Atu II - The High Priestess - Thoth Tarot - Aleister Crowley 1943

Lady Frieda Harris made this mysterious image, "Atu II - The High Priestess", as part of the Thoth Tarot deck with Aleister Crowley. It's hard to pin down the date, but it really grabs you with its super-controlled yet vibrant watercolor washes. This piece feels like the opposite of throwing paint at a canvas; it's all about building up these precise layers of color, a real testament to process. Look closely, and you'll see how the pigment kind of floats on the surface, giving everything this ethereal, dreamlike quality. The colors are mostly cool blues and greens, which adds to the calm, spiritual vibe, but then she throws in these pops of yellow and gold that just sing. Notice the grid-like pattern that seems to contain the High Priestess, how those lines aren't perfectly straight? That's where the magic is, that slight wobble. It makes the whole thing feel alive, like it's breathing. Harris's work reminds me a bit of Hilma af Klint, another artist who was exploring spiritual themes through abstraction. Both artists ask us to consider art as a visual language, inviting us to interpret their symbolism rather than offering easy answers.