Editing Jack Parsons (section)

==Biography==
=== Early life: 1914–1934 ===
Marvel Whiteside Parsons was born on October 2, 1914, at the [[Good Samaritan Hospital (Los Angeles)|Good Samaritan Hospital]] in Los Angeles.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 1|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 26}} His parents, Ruth Virginia Whiteside (''c.'' 1893–1952) and Marvel H. Parsons (''c.'' 1894–1947), had moved to California from Massachusetts the previous year, purchasing a house on Scarff Street in downtown Los Angeles. Their son was his father's namesake, but was known in the household as Jack.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1p = 1|1pp = 21–25}} The marriage broke down soon after Jack's birth, when Ruth discovered that her husband was sexually involved with a prostitute. Ruth filed for divorce in March 1915. Jack's father returned to Massachusetts after being exposed as an adulterer, with Ruth forbidding him from having any contact with his infant son.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 1–2|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 26–27}} Marvel Parsons later joined the U.S. Armed Forces, reaching the rank of major, and married a woman with whom he had a son, Charles, a half-brother Jack only met once.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 103–105i}} Although she retained her ex-husband's surname, Ruth started calling her son John, but many friends throughout his life knew him as Jack.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 2}}

Ruth's parents—Walter and Carrie Whiteside—moved to California to be with Jack and their daughter, purchasing an upscale house on Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena—known locally as "Millionaire's Mile"—where they could live together.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 2–3|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 28}} Jack was surrounded by domestic servants.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 33–40}} Having few friends, he lived a solitary childhood and spent much time reading; he took a particular interest in works of mythology, [[Arthurian legend]], and the ''[[One Thousand and One Nights|Arabian Nights]]''.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 33–40}} Through the works of [[Jules Verne]] he became interested in [[science fiction]] and a keen reader of [[pulp magazine]]s like ''[[Amazing Stories]]'', which led to his early interest in [[rocket]]ry.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 33–40}}{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 42–43}}

At age 12, Parsons began attending Washington Junior High School, where he performed poorly—which biographer [[George Pendle]] attributed to undiagnosed [[dyslexia]]—and was bullied for his upper-class status and perceived effeminacy.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 4–5|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 44–47}} Although unpopular, he formed a strong friendship with [[Edward Forman]], a boy from a poor working-class family who defended him from bullies and shared his interest in science fiction and rocketry. In 1928 the pair—adopting the Latin motto ''[[per aspera ad astra]]'' (''through hardship to the stars'')—began engaging in homemade [[gunpowder]]-based rocket experiments in the nearby [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]] canyon, as well as the Parsons family's back garden, which left it pockmarked with craters from explosive test failures. They incorporated commonly available fireworks such as [[cherry bomb]]s into their rockets, and Parsons suggested using glue as a binding agent to increase the rocket fuel's stability. This research became more complex when they began using materials such as [[aluminium foil]] to make the gunpowder easier to cast.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 4–5|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 44–47}}<ref name="spacesafety">{{cite web |last=Keane |first=Phillip |title=Jack Parsons and the Occult Roots of JPL |url=http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/2013/08/02/jack-parsons-occult-roots-jpl/ |work=spacesafetymagazine.com |publisher=[[International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety]] |date=August 2, 2013 |access-date=March 6, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Eng |first=Christina |title=It took a rocket scientist / Research pioneer also delved into the occult |url=https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/It-took-a-rocket-scientist-Research-pioneer-2697472.php |website=sfgate.com |publisher=[[Hearst Corporation]] |access-date=May 12, 2014 |date=February 20, 2005}}</ref> Parsons had also begun to investigate [[occultism]], and performed a ritual intended to invoke the Devil into his bedroom; he worried that the invocation was successful and was frightened into ceasing these activities.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 4|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 46}} In 1929, he began attending [[John Muir High School]], where he maintained an insular friendship with Forman and was a keen participant in [[fencing]] and [[archery]]. After he received poor school results, Parsons's mother sent him away to study at the Brown Military Academy for Boys, a private boarding school in [[San Diego]], but he was expelled for blowing up the toilets.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 47, 182}}

The Parsons family spent mid-1929 touring Europe before returning to Pasadena, where they moved into a house on San Rafael Avenue. With the onset of the [[Great Depression]] their fortune began to dwindle, and in July 1931 Jack's grandfather Walter died.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 5|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 56–57}} Parsons began studying at the privately run University School, a liberal institution that took an unconventional approach to teaching. He flourished academically, becoming editor of the school newspaper, ''El Universitano'', and winning an award for literary excellence; teachers who had trained at the nearby [[California Institute of Technology]] (Caltech) guided his attention to the study of chemistry.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 6|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 57–59}} With the family's financial difficulties deepening, Parsons began working on weekends and school holidays at the [[Hercules Powder Company]], where he learned more about explosives and their potential use in rocket propulsion.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 6|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 59–60}} He and Forman continued to independently explore the subject in their spare time, building and testing different rockets, sometimes with materials that Parsons had stolen from work. Parsons soon constructed a solid-fuel [[rocket engine]].

Parsons graduated from University School in 1933, and moved with his mother and grandmother to a more modest house on St. John Avenue, where he continued to pursue his interests in literature and poetry.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 7|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 61}} He enrolled in [[Pasadena Junior College]] with the hope of earning an [[associate degree]] in physics and chemistry, but dropped out after one term because of his financial situation and took up permanent employment at the Hercules Powder Company.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 6|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 61}} His employers then sent him to work at their manufacturing plant in [[Hercules, California]] on the [[San Francisco Bay]], where he earned a relatively high monthly wage of $100; he was plagued by headaches caused by exposure to [[nitroglycerin]]. He saved money in hopes of continuing his academic studies and began a degree in chemistry at [[Stanford University]], but found the tuition unaffordable and returned to Pasadena.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 62–64}}

===GALCIT Rocket Research Group and the Kynette trial: 1934–1938===
[[File:Rocket-motor-test-browse.jpg|thumb|right|Parsons (dark vest) and [[GALCIT]] colleagues in the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]], Halloween 1936. JPL marks this experiment as its foundation.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p=209: ''John Parsons in dark vest, Ed Forman bending over in white shirt; Frank Malina is probably the individual bending over in the light-colored vest''}}{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 15}}]]

In hopes of gaining access to the state-of-the-art resources of Caltech for their rocketry research, Parsons and Forman attended a lecture on the work of Austrian rocket engineer [[Eugen Sänger]] and hypothetical above-[[Stratosphere|stratospheric]] aircraft by the institute's [[William Bollay]]—a PhD student specializing in [[rocket-powered aircraft]]—and approached him to express their interest in designing a liquid-fuel rocket motor.<ref name="CaltechConway">{{cite journal |journal=Engineering & Science |number=4 |last=Conway |first=Erik M. |title=From Rockets to Spacecraft: Making JPL a Place for Planetary Science |url=http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/4273/1/Spacecraft.pdf |publisher=California Institute of Technology |access-date=March 22, 2014 |year=2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407155653/http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/4273/1/Spacecraft.pdf |archive-date=April 7, 2023 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Malina>{{cite web |last=Terrall |first=Mary |title=Interview With Frank J. Malina |url=https://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/149/1/Malina.pdf |website=oralhistories.library.caltech.edu |publisher=California Institute of Technology |access-date=May 17, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518000256/https://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/149/1/Malina.pdf |archive-date=May 18, 2014 |date=December 14, 1978 |url-status=live }}</ref> Bollay redirected them to another PhD student, [[Frank Malina]], a mathematician and mechanical engineer writing a thesis on rocket propulsion who shared their interests and soon befriended them.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 8–9|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 74–76}} Parsons, Forman, and Malina applied for funding from Caltech together; they did not mention that their ultimate objective was to develop rockets for space exploration, realizing that most of the scientific establishment then considered such ideas science fiction.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.leonardo.info/blog/2018/06/12/leonardos-strange-angel|title=Leonardo's Strange Angel: Behind the Scenes with Jack Parsons and Frank Malina|date=June 11, 2018|work=Leonardo/ISAST|access-date=June 14, 2018|language=en}}</ref> Caltech's [[Clark Blanchard Millikan]] immediately rebuffed them, but Malina's doctoral advisor [[Theodore von Kármán]] saw more promise in their proposal and agreed to allow them to operate under the auspices of the university's [[Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory]] (GALCIT).<ref name=Pendle>{{cite web|last1=Pendle|first1=George|title=The Last of the Magicians|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-last-of-the-magicians/|website=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]|access-date=January 5, 2015|date=January 2, 2015}}</ref> Naming themselves the GALCIT Rocket Research Group, they gained access to Caltech's specialist equipment, though the economics of the Great Depression left von Kármán unable to finance them.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 10|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 77–83}}

The trio focused their distinct skills on collaborative rocket development; Parsons was the chemist, Forman the machinist, and Malina the technical theoretician. Malina wrote in 1968 that the self-educated Parsons "lacked the discipline of a formal higher education, [but] had an uninhibited and fruitful imagination."<ref name=Malina2>{{cite web|last=Malina|first=Frank J.|title=The Rocket Pioneers|date=November 1968|url=http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/601/1/ES50.2.1986.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519154730/http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/601/1/ES50.2.1986.pdf |archive-date=May 19, 2014 |url-status=live|website=calteches.library.caltech.edu|pages=8–13|publisher=California Institute of Technology}}</ref> Parsons and Forman who, as described by [[Geoffrey A. Landis]], "were eager to try whatever idea happened to spring to mind", contrasted with Malina, who insisted on scientific discipline as informed by von Kármán. Landis writes that their creativity "kept Malina focused toward building actual rocket engines, not just solving equations on paper".<ref>{{cite web|last=Landis|first=Geoffrey|title=The Three Rocketeers
|url=http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/the-three-rocketeers|website=americanscientist.org|publisher=[[Sigma Xi]]|year=2005|access-date=March 22, 2014}}</ref> Sharing [[socialism|socialist]] values, they operated on an [[egalitarianism|egalitarian]] basis; Malina taught the others about scientific procedure and they taught him about the practical elements of rocketry. They often socialized, smoking [[marijuana]] and drinking, while Malina and Parsons set about writing a semiautobiographical science fiction screenplay they planned to pitch to Hollywood with strong [[anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] and [[pacifism|pacifist]] themes.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 22–24|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 90–93, 118–120}}

[[File:P1-RocketBoys.jpg|thumb|left|[[GALCIT]] Group members in the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]], November 1936. Left foreground to right: [[Rudolph Schott]], Amo Smith, [[Frank Malina]], [[Ed Forman]], and Jack Parsons.]]

Parsons met [[Helen Northrup]] at a local church dance and proposed marriage in July 1934. She accepted and they were married in April 1935 at the Little Church of the Flowers in [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)|Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale]], before undertaking a brief honeymoon in San Diego.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 7|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 84–89}} They moved into a house on South Terrace Drive, Pasadena, while Parsons got a job at the explosives manufacturer Halifax Powder Company's facility in [[Saugus, California|Saugus]]. Much to Helen's dismay, Parsons spent most of his wages funding the GALCIT Rocket Research Group.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 7|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 89}} For extra money, he manufactured nitroglycerin in their home, constructing a laboratory on their front porch. At one point, he pawned Helen's engagement ring, and he often asked her family for loans.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 105–106}}

Malina recounted that "Parsons and Forman were not too pleased with an austere program that did not include at least the launching of model rockets",<ref name="Malina2"/> but the Group reached the consensus of developing a working static rocket motor before embarking on more complex research. They contacted [[Liquid-propellant rocket|liquid-fuel rocket]] pioneer Robert H. Goddard and he invited Malina to his facility in [[Roswell, New Mexico]], but he was not interested in cooperating—reticent about sharing his research and having been subjected to widespread derision for his work in rocketry.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 12|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 96–98}} They were instead joined by Caltech graduate students [[Apollo M. O. Smith|Apollo M. O. "Amo" Smith]], [[Carlos C. Wood]], [[Mark Muir Mills]], [[Fred S. Miller]], [[William C. Rockefeller]], and [[Rudolph Schott]]; Schott's pickup truck transported their equipment.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 12|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 99}} Their first liquid-fuel motor test took place near the [[Devil's Gate Dam]] in the Arroyo Seco on Halloween 1936.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 72|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 196–199}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=1217|title=The Spark of a New Era|website=jpl.nasa.gov|publisher=NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory|date=October 25, 2006|access-date=February 21, 2014|archive-date=June 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624214139/https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=1217|url-status=dead}}</ref> Parsons's biographer John Carter described the layout of the contraption as showing

{{blockquote|text=oxygen flowing from one side, with methyl alcohol (the fuel) and nitrogen flowing from the other side. Water cooled the rocket during the burn. Thrust pulled down a spring which measured force. The deflection of the spring measured the force applied to it. A small diamond tip on the apparatus scratched a glass plate to mark the furthest point of deflection. The rocket and mount were protected by sandbags, with the tanks (and the experimenters) well away from it.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 16}}}}

Three attempts to fire the rocket failed; on the fourth the oxygen line accidentally ignited and perilously billowed fire at the Group, but they viewed this experience as formative.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 15–16|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 98–103}} They continued their experiments throughout the last quarter of 1936; after the final test was successfully completed in January 1937 von Kármán agreed that they could perform future experiments at an exclusive rocket testing facility on campus.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 17|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 103}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Early History > First Rocket Test|url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/early/|access-date=April 5, 2014|website=jpl.nasa.gov|publisher=NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory|archive-date=October 26, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026135745/http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/early/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=GALCIT History (1921–1940)|url=http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/about/history#1921|publisher=California Institute of Technology|access-date=May 7, 2014}}</ref>

[[File:JackParsons3.jpg|thumb|right|Parsons in 1938, holding the replica [[car bomb]] used in the murder trial of police officer Captain [[Earl Kynette]] ]]
In April 1937, Caltech mathematician [[Qian Xuesen]] joined the Group. Several months later, Weld Arnold, a Caltech laboratory assistant who worked as the Group's official photographer, also joined. The main reason for Arnold's appointment to this position was his provision of a donation to the Group on behalf of an anonymous benefactor.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 17|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 106–107}} They became well known on campus as the "Suicide Squad" for the dangerous nature of some of their experiments and attracted attention from the local press.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 17–18|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 108–111}} Parsons himself gained further media publicity when he appeared as an expert explosives witness in the trial of Captain [[Earl Kynette]], the head of police intelligence in Los Angeles who was accused of conspiring to set a [[car bomb]] in the attempted murder of private investigator Harry Raymond, a former LAPD detective who was fired after whistleblowing against police corruption. When Kynette was convicted largely on Parsons' testimony, which included his forensic reconstruction of the car bomb and its explosion, his identity as an expert scientist in the public eye was established despite his lack of a university education.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 26–28|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 114–116}}<ref name=Harnisch>{{cite web|last=Harnisch|first=Larry|title=Jack Parsons, RIP|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2008/05/jack-parsons-ri.html|website=latimesblogs.latimes.com|publisher=[[Tribune Publishing]]|access-date=March 29, 2014|date=May 7, 2008}}</ref> While working at Caltech, Parsons was admitted to evening courses in chemistry at the [[University of Southern California]] (USC), but distracted by his GALCIT workload he attended sporadically and received unexceptional grades.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1pp = 112, 314}}

By early 1938, the Group had made their static rocket motor, which originally burned for three seconds, run for over a minute.{{sfnm|1a1 = Westwick|1y = 2007|1p = 1}}<ref name="Rasmussen">{{cite news|last=Rasmussen|first=Cecilia|title=Life as Satanist Propelled Rocketeer|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-19-me-10501-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=March 19, 2000|access-date=March 24, 2014}}</ref> In May that year, Parsons was invited by [[Forrest J Ackerman]] to lecture on his rocketry work at Chapter Number 4 of the [[Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society|Los Angeles Science Fiction League]] (LASFL). Although he never joined the society, he occasionally attended their talks, on one occasion conversing with a teenage [[Ray Bradbury]].{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 57–60|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 126–127}} Another scientist to become involved in the GALCIT project was [[Sidney Weinbaum]], a Jewish refugee from Europe who was a vocal Marxist; he led Parsons, Malina, and Qian in their creation of a largely secretive [[communism|communist]] discussion group at Caltech, which became known as Professional Unit 122 of the Pasadena Communist Party. Although Parsons subscribed to the ''[[People's Daily World]]'' and joined the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] (ACLU), he refused to join the [[Communist Party USA|American Communist Party]], causing a break in his and Weinbaum's friendship.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1pp = 120–123}} This, coupled with the need to focus on paid employment, led to the disintegration of much of the Rocket Research Group, leaving only its three founding members by late 1938.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1p = 130}}

===Embracing Thelema; advancing JATO and foundation of Aerojet: 1939–1942===
[[File:Aleister Crowley.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Aleister Crowley]] (pictured in 1912), founder of [[Thelema]], was Parsons' spiritual mentor.]]
[[File:Grady Louis McMurtry 1941.JPG|thumb|right|upright|[[Grady McMurtry]] was recruited into O.T.O. by Parsons.]]

In January 1939, John and Frances Baxter, a brother and sister who had befriended Jack and Helen Parsons, took Jack to the Church of Thelema on Winona Boulevard, Hollywood, where he witnessed the performance of [[Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass|The Gnostic Mass]]. Celebrants of the church had included Hollywood actor [[John Carradine]] and gay rights activist [[Harry Hay]]. Parsons was intrigued, having already heard of Thelema's founder and [[Ordo Templi Orientis#Structure|Outer Head]] of Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), [[Aleister Crowley]], after reading a copy of Crowley's text ''[[Konx om Pax]]'' (1907).{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 171}}

Parsons was introduced to leading members [[Regina Kahl]], [[Jane Wolfe]], and [[Wilfred Talbot Smith]] at the mass. Feeling both "repulsion and attraction" for Smith, Parsons continued to sporadically attend the Church's events for a year.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1pp = 257–258|2a1 = Carter|2y = 2004|2pp = 33–36|3a1 = Pendle|3y = 2005|3pp = 133–136}} He continued to read Crowley's works, which increasingly interested him, and encouraged Helen to read them.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1p = 152}} Parsons came to believe in the reality of Thelemic [[magick]] as a force that could be explained through [[quantum physics]].{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1p = 152}} He tried to interest his friends and acquaintances in Thelema, taking science fiction writers [[Jack Williamson]] and [[Cleve Cartmill]] to a performance of The Gnostic Mass. Although they were unimpressed, Parsons was more successful with [[Grady Louis McMurtry]], a young Caltech student he had befriended, as well as McMurtry's fiancée Claire Palmer, and Helen's sister [[Sara Northrup Hollister|Sara "Betty" Northrup]].{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1p = 266|2a1 = Carter|2y = 2004|2p = 41|3a1 = Pendle|3y = 2005|3pp = 169–172|4a1 = Kaczynski|4y = 2010|4p = 513}}

Jack and Helen were initiated into the [[Agape Lodge]], the renamed Church of Thelema, in February 1941. Parsons adopted the Thelemic motto of ''Thelema Obtenteum Proedero Amoris Nuptiae'', a Latin mistranslation of "The establishment of Thelema through the rituals of love". The initials of this motto spelled out T.O.P.A.N., also serving as the declaration "To Pan".{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1p = 263|2a1 = Carter|2y = 2004|2p = 56|3a1 = Pendle|3y = 2005|3p = 172}} Commenting on Parsons' errors of translation, in jest Crowley said that "the motto which you mention is couched in a language beyond my powers of understanding".{{sfn|Starr|2003|p = 263}} Parsons also adopted the Thelemic title ''Frater T.O.P.A.N''—with ''T.O.P.A.N'' represented in [[Kabbalah|Kabbalistic]] numerology as ''210''{{mdash}}the name with which he frequently signed letters to occult associates—while Helen became known as ''Soror Grimaud''.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 56}} Smith wrote to Crowley saying that Parsons was "a really excellent man&nbsp;... He has an excellent mind and much better intellect than myself&nbsp;... JP is going to be very valuable".{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1p = 172}} Wolfe wrote to German O.T.O. representative [[Karl Germer]] that Parsons was "an A1 man&nbsp;... Crowleyesque in attainment as a matter of fact", and mooted Parsons as a potential successor to Crowley as Outer Head of the Order.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1p = 173}} Crowley concurred with such assessments, informing Smith that Parsons "is the most valued member of the whole Order, with no exception!"{{sfn|Starr|2003|p = 263}}

At von Kármán's suggestion, [[Frank Malina]] approached the [[National Academy of Sciences]] (NAS) Committee on Army Air Corps Research to request funding for research into what they referred to as "[[jet propulsion]]", a term chosen to avoid the stigma attached to rocketry. The military were interested in jet propulsion as a means of getting aircraft quickly airborne where there was insufficient room for a full-length runway, and gave the Rocket Research Group $1,000 to put together a proposal on the feasibility of [[JATO|Jet-Assisted Take Off]] (JATO) by June 1939, making Parsons et al. the first U.S. government-sanctioned rocket research group. Since their formation in 1934, they had also performed experiments involving model, [[Black powder rocket motor|black powder motor]]-propelled [[multistage rocket]]s. In a research paper submitted to the [[American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics]] (AIAA), Parsons reported these rockets reaching exhaust velocities of 4,875 miles per hour, thereby demonstrating the potential of solid fuels to be more effective than the liquid types primarily preferred by researchers such as Goddard. In light of this progress, Caltech and the GALCIT Group received an additional $10,000 rocketry research grant from the AIAA.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 30–32|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 156–158}}

Although a quarter of their funding went to repairing damage to Caltech buildings caused by their experiments, in June 1940 they submitted a report to the NAS in which they showed the feasibility of the project for the development of JATO and requested $100,000 to continue; they received $22,000.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 32–33, 48|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 158–166}} Now known as GALCIT Project Number 1, they continued to be ostracized by other Caltech scientists who grew increasingly irritated by their accidents and noise pollution, and were forced to relocate their experiments back to the Arroyo Seco, at a site with unventilated, corrugated iron sheds that served as both research facilities and administrative offices. It was here that JPL would be founded.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1pp = 158–166}} Parsons and Forman's rocket experiments were the cover story of the August 1940 edition of ''[[Popular Mechanics]]'', in which the pair discussed the prospect of rockets being able to ascend above Earth's atmosphere and orbit around it for research purposes, as well as reaching the Moon.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 48}}
[[File:Von Karman and JATO Team - GPN-2000-001652.jpg|thumb|right|The GALCIT JATO engineering team during the solid propellant tests in January 1940. Parsons is visible cropped out on the extreme left alongside Clark Blanchard Millikan, Martin Summerfield, Theodore von Kármán, Frank Malina and pilot, Captain Homer Boushey.]]
For the JATO project, they were joined by Caltech mathematician [[Martin Summerfield]] and 18 workers supplied by the [[Works Progress Administration]]. Former colleagues like Qian were prevented from returning to the project by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI), who ensured the secrecy of the operation and restricted the involvement of foreign nationals and political extremists.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1pp = 166–167}} The FBI was satisfied that Parsons was not a Marxist but were concerned when Thelemite friend Paul Seckler used Parsons' gun in a drunken car hijacking, for which Seckler was imprisoned in [[San Quentin State Prison]] for two years. Englishman George Emerson replaced Arnold as the Group's official photographer.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 70–71|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 186–187}}

The Group's aim was to find a replacement for black-powder rocket motors—units consisting of charcoal, [[sulfur]] and [[potassium nitrate]] with a [[Binder (material)|binding agent]]. The mixture was unstable and there were frequent explosions damaging military aircraft.<ref name=Andrews>{{cite web|last1=Andrews|first1=Crispin|title=Geek spirit: The man who kick-started the US rocket programme|url=https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2014/10/geek-spirit-the-man-who-kick-started-the-us-rocket-programme/|publisher=[[Institution of Engineering and Technology (professional society)|Institution of Engineering and Technology]]|access-date=October 19, 2014|date=October 13, 2014}}</ref> The solid JATO fuel invented by Parsons consisted of [[amide]], [[corn starch]], and [[ammonium nitrate]] bound together in the JATO unit with glue and blotting paper. It was codenamed GALCIT-27, implying the previous invention of 26 new fuels. The first JATO tests using an [[ERCO Ercoupe]] plane took place in late July 1941; though they aided propulsion, the units frequently exploded and damaged the aircraft. Parsons theorized that this was because the ammonium nitrate became dangerously combustible following overnight storage, during which temperature and consistency changes had resulted in a chemical imbalance. Parsons and Malina accordingly devised a method in which they would fill the JATOs with the fuel in the early mornings shortly before the tests, enduring sleep deprivation to do so. On August 21, 1941, Navy Captain [[Homer J. Boushey, Jr.]]—watched by Clark Millikan and [[William F. Durand]]—piloted the JATO-equipped Ercoupe at [[March Air Reserve Base|March Air Force Base]] in [[Moreno Valley]], California. It proved a success and reduced takeoff distance by 30%, but one of the JATOs partially exploded.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 65–66|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 177–184}} Over the following weeks 62 further tests took place, and the NAS increased their grant to $125,000. During a series of static experiments, an exploding JATO did significant damage to the rear fuselage of an Ercoupe; one observer optimistically noted that "at least it wasn't a big hole", but necessary repairs delayed their efforts.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 184–185}}

The military ordered a flight test using liquid rather than solid fuel in early 1942. Upon the United States' entry into the Second World War in December 1941, the Group realized they could be drafted directly into military service if they failed to provide viable JATO technology for the military. Informed by their left-wing politics, aiding the war effort against [[Nazi Germany]] and the [[Axis powers]] was as much of a moral vocation to Parsons, Forman and Malina as it was a practical one. Parsons, Summerfield and the GALCIT workers focused on the task and found success with a combination of [[gasoline]] with [[red fuming nitric acid]] as its [[Oxidizing agent|oxidizer]]; the latter, suggested by Parsons, was an effective substitute for [[liquid oxygen]].<ref name="Andrews" /><ref>{{US patent reference
 | number = 2573471
 | y = 1951
 | m = 10
 | d = 30
 | inventor = Malina, Frank J. and Parsons, John W.
 | title = Reaction motor operable by liquid propellants and method of operating it
}} Retrieved November 10, 2014.</ref> The testing of this fuel resulted in another calamity, when the testing rocket motor exploded; the fire, containing iron shed fragments and shrapnel, inexplicably left the experimenters unscathed. Malina solved the problem by replacing the gasoline with [[aniline]], resulting in a successful test launch of a JATO-equipped [[A-20A]] plane at the Muroc Auxiliary Air Field in the [[Mojave Desert]]. It provided five times more thrust than GALCIT-27, and again reduced takeoff distance by 30%; Malina wrote to his parents that "We now have something that really works and we should be able to help give the Fascists hell!"{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 70–75|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 189–191}}

[[File:First JATO assisted Flight - GPN-2000-001538.jpg|thumb|right|Take-off on August 12, 1941, of America's first "rocket-assisted" fixed-wing aircraft, an [[ERCO Ercoupe]] fitted with a [[GALCIT]] developed solid propellant [[JATO]] booster]]
[[File:JATO Flight Test Crew - GPN-2000-001537.jpg|thumb|right|GALCIT Project Number 1 during the JATO experiments (date as above). From left to right: Fred S. Miller, Jack Parsons, Ed Forman, Frank Malina, Captain Homer Boushey, Private Kobe (first initial unknown), and Corporal R. Hamilton.]]

The Group then agreed to produce and sell 60 JATO engines to the [[United States Army Air Corps]]. To do so they formed the Aerojet Engineering Corporation in March 1942, in which Parsons, Forman, Malina, von Kármán, and Summerfield each invested $250, opening their offices on [[Colorado Boulevard]] and bringing in Amo Smith as their engineer. [[Andrew G. Haley]] was recruited by von Kármán as their lawyer and treasurer. Although Aerojet was a for-profit operation that provided technology for military means, the founders' mentality was rooted in the ideal of using rockets for peaceful space exploration. As Haley recounted von Kármán requesting: "we will make the rockets—you must make the corporation and obtain the money. Later on you will have to see that we all behave well in outer space."<ref>{{cite web|title=Company History|url=http://rocket.com/company-history|website=rocket.com|publisher=Aerojet Rocketdyne|access-date=April 30, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711191124/http://www.rocket.com/company-history|archive-date=July 11, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Despite these successes, Parsons, the [[Project engineering|project engineer]] of Aerojet's Solid Fuel Department, remained motivated to address the malfunctions observed during the Ercoupe tests. In June 1942, assisted by Mills and Miller, he focused his attention on developing an effective method of restricted burning when using solid rocket fuel, as the military demanded JATOs that could provide over 100 pounds of thrust without any risk of exploding. Although solid fuels such as GALCIT-27 were more storable than their liquid counterparts, they were disfavored for military JATO use as they provided less immediate thrust and did not have the versatility of being turned on and off mid-flight. Parsons tried to resolve GALCIT-27's stability issue with GALCIT-46, which replaced the former's ammonium nitrate with [[guanidine nitrate]]. To avoid the problems seen with ammonium nitrate, he had GALCIT-46 cooled and then heated prior to testing. When it failed the test, he realized that the fuel's binding black powders rather than the oxidizers had resulted in their instability, and in June that year had the idea of using liquid [[Bitumen|asphalt]] as an appropriate binding agent with [[potassium perchlorate]] as oxidizer.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 72|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 196–199}}

Malina recounted that Parsons was inspired to use asphalt by the ancient incendiary weapon [[Greek fire]]; in a 1982 talk for the [[International Association of Astronomical Artists]] Captain Boushey stated that Parsons experienced an epiphany after watching workers using molten asphalt to fix tiles onto a roof. Known as GALCIT-53, this fuel proved to be significantly more stable than the Group's earlier concoctions, fulfilling Parsons' aim of creating a restricted-burn rocket fuel inside a castable container, and providing a thrust 427% more powerful than that of GALCIT-27. This set a precedent which according to his biographer John Carter "changed the future of rocket technology": the [[thermoplastic]] asphalt [[casting]] was durable in all climates, allowing for mass production and indefinite storage and transforming solid-fuel agents into a safe and viable form of rocket propulsion. [[Plasticizer|Plasticized]] variants of Parsons' solid-fuel design invented by JPL's [[Charles Bartley]] were later used by [[NASA]] in [[Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster]]s and by the [[Strategic Air Command]] in [[UGM-27 Polaris|Polaris]], [[UGM-73 Poseidon|Poseidon]] and [[LGM-30 Minuteman|Minuteman]] intercontinental ballistic missiles.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 72|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 196–199}}<ref name="Huntley"/><ref>{{US patent reference
 | number = 2563265
 | y = 1951
 | m = 08
 | d = 07
 | inventor = Parsons, John W.
 | title = Rocket motor with solid propellant and propellant charge therefor
}} Retrieved November 10, 2014.</ref>

===Foundation of JPL and leading the Agape Lodge: 1942–1944===
[[File:JATO unit.jpg|thumbnail|right|Solid-fuel [[JATO]] unit manufactured by [[Aerojet]] at the [[National Air and Space Museum]]]]
Aerojet's first two contracts were from the U.S. Navy; the [[Bureau of Aeronautics]] requested a solid-fuel JATO and [[Wilbur Wright Field]] requested a liquid-fuel unit. The Air Corps had requested two thousand JATOs from Aerojet by late 1943, committing $256,000 toward Parsons' solid-fuel type. Despite this drastically increased turnover, the company continued to operate informally and remained intertwined with the GALCIT project. Caltech astronomer [[Fritz Zwicky]] was brought in as head of the company's research department. Haley replaced von Kármán as Aerojet chairman and imposed payroll cuts instead of reducing JATO output; the alternative was to cut staff numbers while maintaining more generous salaries, but Haley's priority was Aerojet's contribution to the war effort. Company heads including Parsons were exempted from this austerity, drawing the ire of many personnel.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 73–76|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 191–192}}{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 76|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 223–226}}

Parsons' newfound credentials and financial security gave him the opportunity to travel more widely throughout the U.S. as an ambassador for Aerojet, meeting with other rocket enthusiasts. In New York he met with Karl Germer, the head of O.T.O. in North America and in [[Washington, D.C.]] he met Poet Laureate [[Joseph Auslander]], donating some of Crowley's poetry books to the [[Library of Congress]].{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 198, 203}} He also became a regular at the [[Mañana Literary Society]], which met in [[Laurel Canyon]] at the home of Parsons' friend [[Robert A. Heinlein]] and included science fiction writers including Cleve Cartmill, Jack Williamson, and [[Anthony Boucher]]. Among Parsons' favorite works of fiction was Williamson's ''[[Darker Than You Think]]'', a novelette published in the fantasy magazine ''[[Unknown (magazine)|Unknown]]'' in 1940, which inspired his later occult workings. Boucher used Parsons as a partial basis for the character of Hugo Chantrelle in his murder mystery ''[[Rocket to the Morgue]]'' (1942).{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 228–230}}

Helen went away for a period in June 1941, during which Parsons, encouraged to do so by the sexually permissive attitude of O.T.O., began a sexual relationship with her 17-year-old sister, Sara. Upon Helen's return, Sara asserted that she was Parsons' new wife, and Parsons himself admitted that he found Sara more sexually attractive than Helen.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1p = 274|2a1 = Carter|2y = 2004|2pp = 93–94|3a1 = Pendle|3y = 2005|3pp = 203–205|4a1 = Kaczynski|4y = 2010|4p = 537}} Conflicted in her feelings, Helen sought comfort in Wilfred Talbot Smith and began a relationship with him that lasted for the rest of his life; the four remained friends.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1p = 274|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 203–205}} The two couples, along with a number of other Thelemites (some of whom with their children), moved to 1003 South Orange Grove Boulevard, an [[American Craftsman]]-style mansion. They all contributed to the rent of $100 a month and lived communally in what replaced Winona Boulevard as the new base of the Agape Lodge, maintaining an allotment and slaughtering their own livestock for meat as well as blood rituals.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1pp = 271–273, 276|2a1 = Carter|2y = 2004|2pp = 83–84|3a1 = Pendle|3y = 2005|3pp = 207–210|4a1 = Kaczynski|4y = 2010|4p = 521}} Parsons decorated his new room with a copy of the [[Stele of Revealing]], a statue of [[Pan (god)|Pan]], and his collection of swords and daggers. He converted the garage and laundry room into a chemical laboratory and often held science fiction discussion meetings in the kitchen, and entertained the children with hunts for fairies in the 25-acre garden.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 84|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 209–210|3a1 = Miller|3y = 2014|3p = 117}}

{{quote box|width=300px|bgcolor=lightblue|align=right|quote=I hight [[Don Quixote]], I live on Peyote,<br />marihuana, morphine and cocaine.<br />I never knew sadness but only a madness<br />that burns at the heart and brain,
|source= —Excerpt from an untitled poem published in Parsons' ill-fated ''Oriflamme'' journal{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p=218}}
}}

Although there were arguments among the commune members, Parsons remained dedicated to Thelema. He gave almost all of his salary to O.T.O. while actively seeking out new members{{mdash}}including Forman{{mdash}}and financially supported Crowley in London through Germer.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 212–213}} Parsons' enthusiasm for the Lodge quickly began to impact on his professional life. He frequently appeared at Aerojet hungover and sleep-deprived from late nights of Lodge activities, and invited many of his colleagues to them, drawing the ire of staff who previously tolerated Parsons' occultism as harmless eccentricity; known to von Kármán as a "delightful screwball", he was frequently observed reciting Crowley's poem "Hymn to Pan" in an ecstatic manner compared to the preaching of [[Billy Graham]] during rocket tests{{mdash}}and on request at parties to their great amusement. They disapproved of his hesitancy to separate his vocations; Parsons became more rigorously engaged in Aerojet's day-to-day business in an effort to resolve this weariness, but the Agape Lodge soon came under investigation by both the [[Pasadena Police Department (California)|Pasadena Police Department]] and the FBI. Both had received allegations of a "[[black magic]] cult" involved in sexual orgies; one complainant was a 16-year-old boy who said that he was raped by lodge members, while neighbors reported a ritual involving a naked pregnant woman jumping through fire. After Parsons explained that the Lodge was simply "an organization dedicated to religious and philosophical speculation", neither agency found evidence of illegal activity and came to the conclusion that the Lodge constituted no threat to national security.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1pp = 283–285|2a1 = Carter|2y = 2004|2pp = 87–88|3a1 = Pendle|3y = 2005|3pp = 214–215|4a1 = Kaczynski|4y = 2010|4p = 525}} Having been a long-term heavy user of alcohol and marijuana, Parsons now habitually used [[cocaine]], [[amphetamines]], [[peyote]], [[mescaline]], and [[opiate]]s as well.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 216}}<ref name="Rasmussen" /> He continued to have sexual relations with multiple women, including McMurtry's fiancée Claire. When Parsons paid for her to have an [[abortion]], McMurtry was angered and their friendship broke down.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 215}}

[[File:JPL1942.jpg|thumb|left|The JPL [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]] site in February 1942]]
Crowley and Germer wanted to see Smith removed as head of the Agape Lodge, believing that he had become a bad influence on its members. Parsons and Helen wrote to them to defend their mentor but Germer ordered him to stand down; Parsons was appointed as temporary head of the Lodge.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1pp = 278, 280–282|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 216–217, 220|3a1 = Kaczynski|3y = 2010|3pp = 524–525}} Some veteran Lodge members disliked Parsons' influence, concerned that it encouraged excessive sexual [[polyandry]] that was religiously detrimental, but his charismatic orations at Lodge meetings assured his popularity among the majority of followers. Parsons soon created the Thelemite journal ''Oriflamme'', in which he published his own poetry, but Crowley was unimpressed{{mdash}}particularly due to Parsons' descriptions of drug use{{mdash}}and the project was soon shelved.{{sfn|Parsons|2008|pp = 217–219}} Helen gave birth to Smith's son in April; the child was named Kwen Lanval Parsons.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1p = 289|2a1 = Carter|2y = 2004|2p = 88|3a1 = Pendle|3y = 2005|3p = 221}} Smith and Helen left with Kwen for a two-room cabin in Rainbow Valley in May.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1pp = 290–291|2a1 = Carter|2y = 2004|2pp = 92–93|3a1 = Pendle|3y = 2005|3pp = 221–222}} Concurrently in England, Crowley undertook an [[astrology|astrological]] analysis of Smith's birth chart and came to the conclusion that Smith was the incarnation of a god, greatly altering his estimation of him. Smith remained skeptical as Crowley's analysis was seemingly deliberately devised in Parsons' favor, encouraging Smith to step down from his role in the Agape Lodge and instructing him to take a meditative retreat.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1pp = 294–298|2a1 = Carter|2y = 2004|2pp = 90–91|3a1 = Pendle|3y = 2005|3pp = 221–222}} Refusing to take orders from Germer any more, Smith resigned from O.T.O. Parsons—who remained sympathetic and friendly to Smith during the conflict and was weary of Crowley's "appalling egotism, bad taste, bad judgement, and pedanticism"—ceased lodge activities and resigned as its head, but withdrew his resignation after receiving a pacifying letter from Crowley.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1pp = 299–300|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 222–223}}

[[File:Jack Parsons.jpg|thumb|right|Parsons standing above a [[JATO]] canister at JPL June 1943]]
By mid-1943, Aerojet was operating on a budget of $650,000. The same year Parsons and von Kármán traveled to [[Norfolk, Virginia]] on the invitation of Secretary of the Navy [[Frank Knox]] to consult on a new JATO contract for the U.S. Navy. Though JATOs were being mass-produced for military applications, JATO-propelled aircraft could not "keep up" with larger, [[bomber]] planes taking off from long aircraft carrier runways—which made Aerojet's industry at risk of becoming defunct.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Bullock |first=William B. |date=February 1953 |title= JATO{{snd}}The Magic Bottle |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UoGrm9YgAoEC&q=jpl |format=PDF |magazine=Flying |volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=25, 44 |issn=0015-4806}}</ref> Parsons demonstrated the efficacy of the newer JATOs to solve this issue by equipping a [[Grumman]] plane with solid-fuel units; its assisted takeoff from the [[USS Charger (CVE-30)|USS ''Charger'']] was successful, but produced smoke containing a noxious, yellow-colored residue. The Navy guaranteed Parsons a contract on the condition that this residue was removed; this led to the invention of ''Aeroplex'', a technology for smokeless [[Contrail|vapor trails]] developed at Aerojet by Parsons.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 93}}

As the U.S. became aware that Nazi Germany had developed the [[V-2 rocket]], the military—following recommendations from von Kármán based upon research using British intelligence—placed a renewed impetus on its own rocket research, reinstating Qian to the GALCIT project. They gave the Group a $3&nbsp;million grant to develop rocket-based weapons, and the Group was expanded and renamed the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] (JPL).{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 96–97|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 231–233}} By this point the Navy were ordering 20,000 JATOs a month from Aerojet, and in December 1944 Haley negotiated for the company to sell 51% of its stock to the [[General Tire|General Tire and Rubber Company]] to cope with the increased demand. Aerojet's Caltech-linked employees—including Zwicky, Malina and Summerfield—would only agree to the sale on the condition that Parsons and Forman were removed from the company, viewing their occult activities as disreputable. JPL historian [[Erik M. Conway]] also attributes Parsons' expulsion to more practical concerns: he "still wanted to work in the same way as he'd done in his backyard, instinctive and without regard for safety".<ref name="Andrews" /> Parsons and Forman were unfazed, informing Haley of their prediction that the rocket industry would become obsolete in the postwar age and seeing more financial incentive in starting a chain of laundromats. Haley persuaded them to sell their stock, resulting in Parsons leaving the company with $11,000.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 100|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 239–240}} With this money he bought the lease to 1003, which had come to be known as "the Parsonage" after him.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 241}}

===L. Ron Hubbard and the Babalon Working: 1945–1946===
{{see also|L. Ron Hubbard#Occult involvement in Pasadena}}
[[File:L. Ron Hubbard in 1950.jpg|thumb|right|Parsons befriended [[L. Ron Hubbard]].]]
Now disassociated from JPL and Aerojet, Parsons and Forman founded the Ad Astra Engineering Company, under which Parsons founded the chemical manufacturing Vulcan Powder Company.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 101|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 242}} Ad Astra was subject to an FBI investigation under suspicion of espionage when security agents from the [[Manhattan Project]] discovered that Parsons and Forman had procured a chemical used in a top secret project for a material known only as [[Natural uranium|''x-metal'']], but they were later acquitted of any wrongdoing.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 325}}

Parsons continued to financially support Smith and Helen, although he asked for a divorce from her and ignored Crowley's commands by welcoming Smith back to the Parsonage when his retreat was finished.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 248–249}} Parsons continued to hold O.T.O. activities at the Parsonage but began renting rooms at the house to non-Thelemites, including journalist [[Nieson Himmel]], Manhattan Project physicist [[Robert Cornog]], and science fiction artist [[Louis Goldstone]].{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 243–246}} Parsons attracted controversy in Pasadena for his preferred clientele. As Parsonage resident Alva Rogers recalled: "In the ads placed in the local paper Jack specified that only bohemians, artists, musicians, atheists, anarchists, or any other exotic types need to apply for rooms—any mundane soul would be unceremoniously rejected".{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 86}}

Science fiction writer and U.S. Navy officer [[L. Ron Hubbard]] soon moved into the Parsonage; he and Parsons became close friends. Parsons wrote to Crowley that although Hubbard had "no formal training in Magick he has an extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field. From some of his experiences I deduce he is in direct touch with some higher intelligence, possibly his [[Guardian Angel]].&nbsp;... He is the most Thelemic person I have ever met and is in complete accord with our own principles."{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 101–102|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 252–255}}

Parsons and Sara were in an [[open relationship]] encouraged by O.T.O.'s [[polyamory|polyamorous]] sexual ethics, and she became enamored with Hubbard; Parsons, despite attempting to repress his passions, became intensely jealous.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 102|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 256|3a1 = Kaczynski|3y = 2010|3pp = 537–538}} Motivated to find a new partner through occult means, Parsons began to devote his energies to conducting black magic, causing concern among fellow O.T.O. members who believed that he was invoking troublesome spirits into the Parsonage; Jane Wolfe wrote to Crowley that "our own Jack is enamored with [[Witchcraft]], the [[Hounfour|houmfort]], voodoo. From the start he always wanted to evoke something—no matter what, I am inclined to think, as long as he got a result."{{cite quote|date=May 2024}} He told the residents that he was imbuing statues in the house with a magical energy in order to sell them to fellow occultists.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 257–262}}

Parsons reported paranormal events in the house resulting from the rituals; including [[poltergeist]] activity, sightings of [[Orb (optics)#Paranormal interpretation|orbs]] and ghostly apparitions, [[Alchemy|alchemical]] ([[sylph]]ic) effect on the weather, and disembodied voices. Pendle suggested that Parsons was particularly susceptible to these interpretations and attributed the voices to a prank by Hubbard and Sara.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 257–262}} One ritual allegedly brought screaming [[banshee]]s to the windows of the Parsonage, an incident that disturbed Forman for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 303}} In December 1945, Parsons began a series of rituals based on [[Enochian magic]] during which he [[masturbation|masturbated]] onto magical tablets, accompanied by [[Sergei Prokofiev]]'s [[Violin Concerto No. 2 (Prokofiev)|Second Violin Concerto]]. Describing this magical operation as the [[Babalon Working]], he hoped to bring about the incarnation of Thelemite goddess [[Babalon]] onto Earth. He allowed Hubbard to take part as his "scribe", believing that he was particularly sensitive to detecting magical phenomena.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 107–108, 116–117, 119–128|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 259–260}} As described by [[Richard Metzger]], "Parsons jerked off in the name of spiritual advancement" while Hubbard "scanned the astral plane for signs and visions."{{sfn|Metzger|2008|pp = 196–200}}

Their final ritual took place in the Mojave Desert in late February 1946, during which Parsons abruptly decided that his undertaking was complete. On returning to the Parsonage, he discovered that [[Marjorie Cameron]]—an unemployed illustrator and former Navy [[WAVES|WAVE]]—had come to visit. Believing her to be the "[[elemental]]" woman and manifestation of Babalon that he had invoked, in early March Parsons began performing [[sex magic]] rituals with Cameron, who acted as his "[[Babalon#Office of the Scarlet Woman|Scarlet Woman]]", while Hubbard continued to participate as the [[amanuensis]]. Unlike the rest of the household, Cameron knew nothing at first of Parsons' magical intentions: "I didn't know anything about O.T.O., I didn't know that they had invoked me, I didn't know anything, but the whole house knew it. Everybody was watching to see what was going on."<ref name="Hobbs">{{cite web|last=Hobbs|first=Scott|title=Rocket Man|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-hobbs/rocket-man_2_b_1597713.html|work=The Huffington Post|access-date=March 30, 2014|date=June 15, 2012}}</ref> Despite this ignorance and her skepticism about Parsons' magic, Cameron reported her sighting of a [[Unidentified flying object|UFO]] to Parsons, who secretly recorded the sighting as a materialization of Babalon.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 135}}

Inspired by Crowley's novel ''[[Moonchild (novel)|Moonchild]]'' (1917), Parsons and Hubbard aimed to magically fertilize a "magical child" through [[Immaculate Conception]], which when born to a woman somewhere on Earth nine months following the working's completion would become the Thelemic messiah embodying Babalon.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 130–132|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 263–264|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3pp = 29, 35–37}}{{sfn|Urban|2006|pp = 136–137}} To quote Metzger, the purpose of the Babalon Working was "a daring attempt to shatter the boundaries of space and time" facilitating, according to Parsons, the emergence of Thelema's [[Aeon (Thelema)|Æon of Horus]].{{sfn|Metzger|2008|pp = 196–200}} When Cameron departed for a trip to New York, Parsons retreated to the desert, where he believed that a [[preternatural]] entity [[Automatic writing|psychographically]] provided him with ''Liber 49'', which represented a fourth part of Crowley's ''[[The Book of the Law]]'', the primary sacred text of Thelema, as well as part of a new sacred text he called the ''Book of Babalon''.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 132–148, 150|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 264–265|3a1 = Kaczynski|3y = 2010|3p = 538|4a1 = Miller|4y = 2014|4pp = 121–125}} Crowley was bewildered and concerned by the endeavor, complaining to Germer of being "fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts!" Believing the Babalon Working was accomplished, Parsons sold the Parsonage to developers for $25,000 under the condition that he and Cameron could continue to live in the coach house, and he appointed Roy Leffingwell to head the Agape Lodge, which would now have to meet elsewhere for its rituals.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 150|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 266–267}}

Parsons co-founded a company called Allied Enterprises with Hubbard and Sara, into which Parsons invested his life savings of $20,970. Hubbard suggested that with this money they travel to [[Miami]] to purchase three yachts, which they would then sail through the [[Panama Canal]] to the West Coast, where they could sell them on for a profit. Parsons agreed, but many of his friends thought it was a bad idea. Hubbard had secretly requested permission from the U.S. Navy to sail to China and South and Central America on a mission to "collect writing material"; his real plans were for a world cruise. Left "flat broke" by this defrauding, Parsons was incensed when he discovered that Hubbard and Sara had left for Miami with $10,000 of the money; he suspected a scam but was placated by a telephone call from Hubbard and agreed to remain business partners.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

When Crowley, in a telegram to Germer, dismissed Parsons as a "weak fool" and victim to Hubbard and Sara's obvious confidence trick, Parsons changed his mind, flew to Miami and placed a temporary injunction and restraining order on them. Upon tracking them down to a harbor in [[MacArthur Causeway|County Causeway]], Parsons discovered that the couple had purchased three yachts as planned; they tried to flee aboard one but hit a squall and were forced to return to port. Parsons was convinced that he had brought them to shore through a [[lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram]] containing an astrological, [[Geomantic figures|geomantic]] invocation of [[Geomantic figures#The geomantic figures|Bartzabel]]{{mdash}}a vengeful spirit of [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]]. Allied Enterprises was dissolved and in a court settlement Hubbard was required to promise to reimburse Parsons. Parsons was discouraged from taking further action by Sara, who threatened to report him for [[statutory rape]] since their sexual relationship took place when she was under California's [[age of consent]] of 18. Parsons was ultimately compensated with only $2,900. Hubbard, already married to [[Margaret Grubb]], [[Bigamy|bigamously]] married Sara and went on to found [[Dianetics]] and [[Scientology]].{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 155–157|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 267–269, 272–273|3a1 = Kaczynski|3y = 2010|3pp = 538–539|4a1 = Miller|4y = 2014|4pp = 127–130}}

''[[The Sunday Times]]'' published an article about Hubbard's involvement with O.T.O. and Parsons' occult activities in December 1969. In response, the [[Church of Scientology]] released an unsubstantiated press statement which said that Hubbard had been sent as an undercover agent by the U.S. Navy to intercept and destroy Parsons' "black magic cult", and save Sara from its influence. The Church also stated that Robert A. Heinlein was the clandestine Navy operative who "sent in" Hubbard to undertake this operation.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 273–274}} Returning to California, Parsons completed the sale of the Parsonage, which was then demolished, and resigned from O.T.O. He wrote in his letter to Crowley that he did not believe that "as an autocratic organization, [the O.T.O.] constitutes a true and proper medium for the expression and attainment" of Thelema.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 158|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 270|3a1 = Kaczynski|3y = 2010|3p = 555}}

===Loss of FBI clearance, Red Scare Marxist and espionage accusations and acquittal: 1946–1952===
[[File:Navaho launch.jpg|right|thumb|upright|Parsons worked on developing the [[SM-64 Navaho]] missile (pictured launching in 1957).]]

Parsons was employed by [[North American Aviation]] at [[Inglewood, California|Inglewood]], where he worked on the [[SM-64 Navaho|Navaho Missile Program]].{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 158–159|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 275}} He and Cameron moved into a house in [[Manhattan Beach, California|Manhattan Beach]], where he instructed her in occultism and esotericism.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 275}} When Cameron developed [[catalepsy]], Parsons referred her to [[Sylvan Muldoon]]'s books on [[astral projection]], suggesting that she could manipulate her seizures to accomplish it.{{sfn|Kansa|2011|pp=48–49}} They were married on October 19, 1946, four days after his divorce from Helen was finalized, with Forman as their witness.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 158|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 277|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3p = 39}} Parsons continued to be seen as a specialist in rocketry; he acted as an expert consultant in numerous industrial tribunals and police and [[United States Army Ordnance Corps|Army Ordnance]] investigations regarding explosions. In May 1947, Parsons gave a talk at the [[Pacific Rocket Society]] in which he predicted that rockets would take humans to the Moon.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 159|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 277–278}} Although he had become distant from the now largely defunct O.T.O. and had sold much of his Crowleyan library, he continued to correspond with Crowley until the latter's death in December 1947.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 277, 279}}

At the emergence of the [[Cold War]], a [[Red Scare]] developed in the U.S. as the Congressional [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] began investigating and obstructing the careers of people with perceived communist sympathies. Many of Parsons' former colleagues lost their security clearances and jobs as a result, and eventually the FBI stripped Parsons of his clearance because of his "subversive" character, including his involvement in and advocacy of "sexual perversion" in O.T.O. He speculated in a June 1949 letter to Germer that his clearance was revoked in response to his public dissemination of Crowley's ''[[Liber OZ]]'', a 1941 tract summarizing the individualist moral principles of Thelema. Declassified FBI documents later revealed that the FBI's primary concern was Parsons' former connections to Marxists at Caltech and his membership of the also "subversive" ACLU. When they interviewed Parsons, he denied communist sympathies but informed them of Sidney Weinbaum's "extreme communist views" and [[Frank Malina]]'s involvement in Weinbaum's communist cell at Caltech, which resulted in Weinbaum's arrest for perjury since he had lied under oath by denying any involvement in communist groups. Malina's security clearance was withdrawn as well.<ref name="Grdn">{{cite news |last1=MacDonald |first1=Fraser |title=Frank Malina and an overlooked Space Age milestone |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2015/oct/14/frank-malina-and-an-overlooked-space-age-milestone |access-date=June 25, 2019 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=October 14, 2015}}</ref> In reaction to this hostile treatment, Parsons sought work in the rocket industry abroad. He sought advice to do so in correspondence with von Kármán; whose advice he followed by enrolling in an evening course in advanced mathematics at USC to bolster his employability in the field—but again he neglected attendance and failed the course.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 159|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 281–284|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3pp = 46–47}} Parsons again resorted to bootlegging nitroglycerin for money, and managed to earn a wage as a car mechanic, a manual laborer at a gas station, and a hospital orderly; for two years he was also a faculty member at the USC Department of Pharmacology.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 161, 166|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 284}} Relations between Parsons and Cameron became strained; they agreed to a temporary separation and she moved to Mexico to join an artists' commune in [[San Miguel de Allende]].{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1p = 283|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3pp = 48, 51–52}}

Unable to pursue his scientific career, without his wife and devoid of friendship, Parsons decided to return to occultism and embarked on sexually based magical operations with prostitutes. He was intent, informally following the ritualistic practice of Thelemite organization the [[A∴A∴]], on performing "the Crossing of the [[Abyss (Thelema)|Abyss]]", attaining union with the [[Universal mind|universal consciousness]], or "All" as understood in the context of the [[Great Work (Thelema)|Great Work]], and becoming the "[[A∴A∴#The Order of the S∴S∴ (Silver Star)|Master of the Temple]]".{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 160–169|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 284–285}} Following his apparent success in doing so, Parsons recounted having an [[out-of-body experience]] invoked by Babalon, who astrally transported him to the biblical [[Chorazin|City of Chorazin]], an experience he referred to as a "Black Pilgrimage". Accompanying Parsons' "Oath of the Abyss" was his own "Oath of the AntiChrist", which was witnessed by Wilfred Talbot Smith. In this oath, Parsons professed to embody an entity named ''Belarion Armillus Al Dajjal'', the [[Antichrist]] "who am come to fulfill the law of the Beast 666 [Aleister Crowley]".{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 160–169|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 284–285}} Viewing these oaths as the completion of the Babalon Working, Parsons wrote an [[Illeism|illeist]] autobiography titled ''Analysis by a Master of the Temple'' and an occult text titled ''The Book of AntiChrist''. In the latter work, Parsons (writing as ''Belarion'') prophesied that within nine years Babalon would manifest on Earth and supersede the dominance of the [[Abrahamic religions]].{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 160–169, 189|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 284–285}}

During this period, Parsons also wrote an essay on his individualist philosophy and politics—which he described as standing for "[[liberalism]] and liberal principles"—titled "Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword", in which he condemned the authoritarianism, censorship, corruption, [[antisexualism]] and racism he saw as prevalent in American society.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 160–169|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 284–285}} None of these works were published in his lifetime. Through Heinlein, Parsons received a visit from writer [[L. Sprague de Camp]], with whom he discussed magic and science fiction, and disclosed that Hubbard had sent a letter offering him Sara back. De Camp later referred to Parsons as "An authentic mad genius if I ever met one", and based the character Courtney James on him in his time travel short story "[[A Gun for Dinosaur]]" (1956). Parsons was also visited by Jane Wolfe, who unsuccessfully appealed for him to rejoin the dilapidated O.T.O. He entered a brief relationship with an Irishwoman named Gladis Gohan; they moved to a house in [[Redondo Beach, California|Redondo Beach]], a building known by them as the "Concrete Castle".{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 171|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 288|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3pp = 51–53}}{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 277, 279}} Cameron returned to Redondo Beach from San Miguel de Allende and violently argued with Parsons upon discovering his infidelity, before she again left for Mexico. Parsons responded by initiating divorce proceedings against her on the grounds of "extreme cruelty".{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 288}}

[[File:Jack Parsons FBI.jpg|thumb|upright|left|November 1950 [[FBI]] synopsis of espionage allegations against Parsons]]
Parsons testified to a closed federal court that the moral philosophy of Thelema was both anti-fascist and anti-communist, emphasizing his belief in individualism. This along with references from his scientific colleagues resulted in his security clearance being reinstated by the [[Industrial Employment Review Board]], which ruled that there was insufficient evidence that he had ever had communist sympathies. This allowed Parsons to obtain a contract in designing and constructing a chemical plant for the [[Hughes Aircraft Company]] in [[Culver City, California|Culver City]].{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 161|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 286–287}} Von Kármán put Parsons in touch with [[Herbert T. Rosenfeld]], President of the Southern Californian chapter of the [[American Technion Society]]{{mdash}}a [[Zionism|Zionist]] group dedicated to supporting the newly created State of Israel. Rosenfeld offered Parsons a job with the Israeli rocket program and hired him to produce technical reports for them.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 169–170|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 286–287}} In November 1950, as the Red Scare intensified, Parsons decided to migrate to Israel to pursue Rosenfeld's offer, but a Hughes secretary whom Parsons had asked to type up a portfolio of technical documents reported him to the FBI. She accused Parsons of espionage and attempted theft of classified company documents on the basis of some of the reports that he had sought to submit to the Technion Society.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 170–172|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 291–293, 296|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3pp = 54–55}}

Parsons was immediately fired from Hughes; the FBI investigated the complaint and were suspicious that Parsons was spying for the Israeli government. Parsons denied the allegations when interrogated; he insisted that his intentions were peaceful and that he had suffered an error of judgment in procuring the documents. Some of Parsons' scientific colleagues rallied to his defense, but the case against him worsened when the FBI investigated Rosenfeld for being linked to Soviet agents, and more accounts of his occult and sexually permissive activities at the Parsonage came to light. In October 1951, the U.S. attorney decided that because the contents of the reports did not constitute state secrets, Parsons was not guilty of espionage.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 170–172|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 291–293, 296|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3pp = 54–55}}<ref name="Anderson">{{cite web|last=Anderson |first=Brian |title=The Hell Portal Where NASA's Rocket King Divined Cosmic Rockets With L. Ron |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/hunting-the-hell-portal-where-the-founder-of-nasa-s-jpl-divined-cosmic-rockets-with-l-ron/ |website=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |access-date=March 31, 2014 |date=October 29, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407100222/http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/hunting-the-hell-portal-where-the-founder-of-nasa-s-jpl-divined-cosmic-rockets-with-l-ron |archive-date=April 7, 2014 }}</ref>

The Review Board still considered Parsons a liability because of his historical Marxist affiliations and investigations by the FBI, and in January 1952 they permanently reinstated their ban on his working for classified projects, effectively prohibiting him from working in rocketry.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 172|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 296|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3pp = 63–64}} To make a living he founded the Parsons Chemical Manufacturing Company, which was based in North Hollywood and created pyrotechnics and explosives such as fog effects and imitation gunshot wounds for the film industry, and he also returned to chemical manufacturing at the Bermite Powder Company in Saugus.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 177|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 294, 297|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3p = 57}}<ref>{{cite web|last=Doherty|first=Brian|title=The Magical Father of American Rocketry|url=http://reason.com/archives/2005/05/01/the-magical-father-of-american|website=[[Reason (magazine)|Reason]]|access-date=April 20, 2014|date=May 2005}}</ref>

[[File:Dark Angel.png|thumb|right|upright|''Dark Angel'', a painting by Marjorie Cameron portraying Parsons as the "Angel of Death"{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 219}}]]
Parsons reconciled with Cameron, and they resumed their relationship and moved into a former coach house on Orange Grove Boulevard. Parsons converted its large, first-floor laundry room into a home laboratory to work on his chemical and pyrotechnic projects, homebrew [[absinthe]] and stockpile his materials.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 169|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 293|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3p = 57}} They let out the upstairs bedrooms and began holding parties that were attended largely by bohemians and members of the [[Beat Generation]], along with old friends including Forman, Malina and Cornog. They also congregated at the home of Andrew Haley, who lived on the same street. Though Parsons in his mid-thirties was a "prewar relic" to the younger attendees, the raucous socials often lasted until dawn and frequently attracted police attention.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1pp = 294–295|2a1 = Kansa|2y = 2011|2pp = 57–63}} Parsons also founded a new Thelemite group known as "the Witchcraft", whose beliefs revolved around a simplified version of Crowley's Thelema and Parsons' own Babalon prophecies. He offered a course in its teachings for a ten-dollar fee, which included a new Thelemic belief system called "the Gnosis", a version of [[Christian Gnosticism]] with [[Sophia (wisdom)|Sophia]] as its godhead and the Christian God as its [[demiurge]]. He also collaborated with Cameron on ''Songs for the Witch Woman'', a collection of poems which she illustrated that was published in 2014.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 99|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 295}}<ref name="Nelson">{{cite web|last1=Nelson|first1=Steffie|title=Cameron, Witch of the Art World|url=http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/cameron-witch-art-world#|website=lareviewofbooks.org|publisher=[[Tribune Publishing]]|access-date=November 14, 2014|date=October 8, 2014}}</ref>

===Death: 1952===
Parsons and Cameron decided to travel to Mexico for a few months, both for a vacation and for Parsons to take up a job opportunity establishing an explosives factory for the Mexican government. They hoped that this would facilitate a move to Israel, where they could start a family, and where Parsons could bypass the U.S. government to recommence his rocketry career. He was particularly disturbed by the presence of the FBI, convinced that they were spying on him.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 179|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 296–297|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3p = 64}}

On June 17, 1952, a day before their planned departure, Parsons received a rush order of explosives for a film set and began to work on it in his home laboratory.{{sfnm|1a1 = Pendle|1y = 2005|1p = 299|2a1 = Kansa|2y = 2011|2p = 65}} An explosion destroyed the lower part of the building, during which Parsons sustained mortal wounds. His right forearm was severed, his legs and left arm were broken, and a hole was torn in the right side of his face.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 177–178|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 1–6|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3pp = 65–66}} 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 Hospital|Huntington Memorial Hospital]], where he was declared dead approximately thirty-seven minutes after the explosion.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 177–178|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 1–6|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3pp = 65–66}} When his mother, Ruth, learned of his death, she immediately took a fatal overdose of [[barbiturate]]s.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 178–179|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 6–7|3a1 = Kansa|3y = 2011|3p = 66}}<ref name="Harnisch"/>

Pasadena Police Department criminologist Don Harding led the official investigation; he concluded that Parsons had been mixing [[Mercury(II) fulminate|fulminate of mercury]] in a coffee can when he dropped it on the floor, causing an initial explosion that triggered a larger blast among other chemicals in the room.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 179–181|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 8}} Forman considered this likely, stating that Parsons often had sweaty hands and could easily have dropped the can.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|p = 301}} Some of Parsons' colleagues rejected this explanation, saying that he was very attentive about safety. Two colleagues from the Bermite Powder Company described Parsons' work habits as "scrupulously neat" and "exceptionally cautious". The latter statement—from chemical engineer George Santymers—insisted that the explosion must have come from beneath the floorboards, implying an organized plot to kill Parsons. Harding accepted that these inconsistencies were "incongruous" but described the manner in which Parsons had stored his chemicals as "criminally negligent", and noted that Parsons had previously been investigated by the police for illegally storing chemicals at the Parsonage. He also found a morphine-filled syringe at the scene, suggesting that Parsons had been under the influence of narcotics. The police saw insufficient evidence to continue the investigation and closed the case as an accidental death.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 181|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 11–12}}

{{quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=lightblue|align=right|quote=John W. Parsons, handsome 37-year-old rocket scientist killed Tuesday in a chemical explosion, was one of the founders of a weird semi-religious cult that flourished here about 10 years ago&nbsp;... Old police reports yesterday pictured the former Caltech professor as a man who led a double existence—a down-to-earth explosives expert who dabbled in intellectual necromancy. Possibly he was trying to reconcile fundamental human urges with the inhuman, [[Buck Rogers]] type of innovations that sprang from his test tubes.|source= —Parsons' obituary in the June 19, 1952 edition of ''The Pasadena Independent''{{sfnm|1a1=Pendle|1y=2005|1p=9|2a1=Pendle|2y=2005|2p=311}}
}}

Both Wolfe and Smith suggested that Parsons' death had been suicide, stating that he had suffered from depression for some time. Others theorized that the explosion was an assassination planned by [[Howard Hughes]] in response to Parsons' suspected theft of Hughes Aircraft Company documents.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1p = 327|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 13, 301}} Cameron became convinced that Parsons had been murdered {{mdash}} either by police officers seeking vengeance for his role in the conviction of Earl Kynette or by [[Anti-Zionism|anti-Zionists]] opposed to his work for Israel.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1p = 185|2a1 = Kansa|2y = 2011|2pp = 77–79}} One of Cameron's friends, the artist [[Renate Druks]], later stated her belief that Parsons had died in a rite designed to create a [[homunculus]].{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = 184}} His death has never been definitively explained.{{sfn|Carter|2004|p = xxv}}

The immediate aftermath of the explosion attracted the interest of the U.S. media, making headline news in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''. These initial reports focused on Parsons' prominence in rocketry but neglected to mention his occult interests. When asked for comment, Aerojet secretary-treasurer T.E. Beehan said that Parsons "liked to wander, but he was one of the top men in the field".{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 182, 185–187|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 7–10}} Within a few days, journalists had discovered his involvement in Thelema and emphasized this in their reports.{{sfnm|1a1 = Carter|1y = 2004|1pp = 182, 185–187|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2pp = 7–10}}

A private prayer service was held for Parsons at the funeral home where his body was cremated. Cameron scattered his ashes in the Mojave Desert, before burning most of his possessions.{{sfn|Pendle|2005|pp = 300–303}} She later tried to perform astral projection to commune with him.{{sfn|Kansa|2011|pp = 74–79}} O.T.O. also held a memorial service—with attendees including Helen and Sara—at which Smith led the Gnostic Mass.{{sfnm|1a1 = Starr|1y = 2003|1p = 327|2a1 = Pendle|2y = 2005|2p = 300}}