Philosophical Rogues and Antiheroes of the Intellectual: Jack Parsons.

(Jack Parsons and Marjorie Cameron circa 1947)

The late Marjorie Cameron was one of the most interesting artists of her era, who could also be considered an aesthetic enigma of the Los Angeles counter culture art scene of the late 1940s through to the 1980s. Yet, before we delve into her intriguing and obscure world, including her devotion and love to the ill fated rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons.

Living in a post World War Two California would have been a fascinating time, America initiating its massive reconstruction projects throughout Western Europe and the beginning of a Cold War with Russia, but more importantly was the firm imprint set down from a powerful socio-economic class which we now know as the middle class.  Culturally it was born of a society that had evolved out of the dawn of nuclear power and the excitement and wonder of technology which it produced, but beneath the surface of this new found modernist world, that from afar held an appeal of stability and contentment, was also the rumblings  of a growing counter culture.  If there was backlash against this postwar 1940s and 50's homogeneity, it was done subtly to its prelude of 1960s society turmoil, a term was citied to categorized an interest in the Bohemian, known as the Beat Generation or Beatniks, which was coined by journalist Herb Caen In 1958 to describe the beginning of a counter culture movement.  However it was the 'Beat' writer Jack Kerouac in 1948 who first promoted a pseudonymous banner to describe writers and artists that would capitulate the Beat Generation, but like all aspects of popular culture reference the commercialization on the Beatniks was all but an inevitably as the 60's loomed and the next counter culture, the hippies, identified with the anti-consumerism foundation set by the writers, musicians and artists of the late 1940s and 50's Beat Generation.  However, their was another subculture that by its definition should have been scorned by America's new found conservatism but was instead, in a paradoxical way, although not blatantly, somewhat accepted into the age of technological advancement and its cold war manifestations; this underground culture was known as Occultism.

If there was a stirring counter culture of Occultism within the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, as a decade the followed World War Two, it had to convince a deeply spiritual America, that had embraced whole heartily the institutionalization of religion under the Christian banner, which at the time half of the American population attended church on a regular bases.  With the uniformity of 1950s suburban life reliant on its homogeneous template, the desire to seek other aspects of its identity began to be sourced through the spiritual and philosophical medium rather than the artistic one, although merging into a variants of this backlash it was achieved with less of a brashness which occurred later throughout the 1960s.   But, as newer technologies became more prevalent in everyday households and America's Cold War military machine pursued a relentless nuclear arms race with Russia, the experimentation with belief systems became more apparent within American society.  And this accepting of elements of the occult in 50's America, even though as an aesthetic on a broader scale it was seen as a novelty,  the American military, for a period of time during the early stages of the Cold War up until the 1970s, did indeed explore the possibility of psychic abilities.  Mostly researched in so called remote viewing, the ability to use the mind to view secret Russia military secrets, but the underlying science to the occult was murky at best.  Yet, one of the most talented rocket scientist's of that period, a man by the name of Jack Parsons ended up being the more infamous of the late 1940s and early 50's occult followers and certainty the most charismatic.

Parsons was born in 1914 Los Angeles, California, under the birth name: Marvel Whiteside Parsons.  Although raised in an affluent environment, his parents came under extreme hardship during the Great Depression and as a teenager, which could be seen as his escapism, began his fascination with science fiction in particular the drawn imagery of rockets and spaceships.  After later dropping out of college and University due to to the enrollment costs, this amateur rocket scientist would continue, well into his twenties, a keen interest in the field of solid fuel research for rocket propulsion.  And during World War Two, despite not being academically certified as a rocket scientist, Parson and his colleagues at the time were able to secure a grant in developing Jet Propulsion technology.   But, it was during the late 1930s, Parsons, who was inspired by aspects of Marxism and by the early 1940s had shifted from political theory, to whole heartily embracing occultist Aleister Crowley's belief system called Thelema, merging both his interest of rocket science with the occult.  What might seem like an unorthodox combination, believing Crowley's magic rituals could unlock the secrets to quantum physics.  In 1941 he and his small band of researchers, lead by Parsons, created the first Jet Assisted Take Off engines for the US air force, by developing a stable sold rocket fuel, with its prolonged shelf life – this breakthrough was groundbreaking for rocket science.   The actual formulation, which Parsons innovated, ended up being used many decades later in the NASA shuttle rockets and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The success lead to Parsons founding the Aerojet Engineering Corporation to begin production on the composite rocket fuel, but it was his growing interest in the Thelema religion which proved to be the most significant aspect of his life and how it lead to him eventually meeting the artist Marjorie Cameron. By 1942, at the request of Aleister Crowley Parsons became the head of the Agape Lodge Ordo Templi Orientis, holding regular meetings within the lodge, it was his occult connections that proved to be troublesome for the young rocket engineer, particularly when he had an affair with his then wife Helen Parsons, younger sister Sara.   The cult persona of Thelema under Aleister Crowley's teaching allowed multiple sexual partners, yet, Parsons also added the allure of psychedelic drug taking to which he believed, in various sexual rituals would invoke spiritual portals through space and time.   More importantly, during the late 1940s was one ritual called “The Babalon Working”, to create an incarnation of what would be deemed as the perfect feminine entity known, though Crowley's beliefs, as Babalon.  And the pulp fiction science fiction writer, at that time, L.Ron Hubbard, who was also a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis, contributed in these drug induced rituals.  Soon after, the red haired Marjorie Cameron appeared at Parsons O.T.O lodge, believing that she was indeed the ritualized female that he and Hubbard apparently conjured.  Thus, this was the beginning of Cameron's relationship with Parsons, as a young woman who was an unemployed illustrator, introduced to the rocket engineer and occultist by a person leasing a room from Parsons mansion in Pasadena, California. 

Parsons Occult beliefs would eventually interfere with his career as a rocket scientist, in 1944 he was removed from the companies that he co-formed;  Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Aerojet, due to the negative publicity of O.T.O lodge.  Searching for business ideas, he was squadded out of money by L.Ron Hubbard on a scam to sell yachts made in Miami to sell to wealthy West Coast buyers.  To which Hubbard and Sara, Parsons once lover, fled with his life savings, setting up Scientology soon after.  Parsons and Cameron then married in 1946, but in the years of McCarthyism that followed, Parsons became stigmatized for his beliefs and was unable to get a job in rocket science.   In the early 1950s he was able to get contract work via an explosive company that was used by Hollywood for film production.  Cameron and Parsons began to host the growing interest in  Beat Generation idealisms, which included the 50's counterculture writers and artists.  This could be more attuned to Cameron exploring her interest into the art and film world, away from the Thelema cult beliefs to which Parsons was also drifting away from Crowley's original teachings, after the  death of its founder Aleister Crowley in 1947.    

On June 17^th 1952, whilst attempting to fulfill an explosive order by a Hollywood studio that hired Parsons, in an accident, he set off an explosion in his home workshop.  After being rushed to hospital, he was declared dead upon arrival.  Jack Parsons death had a profound impact on Marjorie Cameron, who, prior to Parsons fatal accident her and Parsons began experimenting with the concepts of Witchcraft, moving on from Thelema yet maintaining the magic rituals.   

Thus her artistic and unorthodox lifestyle begins thereafter the tragic accident that claimed her husband in 1952.

___

(A.Glass 2021)