Death on Iona: The Mysterious Death of Norah Fornario and the Search for Netta

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Around the end of the 8th Century AD the famous Book of Kells was produced on the island. Around this time the first Viking raids started which killed many of the monks and saw many of their treasures stolen. The Scotsman, 27th November 1929 said - “This “alien” woman, who dressed in the fashion of the Arts and Crafts movement – with a long cape and hand-woven tunic – settled into the house of someone only known as Mrs. MacRae. The 33-year-old Fornario spent her time walking the island and in long trances, some of which could last for days.”

The mysterious death of Netta Fornario - Coast that Shaped

Iona is a small island, roughly 3.5 miles long and one mile wide which lies off the west of Mull. In 563AD St Columba (grandson of the Irish King Niall) and 12 followers built their first Celtic Church on the island and monastic community. Iona became famous as St Columba started converting Scottish and English pagans into Christians. Iona also became the resting place of Kings and according to a survey in 1549 it boasted 48 Scottish Kings, 8 Norwegian and 4 Irish. Amongst the Scottish kings buried on Iona are King Kenneth I, Donald II, Malcolm I, Duncan I, Macbeth and Donald III. According to fellow occultist Dion Fortune, the reason Netta was going to Iona was to conduct some deep healing and to study Green Ray Elementals (non-magic folk speak: Fairies). Dion Fortune was a renowned occultist at the time and knew Netta very well. Dion distanced herself from Netta, however, because she was getting too deep into things she could not understand or control. Our new Temple of Horus in Bradford is not about degree ceremonies, charters or pomp, - a lot of which turned out to be rubbish anyway. In the founding of the original Golden Dawn, Westcott and Mathers merely set up a lot of the stuff themselves with some help from other masons and manufactured all the so called intervention of Anna Sprengel who probably did not exist, along with the 'secret chiefs' it just sounded good at the time. Westcott and Mathers with a bit of help from a Dr Woodman really just used their own knowledge and ability to set up the Golden Dawn.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.) Iona itself certainly does look beautiful and an interesting place to visit if you're in to history. Netta was devastated that she couldn’t leave and attempted to calm herself down by taking a Sunday night stroll. That was the last time she was ever seen alive. The Mystery

The mysterious case of Netta Fornario on the Scottish Island

Netta saw The Immortal Hour twenty-three times, likely during its 1922-23 run in London. Oddly, she laments that the play did not receive a longer run, due to the politics of Boughton, the composer. By all accounts the production was a smash hit and ran for an unprecedented 211 straight performances in 1922 and additional 160 the following year. Regardless, her remarks show a deep understanding of the allegorical references intended by the author. In 1926, a new edition of Mathers’s translation of the Kabbalah, The Kabbalah Unveiled, was published. Moina wrote the preface, in which she expressed “thanks to my occult masters, and the deepest gratitude to the memory of my husband, comrade and teacher, all of whom have shed much light upon my path.” With a little digging around, I found that one of the branches of the Theosophical Society (at one time there were two branches in the area) had once held meetings in the Yorkshire Penny Bank Chambers at the end of North Parade and thought it was possible from what I was told that this was the same building where Aleister Crowley had also held his rituals.She was eventually found on the Tuesday, by what the locals described as a ‘faery mound’ to the South of Loch Staonaig." That's my best understanding, too. FWIW the few other photos of Mathers I've ever found are a much closer match to that photo than the one on the right in post #15. She seems to have resigned herself to this though. In fact, after a short spell in her room, she emerged and told Mrs MacRae that she had changed her mind, and that she would be staying indefinitely on the island. Netta’s sudden change of mood can seem baffling at first. I sometimes wonder if she had simply taken something as a “sign” that she was meant to stay on Iona. Someone like Netta would find symbolism in just about anything, and her belief in fate/destiny/karma would have been acutely strong. Hence her air of fatalism at this moment. Even though it seems plausible Netta died of the natural elements on the windy, cold island, there are some strange things about this case. Her death remains a mystery to this day. Was she murdered by people offended by her unconventional views? Was her death supernatural or merely the inevitable conclusion of untreated paranoid schizophrenia? The Mysterious Death of Netta Fornario is a chilling account mixing fiction with the real events of a still controversial death, suitable for age 14+.