by
T. Allen Greenfield
Excerpt from:
Green Egg Magazine, Vol. 29, No. 118,
March-April 1997 CE
from
GreyLodge Website
"At about the same time that Parsons was trying to incarnate an
extraterrestrial entity, he also claimed that he had met a Venusian
in the desert of New Mexico -- an odd fore- shadowing of the claims
of later 'contactees' such as George Adamski in the early 1950's."
- Jay Katz, 'Saucers of the Illuminati'
[1]
Hubbard wished to bring this other world into Manifestation but
lacked the technical knowledge to do so. So, he came to the innocent
sex magician Jack Parsons. In this version, the Babalon Working,
guided by Hubbard, had little to do with "Babalon" and more to do
with the hideous Old Ones of the H.P. Lovecraft Cthuthu Mythos. "A
door opened; something came through" is the essence of this thesis,
and the appearance of the first "flying saucer" case the following
year is considered, in this outré rumor, not coincidental at all.
-
T Allen Greenfield, Bishop EGC/OTO |
The so-called "Babalon Working" conducted by
John Whiteside Parsons
and L. Ron Hubbard between January 4 and March 4, 1946, has been the
object of much speculation, mythologizing and wonder.
This speculation is due in part to the involvement of two
charismatic and brilliant Bohemians of that period. Parsons
(1914-1952) was a major force in the early development of solid fuel
booster rockets, for which work the International Astronomical Union
eventually named a Lunar Crater in his memory. He was an OTO member
from 1941, and served for a short period as Master of Agape Lodge OTO in the 1940s. He died under mysterious circumstances in an
explosion in 1952.
The other participant, pulp fiction author La Fayette Ron Hubbard
(1911-1986), eventually founded the Church of Scientology and has
been the center of stormy controversy in the decades since.
Both men were students of magick, especially the sexual magick of
Aleister Crowley. According to Bent Corydon, Hubbard once confided
in his son, Ron Jr.,
"Secrets, techniques and powers I alone have
refined, improved on, applied my engineering principles to. Science
and logic. THE keys! My keys to the doorway of the Magick; my
magick! THE power! NOT Scientology power! MY power! The real powers
of Solomon..."
Hubbard Sr. made clear he was talking about the
sex magick central to the OTO system, but with a unique twist:
"Sex by
will, Love by will -- no caring and no sharing -- no feelings ...
Sex is the route to power. Scarlet women! They are the secret to the
doorway. Use and consume. Feast. Drink the power through them. Waste
and discard them." [2]
The idealist Jack Parsons could hardly have understood what sort of
man he was dealing with; he wrote Crowley in February, 1946:
"About three months ago I met Ron ... He is a gentleman ... He moved
in with me about two months ago, and although Maggy and I are still
friendly, she has transferred her sexual affections to Ron." [3]
While Parsons was convinced that
Hubbard, as he wrote Crowley,
"...is in complete accord with our own principles" [4] and proceeded
to enter into a joint financial venture with the future Father of
Scientology, Crowley was writing his eventual successor as OTO Grand
Master, Karl Germer,
"From our brother's account he has given away
both his girl and his money -- apparently it's the ordinary
confidence trick." [5]
Parson's friend Alva Rogers, who witnessed
these events as they unfolded, described Hubbard's role in this way:
"Ron was a persuasive and unscrupulous charmer, not only in social
groups, but with the ladies. He was so persuasive and charmingly
unscrupulous that within a matter of a few weeks he brought the
entire house of Parsons down around poor Jack's ears. He did this by
the simple expedient of taking over Jack's girl for extended periods
of time." [6]
[Note: we acquired an interesting little bit of related information
the other day from the hand of someone with a curiously Valleean
vibe. In regards to a footnote mentioning a 1962 'Darkhouse' article
by "the late and much admired Alva Rogers," found in another Parsons
article we had recently posted, the mysterious researcher noted,
"It
might be worth pointing out that he has another tangential Hubbard
connection as the author of a 'A Requiem For 'Unknown,'' a book on
the fantasy magazine, 'Unknown,' edited by John W. Campbell, the
editor who first published Hubbard's blatherings about Dianetics in
his science-fiction magazine, 'Astounding.'" -B:.B:.]
It was against this background that Parsons and Hubbard embarked
upon "The Babalon Working" -- an elaborate sexual magick experiment
designed to bring Babalon into physical manifestation.
The whole concept of the "Magical Child" has several distinct
interpretations. In the more orthodox and traditional view, sex magick is employed to Manifest, by an act of Pure Will, a magical
being the material bases of which are the sexual fluids themselves.
A more literal interpretation holds that magical rituals such as
"The Star Sapphire" will produce a "Moon Child" -- that is, a living
child who serves as host to a superbeing, that is, the child is an
"avatar" in Eastern terms, or an Incarnation of the Divine in
Western thought. Yet a third interpretation is that sex magick is,
simply, the "Yoga of Sex" and the "Magical Child" is the
Transformed
Sex Magician Himself!
Hubbard and Parsons were ostensibly aiming at the second, literal
interpretation; to manifest a Scarlet Woman willing to conceive a
child who would embody the transformative goddess- being Babalon.
Crowley wrote Germer:
"Apparently Parsons or Hubbard or somebody is
producing a moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the
idiocy of these louts." [7]
The reaction was certainly excessive. Crowley's successor as Grand
Master of the OTO in the 1980s, Hymenaeus Beta, noted that an
adequate chronicle of Parsons',
"now-famous 'Babalon Working' of 1946
EV has yet to be published ...Most published accounts focus on his
friendship and falling-out with Church of Scientology founder L. Ron
Hubbard without appraising the larger issues of what was actually
being attempted, and why." [8]
Certainly, Parsons' own description
of the Working is based upon fundamentals of Ceremonial and Sexual Magick.
In
The Book of Babalon -- January 4 - March 4, 1946 EV, Parsons
outlines the entire experiment, including the reasons for it:
"The present age is under the influence of the force called, in
magical terminology, Horus. This force relates to fire, Mars, and
the Sun, that is, to power, violence and energy...
"This force is completely blind, depending upon the men and women in
whom it manifests and who guide it...
"The catastrophic trend is due to our lack of understanding of our
own natures. The hidden lusts, fears, and hatreds resulting from the
warping of the love urge, which underlie the natures of all Western
peoples, have taken a homicidal and suicidal direction.
"This impasse is broken by the incarnation of another sort of force,
called Babalon. The nature of this force relates to love,
understanding, and dionysian freedom, and is the necessary
counterbalance or correspondence to the manifestation of Horus."
Thus far, Parsons is reasoning in a sound manner. Keep in mind,
however, that he is working with his "friend" Hubbard, then in the
very process of making off with Parsons' money and lover; a man who
was to tell his son, Ron Jr., a few years later, to use and discard
Scarlet Women. In what sense "scarlet?" the younger Hubbard asked?
"Scarlet," the Scientology Source replied, "the blood of their
bodies; the blood of their souls ... bend their bodies; bend their
minds; bend their wills -- beat back the past." [9]
[Note: in the disturbing public domain essay
'Hollywood, Satanism,
Scientology and Suicide', we read of Hubbard's heinous abuses of the
fairer sex, as described by his own son:
"In my father's private circle," Ron Jr. explains, "there were lots
of mistresses. When I was younger, I participated in private orgies
with him and three or four other women. His theory was that one has
to open or crack a woman's soul in order for the satanic power to
pour through it and into him. It got kind of far out, culminating in
a variety of sex acts. Dad also had an incredibly violent temper. He
was into S&M and would beat his mistresses and shoot them full of
drugs."
When asked by an interviewer how this "soul-cracking" worked,
L. Ron
Hubbard, Jr. said,
"The explanation is sort of long and complicated.
The basic rationale is that there are some powers in this universe
that are pretty strong.
"As an example, Hitler was involved in the same black magic and the
same occult practices that my father was. The identical ones. Which,
as I have said, stem clear back to before Egyptian times. It's a
very secret thing. Very powerful and very workable and very
dangerous.
"Brainwashing is nothing compared to it. The proper term would be
'soul cracking.'
"It's like cracking open the soul, which then opens
various doors to the power that exists, the satanic and demonic
powers. Simply put, it's like a tunnel or an avenue or a doorway.
Pulling that power into yourself through another person and using
women, especially is incredibly insidious.
"It makes Dr. Fu Manchu look like a kindergarten student. It is the
ultimate vampirism, the ultimate mind fuck. Instead of going for
blood, you're going for their soul. And you take drugs in order to
reach that state where you can, quite literally, like a psychic
hammer, break their soul, and pull the power through." -B:.B:.]
This is a distortion of Crowley's teaching. The latter observed in
the same context,
"We do opine that it is better and easier that the
other party should be in ignorance of the sacred character of the
Office. It is enough if that assistant be formed by Nature signally
for the physical task, robust, vigorous, eager, sensible, hot and
healthy; flesh, nerve and blood being tense, quick, and lively,
easily enflamed, and nigh inextinguishable." [10]
Crowley suggests that a partner in sexual magick should, ideally, in
his opinion, be involved for the sake of sensual pleasure, pure and
simple. Hubbard, on the other hand, is telling his own son how to
enslave minds, bodies and souls. Parsons, who wrote extensively on
the subject of freedom, must have had no idea of what type of person
he was engaged in High Magick with.
In any case, Parsons goes on to narrate that,
"In January 1946 I had
been engaged in the study and practice of magick for seven years,
and in the supervision and operation of an occult lodge for four
years, [11] having been initiated into the Sanctuary of the Gnosis
by the Beast 666, Fra. 132, and Fra. Saturnus. [12] At this time I
decided upon a Magical operation designed to obtain the assistance
of an elemental mate." [13]
In a sense, deprived of his former
lover, Parsons was 'going for broke' in looking for a partner to
create a magical child with; "All or nothing -- I have no other
terms," as he put it to Crowley. [14]
Beginning on January 4, 1946 at 9:00 PM, Parsons and Hubbard
employed the powerful Enochian Air Tablet, using an Air Dagger,
parchment talisman, invocations, conjurations, Enochian Calls and
invocations, and appropriate banishings. [15] According to Parsons,
at various times over subsequent days, wind storms were raised,
electrical power was disrupted (January 14), during which Hubbard
allegedly had a candle knocked from his hand by Something; several
witnesses saw a "brownish yellow light about seven feet high" [16]
which Parsons banished. [17]
On January 18 Parsons and Hubbard were out in the Mojave Desert when
Parsons suddenly had an epiphany, and realized the experiment was
accomplished. [18]
"I returned home," he tells us, "and found a
young woman answering the requirements [19] waiting for me."
For the next month he invoked
Babalon with her as his partner, "as
was proper to one of my grade" [20] -- in other words, by the sexual
Eucharist of the Mass of the Holy Ghost.
While his magical partner visited in New York, on February 28,
Parsons returned to the Mojave, and received a "communication" he
referred to as
Liber 49, The Book Of Babalon, which identifies its
source as Babalon Herself. It should be noted that Hubbard was also
away then.
Liber 49 asserts, among other things,
"The working is of
nine moons ... And she shall wander in the witchwood under the Night
of Pan, and know the mysteries of the Goat and the Serpent, and of
the children that are hidden away ... I will provide the place and
the material basis, thou the tears and blood ... Thy tears, thy
sweat, thy blood, thy semen, thy love, thy faith shall provide. Ah,
I shall drain thee like the cup that is of me, Babalon [21] ... Let
me behold thee naked and lusting after me, calling upon my name ...
Let me receive all thy manhood within my Cup, climax upon climax,
joy upon joy ...Gather together in the covens as of old...Gather
together in secret, be naked and shameless and rejoice in my name."
[22]
It is interesting that much of this anticipates the emergence of
Wicca, at a time when Gerald Gardner in England was only beginning
to formulate his ideas. Parsons spent much of the remainder of his
short magical career writing on the subject of 'witchcraft.' In any
event, when Parsons communicated the Good News to Crowley, the old
Magus was perplexed, or amused, or, conceivably both.
He wrote
Parsons,
"You have me completely puzzled by your remarks. I thought
I had a morbid imagination, as good as any man's, but it seems I
have not. I cannot form the slightest idea what you can possibly
mean."
Apparently undaunted, upon Hubbard's return Parsons prepared to
impregnate his magical partner, impressed by a vision Hubbard had
"of a savage and beautiful woman riding naked on a great catlike
beast."
According to Francis King's account,
"Parsons was High Priest and
had sexual intercourse with the girl, while Hubbard who was present
acted as scryer, seer, or clairvoyant."
This occurred on the first
three days of March, 1946.
The aftermath is the subject of much rumor, and points out the high
significance of sexual magick.
"This secret is the true Key to Magick," said Crowley, "that is, by the right use of this secret man
may impose his Will on Nature herself...."
Hubbard took off with Parsons' former partner and the funds of their
joint enterprise. Parsons caught up with Hubbard in July of 1946 in
Miami, having to evoke Bartzabel [23] to raise a storm at sea,
forcing Hubbard back to shore. Ron Hubbard nevertheless married
Parsons' former lover the following month, and went on to write "Dianetics, The Science of Mental Health" and, eventually, to
organize the Church of Scientology, built upon a hidden mythos of a
75 million year old disaster in which the inhabitants of a 76 planet
galactic federation were blown up by a dictator named Xenu. This
science fiction "space opera" from Hubbard's pulp fiction days forms
a bizarre underpinning to an already bizarre story. [24]
The remainder of the tale depends entirely on whom you talk to. Was
a "magical child" conceived ritually March 4, 1946, born into this
world as Babalon Incarnate on or about "nine moons" later, on or
about December 4, 1946? Is such a being, a woman of about 50, alive
today?
Or was there a more ethereal "birth" perhaps, on a spiritual level,
the true "birth date" of Gardnerian Wicca and its various descendent
bodies, and on a more material level, the birth of modern 'second
wave' feminism. Surely, the timing of the Babalon Working and the
arrival of the Post War Baby Boom is simultaneous in an eerie sort
of way.
UFO buffs have of late been touting a theory that Hubbard came to
Parsons with a purpose more grandiose than "the ordinary confidence
game."
In pulp magazine circles, he had encountered any number of
occultists and border occultists (Talbot Mundy, Col. Arthur Burks,
Major Donald Keyhoe, Ray Palmer and Richard S. Shaver come to mind
[25]), and had already formulated the core of the "inner Scientology
teaching" outlined above.
He wished to bring this other world into Manifestation, but lacked
the technical knowledge to do so. So, he came to the innocent sex
magician Jack Parsons. In this version, the Babalon Working, guided
by Hubbard, had little to do with " Babalon" and more to do with the
hideous
Old Ones of the H.P. Lovecraft Cthuthu Mythos.
"A door
opened; something came through" is the essence of this thesis, and
the appearance of the first "flying saucer" case the following year
is considered, in this outre rumor, not coincidental at all.
The Babalon Working permanently alienated
Parsons from Crowley, but
the work of the ill-fated rocket scientist has more recently been
reevaluated in a more favorable light by present day occultists and UFOlogists alike.
Endnotes:
1. In point of fact, Adamski had been trying to sell his Venusian
story as science fiction several years earlier -- that is, at about
the same time as Parsons alleged experience in New Mexico. 2. Quoted from
'L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman?' by Bent Corydon
and L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. (Lyle Stuart, 1987) p. 307. 3. op. cit. pp. 255-56
4. op. cit. p. 256 5. op. cit. p. 258 6. op. cit. p. 259
7. op. cit. p. 257, but frequently quoted in various sources; See
also Crowley's novel 'Moonchild'. 8.
'Freedom Is A Two Edged Sword' by John W. Parsons (Falcon
Press/OTO 1989) introduction by Hymenaeus Beta, p. 7 9. Corydon & Hubbard, op. cit. p. 307.
10. De Arte Magica 11. Agape Lodge OTO 12. This is a significant "crew" of initiators, indeed. The
Sanctuary of the Gnosis refers to the Ninth Degree of the OTO
System, the most exalted of the regular initiatory degrees. The
Initiators here mentioned are Aleister Crowley, the then Grand
Master of the Order, W.T. Smith, the U.S. National Grand Master, and
Karl Germer, who served after Crowley's death as Grand Master until
the early 1960s. 13.'The Collected Writings of Jack Parsons',
Part One,
'The Book of Babalon', introduction, "Conception". 14. Corydon & Hubbard, op. cit. p. 257
15. This is standard ceremonial magical ritual practice. 16.
'Book of Babalon', Parsons, p 6 ; also quoted by Corydon &
Hubbard, op. cit. p. 256 17. These are common side effects in serious magical rituals.
18. This is, of course, the same area that the Adamski Orthon
contact took place a few years later, the area in which
Dr. Wilhelm
Reich, M.D. conducted his experiments with shooting down UFOs with Orgone Energy, and various other UFO-related events. 19. Marjorie Elizabeth Cameron (b. 1922 - d. 1995), or the future
Ms. Parsons; see Freedom Is... op. cit. Also The Magical Link,
Spring-Summer, 1995. 20. 'Book of Babalon', op. cit., p. 4 21. After
Liber Cheth, a Class A Holy Book of the Thelemic Canon. 22. 'Book of Babalon', op. cit. pp. 5-9
23. A powerful magical being 24. Corydon & Hubbard, op. cit. p. 364
25. Except for Mundy, the present author has met with all of the
pulp writers mentioned here.
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