Frieda, Lady Harris - Masonic Tracing Boards

Frieda, Lady Harris, Masonic Tracing Boards, Society of Esoteric Endeavour 2026. Issued with the kind permission of the Harris family. Three high quality giclee prints on lightly textured matt 320gsm acid free art paper (35cm x 51cm) supplied in very stout cardboard tube (4 inch diameter, 4mm thick walls. TheS.E.E. device is stamped in gold coloured foil. Each label is individually numbered, this reflecting the sequence of orders received.

In 1the 1970s Andrew Drylie, an independent Thelemite, edited Agape (Bristol, UK) which explored Crowley, Spare and related occult themes. He acquired the original Masonic tracing boards that Frieda, Lady Harris painted c.1938. Fifty years ago he commissioned the tracing boards to be professionally photographed and reproduced as high quality offset litho prints. In this edition the offset litho prints have been digitally manipulated to bring out the detail.

Co-masonry is open equally to men and women. The first co-masonic lodge was founded by Cagliostro in 1784 in France. A hundred years later an international co-masonic order was founded in Paris. The name of the rite “Le Droit Hamain" ie Human Rights reflects the progressive, feminist milieu in which the rite flourished. In Britain Annie Besant, Charles Leadbeater and other theosophists embraced co-masonry and incorporated it into their movement. Co-masonry continues to be active today.

Frieda Harris made the original paintings upon tea trays, the handles being useful to hold the image whilst the candidate contemplates the symbolism during the ritual.

These tracing board images have be used magically by both masons and non-masons. One approach would be for the practitioner to imagine themselves standing in front of the image, and then stepping into it, climbing the ladder, ascending the stairs or crossing the black and white tiles. In the second degree tracing board the practitioner is actually portrayed. To indicate his or her rising through the grades, the lower body is extended and visually resonated with pillars.

FIRST DEGREE TRACING BOARD

A sword is given prominence. There is a narrative that in co-masonry, aside from one being used by the tyler to protect the lodge, a sword is used to direct energy from the infinite, through the master mason, to the candidate. So perhaps a more magical approach to ritual than mainstream. The rough stone on the bottom right is the candidate. He or she may be perfected by the moral qualities represented by the mason’s tools and symbols upon the ascending ladder. Frieda represents the transcendent light that from above as two five sided pyramids fused at the their bases.

This board suggest the influence of Projective Geometry as taught to Frieda by a follower of Rudolf Steiner, Olive Whicher. Euclid taught parallel lines never touch. Projective geometry posits that if the lines disappear into the horizon their apparent touching point can be considered real and can be utilised. This illustration from her book shows Projective Geometry can be used to generate a matrix of rhomboids that Frieda manipulates for her design.

Lines drawn from the left and right points on the horizon create the sides of the rhomboids, or tiles in the Tracing Board. The wonder is that their diagonals (shown with dotted lines) all point to the same circled point on the horizon, exactly midway between the generating points. But this is not what Frieda draws. She distorts the matrix of tiles so that if one imagines the diagonals they cross at various points up the central ladder, signalling the ladder transcends the plane - which, of course, is its purpose.

SECOND DEGREE TRACING BOARD

We see the two pillars of the Temple of Solomon, one surmounted by the Heavens the other by the Earth. We see the candidate, his or her form extended upwards to represents the exaltation as he or she passes between the pillars. He or she crosses waters and passes an ear of corn. The reference is to word “shibboleth”, a word that cannot be pronounced by the unworthy. The candidate. The exalted path crosses the rainbow bridge, the coloured arcs perceived as columns to the unpronounceable Word of God, and here not dully written dove, which begins with a Yod in Hebrew. signifying the first letter. Above the blazing star formed of the intersection of light and dark with “G” for God and Geometry. The design has been painted onto a blank chart, as used by astronomers to chart stars, the guide lines showing through representing humanities relationship to the heavens.

THIRD DEGREE TRACING BOARD

There are numerous symbols of death, the acacia leaves hint at immortality and the angel’s wings transcendence.

Frieda Harris portrays the usual coffin as an irregular dodecahedron, with coffin lids on multiple planes. The one facing the viewer has a portal into Solomon's Temple which is portrayed with a M.C. Escher like twist:-

Frieda, Lady Harris, Masonic Tracing Boards, Society of Esoteric Endeavour 3 giclee prints in stout labelled tube £120

Plus postage at cost:-

UK £3.95 making a total £123.95

Europe £10.25 making a total of £130.25

Rest of the World £17.36 making a total of £137.36