Jack Parsons in Kenneth Grant’s “The Magical Revival”

The following are excerpts regarding Jack Parsons from Kenneth Grant’s book “The Magical Revival” – the first of his Typhonian Trilogies, and the foundation of the Typhonian Order. Grant was Crowley’s secretary from 1945 until the latter’s death in 1947. 

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[Page 48]
The ritual assumption of god forms, as taught and practiced in the Golden Dawn, has, nevertheless, a more profound significance than the rehearsal of primitive sociological phases of human behavior, and Crowley’s assumption of the mask of the Beast was no mere gesture of identification with primitive processes. He assumed the role with the magical intent of affirming his identity not only with pre-eval atavisms but with those transcendental powers which, when properly controlled and directed, he was able to incarnate at will. This forms the basis of his magick.

John W. Parsons, head of the Californian Lodge of the O.T.O., (from 1944 until his untimely death in 1952), sums up this magick:

“To go deep you must reject each phenomenon, each illumination, each ecstasy, going ever downward, until you reach the last avatars of the symbols that are also the racial archetypes. ”
“In this sacrifice to the abysmal gods is the apotheosis that transmutes them to the beauty and power that is your eternity, and the redemption of mankind. ”
“Neurosis and initiation are the same thing, except that neurosis stops short of apotheosis, and the tremendous forces that mould all life are incysted-short-circuited and turned poisonous. Psychoanalysis transforms tile false ego symbols, and exteriorizes them into false social symbols; it is a confusion of conformity and cure in terms of group behaviors. ”
“But initiation must go on until the barrier is passed, until the misty bastions of infantile Trawenfells change into the rocks and crags of eternity; the garden of Klingsor into the City of God.”

It does not matter, ultimately, whether the new dimension, the redeeming factor, the “Savior”, is a beast or a god, so long as the formula of Matter is transcended, or, more precisely, so long as the Spirit (Shin) and Matter (Teth) are realized as One.

[Page 107]
John W. Parsons, head of the Pasadena Lodge of the O.T.O. between 1940 and 1945 observed that Kelley’s life of crime, sparked off by the Angel’s communication, resembled closely what occurred to himself while working with the same Aethyr (i.e. the 7th). Parsons invoked this Aethyr in 1945 with appropriate rituals baked up by the powerful sexual magick of the VIII O.T.O. which means that he added his own magnetic emanation to the materials used in the magical ceremony. Shortly afterwards, his scribe absconded his wife and tricked him out of money and possessions. Parsons, who was at the time working in an air-rocket factory, died disastrously when he dropped a phial of
fulminate of mercury. His scribe. however, is still at large, having grown wealthy and famous by a misuse of the secret knowledge which he had wormed out of Parsons.

[Page 136]
Towards the close of Crowley’s life, certain strange events occurred which made it seem likely that the Scarlet Woman had at last appeared. These events did not occur to Crowley direct, but to the head of his magical Order (O.T.O.) in California. This person, John Parsons, performed an elaborate magical operation in 1946 with the object of invoking the Scarlet Woman. He called the operation the Babalon Working, and a creature claiming to be Babalon answered the Call.

It is doubtful whether Crowley ever knew or cared about her advent, for at the time of the Working he was a dying man. She may not have been the Semiramis Crowley had expected but she was certainly as strange and disturbing as any of the Scarlet Women who had assisted the Beast 666. Her name was Marjorie Cameron; further reference will be made to her in Chapter 9, infra.

[Page 157]
It was there that Smith seduced Helen Parsons, the wife of a promising young scientist named John W. Parsons who was known in the Order as Frater 210. Smith had a child by Helen, and a series of entanglements ensued which provoked Crowley to issue an encyclical expelling Smith from the O.T.O.

[Page 161]
Smith, like all magicians engaged in a Magical Retirement, had a familiar spirit or servitor to take care of his bodily requirements. In this case the familiar was Sister Grimaud or Helen Parsons, whom he had seduced some time previously. Jack Parsons had ceased sending money to Helen because he had lost all his possessions to a confidence trickster who had wormed his way into the O.T.O. on the pretense of being interested in Magick.

[Page 162]
The case of John (known as Jack) W. Parsons (Frater 210) is, perhaps, stranger still. Imbued with the idea of Kingly Man, as that expression is understood in the Cult of Thelema, Parsons bent his not inconsiderable energies, physical and intellectual, to the discovery of his True Will.

Born on October 2,1914, in Los Angeles, he lived a lonely childhood, due to his parents broken marriage. He spent a great deal of his youth reading and day-dreaming, and nurturing a growing resentment of all interference, especially of the kind posing as “authority”. He developed strong revolutionary tendencies and when he encountered Crowley’s writings – which he first did through Wilfred T.Smith – he was instantly alive to the significance of Thelema. He joined Smith’s Agapé Lodge (O.T.O.), and, at the same time, became a Probationer, 1º=10# of the A.’.A.’.

Shortly afterwards, Helen Parsons had a child by Smith, and because of this Parsons directed his affection to Helen’s younger sister, Betty, who became his mistress and magical partner in the Ceremonies of Agapé Lodge.

While Parsons was engaged in these matters a certain Frater X appeared on the scene, and such was his fascination that Parsons – who had gained admission to the highest grades of the O.T.O. – was persuaded to break his Oath of Secrecy and X came into possession of the secrets of the Order although he was not at any time properly initiated.
These secrets comprise the psycho – sexual and magical techniques to which reference has already been made (21).

Frater X then persuaded Parsons to form a tripartite Trust with Betty and himself. This Agreement was called “Allied Enterprises”. Parsons put the lion’s share of the money into it, Prater X contributing a merely nominal sum, and Betty, nothing at all. Parsons was then persuaded to sell the property which constituted the headquarters of the Agapé Lodge, and on the proceeds-plus the money invested in Allied Enterprises- Frater X and Betty absconded, leaving Parsons under the impres sion that they intended to buy a yacht
which they would eventu ally sell to the advantage of all three.

The yacht was duly purchased, but instead of returning to California, Frater X and Betty sailed round the East Coast together, “living the life of Riley”, as a member of the Order graphically expressed it.

In a letter to Crowley dated July, 1945, Parsons wrote:

“About three months ago I met X, a writer and explorer of whom I had known for some time… He is a gentleman (sic!); red hair, green eyes, honest and intelligent, and we have become great friends. He moved in with me about two months ago, and although Betty and I are still friendly, she has transferred her sexual affections to him.
“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 he is in direct touch 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 principles. He is also interested in establishing the new Aeon, but for cogent reasons I have not introduced him to the Lodge.
“We are pooling our resources in a partnership which will act as a limited company to control our business ventures. 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 next time I tie up with a woman it will be on my own terms.”

His wife, Helen, had been filched by Smith; now, Frater X had stolen his mistress. Having lost confidence in women, Parsons decided to attract an Elemental Spirit to take Betty’s place and to assist him in his magical workings.

The instructions which accompany the Eighth Degree of the O,T.O. contain methods for evoking an Elemental, or familiar spirit. It is said to be an easy matter to attract such a spirit because the souls of the Elements desire constantly to be absorbed into the cycle of human evolution, this being the only way in which they can achieve salvation and perpetuity of existence. On being appropriated by a human organism, the elemental finally becomes absorbed in the immortal principle in man. Crowley applies similar
reasoning to the practice of eating animals: “We have a right to eat animals,” he says, “because it is the kindest thing that we can do to them. Thus, and only thus, can we enable them to fulfil their ambition by building up their tissue into that of a higher organism.”

In the matter of calling forth an Elemental Spirit, the Adept is advised on several points:

“(1) That he choose wisely a reasonable soul, docile, apt, beautiful, and in all ways worthy of love.
“(2) That he fall not away from love of the Great Goddess into love of this inferior, but give only as a master and of his mercy, knowing that this also is service to the Goddess.
“(3) That of such familiar spirits he have but four. And let him regulate their service, appointing hours for each.
“(4) That he treat them with kindness and firmness, being on his guard against their tricks.

“This being said, it is enough; for to have them is but the pains to call them forth from their homes. And the Spirits of the Elemental Tablets given by Dr. Dee and Sir Edward Kelley are the best, being very perfect in their nature and faithful, affecting the human race. And if not so powerful as, they are less dangerous than, the Planetary Spirits; for these are more boisterous, and by disastrous stars easily perturbed and afflicted.

“Call them therefore by the Keys of Enoch as is written in the Book ye know of; and let there be after the Call~ an Evocation by the Wand; and let the Marrow of the Wand be preserved within the pyramids of the letters that make up the name of the Spirit…”

In January, 1946, Parsons wrote again to Crowley and referred to the Operation which he had performed:

“I have diligently followed the VIIIº instructions as (a) creation of new orders of beings with consecrated talismanic images. Possible connective result: increase in writing output; (b) Invocation of Mother Goddess, using Priest’s call in mass and silver cup as talisman; sometimes using suitable poetry such as Venus. Possible connective result: loss of Betty’s affections as preliminary to (c) Invocation of Air Elemental Kerub… in Enochian Air Tablet.”

He goes on to give details of the rite he used; it ended with a command that the Spirit appear visibly in human form before him, as a familiar spirit and as a mate.
Parsons recognized a possible connective result of the Operation in the form of a wind storm which-for the first three days of the Working with the Air Tablet-was excessively violent and “unnatural”. He says that although he bent all his will and scientific knowledge to the correct performance of the rite, “nothing seems to have happened. The wind storm is very interesting, but that is not what I asked for.”

His disappointment was a little premature, however, for a few days later he wrote:

“An interesting incident. Frater X attempted to escape me by sailing at 5 p.m., and I performed a full invocation to Bartzabel (22) within the Circle at 8 p.m. At the same time, so far as I can check, his ship was struck by a sudden squall off the coast, which ripped off his sails and forced him back to port, where I took the boat in custody. I am not greatly impressed, but it is interesting.”

Still not the desired result, but owing to the above he was able to say of Frater X and Betty:

“I have them well tied up; they cannot move without going to jail. However, I am afraid that most of the money has already been dissipated. I will be lucky to salvage $3,00-5,000..”

Then, on February 23, 1946, Parsons wrote triumphantly to Crowley:

“I have my elemental! She turned up one night after the conclusion of the Operation, and has been with me since, although she goes back to New York next week. She has red hair and slant green eyes as specified. If she returns she will be dedicated as I am dedicated!
All or nothing – I have no other terms. She is an artist, strong minded and determined, with strong masculine characteristics and a fanatical independence …”

This woman’s name was Marjorie Cameron. She became Parsons’ second wife and led him deeper into occult waters from which he never emerged. Crowley warned him several times of the dangers he was courting; and in a letter to him, dated March 15, 1946, Crowley wrote:

“I am particularly interested in what you have written to me about the elemental, because for some little time past I have been endeavoring to intervene personally in this matter on your behalf. I would however recall Lévi’s aphorism: ‘The love of the Magus for such things is insensate and may destroy him’. Warns him that because of his sensitiveness he should be more on his guard than the majority of people.”

At about this time, Parsons – in the course of his Magical Workings – contacted an Intelligence that was to disrupt his existence entirely and cause Crowley to write him off as yet another failure.

Between the second and the fourth of March, Parsons recorded what he described as “the most devastating experience of my life. I believe it was the result of the IXº working with the girl who answered my elemental summons.” (23) “I have been in direct touch with One who is most Holy and beautiful, mentioned in The Book of the Law. I cannot write the name at present.”

He received certain instructions from this Intelligence, first directly, then through Frater X, who had returned and who had been forgiven. Frater X acted as a Seer on several occasions when Parsons contacted denizens of other dimensions. Frater X declared that he was overshadowed by an “Angel”, a beautiful winged woman with red hair whom he called The Empress. She guided him at all times and – so he claimed – saved his life on several occasions.

Wilfred T. Smith, after his expulsion from the O.T.O., and his failure to identify the god within him, conceived an enmity for Parsons and attacked him astrally. On one occasion, Frater X, who had not met Smith, described him as clad in a black robe and having an evil pasty face. An expert with the throwing knife, Frater X pinned the phantom figure to the door with four knives. Later the same night, Parsons was awakened by a feeling of oppression. He heard a distinct sound in the room, though no one but himself was present. A muffled yet metallic voice screamed “Let me go free!” Parsons, recalling the strange events of the evening, gave the License to Depart (24) and freed Smith’s astral body from the transfixing knives.

Parsons looked forward to the result of his secret illumination, which was to occur in nine month’s time with the birth of a magical child “mightier than all the kings of the Earth”, as had been prophesied in The Book of the Law more than forty years earlier. He believed that this child-and not Frater Achad- was to be the child destined to lead mankind to true freedom.

Parsons continued to receive revelations through the agency of his elemental, whom he named Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, and such was the coherence of the material obtained from the spirit world that he claimed that it actually constituted the fourth and final chapter of The Book of the Law.

During the receipt of these communications, Parsons-reduced to penury by the indefatigable Frater X-had been earning his living by working for an aircraft company.
He wrote to Crowley:

“It has now been almost a year since I last wrote-at that time I was near mental and financial collapse. Since that time I have laboriously gained some sort of mental equilibrium and gradually regained something of a position in my old field in a large aircraft company. My one aim is to rebuild myself.”

Crowley, dying slowly in England, was unable to follow the wild stories about
revelations and initiations too secret and too holy even to be mentioned. He replied, on April 19, 1946:

“You have got me completely puzzled by your remarks about the elemental – the danger of discussing or copying anything. I thought I had a most 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.”

And to Karl J. Germer, his right-hand man in California, he wrote:

“Apparently he, or Frater X, or somebody, is producing a Moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts.”

Not long afterwards, Parsons took the Oath of the Abyss. He adopted the magical name Belarion, and in 1949 issued The Book of Anti-Christ, which he divided into two parts: The Black Pilgrimage, and The Manifesto of the Anti-Christ. In the first part he alludes to his interior struggles and the ordeal of disillusionment which he suffered in the external world. These were experienced by him when he was stripped of his fortune, his house, his wife, his mistress; all that he possessed. He undertook the Black Pilgrimage when this disillusionment had made him realize the futility and impermanence of phenomena. He had the choice between madness, suicide, and the Oath of the Abyss.

Surviving the ordeals which plunged him into the Abyss for forty days, he took the Oath of Anti-Christ before his erstwhile Superior in the Order, Wilfred T. Smith. In his Manifesto he identifies himself personally with the anti-Christ and declares war upon “all authority that is not based on courage and manhood”, and calls a halt to “the authority of lying priests, conniving judges, blackmailing police”. He further called “an end to restriction and inhibition… conscription, compulsion, regimentation, and the tyranny of false laws”. He claimed that he would bring all men to the Law of the Beast 666: “And in His Law I shall conquer the world.”

Apart from these laudable intentions, other-more esoteric- purposes were declared in the Manifesto which reveals Parsons as an ardent advocate of total freedom, and a loyal though some what fanatical devotee of Crowley’s Thelemic principles. Had he lived he would today no doubt be among the foremost of fighters for individual liberty.

In the ritual instructions which he received in connection with The Book of Babalon, which formed, so lie claimed, the fourth chapter of The Book of the Law, appeared the following:

“She is flame of life; power of darkness; she destroys with a glance; she may take the soul. She feeds upon the death of men. ”
“Concentrate all force and being in Our Lady Babalon. Light a single light on Her altar, saying Flame is our Lady; flame is Her hair. I am flame.”

It was not very long after the Babalon Working that Parsons dropped a phial of fulminate of mercury, and was in truth devoured by flame. (25)

Parson’s papers show that he had the makings of a genuine magician. Apart from his correspondence with the Scarlet Woman, which is of great interest both magically and psychologically, he left some essays on Magick which deserve to be preserved in permanent form.

It is unfortunate that Crowley was too ill to appreciate the situation and all its
implications. He died in Hastings in 1947 before the first act of the drama in California had played itself out. He regarded Parsons as one more failure, and wrote about the matter to Karl Germer on the 31st May, 1946. His remarks were prompted by the reappearance on the scene of Frater Achad, who had written to Germer concerning a series of initiations which he (Achad) was currently undergoing:

“Thanks for yours of May 23rd enclosing one from Frater Achad. It is very good that he should come crawling back to the penitent’s form after thirty years, but I do not quite see how it is going to make up for the time he has wasted on his insane vanity, and you might let him know this view. ”
“I am glad that his submission should have taken place at this moment, however, because his case serves as very useful to quote in discussing the business of Jack Parsons…
“The question of Frater 210 [i.e. Parsons] seems to me very typical. He reminds me up to a point-though he is on a much lower plane than they~ of two men who joined the Order shortly after I took it over: both cases seem to me to have certain significance if applied to the present position of Frater 210.”
“Both (26) cases were alike in this-that after a very short period of training both had more than fulfilled their early promise; they could claim not only attainment, but achievement and that in no small degree. I am sorry that there is no possibility of making any similar claim on behalf of Frater 210.
“The elder of the two men (27) rashly took the oath of a Master of the Temple. He must have failed to expel the last drop of blood into the Cup of Our Lady Babalon, for a comparatively few months later he got an initiation by his own account so marvelous that it superseded our own work altogether. it was, of course, much too sacred for him to give even the least hint of its nature.
“What was the result? From that moment his attainment stopped; his achievement stopped; he never produced anything from that hour to this which was worthy a moment’s consideration. Now, after thirty years he has realized his mistake, he has come crawling back in penitence, but that will not do him the service of filling up the gap of thirty wasted years.
“The second case was really much simpler.. Now, his attainment and his achievement were on the whole of a higher class than that of the other man. But what happened to him? He got into the clutches of a vampire.
“The result was identical; from that hour his attainment stopped; his achievement stopped; he lived a miserable life-the life of a slave under the influence of this appalling old woman, and some half-dozen years ago death relieved him from his sufferings; that is, sufferings of that kind.
“It seems to me on the information of our Brethren in California that (if we may assume them to be accurate) Frater 210 has committed both these errors. He has got a miraculous illumination which rimes with nothing, and he has apparently lost all his personal independence. From our brother’s (28) account he has given away both his girl and his money-apparently it is the ordinary confidence trick.
“Of course, I must suspend judgement until I have heard his side of the story, but he promised me quite a long while ago to write me a full explanation, and to date I have received nothing from him…”

The poet, Victor Neuburg; the soldier, J. F. C. Fuller; the mathematician, Norman Mudd; the Magical Son of the Beast 666, Charles Stansfeld Jones; the Lancashire bricklayer, Frank Bennett; the ritualist, Wilfred Smith; the scientist, John Parsons, are a few of the many who tried-and tried wholeheartedly-to discover the identity of the Hidden God, to discover their True Will and to put their discovery to some use.

(21) See, in particular, Chapter 2, supra.
(22) The Spirit of Mars. See The Equinox I,ix, where this Invocation is given in full.
(23) i.e. Marjorie Cameron.
(24) The License to Depart is given to the Spirit before the Magician banishes it back to its proper dimension. Sec Magick, Chapter xvii, for an account of this operation.
(25) An account of his death appeared in The Independent, a newspaper publicized in Pasadena, California, June 19, 1952.
(26) The two men to whom Crowley refers are Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones), and Frater Lampada Tradam (Victor B. Neuburg).
(27) Charles Stansfeld Jones.
(28) This brother was Louis T. Culling. He has written several books on Magick.

Next:  Jack Parsons in Kenneth Grant’s “Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God”

FREEDOM IS A LONELY STAR

FREEDOM IS A LONELY STAR_

Three Essays on Freedom Jack Parsons Ch.1 (Audiobook)

ONE TIME, IN AMERICA, there was a dream. It was a dream of man. Through the long night, through two thousand years of bondage, the dream was born. Out of agony and terror. Out of poverty and misery. Out of secret thoughts, in the heart of despair. Out of whispered words, in the shadow of death. Out of love, in an empire of hate. Children, chained to work carts. Women whipped through the streets. Men and women, and children too, burned alive in the public square, because they dared to think of freedom.

Lonely, and difficult, and dangerous, through ages and ages of night the star of freedom was born. Nursed with blood. Nurtured on agony. Carried, at length, to a new world, and planted there, in the fresh soil. Nourished, until it shone with an awesome light, a winged thing so high, so pure, so beautiful that it struck all the world with wonder. A dream of free men, working together in dignity and significance of honorable representatives, who cherished freedom and honor beyond their own interest and welfare. Of the inviolability of individual freedom, beyond kings and priests, beyond politicians and judges, beyond money or power or prestige. And all over the world men in tyranny and ignorance and oppression responded to that dream. “At last,” they said, “at last.”

Fragments of the dream come down to us now – “We hold that all men are born free and equal; and endowed…with certain inalienable rights, among which are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” “I shall guard even my enemy from oppression.” “Give me liberty or give me death.” Fragments and strands, echoing emptily in empty hearts.
For the dream is dead now, or in a sleep that is like unto death. It has been sold out, denied and betrayed.

It has been sold out by cheap and venal politicians, by benevolent authoritarians, by “loyal” party men, by shrewd and greedy capitalists, by wise guys and smart guys that know all the answers. It has been sold out by the great middle class that prefers its false sense of security and false freedom, by the labor leaders that put power first, and the little man who prefers – at last with at least a decent reason – a full belly, or the promise of a full belly, to freedom turned dangerous and hungry.

It has been sold out by America, and for that reason the heart of America is sick, and the soul of America is dead. It is for this reason that we cannot instruct our children with a significant morality, or elect honorable men to office, or conduct our own affairs with a sense of dignity and significance. That dream itself was the soul of America in which there was no cause by man, no religion but man, and no goal but man. The betrayal of his dream is the one thing that man cannot forgive himself. The pompous oratory, the brave show, the frantic search for scapegoats and traitors – all attempts to conceal from himself the thing that cannot be concealed, his cowardice, his failure.
Having failed freedom at home, we engaged in sick and fevered attempts to impose it abroad, with all the panoply of futility. Out of the First World War, national prohibition, the income tax, Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, and the benevolent dictatorship of the New Deal. Out of the Second, Stalin, the enslavement of sciences, and the suppression of freedoms in the Great Red Scare. After the Third, what will be left to suppress? Heroic Crusades for Freedom. Advances to the rear. For what? Survival? To what end? To the end that we must ape the enemy in order to defeat him on the grounds that our ends justify our means? To the very end, where all our freedoms are gone, the betrayers themselves betrayed, and freedom again rediscovered and reconsecrated in agony and blood? To what their end?

Perhaps we could face the world as conquerors, in the name of power and right, if we had the guts, which we do not. We could face the world as heroes if we had the courage of our own dream; which we do not. But as champions of freedom abroad who have sold out freedom at home, willing to sell out the freedom of anyone else where our own ends are served, we make a sorry show. Pretentious hypocrites, lacking even the shrewdness of a sound ego, we make ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of the world. And underneath the pretense: shame – the shame of the booby that has sold his dignity, his individuality for conformity, for money, for the prestige of the pigsty.
The principles of freedom are forever the same, but its issues are constantly shifting. George III is not the tyrant today, nor Madison the arch-reactionary, nor are we asked to surrender our liberties and persecute those who think differently because of the menace of Danton, Maurat and Robespierre. It is now safe to enshrine those persons whom once it would have been very dangerous to know – neither Washington, nor Jefferson, nor Henry nor Paine would have been “safe” or “secure” associations in the days of the revolutions.
Now there is a theory that our fathers fought and died for our freedom, and this bought it for us. So now there is no need for us to concern ourselves with that for which they paid with discomfort, hunger and blood. We can leave this to those who are hired or drafted to protect our liberty.

We are assured on every hand that we are a free people – in fact, we have it in writing. Our fathers were not content with such assurances, but rather, by act and deed, assured these freedoms for themselves. That is the difference.
We are a savage culture. Our emotions and our attitudes, our needs and our drives, are all savage. Our religions and our morals, societies and creeds, cults and taboos; all are those of the savage.

But we are savages who have assumed the pretense of civilization, and this is our greatest disaster. This miserable pretense has closed at once both possibilities of stabilizing our culture. The one, or the non-pretentious savage outlet, would allow us the expression of our savage needs and drives in a set of acceptable mores and expectations. The other, an acceptance of our savagery together with an aspiration to true civilization, might allow us to face and know ourselves, and in the slow, painful laboratory where all natural process are wrought, in time effect some upward change.

But in our blindness to our savagery we are trapped – we refuse to see the facts until it is too late – until in our private lives the impossible attention undoes our fairest hopes and fondest dreams, and in the public scene the idiot and criminal nations play holocaust with all our world. And now, as by a joke of the gods, a power that is sublime has been put in the hands of our most ruthless criminals and our most appalling idiots. It thus becomes clear that we must stoon choose openly the most abysmal savagery without the least vestige of further pretense, or we must renounce savagery to an undreamed of degree. And in this renunciation we must accept two propositions of true civilizations: the individuality of the individual, and the absolute necessity for a world state.

No conceivable conquest, save the conquest of the individual of an by himself, can assure us against destruction in the conflicts to come. And if this conquest cannot be total, it must be sufficient to produce the requisite number of adequate and civilized individuals.

At present, I cannot conceive of a workable world state, and I know that it cannot be conceived and ordered in a world of savages. But I can conceive that individuals, sufficiently evolved, and working towards the understanding, knowledge, and self-control that defines freedom, could achieve this. It can only be done by free men, and these men must be equally free of the pretense and self-deception, and the success and conformity cults that have made our society culture a slough of despond. The inane and illogical restrictions that repress all individuality and creative spirit, the savage cruelty and hostility to ourselves and our fellows, the terror and guilt that ride us like nightmares, must be understood and relieved.

That such an undertaking would be popular is hardly to believed. That it would succeed in one generation, or ten, is perhaps too much to expect. But it is the only way. The wars, revolutions, crimes, the social and economic disorders and inequalities, which the ignorant regard as causes in themselves, are only the manifestations of the savage fact behind the civilized pretense – outbursts made more furious by evasions and repression. I know of no other answer than to cry a last crusade, a crusade for freedom, for the freedom to know and be ourselves before it is forever too late. If there is a hope, that hope is in man, and it is only in free men that the hope can be realized.

It is my aim to offer an examination of pretenses whereby they can no longer be concealed by institutions and names, and a definition of freedom that will, once and for all, place it beyond equivocation and deceit.

The conditioned reflex response of the standard ego is formulated in terms of the cross, the flag, the home, the church, the school God, mothers and American womanhood. These things have a purely reflexive value, without any rationale whatsoever. No standard ego has ever examined them; it would be heretical to do so. He simply responds. Behind these mechanical values, the necessities of life are met with rationalization processes that are often almost sublime. The crooked business and political deals, murder and pillage, seductions, rapes and visits to prostitutes are all conducted by the man who isn’t there, in another world whose doors are guarded by the most marvelous network of hypocrisy, pretense and downright lying ever invented by the mind of man.

Occasionally some venturesome soul, dissatisfied with the standard ego formulations, breaks out and wanders around in reality awhile, until he is frightened back into the dream again or guided back by some psychiatrist.
The first view of truth is terror – the knowledge is as old as time – all the myths show it. From alcoholism to paranoid psychosis, from the mildest neurotic syndrome to schizophrenia, the escape from the terror of the true self and the true world. Dalua and Dermot, Pan and Persephone, Mayan and Mixitli, Janicot and Jehovah, each showed a visage of horror before the true face – the total truth – was revealed. Truth, in short, is not for fools and cowards, but for this the will that acts, the wisdom that knows, and the courage that dares the first terrible impact.

Beyond the fanged serpent are the immortal meadows, behind the skull face lie the stars. Only the free man shall pass that portal, and walk out into the total world that is eternity.

In a world where a precocious romance is set above reality – where He is a God and She is a Goddess in a springtime, where all endings are happy, plain John Smith and Mary Jones have short shrift. Morality cannot endure the comparison – a clumsy overture, a cold in the nose, an unexpected monthly ruins the enchantment, and the movies assure us that our mate, odious comparison, is somehow a miserable exception to the gold rule.
But whether we seek the dream in an escape from reality, or whether we cynically deny it, we are equally damned. True marriage, that rare estate, is as close to paradise as humanity can come. But it cannot be attained only by keeping the vision of beauty constantly before us and by transmitting, by constant effort and courage, by faith and love, the hard matters of reality into the shape of the beloved dream. And that marriage attained is the garden of paradise, whereof happy children are the “fruit.”

It is not easily come to – it is possible only to courage, to maturity, to intelligence and high idealism. But it can be attained, “and if it can it must,” for that marriage is the sure foundation of a free world.

Police, like the military, are a necessary evil that requires constant surveillance and rigid control in order to keep them within the bounds of constitutional law and democratic procedure. In most large American cities, police are little more than agents of a corrupt political machine, acting as collectors and supervisors for organizing prostitution, gambling, dope and protection rackets. For these gangsters, the collection of revenue and the terrorization of opposition is of far greater importance than the suppression of crime. The police mind is usually of a sadistic and homicidal trend, and the office, as it now exists, offers an ideal opportunity for the expressions of the urge, and the ruthless punishment of symbolic scapegoats in the form of prostitutes, derelicts, Negroes, radicals, drunks, and other helpless and insignificant members of the nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

The traditional American distrust and dislike of police stems from a remembrance of police states of Europe. But the modern American has abrogated, along with his other freedoms, his freedom from police interference in his private life, unwarranted search and seizure, wiretapping, suspension of constitutional immunity (the sole guarantee against intimidation and torture), and all the other trappings of a police state. His present resentment is about as mature, as courageous, and as effective as that of a small, broken-spirited boy against a brutal and tyrannical father. This gutless specimen is now engaged in selling out each liberty that someone else gained for him, as fast he can make the deal. He is buying security, protection, prosperity – the fine futile freedoms – and all the other gangsters goods at a bargain price. All that he pays is his right to call himself a man.

The methods by which politicians achieve their ultimate ambitions, that is, to become tyrants, are obvious, and exceedingly stale. But however old the trick, it seems that there is always a fresh crop of suckers. Foremost among the public plans and promises of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin on their way to power were not the establishment of concentration camps. The murder and torture of free citizens, and the annihilation of all freedom.

As hard as it may seem to believe, by some sort of anachronistic plagiarisms these plans and promises included increased prosperity, fewer slums, social security, more jobs, and defense against enemies without and traitors within.
There were also among the foremost plans and promises of Sulla, Caesar, Robespierre and Napoleon. The bait is so old and obvious one suspects that repetition must have given it prestige. The first step is the discovery of an emergency. Any emergency will do – a depression, a plot, an enemy without, and enemy within, the second coming of Christ, witches – anything whatever which can be used to whip fear, hatred and hysteria for fever pitch.

The nest step is the program to meet the emergency. Whatever the program may be, increase taxation is its inevitable first-born and best beloved. Taxation – that is, for the Great Cause – taxation to create bureaus which create bureaus that require taxation for the support of bureaus. Taxation for the support of more politicians, police, charities, public works, et cetera. Taxation, in short, for anything and everything. Purely, of course, as a temporary measure. Ah, these temporary measures. How permanent they are. The Republican procedures of Rome were suspended, just temporarily, so that the politicians could fight a war and save the country in “this great and terrible emergency.” But somehow the emergency lasted through Sulla and Caesar, and Augustus, and Tiberius, and Caligula, and Claudius and Nero and in fact, clean through the collapse and final dissolution of the Roman state.
The next step is the discovery that the emergency is much worse than anyone thought. Revolution is on the verge, collapse is imminent, the world is going to end tomorrow.

So naturally we will act now and in order to do this it is necessary to have a dictatorship. Harsh word? Shall we say – organizations to meet the emergency temporarily, of course. The sophistries by which this putsch is justified, palliated, honey coated, are among the most ludicrous in the politician’s bag of tricks.

The church, for example, burnt heretics from motives of most terrible mercy. Since this was the only way to save their souls from hell, of course the church didn’t really kill, she only tried, convicted and sentenced to execution. The state did the dirty work, just to keep the church’s hands clean. Execution was by fire, because the church could not of course condone the shedding of blood.

The dictatorship of the proletariat is merely temporary – the state will gradually wither away like a snark hunter, leaving us all free as birds. Meanwhile it may be necessary to kill, torture and imprison a few million people, but whose fault is it if they get in the way of progress? Socialism – the greatest good of the greatest number – how can you argue against it? That only proves you are in the minority, in the wrong.

When the rights of labor interfere with the public good, the national need, the emergency – then to hell with their rights. What does the freedom of a few radical university professors, scientists, teachers, government workers matter when our country is in danger? Sign or be fired. And whose freedom tomorrow, fatheads, fools? Whose rights when the masks are down and the gloves off, and a spade is the thing you dig your grave with? When a man can be fired, hounded, persecuted, jailed in America for the opinions he holds, for his refusal to have his privacy violated, then it is time to publicly burn the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, and call this country by its right name – a tyrant state.

How can we cope with these predators, politicians and their moronic dupes? We can examine their emergencies, for what they are worth. Predators are not confined to one party or one nation. There is always the real need to be well armed, well informed and well prepared against all enemies of freedom. Well meaning fools, appalled by the predators within, clamor to throw down their arms and welcome the predators without. This is plain suicide, but the fear of predators without can also drive fools to the same suicide within. Arms and armies are necessary, but it also necessary to watch them, to control them, and to keep them subservient to the private citizens whom they serve.
We can reduce political sophistries to their basic elements, and examine them in the light of reason and necessity. Politicians need some graft – some excitement, some opportunity for hysteria; it is their life blood. A certain degree of criminality and psychosis goes with the breed. But easily, easily, gentlemen. Within limits, and under control.

Taxation, however, is a major root of the politician’s power, and it is here that he can best be regulated. The first new limit on potential power must be the abolition of confiscatory taxation, and of punitive taxation in all forms. Taxation should exist for the sole purpose of raising reasonable revenue, and must in no case exceed a fixed and minimum percentage of income, profit, value, or sales. The moment it does, it becomes a weapon of dictatorship superseding and replacing due process of law.

Taxation must be open, not hidden and secret. The process of withholding taxes from wages is a violation of individual and corporate rights, a dodge to dupe employees into blaming employers for the piratical raids of government on income. The income tax itself was the opening wedge in a conspiracy to build a vast politico-economic empire, wielding an absolute control over the income, business and private life of every citizen. Augmented by social security and old age and a multitude of hidden taxes, its success is now reasonable apparent to all except the chronic paupers and welfare dupes that are its dubious beneficiaries. Its such fun to soak the rich. But not so much fun when a rich man, from a tax standpoint, is anyone with an income over fifty dollars a month. Let the common man pay his taxes in the open and he will soon see that his “security,” at that price, could be sold by any insurance company, engraved on tablets of pure gold, at a handsome profit.

Any successful confidence fame must be played in stages; the sucker is not hooked all at once. The first issue must be one in which we all believe, the first victim someone we all hate. A rich man, a radical, and atheist, a Negro, a Jew – some no good bastard. We are all together, on the other side, until we take the bait. Then we are on the hook, and it is too late. The Nazi party was the government, the government makes the law, and good citizens always obey the law. Q.E.D. concentration camps = good government. That is the lesson of history, fresh, this time from Germany. One day it may be very well said of us also, “it is too bad they could not learn.” On the basis of the present trend, I would give this country fifteen years, at the outside, to turn into something that that is in essence a socialist or a fascist state.

History is curious. A few of the right men might stop it – the old dream still burns in America, if deep down and dimly. But they have not yet appeared.
The advent of psychoanalytical sciences and the publication of the Kinsey Report have indicated a true state of culture morals previously unsuspected in western history. The impact of these events on society is a moment comparable to that of nuclear physics and the advent of the atomic bomb. The significance of these revolutionary findings in the field of morals has not yet reached the point of practical application in terms of large scale individual and social adjustment. Confusion in regard to proper and significant attitudes and behavior appears to have reached an all-time high.

In addition to the tremendous burdens of self control imposed by culture and civilization, man now sees himself restricted by moral concepts which now appear savage, pretentious and archaic. In the face of ever-increasing social complexity, this burden becomes intolerable and he is tempted to throw the whole thing over at the first clean opportunity. This danger is particulary great because of lack of discrimination between what is essential and what is superfluous in the field of morals. The need for cooperation and renunciation exists as never before; as a corollary, the need for freedom and individuality, wherever these are possible, is od the same magnitude. It is in the field of sexual morals that unnecessary restrictions are most severe, and it is in this field that a process of revision and liberation can go furthest, and serve the most immediate purpose.

It would be of little value, and perhaps almost a disservice, to further demonstrate the barbarous nature and the failure of western sex morals, to develop a further philosophy of sexual freedom and stay at that. This would only serve to increase the awareness of frustration and unhappiness, without indicating any way out of the morass. In addition, it is necessary to clearly show a practical, individual solution to the moral problem, and that is the object of our work.

And you, man, put off this longing for your mother, put away these childish things and come into your manhood. She is not won by small devices and petty conceits, nor by crying, nor by beating on the chest, nor by roses or by gold, but by the clean, bright steel of the sword of freedom. Freedom of yourself, in yourself.

If you have manhood she will look to you for guidance, if you have courage she will find security with you, and if you have freedom she will come with you to liberty in all the spheres. On these three points you will win and hold her and not otherwise, the woman whom your manhood desires.

And from this marriage and not otherwise will come the children who will make a new world, the redeemers of prophecy, the conquerors of darkness and fear.

And this and not otherwise, in freedom, in love, in brotherhood and in the marriage of true minds, will we come finally, unobstructed, to the stars.

 

FREEDOM IS A TWO-EDGED SWORD

Freedom is a Two Edged Sword

Since I first wrote this essay in 1946, some of the more ominous predictions have been fulfilled. Public employees have been subjected to the indignity of “loyalty” oaths and the ignominy of loyalty purges. Members of the United States Senate, moving under the cloak of immunity and the excuse of emergency, have made a joke of justice and a mockery of privacy. Constitutional immunity and legal procedure have been consistently violated and that which once would have been an outrage in America is today refused even a review by the Supreme Court.

 

The golden voice of social security, of socialized “this” and socialized “that”, with its attendant confiscatory taxation and intrusion on individual liberty, is everywhere raised and everywhere heeded. England has crept under the aegis of a regime synonymous with total regimentation. Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia have fallen victims to communism while the United States makes deals with the corrupt dictatorships of Argentina and Spain.

 

As I write, the United States Senate is pursuing a burlesque investigation into the sphere of private sexual morals, which will accomplish nothing except to bring pain and sorrow to many innocent persons.

 

The inertia and acquiescence which allows the suspension of our liberties would once have been unthinkable. The present ignorance and indifference is appalling. The little that is worthwhile in our civilization and culture is made possible by the few who are capable of creative thinking and independent action, grudgingly assisted by the rest. When the majority of men surrender their freedom, barbarism is near but when the creative minority surrender it, the Dark Age has arrived. Even the word liberalism has now become a front for a new social form of Christian morality. Science, that was going to save the world back in H.G. Wells’ time, is regimented, strait-jacketed and scared; its universal language is diminished to one word, security.

 

In this 1950 view some of my more hopeful utterances may appear almost naïve. However, I was never so naïve as to believe that freedom in any full sense of the word is possible for more than a few. But I have believed and do still hold that these few, by self- sacrifice, wisdom, courage and continuous effort, can achieve and maintain a free world. The labor is heroic but it can be done by example and by education. Such was the faith that built America, a faith that America has surrendered. I call upon America to renew this faith before she perishes.

 

We are one nation but we are also one world. The soul of the slums looks out of the eyes of Wall Street and the fate of a Chinese coolie determines the destiny of America. We cannot suppress our brother’s liberty without suppressing our own and we cannot murder our brothers without murdering ourselves. We stand together as men for human freedom and human dignity or we will fall together, as animals, back into the jungle.

 

In this very late hour it is with solutions that we must be primarily concerned. We seem to be living in a nation that simply does not know what we are told we have and that we tell each other we have. Indeed, it is far more than that. It is to the definition of freedom, to its understanding, in order that it may be attained and defended, that this essay is devoted. I need not add that freedom is dangerous — but it is hardly possible that we are all cowards.

 

Chapter One: A Sword is Drawn

Chapter Two: The Sword & The Serpent

Chapter Three: The Sword & The Spirit

Chapter Four: The Woman Girt With the Sword

UNPUBLISHED FORWARD TO THE BOOK OF BABALON

Unpublished Forward to the Book of Babalon_

Dated 01/09/1950

Handwritten notation: “Written to the unknown child whom he implied incarnated somewhere as Babalon as a (unintelligible) of the Babalon Working.”

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

My daughter, it is now four years since I entered the infernal chapel, and partook of the sacrament of your incarnation. Since then, much that was prophesied at that time has come to pass. I have been stripped of wealth, of honor, and of love, and participated not once but twice in my own betrayal, as it was foretold. But how else would I have come to the understanding needful to make this your Book?

For thereby I have taken the oath of the abyss, and entered my rightful city of Chorazin, and seen therin the past lives whereby I came to this, the grossest of all my workings. Now it would seem that the further matters of the prophecy are at work; events press on tumultuously, and “Time Is” is writ large across the sky.

And against the time when “Time Has Been” looms up in blood and fire to complete this labor, for your instruction and for the instruction and help of all men and women who shall survive that day.

God knows there is much unsaid and barely said; obscurity, peevishness, haste and bad workmanship mar these pages until sometimes I wonder if I do not do disservice to our cause. There is so much needful, so little available. Yet, since I have been chosen, I do my best.

Although I have had indications, they are not certain. I do now know who you are, nor where you are at this writing, nor have I ever sought to know. (Refers to the incarnation of Babalon, as a result of his ‘Babalon working’. T) This I do know, that you are incarnate, that you will manifest at the appointed time, to carry on the work that is from the beginning: that shall be until we have all entered the City of the Pyramids. The links are certain – the Beast 666, the Pole Star 132 (W.T. Smith T), Grim Saturn (Karl Germer T), the dark passionate star Regina (Kahl T), the bright deceitful star cassap (Cassiopeia – Ed.), the disastrous star of the White Scribe (Ron Hubbard T), and the wandering star, now nameless, on whom you were incarnated.

It is through them that this work is possible. To them, to you BABALON, and through you to all men and women, it is dedicated.

Love is the law, love under will.
Belarion.

 

ANALYSIS BY A MASTER OF THE TEMPLE

Click Here to Download PDF: Aanalysis By A Master Of The Temple

of the Critical Nodes
in the Experience of
his Material Vehicle

“I shall regard all phenomena as the particular dealing of God with my soul.”

Birth

Oct. 2, 1914, Los Angeles, in , rising in midheaven, in favorable conjunc., at apehelion. I chose this constellation in order that you might have an innate sense of balance and ultimate justice, responsive and attractive nature, a bountiful environment and sense of royalty and largesse, strength, courage and power combined with cunning and intelligence. Saturn was bound in order that you might easily formulate a lower will which would have satisfied and overwhelmed you with its spectacular success.
Your father separated from your mother in order that you might grow up with a hatred of authority and a spirit of revolution necessary to my work. The Oedipus complex was needed to formulate the love of witchcraft which would lead you into magick, with the influence of your grandfather active to prevent too complete an identification with your mother.

Childhood

Your isolation as a child developed the necessary background of literature and scholarship; and the unfortunate experiences with other children the requisite contempt for the crowd and for the group mores. You will note that these factors developed the needful hatred for christianity (without implanting a christian guilt sense) at an extremely early age.

Adolescence

Early adolescence continued the development of the necessary combinations. The awakening interest in chemistry and science prepared the counterbalance for the coming magical awakening, the means of obtaining prestige and livelihood in the formative period, and the scientific method necessary for my manifestation.
The magical fiasco at the age of 16 was needful to keep you away from magick until you were sufficiently matured.

Youth

The loss of family fortune developed your sense of self reliance at a critical period, the contact with reality at this time was essential. Your early marriage with Helen served to break your family ties and effect a transference to her, away from a dangerous attachment to your mother. The experience at Halifax and Cal Tech served to strengthen your self reliance, scientific method and material powers. The influence of Tom Rose at this period, as that of Ed. Forman in adolescence, was essential in developing the male center.

Later Youth

The house on Terrace Drive, Music, Lynn, Curtis, and Gloria, and the increasing restlessness were, of course, all preparations for the meeting with A A and O.T.O. The alternate repulsion and attraction you felt the first year after meeting Fra. 132 were caused by a subconscious resistance against the ordeals ahead.
Had you had these experiences before, without such resistance, you would have become hopelessly unbalanced. 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, served as your magical confirmation in the Law of Thelema.

At this time the O.T.O. was an excellent training school for adepts, but hardly an appropriate Order for the manifestation of Thelema. Therefore, in spite of your motto you were not able to formulate your Will. The experience with the O.T.O. and Aerijet were needed to dispel your romanticism, self-deception, and reliance on others. Betty was one link in the process designed to tear you away from the now unneeded Oedipus complex, the overvaluation of women and romantic love. Since this was unconscious, the next step was to bring it into consciousness, and there to destroy it.

Early Maturity

The final experience with Hubbard and Betty, and the O.T.O. was necessary to overcome your false and infantile reliance on others, although this was only partially accomplished at the time. The invocation of Babalon served to exteriorize the Oedipus complex; at the same time, because of the forces involved it produced extraordinary magical effects. However, this operation is accomplished and closed–you should have nothing more to do with it–nor even think of it, until Her manifestation is revealed, and proved beyond the shadow of a doubt. Even then, you must be circumspect–although I hope to take complete charge before then.

Candy appeared in answer to your call, in order to wean you from wet nursing. 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 links in the chain. At this time you were enabled to pre- pare 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.

Conclusions

The numerous rituals you have performed have resulted in a well developed body of light. The ordeals have purged most of the emotional and mental garbage–your only real dangers are, and have ever been, sentimentality, weakness, and procrastination.

It is interesting to note that the first weapon you formulated was the Lamp of the Spirit, in the invocation to Pan (although the Sword was prefigured). Next the Sword in the Horus ritual, as was appropriate to your intellectual development at that time.

Then the Cup out of the wine of your emotional life–the disk out of material failure. The Sword remains to be manifested.

You will note that it has been impossible to truly formulate your Will with any of these weapons–naturally–that is only possible with the wand. On the other hand, if you had done so previously, you would have been unbalanced by the lack of initiated preparation. It is a right and natural procedure; the True Will cannot be truly formulated until you are initiate in all the other planes, and it is well to make no pretense of doing so. Until that point all you can known of the true will is the aspiration to the next step–towards further experience. That is the glory of the Law of Thelema–DO!

The physical and emotional stresses you feel at present are a result of the pull of the Abyss–your present poetry is indicative. Naturally you find no power in any spell, no comfort in any ritual, no hope in any action. You are cut off by your own oath. Nor can I or any other aid you at this time. There is only manhood, only will, only the vector of your own tendencies, developed through the aeons of the past. I do not say how long the state will last, or what the outcome may be.
However, I can formulate some rules which may serve to guide you.

Instructions

A. Works of the Wand–of the Will alone avail in this state. No other weapon should be used, no other ritual save the hymn to the Unnamed One in the Anthem of the Mass.

B. You should be meticulous in all observations pertaining to the Will, even the most petty. Fulfill all obligations and promises, undertake nothing which you cannot fulfill, be prompt in the discharge of each responsibility.

C. Be neat in your personal and domestic habits, indicate your self respect to yourself.

D. Do not become unduly involved with any person, and practice all your hard-earned wisdom in your relations with women.

E. Set up your personal affairs in business order. Keep your accounts current and your papers neatly filed.

F. Finish your poetry for publication. Finish the synthesis of the Tarot and start work on the preparation of the lessons of class instruction from your book.

G. Pay no attention to any phenomena whatsoever, and continue in a sober and responsible way of life under all circumstances.

Not magical! For you nothing is more magical. Only thus can the curse of Saturn be overcome. I see you hate this way. But it is an ultimate time–it is you that have taken the oath. The choice is me or Choronzon.

I await you in the City of the Pyramids.

Belarion 8 = 3