John Whiteside Parsons, a brilliant Rocket fuel scientist, joined the American branch of Aleister Crowley's cult in 1939. He struck up an earnest correspondence with the Beast 666, as Crowley was known by his followers, and soon became his outstanding protege in the United States. By January, 1946, Parsons was impatient to break new frontiers in the occult world. He decided to take the spirit of Babalon, the "Whore of Babalon", and invest it in a human being.
But to carry out this intricate mission, Parsons needed a female sexual partner to create his child in the Astral (Spiritual) world. If this part of the fixture went succesfully Parsons would be able to call down the spiritual baby & direct it into a human womb. When born, this child would incarnate the forces of Babalon. During his magical preparations for this incarnation Parsons found himself overwhelmed assistance from a young novitiate named Ron Hubbard.
Parsons wrote to Crowley at the beginning of 1946: "He (Hubbard) is a gentleman, red hair, green eyes, honest & intelligent & we have become great friends. Although he has no formal training in magic, he has an extraordinary amount of experienct & understanding in the field. Ron appears to have some sort of highly developed astral vision. He describes his angel as a beautiful winged woman with red hair whom he calls the Empress & who has guided him through many times in his life He is in complete accord with our own principles. I have found a staunch companion & comrade in Ron".
But within 3 months, the bonds of friendship were under some strain; Ron claimed Parsons wrote to Crowley, "She has transferred her sexual affections to Ron. I cared for her rather deeply but I have no desire to control her emotions". As if to cement their loyalties, Parsons, Hubbard & Betty decided to pool their finances & form a business partnership.
Meanwhile, preparations for the mystical mission were well under way.
From Jan. 4th. to 15th. 1946, Parsons & Hubbard engaged in a nightly ritual of incantation, talisman-waving & other Black Magic, faithfully described in Parsons Diary as Conjuration of Air, Invocation of Wand, & Consecration of Air Dagger. With a Prokofiev violin concerto blaring away, the 2 of them pleaded with the spirits for "An elemental mate — a girl willing to go through sexual rites to incarnate Babalon in the spirit world."
Parsons mentions that windstorms have occured on a couple of nights & one night the power suddenly fialed. But nothing seriously responsive until Jan. 14th. when Ron was struck on the right sholder & had a candle knocked out of his hand. "He called me" Parsons wrote, "and we observed a brownish yellow light about 7 feet high. I brandished a magical sword and & it disappeared. Ron's right arm was paralysed for the rest of the night".
The following night was even more portentious. Hubbard apparently saw a vision of one of Parsons enemies. Parsons wrote, "He attacked the figure & pinned it to the door with 4 throwing knives with which he is expert". For 4 days Parsons & Hubbard were in a state of tension. Then on Jan. 18th. Parsons turned to Ron and said "It is done". He added, "I returned home and found a young woman answering the requirements waiting for me".
The incarnate Ritual set out in Parsons manuscript, The Book of Babalon, is difficult reading for the unconfirmed Spiritualist. Broadly interpreted, Parsons & Hubbard constructed an Alter & Hubbard acted as high priest durring a series of ceremonies in which Parsons & the girl shared sex. The owner of the documents, who is an expert on Crowley's magic says that Parsons at this stage was completely under Hubbard's domination. How else can one explain Hubbard's role as high priest in the rites after only a few weeks in the trade?
For the first of the birth ceremonies which began on Mar. 1, Hubbard wore a white robe & carried a lamp while Parsons was clocked in ablack, hooded garment, carrying a cup & dagger. At Hubbard's suggestion, they played Rachmanioff's Isle of the Dead as backround music. Parsons account of the start of the birth ritual is as follows: -
"The Scribe (Hubbard) said, "The Year of Babalon is 4063. She is the flame of life, power of darkness, she detroys with a glance, she may take thy soul. She feeds upon the death of men. Beautiful-Horrible". The Scribe, now pale & sweating, rested awhile then continued".
There are 2 possible reasons why Hubbard showed anxiety at this stage of the ceremony, the owner of the papers says. He was either deeply moved by the spiritual depth of the ceremony or he couldn't think what to say next!
Hubbard further instructed Parsons: "Display thyself to our lady; dedicate thy organs to her; display thy mind to her; dedicate thy soul to her; for she shall absorb thee. Retire from human contact until noon tomorrow. Speak not of this Ritual. Discuss nothing of it. Consult no book but thine own mind. Thou Art a God. Behave at this Alter as one God before another".
On the 3rd. day the ritual began 4 hours before dawn. Ron tells his companion, "Lay out a white sheet. Place upon it blood of birth. Envision her approaching thee. Think upon the lewd, lascivious things thou coulds't do. All is good to Babalon. All. Preserve the material basis. The lust is hers, the passion yours. Consider thou the Beast raping". These invocations along with other passages in the indicates that Parsons had collected specimens of his own sperm & the girl's menstrual fluid.
The climax of the ceremony occured the following day with Ron at the alter working his 2 subjects into a sexual frenzy. Over Rachmaninoff he intoned such gems as: -"Her mouth is red & her breasts are fair, and her loins are full of fire."
An exalted Parsons wrote the next day, "Babalon is incarnate upon the earth today awaiting the proper hour of her manifestation. 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 written". (In fact, Parsons was blown away in a rocket fuel explosion at his experimental labratory in Pasadena in 1952)
Unable to contain his joy, Parsons decided to tell Crowley what had happened. On March 6th. he wrote: -"I can hardly tell you or decide how much to write. I am under command of extreme secrecy. I have had the most important devastating experience of my life". Crowley was dumbfounded by the news of the incarnation ceremony. He wrote back, "You have me completely puzzled by your remarks. I cannot form the slightest idea of what you can possibly mean".
With a distinct note of concern, he dashed off a letter on the same day to the head of his American Cult saying "Apparently Parsons or Hubbard or somebody is producing a Moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts". (This acid rebuke comes from a man whose activities were once summed up by a judge like this: - "I have never heard such horrible, dreadful blasphemous stuff as that which has been produced by the man who describes himself as the greatest living poet".
By May the same year, Crowley was not only concerned about Parsons' spiritual well-being. There was a small matter of certain monies. When the trio formed their business enterprise, Parsons is believed to have put in 17,000 dollars. Hubbard had about 10,000 dollars of the money, Hubbard and his newly aquired girlfriend Betty, bought a yact. A report to the head of the American branch by another cult member says, "Ron and Betty have their boat at Miami, Florida & are living the life of Riley while Brother John (Parsons) is living at rock bottom and I mean rock bottom".
In a more sinister way, the report added, "Let us consider this matter of the magical child which John Parsons is supposed to turn loose on the world in 9 months (now 7) Ron, the Seer, was the guy who laid down the main ideas, technic (sic) etc. of the operation".
On reading Parsons' accounts of the ceremony & from the reports from the branch HQ in the States, Crowley cabled his U.S. office on May 22nd. "Suspect Ron playing confidence trick - John Parsons weak fool-obvious victim prowling swindlers". In a letter a few days later he said, "It seems to me on the information of our brethren in California that Parsons has got an illumination which he lost all his personal indipendence". From our brother account he was given away both his girl & his money. Apparently it is the ordinary confidence trick. A must chastened Parsons wrote to Crowley on July 5th. "Here I am in Miami, persuing the children of my folly. I have them well tied up. They cannont move without going to jail".
"However, I am afraid that most of the money has already been spent. I will be lucky to salvage 3,000 to 5,000 dollars". Just how Parsons managed to capture the errent lovers is in keeping with the other extaordinary chapters of this story. "Hubbard attempted to escape me" Parsons wrote, "by sailing at 5p.m. & performed a full invocation to Bartzabel within the circle at 8p.m. (a curse). At the same time however, his ship was struck by a sudden squall off his sails & forced him back to port where I took the boat in custody".
Parsons recovered financially & posibly as a backlash to his experience with Hubbard he took the Oath of the Anti-Christ in 1948 & changed his name to Belarion Armiluss AlDajjal Anti-Chirst. In his scientology publications, Hubbard says of the period, "Crippled & blinded at the end of the war, I resumed my studies of philosophy & my discoveries recovered so fully that I was reclassified in 1949 for full combat duty".
Hubbard claims that more than 2 dozen thinkers, prophets & psychologists influenced scientology (which was launched in 1951); everyone from Plato, Jesus, to Freud whom he says he studied under in Vienna.
The record can now be righted with the inclusion of Aleister Crowley, the Beast 666.
The above story was taken from issue number 35 of "Insight Magazine" a British publication on the occult. It is provided in its incomplete form as it is found in the magazine [of which is a poorly compiled publication and carelessly reproduced].
