The Babalon Working

If there is a pantheon of personalities in the recent history of Thelema, then Jack Parsons can be regarded as one of the most glamorous. Perhaps a special glamour attaches itself to those who die young, and in rather mysterious circumstances. Parsons was 37 years old when he died, and regarded by many as Crowley's most promising pupil. He seems to have regarded himself as being Crowley's "Magical Son", often addressing Crowley in his letters as "Most Beloved Father", and signing them "Thy Son, John". Crowley, whilst having a high regard for Parsons, appears not to have reciprocated the relationship [Additional remark by P.R. Koenig: Crowley addressed Friedrich Mellinger as his "beloved son" and signed his letters to Mellinger with "a Father's Blessings"]. Having by that time seen many potential successors come and go, he perhaps wished to defer judgement and allow events to take care of the succession.

Parsons was by profession a brilliant scientist, specialising in the area of explosives and jet fuel. It was as a scientist that he was first attracted to Thelema. One of the most disheartening things about Thelema is how often people seem to confuse it with Crowleyanity, the cult of personality. Contrary to the opinion of detractors such as Symonds, it is evident that Crowley could not take seriously those who made this mistake. There is the oft-quoted passage from The Winged Beetle where he speaks scathingly of those who "... come to worship Crowley". Parsons certainly seems to have been devoted to Crowley. His writings, though, reveal that he was more interested in exploring and developing the ramifications of Thelema. Thus he neither confused Thelema with Crowleyanity, nor regarded Crowley as being central to it. In this alone, his work is therefore of special interest to us.

Probably the incident best known amongst occultists about Parsons is the Babalon Working, which took place in 1946. He was assisted in this by L.R* H*** - the future founder of Sc*** - and Marjorie Cameron, who later married Parsons. In the course of this Working Parsons received a text of seventyseven short verses which purported to be a communication from the goddess Babalon. One of the early verses also claims it to be the fourth chapter of The Book of the Law. This claim was a matter for contention amongst Parsons' peers, to say the least. They saw no need for a fourth chapter, let alone one which was channelled through someone as capricious as Jack Parsons. However, Parsons remained steadfast in his championing of the claim, and there is no doubt that he viewed the Babalon Working as the most important event in his life - much as Crowley regarded the Cairo Working as being the climax of his life.

Parsons, however, was no usurper or heretic. To him, the claim was rooted in the succession of the Aeons. In this scheme of things, it seemed to him a necessity that the Aeon of Horus be fulfilled by a passive complement to Horus, and he saw this complement as being the force glyphed by the goddess Babalon. This goddess is very prominent in the Thelemic pantheon of deities. She is the apotheosis of the Scarlet Woman, who is accordingly her avatar or incarnation. On one level the complement or polarity is subsumed as Atu XI, "Lust", in which Babalon and the Beast are conjoined. This symbolises, amongst other things, the harnessing of the sexual drive for magical and mystical ends. This relationship is explored in Liber 418, The Vision and the Voice, in which the Babalon Working is firmly rooted.

The purpose of the Babalon Working was the earthing of the force of Babalon to produce an avatar, incarnation or Daughter of Babalon. This would redeem and bring to fruition the Aeon of Horus, or so Parsons thougth. At the same time, it seems that Parsons expected the manifestation to be imminent; if this were so, then he was to be disappointed. Soon after the Working, however, H*** ran off with Parsons' girlfriend and a great deal of his money. Reduced though he was to living in abject poverty, it still took a while for Parsons to accept that he had been defrauded by his erstwhile magical partner - the man whom he had described to Crowley as "... the most Thelemic person I have ever met ...". How he proceeded to deal with the situation has been recounted at length elsewhere. Afterwards, Parsons had no further contact with H***, although he must have been aware of the blossoming of H***'s subsequent career.

The Babalon Working and its aftermath finally convinced Crowley that Parsons, his potential notwithstanding, was "... a weak-minded fool ..." and henceforth he viewed him as one more failure. Parsons, however, continued to regard himself as Crowley's apostle, and had some eventful years before his explosive end in 1952. He remained deeply enamoured of Babalon - some might say obsessed. The expected Daughter of Babalon did not, though, manifest. He had been told that she would come to him bearing a sign that he alone would recognise. On the other hand, he had also been told that he would become "living flame" before Babalon incarnated; and it was this latter prophesy that proved to be chillingly correct. On the afternoon of 17 June 1952 Parsons dropped some highly unstable explosive, and died of horrific injuries an hour later.

After his death, Marjorie Cameron took up his mantle to some extent. A 1955 review of Kenneth Anger's film "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome", in which she featured, referred to her as "... Crowley's self-confessed successor-elect, Mrs Cameron Parsons, Californian widow of the Beast's own 'godson'." There is also a reference to her in Ithell Coiquhoun's The Sword of Wisdom as heading something called "O.T.O. Lunar Lodge" in California around 1960. Details about Parsons have, however, remained scant, and his surviving works are still largely unpublished. Perhaps the best account given to date is included in The Magical Revival by Kenneth Grant. It is to be hoped that someone will attempt a thorough study of Parsons before too long, since his work merits attention.

The core of this issue of Starfire is a presentation of The Book of Babalon [not on-line], which is largely an account of the Babalon Working. In the course of the Working, he was told to prepare a book of instruction for the expected incarnation or Daughter, who would initially be tutored by him. Whether or not he actually fulfilled this requirement, a complete Book of Babalon does not survive. Most of the surviving work is here presented. Some of this material has been in circulation previously, but in a form that is at times corrupted. Its presentation here, therefore, is something of a restoration, minor though these restorations have been.

As well as an account of the Working, The Book of Babalon was to have included an extended essay of several sections, dealing with various aspects of Babalon and the purpose of the Working. Most of this material has been lost, and two sections of the remainder have been retained for this edition. They are the Foreword, which Parsons addressed to the expected Daughter, and which contains some useful background information; and a piece entitled "The Star of Babalon", printed here as an addendum, [ not on-line] giving additional information as it does on the nature of Babalon.

The account of the Babalon Working is interesting, and consists of three sections. The first is an outline of the Operation which Parsons devised and performed as an elemental summons. This is followed by Liber 49, the text of seventy-seven verses which he received in the Mojave desert. Some of the early verses of this text are missing, since a page of the original manuscript was lost. Verse ten is published correctly for the first time: the word 'perilous' was misread by the original typist of the manuscript as 'penelous', and the error has remained ever since. This correction has been validated from an unpublished essay, incidentally, where Parsons gives the correct rendition. The third section is an account of the ritual work arising from the instructions given in Liber 49. The invocations used in these rituals derived, for the most part, from various passages in Crowley's writings. The Enochian Call of the Seventh Aire was also used, and is here given in a corrected form, rather than the corrupted rendition given in the typescript upon which this edition of The Book of Babalon is based. An invocatory poem called "The Birth of Babalon" ends this section; it may well be incomplete, however. Finally, Parsons seems to have decided to delete certain parts of the text, and the consequent omissions are denoted by asterisks.

In order to set The Book of Babalon in some sort of context, it is preceded by an introductory article on Parsons, entitled Belovèd of Babalon. This gives an account of Parsons' magical development, a consideration of the background to the Babalon Working and its aftermath, and subsequent events in the last few years that remained to Parsons. An appendix to the article sets forth some extracts from Parsons' writings, in order to give a flavour of the range and style of his writing. No attempt has been made, in the course of this introductory article, at an evaluation of Parsons. Such an evaluation is clearly beyond the scope of an introduction, and must be reserved for future issues of Starfire.

John Whiteside Parsons was born on 2 October 1914 in Los Angeles, California. His mother and father separated whilst he was quite young, and Parsons said later that this left him with "... a hatred of authority and a spirit of revolution", as well as an Oedipal attachment to his mother. He felt withdrawn and isolated as a child, and was bullied by other children. This gave him, he thought, " ...the requisite contempt for the crowd and for the group mores ...". Parsons was born into a rich family, and sometime in his youth there was what he referred to as a loss of family fortune. This loss must only have been a temporary one, though - perhaps caused by the break-up of the family - since in the 1940's he inherited from his father a large, Victorian-style mansion in the well-to-do area of Pasadena. During adolescence, Parsons developed an interest in science, especially physics and chemistry, and in fact he went on to develop a career as a brilliant scientist in the fields of explosives and rocket-fuel technology. His achievements as a scientist were such that the Americans named a lunar crater after him when they came to claim that territory for their own. Appropriately enough, Crater Parsons is on the dark side of the moon.

Parsons made contact with the O.T.O. and the A.'.A.'. in December 1938, whilst visiting Agapé Lodge of the O.T.O. in California. He was taken along by one of his fellow scientists. At that time Agapé Lodge used to give weekly performances of the Gnostic Catholic Mass, seeing this as both a sacrament and a recruiting front. Agapé Lodge was by then a moderately thriving and expanding concern, having been founded in the mid-1920's by Wilfred T. Smith, an expatriate Englishman. Smith had many years earlier been an associate of Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad) in Vancouver, Canada. Crowley seems to have had, at least to begin with, a high regard for Smith, and expected great things of him. Over the years, however, he grew increasingly disillusioned. Crowley felt that the O.T.O. should have flowered in California, given imaginative leadership. Smith was simply not capable of delivering, he thought, and perhaps even deliberately impeding things. By the time that Parsons joined the Lodge in 1939, together with his wife Helen, relations between Smith and Crowley were already in terminal decline, and Crowley was casting around for someone else to take over headship of the Lodge. One of the items in the Yorke Collection at the Warburg Institute is a collection of over 200 letters exchanged between Growley and Smith, in which the steady decline in their relationship is starkly illustrated.

At this time, the Lodge was firmly in the grip of Smith and his mistress, Regina Kahl. They were very authoritarian, and ruled things with the proverbial rod of iron. At the weekly performances of the Mass, Smith was the Priest and Regina Kahl the Priestess. The Parsons were initiated into the O.T.O. in 1939 and like many entrants of the time they took up membership of the A.'.A.'. as well. Jack Parsons took as his motto "Thelema Obtentum Procedero Amoris Nuptiae", an interestingly hybrid phrase which conveys the intention of attaining Thelema through the nuptials of love; the initials transliterated into Hebrew give his Magical Number, 210. He seems to have made quite an impression on his fellow members. Jane Wolfe, who had spent some time with Crowley at Cefalu, was an active member of the Lodge at the time. The following entry is from her Magical Record during December 1940:

Unknown to me, John Whiteside Parsons, a newcomer, began astral travels. This knowledge decided Regina to undertake similar work. All of which I learned after making my own decision. So the time must be propitious.
Incidentally, I take Jack Parsons to be the child who "shall behold them all" (the mysteries hidden therein. AL 1,54-5).
26 years of age, 6'2", vital, potentially bisexual at the very least, University of the State of California and Cal. Tech., now engaged in Cal. Tech. chemical laboratories developing "bigger and better" explosives for Uncle Sam. Travels under sealed orders from the government. Writes poetry - "sensuous only", he says. Lover of music, which he seems to know thoroughly. I see him as the real successor of Therion. Passionate; and has made the vilest analyses result in a species of exaltation after the event. Has had mystical experiences which gave him a sense of equality all round, although he is hierarchical in feeling and in the established order.

... I think I have at long last a really excellent man, John Parsons. And starting next Tuesday he begins a course of talks with a view to enlarging our scope. He has an excellent mind and much better intellect than myself - O yes, I know it would not necessarily have to be very good to be better than mine ...
John Parsons is going to be valuable. I feel sure we are going to move ahead in spite of Max Schneider's continual efforts to discredit me. He still exhibits your letters as proof that I am a number one son of a bitch. I thought you were going to write to tell him to clamp down ...

In his attempts to assert his authority over the Lodge generally, and Smith in particular, Crowley was frustrated by the loyalty - despite all the bitchiness around - to Smith and Kahl. On the face of it, he should have been able to exert his authority easily enough. Karl Germer, his trusted right-hand man, was in New York; whilst his colleague from the Cefalu days - Jane Wolfe - was a member of the Lodge. Jane Wolfe was the same age as Crowley, but she was very weak and indecisive. Reading about the course of Agapé Lodge during the 1930's and 1940's is a bewildering experience. The whole thing, despite the glamour that time and mystery now lend it, seems to have been a mess. It is as well for us to bear in mind that Jack Parsons - his obvious gifts notwithstanding - was part of this melodramatic flux and flow.

Although Crowley grew increasingly despairing of and impatient with Smith, and saw all too clearly the need to replace him as head of Agapé Lodge, the problem for Crowley - quite apart from how to get rid of Smith - was with whom to replace him. In the course of a letter to Crowley of March 1942, Jane Wolfe made her recommendations:

Incidentally, I believe Jack Parsons - who is devoted to Wilfred to be the coming leader, with Wilfred in advisory capacity. I hope you two get together some day, although your present activities in England seem to have postponed the date of your coming to us. Jack, by the way, comes in through some inner experiences, but mostly, perhaps, through the world of science. That is, he was "sold on the Book of the Law" because it foretold Einstein, Heisenberg - whose work is not permitted in Russia - the quantum field folks, whose work is along the "factor infinite and unknown" lines, etc. You two would have a whale of a lot of things to talk over. He and Helen are lock, stock and barrel for the Order.

I think that Smith is quite hopeless. I am quite satisfied with what you say about his reactions to your family. It is all very well, but Smith has apparently nothing else in his mind. He appears to be using the Order as a happy hunting ground for "affairs". You say the same thing, and I have no doubt that it is quite correct. I think we must get rid of him once and for all; and this will include the Parsons, unless they dissociate themselves immediately from him, without reservations.

As to Jack: I think he is perfectly alright at the bottom of everything; but he is very young, and he has at present nothing like the strength to deal with matters within his jurisdiction objectively.

Jack is the Objective (Smith is out, an affaire classée: anybody who comunicates with him in any way is out also; and that is that, and the best plan is to sponge the whole slate clean, and get to work to build up Thelema on sound principles. And no more of this brothel-building; let's use marble, not rotten old boards!). Jack's trouble is his weakness, and his romantic side - the poet - is at present a hindrance. He gets a kick from some magazine trash, or an "occult" novel (if only he knew how they were concocted!) and dashes off in wild pursuit. He must learn that the sparkle of champagne is based on sound wine; pumping carbonic acid into urine is not the same thing.
I wish to God I had him for six months - even three, with a hustle - to train in Will, in discipline. He must understand that fine and fiery flashes of Spirit come from the organization of Matter, from the drilling of every function of every bodily organ until it has become so regular as to be automatic, and carried on by itself deep down in the Unconscious. It is the steadiness of one's Heart that enables one to endure the rapture of great passion; one doesn't want the vital functions to be excitable.

... I am very glad indeed of your offer to co-operate practically in any way possible. I have left Jack Parsons in charge; he is quite all right in essence, but very young and easily swayed by passing influences. I shall look to you to help in keeping him up to the mark.

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 on your behalf. I would however have you recall 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. The first fine careless rapture wears off in a month or so, and some other experience comes along and carries you off on its back. Meanwhile you have neglected and bewildered those who are dependent on you, either from above or from below.
I will ask you to bear in mind that you have one fulcrum for all your levers, and that is your original oath to devote yourself to raising mankind. All experiences, all efforts, must be referred to this; as long as it remains unshaken you cannot go far wrong, for by its own stability it will bring you back from any tendency to excess.
At the same time, you being as sensitive as you are, it behoves you to be more on your guard than would be the case with the majority of people.

The way was now clear for Crowley to appoint Parsons as head of Agapé Lodge. If he had hoped that the Lodge would be more stable without Smith in charge, however, he was wrong. Smith continued to live there for some time after, despite all attempts by Crowley and Germer to declare him a leper, contact with whom would warrant immediate expulsion. Parsons remained unhappy at what he considered to be the unjust treatment of Smith. In late 1943 he wrote to Crowley attacking him on this point, and offering his resignation. Crowley's esteem of Parsons may be guaged from the fact that he decined to accept the resignation, and asked Parsons to reconsider. Parsons agreed to remain as head of the Lodge.

Parsons had by this time inherited a large, Victorian-style mansion from his father, in a well-to-do area of Pasadena. He needed to rent out some rooms in order to make ends meet, and he scandalised the neighbourhood by ensuring that only bohemians and the like were accepted. By the summer of 1943 Helen had had a child by Smith, and divorce was in the air. Jack Parsons took up with Helen's younger sister Sara Northrup, known as Betty. This time was one of turmoil for Parsons. We can get a glimpse of it from a document he wrote some years later, Analysis by a Master of the Temple, where he speaks of himself in the third person. It includes the following allusion to this time:

Betty served to effect a transference from Helen at a critical period. Had this not occurred, your repressed homosexual component could have caused a serious disorder. Your passion for Betty also gave you the magical force needed at the time, and the act of adultery tinged with incest seemed as your magical confirmation in the Law of Thelema.

Last evening, when Jack brought me these various papers for me to post to you, I saw, for the first time, the small boy, or child. This is it that is bewildered, does not quite know when to take hold in this matter, or where, and is-completely bowled over by the ruthlessness of Smith - Smith, who has a master-hand when it comes to dealing with this boy.

There is something strange going on, quite apart from Smith. There is always Betty, remember, who hates Smith. But our own Jack is enamoured with Witchcraft, the houmfort, voodoo. From the start he always wanted to evoke something - no matter what, I am inclined to think, as long as he got a result.
According to Meeka yesterday, he has had a result - an elemental he doesn't know what to do with. From that statement of hers, it must bother him - somewhat at least.

Meeka also reported to i-ane that another two persons always had to do a lot of banishing in the house. They were sensitive and knew that there was something alien and inimical was there. When I had been there during the summer of 1944, I also knew there were troublesome spirits about, especially on the third floor. It got so I couldn't stand being up there, and a friend of mine couldn't even climb the stairs that far, as the hair on the back of her neck began to prickle and she got thoroughly frightened.

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 that he is in direct contact 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 ... I think I have made a great gain, and as Betty and I are the best of friends there is little loss. I cared for her rather deeply, but I have no desire to control her emotions, and I can, I hope, control my own. I need a magical partner. I have many experiments in mind ...

The feeling of tension and unease continued for four days. Then on January 18 at sunset, whilst the Scribe and I were on the Mojave Desert, the feeling of tension suddenly stopped. I turned to him and said "it is done", in absolute certainty that the Operation was accomplished. I returned home, and found a young woman answering the requirements waiting for me. She is describable as an air of fire type with bronze red hair, fiery and subtle, determined and obstinate, sincere and perverse, with extraordin ary personality, talent and intelligence.
During the period of January 19 to February 27 I invoked the Goddess BABALON with the aid of magical partner (R** H***), as was proper to one of my grade.

The passage by Parsons just quoted is a striking one, for several reasons. It is notable that, even with the advent of Marjorie Cameron, he continued to regard H*** as being his magical partner. I don't think that Parsons ever considered that he had conjured her from thin air, so to speak. However her appearance is accounted for - synchronicity, sheer coincidence, magical manipulation of events, or whatever - is irrelevant. The aim of the Operation as a whole was to invoke Babalon, and obtaining the services of a suitable Scarlet Woman by elemental summons was - at least at the time - a means to this over-riding end. This needs to be borne in mind, because otherwise there is a temptation to see Parsons and Cameron as constituting the love-story of the century; in fact, the relationship was rather more complex than that.

At the end of February 1946, H*** went away for a few days. Parsons went back to the Mojave Desert and invoked Babalon. He gives no further details of this, unfortunately. All he does say is that during this invocation "... the presence of the Goddess came upon me, and I was commanded to write the following communication ...". This communication, which purports to be the words of Babalon, consists of 77 short verses. Whether it was direct voite, trance, or inspired writing, he does not say. The answer probably lies in his Magical Record for this period, but as far as I know it has not survived.

This communication of 77 verses he entitled Liber 49. He does not explain the title, but no doubt considered such explanation unnecessary, since 49 is a number sacred to Babalon. Chapter 4,9 of Crowley's The Book of Lies is a panegyric to Babalon. The connection is evident in The Vision and the Voice, in which Babalon is a strong and alluring current, and indeed the core of the series of visions. In the account of the 27th Aethyr the symbol of Babalon is given as a blood-red Rose of 49 Petals - red with the blood of the saints, who have squeezed every last drop into the Cup of Babalon. In the afore-mentioned 27th Aethyr we read:

O Mother, wilt thou never have compassion on the children of earth? Was it not enough that the Rose should be red with the blood of thine heart, and that its petals should be by 7 and by 7?

This is the use to which Babalon puts the blood of the Masters of the Temple (see 12th Aethyr) to vivify the rose of eternal creation; i.e. the attainment of the Master of the Temple fills the world with life and beauty ...

There appears immediately in the Aethyr a tremendous column of scarlet fire, whirling forth, rebounding, crying aloud. And about it are four columns, of green and blue and gold and silver, each inscribed with writings in the character of the dagger. And the column of fire is dancing among the pillars. Now it seems that the fire is but the skirt of the dancer, and the dancer is a mighty god. The vision is overpowering.
As the dancer whirls, she chants in a low, strange voice, quickening as she goes: Lo! I gather up every spirit that is pure, and weave him into my vesture of flame. I lick up the lives of men, and their souls sparkle from mine eyes. I am the mighty sorceress, the lust of the spirit. And by my dancing I gather for my mother NUIT the heads of all them that are baptised in the waters of life. I am the lust of the spirit that eateth up the soul of man. I have prepared a feast for the adepts, and they that partake thereof shall see God.
Now it is clear what she has woven in her dance; it is the Crimson Rose of 49 Petals, and the Pillars are the Cross with which it is conjoined. And between the pillars shoot out rays of pure green fire; and now all the pillars are golden. She ceases to dance and dwindles, gathering herself into the centre of the Rose.

Liber 49 contains instructions for the earthing of this Babalon current in the form of an avatar, daughter or manifestation of Babalon, who was to appear amongst us. It would seem that Parsons was expecting a full-blown incarnation, and not simply the inauguration of a force. The second verse of the text declares it to be the fourth chapter of The Book of the Law, and it is worth quoting this verse in full:

And this is my book, that is the fourth chapter of the Book of the Law, Hé completing the Name, for I am out of NUIT by HORUS, the incestuous sister of RA-HOOR-KHUIT.

I can best give the flavour of this by quoting a couple of passages from one of his essays that has yet to be published. He discusses the break-up of patriarchy in the dawn of the twentieth century, and the beginnings of a new age - the age of Horus. The nature of this is seenas disruptive, bringing confusion and terror. He instances two terrible wars, the atomic bomb, and an increase in epicene and homosexual tendencies. He continues as follows:

But the great event of the aeon, which will bring with it the possibility of redemption to the whole of the western world, has not yet been made manifest. We, who contain the knowledge of this event among Ourselves until the time is right, and who were in fact the instruments of its gestation, give these present indications.
The Aeon of Horus is of the nature of a child. To perceive this, we must conceive of the nature of a child without the veil of sentimentality - beyond good and evil, perfectly gentle, perfectly ruthless, containing all possibilities within the limits of heredity, and highly susceptible to training and environment. But the nature of Horus is also the nature of force - blind, terrible, unlimited force. That is why the West stands in imminent danger of annihilation. That is why the West also stands in the possibility of the most rapid and tremendous evolution that the world has ever known. The balance must be love and understanding, or else all else fails. Now We have said enough for this place.
Then let the student read and meditate upon the ritual of Horus, constructing take total nature of Horus out of the polyphony of the component concepts. And, if he dare, let him invoke Horus and partake of the power and energy that is his right under the New Aeon. And let him also consider the love whereby Horus may be fulfilled and dignified; and meditating on this, let him provision and invoke that which is to come.

Among the ancient Hebrews the name of God was ... IHVH. This is perhaps the most magnificent formula ever devised for symbolising at once the whole process of nature and the highest secrets of magic. Yod symbolises God as the primal father, the solar-phallic creative will, or fire. Hé symbolises God as the mother, the feminine generative principle, the passive will, or water. Vau symbolises God as the son, the male child of the father and mother, the will. to go, air. Hé final symbolises God as the daughter, Babalon, She who is to come, earth, the virgin who unites with the father, stimulates him to reactivity, and begins the generative process all over again. The cycle is closed, the process is eternal, and contains within itself the seeds of all possibility.

A few days after receiving Liber 49, Parsons put in hand the ritual preparations as indicated in the text. Again in his own words:

On March 1 and 2, 1946, I prepared the altar and equipment in accordance with the instructions in Liber 49. The Scribe, R** H***, had been away about a week, and knew nothing of my invocation of BABALON, which I had kept entirely secret. On the night of March 2 he returned, and described a vision he had had that evening, of a savage and beautiful woman riding naked on a great cat-like beast. He was impressed with the urgent necessity of giving me some message or communication. We prepared magically for this communication, constructing a temple at the altar with the analysis of the key word. He was robed in white, carrying a lamp; and I in black, hooded, with the cup and dagger. At his suggestion we played Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead as background music, and set an automatic recorder to transcribe audible occurrences. At approximately 8 am he began to dictate, I transcribing directly as I received.

The Workings arising from Liber 49 continued for several nights, and they contained instructions for further rituals. These rituals were intended to facilitate the earthing of Babalon. Some of the communications received in the course of these Workings are of a fierce, intense beauty, as a few excerpts will illustrate:

She is flame of life, power of darkness, she destroys with a glance, she may take thy soul. She feeds upon the death of men.
The first ritual. Tomorrow the second ritual. Concentrate all force and being in Our Lady BABALON. Light a single flame on Her altar, saying: Flame is Our Lady, flame is Her hair, I am flame.
Display thyself to Our Lady; dedicate thy organs to Her, dedicate thy heart to Her, dedicate thy mind to Her, dedicate thy soul to Her, for She shall absorb thee, and thou shalt become living flame before She incarnates. For it shall be through you alone, and no-one else can help in this endeavour.

Some of the communications received in the course of the Babalon Working have very forceful sexual expression, bordering on the rapacious. Consider, for instance, this passage:

In verse seven verses of seven lines, seven magick words. Stand and chant seven times. Envision thyself as a cloaked radiance desirable to the Goddess, beloved. Envision Her approaching thee. Embrace Her, cover Her with kisses. Think upon the lewd lascivious things thou couldst do. All is good to BABALON. ALL.
Then rest, meditating on this:
Thou as a man and as a god hast strewn upon the earth and in the heavens many loves. These recall; concentrate, concentrate each woman thou hast raped. Remember her, think upon her, move her into BABALON, each, one by one, until the flame of lust is high.
Then compose a verse of undetermined lines on this, to BABALON. This verse shall be used in worship when She appears.
Then meditate upon thy desire, think upon Her, and, touching naught, chant these verses. Recall each lascivious -moment, each lustful day, all set then into the astral body, touching naught.
Preserve the material basis ... The lust is Hers, the passion yours. Considerthou the Beast raping.
Leave thy casual loves - all belongs to BABALON, thy lust is BABALON'S. She is with thee three days. The sign is Hers, secret, and no man knows its correspondences. Guard.

From this it would appear BABALON (who is speaking through one of her ministers) is the feminine (or androgyne) equivalent and not merely the complement of Pan. This is shewn in many of her images.

But I say that that perfect image in the heart of man is patterned by the awful lust in space-time that shapes all women, the insatiable and eternal lust of Pan that is BABALON.

He was, though, beset with other problems. Preoccupied with the Babalon Working as he had been, he had neglected his duties towards Agapé Lodge and its members. This was perhaps the final straw for many of his peers. I get the impression that many of them considered him something of a primadonna, were tired of his waywardness, and saw an opportunity to cut him down to size. The various members of the Lodge never seemed to have much compunction in telling tales on each other to Crowley, and he received reports from several different sources on this latest escapade of Jack Parsons. From these reports, Crowley concluded that Parsons' flaws had finally overcome his promise, and that Parsons was a gullible fool beyond redemption. He was, furthermore, infuriated by Parsons' intimations that, in the interests of secrecy, he could not provide a full account of what had transpired during the Babalon Working. Parsons was suspended from his position as head of the Lodge, and departed soon after.

It is hard to know in greater detail just what did go on at this time. I have seen a letter which Crowley wrote in January 1946 - some weeks prior to the Babalon Working - in which he names someone other than Parsons as Grand Master of Agapé Lodge. Be that as it may, I have also seen a reference to Parsons being called to account, at a special Lodge meeting, over certain things with which his colleagues were unhappy - such as coming up with a text which purported to be the fourth chapter of The Book of the Law, an act of heresy for which he was lucky not to be burnt at the stake. It is certain that he departed the O.T.O. at around this time, though he continued to regard himself as a member of the A.'. A.'. He remained on friendly terms with many of his colleagues, and he continued to correspond with Germer until his death.

Not so with Crowley, however. Crowley must have been bitterly disappointed with Parsons. He had had a high regard for his abilities, as well as a keen awareness of faults such as impulsiveness and recklessness - faults which, as Cmwley now saw it, had led to an inevitable downfall. Two short letter extracts show tffis- di~ointment - both, as it happens, to Louis T. Culling. In the course of a letter dated October 1946, he said:

About J.W.P. - all that I can say is that I am sorry - I feel sure that he had fine ideas, but he was led astray firstly by Smith, then he was robbed of his last penny by a confidence man named H***.

I have no further interest in Jack and his adventures; he is just a weak-minded fool, and must go to the devil in his own way. Requiescat in pace.

I have the text of Dee's skrying in the Seventh Aire, which as he said "... so terrified me that, beseeching God to have mercy upon me, I finally answer that I will from this day forward meddle no more herein". The voice, speaking from Kelly, resulted in a sinister dissociation of Kelly's personality. The parallel with my own Working with Roi is appalling. After this Kelly robbed Dee, absconded with his wife, and developed a criminal confidence career. This is the voice:
I am the Daughter of Fortitude, and ravished every hour from my youth. For behold, I am Understanding, and Science dwelleth in me; and the heavens oppress me. They cover and desire me with infinite appetite, few or none that are earthly have embraced me, for I am shadowed with the Circles of the Stars, and covered with the morning clouds. My feet are swifter than the winds, and my hands are sweeter than the morning dew. My garments are from the beginning, and my dwelling place is in myself. The Lion knoweth not where I walk, neither do the beasts of the field understand me. I am deflowered, yet a virgin; I sanctify, and am not sanctified. Happy is he that embraceth me: for in the night season I am sweet, and in the day full of pleasure. My company is a harmony of many symbols, and my lips sweeter than health itself. I am a harlot for such as ravish me, and a virgin with such as know me not. Purge your streets. O ye sons of men, and wash your houses clean; make yourselves holy, and put on righteousness. Cast out your old strumpets, and burn their clothes, and then I will come and dwell amongst you, and behold, I will bring forth children unto you, and they shall be the Sons of Comfort in the Age that is to come.
In view of the fact that this MSS was unknown to H*** and I, the parallelism is really extraordinary. I have found another prophecy in Khaled Khan, which I shall send later ...

In 1969, the "Sunday Times" newspaper published an article on the lines of "Founder of Scientology involved in Black Magic", in which they recounted details of the Babalon Working. The article was based on details gleaned from the Gerald Yorke Collection at the Warburg Institute, to which the reporters had gained access. Hubbard instituted legal proceedings for libel, and the "Sunday Times" for reasons of their own decided not to fight it. Subsequently, Yorke withdrew from the Warburg those papers relating to the Working. They were, incidentally, returned some years ago, following Yorke's death, but are under a 25-year seal. At the time of the action, the Church of Scientology made a statement alleging that Hubbard had been sent in as an FBI agent to break up a "Black Magic group" which had included several prominent scientists. The operation had, they continued, succeeded beyond the wildest expectations: he rescued a girl that they were "using", and the group was dispersed and never recovered.

The activities of Parsons during the next few years are not at all clear. I have only been able to catch glimpses through letters and the like. In 1948 Parsons lost his security clearance to perform classified government defence work, and for a man of his profession this was the virtual withdrawal of his livelihood. This action was stated to be "because of his membership in a religious cult ... believed to advocate sexual perversion ... organised at subject's home ... which had been reported subversive". Parsons commented later that he was suspended on charges of belonging to the O.T.O. and circulating Liber OZ. Parsons defended himself in closed court, and the charges were dropped. In the meantime, Marjorie Cameron left him; their estrangement lasted several years. What lay behind this rift I do not know, but it did seem final at the time. In the document referred to earlier, Analysis by a Master of the Temple, he makes the following allusion - again, he is speaking in the third person:

Candy appeared in answer to your call, in order to wean you from wetnursing. She has demonstrated the nature of woman to you in such unequivocal terms that you should have no further room for illusion on the subject.
The suspension and inquisition was my opportunity - one of the final chains in the link. At this time you were enabled to prepare your thesis, formulate your Will, and take the Oath of the Abyss, thus making it possible (although only partially) to manifest. The exit of Candy prepares for the final stage of your initial preparation.

As mentioned earlier, Parsons still considered himself a member of the A.'. A.'. In December 1948 he took the Oath of a Magister Templi, and the name Belarion, Antichrist. This oath was taken in the presence of Wilfred T. Smith, with whom he had evidently retained some sort of relationship. In 1949 he issued The Book of the Antichrist. This is a short text, and in it he relates how he was stripped of everything that he had and was, and then rededicated to Babalon. This was, he considered, a recharging of the current generated by the Babalon Working. He also pledged that the work of The Beast 666 would be fulfilled, and he seems to have seen that work as being, at least in part, a subversion of Christian ethics. He further prophesied that within seven years Babalon would manifest, so bringing his work to fruition.

In September 1950 his employment at Hughes Aircraft Corporation was terminated. He was found to be in possession of a number of classified documents - several of them, as it happens, being co-written by him and dating from his days at Cal. Tech. A lengthy investigation by the State Attorney followed, in which the FBI were involved. Parsons, it emerged, was hopeful of finding employment in Israel. To this end he was seeking to pursuade them of the case for building a jet-propulsion factory complex, and had been using the documents for background information. It was eventually concluded that there were insufficient grounds for prosecution, many of the documents containing information that should by then have been declassified anyway. However, there were repercussions. The Appeals Board, who had reinstated his security clearance in March 1949, informed him that in their view he no longer had the requisite honesty and integrity; accordingly, the clearance was again withdrawn in January 1952. This would have been the end of Parsons' career in that particular scientific area.

From some incomplete essays that survive from this period, it seems that Parsons was working towards building up some sort of teaching Order with a Thelemic core, but relating to paganism and witchcraft, and was preparing papers of instruction for such an Order. By profession he was now building his own chemicals practice. He had sold the main part of his property - the mansion itself - for redevelopment some time earlier, and occupied the coach-house. The garage he had converted into a laboratory, equipped with chemicals and equipment. There was a plan to move to Mexico for a while, both to pursue mystical and magical research and to further his chemicals practice. He and Cameron had actually vacated the coachhouse, and Parsons went back and forth over the course of several days, moving out his chemicals onto a trailer. On one such visit, on the afternoon of 17 June 1952, he dropped a container of fulminate of mercury, a highly-unstable explosive. The resulting explosion was powerful and devastating, destroying most of the coachhouse. Parsons was seriously injured; horrifically enough, though, he was still conscious when his rescuers got to him. He died an hour later, in hospital.

Controversy has remained over his death. Many regarded it as highly unlikely that a scientist of his experience could so mishandle such a powerful explosive. During those last days he wrote what was probably his last letter, to Karl Germer.

It is bizarre, and merits quoting in full, since it perhaps casts light on his frame of mind at the time:

No doubt, you will be delighted to hear from an adept who has undertaken the operation of his H.G.A. in accord with our traditions.
The operation began auspiciously with a chromatic display of pschosomatic symptoms, and progressed rapidly to acute psychosis. The operator has alternated satisfactorily between manic hysteria and depressing melancholy stupor on approximately 40 cycles, and satisfactory progress has been maintained in social ostracism, economic collapses and mental disassociation.
These statements are mentioned not in any vainglorious spirit of conceit, but rather that they may serve as comfort and inspiration to other aspirants on the Path.
Now I'm off to the wilds of Mexico for a period, also in pursuit of the elusive H.G.A. before winding up in the guard (room) finally via the booby hotels, the graveyard, or -- ? If the final, you can tell all the little practicuses that I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

No one. Once called 210.

... because of this mystery BABALON is incarnate upon the earth today, awaiting the proper hour for Her manifestation. And this my book, that is dedicated to Her, is preparation and a portent for that time. And in that day my work will be accomplished, and I shall be blown away upon the Breath of the Father, even as it is prophesied. And thus I labour lonely and outcast and abominable, and he-goat upon the muck heaps of the world. Yet am I content with my lot, since though I am clothed with barncloth, yet shall I come in power and purple, for of this also am I contemptuous. Yea, I am.