Introduction To Crowley
Aleister Crowley. who was looking for an artist for the Tarot project, asked playwright and author Clifford Bax to help him find one. On 9 June 1937 Bax had intended to introduce artists Meum Stewart and Leslie Blanche to Crowley, but when they didn't show up for the appointment, he invited Harris instead. Bax may have known Harris through Masonic links.
As well as reading books by Crowley, Frieda Harris' studies of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy were to be a critical aspect in the creation of the Thoth deck. Crowley's friend Greta Valentine, a London socialite, also knew Harris and it was at Valentine's house in Hyde Park Crescent, London, that Harris and Crowley did much of their work on the Thoth tarot deck.
In 1937 Frieda Harris began taking lessons in Projective Synthetic Geometry, based upon the ideas of Goethe as reflected in the teachings of Steiner, from Olive Whicher and George Adams. Whicher visited her at her studio near Regent's Park to view designs for the Thoth Tarot. Whicher says Harris had dyed her hair bright red, unusual at that time and, despite her alleged distaste for all things Crowleyan, Whicher actively encouraged Harris in her endeavours.
John Symonds writes:
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 Thelema 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According to Crowley's unpublished Society of Hidden Masters, on 11 May 1938, Lady Harris became his "disciple" and also became a member of Ordo Templi Orientis, entering directly to the IV°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:
"The Yi was your own choice from several. I approved highly, because it is the key to the kind of painting after which you were groping when I met you." (Letter from AC to FH, December 17th. The date is 1936, but should be 1938)
"If you are to make a new mark in art, you need a new mind, a mind enlightened from the Supernal Triangle." (From the same letter as above)
Read more about this topic: Frieda Harris
Famous quotes containing the words introduction to, introduction and/or crowley:
“Such is oftenest the young man’s introduction to the forest, and the most original part of himself. He goes thither at first as a hunter and fisher, until at last, if he has the seeds of a better life in him, he distinguishes his proper objects, as a poet or naturalist it may be, and leaves the gun and fish-pole behind. The mass of men are still and always young in this respect.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For better or worse, stepparenting is self-conscious parenting. You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”
—Anonymous Parent. Making It as a Stepparent, by Claire Berman, introduction (1980, repr. 1986)
“Roughly speaking, any man with energy and enthusiasm ought to be able to bring at least a dozen others round to his opinion in the course of a year no matter how absurd that opinion might be. We see every day in politics, in business, in social life, large masses of people brought to embrace the most revolutionary ideas, sometimes within a few days. It is all a question of getting hold of them in the right way and working on their weak points.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)