderstood as the justification of selfish or immoral behavior, a situation or the more ironic, since what Crowley ultimately preached was the complete control of life for one's self, and not to have it defined by what other people
might project onto it. In the years that followed on from the Cairo trip, it is fair to say that Crowley lived a fairly colorful life, the extent to which will not be done justice in the time we have here. Suffice to say there are plenty of books and documentaries out there for anyone interested in finding out more about his life. It is also fair to say that much of his life was shrouded in controversy, and to many
some of it will seem unpalatable sadistic. Even his voracious commitment to the practice of sex magic and the insanely chaotic attempt to form a Thelema community on the island of Sicily are just two aspects that come to mind. But for me, it all comes back to the Book of the Law. Whether you believe that Crowley was blessed with genuine magic powers or not, and there are many who do, there is something deeply profound at the heart
of his belief that speaks to us all. For Crowley, magic was really just an expression of the power of human will, that anybody in a sense could conduct magic, providing they had a sufficient control of their own will. Crowley's Do What Thou Wilt is a cry to look beyond social convention and the narrow definitions with which others might attempt to define us, encouraging each of us to exercise our right to determine who we are or should
be on our own terms. It is a reminder that no religion, political party, media outlet, or social movement is the arbiter of what is and what isn't right, a reminder that we should never be afraid to be who we want to be in spite of how we feel the world might want us to be. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to show your appreciation, you can help support us by going to Unexplained podcast dot com forward slash support. All donations, no matter how
large or small, are massively appreciated. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me, Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com or on Twitter at Unexplained pod atttttttttttttttt. Now it's time to take care
of yourself. To make time for you, teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the app, or visit teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained Podcast today to get started. That's t e ladoc dot com Slash Unexplained Podcast