by John Carter
Our Lady BABALON must descend to triumph.
Mortality. We have not asked this of another, nor shall we ever. Even now we doubt thy faith. Is this accepted, are you willing to proceed. Answer aloud.
I am willing.
Then know thou art already faulty in thy delivery. These are extraneous things. The elemental was not properly released (this was corrected), thou wert guilty of human rage, the current of force has been disturbed. Beware, shouldst thou falter again, we will sure slay thee.
But insofar as thy working was consecrated it has succeeded. Rectify thy mortal fault and error. Consecrate all. Now receive the second and third rituals.
Consecrate thyself as instructor of Our Lady Incarnate.
Take the black box, concentrate upon its emptiness for one hour, gaze into it, and thou wilt see, imprinted upon it, a shape, a sign, a sacred design, which shall be the sign delivered by Our Lady Babalon Incarnate. When thou hast finished, when thou hast recognized this pattern, construct it in wood.24
This is the sigil.
Ten be the hour appointed. Invoke long, to music indicated.25
When thou canst feel Our Lady incarnate in thy being, take the black box and perform the consecrated rite. Wear thou scarlet, symbolic of birth. Be sashed in black. It matters not the quality of goods. Take then the box, make then the sign.
Paint upon it a second sign which thou knowest. If thou hast forgotten, gaze into thy crystal.
Meditate while gazing on the qualities of an instructor. Thou inscribe in Her book, for Her guidance.
Thou art forbidden to leave thy room.
The end of the second ritual.
At this point, Hubbard rested a while, then they continued.
Begin four hours prior to dawn.
A period of eradication of all inimical influences. Complete perfection. Wear black. Cut from thy breast the red star. Renew the blood. Lay out a white sheet. Place upon it blood of birth26, since She is born of thy flesh, and by thy mortal power upon earth.
Thou shalt recognize by the sign. BABALON is born! It is new birth, all things are changed, the signs, the symbols, the everything!
Thou shalt compose with the aid of the muse suitable invocation of the birth of BABALON, and this thou shalt deliver to the flames which now burn too.
This last instruction certainly refers to Parsons’ poem, “The Birth of Babalon,” which, fortunately for us, survived the flames. The mystical yet racy message continued:
Now thou shalt flame the third, chanting the invocation. She is born in the third flame.
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 about the earth and in the heavens many loves; these recall, concentrate, consecrate each woman thou hast raped. Remember her, think upon her, move her into BABALON, bring 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.27
Then meditate upon thy desire, think upon Her, and, touching naught, chant these verses. Recall each lascivious moment, each lustful day, all set them into the astral body, touching naught.
The part about “consecrating each woman thou hast raped” is likely not meant literally, and the instruction to “touch naught” evidently refers to a tantric practice, as does the entire instruction, essentially. It resumes:
Preserve the material basis.28
In the box?
Yes.
The lust is hers, the passion yours. Consider thou 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 correspondence. Guard!
The instruction was followed by “a prophecy” of unknown length, which Parsons deliberately omitted recording.
Directly following the message, Parsons records instead a poem entitled “The Birth of Babalon” that he wrote as a means by which to invoke Babalon. It is unclear at which point in these proceedings he used it, but it may have been the seventh part of the invocation, as a six-fold invocation makes little sense here. Parsons also seems to have ignored the instructions to burn it, already noted.
A longish, well-composed poem, “The Birth of Babalon” begins:
What is the tumult among the stars that have shone so still till now?
What are the furrows of pain and wrath upon the immortal brow?
Why is the face of God turned grey and his angels all grown white?
What is the terrible ruby star that burns down the crimson night?
What is the beauty that flames so bright athwart the awful dawn?
She has taken flesh, she is come to judge the thrones ye rule upon.
Quail ye kings for an end is come in the birth of BABALON.
Afterwards, Parsons expressed his confidence in the working, but wrote, “Now I can do no more than pray and wait.” On the sixth of March, Parsons recorded in a letter to Crowley:
I hardly know how to tell.
I am under the command of extreme secrecy.
I have had the most important and devastating experience of my life between February 2nd and March 4th.
I believe it was the result of the 9th [degree] working with the girl [Cameron] who answered my elemental summons. (She is now in New York.)
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.
First instructions were received direct, further through Ron acting as seer.
I have followed them to the letter.
There was a desire for incarnation.
I was the agency chosen to assist the birth, which is now accomplished.
I do not yet know the vehicle, but it will come to me, bringing a secret sign I know.
Forgetfulness was the price.
I am to act as instructor, guardian, guide, for nine months.
Then it will be loosed in the world.
That is all I can say, now.
There must be extreme secrecy.
I cannot tell you the depth of reality, the poignancy, terror and beauty I have known. Now I am back in the world, weak with reaction.
But the knowledge remains. I have found my will. It is to serve, and serve I shall. All I am or will be is pledged.
I must put the Lodge in Roy's [Leffingwell] hands, prepare a suitable place, and carry on my business to provide the suitable material basis…
It is not a question of keeping anything from you, it is a question of not dwelling or even thinking unduly on the matter until the time is right. Premature discussion or revelation would cause an abortion.
A manuscript is prepared, which will be released to the proper persons at the right time…
All the tests are right, all the signs are right. There is no danger, save in weakness or pride.
Although he claimed there was no danger, in his metaphysical life, the fearless Parsons thus showed the same methodology he used in his rocket propulsion work, a tenaciousness in testing and a thrill-seeker's lack of caution concerning what he may “conjure.” Secretly Parsons did write the name of the “One, who is most Holy and Beautiful”: he called her Babalon. He further directed Crowley to contact no one save himself or Hubbard regarding this matter. Unfortunately, he does not seem to have tested this spirit with the rigorousness of his rocket-testing or thoroughness that Crowley used when he was contacted by entities such as Abuldiz, Amalantrah, Aiwass, and Lam. Crowley always required proofs during such contacts, proofs established by the gematria of certain key words, i.e., the entity's name, location, or some other word
or phrase. If Parsons subjected “Babalon” to such a test, no record survives.
Again Parsons wrote, “For the last three days I have performed an operation of birth, using the air tablet, the cup, and a female figure [Cameron?], properly invoked by the wand [penis], then sealed up in the altar. Last night I performed an operation of symbolic birth and delivery.” This operation is not part of the instructions contained in Liber Astarte, which Liber 49 told him to enact, but it seems to have satisfied Parsons.
On March 15, Crowley sent Parsons an admonishment about Cameron: “I am particularly interested in what you have written me about the elemental [Cameron], because for some little time past I have been endeavouring to intervene personally on your behalf. I would however have you recall [Eliphas] Levi's advice that ‘the love of the Magus for such things [elementals] is insensate and may destroy him.’” “Eliphas Lévi” was the pseudonym of Alphonse-Louise Constant, a “magic theoretician” who wrote two books, Dogma and Ritual of High Magic and History of Magic, published in 1854 and 1856, respectively. Although he died in 1875 in relative obscurity, his works gained popularity with French intellectuals such as Victor Hugo. Lévi's popularity stems from his ability to be romantic yet rational at the same time. Crowley was so impressed that he considered himself the reincarnation of Lévi. Crowley's claim to have intervened personally on Parsons’ behalf is interesting, as it certainly took place by use of the OTO's “key,” i.e., magically.
Crowley cautioned Parsons yet again about his own worst traits, in the letter of March 15, 1946:
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 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 [sic] you to be more on your guard than would be the case with the majority of people.
As it had so many times before, the warning fell on deaf ears.
The same day, Parsons wrote Crowley a letter, in which he formally turned the operation of Agape Lodge over to Roy Leffingwell, so he could focus on his project. Parsons wrote that the “IXths”—meaning Leffingwell, Jane Wolfe, and himself—would hold council monthly to discuss lodge policy. Whatever had happened to Parsons in the desert must have been quite amazing for him to react so. He finally had direction, something he had lost when he sold out of Aerojet—something he never really had spiritually, except perhaps when he first encountered Crowley and the OTO. A letter dated one day later was sent to all Agape Lodge members, declaring Leffingwell “executive head” of the lodge.
Crowley was now a dying man with a heroin problem brought on by his physician's treatment of his respiratory problems. As further letters arrived from the States, he became increasingly unhappy about Parsons’ claims, no doubt concerned about the future of his life's work.
On April 19, Crowley wrote Parsons, “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 Germer, Crowley wrote, “Apparently he, or Hubbard, or somebody, is producing a Moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these goats.”29
The purpose of Parsons’ Babalon Working seems to have been the birth of a child—the Moonchild—into whom Babalon would incarnate. It had said in The Book of the Law four decades earlier that this child would be “mightier than all the kings of the Earth” (AL III:45). Aleister Crowley had once thought Frater Achad was this magical child, the birth of which occurs on the astral plane rather than the physical and represents a possession of sorts. Jane Wolfe wrote that Jack Parsons might be this child, but Parsons himself thought differently.
The fact that Cameron later claimed to have been impregnated by Parsons during their first two weeks together casts doubt upon the literal application of the term Moonchild. She said she had an (illegal) abortion with Parsons’ consent (and another abortion later on), then just a few days later they were performing another working. If a literal child were what he was seeking (remember, she didn't know the purpose of the working), the purported pregnancy probably would have gone another way. This abortion story actually serves as good evidence that Parsons was looking for an adult female to arrive, perhaps in a manner similar to Cameron's arrival.
In any case, the “magical child” is an ages-old concept found in the mythologies of certain cultures. The magical child concept Parsons was pursuing was given definition by Crowley, of course. In De Arte Magica Aleister Crowley wrote, “It is said by certain initiates that to obtain Spiritual gifts, and to aid Nature, the Sacrament should be as it were a Nuptial of the Folk of the Earth; but that Magick is of the Daemon, and that by a certain perversion of the Office, may be created Elementals fit to perform the will of the Magician.” The “perversion,” no doubt, refers to unorthodox acts of sex by which may be created elementals or “magical” children.
Also called a “homunculus” (“little man”), the Moonchild's creation is described in Crowley's novel by the same name, Moonchild (originally titled The Butterfly Net):
But other magicians sought to make this Homunculus in a way closer to nature. In all these cases they had held that environment could be modified at will by the application of telesmata or sympathetic figures. For example, a nine-pointed star would attract the influence which they called Luna—not meaning the actual moon, but an idea similar to the poets’ idea of her. By surrounding an object with such stars, with similarly-disposed herbs, perfumes, metals, talismans, and so on, and by carefully keeping off all other influences by parallel methods, they hoped to invest the original object so treated with the Lunar qualities, and no others. (I am giving the briefest outline of an immense subject.) Now then they proceeded to try to make the Homunculus on very curious lines.
Man, said they, is merely a fertilized ovum properly incubated. Heredity is there even at first, of course, but in a feeble degree. Anyhow, they could arrange any desired environment from the beginning, if they could only manage to nourish the embryo in some artificial way—incubate it, in fact, as is done with chickens to-day. Furthermore, and this is the crucial point, they thought that by performing this experiment in a specially prepared place, a place protected magically against all incompatible forces, and by invoking into that place some one force which they desired, some tremendously powerful being, angel or archangel—and they had conjurations which they thought capable of doing this—that they would be able to cause the incarnation of beings of infinite knowledge and power, who would be able to bring the whole world into Light and Truth.
I may conclude this little sketch by saying that the idea has been almost universal in one form or another; the wish has always been for a Messiah or Superman, and the method some attempt to produce man by artificial or at least abnormal means.
Crowley speaks of a (female) magical child who would be the product of her environment rather than her heredity, a development that distinguishes magical children from the regular type. One relatively recent attempt at producing a messianic child occurred with the occult society of Theosophy, whose leaders at the time tried to raise the young Indian boy, Jiddhu Krishnamurti, as their own World Savior. The plan failed, as Krishnamurti eventually abandoned the Theosophists and started his own movement, for which he became world-renowned. In Parsons’ case, however, he (and Crowley) se
em to have been using the phrases “magical child” and “Moonchild” interchangeably—and not as literally as Crowley's description would suggest.
Although like Jones before him Parsons himself was viewed as the magical child, he evidently felt otherwise, such that he was determined himself to produce it—or, rather, her—as Parsons wrote of a female messiah. Indeed, the purpose of Parsons’ operation has been underemphasized, as the Babalon Working itself was a preparation for what was to come: a thelemic messiah. This messiah would mature in a magically influenced environment. She would then assume a leadership role. In addition, the word “child” was symbolic, intended not for an infant but for one woman in particular (or perhaps even all women in general).
It seems clear that Parsons was seeking not an idea but a living being, who evidently was not Cameron. “There was a desire to incarnate,” he wrote. He considered Cameron his elemental, though he did occasionally (and paradoxically) refer to her Babalon—as she later did herself. But the Babalon Working was clearly aimed at bringing Babalon down to earth from somewhere else. This plan backfired.
It was not nine months but nine years later that Cameron would claim to be Babalon herself and to have given birth to a magical child on the astral plane. In the meantime, Parsons started to look elsewhere for this “child”—to a physical incarnation embodied in some unknown person. He wrote, “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 [referring to himself] 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.”
