wilson, parsons, peenemünde

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

* right, "illuminatus" is well stolen from gravity's rainbow and mumbo jumbo. 
for me wilson's most useful book was "cosmic trigger" [1977], kinda spiritual 
autobiography. the following outtake from his introduction to 'john carter's 
"sex and rockets. the occult world of jack parsons" (venice, ca. 1999: feral 
house) gives an impression of wilson's intention:


"as you have gathered by now, i do not regard parsons or crowley as black 
magicians or satanists or anything of that sort. magick has many aspects, but 
primarily it acts as a dramatized system of 'psychology' (or neuro-linguistic 
meta-programming) to train us to break out of the cage of the socially 
conditioned ego and, by plunging directly into the chaos and void from which we 
emerged, experience a rebirth into a new sense of self, of world, and of chaos 
and void, knowing directly, by experience, that all these names hide the same 
hidden unity --- the wonderful magician who makes the grass green, makes the sad 
man sad, makes the angry woman angry, and makes the loving heart overflow with 
further love endlessly."

                                                         KFL +


ps. "despite the vilification and brouhaha, in 1972 the international 
astronomical union in france honored parsons by naming a crater on the moon 
after him. 'parsons crater' is at 37 N latitude, 171 W longitude, and, 
appropriately enough, on the  d a r k  side of the moon. (...) after the war, 
group leader and rocket scientist von kármán was invited to germany to inspect 
various nazi research installations like the one at peenemünde. the visit 
occured at the invitation of hap arnold and his other old friends in washington. 
von kármán's autobiography, 'the wind and beyond', contains pictures from his 
trip to germany, including one shot of him interrogating a german scientist. as 
previously noted, von kármán worked in germany during the decade following 
WW I. after WW II, he was instrumental in recruiting nazi scientists to the 
united states. declassified documents refer to this effort as 'operation 
paperclip'. some of parsons' letters to cameron are from alabama, where 
paperclip rocket scientist wernher von braun was a prisoner of war, and it is 
possible the two had met ..." (carter, sex & rockets, pp. 192f)

pps. on jack parsons and related folks (like the guru of chick corea) you can, 
in a more sociological framework, also find information in mike davis' "city of 
quartz --- excavating the future in los angeles".