Rose Edith Kelly

Rose Edith Kelly was born on the 23 July 1874 at 78 Cambridge Terrace, Paddington, England, to parents Frederick Festus Kelly and Blanche Bradford Kelly. She was the oldest of three children, her siblings being Eleanor Constance Mary and Gerald Festus. Rose married noted occultist Aleister Crowley in 1903, and in 1904 aided in the Cairo Working that led to the reception of The Book of the Law.

Early Years

In 1880, the family moved to Camberwell Vicarage, where her father served as the curate for the Parish of St. Giles for the next 35 years.

In 1895, Rose escorted her brother Gerald to Cape Town, South Africa, where he convalesced from a liver ailment during the winter of 1895-96. In 1901, widowed after a two year marriage to one Major Skerrett (described consistently as an "older man"), she joined her brother Gerald in Paris, where she stayed six months.

Life with Aleister Crowley

The Book of the Law

On March 16, 1904, when he tries to shew the Sylphs by means of a ritual to his wife, Rose. Although she could see nothing, she did seem to enter into a light trance and repeatedly said, "They're waiting for you!" Crowley took Rose to the Boulak Museum and asked her to point out Horus to him. She passed several common images of the god and led Aleister straight to a painted wooden funerary stele from the 26th dynasty, depicting Horus receiving a sacrifice from the deceased, a priest named Ankh-af-an-khonsu. Crowley was impressed by the fact that this piece was numbered 666 by the museum, the number that he had identified with since childhood.

He began to listen to Rose, and at her direction, on three successive days beginning April 8, 1904, he entered his room and wrote down what he heard dictated from a shadowy presence behind him. The result was the three chapters of verse known as The Book of the Law.

Later years

Rose Kelly in Popular Culture

The German synth-pop group Alphaville wrote a song about her entitled red rose.

References

Thelemapedia. (2003). Rose Crowley. Retrieved 8 August 2005.
- Crowley, Aleister. (1979). The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. London;Boston : Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- Hudson, Derek. (1975). "For Love of Painting - The Life of Sir Gerald Kelly". London: Peter Davies.