Rose Kelly Biography

Rose Edith Kelly

Born: 23 July 1874 in Paddington, England.

Died: 11 February 1932 in London, England.

Aleister Crowley's first wife, Edith Kelly (Rose). Born at 78 Cambridge Terrace, Paddington, England on 23 July 1874 to Frederick Festus Kelly and Blanche Bradford Kelly. She was the first of three children, sister Eleanor Constance Mary Kelly and brother Gerald Festus Kelly. In 1880, the family moved to Camberwell Vicarage, where her father served as curate for the Parish of St. Giles for the next 35 years.

Rose escorted her brother Gerald to Cape Town, South Africa in 1895, where he convalesced from a liver ailment. Rose married on 31 August 1897 to Major Frederick Thomas Skerrett, R.A.M.C. at Camberwell (consistently described as an 'older man'). Two years later in August 1899, she was widowed. She joined her brother Gerald in Paris in 1901 and stayed for six months.

Crowley went to Edinburgh on 13 July 1903 to replenish his extensive stock of expensive wines, to engage the services of a companion-housekeeper, and to pass the time of day with Gerald, who was to spend the summer at Strathpeffer in the Scottish highlands. In August, Gerald wrote to Crowley inviting him to join his party at Strathpeffer. This is where Crowley met Gerald's sister, Rose. Rose was engaged to a friend of Gerald's by the name of Howell. She was not in love with him, but was being put under pressure by the family to re-marry.

Crowley being the gentleman that he was offered to help her out of her dilemma by marry her with no strings attached, in other words, marry and then go their separate ways. She gratefully accepted. Crowley and Rose were married on 12 August 1903 in Dingwall, Scotland in a civil ceremony. As it turned out, they fell in love and their union was passionate and fruitful, both personally and magickally. Crowley called her 'Quarda', an Arabic word for rose.

On 16 March 1904, while Crowley and Rose were performing a ritual to 'shew the Sylphs', Rose seemed to enter into a light trance and repeatedly said, 'They're waiting for you!'. Crowley began to listen to Rose after taking her to the Boulak Museum. There he asked her to point out Horus to him. She passed several common images of the god and led Crowley to a painted wooden funerary stele from the 26th dynasty, depicting Horus receiving a sacrifice from the deceased. Crowley was impressed by the fact that the museum numbered this piece 666. This was the number he had identified with since childhood. At Rose's direction, Crowley entered his room on three successive days beginning April 8, 1904 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.

Rose and Crowley had a daughter, whom Crowley named Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hectate Sappho Jezebel Lilith, in July of 1904. This child died in 1906 of typhoid. They had another daughter, Lola Zaza, in the summer of that year. The marriage began to suffer after the lose of their first child. They eventually divorced on 11 November 1909 due to Rose's struggle with dipsomania and other problems.

Following Crowley and Rose's divorce, Rose married the Roman Catholic Dr. Joseph Andrew Gormley at Kensington in October 1912. Rose Edith Gormley died in London on 11 February 1932.