Friday, July 14, 2006
Welcome!
Welcome to The Abbey Today, a collection of photographs taken in July 2006 of the remains of the Abbey of Thelema, founded in 1920 by Aleister Crowley and Leah Hirsig in the small town of Cefalu, Sicily. The house, part of an old sicilian villa once called Santa Barbara, still stands -- but in really poor condition as the pictures attest.
All images by Luigi Santos-Hammarlund.
Cefalu
The Abbey and the stadium
General view
Blocked doors
One of the rooms
The Chamber of Nightmares
General view of the main ritual room, or La Chambre des Cauchemars (Chamber of Nightmares) as Crowley called it. The room had been completely decorated with huge murals painted by Crowley and Jane Wolfe -- unfortunately today just small parts of the frescoes are still visible. The walls were painted over later on by the subsequent tenants of the house. In 1955 filmmaker Kenneth Anger went to the Abbey and uncovered some of the works, which still lay beneath the whitewash. Click to enlarge.
More nightmares
Mural of Hell
Degenerate I
The Serpent of Heaven
The lovers
Toad on the wall
Visitors & Vandals
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