Abbey of Thelema

The Abbey of Thelema is a small house which was used as a temple and spiritual centre, founded by Aleister Crowley and Leah Hirsig in Cefalù (Sicily, Italy) in 1920.[1]

Abbey of Thelema
Abbey of Thelema, 2017
Monastery information
Full nameThe Abbey of Thelema in Cefalù
OrderA∴A∴
Established1920
Disestablished1923
Dedicated toNuit
Controlled churchesGnostic Catholic Church
People
Founder(s)Aleister Crowley
Site
LocationCefalù, Italy
Visible remainschapter house, sacristy, parts of the frater and infirmary room
Public accessfree access

Name

The name was borrowed from François Rabelais's satire, Gargantua and Pantagruel,[2] where an Abbaye de Thélème is described as a sort of "anti-monastery" where the lives of the inhabitants were "spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure."[3] Prior to arriving at the name, Crowley referred to the house as Villa Santa Barbara.[4]:185

Objectives

This idealistic utopia was to be the model of Crowley's commune, while also being a type of magical school, giving it the designation "Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum", A College towards the Holy Spirit. The general program was in line with the A∴A∴ course of training, and included daily adorations to the sun, a study of Crowley's writings, regular yogic and ritual practices (which were to be recorded), as well as general domestic labor. The object was for students to devote themselves to the Great Work of discovering and manifesting their True Will.

Crowley had planned to transform the small house into a global center of magical devotion and perhaps to gain tuition fees paid by acolytes seeking training in the Magical Arts; these fees would further assist him in his efforts to promulgate Thelema and publish his manuscripts.

Raoul Loveday
Raoul Loveday, who died at the Abbey in 1923

In 1923, a 23-year-old Oxford undergraduate, Raoul Loveday (or Frederick Charles Loveday), died at the Abbey. His wife, Betty May, variously blamed the death on his participation in one of Crowley's rituals (allegedly incorporating the consumption of the blood of a sacrificed cat) or the more probable diagnosis of acute enteric fever contracted by drinking from a mountain spring. Crowley had warned the couple against drinking the water, as reported in biographies by Lawrence Sutin, Richard Kaczynski and others.

When May returned to London, she gave an interview to a tabloid paper, The Sunday Express, which included her story in its ongoing attacks on Crowley. With these and similar rumors about activities at the Abbey in mind, Benito Mussolini's government demanded that Crowley leave the country in 1923.[5] After Crowley's departure, the Abbey of Thelema was eventually abandoned and local residents whitewashed over Crowley's murals.

Jane Wolfe
Jane Wolfe meditating on the beach near the Abbey of Thelema

Jane Wolfe worked with Crowley's Thelemic system of training in Cefalù for three years, and emerged from those years with a degree of attainment, having survived Crowley’s ordeals. Whilst a resident at the Abbey of Thelema, Wolfe was admitted to the A∴A∴ by Crowley, taking the magickal name Soror Estai. She undertook various practises including yoga, dhāraṇā and pranayama of which she kept a detailed record which was later published by the College of Thelema of Northern California as The Cefalu Diaries.[6] She later worked as Crowley’s personal representative in London and Paris.[7]

Inside the Abbey of Thelema, 2017
  • The villa still stands today, but in poor condition. Filmmaker Kenneth Anger, himself a devotee of Crowley, later uncovered and filmed some of its murals in his film Thelema Abbey (1955), now considered a lost film.[8] Recently, other murals were uncovered, and pictures of them were posted on the Internet. "Abbey of Thelema" remains a popular name for various magical societies, Witchcraft covens, and Satanist grottoes.
  • Danish artist Joachim Koester created five colour and five black and white photographs of the villa; these photographs comprise his Morning of the Magicians (2005) work.[9]
  • Kenneth Anger revisited the Abbey in 2007, 52 years after his 1955 visit, and made a short video which can be found as an extra on the Anger Me DVD.
  • A song called "Abbey of Thelema" was included on the Ian Gillan's band debut album.
  • Marilyn Manson referenced the Abbey, in the song "Misery Machine", found on the band's first album, "Portrait of an American Family" from 1994.
  • Ruins of the Abbey
  • Abbey of Thelema, current rooms
  • Abbey of Thelema, the present chapel

See also

Notes
  1. Lawrence Sutin, Do What Thou Wilt, p. 279
  2. Colin Wilson, Nature of the Beast, p. 73
  3. François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, Ch. 1.
  4. Kracht, C., & Woodard, D., Five Years (Hanover: Wehrhahn Verlag, 2011), p. 185.
  5. The well-known Sicilian Novelist, Leonardo Sciascia, has an amusing short story about Crowley's expulsion from Sicily. Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley, page 13
  6. Jane Wolfe: The Cefalu Diaries 1920 – 1923. College of Thelema of Northern California Archived 10 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, 2008.
  7. In The Continuum II-5 1979, pp. 35.
  8. MacDonald, Scott (30 January 2006). A Critical Cinema 5: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers. University of California Press. p. 49. ISBN 0520245946.
  9. "Joachim Koester - MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art.

Bibliography
  • Shoemaker, David (2017). Jane Wolfe: The Cefalu Diaries 1920 - 1923. Temple of the Silver Star. ISBN 978-09976686-3-6.
  • In The Continuum II-5, College of Thelema (1979). ITC Vol. II, No. 5. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum III-4, College of Thelema (1983). ITC Vol. III, No. 4. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum III-5, College of Thelema (1984). ITC Vol. III, No. 5. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum III-6, College of Thelema (1984). ITC Vol. III, No. 6. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum IV, College of Thelema (1989). ITC Vol. IV, No. 5. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum V-4, College of Thelema (1993). ITC Vol. V, No. 4. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum V-9, College of Thelema (1996). ITC Vol. V, No. 9. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • In The Continuum V-10, College of Thelema (1996). ITC Vol. V, No. 10. California: College of Thelema Publishing.
  • Shoemaker, David (2017). Karl Germer: Selected letters. Temple of the Silver Star. ISBN 978-0-997668-65-0.
  • Seckler, Phyllis (2010). Rorac Johnson; Gregory Peters; David Shoemaker (eds.). The Thoth Tarot, Astrology & Other Selected Writings. Teitan Press & College of Thelema of Northern California. ISBN 978-0-933429-27-7.
  • Seckler, Phyllis (2012). Rorac Johnson; Gregory Peters; David Shoemaker (eds.). The Kabbalah, Magick, and Thelema. Selected Writings Volume II. Teitan Press & College of Thelema of Northern California. ISBN 978-0-933429-28-4.
  • Starr, Martin P. (2003). The Unknown God: W.T. Smith and the Thelemites. Bollingbrook, Illinois: Teitan Press. ISBN 978-0-933429-07-9.

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