‘Mercury is in a Very Ape-Like Mood’: Frieda Harris’s Perception of Thelema

by Deja Whitehouse, Aleister Crowley (Contributor), Frieda Harris (Contributor)

Frieda, Lady Harris, wife of Sir Percy Harris, Liberal M.P. and party Chief Whip, cre- ated the magnificent Tarot paintings that underpin Aleister Crowley’s The Book of Thoth. Harris conformed to the conventional appearance of a respectable middle-class lady until she was in her sixties. However, her unwavering commitment to Aleister Crowley and the Tarot project eventually threatened not only her social standing, but also her marriage. Despite her dedication to the Thoth Tarot, she never fully engaged with Thelema, which she anthropomorphised as the bossy and interfering ‘Miss Thelema’. Nevertheless, she progressed through the grades of Crowley’s magical orders and remained loyal to Crowley and the Great Work to the end of her days, endeavouring to secure a publishing deal for a general release of The Book of Thoth and the Thoth Tarot deck. Using extracts from Harris and Crowley’s correspondence and Crowley’s diaries, this paper will explore Harris’s personal involvement with Thelema, both in her collaborative activities with Crowley, and her endeavours to preserve his legacy after his death.

28 pages, ebook

Published April 14, 2020

About the author

Deja Whitehouse, Ph.D. (University of Bristol, 2020) is an independent researcher in the field of Western Esotericism.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes a compelling case that, for all her work with Crowley and within his Thelemic organizations, Harris did not really consider herself to be a Thelemite as such, and did not pursue Thelema as an explicit path subsequent to Crowley's death, much of which period she spent in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) focused on her painting and the indigenous spiritualities.

I imagine this will be addressed in greater detail in the full-length The Lady and the Beast, but I wanted to check out the paper in case it is glossed differently in the book, which cited this paper by the same author.