Book: The Key to the Abyss (2006)

The Babalon Working In 1946, Jack Parsons went alone into the Mojave Desert and made contact with a force he identified as the Mother of Abominations in the Book of Revelation. Parsons recorded the event in what became one of the most notorious documents in the history of Western Occultism; Liber 49, the Book of Babalon. A star from heaven fallen 1n 1909 Aleister Crowley performed a ritual that mirrored an event described in the Book of Revelation; the opening of the Abyss. He spoke the words that evoked the Abyss, allowing the Demon Choronzon to manifest on Earth for the first time in recorded history. The Black Pilgrimage With Liber 49 as his guide, Parsons began a series of ritual experiments that would continue throughout the remainder of his tragic life. In 1949 he went “into the Sunset” to the edge of the universe and there received the Secret of Secrets, the Key to the Abyss. Includes Concordance with English Kabbalah values for Liber Al vel Legis and Liber 49¹, ², ³

Mentions of Hubbard in the Key of the Abyss⁴ follow:

• Page 8

  In one of the most celebrated feats in magickal history, Parsons and pre-Dianetics L. Ron Hubbard (whose role is too complicated to describe in this short essay) performed The Babalon Working, a daring attempt to shatter the boundaries of time and space and intended to bring about, in Parsons’ own words, “love, understanding, and Dionysian freedom […] the necessary counterbalance or correspondence to the manifestation of Horus.

• Page 11

  The relationship between Jack (John) Whiteside Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard, which culminated in the ritual documented in the Babalon Working , has been written about by those interested in the occult side of the equation (i.e. Parsons) and those investigating Hubbard and or Scientology. This gives an interesting range of perspective, since the affair is important to the two points of view for wholly different reasons; in the case of Parsons, he is seen as an immediate successor (and therefore a link) to Aleister Crowley; for Hubbard, the story really begins after, and his entanglement with the O.T.O. and Parsons is an important indication of where he was coming from as he founded Dianetics and then Scientology^. Nevertheless, Hubbard is not our topic here and I will only mention his direct involvement in the working as documented in the various accounts of Parsons and Hubbard’s lives.

• Page 11

  Several controversial studies of the founder and chief prophet of Scientology have been written and are, in part due to the tendency of The Church of Scientology to vigorously attack critics through libel and copyright litigation, available for free on the Internet. Of these. The Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller focuses on the life of Hubbard while A Piece of Blue Sky by John Atack is an expose’ on “Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard”. Both books devote a chapter to Hubbard’s time in Southern California, Miller’s book titles the section, appropriately, “Black Magick and Betty”. I will look at these works as examples of what is known about Parsons beyond the small enclaves of magicians and Thelemites and it would be useful to keep in mind the fact that much of what these authors write is colored – rightly or wrongly – by their hostility to Hubbard and Scientology.

• Page 12

  Finally, there is also a brief note penned by Hubbard when, (i)n 1969, the London Sunday Times exposed Hubbard’s magickal connections. The Scientologists threatened legal action, and the Sunday Times, unsure of its legal position, paid a small out-of-court settlement. Without retracting their earlier article, they printed a statement submitted by the Scientologists^^. It is probable the statement was written by Hubbard himself.

• Page 12

  Leaving aside Hubbard’s apologia, it is useful to compare differing accounts of what went on, particularly in regard to the author’s main subject and his attitude towards it. Interestingly, while the occult historians tend to be sympathetic to Parsons and the Scientologist authors less so, neither have much good to say about Hubbard.

• Page 13

  John Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, Electronic Edition, pp70 The authors writing about Scientology tend to view Hubbard as genuine practitioner of magick, invariably described as ‘black magic’ which implies the magicians goals were “evil (whatever that may mean) though most occultists would define Black Magic as nefarious, materialistic and self-centered in nature. While this does not prove that Hubbard held a belief in the (supernatural) efficacy of magic, he was no bystander. A strong case, in fact, can be made that Scientology is simply magic stripped of its trappings and dressed up as science (or at least sharing many of the same underlying theories); there is a good deal of occult theory in the writing of Hubbard, though presented with a veneer of modernity. The Scientology focused works tend to have an outsider view of occult practices, which is to say, the perspective of all but the tiniest fraction of the population. This seems to inspire a lot of erroneous detail. For example. In 1939, Parsons …joined the O.T.O., Ordo Templi Orientis, an international organization founded by Crowley to practice sexual magic.

• Page 14

  On the other hand, the works focused on Hubbard make a point that is often glossed in the occult chroniclers, namely the fact that while Parsons was the performer of the rites (the operator) it was Hubbard that acted as the Medium (called, confusingly, the scribe in Liber 49) and so the communication came through him. It is this fact that opens the Pandora’s box that is Hubbard’s (and thus Scientology’s) relationship with magick. This is because nature of the ritual, an invocation, requires that the spirit being summoned is drawn into the body of the seer or clairvoyant. Therefore, leaving aside for the moment the question of whether or not magick actually allows one to call down gods or daemons or is, rather a generator of psychological phenomenon, the ritual put Hubbard into direct communion with Babalon, a phenomenon found in most religions in some sense and known to most people as possession^”^.

• Page 14

  The occult oriented writers usually point out that Hubbard was a con artist (correctly) and dismiss him out-of-hand. The entire episode has many striking parallels with the relationship between Jon Dee, the English Renaissance man and creator of the Enochian (Angelic) system of magic and his own clairvoyant or scryer Edward Talbot, a.k.a. Kelley. There are several good studies of Dee and Kelley and many more of their work which should provide some insight as to the nature of both the relationship between Parsons and Hubbard and the Babalon Working in general.

• Page 15

  2, L. (Lafayette) Ron Hubbard – During the 1920s, L. Ron Hubbard traveled twice to the Far East to visit his parents during his father’s posting to the United States Navy base on Guam.

• Page 15

  Hubbard next pursued writing, publishing many stories and novellas in pulp magazines during the 193Os.[4] He became a well-known author in the science fiction and fantasy genres, and also published westerns and adventure stories. Critics often cite “Final Blackout”, set in a war- ravaged future Europe, and “Fear”, a psychological horror story, as the best examples of Hubbard’s pulp fiction. His 1938 manuscript “Excalibur” contained many concepts and ideas that later turned up in Scientology.

• Page 16

  Hubbard married Margaret “Polly” Grubb in 1933, with whom he fathered two children, L. Ron, Jr. (1934-1991) and Katherine May (born 1936). They lived in Bremerton, Washington during the late 1930s. His introduction to Parsons is recorded… One afternoon in August 1945, Lou Goldstone, a well-known science-fiction illustrator and a frequent visitor to South Orange Grove Avenue, turned up with L. Ron Hubbard, who was then on leave from the Navy. Jack Parsons liked Ron immediately, perhaps recognized in him a kindred spirit, and invited him to move in for the duration of his leave.

• Page 16

  4, Marjorie Cameron – When (Parsons and Hubbard) returned to South Orange Grove Avenue, they found the ‘scarlet woman’ waiting for them. Her name was Marjorie Cameron and in truth she was not very much different from many of the unconventional and free-spirited young women who had gravitated to the Bohemian lodging house in Pasadena. But Parsons was convinced that she was his libidinous elemental spirit, not least because it transpired she was not only willing, but impatient, to participate in the magical and sexual escapades he had in mind. ‘She is describable’, he wrote in the ‘Book of Babalon’, ‘as an air of fire type, with bronze red hair, fiery and subtle.

• Page 20

  In the Book of Babalon, Parsons summarizes the rituals performed in the first part of the Working, in order to ‘summon’ an appropriate host for his Moonchild. Alexander Mitchell discusses, in the Babalon Working, Parson’s and Hubbard’s relationship which is a key to deciphering the Will (or neuroses) of Parson’s that underlie the operation: Parsons wrote to Crowley in July, 1945, “About three months ago I met [Hubbard], a writer and explorer of whom I had known for some time [because he wrote science fiction] …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… We are pooling our resources in a partnership that 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 need a magical partner. I have many experiments in mind…”

• Page 23

  Apparently, Wilfred Smith, the formed head of Agape Lodge. According to Kenneth Grant in the Magical Revival, Smith had seduced Parson’s first wife and had been expelled from the O.T.O. by Crowley. Though it seems that Parsons was the victim in their squabble. Smith attacked Parsons astrally and was caught by some knives thrown by Hubbard.

• Page 112

  1946 – After Wilfred Smith is expelled for using the Lodge as a “brothel”, Parsons seems to be the heir apparent. He meets L. Ron Hubbard and the two begin work to invoke an “elemental”. After Parsons performs a series of rituals, a woman – of flesh and blood – named Marjorie Cameron appears and Parsons takes this as the successful outcome of his working. Soon after. Parsons makes contact with a spiritual force he identifies as Babalon (or Babylon) the personification of the Great Whore in the Book of Revelation. He describes this contact in a letter to Crowley;

• Page 113

  Crowley, in a letter to Carl Germer says; “Apparently Parsons or Hubbard or somebody is producing a Moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts.”

• Page 113

  A much-chastened Parsons wrote to Crowley on July 5, “Here I am in Miami pursuing the children of my folly. 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 spent. I will be lucky to salvage 3,000 to 5,000 dollars.” Just how Parsons managed to capture the errant lovers is in keeping with the other extraordinary chapters of this story. “Hubbard attempted to escape me,” Parsons wrote, “by sailing at 5 p.m. and performed a full invocation to the Bartzabel within the circle at 8p.m. (a curse). At the same time, however, 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.

• Page 114

  Betty Northrup had run off with Hubbard, taking most of Parsons’ savings which had been sunk into a “investment’ company and Jack had gone after them. As Grant says in Magical Revival, it appears that Parsons “had the makings of a real Magician” and this shows he could also perform “results” magick with success.

• Page 119

  Kenneth Grant, Hecate’s Fountain, Skoob, pp24 On February 27 my magical partner went East for a visit, and on Feb. 281 went back to the Mojave, invoking BABALON. During this invocation, the presence of the Goddess came upon me, and I was commanded to write the following communication…We may take not of a couple of things; first, the time frame which the reception of the Book took place in, namely the period between the completion (and fulfillment) of the original operation that Parsons and Hubbard undertook to conjure an “elemental ’ for magickal purposes.

• Page 119

  While not stated explicitly, it seems likely that Parsons had something in mind not far off from what he attempted in the actual Babalon Working at this point. The idea of literally incarnating Babalon, however may not have (yet) occurred to him when he began the rituals that produced Marjorie Cameron, and so there is some degree of uncertainty whether Liber 49 was the origin of this idea or it was the confirmation of a thought Parsons was already entertaining. Recall that Parsons wrote to Crowley. / have had the most important – devastating experience of my life between February 2 and March 4.1 believe it was the result of the 9th [degree] working with the girl who answered my elemental summons. 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.This seems to indicate that the contact was made as a consequence of his work with the “girl” (Marjorie Cameron) Parsons and Hubbard “summoned” though he says “I believe it was the result of the 9th .. .working” which implies – though not conclusively – that the contact was unexpected and therefore initiated by Babalon. We should also keep in mind that the Moonchild, at least as it is discussed in the novel of that name, would have been an elemental impregnated into a human fetus, whereas Parsons seems to have conjured an elemental to in turn impregnate with the god, which implies Parsons assumed that the elemental was already incarnate. Whether this was a case of Parsons being original or the influence of the “contact” is, again, not clear from the extant records.

• Page 120

  Parsons letter to Crowley, quote in Alexander Mitchell The Sunday Times 5 October 1969 Spectrum SCIENTOLOGY: Revealed for the first time Second, as there is a tendency of writers on the subject to dismiss the entire affair as the manipulations of Hubbard, it is important to note that the above passage makes clear Parsons was alone when Liber 49 was received. Whatever part Hubbard may have played in the affair, in this case he was not responsible for the developments which produced the book.

• Page 125

  … consider Doreen Valiente’s observation to me concerning “the Parsons connection”. I quote from her letter above mentioned, one of several she was kind enough to send me in 1986 in connection with my research into this matter. …I did know about the existence of the O.T.O. Chapter in California at the time of Crowley’s death, because I believe his ashes were sent over to them. He was cremated here in Brighton, you know, much to the scandal of the local authorities, who objected to the ‘pagan funeral service.’ If you are referring to the group of which Jack Parsons was a member (along with the egregious Mr. L. Ron Hubbard), then there is another curious little point to which I must draw your attention. I have a remarkable little book by Jack Parsons called MAGICK, GNOSTICISM AND THE WITCHCRAFT. It is unfortunately undated, but Parsons died in 1952. The section on witchcraft is particularly

• Page 134

  Allen Greenfield, whose work^^^ on the “New Aeon English Qabala” prompted my own reexamination of Liber 49 and subsequent consideration of the subject of this book, applied the Kabalistic Key of the Cipher of Liber Al vel Legis and came to rather different conclusions; he says THE New Aeon Qabala (NAEQ66), also known as “the Secret Cipher of the UFOnauts” reveals a great deal about Parsons, Hubbard, and The Book of Babalon itself/^^^

• Page 134

  Greenfield says Hubbard almost certainly used his considerable charismatic and hypnotic ability to implant Parsons with a bogus “4th Chapter of The Book of the Law” — but he could not resist leaving his signature all over it, in terms of his name, ideas and motives. I find this less than obvious, especially after considering the examples from Greenfield’s book. The first example is the fact that LA FAYETTE RON = 248 = LIBER 49 1. YEA IT IS. The phrase is, of course, the opening words of Liber 49, but there is nothing in the text to set these words apart, especially considering the phrase must include the verse number – 1 – to make it work. There is also the question of the books form as received, as there is no manuscript extant, so we must assume that the words are exactly as Parsons heard them. It seems overly clever and obscure. If the phrase Yea, it is I, Babalon were equal to Hubbard’s name then the argument would be much stronger. Also, recall that in discussing the reception above , I noted that Hubbard was no where near the Mojave Desert when the communication took

• Page 135

  Greenfield also points out that 248 = BABALON AND I SHALL BE FREE, though this suffers from the same issue as the previous quote in that it is formed from a string of words chosen, apparently, at random. Finally, Hubbard’s son Ron, Jr. has said that his father told him the blood of the Scarlet Woman (is) the key to ‘real power Aside from the fact that Hubbard’s son had an axe to grind with Daddy’^^, the idea could have been gotten from any number of lurid paperback books that mentioned Crowley and, as the Scarlet Woman concept was obviously not original to Parsons nor a secret, this seems weak at best. The statement by “Junior” was to the effect that Hubbard valued “The blood of their bodies, the blood of their souls,” which sounds more like something out of a Dennis Wheatly novel not something Hubbard would say to his son. So if {i)t should therefore come as no surprise that L. RON HUBBARD = 115 = BLOOD TO BLOOD in The Book of Babalon^^^, it should equally come as no surprise that I see it as essentially worthless. The last bit from Secret Rituals we will look at does have significance, though Greenfield seems to ignore it: The Book of Babalon also refers to future witch covens as of eleven, strange wording (as covens are traditionally 13), until one applies NAEQ66: COVENS = 74, or 7+4= 11!^^^ As mentioned previously, the number 11 is important to the book – in fact the Key to it – and as Crowley says; “Firstly”, 11 is the number of Magick in itself It is therefore suitable to all types of operation. “Secondly”, it is the sacred number par excellence of the new Aeon. As it is written in the Book of the Law: “…11, as all their numbers who are of us.

• Page 213

  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.

Notes