The Story
John (Jack) Whiteside Parsons (born Marvel Whiteside Parsons) pioneered early rocket research and was a bohemian dandy. Jack had a home in Pasadena, which he used as an ersatz clubhouse, allowing various bohemian types to live and work there. He researched rocketry in a lab on the CalTech campus until he and his cohorts were asked to move out to Arroyo Seco for safety reasons. The group was nicknamed "The Suicide Club" due to test rockets periodically exploding. For this reason, the University felt it was safer to have the group test off-campus. It's not hard to understand why. Arroyo Seco, meaning "dry stream" in Spanish, is a 24.9-mile-long seasonal river, canyon, and watershed. It was home to a feature ominously (and maybe appropriately) named The Devil's Gate, which derived its name long ago from a rocky outcrop along the Arroyo Seco that resembled the profile of the head of a horned figure.
Jack Whiteside Parsons, a pioneer in early rocket research, had seen too much and was disillusioned with humanity's unfulfilled potential. The 'official' story is that Jack embarked on a ritual to open a dimensional portal, allowing a modern form of the proto-goddess to enter our world, incarnating and merging with a human woman. The intended outcome was the creation of a new archetype for the Aeon- the Warrior Woman. The modern name for this archetype was Babalon. The variant of the spelling "Babalon" is to delineate the role of the ancient city from the entity. In her most abstract form, Babalon symbolizes the female sexual impulse and the liberated woman. She is also associated with Mother Earth in her most fertile and warrior-like aspect. Beyond being an archetype or goddess, Babalon is believed to have an earthly manifestation or avatar: a living woman who held the spiritual role of the "Scarlet Woman."
The earliest form of the word "freedom" appeared in the ancient Sumerians. The word "Ama-gi" meant the liberation of slaves. The literal translation is "return to mother," as the former slaves "returned to their mothers."
Jack went to a remote area in the Mojave Desert to perform this ritual. This event is known as The Babalon Working in the Thelemic tradition, of which Jack was a practitioner. The official story goes that he successfully performed the ritual during this trip. However, due to our intimate connection to the leading players, we know something slightly different than the official narrative occurred.
Contrary to the dominant narrative, Jack's first attempt at this ritual, performed at an undisclosed location in the Mojave desert, was initially perceived by him as unsuccessful. According to conversations with a few people, Jack expressed profound disappointment with his failure. This failure left Jack distraught and somewhat manic. He had put a lot of time and effort into this work, emotionally staking a lot on its success. Reeling from the failure, Jack went home in a state of cognitive dissonance. When he arrived home, he unexpectedly encountered a woman with flaming red hair waiting on his doorstep. This was Marjorie Cameron, who was there seeking a room. Jack saw this as a sign. According to tradition, red hair is one sign that signifies a woman's adjacency to Babalonian principles. Hence, Marjorie appeared to be a "Scarlett Woman," sent as a response to the ritual. Jack took this as a sign that the ritual was simply in its initial phases rather than the abject failure he had initially assumed. It was, in fact, in motion, analogous to the first domino in a series to fall.
Marjorie was there because she had heard that the libertine environment at Jack's residence was ideal for someone like her. Jack had inherited an extensive manor in Pasadena, known colloquially as "The Parsonage." It was infamous for being a hub of magickal and bohemian activity for the area. Jack even rented out many of the upstairs rooms to people he found intellectually and artistically stimulating. Marjorie had deduced that Jack and his cohorts at the Parsonage might provide the very kind of dynamic environment that she craved.
Marjorie was a free spirit and an example of a strong, independent woman, unusual for that time in American history. Jack was pleased to meet her and even went so far as to record in his journal that he considered her an emissary from Babalon. Hence, in his opinion, the ritual wasn't a complete failure. He rationalized that his actions had set something in motion that was working towards a conclusion. In other words, the game was still afoot.
Marjorie eventually became Jack's lover, confidante, and partner in life and in performing magickal rituals. After vetting Jack appropriately, Marjorie confided that she was a member of an old order with a "current" of knowledge that would allow him to successfully open a portal and let in interdimensional influences. Marjorie recognized that Babalon was merely a modern incarnation of the older Sumerian and pre-Sumerian avatar of the Apocalypse. Babalon is the most recent name of a timeless force, a spirit, the feminine warrior principle known in former Aeons as Tiamat, Inanna, Ishtar, Sekhmet, Ankt, Sekhmet, and others. The name is unimportant. The principle it describes is what's vital here. The Apocalypse was simply a modern Western shorthand for rebooting the current cycle, ushering in the Age of Horus, or using an updated nomenclature for the Atomic Age. Remember, "Apocalypse" has come to be used popularly as a synonym for catastrophe. The Greek word apokálypsis, from which it is derived, means a revelation or a revealing.
This "old order," or the "Mython Labyrinthi" as it is now known, was founded by an English immigrant, a woman known only as "The Crone" by her followers. The order claimed to carry ancient knowledge about a parallel world and the methods to access it. The Celts called it the Otherworld. Again, it is named differently by different cultures at different times. After emigrating to the U.S., "The Crone" settled in Laurel Canyon, near the old Houdini mansion. This was only natural, as Laurel Canyon is a power spot, attracting many from the bohemian/arts scene and practitioners of the "dark arts."
Marjorie was an influential member of this coven. The Crone, by this time, was growing old. Sensing her time was nigh, the Crone appointed Marjorie as her successor. Soon after, the Crone passed to the other side, and the coven relocated to Pasadena at the behest of their new leader. Marjorie wanted them to be near the burgeoning occult scene in which, coincidentally, Jack was a major player. Many weird and wonderful things were afoot in Pasadena then. Marjorie sensed her group should be nearby in the Magickal Proximity tradition.
Eventually, Marjorie introduced Jack to her secret coven in Pasadena. With the gift of sight, several coven members decided that Jack may be a person foretold in dreams as one who would sacrifice himself to rend the veil between the worlds. Since Jack had previously expressed his dissatisfaction with this world and its inhabitants, it was decided that he should be presented with the option. It is unclear if Marjorie was fully aware of the ramifications of this choice. Jack was the subject of a complicated ritual to ensure that he was indeed the one who was foretold to "immanentize the eschaton." The signs resulting from the ritual pointed to Jack as the one who was foretold.
The group presented Jack with a ritual that leveraged an unnamed German occultist's techniques. This nameless woman later mentored a young Kenneth Grant and, previous to that, influenced Aleister Crowley. This nameless "Fraulein" dealt in arcane rituals that called upon the old and pre-Sumerian gods. She influenced a burgeoning European community who felt that the only way to begin a new era (Aeon) was to open the barrier between this world and another where primal forces dwelt, similar in concept to the Greek Titans. More expressions of raw, natural forces than anthropomorphic God and Goddess forms. The "Old Ones" would cleanse this world and allow a new one to emerge.
The ritual was guaranteed to open a portal to a Lovecraftian-like realm where the spirit of Babalon resides. The plan was that the essence of Babalon could cross into this world and inhabit Marjorie. Marjorie would then give birth to the avatar of the new Aeon. The beginning of the end could then commence with Babalon embodied in this realm. It is not mentioned if this conception would be by a union with a human man, a divine immaculate conception, or some other method. It is unclear if anyone involved really knew this detail or if they did; they weren't telling.
Using the rituals that the Mython Labyrinthi gave him, Jack successfully opened the portal in the spring of 1947. As a result, we note that just after Parsons practiced the ritual, on June 24, 1947, Kenneth A. Arnold made the first widely reported UFO sighting of 9 silver disc-like craft in Washington state. As many have pointed out, this began a new age. As expected, the ritual opened the portal, but Parsons accidentally created a vast, unexpected fracture in the space-time continuum. Or maybe that was someone's plan all along.
Nevertheless, Parsons could not seal this portal or gate due to 'inexperience, lack of knowledge, or just plain carelessness. Again, it is unknown if this was an intended side effect on the part of some coven members. Many point to this event and others soon after, such as the supposed crash at Roswell, New Mexico, and similar events, as a pronounced ripple effect resulting from the ritual. Some have conjectured that Jack was given an incomplete ritual, specifically to permanently open a rift, making him the equivalent of a magickal suicide bomber. Crowley famously did these kinds of dirty tricks of omission, where he would leave out the banishing of a troublesome entity after describing its invocation.
We know this was the beginning of the end of the Mython Labyrinthi as we knew it. Things began changing, as often happens with these power workings. Few covens and lodges survive the aftershock of such events.
We know this much to be true. The spirit of Babalon did indeed come through and inhabit Marjorie. She did confirm that much. Still, we do not know if a Magickal Childe, to bring about the end, was ever conceived and/or born. There are conflicting reports about that. Some say she birthed a Moon Child, as it was known, and raised it secretly at a ranch in the desert. Wild rumors were spread via whisper campaigns that the hole in the desert that Charles Manson and his Family were searching for was none other than the lair of this offspring. That seems kind of far out, but who can say? Some say the child was conceived energetically, emerged into this world through Marjorie, and moves in our world as a spirit inhabiting select humans to this day. Some say she had an abortion in a fit of conscience (or madness) or even that she had a miscarriage. The latter is explained as Marjorie not being "up to the task" physically or magickally. In contrast, others say nothing transpired (except rumors), and she unexceptionally continued her life. Rumors abound. Rumors always abound.
Meanwhile, having continued his life, Parsons had pivoted to making pyrotechnic devices for film studios. Rumors about his past lifestyle proved to be more than the military/industrial/corporate culture of the time was prepared to handle. Cast adrift by his former colleagues, he moved on from rocketry as most people would in these situations. For all we know, he put the ordeal of the ritual behind him, maybe chalking it up to youthful indiscretion. Regarding the ritual and its "price," we know that on June 17, 1952, while preparing to leave the country for Mexico and then Israel, he received a rush order for explosives for a film set and began to work on it in his home laboratory. Suddenly, an explosion destroyed the lower part of the building, during which Parsons sustained mortal wounds. His right forearm was amputated, his legs and left arm were broken, and a hole was torn in the right side of his face. Despite these critical injuries, Parsons was found conscious by the upstairs lodgers. He tried to communicate with the arriving ambulance workers, who rushed him to the Huntington Memorial Hospital, where he was declared dead approximately thirty-seven minutes after the explosion. When his mother, Ruth, learned of his death, she immediately took a fatal overdose of barbiturates.
Pasadena Police Department criminologist Don Harding led the official investigation and concluded that Parsons had been mixing Mercury(II) fulminate (a very volatile and unstable chemical) in a coffee can when he dropped it on the floor. This caused the initial explosion, which intensified when it came into contact with other chemicals in the room. Parsons' friends considered this likely, noting that he often had sweaty hands and could easily have dropped the can. However, other colleagues rejected this explanation, asserting that Parsons was always attentive to safety. Two colleagues from the Bermite Powder Company described Parsons' work habits as "scrupulously neat" and "exceptionally cautious." Chemical engineer George Santymers stated that the explosion must have originated from beneath the floorboards, implying a plot to kill Parsons. While Harding acknowledged these inconsistencies as "incongruous," he described Parsons' method of storing chemicals as "criminally negligent." He noted Parsons had previously been investigated for illegally storing chemicals. He also found a syringe filled with morphine at the scene, suggesting Parsons was under the influence of narcotics. Ultimately, the police found insufficient evidence to continue the investigation and closed the case as an accidental death. Whatever the reason, the timing and the method of Parson's death are suspicious at best.
Marjorie went on to become an infamous Hollywood bohemian, painting, exhibiting, and acting in occult films by Kenneth Anger while starting a new coven, originally called The Children, but later changing their name to The New M ∴ L ∴ and moving to a ranch in the Mojave Desert. This new coven comprised new people and a few hand-picked members of Mython Labyrinthi. As you might imagine, and as seems to be the custom with occult groups, the parting was not amicable. As you may have noted, this record is the remembrance of the remnants of the original Mython Labyrinthi, so everything beyond the point of the reformation of the group, as it were, is based on trusted sources from inside The New M ∴ L ∴, sources adjacent to them and logical and educated speculation. We'll point out the nature of our sources when we can.