Cultmasters Aleister Crowley, Maxwell Knight, Desmond Morton

[TonyGosling]

(9) Christopher Andrew, Secret Service (1985)
http://spartacus-educational.com/SSknightM.htm
In the course of the 1930s, as Maxwell Knight's network of agents infiltrating Communist and subversive groups expanded, he became head of an ultra-secret section of MI5 known as BSb, based at a house in Dolphin Square held in the name of "Miss Coplestone". His agents within the Communist Party (CPGB), most of whose names still remain hidden in MI5 files, included at least one 'close to', though not actually on, the Central Committee." Knight's success owed something to the seductive force of his personality. Though he failed to consummate his first two marriages and his first wife committed suicide, he seemed to his wartime assistant Joan Miller to exude animal magnetism. "He could", she believed, "make men and women do anything". Knight also had for a time a rather disturbing interest in the occult, going with Dennis Wheatley to séances by the notorious Satanist Aleister Crowley to research black magic for Wheatley's novels.

[TonyGosling]

Secret Agent 666 - Aleister
Crowley, British Intelligence
And The Occult
By Richard B. Spence
6-23-8
http://rense.com/general82/crowl.htm

Aleister Crowley is best today as a founding father of modern occultism. His wide, hypnotic eyes peer at us on the cover of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and his influence can be found everywhere in popular culture.

The British Occult Secret Service - The Untold Story


By Michael Howard
© 2008 By Michael Howard

"Since the time of Elizabeth I, British secret services have worked according to the principle of 'the end justifies the means'. Money, bribery, blackmail these are their recruitment methods..."
Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), October 2007

It is not really surprising that historically occultism and espionage have often been strange bedfellows. The black art of espionage is about obtaining secret information and witches, psychics and astrologers have always claimed to be able to predict the future and know about things hidden from ordinary people.

Gathering intelligence is carried out under a cloak of secrecy and occultists are adept at keeping their activities concealed from sight. Like secret agents they also use codes, symbols and cryptograms to hide information from outsiders. Occultists and intelligence officers are similar in many ways, as both inhabit a shadowy underworld of secrets, deception and disinformation. It is therefore not unusual that often these two professions have shared the same members.

The 'father of the British Secret Service' was the Elizabethan lawyer, politician, diplomat and spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham. He was a Protestant and as a young man during the bloody reign of the Catholic Queen Mary was forced to flee abroad to escape persecution. While in exile, Walsingham learnt Italian and French and became acquainted with the work of the famous Venetian Secret Service that used its spying skills for trade and commerce under the cloak of diplomacy.

When Queen Elizabeth I was crowned Francis Walsingham returned to England. He was appointed as a secretary to the English ambassador to the French court in Paris and also worked as a secret agent reporting back the intelligence he gleaned to Queen Elizabeth's Secretary of State, Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley. Between 1568 and 1570 Walsingham, who had become a Member of Parliament, worked in England in domestic counter-espionage exposing Catholic plots against the monarchy.

In 1570 Walsingham was appointed as the new ambassador to France. He proceeded to set up his own network of undercover agents in France, Italy, Spain and the Low Countries. The late Cecil Williamson, who worked for British Intelligence during World War II and later ran a witchcraft museum, told this writer that Walsingham often used witches as spies.

The Mysterious Dr Dee

One of the famous occultists he is known to have recruited was Queen Elizabeth's court astrologer and the magical architect of the British Empire, the Welsh magician Dr John Dee. Walsingham was involved in the machinations for the proposed marriage of the Duc d'Anjou and Elizabeth. At the spy master's personal recommendation, the queen dispatched Dee to France with orders to report back on the progress of the marriage negotiations. The magus travelled to the Duchy of Lorraine and drew up the birth charts of both the Duc and his brother, who was also regarded as a possible husband for the English monarch. Dr Dee, probably influenced by Walsingham, diplomatically reported back to London that the stars suggested a political alliance would be far wiser than matrimony and the queen took his advice.

In 1573 Sir Francis returned to London and became a privy councillor. This placed him at the heart of government and he proceeded to set up what amounted to the first organised foreign espionage service to operate from England. In 1566 he had put in place a pan-European network of spies extending as far to the east as Turkey and Russia, where Dr Dee reported on the goings-on at the Tsar's court. This network mostly gathered intelligence on the military activities of the Spanish, who were England's primary enemies at this time. Walsingham was also responsible for foiling the Catholic plot whose exposure led to the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Using Dr Dee's psychic powers, he was apparently able to discover that the plotters were passing secret messages to the imprisoned Scottish queen hidden in bottles of wine.

While travelling in Europe in 1562, Dr Dee had come across a book written by Abbot Trimethus of Spanhiem (1462-1516). This was a guide to writing ciphers and secret codes for magical purposes and Dee informed Sir William Cecil about his discovery. On his return to England Dr Dee adapted the abbot's cryptography and gave it to Sir Francis Walsingham for use by his secret agents. He also passed on the political and military intelligence he had acquired during his travels across Europe. It has been alleged that Dee used the famous Enochian magical alphabet as a code to disguise this information. If he had been arrested his captors would not have understood it and dismissed it as nonsense.

In 1587 Dee even claimed he had received a spirit message from one of his angelic contacts concerning a threat to the English Fleet. The message said that a group of disguised Frenchmen working for the Spaniards was secretly visiting the Forest of Dean. The forest was the centre for English ship-building and the French agents planned to bribe disloyal foresters to burn it down. Dr Dee sent his supernatural intelligence to Walsingham and the saboteurs, who were masquerading as squatters, were arrested.

Information supplied to Sir Francis Walsingham from his European spy network convinced him that a Spanish armada would be launched against England in 1588. He asked Dee to use his knowledge of astrology to calculate the weather prospects for an invasion. The magus told him there would an impending disaster in Europe caused by a devastating storm. When news of this prophecy was leaked and reached Spain, naval recruitment fell and there were desertions of sailors from the Spanish Fleet. In Lisbon an astrologer who repeated the prediction was charged with spreading false information. In an act of psychological warfare, Dr Dee also informed Emperor Rudolf of Bohemia (the modern Czech Republic) and King Stephen of Poland that the predicted storm would "cause the fall of a mighty empire." Rudolf, who was an occultist and Dee's patron when he stayed in Bohemia, passed on the warning to the Spanish ambassador.

It is a fact that in 1588 a great storm did scatter the ships of the Spanish Armada in the English Channel and aided the English victory. This metrological event was popularly credited to a magical ritual performed by the buccaneer Sir Francis Drake on the cliffs at Plymouth. Superstitious people believed Drake was a wizard and sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for success over the Spanish. It is claimed that he also organised several covens of witches to work magically to raise the storm and prevent the invasion. Meanwhile, as a result of scrying in his shewstone or crystal, Dr Dee saw a symbolic vision of a castle with its drawbridge drawn up (England) and the image of the elemental king of fire. As a result he urged the Navy to employ fire-ships against the Armada and they did so with good results.

After Sir Francis Walsingham's death in 1590, and the ascension to the English throne of the Scottish king James, Dr John Dee fell into royal disfavour. The new king had an unhealthy obsession with witchcraft and his early reign was dominated by this preoccupation. It led him to employ the Secret Service in his own personal vendetta against suspected witches. James I ordered its agents to hunt down alleged practitioners of witchcraft and expose their alleged plots against the monarchy. One of those involved was the Earl of Bothwell, accused of high treason for organising a coven of Scottish witches to work magic against the king in an attempt to seize the throne. To assist his secret agents in their new witch-hunting activities, King James persuaded Parliament in 1604 to pass a new and stronger Witchcraft Act to deal with the problem. The Bill was rushed through and it was made law within three months.

Dashwood & the Hellfire Club

In the 18th century the Secret Service became concerned at the activities of the so-called 'Hellfire Club' founded by Sir Francis Dashwood, later the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a close friend and political adviser of King George III. As a young man Dashwood went on the Grand Tour of Europe that was compulsory for aristocrats and he was initiated into a Masonic lodge in France. While visiting Italy he developed anti-Catholic views, violently broke up a celebration of the Mass and insulted the Pope. Even though he was an aristocrat, Dashwood was disgusted at the vast wealth of the Roman Church compared with the poverty of its devoted worshippers. He also became fascinated by classical mythology and decorated his country house at West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire with murals, paintings and statues of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses.

Sir Francis Dashwood founded a secret society called the Order of the Friars of St Francis of Medmenham (more popularly known as the Hellfire Club) named after the abbey he had purchased on the banks of the River Thames where its meetings were held. Rumours circulated in the coffee houses of London that the Friars practised sexual orgies featuring aristocratic ladies and prostitutes dressed up as nuns. There were also satanic rites such as Black Masses where the naked body of a noblewoman acted as an altar. However, according to one senior member of the Hellfire Club, this occult mummery was just an amusing diversion for the dandies. The inner circle of the Order was actually dedicated to the serious revival of the pagan Eleusian Mysteries and the worship of the Bona Dea or Great Mother Goddess. Dashwood's present-day descendant, also called Sir Francis, confirmed this fact in a BBC radio interview some years ago,

It has been claimed secret agents infiltrated the Hellfire Club because of its many famous members. They included the Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, who was the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Paymaster General Thomas Potter, several members of Parliament, the Lord Mayor of London, a son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of Bute, who was the prime minister, and it has been claimed even the Prince of Wales. At least four members of the group were known to be actively involved in espionage. They was a radical MP called John Wilkes, a transvestite French diplomat, Chevalier D'Eon de Beaumont, the American statesman and philosopher Benjamin Franklin, and Sir Francis Dashwood himself. Wilkes had allegedly recruited the chevalier into the British Secret Service.

During his stay in Russia on the Grand Tour Dashwood had spied on the court of the Tsar through his close friendship with the Grand Duchess Catherine. In Italy he gathered intelligence on the exiled Stuart dynasty and their supporters, although the head of the British Secret Service in Rome believed Dashwood was a Jacobite agent. In fact he was only pretending to support the Stuart cause and was passing on information about their activities directly back to London. In later years Sir Francis and Benjamin Franklin were involved in a clandestine plan to reconcile the American colonists and the British government to prevent the War of Independence.

Rudolf Hess & the British Occult Connection

During World War II British Intelligence invited many occultists into its ranks because it needed their specialist knowledge and skills. The assistant director of Naval Intelligence during the war was Lt. Commander Ian Fleming RN, best known later as a thriller writer and the creator of the famous fictional spy James Bond 007. Fleming was also interested in astrology and numerology and he was a friend of the notorious magician Aleister Crowley, who had worked for MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service) during World War I and in the 1920s and 1930s spying on Germans with occult interests (see 'The Magus Was A Spy' by Dr Richard Spence in New Dawn No. 105, November-December 2007).

Ian Fleming conceived an audacious plan to lure a high-ranking member of the German government into defecting to Britain so as to provide a morale-boosting propaganda coup. This idea had been inspired by a novel written by Fleming's brother, Peter, called Flying Visit (Jonathan Cape 1940). Peter Fleming was a journalist and also worked for both MI5 (the Security Service) and the propaganda section of the clandestine Special Operations Executive (SOE). The novel imagined that Hitler's plane crash-landed in England and he was captured. The Reichminister and deputy fuehrer himself, Rudolf Hess, was chosen as a suitable candidate for the actual plot. This was because he was a supporter of peace with Britain and was also under the influence of astrologers and occultists. It was believed this could be used against him.

Commander Fleming recreated The Link, a defunct Anglo-German friendship society of the 1930s that had a wealthy membership of Nazi sympathisers drawn from the British Establishment. Ironically, or perhaps coincidentally, The Link had been founded by Admiral Sir Barry Domville, an ex-director of the Naval Intelligence Department (NID), after he retired in 1930. Domville was arrested and interned in May 1940 because MI5 believed he was plotting a fascist coup d'etat supported by aristocratic peacemongers. The admiral was a friend of Major-General J.F.C. 'Boney' Fuller CBE, a famous military analyst who designed the tactics for the first tank battle in World War I. Fuller also invented the concept of blitzkrieg used so successfully in World War II by the German Panzers. Fuller was an open admirer of Hitler (he attended the fuehrer's 50th birthday party in 1939), a leading member of Sir Oswald Moseley's British Union of Fascists (BUF), a friend of Ian Fleming and a leading disciple of Aleister Crowley. In the 1930s Fuller formed the extreme-right wing Nordic League (aka the White Knights of Britain), allegedly established by Nazi agents. However in the 1950s he was a member of a MI6 supported group of Russian émigrés engaged in anti-communist propaganda. It has been suggested that Fuller was not interned during the war with other leading fascists such as Mosley and Domville because he was a MI6 double-agent.

Ian Fleming's idea was to persuade the German High Command in Berlin, and especially Rudolf Hess, that when war broke out The Link had not disbanded but had gone underground. It had allegedly regrouped and recruited even more prominent pro-Nazi members in the British Establishment including aristocrats and royalty. These were represented by the NID as influential people with the political muscle to overthrow prime minister Winston Churchill's national wartime government, call a ceasefire and agree to a peace treaty with Germany. Under its terms Britain would keep control of its Empire and Germany would have free reign in occupied Europe. The Nazis also hoped that British troops would be sent to fight alongside the German Wehrmacht and the SS against the Soviet Union in a joint anti-communist crusade.

Hitler did not want to invade and occupy Britain. Instead he would have preferred to negotiate a treaty with a sympathetic new government in London. It has been suggested that the only reason the fuehrer abandoned Operation Sea Lion the proposed invasion of Southern England and instead invaded the Soviet Union was to force Churchill to accept peace terms. If the Red Army had been defeated Britain would truly have been standing alone, as Hitler did not believe the Americans had the political will to enter the war. Unfortunately he underestimated the ability and resolve of the Soviets to defend their motherland and also the clandestine support that the US was already offering Great Britain.

The NID plot to ensnare Rudolf Hess used bogus astrological predictions combined with political intelligence. Hess was persuaded that a Scottish aristocrat, the Duke of Hamilton, was willing to negotiate peace terms on behalf of the influential people at the top of British society who wanted to end the war. The duke had met Hess at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and the deputy fuehrer for some reason thought he was a member of the surviving Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Ian Fleming commissioned an astrologer to produce a faked astrological forecast indicating that 10 May 1941 would be a propitious date for Rudolf Hess to fly to Scotland and meet secretly with the Duke of Hamilton and other members of the so-called British 'peace party'. Hess' occult advisors had also told him there would be an unusual planetary conjunction on 10 May. On that day six planets would be aligned in the zodiac sign of Taurus and conjoined to the full moon. At the same time Hitler's chart showed 'malefic' astrological aspects. Hess saw himself in the role of a messianic hero saving Germany from possible future defeat by making peace with the British. All the (false) reports reaching the deputy fuehrer about the political situation in England and the astrological aspects convinced him that his mission would be a success.

Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland on 10 May 1941 in the firm belief that on landing he would be met by the Duke of Hamilton and the Duke of Kent and whisked off to London for a private audience with King George VI. He had been convinced by the misinformation fed to him by British Intelligence that these three men represented a genuine peace movement capable of removing the warmonger Churchill and agreeing to German terms. Hess had also previously met the Duke of Windsor when he had visited Berlin before the war. As a result Hess was persuaded that some members of the German-descended royal family were sympathetic to Nazism. Certainly the Duke of Saxo-Coburg, formerly Prince Charles Edward, a grandson of Queen Victoria and a close friend of the Duke of Windsor, had willingly embraced Nazism. In fact Hitler had appointed him as the head of the German branch of the Red Cross that was responsible for exterminating the mentally sick and physically disabled.

Unfortunately instead of meeting pro-Nazi aristocrats and royals when he landed, Hess was captured by a local farmer and a Home Guard unit. They handed him over to the police and he was transferred to London to be interrogated by MI5. Unfortunately the British government completely mishandled the capture of Hess. It has been suggested that Churchill believed the subterfuge by the NID and SIS suggesting leading members of the British Establishment might be pro-German may have been based on fact. For that reason the government did not capitalise on Hess' 'peace mission'. The German High Command had also disowned him and said that his flight had been unauthorised. They also suggested that Hess might be insane so his value for propaganda purposes was undermined and diminished.

Rudolf Hess' apparent defection caused widespread panic in Berlin concerning the influence of occultism on the Nazi Party. The Gestapo immediately launched Operation Aktion Hess. On the direct orders of Hitler, they rounded up hundreds of occultists, psychics and astrologers, including Hess's leading occult advisor Ernst Schulte-Strathaus. In June 1941 a decree was issued banning all public performances of clairvoyance, astrology, fortune-telling or telepathy. Anybody associated with Hess and his esoteric interests was thrown into concentration camps and occult secret societies were closed down. Because of staff shortages in the Gestapo, officers from the Naval Intelligence Service were drafted in to interrogate some of the arrested psychics. It has been claimed that they recruited some of them for secret operations using dowsing on maps with pendulums to hunt down British submarines.

It has also been claimed that Ian Fleming and the NID was involved in a plot to silence the Spiritualist medium Helen Duncan, the penultimate person to be charged under the old Witchcraft Act of 1736. She was arrested in 1944 after holding a séance during which allegedly the spirit of a dead sailor from the sinking of the HMS Bolham physically manifested. As the news of the loss had not been publicly released, and the Admiralty was keeping it secret for morale purposes, Duncan became a target for the security services. She and other psychics were regarded as a serious threat to national security and they became the object of a MI5/NID dirty tricks operation to silence leaks. This suggests that the Intelligence Services actually believed these mediums had genuine powers. Duncan's arrest and subsequent trial, which in fact was condemned by Winston Churchill as a waste of public funds, was allegedly meant to deter other mediums. The War Office was paranoid that military secrets about the forthcoming D-Day landings in Normandy would be revealed at séances and become public knowledge or passed to the Germans.

Bibliography:

Derek Wilson, Sir Francis Walsingham (Constable 2007)
Richard Deacon, John Dee (Muller 1968)
Donald McCormack, The Hellfire Club (Jarrolds 1958)
P.Mannix, The Hellfire Club (Four Square 1961)
M.R.D. Foot, SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940-46 (BBC publications 1984)

J.M. McKenzie The Secret History of the SOE 1940-1945 (St Ermins Press 2000)
Nigel West, The Secret War: The Story of SOE (Hodder & Stoughton 1992)
Richard Deacon, The History of British Secret Service (Frederick Muller 1979)
Donald McCormick, The Life of Ian Fleming (Peter Owen 1993)

MICHAEL HOWARD has had a lifelong interest in intelligence matters and the strange links between the occult and politics. Since 1976 he has edited The Cauldron newsletter (<http://www.the-cauldron.fsnet.co.uk>www.the-cauldron.fsnet.co.uk) featuring witchcraft, folklore and Earth Mysteries. He is the author of Secret Societies: Their Influence and Power from Antiquity to the Present Day, published by Destiny Books USA.

The above article appears in
New Dawn No. 107 (Mar-Apr 2008)

[TonyGosling]

(4) Occultists At War


Fake Astrological Advice Passed On To The Gullible Rudolf Hess

(Author anonymous; could be by an intelligence agency, because it carries a link to a Hannah Newman webpage)

The Thule-Gesellschaft (Thule Society) was founded August 17, 1918, by Rudolf von Sebottendorff. He had been schooled in occultism, Islamic mysticism, alchemy, Rosicrucianism and much else, in Turkey, where he had also been initiated into Freemasonry.

Its original name was Studiengruppe für Germanisches Altertum (Study Group for German Antiquity), but it soon started to disseminate anti-republican and anti-Semitic propaganda.

A movement to promote Thulian ideas among industrial workers and to offset Marxism, was formed in August 1918 - the Workers' Political Circle with Thulist Karl Harrer as chairman.

From this came the German Workers' Party in 1919.

A year later this became the NSDAP under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. It had members from the top echelons of the party, including Rudolf Hess and Alfred Rosenberg, though not Adolf Hitler. Serbottendorff stated, "Thule members were the people to whom Hitler first turned and who first allied themselves with Hitler."

The swastika flag adopted by the NSDAP was the brain-child of another Thulist, Dr Krohn. ...

With the victory of the Nazi Party, the occult tradition was carried on in the Third Reich mainly by the SS, who Reichsführer, Himmler, was an avid student of the occult. An SS occult research department, the Ahnernerbe (Ancestral Heritage) was established in 1935 with SS Colonel Wolfram von Sievers at its head. Occult research took SS researchers as far afield as Tibet. Sievers had the Tantrik prayer, the Bardo Thodol, read over his body after his execution at Nuremberg.

National Socialism and the Third Reich represented a major attempt by high esoteric Adepts to re-establish a Culture based on the Laws of Nature, against the entrenched forces of anti-Life. Nothing that ambitious had been tried since the founding of the American Republic by Masonic adepts. ...

Himmler and the S.S.

The S.S. (Schutzstaffel) was originally formed as a personal bodyguard to Hitler, and numbered around 300 when Heinrich Himmler joined. But when he rose to its leadership in 1929, things changed a bit. Four years later, membership had soared to 52,000. He established headquarters at a medieval castle called Wewelsburg, where his secret inner order met once a year. According to Walther Schellenberg's memoirs:

Each member had his own armchair with an engraved silver nameplate, and each had to devote himself to a ritual of spiritual exercises aimed mainly at mental concentration. The focal point of Wewelsburg, evidently owing much to the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, was a great dining hall with an oak table to seat twelve picked from the senior Gruppenführers. The walls were to be adorned with their coats of arms.

Underneath this dining hall there was kept a so-called "realm of the dead", a circular well in which these coats of arms would be burnt and the ashes worshipped after the "knight" had died. (There are tales of Himmler using the severed heads of deceased S.S. officers to communicate with ascended masters). In addition to this, each knight had his own room, "decorated in accordance with one of the great ancestors of Aryan majesty." Himmler's own room was dedicated to a Saxon King Henry the Fowler, whose ghost Himmler sometimes conversed with.

Outside of the inner order, SS officers were discouraged from participating in Christian ceremonies, including weddings and christenings, and celebrated the Winter Solstice instead of Christmas. The traditional day of gift exchange was switched to the day of the summer solstice celebration. These ceremonies were replete with sacred fires, torchlit processions, and invocations of Teutonic deities, all performed by files of young blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryan supermen. Although Himmler admired the ceremonial nature of Catholicism and modeled the S.S. partially on the Order of the Jesuits, he also despised Christianity for what he considered its weak, masochistic nature. He held further resentment because of the persecution of German witches during the Inquisition. ...

The Allied Occult Offense

Himmler was obsessed by the idea that British Intelligence was being run by the Rosicrucian order, and that occult adepts were in charge of MI5. Whether or not that was true, the Germans were certainly not the only participants in the war using the power of magick to their advantage. Levenda provides the details of a "Cult Counterstrike" organized by the intelligence agencies of the U.S. and Britain, an effort centering around the "most evil man in the world", the Great Beast 666, Aleister Crowley.

Crowley had gone to live in New York during WWI after being rejected for military service by the British government, and began writing "pro-German propaganda" for a magazine called The Fatherland, published by George Viereck. Crowley took over as editor. He later claimed that he had really been working for British Intelligence, because his articles were so outlandish that the journal was reduced to absurdity, a caricature of serious political discussion, which would help the British cause more than harm it.

There is some evidence to suggest that Crowley was working for MI5 during this time, spying on his fellow OTO initiate Karl Germer, a German intelligence agent, so perhaps his excuse for working for The Fatherland is sound. Whatever the case, he was definitely hired by MI5 during WWII. Crowley had become friends with author Dennis Wheatley, well-known for a number of fiction and non-fiction books based on the occult who had once worked for Winston Churchill's Joint Planning Staff. He had been introduced to Crowley by a journalist named Tom Driberg, who would later become a spy for MI5 as well, and who would come into possession of Crowley's diaries shortly after his death in 1947.

Wheatley also introduced Crowley to yet another MI5 agent, Maxwell Knight. Knight was the real historical figure behind the fictional character "M" in all the James Bond novels, written by Knight's friend in the Department of Naval Intelligence, Ian Fleming. Crowley met Knight for dinner at Wheatley's house, and it was there that Crowley agreed to take them both on as magick students.

Later, Ian Fleming dreamed up a way to use Crowley's expertise in a scheme against the Germans. The scheme involved an Anglo-German organization known as "The Link", a supposed "cultural society" which had once been under the leadership of Sir Barry Domville, Director of Naval Intelligence from 1927 to 1930. The Link had been investigated by Maxwell Knight in the 1930s because of its involvement in German spy operations, and was soon dissolved after much incriminating evidence was found. As Levenda describes, Fleming "thought that the Nazis could be made to believe that the The Link was still in existence, they could use it as bait for the Nazi leadership. The point was to convince the Nazis that The Link had sufficient influence to overthrow the Churchill government and thereby to install a more pliable British government, one which would gladly negotiate a separate peace with Hitler."

The suggestion came in the form of fake astrological advice passed on to the gullible Rudolf Hess, who was already under the delusion that only he could talk the British into peace with Germany, and that it was his destiny to do so. One of his staff astrologers, Dr. Ernst Schulte-Strathaus, under British employ, encouraged Hess to make his mission to England on May 10, 1941 a significant date because of a rare conjunction of six planets in the sign of Taurus. The Duke of Hamilton was also enlisted to let Hess know that he would be happy to entertain him should he plan to go through with such an endeavor. So Hess, a trained pilot, embarked on a rather dangerous solo flight to the British Isles, parachuting into Scotland donned in various occult symbols, where he was immediately arrested by the waiting Brits. Fleming tried to obtain permission for Crowley to debrief Hess in order to develop intelligence on the occult scene in the Third Reich and particularly the Nazi leadership. But this permission was denied, and Hess spent the rest of his days in prison not being much use to anybody. What could have been a major propaganda coup against the Nazis went utterly wasted, as if by tacit agreement on both sides.

After Hess' arrest, Hitler denounced him as a crazed madman, and began persecuting astrologers and occultists in his own domains more so than ever before. Crowley continued trying to help the Allied cause, but most of his ideas were rejected. One, however, while initially dismissed, was later implemented. This involved dropping occult pamphlets on the German countryside that predicted a dire outcome for the war and depicted the Nazi leadership as Satanic. A forgery of a popular German astrological magazine called Zenit was created and dropped onto enemy battlefields. It was set for full-scale distribution, but the delivery was intercepted by the Gestapo before it could be completed.

Besides Crowley, there were other occultists involved in the fight against the Third Reich. One of Crowley's protegés, Jack Parsons, who was the Head of the Agapé O.T.O. Lodge in California as well as a charter member of both Cal-Tech and the Jet propulsion Laboratory, invented the "Greek Fire" rocket propellant which was widely used by the United State Navy between 1944 and 1945. It was a solution that could have only come from someone with a working knowledge of the arcane lore of alchemy and magic. (Parsons later killed himself in an accident involving fulminate of mercury. He had been driven crazy and proclaimed himself the Anti-Christ after becoming involved with one "Frater H", who was actually a spy sent by Naval Intelligence to infiltrate the O.T.O. That spy's name was L. Ron Hubbard!) There was also a Golden dawn initiate named Sam Untermyer, an attorney and wealthy philanthropist once called a "Satanist" by a British newspaper. Untermyer started the "Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights" and the "World-Anti-Nazi Council, which both promoted the boycott of German products. He also donated money to the hunt for Nazi agents coming into New York. And with the help of a man named Richard Rollins, he started a secret society called "the Board" which engaged in counterespionage against Nazi groups who were recruiting in the United States.

World War II was a magick war, and a holy war, a war in which both sides consider themselves to be fighting the forces of evil. It was a war operated behind the scenes by mystical adepts using their esoteric knowledge of symbolism, astrology, meditation, astral travel, clairvoyance, and mind control against the enemy. A war inspired by age-old beliefs in the Elder Gods of Europe's ancient past.

[TonyGosling]

M’s interest in Crowley’s Magick

See further for mention of the Isle of Man hypnotist and Sean Stowell’s book The King’s Psychiatrist which details Dr Alexander Cannon’s treatment of Crowley’s first wife.

“Another unsung hero of World War II is Aleister Crowley provided we accept his claim that MI5 invited him to organise some woodland magic of his own, code-named Operation Mistletoe, in Ashdown Forest. Also rumoured to have been involved are Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books, and Dennis Wheatley whose novels about magic and witchcraft were immensely popular in the nineteen-fifties and sixties. While undeniable that both men worked for the security services during the war there is no evidence that they participated in such an exercise, reportedly the brain child of Maxwell Knight, Head of Section B5(b). (The selfsame Maxwell Knight was an occasional visitor to the vicarage in Limehouse though his MI5 colleague, the predatory Tom Driberg MP, was less welcome and came only once, a former chum of Crowley’s, he was famously described by Winston Churchill as “the sort of man who gives sodomy a bad name.”)” [Magic without Mirrors, David Conway, p.220-221]

Magic without Mirrors: The Making of a Magician, David Conway
Magic without Mirrors: The Making of a Magician, David Conway

photo 3 (16)

“There are others which are more telling, though still obscure. His first wife Gladys, I learnt, died in the Overseas Club after some sort of occult misadventure in which the notorious Aleister Crowley was involved – certainly I’d have been unwilling to enquire too deeply into that particular incident. Black magic was not a subject that held any attraction for me. I accepted M’s interest in it, hoping it was purely academic, but for myself, I preferred to leave it well and truly alone: M understood this. When I tore up a photograph of Aleister Crowley which he had kept, as I believed it to be unlucky, he only laughed.” [p.45]

https://bitsofbooksblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/20/the-book-the-british- tried-to-ban-one-girls-war-joan-miller-1986/

[TonyGosling]

Churchill's Man of Mystery: Desmond Morton and the World of Intelligence (2006)

John Ainsworth-Davis
REVIEW - 5.0 out of 5 stars
Uncle Desmond comes to life. - 23 November 2006
This is a quite wonderful book. Not just because of Miss Bennett's superlative historical talent and comment, but because she has allowed herself to enter into the heart of the matter - a heart that contained not only a massive archive of intelligence secrets of WW2 - but also a German bullet, which had it moved a fraction of an inch, could have presaged instant death. Thus marriage had been out of the question for it's owner, my god father, Major Sir Desmond Morton. As he was excessively secretive about his work and background, this was practically the only piece of information I got from him in this period which turned into a very affectionate bi-polar relationship. It was 1932 and I was eight. Desmond had been my Godfather when we converted to Catholicism. Later when my parents divorced and my father left for fields afresh, he arranged for my mother, my two sisters and I to have Chartwell Cottage on the edge of his friend Winston Churchill's estate which rested below Desmond's house at Crockham Hill, which was called `Early lands', or course we children called it `Fairylands'. There he nursed an electrifying hobby as an exorcist which he exercised in close cooperation with his friend, the Reverend C.C. Martindale, a Jesuit priest and the leading authority in the kingdom on affairs of spiritualism. Usually in the middle of the night, they would creep off with a good supply of Holy Water and other Satanic baiting equipment. A day or so later, he would visit our bedroom and recount to us terrified children, the fine details of his ghostly encounters as we hugged up together under the sheets. When our mother arrived to exhort Desmond not to frighten the children, Desmond always replied, "Now don't fuss, Daisy!"
Everyone called our mother, `Daisy'.
Thus during the period from 1932 to May 1940, I knew nothing of historical interest about Desmond, except that he had almost replaced my father and become as was the tradition of the times - `Uncle' Desmond.
However as I read Miss Bennett's inspired prose and am carried away with the truth and realism of her work, I find myself truly grateful for being given this joyful and magnificently interesting opportunity to be once more re-united with Desmond.
Between May 1940-July 1945, Miss Bennett tell us that it was every difficult to find out what Morton was doing in this period of his highly secretive life at Downing Street. Where he spent his leisure time, how he or his friends or relations were affected by the conflict. Nevertheless she manages to give us a very interesting insight into those of Morton's activities that could be both seen and documented. I was particularly fascinated by this for although I was newly hatched as a Midshipman in the Royal Navy, I was also on confidential loan to Desmond. I get the impression throughout the book that Morton preferred service personnel in charge of intelligence matters and not civilians or politicians, excluding Churchill, who often behaved as if he were commanding a battalion of the line. No disgruntled petty jealousies. But rather, "Do as you're bloody told!" To which the only reply was `Aye, aye, Sir"!
Much simpler.
As Morton `Energetically awaits Death' & in the Epilogue,
Miss Bennett presents `her piece,' and her heart runs free. The flow of the words, the accuracy of the history, the depth of feeling for her real life characters, her humility and joy, her amusement, laughing with, and not `at', and my own memories of that haughty jealous spiteful cat Jezebel, her beautiful green all seeing eyes, slinking into the room followed by Desmond in the full regalia of a Chinese Mandarin. It is all so sad - but wonderful and I am deeply moved by Miss Bennett's restaging of all this mingled with my own memories and thoughts.
In my review epilogue, I refer back to Chapter 11, `The Morton Myth'. Miss Bennett has told us that it was every difficult to find out what Morton was doing in this period of his highly secretive life at Downing Street, where he spent his leisure time. She also asked, `What did Morton do, or not do, during the war'?
I once again marvel at the words of this chapter because they eloquently and accurately present us with brilliant cover events that guarded one of the most successfully audacious, dangerous, amoral, terrible, yet necessary Operational Intelligence Sections. It was controlled by Desmond Morton under the direct authority of the Prime Minister and under cover of the Royal Navy.
In the introduction to this book, Miss Bennett tells us that Desmond destroyed his private papers before his death in 1971.
Yes! But not before all these papers had been meticulously copied, photographed and sent away to the special secure archives which houses such sensitive documents.
It is not my business to go any further here with this diversion except to say that I think Desmond would have loved Miss Bennett's very fine book - I certainly did.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Crowley was born Edward Alexander Crowley on 12 October 1875 in Leamington, Warwickshire, the son of prosperous Plymouth Brethren parents.
http://www.mastermason.com/luxocculta/forbidde.htm

He was educated privately, at schools run by the Plymouth Brethren, and finally at Tonbridge, to matriculate at Trinity College, Cambridge in the autumn term of 1895. Here he was first able to step free of his family and their narrow intellectual atmosphere which forbade virtually all literature. After reflecting on the limits of mortality and human endeavour, in a search for a method to explore the spiritual world, Crowley took up the study of medieval Magic, starting with The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts (1898) of A. E. Waite. Crowley, intrigued by Waite's hinting that 'he knew of a Hidden Church withdrawn from the world in whose sanctuaries were preserved the mysteries of initiation,' wrote the author in the spring of 1898, asking for an introduction; Waite (who was not yet a mason) replied with the suggestion that Crowley read The Cloud upon the Sanctuary of Karl von Eckartshausen, an early 19th century devotional text of 'Rosicrucian' mysticism, which he studied assidously over the Easter vacation of 1898. A chance meeting in Switzerland later that year brought Crowley into contact with the 'Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn', the fin-de-siecle’s most influential English esoteric society. Crowley’s initiation into the grade of Neophyte of the Golden Dawn took place in the [second] Mark Mason's Hall, Great Queen Street, on 26 November 1898. In a real sense, this was Crowley's first distant brush with Freemasonry, as the Golden Dawn was created by an interlocking directorate of esoterically inclined Freemasons, with ritual and organizational structure closely modelled on the Craft and certain Appendant Bodies. The parallel and blatant borrowings (e.g., the sceptres of the First and Third Principals of the Holy Royal Arch are used in the Golden Dawn rituals by the 'Hierophant' and ‘Hegemon') which seem so obvious to a contemporary student, however, provoked little comment by Crowley, who took his initiation with deadly seriousness as his entry into the ‘Hidden Church of the Holy Grail'.

By the time Crowley joined the Golden Dawn in 1898, Westcott had 'withdrawn his labours' from both the First and Second Order the year prior owing to official pressure the Home Office. Westcott also tired of the increasingly dictatorial methods of his colleague Bro. Samuel Liddell Mathers, fellow member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, Westcott's right hand in the creation of the Golden Dawn and the sole author of it’s magically inclined 'Rosicrucian' SecondOrder, 'Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis'. Crowley met Westcott in person only once, on 17 April 1900[1], but he saw Mathers frequently and had a high regard for the latter's abilities as a magician and a scholar.

It is hardly surprising that when the London 'adepti' began openly to turn against in early 1900. Crowley immediately pledged himself to Mathers's defence. Mathers, setting a fine example of masonic amity, proceeded to denounce Westcott privatly for having forged the alleged correspondence with the German adepts upon whose foundation the warrant for the Golden Dawn was established. Crowley was sent to London as Mathers's envoy and the whole fabric of the Order began to unravel in the face of the accusations of fraud levelled against Westcott. As far as Crowley was concerned the matter ended with the 'Battle of Blythe Road' in April 1900, reducing the Golden to a fight in a police court over regalia. Little did Crowley know that his part in the break-up of the Golden Dawn, and his subsequent efforts to force Westcott to 'come clean' publicly as to its origins, made certain he would be shunned by Westcott's friends and colleagues when endeavouring to regularize his position in England as a mason.

MEXICO CITY

On the advice of two unnamed members of the Golden Dawn, whom he met in Mathers's company in Paris, Crowley set sail for Mexico in late June 1900. They are likely to have furnished Crowley with his introduction to:



Don Jesus Medina, a descendant of the great duke of Armada fame, and one of the highest chiefs of Scottish Rite free-masonry. My cabbalistic knowledge being already profound by current standards, he thought me worthy of the highest initiation in his power to confer; special powers were obtained in view of my limited sojourn, and I was pushed rapidly through and admitted to the thirty-third and last degree before I left the country. (The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1969), pp. 202-203).



That 'Supreme Grand Council, thirty-third, etc., etc., also for the world at large, founded by the ‘Duke of Medina and Sidonia, Commander of the Spanish Armada’[2] was. in the words of Bro. John Hamill, 'a minuscule irregular body', and the conferral of the 33° in Mexico City by Medina-Sidonia granted Crowley no Regular masonic standing. Whatever documentation Medina-Sidonia furnished Crowley, no trace of it survives among Crowleys voluminous papers; my attempts to trace Medina-Sidonia's archives in Mexico have not met with success. The Golden Dawn connection to Medina-Sidonia seems likely as the latter shared Crowley's interest in ritual magic; they worked together to establish a new order, 'The Lamp of Invisible Light', with Don Jesus as its first high priest. Crowley did not keep in touch with Medina-Sidonia after he left Mexico in April 1901. Clearly the candidate was not impressed; Crowley comments on the conferral of the 33' that ‘it did not add much of importance to my knowledge of the mysteries; but I had heard at freemasonry was a universal brotherhood and expected to be welcomed all over the world by brethren.' (Crowley, Confessions, p. 695) Crowley was in for his first in a series of rude shocks where masonic recognition were concerned.













Crowley in the regalia of many of the masonic Orders with which he claimed to associated.







PARIS



Shortly after his Mexican initiation, Crowley began to discuss Freemasonry with 'some broken-down gambler or sporting-house tout' and he was refused recognition based on a difference in the grip. Crowley reacted with a 'measureless contempt for the whole mummery'. However, Crowley, who was a skilled amateur of chess and had planned a career in diplomacy, persisted and tried another gambit while he was resident in Paris in 1904 in his bid for masonic regularity. He petitioned Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 343, a Lodge chartered in 1899 by the Grande Loge de France, a body unrecognized by the United Grand Lodge of England, on 29 June 1904.

The petition gives his name as 'Aleister St. Edward Crowley', and his occupation as poet'. His petition was signed by the Lodge's Secretary, the Reverend James Lyon Bowley, who was, according to Crowley, chaplain to the British Embassy in Paris. Bowley had begun his masonic life as a Regular mason; he was initiated in the Apollo University Lodge No. 357 in Oxford, in October 1889 and resigned in 1899. He served as Provincial Grand Organist in the Provincial Grand Lodge of Oxfordshire for the year 1892[3]. One could see how Bowley's presence in the Lodge could have led Crowley to believe that it was Regular.

There is no record of Bowley having any connection with English Freemasonry after 1899. The presumption is that Bowley resigned his connection with English Freemasonry when he joined Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 343, in which he was the thirtieth member on its roll. Crowley's petition was counter-signed by the Worshipful Master of Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 343, Edward-Philip Denny, and the seventh member on its roll.

Crowley was initiated on 8 October 1904, presumably passed the following month, and raised on 17 December 1904; he is listed in the 'Tableau annuel' dated 31 December 1904 with the Grand Lodge number 41210, Lodge number 54. Crowley was 'warmly welcomed by numerous English and American visitors to our Lodge', thus reinforcing his belief that all was masonically well. He wrote enthusiastically about his experience to his brother-in-law, Gerald Kelly, later President of the Royal Academy of Art:

If you are not yet a Mason, it is worth your while to become one in a French lodge. Ask Bowley, who likes Tannhauser [a long poem by Crowley], or says he does, and all sorts of sweet things. (Letter, Crowley to Gerald Kelly, undated but C. 1904, University of London, Warburg Institute, G. J. Yorke Collection).

From the records made available for this paper, Crowley last appears as a member of Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 343 in 1908. His name does not appear in the 1934 published list of members of the Grand Loge de France.

LONDON AND THE EQUINOX

After Crowley returned to England in 1908, he began to work on a serial publication entitled The Equinox, in which he would at last carry out his plan to reveal the true history of the Golden Dawn and its founders. He wrote to W Wynn Westcott on 25 July 1908 'Letter in Private Collection 'C'), demanding that Westcott deposit with the British Museum the 'cipher manuscripts' upon which the Golden Dawn was founded or otherwise account for their reception and disposition if they were no longer within his care; without setting forth these facts publicly, Crowley averred that Westcott was party to an ongoing fraud. Crowley followed up this letter with a call upon Westcott's associate in the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, Bro. Arthur Cadbury-Jones on 24 October 1908[4] with whom he had previously corresponded, and repeated his demands. None of this could have endeared him to Westcott, who had both an official and a masonic reputation to uphold.

Crowley announced in The Equinox the publication of the Second Order ritual, which appeared in the March 19 1 0 issue. Mathers sued Crowley to restrain publication, claiming to be the chief of the Rosicrucian Order. On his own initiative, Cadbury-Jones sent to all the daily papers an open letter under Westcott's signature, written from the Societias Rosicruciana in Anglia office, distancing it from the Orders and parties in Mathers v. Crowley:

I shall be glad if you will allow me space in your columns to state that the 'Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia' is not connected with the 'Rosicrucian Order' mentioned in a recent appeal in the High Courts, and that Mr. A. Crowley, neither is, nor ever was a member of this Society. (Letter, 24 March 1910, Private Collection 'C').

Crowley in turn attempted to deflect some of the criticisms of his 'brother Masons' he was an oath-breaker in publishing the Golden Dawn ritual by claiming he did so in a good cause, and handed a laurel to Westcott in the process:

I wish expressly to disassociate from my strictures on Mathers Brother Wynn Westcott his colleague; for I have heard and believe nothing which would lead me to doubt his uprightness and integrity. But 1 warn him in public, as I have (vainly) warned him private, that by retaining the cipher MSS. of the Order, and preserving silence on the subject, he makes himself an accomplice in, or at least an accessory to, the frauds of his colleague. (The Equinox, September 19 1 0, pp. 5-6).



One can be certain this mollified Westcott not at all. Westcott was not one to be bullied by Crowley, and we will see that his influence could be far-reaching, at least in the men minutum mundum of English Freemasonry.

ENTER REUSS AND YARKER

Mathers's defeat by Crowley and the attendant publicity resulted in the latter being deluged by innumerable 'sole authentic Chiefs of the Rosicrucian Order'. One of the more persistent of these was Theodor Reuss, Frater Superior and Outer Head in mundo of the Ordo Templi Orientis.

The primary basis of Reuss' various fraternal enterprises including the Ordo Temp Orientis was a charter for a German Sovereign Sanctuary of the Antient and Primitive issued 24 September 1902 by its Grand Hierophant 97°, John Yarker, to Reuss and wo colleagues. When Reuss first came to call on Crowley in the spring of 1910[5], he at once offered Crowley the VII° of the Ordo Templi Orientis, which was considered to be the equivalent of the 33°. By this time Crowley's interest in Freemasonry had cooled considerably, as he thought it 'either vain pretence, tomfoolery, an excuse for drunken. rowdiness, or a sinister association for political intrigues and commercial pirates' (Crowley, Confessions, 628) Reuss attempted to convince Crowley that there were a few men who took Freemasonry seriously, and, more importantly, that the rites concealed profound magical secrets.

No doubt Reuss spread the good word about Crowley to John Yarker, who sent his Arcane Schools to Crowley for review, which appeared in the September 1910 issue of The Equinox. The review, written with the usual Crowleyan flourish towards those he wished to praise, contains these sentiments, pregnant with the assumptions of the Esoteric School of Freemasonry and a precursor of what was to come:

He [Yarkerl has abundantly proved his main point, the true antiquity of some Masonic system. It is a parallel to Frazer's tracing the history of the Slain God.

But why is there no life in any of our Slain God rituals? It is for us to restore them by the Word and the Grip.

For us, who have the inner knowledge, inherited or won, it remains to restore the true rites of Attis, Adonis, Osiris, of Set, Serapis, Mithras and Abel. (op. cit., p. 240).

Yarker, old and with few allies left alive, welcomed Crowley with open arms, gladly recognizing his Mexican 33° and conferring upon him by patent dated 29 November 1910[6] the 33° of the irregular 'Cerneau' Scottish Rite, the legitimacy of whose claims Yarker had argued in print for decades; in addition, Yarker granted the equivalent degrees in the other ‘fringe’ rites he controlled, the 95° of the Rite of Memphis. and the Rite of Misraim. Between Yarker and Reuss, there must have been enough links to cover the world of irregular Masonry, so much so that Crowley found:

From this time on I lived in a perfect shower of diplomas, from Bucharest to Salt Lake

City[7]. I possess more exalted titles than I have ever been able to count. 1 am supposed to know more secret signs, tokens, passwords, grand-words, grips, and so on, than I could actually learn in a dozen lives. An elephant would break down under the insignia I am entitled to wear. The natural consequence of this was that, like Alice when she found the kings and queens and the rest showering upon her as a pack of cards, I woke up. (Crowley, Confessions, p. 629).

Reuss again visited Crowley in the spring of 1912, claiming that Crowley had clearly published the central secret of the IX° of the Ordo Templi Orientis and must be obligated to secrecy. After some persuasion, Crowley took him seriously, and Reuss straightway proceeded to issue a charter dated 21 April 1912,[8] in the name of 'Aleister St. Edward Crowley, 33°, 90°, 95°, X°’, styling him National Grand Master General for Great Britain and Ireland, with the British section to denominated 'Mysteria Mystica Maxima'.

Yarker, perhaps anticipating his demise, gave Crowley a further 'Dispensation' dated 7 August 1912, 'to take precedence of all previously constituted Authorities with special power to revive the dormant Mount Sinai and Rose of Sharon',[9] two London chapters of the Antient and Primitive Rite. It was perhaps at Yarker's insistence, considering that a mason of the Antient and Primitive Rite was supposed to be 'a member of a Lodge in good standing, working under a grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons'[10], that Crowley once again tried to establish a connection with Regular Masonry.

CROWLEY AT GREAT QUEEN STREET

Crowley came, on 19 August 1912, to call on Bro. W J. Songhurst, Secretary of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076; it is not clear from his letter, typed on stationery with the return address of 52, Great Queen Street, if their meeting was at the Quatuor Coronati office or elsewhere. It is significant that Songhurst felt it prudent to give 'due and timely notice' to Westcott:

You will be interested to know that I had a call yesterday from Aleister McArthur [sic] Crowley. He produced a Certificate, showing that he is a member of the Anglo-Saxon Lodge, warranted in Paris by the Grand Lodge of France. He is desirous of joining an English Lodge, but I told him plainly that as far as I am concerned, I should refuse his admission to any English Lodge with which I am connected. I recommended that he should see the Grand Secretary in order to get official information. and he promised to do so. But when I called there later in the day I found that he had already made enquiries early last week, and that the information there given exactly coincided with mine. (Letter, W J. Songhurst to W Wynn Westcott, 20 August 1912, Private Collection 'C').

It is not certain if these incidents are the same ones Crowley refers to in his English Review article, "The Crisis in Freemasonry'[11], written under the pseudonym of 'a Past Grand Master', where the story has rather a different ending:

I returned to England some time later, after 'passing the chair' in my Lodge [AngloSaxon Lodge No. 343], and, wishing to join the Royal Arch, called on its venerable secretary.

I presented my credentials. 'O Thou Grand Architect of the Universe!' the old man sobbed out in rage, 'why dost Thou not wither this impudent imposter with Thy fire from heaven? Sir, begone! You are not a Mason at all! As all the world knows, the people in Z- [Paris] are atheists and live with other men's wives'.

I thought this a little hard on my Reverend Father in God my proposer [Reverend J.L. Bowley]; and I noted that, of course, every single English or American visitor to our Lodge in Z- stood in peril of instant and irrevocable expulsion on detection. So I said nothing, but walked to another room in Freemasons' Hall over his head, and took my seat as a Past Master in one of the oldest and most eminent Lodges London! (Crowley, op. cit., p. 130-131).

It was surely not the first time that an unauthorized visitor had crossed the threshold of Lodge in Great Queen Street, but it is difficult to imagine what Crowley thought he gaining by this manoeuvre as the recognition he sought still eluded him. One wonders if Crowley. ever connected his being shut out of English Freemasonry to his behaviour towards Westcott, who undoubtedly had many defenders. But Crowley did not take his GolderDawn motto of Perdurabo (I shall endure) lightly, and he was destined to try once more to obtain masonic recognition in his native country.

EXIT YARKER, ENTER MRS. BESANT?

The death of John Yarker on 20 March 1913 pitted Crowley against the Co-Masonic Theosophists for the corpse of the Antient and Primitive Rite. The stage was set for the conflict when the 1912 'Jubilee' edition of Oriflamme, the official organ of O.T.O. and the German Sovereign Sanctuary of the Antient and Primitive Rite, announced that at Yarker's request 'Brother J. J. [sic] Wedgwood' was made 'an honorary Master Mason and attached him to the Lodge 'Holy Grail' in Munich as an honorary member'. James Ingall Wedgwood was many things, among them the Very Illustrious Supreme Secretary to the British Federation of the Co-Masonic Order, led by its Very Illustrious Most Puissant Grand Commander, Mrs. Annie Besant. Word had come to Crowley that the Co-Masons had claimed to have 'bought' the Antient and Primitive Rite, and were going to turn it into a vehicle for the worship of the 'Coming Christ' or 'Alcyone', the teenage Indian boy better known as Krishnamurti.

Richard Higham, a long-time member of the Antient and Primitive Rite, convoked a meeting of its Sovereign Sanctuary in his home city of Manchester on 28 June 1913[12]. Crowley protested at the presence of Wedgwood, whom he challenged to prove himself a mason; Wedgwood replied with the mildness of a clergyman that if Crowley was right in his contention that Wedgwood was no mason, that Wedgwood was equally entitled to object to Crowley's presence, 'it being the first condition of membership that a candidate should be a freemason in good standing under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of England'[13]. After a diatribe by Crowley, attacking Besant, 'the nominal mistress' of the Theosophical Society, and her occult partner C. W Leadbeater, 'a senile sex-maniac' who is 'the hand which moves the wooden-headed pawn Wedgwood, hardly a man, certainly no Mason'[14], the meeting disbanded sine die, only to regroup at Crowley's London studio on 30 June 1913, without Wedgwood and without incident, electing Henry Meyer to replace Yarker as Sovereign Grand Master General of the Rite. This convocation marks the effective terminus for the Antient and Primitive Rite, for it was Crowley's intent to consolidate all the 'bodies of initiates' in one system, that of the Ordo Templi Orientis, and he quickly lost all interest in Yarker's nearly moribund body. But there remained that nagging matter of masonic recognition, so Crowley strove for the last time to obtain the approval of the United Grand Lodge of England.

GREAT QUEEN STREET, ROUND 2

In the midst of his conflict with the Co-Masons, Crowley attempted to strengthen his own hand while raising another against his Theosophical opponents by calling upon Sir Edward Letchworth, Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England, in these terms:

I wish to appeal to the fraternal Brothers of the Lodge of England in the following circumstances. 1 was made a Master Mason 17 December 1904 in Lodge 343 AngloSaxon in Paris, working under the Grand Lodge of France. My proposer was the Rev J. L. Bowley, who I understand has been the Provincial Grand Officer in the Oxford Province, and I fully understood from him that the Anglo-Saxon Lodge was duly recognized by the Grand Lodge of England, and in fact numbers of admitted English Masons have attended the Lodge while on the other hand I have always been received with the greatest fraternal welcome in many lodges both in England and India, and no question has been raised as to my status except in the Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch at Freemasons' Hall. I must admit that at that time I was annoyed by what seemed to me a narrow-minded view of masonry. As the Ritual of my initiation was that in use all over England, and no such alteration of landmarks had taken place as that which has caused the breach between the G[randl Lodge of England the G[randl Orient. And I shall consequently prepare to support the G[randl L[odgel of France in its claim to the validity of its initiations. I am now, however, credibly informed that recently the Grand Lodge of France has tolerated and even recognized so-called co-masonry, and in these circumstances I see no course open to me but to resign from that Lodge, not only on masonic grounds, but because co-masonry is merely a mask for the cult of 'Alcyone', which I have no hesitation in describing as the most impudent blasphemy and filthy fraud that has ever been attempted in the history of the world .

I write to assure you of my thorough loyalty and allegiance to the principles of the Grand Lodge of England and I ask your fraternal kindness to make it as easy as possible for me to regularize my position. (Letter, Aleister Crowley to Sir Edward Letchworth, transcribed from shorthand dictation dated 27 June 1913, Yorke Collection).

The reply to this letter is no longer in the archives of the United Grand Lodge of England, but it could not have been helpful. Crowley's later writings show no awareness of the establishment on 5 November 1913 of the Grande Loge Nationale Independente et Reguliere pour la France et les Colonies Francaises, now known as Grande Loge Nationale Francaise. This Regular body was recognized with alacrity by the United Grand Lodge of England on 3 December 1913. Crowley's approach to the English authorities could not have come at a less politically opportune time.

Questions remain as to why Crowley wanted their recognition and what did he expect to gain from his sudden partial capitulation to established authority. One can speculate that Crowley desired for himself standing as a mason in England to be equal with his colleagues Yarker and Reuss. The United Grand Lodge of England at that time had a growing concern about co-Masonry, but it surely did not need or want Crowley as an ally. Some may see in this letter more than a measure of hypocrisy used to Machiavellian purposes. Crowley insisted that the Ordo Templi Orientis in no way infringed on 'the just privilege of duly authorized Masonic Bodies' - the words chosen to allow plenty of room for future hairsplitting if needed[15]. In truth, although the Ordo Templi Orientis admitted men and women on an equal basis, unlike Co-Masonry, its rituals and teachings were not those of any Regular masonic body, and on this basis, it could have been cleared from the charges of being a Clandestine organization.

On the same date of his letter to Sir Edward, Crowley dictated a similar missive to Edward-Philip Denny of Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 343, asking if their Lodge might secede from the Grande Loge de France in the face of its toleration of Co-Masonry and seek the recognition of the United Grand Lodge of England; Denny's answer, if he made one, does not survive in Crowley's papers[16].

'SOLE AND SUPREME AUTHORITY'

Having failed to establish himself masonically, and being incapable of obtaining any masonic recognition in England for the Antient and Primitive Rite, which had been opposed with vigour since its inception in 1872 by the Supreme Council 33° for England and Wales[17], Crowley abandoned for a time the unequal contest of authority by retreating to a high ground he could fashion after his own lights, namely the Ordo Templi Orientis.

It could be argued that in the absence of Yarker Crowley wasn't greatly interested in Freemasonry per se, but found its forms and methods useful for his own purposes, as has been true for many other organizers of esoteric societies. But in the Ordo Templi Orienus Crowley claimed for himself an authority unimaginable in Regular Freemasonry, ever though Reuss was its nominal head, and he continued to develop the work of this Order without let or hindrance during his American period (1914-1919). Believing that he had 'discovered' the Lost Word of the Master Mason's Degree as well as the correct spelling of the word of the Holy Royal Arch[18], Crowley had its candidates swear to acknowledge him as 'the sole and supreme authority in Freemasonry’[19] without fear of contradiction. though it is only with difficulty that one would imagine Reuss consenting to the wording.

THE DETROIT WORKING

During the First World War, Crowley and his few North American disciples worked to establish the Ordo Templi Orientis, first in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and later in Detroit, Michigan, United States of America. His faithful follower Brother Charles Stansfeld Jones[20] lectured in Detroit on occult subjects and succeeded in interesting a few local masons who were also active in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of Detroit. Among them was Brother Albert W Ryerson 32°, proprietor of the Universal Book Company, who was persuaded to act as publisher for the March 1919 issue of Crowley's occult journal, The Equinox, which was filled with details on the Ordo Templi Orientis. Crowley visited Detroit in April 1919 and again in the fall of that year. Crowley's predetermined opinion of the Brethren is evident from the start:

With regard to the O.T.O., I take the liberty of advising you to get hold of the 33° man [Frank T. Lodge] in private. Sound him very carefully with regard to the principles of the 7°, and if you find him worthy, affiliate him to that degree. Your mental attitude should be, if I may dare say so, to regard the 32° people as so many pieces of rather nasty dirt. ... I am then determined to revise the rituals of the O.T.O. in such a sense that they will not conflict in any way with the Masonic ideals, and I suggest that you should arrange a conference between myself and these Masons, in which the rituals should be submitted to them for approval in this particular sense. (Letter, Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones, February 19, 1919, private collection).

Crowley could not veil his contempt for the recognized authorities, whom he thought would confer the 33° upon him and Jones; to the latter he suggested that he should: 'Affiliate Frank Lodge but rub it into him that even our eighth degree wipes its arse with the thirty third. As you and I need toilet paper, they can give us or sell us their dirty sheep skin' (Letter, Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld jones, march 13, 1919, private collection). But that was not all. Crowley, taking a page out of Yarker's book and writing it large, thought his connection with Yarker's irregular rites was his trump card to enforce his standing in Masonry:

My point about our 33rd is this, that we cannot admit that anyone soever is higher in Masonry than ourselves ... My idea is to hele the breach with Memphis and Mizraim.. these rites, though messy, keep going. Now I am Patriarch Grand Administrator General, and can be S.G.M.G. at the election, which, by the way, is overdue. Now I propose that the Scottish Rite absorb M. and M., conferring all its degrees formally upon their 32nds. Our price for this is seats on the S.C. of the Scottish in America. Otherwise, we use our energy to run every rite, Scottish and the rest, on our own ... Remember, we don't admit that their rite is any good until it has our O.K. Theirs is a forged charter. (Letter, Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones, c. April 1919, private collection).

It is easy to picture how contemporary Brethren would have reacted to an overture based on these suppositions. Certainly no authorities in the Regular bodies would have paid any attention to claims based on the Rites of Memphis or Misraim which had been condemned as clandestine in several American Grand jurisdictions in the previous century. Needless say, Crowley was not offered a seat in the Supreme Council of the Northern jurisdiction and his proposed 'League of nations' where he would make this exchange did not occur. A reminiscence of the work in Detroit casts a diplomatic view on Crowley's perceived Relationship between the Ordo Templi Orientis and Freemasonry; however, there is no evidence to suggest that any 'General Council of the Scottish Rite' was involved in these affairs, but rather a few Brethren acting on their own:

The accounts of the new Rite [Ordo Templi Orientis] made a great impression; and in particular, attracted the attention of the Supreme Grand Council, Sovereign Grand Inspectors General of the 33rd and Last degree of the Scottish Rite in the Valley of Detroit, Mich. ... I was therefore invited to Detroit, and a series of conferences was held. A Supreme Grand Council of the 7th Degree of the O.T.O. was formally initiated.

However, when it came to the considerations of the practical details of the rituals to be worked, the general Council of the Scottish Rite could not see its way to tolerate in them, on the ground that the symbolism in some places touched too nearly that of the orthodox Masonry of the Lodges.

While we are of course in no sense subordinate to the vulgar convivial Masonry of the Craft Lodges of England and North America, or to the political Masonry of Europe, we recognise in them what is an influence for good, especially as they have a tendency to militate against the foul sorcery of all Christian Rites. We are therefore anxious to avoid in any way appearing to infringe on what they consider their peculiar privileges.

In order to meet these views, it was suggested that I should re-write the rituals in an entirely new symbolism, which would in no way be considered as in competition with the accepted ritual of the Craft. (Letter, Aleister Crowley to Arnold Krumm-Heller, 22 June 1930, private collection).

Crowley only completed a revision of the first four rituals of the Ordo Templi Orientis when the 'Great Lakes Council VII°’ fell apart in a swirl of divorces and bankruptcies, ending with Crowley's departure for England in December 1919. It was the last attempt Crowley made to align the Ordo Templi Orientis to Regular Freemasonry in any manner. Although Stansfeld Jones was made a Regular mason in Detroit, his petition to the Valley of Detroit was rejected, leading Crowley to conclude that 'Freemasonry in the States is one of the most evil organizations that has ever existed' (Letter, Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones, July 25, 1921, private collection). Crowley was not much of a good loser and perhaps this is one game he ought not to have played at all.

From 1920[21] to the end of his life in 1947, Crowley did not involve himself personally in Freemasonry, nor seek the support of any Regular masonic authority for the Ordo Templi Orientis. He deigned to let the masonic trappings of the Antient and Primitive rite - with its numerous degrees tedious in the extreme to his mind - fade into a dim historical past. Crowley would agree to confer the degrees of the Antient and Primitive Rite, if pressed, only upon Regular masons, and there was little demand for them[22].

In closing, it may be illuminating to consider the following passage. Do we find in it a reflection of the utility Crowley the mage saw in Freemasonry?

When a man becomes a magician he looks about him for a magical weapon; and being probably endowed with that human frailty called laziness, he hopes to find a weapon ready made. Thus we find the Christian Magus who imposed his power upon the world taking the existing worships and making a single system combining all their merits ... Others again have attempted to use Freemasonry. There have been even exceptionally foolish magicians who have tried to use a sword long since rusted.

Wagner illustrates this point very clearly in Siegfied. The Great Sword Nothung has been broken, and it is the only weapon that can destroy the gods. The dwarf Mime uselessly tries to mend it. When Siegfried comes he makes no such error. He melts its fragments and forges a new sword. In spite of the intense labour which this costs, it is the best plan to adopt[23].

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Major thanks are due to three Past Masters of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, first to the Ellic Howe, who introduced me to John Hamill and R. A. Gilbert. It is by their example and with their support that this study, begun before I was a member of the Craft, completed. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the late G. J. Yorke, whose collection of Crowleyana is now in the care of Dr. W F. Ryan, Librarian of the Warburg Institute, to whom I am grateful. For permission to quote from the unpublished works of Aleister Crowley, I thank William Breeze of the Ordo Templi Orientis. Madame Florence de Lussy of the fonds maconique of the Bibliotheque Nationale helped me to obtain Crowley's records still with the Grande Loge de France, provided by their Francois Rognon. Brother Arturo deHoyos made available to me his translations of the Reuss rituals and commented on an early draft of the paper. Sr. Rolando Cervantes kindly translated Spanish correspondence and made inquiries relative to Mexico.

BIBLIOGRAPHY



Periodicals



The Equinox. London and Detroit, 1909-1919

The Kneph. London, 1881-1900.

Oriflamme. Berlin and London, 1902-1913.

Books and Articles

Crowley, Aleister, The Confessions of Aleister Growley. London: Jonathan Cape, 1969.

_____________, The Magical Record of the Beast 666. London: Duckworth, 1972.

Evans, Isaac Blair, The Thomson Masonic Fraud. Arrow Press: Salt Lake City, 1922.

Gilbert, R. A., 'Wiliam Wynn Westcott and the Esoteric School of Masonic Research'. AQC 100, 1988.

-----------------, The Golden Dawn Companion. Aquarian: Wellingborough, 1986.

Green, Martin, Mountain of Truth: The Counterculture Begins Ascona, 1900-1920. Hanover and London: Tufts University by University Press of New England, 19 8 6.

Hamill, J. M., ‘The Seeker of Truth: John Yarker 1833-1913'. Beitrdge zur europdischen

Gestesgeschichte der Neuzit: Festschriftfiir Ellic Howe. Freiburg: HochschulVerlag, 1990.

Howe, Ellic, 'Fringe Masonry in England, 1870-85'. AQC 85. 1972.

-----------------'The Rite of Memphis in France and England 1838-70'. AQC 91. 1979.

-----------------The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary History of a Magical Order 1887-1923. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.

Mandleberg, John, Ancient and Accepted. London: Supreme Council 33° by the Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle Ltd, 1995.

Mdller, Helmut and Howe, Ellic, 'Theodor Reuss and Irregular freemasonry in Germany, 1900-23. AQC 91. 1979.

----------------------------------------, Merlin Peregrinus: vom Untergrund des Abendlandes. Wiirzburg, 1986.

Queenborough, Lady (Edith Starr Miller), Occult Theocrasy. Abbeville: privately printed, 1933.

Yarker, John, Constitutions, General Statutes and Ordinances of the Sovereign Sanctuary ofthe Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry in and for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its Dependencies with the Public Ceremonials, and a Sketch of the History of the Rite. London: Sovereign Sanctuary in and for Great Britain and Ireland, 1875.

__________ The Arcane Schools. Belfast: William Tait, 1909.





[1] 'An undated note by Westcott in Private Collection 'C’ (described by R. A. Gilbert in The Golden Dawn Companion, 1986, p 176) reads: '1900. April 17 Crowley called on me as Mathers friend'
[2] ‘At Daggers' Point', New York Sunday Mercury, 29 July 1883, quoted in The Kneph, Vol. III No. 9 (September, 1883), p 69.
[3] Brother John Hamill graciously supplied the details of Bowley's involvement in English Freemasonry. (Letter, John Hamill to the present author, 20 October 1986).
[4] 'Cadbury-Jones, who was then Secretary-General of the SPJA, detailed their meeting in a note dated 24 October 1908, Private Collection 'C'; it is clear from this note that Westcott and Cadbury-Jones were neither amused nor frightened by Crowley's increasing pressure.
[5] 'There is possible evidence of Reuss being aware of Crowley's work prior to 1910. Allgemeine Satzungen des Ordens der Orientalischen Templer OTO (dated January 1906), has on its cover a simplified version of the lamen designed by Crowley c. March 1970 and used on the cover of Captain J. F. C. Fuller's book on 'Crowleyanity', The Star in the West (1907); of course, the Reuss publication may well be backdated.
[6] Reproduced in Crowley, Confessions, facing page 481
[7] Crowley had some contact with the notorious fraud and degree-monger, Matthew McBIain Thomson and his 'American Masonic Federation', based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America.
[8] Reproduced in Lady Queenborough's Occult Theocrasy (1933), vol. 2, appendix 4, illustration 11. The present location of the original is unknown. The charter was created for the German Sovereign Sanctuary of the Antient and Primitive Rite, but the letters 'OTO' have been added to the top of the document by hand.
[9] The 'Dispensation' itself does not survive in Crowley's papers; what we have are Crowley's abstracts from it in various letters and a parallel document issued in 1942 to Crowley's successor as Outer Head of the Ordo Templi Orientis, Karl Germer.
[10] Constitutions, General Statutes and Ordinances of the Sovereign Sanctuary of the Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry in and for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ... (1875), p 1 5.
[11] Published in The English Review, xxxv (August, 1922), pp 127-134; the corrected page proofs are in the Yorke Collection, where it is entitled 'Are You a Mason?', perhaps inspired by the contemporary silent fihn of the same name. Tne title of 'Past Grand Master in the United States of America' was conferred on Crowley by none other than Matthew MeBlain Thomson! The article is extensively quoted and paraphrased in Crowley, Confessions, pp 695-710.
[12] Reuss issued Crowley a charter dated 31 May 1913 appointing the latter'Sovereign Grand Master General of the said Rite in Great Britain and Ireland until a regular Convocation of Prince Patriarch Grand Conservators does meet and either confers or repeals this present appointment.' (Letter, G. J. Yorke to the present author, 16 September 1980) Crowley ultimately claimed the 97° after the death of Reuss.
[13] Crowley, Confessions, p 711
[14] [Crowley, Aleister,l 'Report of the Proceedings at Manchester, with a Note on the Circumstances which led up to them' in The Equinox, September 1913, p xxix.
[15] 'As a lawyer you will appreciate the words "Just" and "duly authorized"; for that leaves us a loophole if at any time we become strong enough to tell the Grand Lodge of England to do what the old man of Newcastle did when he was so requested. But at the present moment it would simply be silly to make ourselves enemies in influential, however imbecile, quarters. I was extremely annoyed with Yarker when, in senile decay, he visited a Co-Masonic, Lodge.' Letter, Crowley to Hugh George de Willmott Newman, 15 August 1944, Yorke Collection).
[16] Crowley's proffered cure for irregularity was ahead of its time; in 1964, a portion of the membership of Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 343 left the Grande Loge de France and reconstituted as Anglo-Saxon Lodge No. 103 under the Grande Loge Nationale Francaise.
[17] See Mandleberg, John, Ancient and Accepted (1995), p 802 for the approach made to the Supreme Council 33° by the Antient and Primitive Rite in May 1913 after Yarker's death; contact was refused.
[18] See Crowley, Confessions, pp 705-707 for his account of the 'discovery'
[19] See the 'Preliminary Pledge-Form of M.'.M.'.M.'. ' (n.d. but c. 1913); copies are preserved in the Yorke Collection
[20] Jones was raised in Detroit Lodge No. 2, Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Michigan, on 27 April 1920, after Crowley's return to England. My thanks are due to Brother Richard R. Amon of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Michigan for Jones' Masonic record.
[21] Crowley declined to attend the Congress of Thomson's International Masonic Federation in Zurich in July 1920; see Crowley, Aleister, The Magical Record of the Beast 666 (1972) pp 132, 148.
[22] A notable example being the case of George H. Brook, William Bernard Crow and Hugh George de Willmott Newman, all 'episcopi vagantes', who unsuccessfully attempted in 1944-1946 to have Crowley charter them to confer the combined degrees of the Rites of Memphis and Msraim.
[23] Crowley, Aleister, introduction to his translation of The Key of the Mysteries (La Clef des Grands Mystires) by Eliphas Levi in The Equinox, September 1913, supplement pp viii-ix.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Followers of occultist Aleister Crowley to be welcomed back to his former Highland home
https://www.scotsman.com/heritage/followers-of-occultist-aleister-crow ley-to-be-welcomed-back-to-his-former-highland-home-1-4957288


Boleskine Housen near Foyers was formerly owned by occultist Aleister Crowley and was destroyed by fire in 2015. It has now been sold and due to be restored with Crowley's teachings to be taught once again at the property. PIC: SWNS/ Creative Commons.
ALISON CAMPSIE
Monday 01 July 2019

The former Highland home of occultist Aleister Crowley is to be restored and converted into a wellness retreat where yoga and meditation will be taught - as well as the teachings of the notorious religious leader.

Boleskine House on the south west banks of Loch Ness was destroyed by a fire in 2015 but has now been purchased by three as yet unnamed investors who paid a total of £500,000 for the property and gardens.

Boleskine House was built in the 1760s with hopes to fully restore the property and grounds. PIC: Creative Commons.
Boleskine House was built in the 1760s with hopes to fully restore the property and grounds. PIC: Creative Commons.
The Boleskine Foundation has now been launched to drive the restoration of the property with parts of the historic estate, which was built in the 1760s, to be opened up to the public.

Meanwhile, it is understood that the Boleskine Foundation has been in discussion with, Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), a religious organisation previously led by Crowley, about giving access to its followers.

READ MORE: Jimmy Page and his black magic Highland home
Crowley developed the religion of Thelema with many 'Thelemites' - who believe in individualism and the power of free will - considering Boleskine House to be a holy place.

A statement on their foundation's website said it wanted to "preserve the historical the historical legacy and heritage" of the estate for the "greater benefit of the public".

Jimmy Page, founder of legendary rock group Led Zeppelin, bought Boleskine House in 1970 but seldom visited the property. PIC: TSPL.
Jimmy Page, founder of legendary rock group Led Zeppelin, bought Boleskine House in 1970 but seldom visited the property. PIC: TSPL.
It added: "Upon its complete restoration, our volunteers intend to use the estate to promote education on the heritage of the house, to welcome the enjoyment of its structure and surrounding gardens, and to help to generate awareness of health and wellness.

READ MORE: Fire-ravaged home of real like Wicker Man goes up for sale
"Such initiatives will include active outreach into the communities of which Boleskine House and its surrounding land holds significant historic value and benefit.

"Such communities include but are not limited to the local community of Foyers, the wider community of Scottish heritage and historic environment; and communities who value Boleskine to be of significant spiritual import, of which we will promote events and activities that facilitate health and wellness such as meditation and yoga as well as education on Thelema, the spiritual legacy forwarded by previous Boleskine House owner, Aleister Crowley."

READ MORE: 13 superstitions from the Highlands and Islands
A statement on the Thelemites website said it was "truly fantastic news" that the new owners intended to co-operate with OTO to allow access to the house and land in a way "which has hitherto not been possible".

Crowley, who bought Boleskine in 1900, conducted various black magic rituals at the house including a six-month long experiment to raise his Guardian Angel.

It is said the experiment was not properly completed, with the spirits raised by Crowley never fully banished leading to a number of unexplained events at Boleskine.

Crowley developed the new religion of Thelema, which observes a number of feasts throughout the year, after honeymooning in Egypt in 1904.

DNA testing will be used to trace the descendants of the signatories of the Declaration of Arbroath almost 700 years since the document asserted Scotland's sovereignty. PIC: TSPL.
DNA search to identify descendants of...
He claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity who provided him with the Book of the Law, a sacred text that served as the basis for Thelema.

They include the feast for the First Night of the Prophet and the Bride on August 12, which celebrates Crowley's fist marriage to Rose Kelly, who assisted in his original revelations.

While it is planned to open up the main rooms of Boleskine House to the public , the property will be closed at certain times of the year to be used by those "who consider the house and lands to have spiritual importance."

Memorial celebrations may also be held in the gardens, where ashes can be scattered for "certain communities who feel the estate holds spiritual importance".

Boleskine house was built in the 1760s by Archibald Fraser, British consul in Tripoli and Algiers and member of Clan Fraser.

Crowley paid £2,000 for the secluded property, more than twice the market value of the day.

Boleskine became so important to Crowley that he taught his followers to focus their spiritual intent in its direction.

"For over a century, many people have considered Boleskine to be spiritually important, a magical place of sublime beauty," the foundation said.

The cost of restoring of the building has been estimated at £730,000 with the foundation saying the revival of Boleskine House will be a "loss-making endevour".

"Nevertheless, the buyers and volunteers or the project believe that Boleskine should be restored as a heritage landmark and opened to the public so that its history, spirit and legacy may be enjoyed for generations to come," the foundation said.

Boleskine House was bought by rock hero Jimmy Page, founder of the group Led Zeppelin, in 1970 although he seldom visited Boleskine, which was later sold and used as a bed and breakfast.

A crowdfunder has been launched to support the restoration of the property with a clearance weekend of the fire-damaged house organised for mid-August. Volunteers are expected to come from around the world for the event, it is understood.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Update on Boleskine House arson
Liz Williams By Liz Williams | August 29, 2019
https://wildhunt.org/2019/08/update-on-boleskine-house-arson.html

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INVERNESS, Scotland – We reported in July on Boleskine House in Scotland, formerly owned by Aleister Crowley and recently purchased for renovation by a trust. Since then, Boleskine has been in the news again: with reports of another fire breaking out at the property.

The house – also formerly owned by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page – passed into a series of private hands and was badly damaged by fire in 2015. No one was in the house at the time, and the fire seems to have started in the kitchen.

In April 2019, the ruined property was put on the market once more. As we reported in July, initial rumours throughout the occult community were that the current main incarnation of the Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) had bought it, but although the OTO are said to be highly supportive of this most recent development, Boleskine was bought by private individuals: Kyra and Keith Readdy, who bought Lots 1 and 3, and William Clifford-Banks, who bought Lot 2, and who are on the board of trustees belonging to the Boleskine House Foundation, described as a “not-for-profit group aimed at restoring and maintaining the Boleskine House estate.”

The Foundation website states that:

“The Boleskine property was placed on the market in April 2019 as four different parcels of land. All four parcels have now been purchased by private owners. The three most significant lots (Lots 1, 2 and 3) have been acquired by the individuals running this website. … The Boleskine House Foundation is only concerned with Lot 1 which contains the main listed house and which is the subject of this website. The other lots remain in private ownership. The owner of Lot 4 is not associated with us.”

In August, a founding member of the Foundation purchased the Gate Lodge, which is also undergoing renovation and is planned to be a holiday let or lease. The Foundation will be making an announcement in the coming weeks of rental availability for later this year.


Gate Lodge – Image credit: The Boleskine House Foundation


Readdy has said on the website that:

“When it comes to heritage property I feel that we are guardians for future generations. It is my privilege and honor to work on this project and to be able to secure the future of the house.”

Clifford-Banks said,“I would like to dispel the negative rumours about Aleister Crowley and restore the estate as a space to host well-being and mindfulness events such as yoga and meditation retreats, and provide a place for lectures, conferences, and even ceremonies.”

The pagan and occult community in the UK in the main has welcomed this development, as Boleskine is regarded as an important part of British occult history due to its association with Crowley. However, since then, the building has once more been damaged by fire.

This started on the afternoon of the 31st July in two places on the property: inside the derelict house itself, which has sustained further considerable damage, and inside the coach house. The latter has been saved, but what remained of the roof of the main house caved in.

Detective Inspector Eddie Ross confirmed that police are investigating and has said that “We are working with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to establish the full circumstances. Our inquiries are at an early stage, although our initial assessment is that this fire was started deliberately. We would encourage anybody may have seen any activity around Boleskine House or nearby to come forward as soon as they can. It should go without saying that deliberately setting fires is incredibly dangerous as you have limited control over how they may develop.”

Since this initial statement, the police have apparently made two arrests in connection with the incident, on suspicion of arson. No other details on the arrests have been made available to the public.

A statement on the Boleskine House Foundation Facebook page said:

“It is with great sadness that we report that the remainder of the building’s interior has now been destroyed, and along with it important historical clues to the features of this important piece of Scottish heritage. We would like to thank the firefighters who put their lives at risk to save what is left of the building.”

However, the Foundation has stated that they will not speculate regarding any possible motivation behind the recent arson attack. They also state that renovations will be going ahead.

A cleanup operation started in mid August and there has been a comment on the Foundation’s Facebook page to the effect that there is a full time security team covering the property, plus motion sensors and CCTV. The Foundation will be releasing a video of the cleanup soon: they estimate that they have cleared around 35 tonnes of rubble, and also estimated that the cost of clearing the burned material in each room is around £1K, even with volunteer labor.

The Foundation intends to have the property fully restored and placed in the hands of a charity, to ensure it can be used by future generations. No single religious group will be given priority over its use, as it is intended that Boleskine should be open to all.

“It is the intention of the owners of Boleskine House and the volunteers of the Boleskine House Foundation to restore the house to its historical integrity. Boleskine House is a ‘B Listed’ property, which means that there are restrictions to ensure that this is done. However, the only records that exist hold descriptions of the house’s exterior features. While there seems to be some flexibility on how its interior is restored, we will be working closely with conservation accredited architects and interior designers to be favourable to how the house might display its original Georgian and Jacobean features.”

The Foundation is also relying on the GoFundMe campaign, as Boleskine was uninsured due to the previous fire.

FILED UNDER: NEWSPAGANISMU.K.WITCHCRAFTALEISTER CROWLEYBOLESKINE HOUSEBOLESKINE HOUSE FOUNDATIONNEOPAGANISMORDO TEMPLI ORIENTISPAGANISMUKWITCHCRAFT
ABOUT LIZ WILLIAMS
Liz Williams
Liz Williams is a professional writer and, with her partner, runs a witchcraft supply business and bookshop in Glastonbury, England. She has written for the Guardian and other publications on pagan themes, and is a member of various pagan organisations, including the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.

[TonyGosling]

Is the Satanist mecca Boleskine House being revived under a deliberately false name?
Boleskine House (Wikimedia Commons)
by Alex Thomson, Eastern Approaches
Wednesday, 4th November 2020
Background
This week, the Inverness Courier, with the Daily Mail later piggybacking on the text and photograph (and omitting the reference to the originator of the news, the Fresh Start Foundation), reported concerns that Boleskine House, the old property of Aleister Crowley near the village of Foyers, could be turned into a Satanist ritual site as the result of a series of planning applications submitted to the local authority, Highland Council.

After many objections to the planning applications in question were submitted, Highland Council was asked why wording in numerous of them had been censored in the Council's publication of the objections. David Mudie, the Area Planning Manager (South) for the Council, explained this policy as follows on 30 October 2020 (council official's spelling and grammar errors preserved in quotation below), in response to one objector's e-mail pointing out that dead men such as Crowley cannot be defamed and hence require no government protection from defamation:

While not defamatory to Alistair Crowley the association in this context and the claims that this application has anything to do with the practice of satanism is salacious and quite possibly not be found in fact. How can you be certain that this is the intended use of the property? In any event it is not relevant to planning. To be clear, the Council does not publish material on its website, from whatever source, that has potential to be divisive and/or incite hatred between individuals, groups and/or communities.

Subsequent to that remarkable response, Highland Council has again been put on the defensive by a letter sent by another objector which draws attention to the apparently deliberately falsified Gaelic name for Boleskine House that was used in the applications in question. The pronunciation of the allegedly made-up name used in the application, Baile Os-Ceann, and of the toponymically attested historic Gaelic name for the location, Both Fhleisginn, can be heard in that sequence here so that it can be judged individually which of them sounds like the form underlying the English name that has been the only one in use for the house in the modern era, namely Boleskine (which has three syllables, rhymes with 'tin', and is stressed on the middle syllable, 'les').

Letter to Highland Council on apparent planning subterfuge
Dear Principal Solicitor (for the Head of Corporate Governance),

I am writing to you to raise a concern about several planning applications which have been submitted to the Highland Council. The references are:

Reinstatement of fire-damaged building, with some alterations; not including full internal fit-out
Baile Os-Ceann, Foyers, Inverness IV2 6XT

Ref. No: 20/02817/LBC | Received: Wed 29 Jul 2020 | Validated: Fri 21 Aug 2020 | Status: Under Consideration

Reinstatement and alterations to fire damaged house; siting of 10 No holiday twin-units, reception, store, car parking; installation of sewage treatment plant
Baile Os-Ceann, Foyers, Inverness IV2 6XT

Ref. No: 20/02471/FUL | Received: Fri 03 Jul 2020 | Validated: Fri 03 Jul 2020 | Status: Under Consideration

Repair and reinstatement works
Baile Os-Ceann, Foyers, Inverness IV2 6XT

Ref. No: 20/01665/LBC | Received: Wed 29 Apr 2020 | Validated: Wed 29 Apr 2020 | Status: Decided

The location of Boleskine House
There is no such property with the name Baile Os-Ceann with a postcode of IV2 6XT. This can be easily checked on the Royal Mail Address Finder website. You will be aware of the government regulation which states in section 4.29: “Published notices should be clear, concise and fit for purpose”.

Other documents submitted with these applications indicate that these applications refer to the land and ruins of Boleskine House. Boleskine House is a manor on the south side of Loch Ness, it is of historical interest and known locally, nationally and internationally, it has its own Wikipedia page and many books and articles have been written about it.

The use of the name Baile Os-Ceann in the Planning Portal means that any interested parties cannot access the plans unless they know that the name has been changed. Therefore, the publication on Highland Council’s website is not “fit for purpose”. Additionally, any publications in the printed press locally or in the Edinburgh Gazette are of no use and once again not “fit for purpose”, because the public has no way of knowing that the name of Boleskine House has changed.

The name "Boleskine"

I find no evidence whatsoever that Baile Os-Ceann is or could possibly be the underlying Gaelic form of the place name Boleskine, for the following reasons, which can only be validly challenged if you can adduce evidence of having consulted actual authorities on Gaelic grammar and on the toponymic history of Inverness-shire:

1. Scotland's authoritative website for Gaelic placenames, the Scottish Parliament-hosted Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba (Placenames of Scotland), states unequivocally that the Gaelic name underlying Boleskine is Both Fhleisginn.

2. The document underpinning that website record is a PDF dated 2003 which gives the entirely plausible etymology (Taigh) Both Fhleisginn, meaning probably “withe hut (house)” and hence “(house built) where there was a bothy made of a wattle of twigs”, with no suggestion of Baile Os-Ceann as a possible alternative.

3. The stress, vowels and pronunciation of Both Fhleisginn (Taigh can be omitted since it means “house”) exactly match the stress and pronunciation of the English-language name Boleskine (stress on second syllable), whereas the stress, vowels and pronunciation of Baile Os-Ceann are wildly wrong and those words would have been anglicised by cartographers as something like Ballaskane (stress on final syllable) if it genuinely had been a local oral Gaelic toponym.

4. The meaning of Baile Os-Ceann is not only incomplete (os ceann, which is actually mis-spelling for os cionn, means “above”; it is unknown in Scotland and extremely rare elsewhere for place names to include a word for “above” without the referent of what the location is above) but fundamentally ungrammatical, since os ceann together forms a Gaelic preposition that is never used without governing a referent.

5. The meaning of Baile Os-Ceann is utterly incongruent with the location in question (when was there ever a township there?), whereas the meaning of Taigh Both Fhleisginn is descriptively plausible (a house in a location where there was previously nothing more elaborate than a lodge made of twigs).

6. Had local people in Inverness-shire ever genuinely referred to the location in question as “the town above” or “high town”, then logic and the Gaelic language would have required the use of an adjective or adverb, and Gaelic has two or three that are found in such constructs, none of which is os ceann. There is àrd, uasal and most especially uachdar, each of which means some variant of “high”, “lofty” or “(a)top”; for instance, Helensburgh Upper railway station has been given the Gaelic name Baile Eilidh Àrd (very literally “Helen’s Burgh, Upper” or “The upper town of Helen”), also seen as Baile Eilidh Uarach or Baile Eilidh Uachdar (a more Irish Gaelic variant) but never incorporating os ceann. That is real-world evidence that actual Gaelic toponymists use the adjectives àrd, uasal, uarach or uachdar in apposition to the noun baile (being the noun used in the purported name Baile Os-Ceann) and not the preposition os ceann, which is so wrong as to be of the wrong part of speech altogether.

In closing, I politely request that the advertisements for these planning applications be republished so that the members of the public are given time to consider the plans and make their deliberations in good time.

[TonyGosling]

Aleister Crowley lived in Locksbottom, Bromley, Kent 'studying freemasonry' around 1930 near
1. William Wilberforce's home Holwood House now owned by Seismograph Services - connected to Shell/BP - oil reserve detectors and resource secrecy specialists
2. BBC Keston, world's first listening station in the 1930s which became BBC Monitoring
3. Downe House where Charles Darwin did his diabolical propaganda
4. Metropolitan Police Social club The Warren
5. Home of the US Ambassador in Keston Park, Locksbottom
6. All land round there owned by the City of London

[TonyGosling]

Dark secret life of the original 'M': Spymaster who inspired 007's boss was a closet gay that married three women he never slept with - before reinventing himself as a children's presenter called Uncle Max
Maxwell Knight spoke on radio and in books about wildlife and nature
In previous career he planted spies among British Union of Fascists
Destroyed wartime spy rings, detected Secret Service had been infiltrated
By ANNABEL VENNING FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 01:27, 13 March 2014 | UPDATED: 11:48, 13 March 2014

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2579722/Dark-secret-life-orig inal-M-Spymaster-inspired-007s-boss-closet-gay-married-three-women-nev er-slept-reinventing-childrens-presenter-called-Uncle-Max.html#ixzz2vo qX1rmr

Troubled: Maxwell Knight was the role model for M. He is a thing of legend to spy enthusiasts +5
Troubled: Maxwell Knight was the role model for M. He is a thing of legend to spy enthusiasts

With his rich, mellifluous tones and friendly, avuncular manner, ‘Uncle Max’ was a great favourite with children who tuned into his afternoon radio programme Nature Parliament, in which he encouraged them to explore the natural world, looking under logs and in hedgerows to discover bugs, beetles and other wonders of nature.

‘He was part of the Sunday ritual — roast lamb and mint sauce, Maxwell Knight on the radio and then a wonderful exploration of a pond or a wood before tea,’ recalled one young fan from the 1940s.

His audience listened spellbound as he explained to them how to rear tadpoles, how to gain the trust of wild animals and how to tell what a creature had eaten from its droppings.

What none of his listeners could have guessed is that gentle ‘Uncle Max’ had been a ruthless spymaster, known to colleagues as ‘M’, and one of the characters who inspired Ian Fleming (with whom he briefly worked) in his creation of James Bond’s spy chief.

In his previous — and utterly secret — incarnation, he had run a network of spies, planting them among the British Union of Fascists as well as the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Those children would have been astounded to learn that the man who spoke so charmingly of newts and lizards, who kept a pet fox and mongoose, and who wrote A Cuckoo In The House, about a bird named Goo he had rescued and tamed, also dabbled in the occult and became a novice of the renowned occultist Aleister Crowley — whose sexual debauchery and denunciations of Christianity caused him to be proclaimed the ‘wickedest man in Britain’ — after the pair were introduced by an author friend of Knight’s.

As for those young listeners’ parents, they would have been astonished to discover that Knight was a closet homosexual who had had three unconsummated marriages.

The extraordinary career of Charles Henry Maxwell Knight has long been a source of fascination to spy enthusiasts. Not only did he succeed in destroying dangerous wartime spy rings, but it was he who first suspected the Secret Service had been infiltrated by the Soviets.

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What makes him particularly fascinating is that he had two careers which, on the face of it, seem so completely at odds. Though his wartime achievements have gradually come to light in recent decades, few know that this hard-nosed spook was also the accomplished naturalist who beguiled a generation of radio listeners.

This side of him has only recently come to public attention with a recent lecture at the Linnean Society (an organisation dedicated to Natural History).

It revealed how the man who was skilled in identifying, training and running agents used these same skills to observe nature and tame a variety of wildlife.

Knight had been born into genteel poverty. His father spent all his money on mistresses, and Knight was partly brought up in the Glamorgan home of his uncle, a miserly tyrant.

Bernard Lee (pictured with Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny) played M in the Bond films before Judi Dench +5
Bernard Lee (pictured with Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny) played M in the Bond films before Judi Dench

Nature provided his refuge and he roamed the Welsh countryside collecting caterpillars and other insects, a passion that had to be put on hold when he was sent to sea in 1914, aged 14, as a cadet.

On leaving the Navy in 1918, Knight became a Latin teacher, living with his mother and sister in a small flat in London, which he soon filled with animals. There were white mice in the living-room, grass snakes in the bath, a parrot in the kitchen and ferrets in the garden. He adored jazz and played it to his animals.

But he yearned for a more adventurous existence. At a dinner party in 1925 he met Vernon Kell, then head of MI5, who thought Knight seemed a ‘good chap’ and recruited him as an agent, tasked with routing out communist spies.

That same year, Knight met and married a ravishing, wealthy redhead, Gwladys Poole. With her money they bought a flat on London’s smart Sloane Street into which Knight moved his menagerie. Gwladys was no fan of his many pets and she was further perturbed that, while affectionate, Knight had no interest in her body.

Seeking to invest some of her money, they bought a pub in Somerset that Gwladys ran during the week, while Knight worked in London. At weekends he travelled down to meet her — only to disappear fishing for hours.

Apparently rejected and humiliated by Knight’s failure to consummate the marriage, in 1934 Gwladys took an overdose of barbiturates and died, leaving her large fortune to Knight.

Her family accused him of driving her to suicide and rumours swirled that he had actually murdered her. The scandal threatened to end his career, but his reputation was rescued by his first great coup.

A young female agent he had recruited, Olga Gray, had infiltrated the Communist Party of Great Britain and discovered a plot to pass secret naval plans of anti-submarine bombs and detonators to the Soviets. The conspirators were caught and jailed.

In later years, Judi Dench portrayed the strong-willed role of M, in tribute to Maxwell Knight's ability to destroy dangerous wartime spy rings, detect the Secret Service had been infiltrated, and manage spies +5
In later years, Judi Dench portrayed the strong-willed role of M, in tribute to Maxwell Knight's ability to destroy dangerous wartime spy rings, detect the Secret Service had been infiltrated, and manage spies

Uncovering what became known as the Woolwich Arsenal conspiracy was a triumph for Knight, who began to rise through the ranks of MI5.

He married again, this time to a pretty young woman named Lois, ten years his junior, and installed her in the Sloane Street flat, which by now housed a white bull-terrier, a bullfinch, snakes, salamanders, an incontinent bush-baby, a bear cub, a baboon, monkeys, rats and several birds — including a blue-fronted Amazon parrot who took a virulent dislike to her.

Knight insisted they spend their evenings sitting in the dark because the animals were asleep.

Once again, he showed no interest in consummating his marriage, but surrounded himself with male ‘hangers-on’ at home, though he was careful to maintain the image that he was heterosexual because homosexuality was then illegal.

If his personal life was strained, his career went from strength to strength. Knight was given his own department of counter-subversion, codenamed B5(b), and he handpicked a team known as ‘Knight’s Black Agents’. One young female recruit, a beauty named Joan Miller, found him hypnotically charming and eagerly agreed to be an agent.

In what was perhaps his greatest coup, in 1940 she was able to infiltrate the Right Club, a pro-German, anti-Semitic organisation based in London.

She exposed a conspiracy between the Club and a treacherous American cipher clerk at the U.S. embassy, who had been secretly copying the correspondence between Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty) and President Roosevelt — letters which ended up in the hands of the Nazis.

The exposure was another triumph for Knight, but his personal life was becoming ever more complicated. While still married to the neglected Lois, he wooed his agent Joan Miller with flowers, poems and trips to the zoo, where he taught her the calls of various birds.

He treated Joan as his emotional — but not physical — mistress, moving her into a country residence near Camberley in Surrey, which he used as a safe-house for spies while they memorised their cover stories.

He was a cuckoo enthusiast, and wrote a book about the species. It appealed to Knight because, like a spymaster, the cuckoo was both subversive - infiltrating its eggs into other birds' nests - and ruthless +5
He was a cuckoo enthusiast, and wrote a book about the species. It appealed to Knight because, like a spymaster, the cuckoo was both subversive - infiltrating its eggs into other birds' nests - and ruthless

When Knight was not out fishing, he would spend happy hours on his hands and knees in pursuit of some insect or animal to adopt and tame. Wild animals were far more interesting to him than ordinary pets. Joan once found a nest of adder eggs in his pyjama pocket.

‘He always had something alive in his pocket,’ recalled a colleague, ‘you never quite knew what.’ He presented Joan with a Himalayan monkey that proved impossible to housetrain, a Great Dane named Gloria, and a white poodle. He kept ferrets in a cage, a pet fox and birds, including a garrulous grey parrot.

Joan was amazed that Knight who, she later claimed, once had an unreliable double agent despatched, could be so gentle with his animals. But he was not sentimental with her pets. When her kitten fell ill, he shot it with his revolver.

Like Gwladys and Lois, Joan was hurt and puzzled that Knight was physically unable to consummate their relationship.

The penny dropped when he started bringing a young motor mechanic home and spending hours with him in the shed. She realised that Knight, despite being avowedly against homosexuality in public, was himself gay.

At the end of the war, Knight's counter-subversion department was disbanded and his reputation tarnished by one of his agents. A colleague suggested he try broadcasting +5
At the end of the war, Knight's counter-subversion department was disbanded and his reputation tarnished by one of his agents. A colleague suggested he try broadcasting

Knight was devastated when Joan left him — he had been fond of her company, even if not physically excited by her person.

To soften the blow, Joan found him a replacement to be his companion, a young girl named Susi who professed her hatred of sex.

His marriage to Lois long over, Knight married Susi, who helped him care for his birds, frogs, toads, snakes, parrots and Goo the cuckoo. The species appealed to Knight because, like a spymaster, the cuckoo was both subversive — infiltrating its eggs into other birds’ nests — and ruthless in the way it evicted the original eggs.

When Goo flew off to Africa, Knight mourned its departure, calling it the ‘most fascinating bird pet’ he had owned.

At the end of the war, Knight’s counter-subversion department was disbanded. It did not help that his reputation had been tarnished when one of his agents tried to frame an innocent pacifist as a Nazi spy.

At that point, a colleague suggested he try broadcasting, and when he was given a radio programme his charming, cultured tones and wealth of knowledge about nature proved a hit.

He wrote several naturalist books and was always kind to young fans, even inviting them to visit the ‘bug room’ at his home in Surrey.

Even so, he continued to run his agents long after he had officially retired from MI5, and increasingly warned about Soviet spies infiltrating the security services. He once said that fighting communism ‘was like breaking the tail of a lizard; it would simply grow another’.

Knight was also one of the first to suspect the traitorous art historian Anthony Blunt of being in league with the Russians, though his warnings went unheeded.

When Knight died in 1968, the short obituary praising his skills as a naturalist made no mention whatsoever that kind Uncle Max, friend of hedgehogs, birds and foxes, had also been M, nemesis of enemy agents — a troubled, complicated man and a supreme spymaster whose espionage skills had done much to help Britain defeat the Nazis.