Lady Frieda Harris
- This article is about a Thelema personality
Lady Frieda Harris (1877–1962) was an English artist renowned for her collaboration with the occultist Aleister Crowley in creating the Thoth Tarot deck. Born Marguerite Frieda Bloxam on August 13, 1877, in London, she was the daughter of surgeon John Astley Bloxam and Jessie Findlay Bloxam. In April 1901, she married Percy Harris, a Liberal Party politician who later became Chief Whip and was created a baronet in 1932. Despite her formal title of Lady Harris, she preferred to be known as Lady Frieda Harris.
Harris's artistic journey significantly turned when she met Aleister Crowley in 1937. At the time, Crowley was seeking an artist to assist in creating a new Tarot deck. Introduced by playwright Clifford Bax, Harris, then aged 60, accepted the challenge. Her studies in Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy and projective synthetic geometry, based on Goethe's ideas, greatly influenced her work on the Thoth Tarot. She took lessons from Olive Whicher and George Adams to deepen her understanding of these concepts.
The collaboration between Harris and Crowley was intensive and transformative. Initially intended to be a traditional deck, Harris encouraged Crowley to infuse his extensive occult, magical, spiritual, and scientific knowledge into the project. She provided financial support throughout the endeavor and leveraged her social connections to secure backers for exhibitions and publications related to the Tarot deck. Their partnership resulted in a series of paintings that combined esoteric symbolism with innovative artistic techniques, culminating in the Thoth Tarot deck.
Beyond the Tarot project, Harris was involved in other esoteric and artistic pursuits. She was a Co-Mason and designed a set of tracing boards for the Craft degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. These works are noted for using projective geometry and are highly regarded in Masonic circles.
After her husband died in 1952, Harris moved to India, where she continued her spiritual and artistic endeavors. She befriended Indian dancer Ram Gopal and collaborated with him on several projects, including set designs for his ballet "The Legend of the Taj Mahal" in 1956. Harris eventually settled in Srinagar, living on a houseboat and immersing herself in the study of Hinduism.
Lady Frieda Harris passed away on May 11, 1962, in Srinagar. India. She bequeathed the original paintings of the Thoth Tarot to fellow Thelemite Gerald Yorke, who placed them with the Warburg Institute, ensuring their preservation and accessibility for future generations.
Harris's legacy endures through her contributions to esoteric art and the Thelemic tradition. Her work on the Thoth Tarot remains a testament to her artistic skill and deep engagement with mystical and philosophical concepts. The deck continues to be studied and revered by scholars and practitioners of the occult, reflecting the enduring impact of her collaboration with Aleister Crowley.
Introduction to Crowley
Aleister Crowley had asked playwright and author Clifford Bax to help him find an artist for a Tarot project. On 9 June 1937, Bax invited Frieda Harris after two artists did not attend an appointment. She was then aged 60.
As well as reading books by Crowley, Harris' study of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy was a critical aspect in creating the Thoth deck. Crowley's friend Greta Valentine, a London socialite, also knew Harris. Harris and Crowley did much of their work on the Thoth tarot deck at Valentine's house in Hyde Park Crescent, London.
In 1937, Harris began taking lessons in projective synthetic geometry, based upon the ideas of Goethe, as reflected in Steiner's teachings from Olive Whicher and George Adams.
John Symonds writes:
[Crowley] helped her through the portals of the mystical Order of the A∴A∴ (Argenteum Astrum) She took the name of Tzaba "Hosts", which adds up to 93, the number of the Thelemic current which she was trying to tap.
According to Crowley's unpublished Society of Hidden Masters, on 11 May 1938, Lady Harris became his "disciple." Also, she became a member of Ordo Templi Orientis, entering directly to the IV° (Fourth Degree) of that Order due to her previous initiation into Co-Masonry.
Crowley also began to teach her divination—she had a choice of discipline and opted for the I Ching.
Harris visits Crowley
In his autobiography, the author William Holt describes how he accompanied Harris to Crowley's lodgings at 93 Jermyn Street, Piccadilly. While Harris drew some charcoal sketches, there was a discussion on The Book of Thoth that Crowley was writing.
Creating the Thoth Tarot
By Crowley's admission, the deck was originally intended to be traditional, but Harris encouraged him to commit his occult, magical, spiritual, and scientific views to the project.
Harris sent Crowley a regular stipend throughout the project. She also used her society contacts to find financial backers for the exhibition of the paintings, the catalogs, and the publication of the Tarot deck. The pressure may have taken its toll on Harris, and Crowley was sufficiently concerned to call in the lawyers to protect his 66% investment in the project. Crowley gives Harris praise in the introduction to the Book of Thoth:
{{quote|She devoted her genius to the Work. With incredible rapidity, she picked up the rhythm and, with inexhaustible patience, submitted to the correction of the fanatical slave-driver she had invoked, often painting the same card as many as eight times until it measured up to his Vanadium Steel yardstick!
Throughout the project, she insisted on anonymity but reveled in working for such a notorious man. The Book of Thoth was published in 1944 in a 200-copy limited edition, but neither Crowley nor Harris lived to see the deck printed.
Crowley's last days
The surviving letters between Frieda Harris and Crowley show their devotion to each other. On 29 May 194,2 Crowley wrote to Pearson, the photoengraver of the Thoth deck:
{{quote|I should like to emphasize that I am devoted to Lady Harris and have the evidence of countless acts of kindness on her part, indicating that her feelings toward me are similar.
There was a break in the Harris–Crowley letters after the exhibition in July 1942, but she was in close contact with him, particularly towards the end of his life, and visited him frequently. A pencil sketch she made of Crowley on his deathbed survives.
After Crowley's death, she wrote to Frederic Mellinger, an O.T.O. member in Germany, on 7 December 1947:
He was well taken care of. I made him have a nurse about 3 months ago as he was dirty & neglected & he had Watson, who was most devoted & the Symonds were as nice as they knew how to be. At the last, Mrs. McAlpine & the boy were there. I saw him the day he died, but he did not recognize me. I think Mrs. McAlpine was with him, but she says there was no struggle. He just stopped breathing. I shall miss him terribly. An irreplaceable loss.
Frieda Harris and Louis Wilkinson were the executors of Crowley's will. She also corresponded with Gerald Gardner and Karl Germer, Crowley's successor as head of O.T.O., in an attempt to assist with the Order's structure in Europe, which had been thrown into some confusion after Crowley's death.
Later life
After her husband died in 1952, she moved to India. She died in Srinagar, India, on 11 May 1962. She bequeathed the original paintings of her Tarot cards to fellow Thelemite Gerald Yorke, who placed them with the Warburg Institute along with much other Crowley material he had collected over the years. However, Yorke retained several alternative versions of the cards and some preliminary studies, which he later sold through bookdealer Harold Mortlake.
Her legacy can be found in a later reprinting of The Book of Thoth:
May the passionate "love under will" which she has stored in this Treasury of Truth and Beauty flow forth from the Splendour and Strength of her work to enlighten the world; may this Tarot serve as a chart for the bold seamen of the New Aeon, to guide them across the Great Sea of Understanding to the City of the Pyramids!
See also
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Lady_Frieda_Harris ]
Sources
| Ordo Templi Orientis | |
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| Outline of spirituality ● List of occult terms ● List of occultists ● Outline of spirituality |
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- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Lady_Frieda_Harris ]
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