Maria Theresa Ferrari de Miramar (1894 – 1955)
Maria Theresa Ferrari de Miramar was Aleister Crowley´s 2nd. wife. They met in England in 1929. The marriage took place in Leipzig, Germany. Crowley was 53 at the time. He called her “The High Priestess of Voodoo”, and wrote that under her influence, he had been able to start serious magicK with ritual precautions. Her maiden name was Ferrari, but it was as Maria Theresa de Miramar that Crowley encountered her in Paris. She was born in Granada, Nicaragua in 1894, of an Italian father and a French mother. (Miramar is a town in Nicaragua´s León region)
___________________________________________________________________________________
The Times, 19th August 1929:
CROWLEY : FERRARI – On Aug, 16, 1929, at Leipzig, in the presence of H.B.M. Consul. Edward Alexander (Aleister) Crowley and Maria Teresa Ferrari de Miramar.
ALEISTER CROWLEY MARRIED.
CEREMONY IN LEIPZIG AFTER BEING BANNED FROM FRANCE.
Mr. Edward Alexander (Aleister) Crowley, the English mystic writer, had been married at Leipzig to Mlle. Maria Teresa Ferrari de Miramar, who is a native of Nicaragua. The marriage ceremony, according to an announcement, was performed in the presence of the British Consul. Mr. Aleister Crowley was recently refused the right to stay in France. He stated that his fiancee had also been forced to leave France. Mr. Crowley was born at Leamington, 53 years ago, and was educated at Malvern and Trinity College, Cambridge. He had been through China on foot, has been received by the sacred lamas at Tibet, and has reached other remote places such as the Yucatan Peninsular in Mexico. He came into prominence in London in 1911 when his picture was painted by Augustus John. During the war he went to America and participated in German counter-espionage, declaring that he did this at the request of the British Naval Intelligence Department.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Aged thirty-four, when de Miramar and Crowley met, her appearance was sufficiently exotic that Crowley was for the first time paired with a woman who produced as great a startle on sight as he did. Jack Lindsay, a literary editor who became acquainted with Crowley during this time, recalled that she drank “heavily” and was formidable. Here is his portrait of the couple:
“She was a fairly well blown woman, oozing a helpless sexuality from every seam of her smartly cut suit, with shapely legs crossed and uncrossed, and keeping all the while a sharp glittering gaze on her swarthy and unsavory husband with his bow tie, his staring uneasy pop-eyes, his prim lax rosebud mouth , his sallow skin and brown shaven egg-shaped head, which at the time I mistook as naturally bald. There was a mustiness about him that perhaps came from his scent of mingled civet, musk and ambergris, which was said to have a compelling effect on women and to make horses neigh after him in the street. Maria spoke in various languages, including English, which I could not understand, and he listened attentively like a well-behaved poodle, giving an impression of uxorious dependence. However I gathered that in private she made many scenes, accusing him and his friends of attempting to poison her.”
(“Do What Thou Wilt: A life of Aleister Crowley”, Sutin, Lawrence – 2002)
There is no evidence, and no likehood, that Crowley had any intention of poisoning de Miramar. That she was capable of scenes and accusations, there can be no doubt, and their romance and marriage was turbulent.
Crowley and de Miramar appeared to be a settled married couple, however, within a year Crowley had found a new lover and wrote to Maria, “You should get a divorce – find a man who will stand for your secret drinking and your scandalous behavior.”
Maria was admitted to Colney Hatch mental hospital suffering from the delusion that she was the daughter of the king and queen.
