jack parsons
JOHN "JACK" WHITESIDE PARSONS was born October 2nd 1914 in Pasadena, California.
A chemical engineer and explosives expert, he was a principal scientist in the experimental rocket research group attached to the California Institute of Technology. Their testing range at Arroyo Seco in Pasadena has since grown to become the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the design and command center for the American planetary exploration program. Parsons co-founded Aerojet General Corporation. In 1972 the International Astronomical Union named the lunar crater Parsons (37°N 171°w) to recognize his pivotal role in developing the solid fuel rocket.
Together with his first wife, Helen Parsons Smith, Parsons joined the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) in 1941. He was very much the young lion of the occult Order and, under the tutelage of Aleister Crowley, briefly served as the acting master of Agape Lodge. His now famous treatise, "Babalon Working," was first published in 1946.
The "Working" reset the course of Parsons' life, ending his relationship with Aleister Crowley and the O.T.O. Many critiques focus on his friendship and falling out with Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. In his surviving essays and polemical writings written around 1950 , Parsons anticipates by many years the ethical, moral, religious and social dilemmas of the following half-century.
Parsons died on June 17th 1952 in a laboratory explosion of mysterious origin. His second wife and collaborator, the artist Cameron, preserved and carried on his work until her death in 1995.
