On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 05:52:18 GMT, arnie lerma <alerma@bellatlantic.net> wrote:

>page 41:
>
>Hubbard affected Alva Rogers as he did Parsons. Rogers
>and Hubbard were both redheads, and the latter confided his
>belief that all redheads descended from the Neanderthal rather
>than pure Homo sapiens. Keep this in mind when reading Darker
>Than You Think. A reporter named Nielson Himmel lived in the
>house. He thought he saw a con man behind all those charming
>war stories. Himmel was one of the few who refused to lend
>Hubbard money. Hubbard did not like him.
>
>Himmel wrote, "There he [Hubbard] was, living off
>Parsons' largesse and making out with his girlfriend right in front
>of him. Sometimes when the two of them were sitting at the table
>together, the hostility was almost tangible... Jack found it
>increasingly difficult to keep his mind on anything but the torrid
>affair going on between Ron and Betty and the atmosphere
>around the house became supercharged with tension."
>
>Hubbard left for the Naval Hospital for a while to
>strengthen his disability claim. He returned in December, 1945
>and resumed his affair with Betty. Only a few like Rogers realized
>the true pain hidden beneath Parsons' cavalier front. He wrote
>of an accidental peek caught one night through the cracked-open
>door:
>
>"It was dimly lit and smoky from incense;
>Jack was draped in a black robe and stood with
>his back to us, his arms outstretched, in the center
>of a pentagram before some sort of altar affair on
>which several indistinguishable items stood.
>"His voice, which was actually not very
>loud, rose and fell in a rhythmic chant of gibberish
>which was delivered with such passionate
>intensity that its meaning was frighteningly obvious.
>After this breif and uninvited glimpse into the blackest and most
>secret center of a man's soul, we quietly withdrew.."
>
>
>
>If the Ferengi were to breed with the Borg you'd get Scientology
>http://www.lermanet.com/cos/comedy.html
>The internet is the Liberty Tree of the 90's
>http://www.lermanet.com/cos/libertyl.html
>The only thing that works in Scientology are its lawyers
>http://www.lermanet.com/silence.htm
>Secrets are the mortar binding lies as bricks together into prisons for the mind
>http://www.lermanet.com

Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon by Paul Rydeen [reviewed by Adam Gorightly]

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"According to Thelemic legend, in 1918 Aleister Crowley came into contact with a trans-spatial entity named Lam, who by the way is a dead ringer for the popular conception of the 'Grey' depicted on the cover of Whitley Strieber's _Communion_. From this alleged encounter, some have inferred that the industrious Mr. Crowley had intentionally opened a portal of entry through his practice of a magick ritual, the Amalantrah Working, which presumably allowed the likes of Lam and other 'alien greys' a passageway onto the Earth plane. Furthermore, this portal (or fissure, as I prefer to call it) may have been perhaps further enlarged by Parsons and Hubbard in 1946 with the commencement of the Babalon Working, thus facilitating a monumental paradigm shift in human consciousness."

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The dark and mysterious figure that was John Whiteside Parsons has in recent times been the subject of much spirited conjecture. From Adam Parfrey's _Apocalypse Culture_ and Robert Anton Wilson's _Cosmic Trigger_ to more mainstream releases as Mike Davis' _City of Quartz_, Parsons has been both vilified as the second coming of the anti-Christ (his mentor Aleister Crowley of course being the first such beastly coming) or -- conversely -- as a seminal figure in neurological adventurism, ranking up there with the likes of Kesey, Leary, McKenna et al.

For those not in the know, Jack Parsons was a founding member of Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) back in the late thirties, and one time head of the Agape Lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientalis (OTO), who met an early death in a fiery explosion on June 17, 1952.

Parsons' infamous reputation was fueled by nefarious undertakings and associations, notwithstanding his alliance with the afore- mentioned self-proclaimed "Evilest Man Alive!" Another of Parsons' claims to infamy was the huge mansion he inherited, which housed a menagerie of bohemians and other assorted social outcasts of the day, as well as serving as OTO Headquarters. From there, rumors of drug intoxicated orgies and black magic ritual sacrifices abounded, not to mention tales of pregnant naked women dancing through hoops of ceremonial fire, and of innocent children being buggered by black robed brutes, under the aegis of occult forces.

Now, at last, a measure of much needed clarity has been brought to this murky subject in Paul Rydeen's _Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon_, a murkiness that has been compounded over the years by varying degrees of misinformation and exaggeration on just who Jack Parsons was, and exactly what he was trying to accomplish with the Babalon Working rituals, performed in part with L. Ron Hubbard, and initially under the guidance of Aleister Crowley in England. The end result of the Babalon Working, was to birth an elemental being; a 'Moonchild' that -- as Crowley stated in his _Book of the Law_ -- would be "mightier than all the kings of the Earth." And while he doesn't spend a lot of time kicking around the malodorous corpse of L. Ron Hubbard, Rydeen produces enough documentation to indicate that the future Father of Scientology was most probably gathering notes -- during his time with Parsons -- on how to better manipulate minds while robbing them blind: In other words, figuring out how to start his own religion, while maintaining a comfortable profit margin.

Rydeen's motivation for tackling this weighty topic appears two- fold. 1) To get to the bottom of the Babalon Working, and 2) To dispel certain myths that have arose like an elemental spirit around Parsons' stormy legend. While most Parsons studies of date have centered around his involvement in the magick scene, Rydeen not only covers this area, but also concentrates on the more neglected aspects of Parsons's life.

Starting in late 30's Parsons was a member of a group of rocket scientists, who were the American counterparts of Von Braun and his boys, still over in Germany during this period, pre-Project Paperclip. Just as Parsons was a seminal force in Thelemic Magick, he was also an early pioneer in Rocket Engineering, a member of a group funded by the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, California Institute of Technology GALCIT), which later became JPL. This group's contribution to the war effort -- Rydeen points out -- cannot be overlooked. Nor can their early efforts in rocket engineering, which provided a fundamental building block for later NASA projects in the late 50's and 60's.

Although Parsons has been memorialized by his peers with a statue on the lawn at JPL, as well the singular distinction of having a crater on the moon named after him, he is still a somewhat obscure figure in the halls of academia. Going back to the original documents, Rydeen outlines Parson's numerous technical achieve- ments, and his key role in the pre-NASA development of space technology. This, in itself, makes _Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon_ an invaluable resource for those interested in a broader historical perspective of John Whiteside Parsons.

According to Thelemic legend, in 1918 Aleister Crowley came into contact with a trans-spatial entity named Lam, who by the way is a dead ringer for the popular conception of the 'Grey' depicted on the cover of Whitley Strieber's _Communion_. From this alleged encounter, some have inferred that the industrious Mr. Crowley had intentionally opened a portal of entry through his practice of a magick ritual, the Amalantrah Working, which presumably allowed the likes of Lam and other 'alien greys' a passageway onto the Earth plane. Furthermore, this portal (or fissure, as I prefer to call it) may have been perhaps further enlarged by Parsons and Hubbard in 1946 with the commencement of the Babalon Working, thus facilitating a monumental paradigm shift in human consciousness.

In Chapter Four, Rydeen quotes Crowley successor Kenneth Grant who wrote, "The [Babalon] Working began...just prior to the wave of unexplained aerial phenomena now recalled as the 'Great Flying Saucer Flap'. Parsons opened a door and something flew in." Rydeen also suggests it might have been the atomic bomb that opened this door between dimensions. He then further illustrates the importance of the year 1947, which ended the first stage of the Babalon Working, as Parsons and Hubbard parted ways amid a cloud of turmoil. 1947 was the year that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. In that very same year, Israel became a nation state, the transistor was invented and the sound barrier broken. Last, but certainly not least, the Modern Age of UFO's flew into view with the Kenneth Arnold sightings, followed not long after by the alleged saucer crash in Roswell, New Mexico. 1947 was also the year the Great Beast, Aleister Crowley died. I would also like to throw in my two own bits here, in mentioning that LSD was allegedly discovered in 1948, throwing more fuel in this roaring fire, which indicates that strange things were indeed afoot in the human consciousness (and subconscious mind) in the years 1946-48. (And while we're at it, how 'bout the formation of the Langley Lodge, also in '47? -B:.B:.)

As history instructs, Parson's stormy life ended with a monumental bang when in 1952 he accidentally blew himself to smithereens while playing with powerful explosives. Some suggest that the explosion in question was no accident at all, and that foul played might have even been involved. This is just one of the theories that _Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon_ examines, including the more bizarre scenario preferred by Michael Hoffman II, who contends that Parsons was attempting to conjure into existence an elemental being by way of an 'homunculus' experiment that -- as Rydeen phrases it -- went 'bananas.' While I find this theory -- attributed to Parson's fiery demise -- a bit difficult to swallow (much like Aleister Crowley's semen-filled longevity pills) it nevertheless makes for some fascinating fodder. For those not acquainted with the conspiratorial cosmology fostered by such Freemason-bashers as Hoffman and James Shelby Downard, _Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon_ provides another stepping stone -- admittedly Mason-laid -- upon a figurative Babel Tower of future research into the Parson's mythos.

If I were to cite any shortcomings re: _Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon_ it would be that it left me wanting more; that the work itself could've been easily expanded to twice it's length of some 80 pages. Though well researched, _Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon_ in some respects only scratches the complex surface of Parsons mysterious life and early death, along the way uncovering some fascinating leads that will eventually, no doubt, be followed out in greater depth by other delvers into these foreign territories, or at least one would hope. Like any scholarly investigation elucidating an historical perspective, _Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon_ whets the reader's appetite for more, while lending an authoritative framework from which others can eventually build upon, in addition to helping place the shadowy figure of Jack Parsons in a greater light, establishing him more prominently in the popular pantheon of modern age Magi, where he most rightly belongs.

_Jack Parsons and the Fall of Babalon_ by Paul Rydeen, Oct. 1995 (77 pages) $5.00 + $2 S&H from Paul Rydeen, POB 1371, Kerrville, TX 7809-1371

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Another fine memetic dispatch from the caerulean noggin of:

-Brother Blue, B:.B:. http://www.brotherblue.org/ Grand Master, Sublime Lodge of the Blue Brethren If the Ferengi were to breed with the Borg you'd get Scientology http://www.lermanet.com/cos/comedy.html The internet is the Liberty Tree of the 90's http://www.lermanet.com/cos/libertyl.html The only thing that works in Scientology are its lawyers http://www.lermanet.com/silence.htm Secrets are the mortar binding lies as bricks together into prisons for the mind http://www.lermanet.com

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