Aleister Crowley’s Experiment in Communal Living and Occult Practices
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will. [Law of Thelema, Aleister Crowley]
- A Utopian Experiment: The Abbey was a 1920s commune dedicated to occultism, free love, and magical practices, inspired by the works of Rabelais.
- Tragic Decline: The death of Oxford student Raoul Loveday from dysentery triggered a media scandal and Crowley’s eventual deportation by Mussolini’s government.
- Artistic Legacy: Despite its ruinous state, the site’s “erotic murals” and historical significance continue to attract filmmakers, occultists, and Sicilian literary scholars.
In April 1920, Aleister Crowley moved to Cefalù, Sicily, where he established a commune known as the Abbey of Thelema. This small house served as a temple and spiritual center. Three years later, Raoul Loveday died at the Abbey, with his wife Betty May attributing his death to Crowley’s rituals.
Following a report on Crowley’s activities at the Abbey, published in The Sunday Express, the Italian Fascist government deported Crowley. The house remains abandoned and in poor condition. In 1955, Kenneth Anger filmed some of its murals in his lost film, “Thelema Abbey.”
The Abbey of Thelema is the name given by the English occultist Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) to Villa Santa Barbara in Cefalù, Sicily. He selected this building after consultations with the I Ching to serve as a temple. The name was inspired by the Abbey of Thélème from the satirical work “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by François Rabelais. Crowley intended this location to become the central hub for disseminating the beliefs of his community of followers.
Aleister Crowley, also known as “Master Therion” or “Frater Perdurabo,” aimed to establish an abbey where a community of disciples could practice the doctrines of Thelema. This endeavor is among the modern attempts to create a libertarian community based on utopian principles, encompassing various rituals such as the study of Yoga, Tantra, Buddhism, and the sacred use of entheogens, while eschewing all forms of internal law or statutes.
The chosen site for this experiment, aimed at living out the principles of The Book of the Law (a prophetic text Crowley claimed to have received in Cairo in 1904 from his Holy Guardian Angel, forming the basis of the Thelema religion-non-religion), was a farm rented from Baron Carlo La Calce.
Thus, the Abbey of Thelema became a pivotal site for spreading the practical philosophy of Thelema worldwide, its core tenet immortalized in phrases painted on the temple walls.
In Cefalù, Crowley spent the most significant years of his life, completing various works and engaging in both erotic and masonic arts. Here, he lived a simple, bucolic existence surrounded by an international group of sympathizers practicing what was then known as free love (polyamory) and, in keeping with the spirit of the times, experimenting with various drugs (marijuana, hashish, cocaine, heroin, opium, laudanum, absinthe, peyote) to enhance magical consciousness.
This period marked Crowley’s most intense practice of the sexual magic of the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis), which he advocated. Alongside the American teacher and occultist Leah Hirsig, he dedicated himself to celebrating ancient rituals. During his time in Sicily, Crowley also explored homosexual practices and pedophilia, embodying the feminine aspects of his character and regarding them as an autonomous entity named Alys Cusack.
The End of Aleister Crowley’s Stay in Sicily
With the rise of Fascism and following the death of Raoul Loveday at the Abbey, Crowley was quickly expelled from Italy by the Prefect of Palermo, labeled an undesirable subject (and suspected of being an English spy).
Raoul Loveday’s death from dysentery at the Abbey, an Oxford student who had arrived in Cefalù with his wife Betty May, led to the Abbey’s closure. Distraught by the degenerate practices and squalor she witnessed, in addition to her husband’s death, Betty May returned to England.
After Crowley’s expulsion from Italy, the women in the group sold all the furnishings and items from the house to local residents to settle his debts and fund their return journey.
Rediscovery and Revival of the Abbey of Thelema
The Abbey fell into obscurity until the 1950s when Kenneth Anger, a Californian journalist and filmmaker with an interest in magic and a member of Jack Parsons’ group studying Aleister Crowley, sought to rediscover what remained of the Abbey in Sicily. Anger, alongside sexologist Alfred Kinsey and photographer-writer Fosco Maraini, made a documentary and photographed the murals (Crowley’s erotic wall paintings had been covered by the ecclesiastical authorities of the time and are fully visible only in Maraini’s rare shots). He spent three summer months there, restoring and uncovering writings and symbols left by Crowley.
The Abbey of Thelema and Sicilian Literature
Several Sicilian writers have explored the story of the Abbey, including Giuseppe Quatriglio in “Il diavolo a Cefalù” and “L’uomo orologio e altre storie,” Leonardo Sciascia in “Apocrifi sul caso Crowley” (which inspired a film by Italian director Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani) in “Il mare color del vino,” and Vincenzo Consolo in “Nottetempo, casa per casa” (winner of the Strega Prize 1992).
From the 1990s Onwards: Museum Prospects and Failed Sale Attempts
In December 1990, the Regional Assessor for Cultural Heritage, Turi Lombardo, at the request of the Municipality of Cefalù and based on extensive documentation provided by Prof. Pietro Saja, signed a decree for the building’s preservation due to its significant artistic interest. In February 1997, Cefalù hosted an international conference titled “A Wizard in Cefalù. Aleister Crowley and His Stay in Sicily,” inaugurated by then-mayor Alfredo La Grua. The City Council had deliberated on purchasing and restoring the property to turn it into a Crowleyan museum, with notable interest in Crowley’s former home’s recovery shown by Roberto Negrini, who promoted the creation of a “Crowley Foundation” for this purpose, Massimo Introvigne, director of CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions), J. Gordon Melton from the University of Santa Barbara in California, and Eileen Barker from the London School of Economics.
On July 5, 2008, Pietro Saja, Vincenzo Crivello, Nicola Cinalli, Paolo De Carlo, Alessandro Tozzi, and Marco Giacalone held the event “Crowley and the Mystery of Cefalù,” followed by a national conference titled “Crowleyana” on February 25, 2011, organized by Antonino Napoli in Palermo, focusing on the Abbey’s historical, cultural, and artistic valorization and recovery.
The property, abandoned in the 2000s, was unsuccessfully put up for sale for a short period in 2010.
Here you will found an excellent report in English on the Abbey of Thelema.
What was the purpose of the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalù?
Aleister Crowley established the Abbey in 1920 as a spiritual center to practice the doctrines of Thelema. It served as a commune for occult rituals, yoga, and the study of “The Book of the Law” under the principle “Do what thou wilt.”
Why was Aleister Crowley expelled from Italy?
In 1923, the Italian Fascist government deported Crowley following the suspicious death of Raoul Loveday and sensationalist press reports. He was officially labeled an undesirable subject and suspected of being a British spy.
Can you visit the Abbey of Thelema today?
While the building still exists in Cefalù, it remains in a state of abandonment and poor condition. Though it was declared a site of artistic interest in 1990, plans to convert it into a museum have not yet been realized.
What is the connection between Kenneth Anger and the Abbey?
Filmmaker Kenneth Anger rediscovered the abandoned Abbey in the 1950s, filming murals and restoring symbols for his lost film “Thelema Abbey.” His work, alongside sexologist Alfred Kinsey, helped preserve the visual history of Crowley’s erotic wall paintings.
Ritual at the Abbey
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