She fled to a remote Scottish island to perform a healing ritual. Weeks later, islanders found her body lying naked on a cross cut into the turf.
Who Was Netta Fornario
Netta Fornario — born Norah Emily Fornario in 1897 in Cairo to an English mother and an Italian father — was raised largely by her maternal grandfather in London after her mother died when she was an infant. She was educated at a girls' boarding school in Eastbourne before spending time in Italy as a young woman.
After returning to England in 1922, Fornario joined Alpha et Omega, an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn devoted to ritual magic, tarot, and mysticism. By her late twenties she had built a life around occult practice, and by most accounts had a genuine belief in the supernatural.
Arrival on Iona
In the summer of 1929, the 32-year-old Fornario travelled to Iona, a small island off the west coast of Scotland long associated with folklore and early Christian history, to carry out what she described as a healing ritual. She brought an unusually large amount of luggage for the trip, reportedly enough to furnish a small home, suggesting she planned to stay a while.
She took lodgings with a local landlady, Mrs MacRae, and spent her days walking the island alone and her nights engaged in occult practice. For weeks the arrangement was uneventful.
Signs Something Was Wrong
As autumn set in, Fornario sent a cryptic note to her housekeeper in London saying she would be out of contact because she had "a terrible case of healing" to attend to. On the morning of November 17, 1929, Mrs MacRae found her in a frenzied state, packing to leave immediately. Fornario said unnamed people were attacking her telepathically and described visions of a rudderless boat crossing the sky and messages received from beyond "the veil." MacRae also noticed that Fornario's silver jewelry had turned black overnight.
Told the mainland boat didn't run that day, Fornario grew angry, retreated to her room, then re-emerged hours later calm and saying she'd decided to stay after all. She went out for her usual walk that afternoon and never returned.
The Search and Discovery
It took two days to locate her body on the small island. She was found lying naked, covered only by a thin black cloak, on top of a cross that had been cut into the turf with a dagger found nearby. A blackened silver chain hung around her neck, and she clutched a sheaf of letters from an unidentified writer. Her feet bore deep scratches on the heels, consistent with running barefoot over rough ground.
The Official Findings
The examining doctor could not pinpoint a time of death; her death certificate lists a window between the night of November 17 and the afternoon of November 19, 1929. He listed the cause of death as either exposure or heart failure — plausible given a night spent outdoors in cold, windy conditions — but the finding didn't explain the scratches on her feet. She was buried on Iona that Friday under a small stone marked only with her birth initials, M.E.F.
Theories
Fellow occultists rejected the natural-causes explanation and claimed Fornario had been killed by a psychic attack sent from a distance by rivals within the occult community. In the years after, islanders reported sightings of strange blue lights near the site and a figure in a dark cloak. None of this has ever been substantiated, and what happened to the letters found in her hand — taken by local police at the time — has never been made public.
FAQ
Was Netta Fornario's death ever solved?
No. The official cause was listed as exposure or heart failure, but no explanation was given for the unusual scene or the scratches on her feet.
Was Netta Fornario involved in the occult?
Yes. She was a member of Alpha et Omega, an offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Where did Netta Fornario die?
On the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland, in November 1929.