He was a disciple of “the wickedest man alive” Aleister Crowley. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard performed magick rituals with him, stole his girlfriend and conned him out of his life’s savings. And the rockets he helped develop eventually put us on the Moon.
As he’s also now the subject of a new song from Les Claypool and Sean Lennon, “Blood & Rockets” from The Claypool Lennon Delirium, the time seems ripe for a fresh look at the fascinating and enigmatic Jack Parsons. His life was as colorful as the glare of his rockets; his death in 1952 in an accidental explosion, still mysterious.
Parsons’ life path intersected with those of two Modern Holy Men, Crowley and Hubbard. He was a personal link incarnate between the two men, and, in some ways, between Crowley’s Thelema and Hubbard’s Scientology. The two men were instrumental in what Parsons viewed as his life’s major Magickal undertaking, The Babalon (sic) Working.
Parsons was already a high priest in Crowley’s religion of Thelema prior to meeting Hubbard. He corresponded with Crowley, addressing him as “Most Beloved Father” and signing his letters “Thy Beloved Son, Jack”.[i] He’s described as “Aleister Crowley’s hand-picked leader of the U.S. branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis, the Southern California-based Agape Lodge.” Lodge member Jane Wolfe said she saw Parsons “as the real successor to Therion (Crowley).”[ii]
Parsons was six foot two and charismatic — “The James Dean of the Occult,” according to occult writer Richard Metzger. As a rocket scientist and an occultist, he was also a friend to many of California’s science fiction writers. Some lived with him; Parsons’ home — later dubbed the “Parsonage” — was a sprawling old manse in Pasadena that he ran as a kind of cooperative, bohemian rooming house that advertised for artists, musicians, atheists, anarchists and other exotic types. In addition to the apartments, Parsons reserved two rooms for the conduct of the Gnostic Mass and other O.T.O. rituals.[iii]
Science Fiction fan and occasional Parsonage guest Alva Rogers said “Jack was the antithesis of the common image of the Black Magician… He bore little resemblance to his revered Master, Aleister Crowley, either in looks or in his personal conduct. He was a good looking man… urbane and sophisticated, and possessed a fine sense of humor. He never, as far as I saw, indulged in any of the public scatological crudities which characterized Crowley… I always found Jack’s insistence that he believed in and practiced magic hard to reconcile with his educational and cultural background.”[iv]
Through mutual friends — some reports say Robert A. Heinlein — he met L. Ron Hubbard. He was impressed. Parsons wrote Crowley:
“About 3 months ago I met Captain L Ron Hubbard, a writer and explorer of whom I had known for some time… He is a gentleman, red hair, green eyes, honest and intelligent and we have become great friends. He moved in with me about two months ago, and although Betty and I are still friendly, she has transferred her sexual affections to him. Although he has no formal training in Magick, he has an extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field. From some of his experiences I deduce he is in direct touch with some higher intelligence, possibly his Guardian Angel. He is the most Thelemic person I have ever met and is in complete accord with our own principles. He is also interested in establishing the New Aeon, but for cogent reasons I have not introduced him to the Lodge. We are pooling our resources in a partnership which will act as a parent company to control our business ventures. I think I have made a great gain, and as Betty and I are the best of friends, there is little loss… I need a magical partner. I have many experiments in mind. I hope my elemental gets off the dime [gets moving] — the next time I tie up with a woman it will be on [my] own terms.”[v]
“Betty” was Sara Northrup, both Jack’s mistress and sister-in-law, his estranged wife Helen’s sister. Hubbard won her affections; he would later claim he “rescued” her from the cult. Parsons acted blasé in his letter, but by most reports he was seething. Parsons and Betty “had been practicing an open marriage at Parsons’s insistence, as a matter of Thelemic liberty.” According to author Lawrence Sutin, “In fact, while Parsons was wracked with jealousy by this affair, he stood up rather nobly to the strain…”[vi]
Parsons seems to have seen it as a test of his Will, as he believed Hubbard to be essential for a ritual he was performing. According to most accounts, soon after meeting Parsons, Hubbard became a willing participant in a masturbatory magickal ritual undertaken by Parsons, the Babalon Working:
“In its initial stages, The Babalon Working was intended to attract an elemental to serve as a partner for Parsons’ elaborate sex magick rituals. The method employed was that of the solo VIII Degree Working of the O.T.O… Parsons used his “magical wand” to whip up a vortex of energy so the elemental would be summoned. Translated into plain English, Parsons jerked off in the name of spiritual advancement whilst Hubbard (referred to as ‘The Scribe’ in the diary of the event) scanned the astral plane for signs and visions.”[vii]
“The ritual took place over twelve consecutive nights in January 1946. To the strains of a Prokofiev violin concerto, Parsons made a series of eleven invocations, including the ‘Conjuration of Air’, the ‘Consecration of Air Dagger’ and the ‘Invocation of Wand with Material Basis on Talisman’. …Parsons performed rituals which led up to ‘an operation of symbolic birth.’ Then he settled down to wait. For four days he experienced ‘tension and unease… Then, on January 18, at sunset, while The Scribe [Hubbard] and I were on the Mojave Desert, the feeling of tension suddenly snapped… I returned home and found a young woman answering the requirements waiting for me.’ The woman was Marjorie Cameron. Parsons wrote to Crowley: ‘I seem to have my elemental… she has red hair and slant green eyes as specified’.”[viii]
Crowley wrote back with a caution to his young apprentice:
“I am particularly interested in what you have written to me about the Elemental, because for some little while past I have been endeavouring to intervene personally in this matter on your behalf. I would, however, have you recall (Eliphas) Levi’s aphorism, ‘the love of the Magus for such beings is insensate and may destroy him.’ It seems to me that there is a danger of your sensitiveness upsetting your balance. Any experience that comes your way you have a tendency to over-estimate… At the same time, your being as sensitive as you are, it behooves you to be more on your guard than would be the case with the majority of people.”[ix]
Despite his Master’s cautions, Parsons, Cameron and Hubbard continued The Babylon Working...
[Read More at Medium: https://medium.com/@glowinthedarkradio/the-mysterious-mr-parsons-life-at-the-intersection-of-crowley-and-hubbard-746a219d34fd]
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