The Mouth of Hell

An odd bit of history

We are only six blocks from the sea. We often walk along the ocean. There is a spot called Boca do Inferno (Mouth of Hell) just 15 minutes from our home. When the tide is coming in, it provides a glorious show of force and a bath for those that venture down onto the rocks.

A Small Plaque

I thought this was a tourist spot simply because of its view. In addition to the force of the waves, it provides a view of the Santa Marta Lighthouse. However, there is a small plaque which when translated to English says, “I cannot live without you. The other mouth of Hell that will catch me will not be as hot as yours”. Odd. One must investigate.

Two Men

I learned that something happened here in 1930. The story revolves around two men…a Portuguese poet and an English eccentric. The man pictured above on the left is Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa (1888-1935) considered among the greatest Portuguese poets.

Pessoa was a prolific writer, and not only under his own name, for he created approximately seventy-five others, of which three stand out, Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos and Ricardo Reis. He did not call them pseudonyms because he felt that they did not capture their true independent intellectual life and instead called them heteronyms. These imaginary figures sometimes held unpopular or extreme views. - Wikipedia

We first encountered Pessoa, captured in bronze, at his favorite writing spot in Chiado.

When he was in his thirties he became interested in spiritism and occultism. In fact, he believed he was a medium and also possessed the ability to do automatic writing, i.e. the ability to produce written words without consciously writing. He also took to astrology and one of his heteronyms wrote extensively on the subject. His interest in occultism led him to correspond with Aleister Crowley (pictured above on the right).

Edward Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) is described as an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, prolific writer, painter, and mountaineer. He founded a religion, Thelema, and considered himself its prophet. Born to a wealthy British family, Crowley traveled the world studying Buddhist and Hindu practices in India. He attempted to scale Kanchenjunga in 1905, a mountain that was only successfully climbed in 1955. During WWI, he lived in the US and proclaimed that he had infiltrated a pro-German movement to assist the British intelligence services. In 1920, he created a commune (the Abbey of Thelema) in Sicily which he was evicted from three years later due to his libertine lifestyle.

1930

Over a two-year period, the two men corresponded frequently. Pessoa also translated some of Crowley’s works into Portuguese. A friendship was formed that resulted in Pessoa helping Crowley with a bit of a publicity stunt. In 1930, Crowley faked his own death by “jumping into the Boca do Inferno”. Pessoa assisted by delivering Crowley’s suicide note to the media. The note included the words above along with Thelemic symbols. Three weeks later Crowley reappeared at the opening of an exhibition of his works in a Berlin gallery.

For some reason, David Blaine came to mind as I researched this story. Regardless, it is an odd bit of history.