According to Francis King’s book Ritual Magic in England, Fornario told her landlady that “certain people” were affecting her telepathically. The disappearance of Netta Mairi Philips is excellent as melancholic Ruth and the two women convey well the ambivalent sisterliness and mutual paranoia of their friendship. Greg Powrie plays John with a certain stiffness that fits the period, and convincingly unravels as a doctor who cannot love, cures rather than heals and has his own guilty secret.

Netta Fornario on the Scottish Island The mysterious case of Netta Fornario on the Scottish Island

I would love to hear any opinions/theories you might have! Any interesting sources or new info would also be appreciated. It should be remembered that Mathers and Crowley were once on very friendly terms, however, a person who actually has done the Abramelin ritual allegedly successfully is the author William Bloom. There must have been some resentment towards her from some of the islanders. She was an independent woman for a start, a southerner travelling alone on a Scottish island. And she was into occult practices...Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides which is about 2 kilometers (1 mile) from the coast of Mull. It is about 2 kilometers (1 mile) wide and 6 kilometers (4 miles) long, with a population of just under 200 people. Do the scratched up feet, bruises and possibly deeper gashes found on her body point in the direction of foul play? The fact that the same day Netta was acting erratic, scared and wanted to leave in a hurry could certainly lend some creedence to that theory. In unraveling the disturbing mystery of Netta Fornario’s death, it is important to understand that her visit to Iona was no whimsical holiday. To the contrary, it was the result of considerable planning and had specific, if not unsettling , intentions. Exactly what those intentions were are still unclear, though she did leave us some intriguing clues. Why Iona? I feel the time of year must also be taken into account. When she had left London it had been late August/early September, but now it was November, the nights were long and dark, the prospect of spending the entire winter on the island, with nothing to do but stalk its bracing, windswept beaches and hills, must have been daunting. Her behaviour on her last day suggests she was afraid to stay on the island, but at the same time resigned to it. Curiously, she certainly doesn’t seem to have made any coherent plans to return to her life in London.

The Mysterious Death of Netta Fornario | Shetland Arts

Among weird stories now in circulation in island regarding Miss Fonario are mysterious remarks about blue lights having been seen near the body, and of a cloaked man. She was not a good subject for such experiments, for she suffered from some defect of the pituitary body. From time to time, we all find ourselves interested in spirits or fascinated with the things humanity has yet to understand. Everyone has a little bit of this curiosity within them, and it’s natural. But then again, as the saying goes, curiosity kills the cat. The scratches on her body, if they existed (they seem to have been a later addition, and some argue that only her feet were scratched up), are a bit more difficult to explain. It could be that she fell into some brambles, but the posthumous examination didn't contain any reports of thorns being found in her skin. Iona did not harbor large predators, such as foxes, that might have tried to scavenge the body, and no bite marks were found either. There are plenty more places where people have discussed Fornario’s death online: Reddit (of course), and Fortean Times (did you ever doubt it?).She had noticable scratches and bruises on her feet and, according to some reports(having trouble finding a good source for this) she had several other, deeper gashes spread over her body. What relevance does the carved cross have? Was she trying to set up some elaborate suicide? Maybe trying to perform some occult ritual that would get her closer to the fairies she had been looking for.

The mysterious case of Netta Fornario on the Scottish Island

On 4th July 1922, her naturalization certificate A9304 was issued, as per document HO 144/1765/431695 at the National Archives. Here, her name was listed as Marie Norah Emily Edith Fornario. Self-assured, Moina proved to be a gifted magician and performed well in ceremonial rites, especially when she incarnated the presence of the High Priestess of Anari in the Isis Rites, composed partially by Mathers. In 1888, Mina met Mathers while at the British Museum where she was studying Egyptian art. She was instantly captivated by him and perceived him to be a true soulmate, her other half. Mathers had no steady income, and her family and Horniman disapproved of him, but Mina defied them and married Mathers on June 16, 1890, in the library of the Horniman Museum. To accommodate Mathers’s Scottish interests, Mina changed her first name to Moina. In The Mysterious Death of Netta Fornario, I have taken the scant facts around Netta's strange demise, that are available to even the most diligent researcher; including some of the wilder theories that surround the actual recorded events; and used them to create a Gothic story of my own. It shamelessly borrows from those classic stories that have gone before, to make a new play that is immersed in madness, murder, magic and decay, that has at its heart, a truly memorable character.” When family members were uninterested in claiming the body, islanders pooled their funds and had Netta buried in a small graveyard near St. Oran's Chapel. She remains there to this day. A MEDICAL MYSTERY?On Iona, ‘the dead overshadow the living’, Netta Fornario says. Each of the three characters is wrestling with their own pasts, and with the ghosts of people they loved or hated. Through dreams and nightmares, lies and revelations, these other characters make themselves felt, invisible presences crowding ‘this too small room’ of the stage. The newly commissioned script, using exciting imaging techniques to create a stunning visual landscape, marks the first collaboration between two Highland-based theatre-makers, the long-established Mull Theatre and one of Scotland’s most exciting new creative companies, Wildbird. These companies are brought together and the production funded by North by North-East, the Northern Scottish Touring Fund, and the tour within Argyll and Shetland is funded by Scotland’s Islands 2011. The coroner’s report on her death could not confirm the time of her death, only that it had happened sometime between the 17th and 19th of November. He concluded his report by stating that exposure to the weather had killed her as there was no obvious evidence of foul play. She is buried in a simple grave on the island The next day, 12 November 1929, she rose early and left the house. The alarm was raised when she failed to appear and two days later her near-naked body was found on isolated moorland.

Mathers, Moina – OCCULT WORLD Mathers, Moina – OCCULT WORLD

Greer, Mary K. Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses. Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 1995. It says the doctor examining her couldn't tell how she died but isn't that a job for the police or a coroner? I think the cross cut into the turf was part of a ritual she was performing when her mystery assailant discovered her.A letter she sent to Mrs Varney last week stated :- “Do not be surprised if you do not hear from me for a long time. I have a terrible healing case.” Iona Mystery – London Woman Found Dead. Mysterious Circumstances.” Glasgow Herald (27th November 1929). a review of The Immortal Hour (an occult opera about fairies) under the name ‘Mac Tyler’, which she claimed to have watched “some three and twenty” times. (Full review here.)