Thanks to johns for pointing out possibly the least well-informed article on Crowley to have been published in recent years.
And it’s from the (UK) Sunday Times (20 March 2005) – this respected newspaper should be ashamed of itself!
March 20, 2005
Eye Opener
SECRET BRITAIN: WHAT YOU WON’T FIND IN THE GUIDEBOOKS
Aleister Crowley’s Satanic hideaway: Boleskine House, near Loch Ness
This pink stucco mansion was bought with inheritance money in 1899 by the well-heeled Satanist Aleister Crowley, once dubbed the “wickedest man in the world”. The front windows offer views of Loch Ness, and stone dogs and eagles guard the doors. Such was Crowley’s reputation that many came to regard him as a second Loch Ness monster.
Crowley turned to Satanism as a teenager, rebelling against his puritanical upbringing. After dropping out of Cambridge University, where he discovered the occult, he founded his own sect, the Astrum Argentum. Crowley, a bisexual heroin addict, held black masses and ritualistic sex orgies at this house. He died penniless at the age of 72 in 1947, and became a posthumous icon for the 1960s “free love” generation. The Beatles featured him on the “people we like” cover of the Sgt Pepper album; Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin became so obsessed with Crowley that he purchased Boleskine House in the 1970s, selling it in 1990 for £225,000.
The darker aspects of Crowley’s existence were less appealing: he was reportedly found huddled in this house, his clothes bloodied and torn, after performing a ritual to raise the devil; his wife, Rose Kelly, went insane; a disciple, Raoul Loveday, died after drinking cat’s blood. The house is still a mecca for occult enthusiasts. Last month it was reported that the Inverness hotelier Andy Pavitt, owner of Crowley’s bed from Boleskine House, auctioned it on eBay after guests who slept in it said they felt “spooked”.