For the Everything is Everything crowd

[Richard Fiero]

John Whiteside (Jack) Parsons (1914-1952) was a rocket propulsion 
researcher at the California Institute of Technology and co-founder 
of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His research was central to 
the United States rocket program in the 1930s and '40s, notably in 
the development of space-capable rocket fuels and the invention of 
JATO units for aircraft.
He is less well known than Wernher von Braun or Theodore von Karman 
in the rocket program and the origins of JPL. Nonetheless, von Braun 
remarked that Parsons, and not he, should be regarded as the father 
of the American space program.
Parsons was also an avid practitioner of the occult arts, and a 
follower of Thelema. He was chosen by Aleister Crowley to lead the 
Thelemic movement in California in 1941. He was also the sometime 
magickal partner of L. Ron Hubbard. The two participated in a ritual 
known as the "Babalon Working" which is famous in occult circles -- 
loosely, an attempt to summon a goddess and change the course of 
history. This relationship lasted until 1947, when Hubbard defrauded 
Parsons of a sum of money (and ran off with his wife).
Jack Parsons died in 1952 in a laboratory explosion which is 
generally regarded as accidental. An extensive online library of his 
seminal writings regarding the Babalon Working has been maintained 
since 1997 at http://www.babalon.net. A crater on the dark side of 
the Moon has been named after him.