Beyond the Beyond: Diving into the Past (and Future) of Loch Ness

Beyond the Beyond : Diving into the Past (and Future) of Loch Ness

There was always this kind of unspoken rule in some of the weirdo circles I grew up in and took part in as a young man.  I’d hang out at esoteric bookstores with Wiccans and Chaos Magicians (though not one myself), would chop it up with friends who were into David Icke and the lizard people conspiracy (see Beyond the Beyond: The People vs. David Icke), and was a member of about half a dozen UFO and paranormal related internet forums in the late 90s and early 00s.  It seems like everything was fair game: flying saucers, Jersey Devils, ghosts, Men in Black, telepathy, astral projection, hollow, flat AND honeycombed Earth, time travel, witchcraft, chupacabra, twin flames, 9-11 conspiracies, crop circles, and about half a dozen other topics that resided on some lonely brain cell I’ve long since destroyed.  But… if you brought up the Loch Ness Monster, people might just give you a strange look like you’d just lost your mind.

Poor Nessie gets a bad rap in the communities on the fringe.  It seems like the subject might be a step too far, even among those who ordinarily seem to be pretty open minded. Y’know, she’s not the only lake monster, either.  There’s Champ, Tessie, Ogopogo, and many others who some might say don’t get their fair shake.  And there are a lot of people who believe in Nessie, too.  Like… a lot.

Last week, monster hunters gathered in what shaped up to be the biggest Loch Ness Monster hunt in the last fifty years.  There’s been small hunts, there’s been medium sized ones, and then there was this one.  The BIG one.  After more than a thousand independent sightings and little more than a few good photos and grainy video, hundreds of people descended onto the loch and monitored the lake for “inexplicable” movements.  The team is called Loch Ness Exploration, and the search was billed as the largest surface exploration of the lake since 1972.  They used a hydrophone, which is a device that detects acoustic signals under water, and heat detecting drones to detect movement under the water’s surface.

Not surprisingly, nothing was found.  Nothing except the blurry image of “something” on the banks of Loch Ness that was detected at night.  After looking at the footage, I would have to say that it is less than impressive.  See for yourself here:

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/first-ever-video-loch-ness-27627156

We can look at the work of Ted Holiday, who wrote the excellent Dragon and the Disc and one of my personal favorites, The Goblin Universe.  Holiday was a self proclaimed monster hunter who tried for years to capture some evidence of the Loch Ness Monster.  He dragged the lake with nets, set up cameras, spoke to witnesses, and spent long hours on the shore of the beautiful lake looking for some evidence of the creature’s existence.

But nothing came, and he began to write about his own theories that something more was going on just below the surface of the loch.  Holiday, much like UFO researchers John Keel and Jacques Vallée, seemed to eventually turn away from the physical and look more toward the metaphysical and even spiritual.  

Famed magician Aleister Crowley, once dubbed the wickedest man in the world, owned a retreat dubbed the Boleskine House on Loch Ness (later purchased by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page).  Crowley’s goal at the time was to perform a ritual that he termed the great Operation of the Sacred Magick of Abramelin the Mage.  The location was specifically chosen, with rumors that it had been built on the grounds of a church that burned down with the entire congregation inside while they were deep in prayer.

Of the property, Crowley said in his 1922 book The Confessions of Aleister Crowley,“There should be a door opening to the north from the room of which you make your oratory. Outside this door, you construct a terrace covered with fine river sand. This ends in a ‘lodge’ where the spirits may congregate. It would appear the simplest thing in the world for a man with forty thousand pounds, who is ready to spend every penny of it on the achievement of his purpose, to find a suitable house in a very few weeks. But a magical house is as hard to find as a magical book to publish.”

While building his lodge, which took six months to complete, he invited his dear friend and fellow member of the magical cult the Order of the Golden Dawn, Charles Rosher, to help in the construction.  Intent on staying for months, he left after three weeks, stating that a presence of unseen and evil forces had descended on the house and had made his life a living hell.

There are some that believe that Crowley created the monster after abruptly terminating a magical ritual near Boleskine House by the lake. That he evoked some terrible elemental creature into our world and into the loch, an amorphous entity with more ties to consciousness than nuts and bolts reality.  

Okay… we’re wading out a little deep now.  Ah hell, we might as well go deeper.  There’s even a theory that Aleister Crowley is Barbara Bush’s father.  Long story short: Crowley was expelled from Italy following the death of one of his follower’s during a magical ritual.  This is why the British press began to dub him as “The Wickedest Man in the World.”  Crowley was exiled to France, where he stayed at the home of Frank and Nellie O’Hara.  They were visited by Nellie’s American friend Pauline Pierce, the wife of Marvin Pierce and president of the McCall Corporation, a magazine publisher.

During Pauline’s visit, she took part in a ritual that Crowley dubbed “the supreme ordeal,” an initiation into the Masonic Ipsissimus Grade, which… let’s just say, involved being intimate with both parties involved.  Pauline soon returned to America, and eight months later, on June 8, 1925, she gave birth to a daughter named Barbara.

Now I’m not saying that one of our presidents was a direct descendant of a man whose own mother referred to him as The Great Beast.  That would be crazy.  Almost like sayings there’s some strange magical shapeshifting elemental living in the deep, dark waters of Loch Ness.

But, and just go with me on this one, when you look at this side-by-side picture of Barbara and Aleister, the resemblance is a little uncanny.

Did the world’s most famous magician besides Blaine and Copperfield literally put something into the water?  And how does this explain the sightings that took place before Crowley even showed up?  Maybe there was something there already, and like some other areas of the world, there’s an energy there that modern science has failed to understand.  What if there is an entity or entities that, when seen, show us what it wants us to see?

Only time will tell what the future of Loch Ness will look like.  People will still gather at its dark shores hoping for a glimpse or some glimmer of proof of a monster many believe to exist.  The truth is out there, or in this case maybe, just maybe, it’s down there.

Have you had a sighting?  Text 702-875-1848 or message @beyondthebeyond1 on Instagram.

Tanner Rush

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Eastern Sierra Now. Readers are encouraged to conduct further research and consult with relevant experts or professionals before making any decisions or taking any actions based on the information provided in this article.

Tanner Rush