part0024

The relationship between Frieda Harris (1877 – 1962) and Aleister Crowley was of a close, constant and magical respect. Harris was not only the artist executant of the Thoth Tarot but also a co-designer, promoter and caretaker of its legacy. She, with Louis Wilkinson, was the executor Crowley’s will, and upon her own death bequeathed the original paintings for the deck to Gerald Yorke, whose collection of Crowley material – including the original paintings - was then passed to the Warburg Institute on his death, where it resides to the present day.

Whilst the relationship was strained, particularly when Crowley felt he might lose control of the deck and penned a ‘third party’ letter to state his part in the creation of the deck, it continued to his death. Harris saw Crowley earlier on the day he died, and her legacy was recognised by Crowley who wrote that he was “absolutely devoted” to her. [100]

Harris was born in 1877, the daughter of surgeon John Astley Bloxam, and she married Liberal M.P. Percy Harris in 1901. He was created a Baronet in 1932, allowing Harris to title herself Lady Harris, although she preferred, if at all, Lady Frieda Harris, despite the forename not being part of the accepted nomenclature. As she had in 1929 called herself “Jesus Chutney” for an exhibition, it is no surprise that she was not particularly adherent to social convention. [101]

In 1926, Harris wrote (and illustrated with four plates) a short book on Winchelsea, entitled Winchelsea: A Legend , which is of considerable note, as this was where Pamela Colman Smith had stayed during the creation of her own illustrations for the Waite-Smith Tarot in 1909. The images in the book could almost be landscapes of the Waite-Smith Tarot as drawn by Frieda Harris in the pastoral style of Pamela Colman Smith. [102]

Harris also wrote poetry; her work was collected in a book entitled Bump! Into Heaven . [103] She was initiated into the O.T.O. by Crowley on May 11th , 1938, according to Crowley. [104] She was 61 when she commenced the tarot work that same year.

Her work with Crowley was mainly conducted in Chipping Campden, in the Cotswolds, at a residence called “Rolling Stone Orchard”. Her living conditions there and Crowley’s visits are detailed in an article by Richard Kaczynski, ‘Cartomancy in the Cotswolds: Lady Frieda Harris and Aleister Crowley at Chipping Campden’ in the Chipping Campden History Society Journal . [105]

She was to sketch Crowley fondly and sadly at least twice; her last sketch of him in December 1947 is simply titled, “AC dying”. [106]

Harris herself died in Srinagar, India, in 1962, where she had moved to live in a houseboat and study Hinduism. In this there is a reminiscence of the life of Florence Farr, actress and alumni of the Golden Dawn, who, aged 52 in 1912, had moved to Ceylon to resume her work as a teacher.

Her correspondence with Crowley demonstrates a keen interest and knowledge of esoteric work pursued with an enquiring mind. She was fully aware of the magical process of her art, noting later that if a publisher, in this case Llewellyn Publications, were to attempt to reproduce the deck from black and white images, it would be inferior:

It is almost certain to be a travesty as Mrs. Barker is most unlikely to notice in each case or to draw correctly the sigils concealed in the designs, while she will not have the knowledge to combine the four traditional colour scales in their right proportions and balance. The result in either case will be to destroy the magical properties of my Pack. [107]

We see here that Harris had certainly concealed sigils in the deck, and from sketches still surviving from Crowley we know that the deck was constructed not only on geometrical proportions but magical templates such as the Tree of Life and symbols of alchemy, astrology and the elements. This was common practice in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the designs of Eliphas Levi, both of which inspired Crowley in this manner.

A sigil is a magical symbol or sign which acts as a seal or signature of an energy, particularly an angelic or demonic presence. In contemporary magick, sigils are created as a bespoke method for specific purposes. In the context of the Thoth Tarot, the sigils were likely to be those of the corresponding spirits, constructed on magical squares, themselves built from Hebrew letters. As sigils are constructed in this way on straight Euclidian geometry, to place them upon projective geometry is a powerful act of magick and perhaps accounts for the ‘drawing in’ nature of the cards when gazed upon for some time.