[kj] OT: Alesiter Crowley's bed

[nicholas fitzpatrick]

Copyright 2005 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd.
Daily Record

February 7, 2005, Monday

HEADLINE: HOTEL SELLS SATANIST'S 'EVIL BED'

BODY:
A HAUNTED bed once owned by satanist Aleister Crowley is up for sale.

Hotelier Andy Pavitt says he is still getting spooky vibes from the bed, 
despite a white witch's attempt to banish any evil spirits.

Horrified guests claimed it moved about and scraped along the floor in the 
night. Others suffered vivid nightmares.

Now he has decided to sell it on auction website eBay - for a minimum of 
pounds 666.

Andy, who runs The Steadings Hotel near Inverness, said: 'I've had enough of 
this damned bed.

'I thought that, when I had it exorcised, that would be it but it seems to 
have made no difference.

'We can still feel Crowley's presence so I decided I had two choices left, 
to sell it or burn it.

'I thought I'd put a reserve of pounds 666 on it for a bit of a laugh.' But 
ex -squaddie Andy hopes to make far more by selling the bed, which was once 
owned by Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page.

He said: 'This bed has a great history but it's just not history that I want 
in my hotel.

'It's scaring off the guests.' Andy, 40, added: 'Guests were continually 
complaining and my family felt strange in the room.'

The haunted bed was brought to The Steadings by the previous owners of the 
hotel.

They had taken furniture from nearby Boleskine House, where Crowley lived 
for 14 years in the early part of the last century.

The devil worshipper, who died in 1947, boasted of being 'the wickedest man 
in the world'.

White witch Kevin Carlyon said his exorcism had been like confronting 'Satan 
himself'.

He said: 'Crowley has such a reputation that it was the ultimate battle 
between good and evil.'