Did Lady Frieda Harris design the Unicursal Hexagram for Crowley?

Zezina

I gather there was some difficulty in designing the Unicursal Hexagram that Crowley wanted, and I'm wondering whether it was Lady Frieda Harris who solved the design problem. I'm referring to both the red and the rainbow UHs that come as spare cards with various editions of the Thoth Tarot.

Does anyone know who the designer was?

*Z*
 

Laura Borealis

You got me curious, and I dug a couple of things up.

SymbolDictionary.net says the Golden Dawn devised the Unicursal Hexagram, and that Crowley's innovation was the five petaled rose in the center. See http://symboldictionary.net/?p=1367

But I feel like it's a figure that had been used before, in talismans and so forth. Renaissance magus Giordano Bruno used a very similar figure in the 1500s in his hermetic writings. Entitled Figura Amoris, you can see it here, the third illustration on the page: http://unurthed.com/2009/06/21/brunos-mathesis/

Attached, a version of Bruno's figure where I've colored in the hex shape in red. The proportions are different to fit into the square, but the same design idea.

I don't know about Frieda, Lady Harris' involvement. I seem to think it predates her friendship with Crowley, but I'm not an authority on his writings.
 

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Aeon418

The short answer is no, Harris did not design the unicursal hexagram. The one that appears in the Book of Thoth on page 11, and is used on the cards, was taken directly from the cover of an earlier book, Magick in Theory and Practice. (In fact it has been reproduced upside down in the Book of Thoth.) The publication of that book pre-dates Crowley's relationship with Harris by over a decade.

Crowley's comment under the hexagram on page 11 is about drawing a unicursal hexagram with all the lines being of equal length. In two dimensions this is impossible, but it is possible in three dimensions. Crowley was discussing this problem (with sketches) as far back as 1916 in letters to Frater Achad.
 

Zephyros

I feel like a fool asking this, but where is it used in the cards? I know that in some decks there is an extra card with it, but in the deck I have (the US Games... I dunno, "standard" size version?) there was none.
 

Aeon418

closrapexa said:
I feel like a fool asking this, but where is it used in the cards? I know that in some decks there is an extra card with it, but in the deck I have (the US Games... I dunno, "standard" size version?) there was none.
Click to expand...
You get a unicursal hexagram and an OTO card with the large deck. The "standard" size deck has the two reject Magi designs included.
 

Aeon418

I've just had a quick rumage through the cards to jog my memory, but I'm fairly certain the unicursal hexagram does not appear on any of the Thoth-proper cards.
 

Zezina

closrapexa said:
where is it used in the cards? I know that in some decks there is an extra card with it, but in the deck I have (the US Games... I dunno, "standard" size version?) there was none.
Click to expand...

In my large (5.5 x 3.75 inches) deck US Games Systems 1978 reprinted 1983 with pattern on green card-front edges, there are three extra cards: an O.T.O. card, a RED on black ground Unicursal Hexagram card and a plain white card. Back of UH card has cross and no white edges.

In my same-sized deck US Games Systems 1978 reprinted 2006 with pattern on grey card-front edges, there are two extra cards: an O.T.O. card and a RAINBOW on black ground Unicural Hexagram card. Back of the card has cross and white edges.

Apologies if the following URL doesn't work, as I've never done this before. I've posted the two UHs onto my Flickr page in the hope you can view the UHs there. I will make the two photos private after 24 hours for copyright reasons.

You may ask if these two UHs are right way up? Yes they definitely are the right way up. I made sure that of that. Following is my flickr URL (if it works). If it doesn't work, maybe you can find them at flickr - photos - zezina.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zezina/

Other questions have clarified my original thread question for me. My original question might better have been whether it was Lady Frieda Harris who designed the addition of the particular rose to the centre of this version of the Unicursal Hexangam to make it a personal signature for Crowley.

A couple of years ago US Games Systems did give me permission to publish Thoth cards to my blog, and I've requested the same from O.T.O but have had no response. So I haven't done it. Hopefully this posting to Flickr is viewed as private.

*Z*
 

gregory

I think under 10% for study/review purposes is OK anyway.
 
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