Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons

Rating:
Summary: Parsons WASN'T that important
Review: A fascinating character rendered lifeless by the author. I knew I was in trouble when the book started with gems such as "...young John Parsons was born...". By definition, everybody is young when they are born, no need to point it out. The book reads like an essay written for English 121.

5 stars for Jack Parsons. -2 stars for John Carter's flaccid writing. 0 stars for RAWs embarrassing introduction.

Rating:
Summary: A Compulsive & Restless Spirit
Review: A Review from BLACK PEARL: The Journal of the College of Thelema (Vol. I, No. 71, March, 2000). Copyright 2000, College of Thelema (permission by editor granted Amazon Books to use). With its campy sci-fi cover featuring a leggy woman, a rocket ship, and the Enochian alphabet, the tone is set for this long overdue biography of Jack Parsons, the man at ground zero of what we now consider the modern "arts" of rocketry, science fiction, and magick. In this treatment by John Carter (pseudo-nym), Parsons comes across as a compulsive and restless spirit who, in his short lifetime, attempted to reconcile these seemingly strange bedfellows - with varying degrees of success. Seeming almost gossipy at times, the book reads with deceptive ease for a biography, due in large part to its lack of in-depth background information on Crowley and related occult theory. Though brief histo-ries of the O.T.O., Enochian magick, and the like are given, the reader is wisely referred to other sources, thereby avoiding what could easily become a massive and confusing tome where the import of Parsons' contributions would be lost. This makes Sex & Rockets a treat for those with a knowledge of Thelema and the esoteric. By the same token, this allows the casual reader to enjoy all the "good stuff," supplementing their knowledge as they see fit. Ultimately, I am inclined to agree with the author that, at the end of the day, Parsons' contributions to rocketry are vastly underrated and those to the occult overrated. However, I think that Parsons' approach to Thelema, and the occult in general, was highly subjective and, taking into account his own personal demons, his methods may gain merit as time goes by and may even become considered innovative. The book culminates in the chapter "Death and Beyond," a veritable avalanche of tangential relation-ships and events as diverse as UFOs and Beat Culture, leaving one with much food for thought. Knowledgeable, well researched, with great photos, and not a little scandalous, this book is seminal. - GREG FIORINI

Rating:
Summary: Shines Needed Light on the Moon Children
Review: Jack Parsons, the California based rocket scientist/visionary functioned as a kind of sacrificial poster boy, an ersatz Ahriman for not only the Military-Industrial but also the Occult complexes looming at large. His short, yet brilliant life as a promoter of explosives ended in an ironically mysterious conflagration perhaps born of his own making, the kind of termination amounting to nothing more foreshadowing apostrophe. Parsons possessed the kind of naivete needed to pull off such a stunt, a perverted innocence detrimental to his prospective future as a technical oracle. The forces at large working against him, mostly in the form of the vampiric thugs, namely Aleister Crowley and L. Ron Hubbard, took full advantage of Parson's inherent vulnerability. Fortunately, these sleazy con-archetypes and the tragedies they have promoted in the form of the Golden Dawn/OTO and Scientology are adequately exposed, in compelling fashion, in Sex and Rockets: The Occult Life of Jack Parsons (wisely written under the pseudonym of John Carter) published by Feral House. The book functions, in a balanced way, as both warning as well as entertainment. The recessed quality of the journalism found in Sex and Rockets , obviously written by a mature mind capable of withstanding the myriads of seductively dangerous trappings of the occult, allows the reader into a world usually rife with distortion and intentional disinformation. The author's ability to resist sensationalizing the subject matter allows us to appreciate Jack Parson's own personal charisma and the susceptibility that lead to his demise. Whether or not Parsons was himself a sacrificial victim of the occult forces he attempted to entertain matters little in light of the glaring fact that black magic and rocket fuel should never be mixed. Obviously our anti-hero could not withstand the Gung Ho obliviousness of his peers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California where he worked nor the cryptic repercussions of the Baby-Lon magick workings of Aleister Cowardly and L. Ron Hubbard, the dubious promoters of a kind of lower astral plane egotism so popular with most occult aficionados. Perhaps the many bastard Moon Children currently at large, spawned from such horrid rituals adequately described in Sex and Rockets have the needed insights to Parson's death and purpose in life hidden in their very genetic makeup. It shouldn't be too hard for us to find such orphans of sorcery. Many of these hatchlings are working for Microsoft now, much too comfortable with their ample stock options and pension plans to care about how indistinguishable the occult and technology have become. It is these heirs to the legacy of the founding Fathers and Mothers of Black Magick, American style, that our current missles should be aimed at. Perhaps that is what Jack was hinting at all along, between the lines of his pitiful self indictment, using his murder/accident/suicide as the fuel for his parabolic mission. Maybe a smidgen of conscience overtook Parsons in his final hour and he himself ignited his own witches brew that lead to his demise in a kind of combustible albeit altruistic Hari Kari that someday Hollywood will pay adequate homage to. If indeed he was murdered or even accidented into the afterlife, the irony of his incarnation will still pervade for years to come, thanks to the efforts and responsibility of the author of Sex and Rockets., whoever he or she may be.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Work on an Incredible Man
Review: Most people today have never heard of Parsons, and many who do underestimate the importance of his work. Parsons was a brilliant individual who led a colorful and offbeat life. Until now, however, very little information has been made available about him. This book is a much needed and very absorbing piece of little-known American history. It was well written and kept me reading non-stop. My only complaint is that it wasn't longer and more in-depth, but the author did a great job with the sources he was able to dig up. One of my favorite bios!

Rating:
Summary: biography of an interesting critter
Review: Sex and Rockets is a biography of John Whiteside Parsons, one of the most important men in the development of rocketry and space exploration. (...)This book, however, is about his life. It chronicles his growth and development in the professional arena more than the occult arena, although that is touched upon also. His relationships with other important people, such as the mysterious L. Ron Hubbard of Scientology fame, are discussed, as are the suspicious circumstances of his death by explosion in his home workshop.

I do not know if the material is accurate, but it seems well researched and makes interesting reading. There is an excellent introdcution by Robert Anton Wilson that is well worth reading in its own right. Parsons was an interesting critter, and this book will give you a bit more information about his life and the circumstances in which he lived.

"I seem to be living in a nation that simply does not know what freedom is."
J.W. Parsons

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating biography with science, SF, & the occult
Review: Sex and Rockets provides an intriguing story of the occult worlds and interests of one Jack Parsons, a scientist whose rocket fuel innovations helped win World War II. As the years passed he began more detailed explorations into the occult, trying to create a 'moonchild' with magical powers, and his biography ties in many elements of science fiction, occult interests, and science. Hard to classify but equally hard to put down.

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Summary: Enhanced with Parson's never-before-printed writings
Review: Sex And Rockets: The Occult World Of Jack Parsons is the engaging, highly recommended biography of John Whiteside (Jack) Parsons, a primary architect of modern rocket science and co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Parsons (who had a crater on the dark side of the moon named for him) had dark, secretive interests which overshadowed his outstanding public career for Parsons underwrote Aleister Crowley's "Book of the Law", held numerous soirees celebrating science fiction, and performed weird black magic rituals under the eyes of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. After being investigated by the FBI and become estranged with the United States government, Parsons met his death when a mysterious explosion leveled his home. Sex And Rockets is riveting reading, enhanced with Parson's never-before-printed writings and period photographs.

Rating:
Summary: Ascending by any means
Review: Space exploration and especially rocketry had by the middle of the last century acquired a definite, though often understated spiritual / religious meaning, which meanwhile more or less has faded away again, while space has grown up into a mature technology. (No doubt this spiritual significance was taken over from older exploits: just gazing at the stars at one point would no longer do.) The concept of achieving a quasi alchemical transformation by going at the limits of the atmosphere (even though not literally going to heaven) kept researchers going in times when even military applications were questionable, everything else a very remote possibility and funding proportionally scarce.

In this biography of John Parsons, Carter provides valuable insight into these processes as they unfolded in the U.S. during the 1940s and 50s. For Parsons and quite a number of his acquaintances, there seems to have been a continuum between technological and magical approaches towards transformation, science fiction serving as the discursive medium that could contain these oddly matched strivings. Solid fuel testing was just a couple of hours away from conducting magical rituals. Next to the modest but real rockets Parsons and his colleagues produced stood Robert A. Heinlein's imaginary space ships, while in the same long shadow of British magus Aleister Crowley, L. Ron Hubbard was brooding on an altogether different kind of science fiction.

Carter seems to have put considerable work into turning up as much (or as little) evidence as there is left after 50 eventful years, and together with lavish illustrations and some reprinted documents he succeeds in giving the reader some of the flavor of the life of his protagonist. There is a number of minor mistakes in his background descriptions, but on the whole, it is a very readable and informative account.

On the other hand, it's hard to read a book like this without a feeling of déjà vu - you may have read the whole story about sex and rockets and magical aspirations in Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel "Gravity's Rainbow", and based on German sources and some aerospace industry lore, Pynchon got it absolutely right. Carter's facts mesh in wonderfully with this grim tale.

Rating:
Summary: Did John "Whiteside" Parsons open a door to the "darkside"?
Review: This book explores the extraordinary life of a man who was both a rocket scientist and a ritual magician and who may have, through a magical operation known as "The Babalon Working," opened up a portal to outer space (and another dimension) in more ways than one! (No small feat, that).

Readers of this book will also enjoy the story " The Strange Case of John Whiteside Parsons" in the book, "Labyrinth13: True Tales of the Occult, Crime, and Conspiracy." (Visit www.labyrinth13.com for details).

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating though lacks depth...
Review: This short biography touches upon the salient points of a fascinating individual: John W. Parsons, self-educated, visionary, explosives expert, rocket scientist and striving occultist, died at an early age, thirty seven, due to a freak explosion in his garage, a makeshift laboratory that was later discovered, had enough explosive material within it to take-out an entire city block. Was it murder? Was it a major conjuring ritual gone wrong? Or was it simply a terrible accident due to carelessness and oversight?

Parsons was indeed a unique character. His interest in Science Fiction, for example, moved him into literary circles, whose members are SF legends: Heinlein, Van Vogt...he became the protege of the founder of the OTO, Aleister Crowley. Another interesting personality, L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology, moved into his house, and allegedly took part in an extensive magical rite that might have drastically changed, for the worse, Parsons life. Many things may have contributed to Parsons turn of bad luck, but as the author points out, Hubbard ran off with Parsons wife and disappeared with a substantial sum of money, which later, Parsons sued for and won. Betrayal can have a devastating effect on anyone, as it obviously did on Parsons...

My only criticism of the text is the superficial manner in which the subject matter was explored - for such an interesting individual, much more time could have been spent researching his relationships and particularly his time at Hughes Aircraft and the alleged 'deal' he made with the Israeli government. It was rumoured that Parsons was organising to move to Israel with his wife Cameron, just prior to his mysterious death. Similar to most artists and non-conformists of the time, Parsons had a thick FBI file and had been under surveillance for an extended period...these intriguing aspects of Parsons life should have been unpacked, but were not...your guess is as good as mine.

Despite its lack of depth, ~Sex and Rockets~ is a fascinating read.