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Aleister Crowley Memo on Stipend [paid to Crowley by Frieda Harris]
[Undated: circa 1942]
1. Originally the idea was to dash off a pack of cards from (a) the elaborate “Equinox” descriptions (b) mediaeval packs, as The Equinox did not describe the 22 Trumps. We thought that a day apiece would be enough for the 40 small cards; two days apiece for the 16 court cards and 11 weeks for the 22 Trumps. This was thought to be an outside estimate—say 6 months in all, allowing for holidays & interruptions.
2. The “Stipend” £2 weekly had nothing to do with my work on the Tarot, which was practically a full-time job. It was to cover my doing shopping and odd commissions for her [Frieda Harris]—in many cases I paid the cost out of my own pocket. But principally it was to use me as a tame “Brains Trust”.
I instructed her in astronomy and astrology, mysticism, Yoga, geometry, algebra, history, literature, chemistry and what not.
I even criticised—very fruitfully–her own efforts at painting.
This work, carried out sometimes by correspondence—very voluminous—sometimes by direct verbal instruction, had nothing to do with my Tarot work, which was entirely covered by my 2/3 interest in the property.
Note that the stipend and instruction have continued since the completion of the work on the Tarot [The Book of Thoth].
[a related sheet of conditions]
Essential Condition of Peace.
The cards are not to be sold without the book.
If the book can be printed without illustrations it need not cost more than £300.
If Lady Harris likes, she can give it away with the cards, I do not want any money out of it: and she can say she wrote it, I don't care.
But I will not allow the cards to be issued so that they can be used only for gambling or fortune-telling.
The new catalogue [of Lady Harris' exhibition of the Tarot cards], full of grotesque blunders which discredit the scholarship of the Work, must be withdrawn.
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