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Master Kwaw, Aleister Crowley and the Yellow Peril

Posted: October 7th, 2013 | No Comments »

Funny how often the old occultist Aleister Crowley (I shouldn’t have to introduce him but if you don’t know him then here’s his scandalous life) comes up in conversation! At last week’s Fu Manchu/Lao She Conference in London Phil Baker, who knows a lot about a lot, related Crowley’s portrait of Master Kwaw, his character who is

“a Taoist advisor to the Japanese “Daimio” in a time of crisis. Kwaw advises a course of study in which people shall be taught the antithesis of their natural tendencies: the prostitute to learn chastity, the prude to learn sexual expression, the religious bigot to learn Huxley’s materialism, the atheist to learn ceremonial magick.”

Baker also suggested that this just might be what Crowley considered a self-portrait when under the influence….

4 kwaw

Crowley occasionally assumed what he considered to be Chinese poses and characters in photographs….

1

Crowley as “Fo Hi, the Chinese God of Joy and Laughter”

2

As “Kwaw Li Ya – Chinese Poet”



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