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Jack Parsons (1914 - 1952)
Parsons was born on 2 October in Los Angeles to a wealthy family. He grew up in the family mansion in Pasadena, where the environment gave him a deep resentment of authority. Experiments with the occult began at an early age and included a ritual in which he allegedly conjured up the Devil when he was only thirteen. He also became fascinated with science and became a largely self-taught physicist and chemical engineer. Parsons later became familiar with the works and philosophy of Aleister Crowley and joined the Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis in 1941. That same year he was working with the Armed Forces explosives program at Cal Tech, and along with colleagues at JPL developed the first proto-type jet airplane. The solid fuel Parsons developed for these early jet rockets was the forebear of those used in ballistic and nuclear missiles, as well as in rocket launchers for space missions. In 1942, after Lodge master Wilfred Smith had fallen out of favor with Crowley, Parsons was selected to succeed him. Little effort was made on Parsons' part to hide his magickal activities. In addition to his chanting during test launches, Parsons officiated over sacred orgies and ritual workings at his mansion home in Pasadena, where many free spirits, artists, and bohemians, as well as various individuals with interests in libertarian and occult theories congregated. In many ways these gatherings anticipated the magick circle over which Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey presided twenty years later. Parsons maintained a regular correspondence with Crowley, who he addressed as "Father," and penned two volumes which summed up his individualist and libertarian ideas, Freedom Is A Two-Edged Sword, and Manifesto of the Anti-Christ. Like his mentor, Parsons believed a new era was at hand, wherein a new morality based on enlightened self-interest, freedom, and indulgence would overthrow the old doctrines of altruism, abstinence, and servitude. At the end of World War II, Parsons became acquainted with a Naval officer on leave by the name of L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard impressed Parsons with his interest in the occult, and Parsons took him on as his assistant and apprentice. They collaborated on the Babalon Working, an attempt to set into motion through magickal rituals the circumstances which would enable Parsons to realize the earthly manifestation of the qualities which Babalon represented, in essence a female Thelemic Messiah. Hubbard channeled messages to Parsons which in 1946 guided him to Marjorie Elizabeth Cameron, with whom Parsons hoped to create through ritual sex the "moonchild," the infant girl that would grow up to become Babalon Incarnate. The working was never completed, largely because Hubbard skipped town with $10,000 of Parson's money. Angered that he could allow himself to be duped so easily, Crowley disowned Parsons, who resigned from the OTO. (Note: A more recent version of these events claims that Hubbard was in fact working on behalf of Naval Intelligence to infiltrate, gather information on, and sabotage Parson's OTO group. Yet another claims that the Babalon Working included sex magick rituals involving anal sex, with Parsons as the passive partner and Hubbard as the active one.) Concerned over Parsons' occult activities, and suspecting him of Communist affiliations because of his radical social theories, the FBI made recommendations which led to the rescinding of all his security clearances. In 1952, while working in his laboratory, Parsons was killed in a fiery explosion under highly suspicious circumstances. His mother committed suicide soon after learning of his death. Conspiracy theorists cried sabotage, believing that Parsons had been eliminated by persons who considered him dangerous. Others noted Hubbard's channeled revelation that if Parsons summoned the spirit of Babalon, her fires would consume him. A memorial statue of Jack Parsons stands at the JPL headquarters, and a crater on the Moon is named in his honor. Still, his role in the development of the American space program is rarely mentioned in the scientific or military communities. In occult circles, however, his praise and fame as a scholar, philosopher, and pioneer has few equals. A biography of Parsons' life, Sex and Rockets, is available and highly recommended as are his writings. Links: Jack Parsons and the Curious Origins of the American Space Chapter on Parsons from the Hubbard Expose, Bare-Faced Messiah The Collected writings of Jack Parsons Excerpts from the FBI file of Jack Parsons
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