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Correspondence from Frieda Harris to Aleister Crowley
[partial]
6 January 1941
. . . you ask me why I object to trance. It is because the word conveys to me a picture of stuffy old women turning up their eyes & taking refuge or [on?] drugs—by describing their visions & trances, all contorted to drive in some moral theory to prove how good they are. . . . Trance is always in a room with Nottingham Lace curtains, windows tight shut, stuffy rooms & dirty people.
. . . Fire and Water are ready to paint! . . .
[at this point in her letter Frieda Harris is writing to Crowley about a Mrs. Sands, who had designed her own Tarot deck] She was distinctly alarming—a Rosicrucian & spoke a great deal about Right & Left Paths and Black & White Magic, but I could not find out how she knew the difference. She belonged to a Californian Group but had never heard of Christian Rosenkruuz or read the Alchemical Marriage. She told me her cards were strictly according to the ancient tradition. I do wonder what they were like. She seemed so certain she knew Truth—Goodness—etc. that I was afraid of putting my foot into it, meeting her at one of Percy's [Percy Harris] social friends large lunches so I hastily said it was impossible to me to talk about the cards as I had only done the drawings.
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