Last Podcast On The Left - Episode 513: Jack Parsons Part II - A Two Edged Sword

Episode Date: November 19, 2022

The boys continue the story of Jack Parsons, this week focusing on his time with the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis) and how his increased involvement in the world's of Rocketry and the Occult lead him down quite a unique path, a path that would eventually happen to cross with the king of science fiction based cults himself, L. Ron Hubbard.

There's no place to escape to. This is the last time on the left That's when the cannibalism started Yes, I don't know it's because of all the salima we've been reading but I had a dream last night that me and Carolina We're in a throuple with a young James con. I mean that that fit really does fit. What a lucky you what a lucky young James But that's they was lucky for James con because I was I was the one that felt put out You know how it happens, you know, and I was I felt a little put out of the whole thing I'm just gonna go eat my chicken vindaloo alone, but is this because he wouldn't let you fuck him No, no, no, they just seem to be having a better time without me. Yeah, why did you dream that you were with another dude?

I mean, which is fine, but it's not his fault. He doesn't know. It's I don't choose what I dream about Huh, and that's the Lima and in the Lima. There's a lot of those mmf Situations happening a lot of it is a lot of spit roasting It is very difficult to be a magician because one of the singular most difficult things I think truly is to be able to sit in a fairly stuffy room Surrounded by a group of people in robes and remain hard because that is one of the trials Okay, one of the steps of the OTO is little you must enter into the circle rude

Published they called it and then you have to maintain it which is very difficult for me because again I love to perform but not when it's intimate tough day to be a janitor Welcome to last podcast of the left everyone I am Ben hanging out with Marcus the newly horned-up Marcus by the way looking at James Kahn's young tushy and Henry's a Browsky, so you're watching them have sex with each other not at all I don't know but I said nothing in my statement to imply that again Throttle yeah, a throttle not necessarily a threesome a throttle is different from a threesome So when I say the boring part you were yeah, everybody yeah, figuring out what we're gonna watch a Netflix and a trifecta

Yeah I'm talking about a that's why I said throttle not threesome. No, it was a And then at the end of it like an old like girlfriend from high school like this really Christian girl She got a hold of me is like hey you having some troubles you want to get together. I'm like, I don't want that either You know what I find interesting, you know in our dreams everybody you see is you Indeed that's the case and of course a truffle. That's what I call my air land and see my fish filet chicken breast sandwich and Good old beef Okay, that's already called a McGang bang

Gang bang yes Fantastic. All right, everyone. We're on to Jack Parsons part two so when we last left Jack Parsons the year was 1939 and he'd just been introduced to the Los Angeles Occult scene in the form of the Agape Lodge of the OTO founded by Alistair Crowley At the same time he was also making seismic breakthroughs in the scientific world through his work in rocketry And can they be uncoupled? I submit that they cannot okay But by 1939 the term rocket was seen as a purely science fiction term put another way

It would be like if we developed faster than light technology But called it warp drive instead of the more scientific way of saying it FTL, but that's what I fucking hate Just call it warped you just call it warped I think that's a problem Those and then Trump did it with Space Force and then you're like, oh, it's fun that it's Space Force But they don't do anything that he's got a new flag. It's stupid. Yeah. Well, they are blowing stuff up Yeah, so to shed the science fiction connotations the Jack Parsons crew at Caltech the so-called suicide squad They decided to change the name of their technology magic instead of calling them rockets Parsons and the rest would from then on refer to this new technology as

metal hot dogs Perfect technology They all got together and they they faced off against those Puerto Ricans Jets in the sharks my friend that is Now I forgot what it is West Side West Side story However, this technology was not shooting towards the stars just yet in 1939 World War two had already begun and conflict in one way or another was obviously on the horizon for the United States So the suicide squad was given funding from the government to develop jet assisted takeoff for their fighter and cargo planes

This technology was known as Jato cool and the suicide squad became America's first government-sanctioned rocket research group I'm gonna be using the term Jato a lot Okay, so just get used to it Jato and what does it stand for again? Jet assisted takeoff. That's why I'm reiterating. Jato It's the evil cousin of Kato He was actually he was in he did too much meth to fall asleep. He was outside of the pool house. Oh, okay So after almost blowing themselves up on the Caltech campus with a twin set of explosions when an oxygen line caught fire and Ignited a tank of ethylene the suicide squad asked the government for a budget of a hundred thousand dollars

Hey, there's nothing they got ten. Oh Oh, good, but we're still overjoyed that someone was finally taken him seriously and they'd honestly sort of high-balled it a little bit You ask for a lot you get a little I have some shark tank It's important to do in fact Parsons and his crew believed that they had been immediately Welcomeed into the higher ranks of scientific society because just after they'd received funding They were invited to a formal dinner at Caltech. They're in the big leagues. We're gonna get we're going to war We're getting chicken. This is really exciting. Good broccoli, too However, Frank Molina one of their crew discovered that the suicide squad had actually been invited to the fancy dinner

Due to a clerical error But Frank didn't have the heart to tell the rest of the crew that they'd only been invited by accident Who cares if you're invited by accident, you're still invited. I think that's how we've got invited to Heidi Klum's Halloween party I'm not gonna tell her that we're invited As soon as they find out then you're other than you're off the list. A w is a w in all areas of life Show up you you were invited So after months of testing different powder formulas and huts made of corrugated iron and the arroyo secco where the temperatures Regularly hit 100 degrees Parsons made a breakthrough that got the crew closer to Jado

Genesis to take off. Oh, yeah, that's what that's what it's So The government doubled his group's funding in 1940. Yeah, man But just as Parsons was breaking new ground in the field of rocketry He was also immersing himself in the works of Alistair Crowley And he was well on his way to discovering knowledge that he believed would allow him to change the fabric of reality Because not only was it Kong's own packs that was a book that inspired him which was we talked a little bit last week Which is what Alistair Crowley views is one of the

Fundamental books that one must read in order to even become a Minerval inside of the OTO He was also obsessed with a book called darker than you think which was by Jack Williamson and it's about what? where people Anybody can turn into an animal. It's a secret society that has fostered doubt in where if werewolves, right? So that they could go back and hide right once because they stage the witch hunts of the 1800s right say look we got all the witches and we got them all they did it there were larping yes No, they but they were werewolves Oh, then they went into hiding so they could go and plan their next move so they can come back and take over the world

but he got really into this concept of Shapeshifting right there was like something about this you and the fact that the lead woman in the book was a big bosomed Flamin red haired green-eyed woman Come as we see woman. Yes his obsessions as things went on But this is now we're seeing him in what I call his like neophyte phase Yeah, where he is starting to understand the processes of magical thinking and ritual and he is getting obsessed with it because at the same time Not only is it like personally fulfilling it's inspiring But it's getting him out of the world of all these stuffy scientists and getting them into the world of all this hot-ass bush

All right, so now you feel better getting that off your chest. That's one thing all right fantastic A mervel sounds like an otter that doesn't like to swim. He's been saving that eyes a typical mervel Minerval, man, or please typical mineral. No concerning Alistair Crowley Perhaps the most important concept in his belief system the lemma is that of will which again? It's not necessarily how we think of will it's not the will to succeed or the will to survive Rather will in the lameic terms is more destiny Combined with purpose and again This is more of your interpretation will as you'll discover the more and more you read it the more and more you understand that it is a

constant shifting deciphering of will and what that means on any different level like it both means it is both a Practical level like just straight up it is my will to be the hottest Scottish Polish NBA player that they've ever seen right That's not possible exactly, but that's just one of my wills right that then you find out what lines up realm of possibility That's the idea is that will your true will maybe also maybe because think about it Was it really in the realm of possibility for any one of us to be professionals in the entertainment industry? I don't fucking know I don't know I was born not necessarily we were born way outside of it. None of us had Institutional connections. What do we see mostly people who make it entertainment or people that are born in money and in magic? Yeah, but it would be like if we didn't have any mouths or eyes or ears or feet or hands

You got to be talented then. Yeah, it'd be the torso, man I had like two fortune tellers told me when I was a kid that that I was gonna do well in entertainment They were just trying to molest you Concepts are like moving and shifting so it really depends on what aligns with you and with Jack Bartons as soon as he discovered this Because we talked about last episode. He was such a headstrong motherfucker that he was like, ah, yes I know my will. I mean my my interpretation still holds. I think destinies change Purposes change. Yeah, and in Thalameck thought every person has a true will or purpose that should be pursued to the exclusion of all else And of course that can change purposes change goals change and Crowley theorized that much of the world's problems came from people not following

Their true will and perhaps from, you know, Henry's interpretation that might be not Recognizing when your will has changed holding on to something far longer than you should or it's like a dude named Minerval Who has a who was born with his foot backwards, but also became an NFL kicker But again learn how to use it understood. I only need to do football backwards So he kicks it backwards. Yep, which is like a horse. That's something else. It's something different. J. Don't You know what is all right? I'm getting it now. No, I think the concept of true will I think it holds true for some people and it isn't true at all for others Although I'll admit that the older I get even since we did our Alistair Crowley series

I mean the more of the concept of true will really does make a lot of sense to me because it's on you to mind yourself The raw material of your spirit to find what the will is I think it's on you to do it. I'm gonna go make some raw material right now. I tell you see The man is of chicken wing, right? Ben Kissel's will is mostly centered around chicken wing issues and chicken wing politics, right? Yeah, like what's in that world and in that Kissel is expressing his Bud Light will right is true As a matter of fact on Sunday, I did get a little bit too drunk and I was like chicken wings Why do they call them chicken wings when they're actually chicken feet?

And then There's no way they have to be the wing, but I was like convinced for like 30 seconds there were feet No Have you never been to a grocery store? I fought all over myself. I was like why would they call chicken wings chicken wings when their feet and I was like But I was like, no, that's wrong in the name of the food. I know I was questioning everything Well, it was like last night when I texted Henry at like one in the morning To feeling like an idiot because I finally figured out that the reason why the Scottish water creature the kelp

He the the sea horse the kelp is called a kelp because of kelp Yeah, and Henry texted back we are dumb as shit Yeah, cuz Kelpie's also the name of the unhelpful Starbucks barista Well Jack Parsons He was getting into Crowley's teaching so deeply that he began to consider Thilema itself as his true will Rocketry was not his true will Thilema was his true will the true student as such Jack and Helen were initiated into the Agape Lodge of the OTO on February 15th 1941 with Jack taking this as his motto Henry, please the establishment of Thilema through the rituals of love

That's nice. Yeah, I mean it's he's basically making stating his intention to fuck his way through a lot of magic, you know They're just I guess I was going through this process again, right because we've been to the woman to the Alistair Crowley series I also went insane and now I'm back in it I said Marcus some really funky ass Thilema jazz I'm waiting I'm waiting until night cuz next week is when we're truly gonna get into the magic stuff I'm waiting for them so it won't eat so I don't mix the science and the jazz too much I wish I could play some for you now It's just humping music right it's hoping you and you know what it is man is that we're caught up on our fucking bullshit

I agree because we talk about yeah, it's him mad about like, you know He can't do like he's fucking his way through magic, but he just understood what if fucking became my life Only is fucking the center of my life, but then I can figure out the sort of like personal power attached to it fuck rockets I've been blowing shit up since I'm nine And now I'm like wait a second now I can fuck and I wear a wizard cap and do the whole fucking be the all of the pageantry like the idea of doing those Rituals and walking into a room you're blindfolded and a man with the ropes pulling you in there And then there's a nude woman there and she's got to suck you not to come you gotta save it

Edgy indeed and fuck rock. It's a fantastic new dildo product. Yeah, it's a great one by by Linda Lovelace She's been dead for years. No, she's not The one that had the clitoris in her throat. That's deep throat. Yes. That was Linda Lovelace He refuses to learn he refuses to engage with the material That was Linda Lovelace. She's dead. She's been dead to 2002. She's been dead. She has me Yeah, okay. I think you're thinking of that is Debbie does Dallas. He is correct But Debbie does Dallas comes from like 1972. Yeah, but that was Linda Lovelace. Yes. Yeah, what a story. What a story there anyway, I

Think that yeah, it's all this talking about fucking his way through magic. It's not bad It's not I'm not poo poo in it at all It is a good excuse to live on lifestyle. That's stinky and sweaty in all the best ways But Jack Parsons was a true believer in thalamic principles. He's not just doing us. Yes, it's fun. That's great That's a great side. That is definitely a great side effect He understood as he believes in it He understood it's one package and that it's all one pack of like all of it like and who he was is that he was just an egg And now he need to crack the egg and become a chicken. Oh

exciting Well, once Jack Parsons was a part of the lodge He increased the membership started giving talks about the OTO in his own home and began to think of the OTO as his family Which would prove to be a grave mistake later on. Yeah Yeah, yeah, okay, and so Parsons split his time between Jado tests and the OTO And he would spend his off time in the desert unwinding the way a guy who splits his time between highly dangerous Experimental rocketry and sex magic might do cool Scrabble

No, I don't know I don't know the name of the game that him and Ed Foreman used to play I mean, maybe it's called like shoot gun or Yeah, yeah, they would just get good. What is this? I just see him being a board game guy They'd stand 50 yards apart from each other Uh-huh take handguns and then just fire them at each other to see who could get the closest to the other guy without hitting him with a Bullet. Yeah, dude. What if they hit him? He'd get shot Is he's not a board game guy this is like this is the freakiest wildest motherfucker You would ever meet you would know we're near your girlfriend

At this point this time because all everything's taken off and he's getting super slippery with it and all the magic and shit Yeah, I love this motherfucker. You can have sex with my girlfriend. Her name is Minervla And she's a she's fantastic. She she needs to do the reading. Yeah, absolutely She has ears where her eyes are supposed to be and you should see where her eyes are But the thing about the OTO is that it did interfere with Jack's day job One time he stayed up far too late partying reading poetry Playing records with those magical buddies That's nice. It's a nice night, but he was super hungover because he really liked absence

Made his own absence. Hey, man fucking keeps you wiggly man. Yeah, it's a strong one So the next morning because he was so hungover he rushed through a countdown and it caused a huge explosion Wait a second. How do you okay you count down? How did he rush through it? You just like Like Tommy was so directing the room, but he knew he had he can only the rental was only good for 15 more minutes Well, I think I mean I think with a countdown I might be talking completely out of my ass here, but I'm extrapolating from knowledge that I've learned about rockets over the last couple of weeks, I think part of The point of a countdown is not just to like let everyone know that the rocket's about to go off so they can look

I think there's a lot of preparations that you're doing Deering the countdown right pressure in the automator and yeah, and then yeah fire up the Gribble gobble and then get that off his sandwich Absolutely, you're sitting on a sandwich, and he's like oh my lunch get off of the sandwich. Yeah Yeah, yeah, but if you just go like five four three two one fucking do it It's not about the numbers so much of the actions It's not so much like when we show up hungover we just ruin a week of content Yeah, well technically some of our best episodes have been hungover

But it's again freedom is a two-edged sword. Yes Because sometimes many of our worst But it's that you know that the thing is when he shows up hungover he blows shit up right. Yeah, however Parsons involvement in the OTO was a double-edged sword candle good or evil Neutral hmm sandalwood because while it did sometimes cause him to make mistakes the intellectual Exercise of studying slayma seemed to unlock some previously inaccessible part of his intellect or so the legend goes It is inspiring it is now by the time Pearl Harbor was bombed in December of 1941

The Jado systems developed by the Suicide Squad were still showing positive returns. So the research took on a new urgency Now even though Parsons had proved that jet assisted takeoff Jado could work He hadn't yet found a fuel formula that didn't fail 30% of the time And you can't send that shit out into the battlefield not yet. Well, it depends how much you care about your soldiers I mean if it's Vietnam, then yeah, fuck it Everyone knows We gotta do that episode. It's a lot more complicated than that. It's so much more complicated. FDR could jump Really Wow

But then after working with this formula that you know didn't work 30% of the time an idea sprung from his Unconsciousness that changed the course of humanity I'm a go See Parsons have been working with black powder for the Jado test to no avail and liquid fuel was still too volatile For what the military wanted but according to the legend Parsons finally made the breakthrough to replace black powder with something else After seeing workmen spread hot asphalt on a roof and this is where we'd help science I mean this is that there's sometimes you're just spacing out We're just joking about this before the show about how like yes, sometimes it looks like we're not working because what we're doing is called

Executive time. Yeah, you're sitting and you're just thinking you're thinking about what could you do? Hey, I want to move forward. What should I do? I need to put this down on my calendar executive time This was his executive time watching a bunch of guys slave on a roof Oh my god smoking doobies and he's just like holy fucking shit. I Can't um, what a horrible job that is chapter. What was they they were putting the asphalt on a roof? Yeah, oh my god, it's a rough job man. It's always you talking about as those roofers Oh, yeah, finally. Thank you for all the roofers out there cuz we have a roof over her head because of them. That's right chicken wings

Now Ben, do you think in the future you'll write a book of chicken wings or a book about chicken wings? Is there a difference? The chicken wings is a two-boned food. It is a double-edged sword in many many ways No, actually sometimes I feel guilty eating chicken wings for some sometimes I can't eat meat on the bone It makes me feel guilty. I also could I was about to eat some ham yesterday And I put it in my mouth and I took it out. What? No, I mean I don't I like pigs I don't I'm not eating ham because I feel like it takes like human flesh, huh? Hey, you know

Psychological thing. I was talking about my love for pigs for like three years. You have it. It's really eat. Yeah Yeah, I am incorrect in saying Ben Kessel lives an unexamined life It's something in there. What's it's I don't know what's being examined. I don't know For the smell and sight of the asphalt reminded Jack Parsons of a flaming liquid weapon used by the Byzantine Empire It was called Greek fire Greek fire. Nothing but a hot Greek fire Greek fire was a naval weapon that set enemy ships on fire by emitting jets of liquid fire from bronze tubes Oh

Reputedly one could not extinguish Greek fire once it's spread across your ship except by using sand strong vinegar or in one-telling old urine Oh, I guess points towards ammonia our old urine is also the story of a dog that was shot as a puppy It's because of its terrible name. Yeah, it was too bad. He kept on throwing all the kids in the well Hmm, it's like you're supposed to rescue them out of it But what made Greek fire truly fearsome and effective was the fact that it burned on water Which made escape from an already burning ship impossible. Oh man smoking water. Yeah Water, it also meant the Greek fire could reliably burn for long periods of time

Reliably and steadily Consistently now no one knows exactly what Greek fire was made of because its recipe was a secret passed down through emperors but it's theorized that it was either petroleum salt Peter sulfur or Naturally occurring asphalt naturally occurring. I suppose so I don't know it may I ask then why are we putting this on roofs? It seems highly flammable No, it's No, no, it's like how it's actually I think that we're all incorrect I think all three of us might be incorrect in a way, but only about the asphalt

They put a basketball court up there asphalt in and of itself is not combustible But if you mix asphalt with other things, it was the smell it was the smell that made him think about the about it Yes, yeah, it's like bleach is fine and ammonia is fine But if you mix bleach and ammonia together, you get mustard gas. Yeah, I didn't know that Absolutely, I'm talking about how chemistry works. That's I'm fucking explaining chemistry right now You wow you become a high school teacher to me and pistol Also, he's a horrible teacher. He's teaching kids how to make mustard gas. Don't go in the bathroom. Sorry. It's my ass's fault You know how to get you know how to reach these kids

So when Parsons saw those workmen spreading black asphalt on a caltech roof He grabbed a bucket of common roofing tar and added an oxidizer that allowed the tar to breathe and flame There's about 40 or 50 more highly complicated Scientific steps between that point and the end point but before Parsons knew it He had created a fuel called gals at 53 Which opened up a whole new category of rocket fuel making solid propellants safer and more practical Then the liquid propellants that tended to explode fairly easily and still tend to explode fairly easily that fucking rocket That we launched off this morning almost exploded on the fucking on the platform until the red squad went out and fixed the fuel leak

And while this new category of rocket fuel would be used to fire Ballistic missiles like Polaris Poseidon in the Minutemen series Hmm the descendants of gals at 53, but also propel space shuttles out of Earth's orbit decades later I do find it magically interesting that one of the ways they figured out how to oxidize it was that what they when they put it Into two they have a there's a space in the center of it that allows it to burn longer and that space is a five-pointed star Oh interesting very interesting indeed sir. You got it. You really brought a lot of science to it I will bring this old thing to a pretty Indeed it has halted

Now Jack Parsons was only 27 years old when he made this discovery But being 27 he was also making some extremely questionable decisions in his personal life Especially after he was fully under the freewheeling influence of the OTO. Well, I will say this though He's 27 in 1939 era, which like inflation. It also affects age. So he's 43 Yes, you know years of his life. I think that that's also very interesting because We talk about the three ages of man and magic and what we have seen up to this point the first episode was his boy phase Oh, he was his child, right? But now we're seeing him as the man face

Man face as he grows the fruition and this power. Okay, great And when his wife Helen went on vacation in June of 1941 with her mother Parsons began an affair with Helen's half-sister Sarah Northrup who was just a hair under 18 years old Something about hitting hair on that really It's different all right a smidge just a smidge under 18 years old Smidge sounds like Call a man like that. She's a dad. This is my smidge right here. Yeah, I don't know how old she is don't ask her Feisty untamed and somewhat cold

Sarah greeted her sister Helen upon her return from vacation Wearing Helen's clothes and saying I'm Jack's wife now. Yeah. Oh, she's Jack's wife. No. Oh, yeah Mm-hmm in a cruelly candid letter Jack told his wife that he began the affair with her half-sister Deliberately and would do it again because he preferred Sarah sexually and he was better suited to her temperamentally You say cruelly candid. He did it in his version of this is the threple that you dreamed about right? It's like it's cutting to the quick. It's kind of the quick and I had an actor once tell me and it's true If you want to really do well in this business, you got to be fucking, right?

You got to be fucking all the time and I know I know which actor told you that Didn't tell me but I know which actors you know and I know which actor told you that yes, yes But he's basically this idea and it's true is that as a magician You're way more powerful if you be fucking right and so with Helen Yeah, Helen's great and all but Helen's Helen Yeah, his he had admitted that Helen's character was superior and he admitted that Sarah Would not have faced the hardships that Helen faced with Jack and he admitted that my god She's not even anywhere near on the same level of what woman as you are but you Helen. I love you Helen

but the thing is a Man a poet should be alive He drunken in love betrayed hurt lifted from pinnacle to pinnacle. She looks my asshole Yeah, that's basically all that means was she sexy and new and then again He's fucking somebody new and then it gives you that Kept it in the family like she was right there. Yeah, but it was just Mitch. He works at a goddamn college Yeah, well, he doesn't what well. Yeah cat technically by this point He's starting to move out of the college and into the private sector. Yes. He literally he's trying to create

his launch Yeah, and actually as we'll get to in here in just a second the half-sister was sort of a point Now this is a pretty clear-cut dick move But Jack Parsons was doing all of this with the encouragement and the sanction of the OTO who looked at marriage as a quote Detestable institution. Well, that's technically Al Sir Crowley's direct opinion of marriage But he was also married twice and so he Yeah, yeah, but then he oh the OTO then has rebranded since saying if it is your will then get married sure But again

Magicians be fucking what if I just beat you up OTO? Yeah, I mean that's a high deal it'd be like good congrats. You're following your will Well, that's for Al Sir Crowley. He said people should marry for convenience and agree to go their separate ways without jealousy once It was over. Why must there be divorce? Sounds like someone who's listening to a heroin needle. Yes And indeed Parsons saw his affair with Sarah as a crucial step in his magical tutelage He wrote that his passion for Sarah gave him the magical force. He needed at the time I need my magical force. The juice because the act of adultery

tinged with incest Serve as a magical confirmation in the law of Salema somehow. Can you explain that to me, Henry? Well, you know, it depends. I'll explain why incest is good really quick. Just a tinge. A smidge. 45 seconds on why a smidge of incest is okay It is not well, there is a little bit of the concept of transgressions Right the idea that trans agrar a transgressive act can fuck with the magic juju and give it too strong But technically the OTO and Al Sir Crowley and Thelima specifically comes out against incest

Technically, but this was not because it's because it's my wife's it's his wife's sister That's why it's tinged with incest. It's a smidge of incest It's a bit of a hair of incest. He just knows that the hair of incest Long grandma Truly it's it's more about the fact that Sarah will be down with the activities of the OTO and understand. Hey Like the thing Helen was like well, no matter what I'm your number one, right? I'm your number one and he's like Yeah, but then Jack Parsons at some point was like what if I had like five number ones

Right, then you're all equal. You're like a team of rivals Well, there's a Helen like she was not some wilting flower. She didn't run away screaming She was a full-fledged member of the OTO She would be a true believer until the day she died Helen Parsons is extremely important to this organization very much so So she stayed and perhaps because Parsons was able to pull off such an impressive sister switcheroo He began to gain a reputation in the organization Specifically Crowley's second in command in the OTO a german immigrant living in new york named Carl Germer He was hearing good things about this young rocket scientist out in california

Who had the tiniest bit of celebrity and just the tiniest bit more money? Oh, yeah Oh, that seems to matter the most well very much. So a lot of organizations team. They really would like, you know They want their tom cruise Again what elron hubbard the difference between the genius and the artists which what we'll talk about next week Is he understood? You got a fucking we do need funding. You do need funding. We do need some name recognition And jack Parsons was just in the newspaper as the brand new frankenstein's monster looking guy that is ready for the fucking prime time, baby

Indeed it'll sounds like he's more of the doctor Hi, i'm jackie zabrowski and i'm mj and i'm holding from the page seven podcast and we're going on That's right. We're touring all up in this mother freaking country a fake cursing So whatever jackie just say the filthy f word already and we will say the filthy f word when we come to your town That's right. We're coming to texas the midwest the northeast and then right back here in cali, baby For ticket links and more details visit last podcast network dot com. That's right last podcast network dot com H7 and wizard and the bruiser present Release the butthole cut wait, that's really what we're calling the tour

Absolutely release the butthole cut for more information go to last podcast network dot com A cryly second command carl garmer he had an interesting story all of his own And he'd very much suffered for magic and it come out the other end still a believer In 1937 just three years before garmer contacted parson's He'd been in germany when hitler banned all occult groups including the oto the only room for one Yeah As a result garmer had found himself in a concentration camp Oh, but he was eventually released and he immigrated to america god. It's gotta be terrible to have adhd in there

Henry you are off the show. He's off the show. Yeah, you're done. You're done. He's off the show. That's it. That's so hacky That was so hacky I'm upset Yeah, I know it is a will that's that's why you can't we've been doing this for 12 fucking years, buddy We are professional entertainers. You've been doing comedy for like 20 years Oh comedy even even 30 years. That's the best part is that because I have this experience everything I say is canon No, it's not everything I say it's like George shot out of a cannon and into space and never heard from again. Whoa. Whoa now. Whoa Well once carl germer arrived in america from the concentration camp

He was then harassed by the fbi for being a close associate of allister crowley because if you'll remember Crowley had spent all of world war one in america writing pro german propaganda for fun and profit But he was like a double, you know, he's a double double agent Yeah, he was covered in whatever Yeah, it was what he was saying that he was writing things that were so ridiculous that they was actually making the germans look bad Oh, yeah, that's how that works. I forgot. Yes. Yeah Eventually though germer settled into life in new york and was acting as crowley's representative in america He decided to act as a personal guru to jack parson's and implied that if parson's accepted his tutelage

He would soon be introduced to allister crowley himself Which would actually fit in because it's interesting during this time period jack parson's was actually He was trying to become a more one-quote serious student And there is a lot in the a a not the oto So a was allister crowley's his own specific brand of the oto and it was just for him But he viewed that as like See orc Of the oto to put it in that level, right? We're like the oh the a is what I have personal control over

And you're supposed to meet a dude, right? You're supposed to have a guy that's supposed to be a handler that brings a neophyte Into the a so at some point that's where allister crowley. He says in a letter I wish to god. I had jack for six months even three With a hustle to train and will in discipline He must understand that fine and fiery flashes of spirit come from the organization of matter From the drilling of every function of every bodily organ until it has become so regular as to be automatic And carried on by itself deep down in the unconscious

Honestly, he just wanted he wants to butt fuck Yes, so well, yeah, he just wants jack will but he just wants jack parson's to just like be able to just like take it whenever well Alger Crowley wants it's the opposite He wants to be able to do jacks parson's to give it whenever He wants to be able to look as allister crowley did believe that his submission To another was the most powerful way for he got control by giving control. Okay power bottoms. All right, of course Well, once a Crowley introduction was dangled parson's increased his involvement in the otio

He suggested that the otio should move their headquarters from los angeles to pasadena Which would allow jack to spend more time at the lodge But perhaps more importantly It would give the lodge more space to spread out, especially after jack parson's rented a mansion at 1003 orange grove avenue for $100 a month. This place was fucking huge $100 a month. I'm gonna jump off a fucking bridge. That's incredible. It was it was a different time It was a different time. So it was basically just taxes and rent That's where they wanted to go to pasadena more space more space

More space more bang for your buck. How many times do they say more bang for your buck? I think there was a lot of that Muteo But jack parson's lived in pasadena and it was an attempt. They viewed him as the one That was like one thing that started coming up It was like as people were meeting him at the agape lounge and and and they were like Agape lodge the agape lounge. I think that's the outside. That's a hookah lounge And she has a sort of meeting him. They were like, oh, he's he might have the x factor But alice or crowley again

He was a very hard teacher and his whole thing was that literally and he you had to kiss the ring Okay, all right But parson's filled that mansion with otl members and they were all supposed to live there communally It was sort of a second draft of crowley's failed abbey of thalayma where people lost their minds and or their lives in the Countryside of sicily. Well, that's where he ate shit Yes, and then watch others eat poop. Yeah, I remember that. I remember that. Yeah, he ate shit and then spent two days going like That was a bad idea Have this astral stomach ache. It's supposed to be something I ate

What have you been eating pancakes? Piles of shit I maybe circle that in the calendar and notice when the stomach ache started Right after you ate that pile of human shit It was a full log. That's what he said that he was I remember that one sticks out I remember only the things that I don't like the most That was that one. He was an experimenter. I think he cut it with a fork and knife. I saw the baby sallow Well, when I say communal, this is communal living here in this mansion with all these otl members

I don't mean that everyone was on equal footing Rooms were assigned according to otl hierarchy with jack parson's and sarah northrop sharing a nice two room suite So they could have separate affairs as per the otl's teachings. They were working. Yeah, it sounded like they were fucking But they were working. All right Ever the nerd though jack parson's covered the walls of his room with all the knives and swords he'd collected throughout the years It's a boy proving that you can still be a sci-fi fan who openly collects bladed weapons and still gets laid If you frame it the right way, I'm gonna tell you this man. No one is framing it the right way So don't do it. I had a friend in college. He had knives above his bed. He just like knives

But then you take a girl home and then it's just scary. It's college again He's framing it the right way. You can't do it. You can't say it's just because it can't say like I just like knives Like you got to say like, ah, yes this blade I procured this blade when I was taking a travel to catmandu and discover But it's just scary because now you're holding a blade that can kill somebody and they're in bad ceremonial sort And that's how you frame it and then again This is my favorite chainsaw But do you have a job? Are you available?

Sometimes it really helps less weapons in plain sight I feel also helps someone calm down Well, sensibly the mansion at orange grove was supposed to be a utopian community made up of true thelomites who shared All the responsibilities. This is a problem. It's kind of like in Satanism, right? We're if you it's all these guys, right? Each one's of each man and woman's a star, right? And it's all like loving her well It's about expressing your true well and it's just the thing about thelomites is that it's really difficult to get them to work as a group Because each one is so important to themselves

It's kind of hard to be like a freighter of bamelon You're on trash duty and he's like I want to come and you're like, well, why didn't you come? While you're doing the recycling work it into it. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely get aroused by recycling Didn't work out at all And most of them fell into traditional gender roles if they fell into any role at all Because this is before they started really taking it seriously. Okay Jane wolf one of the first members of the agape lodge had to do all the shopping for the whole house

And another woman named phyllis cecler was supposed to do all the cooking neither one really did much of either See at least they were bad at it too. I think that's fantastic. I mean just get uber eats. Come on So as the men went an actor named frederick melinger was supposed to do all the yard work. Oh, that's not happening Yeah, he just didn't do it all the garden No, and you know what they do acting like I'm doing it, but it's just you're not doing and they're just he's just like Miming a rake and then they go and they're like, why did you do the garden? Why aren't you doing all the leaves and stuff? And he's like, you're just not my true will to rake And there's like I just need you to just have the will to fucking I'm gonna kid you

I mean True skill that actors have is the ability to stay in the location for a long period of time Like a what do you like one of these that things they hang out in the canisters of an apartment? No A trailer. Yes, they can sit in those trailers for hours and hours and hours It's very important skill and stay in the head mind mindset. Oh, yeah method acted That's good. Well, there was actually there actually was one guy who tried kind of tried using it's not my true will That using that excuse to get out of work willford smith the co-founder of they got a lot Hey, he's in management. He's a man. I mean he quit his day job

He said he was supposed to take care of the animals and the vegetables But while I guess working at the fucking gas company, that's an acceptable position Agriculture is apparently not a field fitting for a priest of the oto It's not easy to do does he have any experimentation? Did he know how to grow a vegetable? I do feel like there is something in manual labor that actually does help magically I think that he was incorrect. It's because he was a fancy pants nerd. What was left to be do manual labor In the house. I have to now. I do as soon as you have a house. You have to do a bunch of work and it sucks Sarah Northrop meanwhile didn't do shit except have sex with jack and do her best to fuck up jack's day when she felt jack

Wasn't paying enough attention to her which was always she was she was a spark plug. That's yeah, it was mitch. Oh Oh, really about the only one who did anything was Helen Parsons who was still technically married to jack She was the treasurer and she did a competent job But the thing is that a lot of these people had kids and they brought the kids to this mansion and then they just kind of Let them run wild It ain't for a family You know, I mean, this is you're supposed to really be concentrating on the fucking your onus and and having sex Under well and all that kind of shit not like you got to go to kindergarten

I'm gonna go with the no kid policy on that one But if you are a kid running around the streets of Pasadena and with fairly loose parenting, maybe it was kind of fun For some of them a lot. I mean these were like like three-year-olds just probably miserable. They were just kind of confused and upset Yeah, yeah Well, as far as what jack parsons did he had arguably the most important job He paid for everything. That is the most important job and I need to talk to my fucking dogs about that Because Jerry and Puffin have been just way you do around here. Yeah, and it's like you fucking Everything that you look at Wendy said something to me the other day. I was on the couch

She said aren't you supposed to be on tour right now? And I was like, let me just sit. I know it's unbelievable what they say with their eyes Well, he gave his entire paycheck to the church of Thilema every month Say for ten bucks that he'd keep for himself But for him it was worth it He provided the money and the oto provided him with a weird ass family and a like-minded community I really think on his way That's where like jack parsons is different than a lot of these other kind of remoras on society as far as i'm concerned

We're like he really was starting to find fellowship and loved it He loved the actual practice and the study and he was really getting into it And he was just like he did the thing where he looked around me like how do I make this my life and not everything else That was the church I was forced to go to good news fellowship church That's where they would marry a lesbian to a gay man because that's how that fixed that it did They did that Yeah, it's not good. Yeah, it's guy this guy named steve. He was real feminine and tiny He married this huge chick who was a truck driver. That's magic

But I don't think it worked out. They probably were pretty sad unless these sort of wailing on each other Hey, no, I don't fucking like crazy. I don't think so. It wasn't really like that. I don't think it would happen Bad idea Parsons also brought in more people on his level He's kind of balancing out the dead weight of the drama teachers and the former silent film stars who hadn't worked since the Talkies had arrived, but they're setting up the atmosphere. Yeah, that is crazy They must have I feel like I pictured them in black and white It does. I don't know how to make them in color in my mind. Yes

Instead parson's brought in his old childhood friend and business partner ed foreman also brought in ed foreman's wife Oh, he also got a dude from the hercules powder company and two math experts from caltech All these people were married and they were all eager to learn about the sex magic secrets of the otl This is 1940. It's a weird time in america. It's interesting because they really were true They understood the kind of like this thing of like, okay for all doing magic It's totally okay for all of us to come in and we'll all fuck all of our wives hottest friends And we'll all like hang out in a circle or at least most willing And sometimes how willing you are that shows how hot you are. Okay

Hey, what? Yeah, I'm saying that like sometimes you're only as hot for it. Sometimes you're only as hot as what you're willing to do That's that's horrible Sometimes you got to find out you like you are sitting in a hotel room and you're like I need someone to fucking lick my asshole And you're just gonna put that on the universe and you just gotta you just gotta accept who shows up. There you go All right Well, since parson's was attracting individuals that were in positions of real power and esteem

He also drew the attention of the fbi. Oh The fbi would investigate jack parson several times over the next 10 years writing a file that would eventually stretch to 200 pages However, the fbi never found anything illegal because jack parson's was only pretend evil like most people in the otl But even though the fbi found nothing neighborhood busybodies got in on the action too Because this is what anton levée will steal later on but the concept of this satanic duality That's what's fun is that it creates a barrier to entry You create this environment where it seems like super fucked up and super dark and Mysterious and that actually precludes a lot of people from involving themselves because they don't want to get involved in something

It's super fucked up. But then when you arrive, you're like, oh, you're all kind of silly. It's kind of boring But it's I don't I don't you say it's boring. I find it as an actor It's fascinating and the idea of like showing up in a costume and doing all of this shit is fucking rad It's their version of LARPing and they get and they get to suck each other's dicks. Yeah Well a neighbor calling himself quotes a real soldier Sent a letter to pasadena police tattling on jack parson's Writing that a black magic cult practicing

Crowleyism and sexual perversion were flourishing at orange grove and somebody better do something about it for it gets out of hand He's a real soldier go do it yourself He wasn't ah, he was a soldier of pasadena's army of men that stare at your house Oh, as I said, nothing illegal was happening. But the agape lodge of the oto was a dangerous organization to join Emotionally if you weren't ready for it because the oto It's kind of the swingers club of the magical world Basically, it's three some rules if you have to be convinced to do it You're not ready for it. Nice

In a prime example of feelings getting hurt jack parson's brought in a guy named grady mcmartry Who would eventually bring the oto back from the brink of obscurity in 1971 with hellen parson's But back in 1941 when mcmartry first joined He was dealing with the emotional consequences of sex magic after parson's and wilfred smith spit roasted his wife Guided her pregnant and paid for an abortion without telling him. Oh Interesting. Also, you continue to say spit roast in america. It is called rotisserie And we did learn this because when we did what show were we in amsterdam? I forgot what it was We were in manchester. Yeah, I mentioned rotisserie in one of our stand up one of our funny little bits

And then they were like, it's not rotisserie. It's spit roasting, which is so much more disgusting And that's what makes it more european. Okay. Yeah, and spit roasting I brought that back from that's one of the things I brought back from manchester as well as uh, you know a relapse of long covet So, yeah, yeah, of course. It's both you got spit roasted by long coffe It has definitely been fucking both ends of your life. Yeah Well as a consequence grady mcmartry said that parson's and his ilk were a bunch of empty headed athenians Oh, that's as much as you could say after you all had sex with his wife. He's like You nerds

Empty headed athenians Mm-hmm, and he also said that parson's himself was quote as coked up as a snowbird That's funny. He was correct in that last one. That one was absolutely correct Maybe correct with the first one. We know we just don't know Well in order to cope with all the new responsibilities facing parson's and both the scientific and the magical world parson started doing a lot of coke and a lot of speed This was right around the time he co-founded his own company with the other suicide squad members and called it Aerojet. Oh, that's cool. It is. I like arojet. It's definitely a cocaine idea. Oh, yeah

In addition parson's was also making his own custom drugs Using his vast knowledge of chemistry Of course, this is encouraged by allister crowley's teachings because crowley said that drugs can assist in magical ritual and astral travel Wait a second, but like from the outside perspective. It's just a house that's now creating a bunch of drugs It's awesome It's a bunch of questionable people in a very fancy neighborhood like an elevated neighborhood like a governor like Like he had a house there and shit And so that's what I love about this story is that they moved right into the heart of the burbs

They they everybody was like they created a community of naked artists They were all like having sex with each other and doing all this shit doing a bunch of drugs and again for the time period It's super fucking awesome for me like this idea like it's in a super kind of square Like version of america where they're all fucking covered in calm Mm-hmm. I mean you would go knock on the door right now at 9 p.m. And be like, could you keep it down my dog? Just turn it down to nine. Can we turn it down to nine? I'm speaking of Crowley. Well, it was nice that Parsons was bankrolling the oto chapter in california Crowley also felt that some of that oto money should be spread to Crowley himself

Let's just think about this for a second. Let's just think about this. Okay, maybe maybe I can get a little cut. Huh? Come on. Yeah, and not just for heroin Oh, not just okay for heroin. He also needed it for his new magical project wands You think they grow in trees? Technically, yes, they do But it just seems like someone needs to get a job Owls of Crowley technically had a job executive time He's has to sit and think about all of the magic that he needs to do. I got it He does have actually he does have a job at this time at this time. He's making rejuvenation potions from his own company You mean to tell me that our

Our fan of the show and friend tommy pistol that he doesn't have a job No, he backs on camera and he's got a huge ding dong because technically he is kind of short So I think the penis does look a little bit bigger But anyway, you're talking mess on a man who fucks for a living I'm not talking mess at all, but he doesn't sell rejuvenation potions from his cum He puts his butthole on camera because he's leaving money on the table. Hmm Does he sell uh dildos that are modeled after his own dick? All right

That's the 21st century version of that I'd say the fellas get to do they don't make as much money as the gals there No, they can sell their ding dongs And gals sell a whole bunch of stuff, of course Yeah, well at this point in history Crowley was designing his tarot card deck. Yeah, the book of code deck, which is actually very powerful Oh, yeah, it's become fairly standard in the tarot community since Grady McMurtry and Helen Parsons pushed for its publication in the 70s Now Crowley considered these cards to be the most important thing he'd ever done But wilford smith who was still technically in charge of the agape lodge. He didn't agree. Yeah, you mean so Alistair Crowley was just like this the most important thing I've ever done and the other guy was like no it's not

This is the thing about again about philema and magic is that it's all everybody's will it's a bunch of upstarts It's a bunch of people got fucking mouthy mouths But the problem is that Alistair Crowley didn't like that. He wanted a yes, man And when he presented this whole thing because he said this is one of the most important things I've ever done And then the person just said no it's their will It's just Alistair Crowley was always looking for another victor noyberg Yeah, like he was it remember he was the guy that he uh, he broke his mind into insanity. Yeah, like this could never get that guy back Noyberg never could no when smith didn't say yes to funding the tarot deck. He was ordered to step down

Now the oto was split between those who supported smith and those who wanted the tarot deck and Parsons sort of became the man in the middle I think because he revered Crowley Uh, and he but he was also friends with wilfred well, you need to get merch I'm actually with Alistair Crowley on this one people would buy those And they did and they did and it really meant something later on after his fucking death Which is kind of sad But jack parson's was regularly in communication with Alistair Crowley and he's trying to like say hey I I'm super serious about this like I want to be like I want to be the censor of this

Not so much the leader but like we need and there's a vacuum of true leadership happening in los angeles And we need something but at the same time he liked wilfred smith Even though wills wilfred smith will later go on to bang his fucking ex-wife and make a child out of it He had to do right It was technically still his wife when he banged her and uh and got and got her pregnant But that was also all a part of the oto. They were all they were all cool with it Well in an attempt to sort of mend this rift between

Crowley and smith Parsons published a magazine called oriflom Which was filled with articles about magic written by smith and parson's and the oriflom was actually a republish of the original 1800s newsletter where the oto was announced But that that's where the oto because back in the day they would have to like you'd find out about the new esoteric group when it showed up In some kind of like publication And so that was early oto kind of introduced themselves in like the 1890s But they didn't become the oto until like 1950 Yeah, now today oriflom is a swedish makeup company. But back then

Parsons used the name to publish poetry that I actually like. I actually like jack parsons poetry It's it's somewhere it's somewhere between like allister crowley and like hawk wind It's like iron maiden lyrics, but psychedelic. It's no can we hear some? Yeah, Henry's gonna read some and I think like you could take these lyrics and just do this on your own later on Like you could sing some of these lines to the tune of the verse and run to the hills Yeah, it's got a it's got a very maiden cadence to it. Okay I height Don Coyote I'd live on peyote marijuana morphine and cocaine

I never knew sadness, but only a madness that burns at the heart and the brain I see charwoman ecstatic and human angelic demonic divine Each wagon a dragon each beer mug a flag and that brims with ambrosial wine The mountains or palaces women or chalices meant to be something that's sold The desert of banquet holds set for a festival right for the free in the boat You fucking this is good The wind in the sky or ours heaven and all its stars waking and do what you will Break with this demon spawned hell inspired nightmare born magic lies over the hill

They said I was crazy ambiguous lazy disgusting fantastic obscene So I hide from my sagebrush and cactus and corn mush to see if the air was so clean Oh, I height Don Coyote I live in peyote marijuana morphine and cocaine And it may I be twice damned for a bank clerk or storehand if I visit the city again Sounds like the Grinch Who's getting his dick, son?

Well, I think the Grinch didn't get his dick. Maybe that would have made him happier Oh, yeah, man. You put that in like a fucking like a king-gizzard album like song Dr. Susie would get psychedelic lyrics man. That's like medieval rap It was I mean, honestly, it's better than anything in Hamilton. I'll agree. I'll agree. I don't know what happened with that I don't know either Now Parsons was pleased his punch at this poem and in everything he did for orflame But when he sent a copy to his mentor Crowley hated it just like he hated everything that he himself did not right He was just on heroin with this. He was just angry and sick

And I guarantee you if you met him when he was super high, he probably would have loved it I believe that he was in a word jealous. I think that he missed the his youthful energy and he wanted to Yuck his yum as much as possible because no one should feel the freedom that Alistair Crowley felt He called him like he said the whole problem with him is that he was too poetic Too poetic. Okay. In fact Crowley was particularly enraged at the poem, which is funny. He wrote poetry Alistair Crowley started writing poetry Well, it wasn't the poem that he was either it wasn't poetry itself that Crowley was upset about he was upset over the subject matter because

He wrote to Jane Wolf that all the poem was going to do was revive the ancient stories about Crowley concerning drug trafficking and so on Crowley was really mad towards the end of his life that only anybody will ever talk about is how I'm addicted to heroin and I ate Shit that one time like So butter at the end, which is so funny because you're like you created you're the most evil man in the world Like that was the whole that was your whole gig, dude And now you're mad that they're calling you that you set it up because it's that it's every It's just once you're labeled a genius one time you think you're a genius in every aspect

Like you start to think like no no no now they need to understand me on my terms or we're like no, bro You sold yourself as the great devil and now they bought it. So you'll live with it Yeah, at this point in history the last time that Alistair Crowley had been in the news was him actually trying to say that He wasn't evil. Yes, he had gone by that because he tried to win a defamation suit. Yes Uh, and he's like it was a character. He did the alex jones. Yeah, bro character in court Yeah, he said it was just he said that actually his name means little sunshine Uh and like Just trying to get some money. Yeah, okay

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There's vip meet and greet passes available as well in case you want to get you know a little extra close Especially personal I legally have to clarify that there is no sexual element involved I mean unless you know, okay, jeez. Jake. All right. Stop winking. All right, buddy It's page seven and wizard in the bruiser live go to last podcast network.com for dates and tickets Now jack parson's was embarrassed that crowley wasn't picking up what he was putting down But carl gurmer crowley second in command still had great respect for what jack was doing gurmer also noticed that parson's was the only one with any money because his company arrow jet Was getting more and more profitable off government contracts lest you forget the world war two was still going on

Well, it's going to be one of my questions any concern about that what it doesn't seem like they're really talking about the big war No, no, they're doing magic and then the rest of their life is building weapons for the war So they spend their whole days doing the war and then at night time they're getting their dicks up Oh, I see so they are focused on the war. They know the wars happen But they're not I mean they're all in the arms industry. Yeah They're very much a good war of the tears. Well, they got their um, what's this but they got their uh, They didn't have to be drafted because they were considered essential for the war effort working on the weapons Gotcha, got you

So since parson's had the brains and the bankroll He was put forth as the only alternative from wilford smith for leadership in the agape lodge Meanwhile, he wasn't super placed. No, he didn't really want to be in charge again. He was like that's not what I'm saying He's like, I like to Again executive producer Is a really good place to be where you show up and you don't have to come up with every single thing You're like the fourth executive producer you pay for stuff and then you go like that curtain should be brown And then you just sit the rest of the time of video village with the things and then you could you you know

And then you just could do your sex magic So it sounds like he was more of the inventor and not like a uh, it's not a company. He wants to invent Yeah, he doesn't want to run a company Yeah And since crowley was further put off by wilford smith because crowley thought smith was turning the oto into a boring love cult Whatever jacks jack's ascendance as head of the agape lodge was arranged In return parson's gave crowley three hundred bucks for the tarot deck Perhaps revealing the more practical impetus behind jack's new leadership role. Thank you jack. Yeah, that's nice. That's a lot of money

Now this was 1943 and all this infighting had led to a significant exodus of the orange grove mansion residents Who were actually probably more interested in wilford smith's love cult angle than they were in living by the thalemic principles I mean, it just that's what's nice about these like these lodges, right? Because if you're in there for the ritual magic, you got it got you covered. But if you're in there to just do group fucky sucky All you got to do is put on the costumes and go like yep, I'm saladine Blah blah blah, but if you don't like it, you can only do it for so long. Yes, eventually it does become annoying I can imagine So a parson's definitely kept the sex parties

He had refocused the lodge to make magical attainment the highest priority And he began teaching classes on the tarot and crowley and studies Now once wilford smith was out as the head of the oto crowley naturally wanted to get rid of him altogether But wilford smith and hellen parson's had begun an affair of their own and hellen was pregnant Yeah And since parson's actually did walk the walk when it came to the no jealousy rule He asked crowley to not take any further action against wilford smith until after the child was born Because he still loved his wife. They're all in it together. You know, you're trying to he's trying to make it work

Yeah, but as soon as the child known as quinn lanval parson's was born Not gonna be good for him. It's gonna be funny Crowley set a complicated and humiliating plan in motion That was somewhat of a mix between a test of faith and a highly elaborate practical joke Which is Crowley at his very core at his very core like I've been reading moonchild too and I forget how funny moonchild is Like moonchild also has a lot of like parody of other magicians Like he makes fun of fucking the golden dawn. He makes fun of these people like there's like funny shit in it

But yeah, he definitely Because you can't just kick him out You can't just say like get out of here. He has to come up with like this kind of uh, you know, put him through it He's got to put him through a bunch of labors. You could just say get out of here, but Hmm, but if you do that, then you lose. Um, if you say just get out of here, you lose credibility. You lose leadership You have to make them leave because that's the thing and it strengthens you if they leave Especially after you give them a bunch of goofy bullshit to do You can say they were not strong enough because check it out. Listen to what Crowley had him do

Okay, Crowley sent wilford smith a 12 page letter that presented a mixture of Cobbalistic calculation omen telling an oracle reading it included smith's horoscope drawn up and cross referenced With broad readings from Crowley's masterwork the book of the law. Yeah, and he's just looking at this like it's homework, right? Which is all of Crowley, right? It's a lot of work. Do you look at it? You're like, okay How do I bar I'm parsing through this And once Crowley established the appropriate amount of magical bullshit in the letter to the point where smith couldn't argue with it Crowley concluded by declaring that wilford t smith was not a man at all But was in fact the incarnation of a god

Although Crowley did not know which god he was so Crowley posits like listen. No, so the best part is You're not yes, you're no longer needed as the leader of the california edition of the hotel. I get it, right? You do I mean that's a bummer, but it's a promotion in a way where you are now though, but you're a god I'm a god. You're a god. I don't know which one superpowers. Do I have oh One of those superpowers is definitely not being in charge of the oto anymore. Oh, that's cool But that's because that's beneath you. I'm a god. You're too good for it. I believe it. I'm a god now Well smith's mission Crowley wrote was to find out which god he was that's a lot and in order to do this He gave him a plan though. He said you got to leave the orange grove mansion. You're gonna need to leave town

You're gonna need to get the fuck out of it You're gonna have to cut off all contact with the agape lodge You're gonna have to tattoo the number 666 on your forehead. This is the only way I've done the reading I've done the map And you got to move to the desert Well, it's just then after you go out do all that only then would you be set upon the path To discovering which god you are all that's important. All that's just the fucking that's like work Yeah, I wish I had this logic when I was a bouncer to get drunkards out of the bar

Yeah, be like listen, you're not drunk enough that we to be honestly do come back when you're drunk. You should come back when you're drunk Yeah Smith, of course resigned from his position rather than go through this humiliating ordeal that was obviously just meant To humiliate him. Yeah. Oh, we didn't get the 666 tattoo on his face. No, no He understood are on his face The vibe seems to be he was excited up top and then as he was going through the documentation. He's like I'm being roasted So he did notice. Yes

One thing is though Parsons soon resigned as well Well, the infighting and the pressure from his job was starting to get to him and the weak attempt to manipulate Wilford Smith and doing something so stupid Kind of soured jack Parsons on Alistair Crowley for just a little bit But if you'll remember jack Parsons had grown up without a father So Crowley jumped on that need for a father figure by writing a paternal if bullying letter Refusing to accept the resignation Yep Crowley also of course left out the part saying that he really needed Parsons to stay

Because he was the only one around making any real money. Yes He was definitely the angel donator. Yeah Now Parsons knew that he was being manipulated But he still had a thirst for knowledge and he's still believed in the OTO and he believed in Crowley's work Even if he didn't always believe in Crowley himself. Oh, yeah So Parsons decided to adopt Crowley as a father figure and he continued his work for the OTO I mean, most of our dads haven't eaten human shit. I mean, I don't know what my father did in vietnam That's true

Your dad fucked around in a submarine in the Gulf of Mexico in vietnam No, we don't know we didn't eat human shit. To be honest, I feel like that actually shows it It was more likely to eat a lump of human shit because all these navy men are all fucking pranking each other And you can take out the torpedo tubes and you'd call inside the torpedo tubes and they roll them up and down the submarine They ate a great time in vietnam. I can't believe we didn't win that war. I don't know what happened But concerning jack parsons place in the scientific world. He was very much developing machines of war He was building guided missiles that could fly 150 miles to deliver a thousand pound payloads Capable of killing hundreds if not thousands in a single shot

But what's crazy is that while he was developing these weapons of medium destruction He was also playing dangerous pranks on his employees. He was like setting off smoke bombs during lunch He's a fun guy. He's out of pocket, man I wouldn't really like to be the employee, but it sounds like he had fun. No, yeah Yeah, great fun. No, he would take firecrackers and walk up to play to areas where they were working on volatile chemicals And he put the firecracker into a tin can to make it louder and then you'd light it That's fun And then everyone would freak out because they thought they were about to die

But he's laughing and laughing. I think it's man. Honestly, your job is you're making these bombs, right? Stop being so scared all time. Well, it's the scary process. Stop flinching Jack portions was steely eyed. I guess so But since Parsons was of the opinion that no object is neither good nor evil Even if it is a ballistic missile But cat does have been a ballistic missile or does it um, how do I make this neutral? Uh, if it's just in your house, it's a table. That could be a table. It could be a lamp It could really be anything

Maybe you could use it to make to make holes if you wanted a lake I definitely help me fucking you could take over that HOA with one. Oh, sure. Oh my goodness Well jack's company pushed forward and they were given three million dollars to further develop missile and jet technology This shit's getting bigger and bigger By that time aro jet had changed its name to the jet propulsion research project or jpl jack person lives That's what they call it. That's what they call it out is And the group dynamic had changed as well It was far more corporate and eventual trips to the moon had taken a backseat to the possible destruction of everything on the ground

It's not a bunch of buddies blowing shit up anymore. No, it's getting it's all It's getting out in the job Well, they're dealing with some pretty important stuff. Yeah, maybe you want a little structure But Parsons continued to use jpl as his private experimental lab Continuing on with the same self-educated diy attitude that had gotten him there in the first place This of course caused tensions with the more hoity-toity employees at jpl Like an astrophysics professor named frank zwickey. We're ever nerd You're not fucking having her sex

But now can we just say maybe they're right because it seems like he's doing a lot of experimental stuff with very dangerous chemicals And he does time doesn't he needs to think of ideas and he needs to do things as it is his will Yeah, doesn't have a degree Well, that's the thing is that that is wiki said he said that Parsons was dangerous and untrained Which you know, he was both of those things were very true, but He got results bro. Who needs that fucking degree, bro If you're you fucking I know does LeBron need a degree in jumping in the basketball game You know, it's different. It's different if anyone on this show ben that I would imagine would be

Absolutely for jack I am fine with the with the man who pulled himself up By his weird suspenders and he made himself Physicist without a degree, but I'm just saying at some point. Maybe he could have gone to a class A safety class he was the class brown. Well, that might be the problem Well, Zwicky had no respect for Parsons and Zwicky would order chemicals for experiments that Parsons told him Wouldn't work for rockets Fuck you Zwicky. Yeah, but Zwicky's saying I've got the fucking. I'm a professor. I've got the knowledge

I'll order Mr. Teacher. I'll do whatever you want. Mr. Teacher. I like the doers more than the teachers He's on the teacher side I am pro teacher in many ways I mean, I just think he could have been taught how to be safer this whole weird All right, that's so weird. I want to see how you respond to this ben. All right When the chemicals arrived the Zwicky order the Parsons said no, we don't need those why you're ordering those when they arrived Parsons snuck out to the building where the chemicals were being held And he blew up the building. That's what I'm fucking talking about

I don't comes the master. Oh, mr. Teacher. He's got a three million dollar school. Mr. Teacher. What is he fucking? Is he tiger king trying to kill his alligator? He's in charge of himself, bro. Yeah, man. This is his We're about to go to war War in war. Yeah, man. All's fair in war. This is with us if he's at war Technically, it's an act of domestic terrorism. Look at you. We got him in the hypocrite trap. No, this is right in there We got him. He blew up a government building because he was pissed at a professor against the wall You're him scrambling. It's not a government building. This is a private building, bro This is a company that he owns with a bunch of private enterprise

Bro, he just sounds like he would buy twitter for 44 billion dollars. Yeah, that's his that is his fucking ability Okay, man. This is a company that is owned and founded by a bunch of dudes called the suicide squad Yeah, bro. Get with it. All right. I'm fine with it All right. All right Eventually though the demands the military put on Parsons got to be too much They demanded 20,000 jato mechanisms a month when Parsons we had barely managed to build 2000 in the entire previous year And so when a company called general tire bought 51 percent of the company Parsons had started with the suicide squad

Jack Parsons and Edward Foreman sold their shares to Frank Molina for 11,000 dollars. No small sum in 1943 Absolutely not and there was a little bit of conjecture about whether or not they were forced out or not or asked to leave And then because again, they were uh, the suits took over Sure, so once the suits came in and took they bought it out and stuff and they look at jack parsons and they were like You're too much of a renegade. Well because he blew up that entire building Taught that teacher a lesson he should have known himself Ever since that company Has been involved in every man's space vehicle that the united states has ever launched

And the shares Foreman and Parsons sold were worth 12 million dollars Just by the 1960s never mind present day. That was maybe a mistake. Maybe they should have kept those They might have just fired them put them in your back pocket. Yeah, uh, but money was not what jack Parsons was after freedom But money oftentimes it has been scientifically proven now that it does make you happier. He already was Different. He's he's trying to get in the magic biz. Okay Why he still briefly worked as a consultant for JPL after the sale He left the rocketry world completely at the age of 30 to completely focus on magic for the rest of his short life Age three the man ascends

Now in modern value jack parsons 11 000 dollars was worth 200 grand a fair sum So using these proceeds he bought out the mansion lease at 1003 orange grove avenue and spent almost all of his time at the lodge as a man of magic and leisure That's all I want one day one day. If you could listen to this jazz fusion shit, dude If you can't wait to hear it, I can't wait all day long. That's all you listen to like Just nice fucking and drinking to express us sounds exciting So he was alone now or he's still had a whole crew. He's got the dude. He's got the crew. He's living with the crew He's there 24 hours a day jack don't gotta fucking wake up at 7 a.m. To go in and belt rockets no more jacks

They're all fucking day long He's there playing with toy boats in his bathtub. Yeah, he's there hanging out with sarah. That's my boy All right, he's there fucking playing drinking games Grady mcmerry who had since forgiven him for impregnating his wife and paying for an abortion behind his back They're playing drinking games, man. That's fun. They had this one drinking game where they would chug aper tiefs And then they would recite esoteric text to see who could articulate their recitations the longest Because that's important because you're supposed to hold your attention. You a lot of the fucking ritual shits all memorization But while parson's was out of the rocket game. He wasn't yet done with explosions

He and ed foreman founded the ad astra engineering company named after one of allister crowley's magical organizations and they continued to experiment with combustibles At the same time though parson's was alienating some of the older members of the oto with his complete control over the mansion on orange grove To make ends meet because he's not getting that aero jet money anymore Parsons was renting out every available room to people outside of the oto Although he still wanted to make sure he had the right vibe from all the new residents This is what he wrote in a newspaper ad calling for borders and remember. I think this was 1947 Okay

Yeah, it's like 44 45 somewhere around there only bohemians artists musicians Atheists anarchists and other exotic types need apply for rooms any mundane. So would be Ceremoniously ejected the thing about a mundane soul is they pay rent? Well, you're looking for a non mundane soul that has disposable income. Oh, yeah Sounds like what they're this is it's the same thing that they're doing in williamsburg, brooklyn right now very much. So

What do you mean? Williamsburg, brooklyn? Yeah, it's a bunch of trust fund. It's a bunch of kids that do somehow have $5,000 a month for rent And they don't real artists like you pushwick now. Yeah sucking dick by the bridge They're even further up in that now, man. They're in ridgewood and even then I'm salty. I'm salty about that. You guys don't know this. Oh, no, dude. Ridgewood is like supposedly like that One of the coolest neighborhoods on earth now. They're lying. They're absolutely lying Oh, I mean, it's the people that make it cool. Sure. I guess so if they only knew katalpa But even though the otl members weren't super jazzed about non-members coming in jack's ads did create a groovy atmosphere

Oh Music it sounds like that like oh As author george pendle put it Nuclear scientists and rocket scientists lived alongside occultists and sci-fi nerds While parson's and sarah northrup led gnostic masses for the otl members upstairs as high priest And high priestess. You feel the groove. Oh, sure Now concerning those sci-fi nerds parson's was still a massive science fiction fan after all those years And he'd been hanging out with some of the most famous sci-fi writers of the century

He was hanging out with robert hindland robert hindland actually tried to say he had nothing to do with jack parson's But they know for a fact that they were really close friends robert hindland's a weird guy. Yeah, he's a weird guy Yeah, but he was hanging out with ray bradbury as well Oh, yeah, and they were both fascinated by the way parson's could bring science fiction into reality You hear that science fiction into reality casus coming into the scene soon. My boy. It's coming around All right Now as far as how parson's met those guys the los angeles sci-fi writers like hindland bradbury and isaac asimov As well as special effects nerds like ray harry housing

You know who did the fucking the skeletons and clash the titans and publishers like forest ackerman Forry ackerman who is one of the most important collectors of all time He had like he was like he would collect it as a terror things and I've heard their name a lot Mm-hmm. Yeah, they'd all hang out together in a downtown los angeles cafeteria called clifton's Which is where jackie had her bachelorette party. Oh, is it still existing? Yeah, it's still exists. Jeez. It's interesting Well clifton's was run by cliford clinton Who'd been the anti-corruption activist whose investigations into mayor franc shah Had led to the car bombing we talked about last week

Coming together come together See from what I can tell and I might be wrong on this Clifford clinton was probably the one who thought to ask for star witnesses in the car bombing trial from caltech Because cliford had underwritten projects at caltech concerning the development of nutritional food stuffs to combat mass starvation cool like bugs Yeah, oh not bugs corn flakes pink slop Yeah, it's bugs. It's gonna be bugs. We're all gonna be eating bugs. We're all gonna be eating bugs. We won't know it though We're all gonna know it. We're gonna be eating bugs. No one's eating bugs

You're gonna be eating. Well, you're not gonna live long enough to eat bugs. Yeah, you're not gonna even know you're not gonna live long enough to eat bugs I'm the healthiest one here. Oh, you're right. I forgot. You're right technically. I am what medically What what you haven't seen a doctor in 20 years exactly? Oh Well, it's at caltech That clinton was put on to jack parson's And after parson's became the star witness to put the car bomber behind bars He dropped by cliford clinton's cafeteria where he found the greatest sci-fi minds of their generation

Just hanging out. Yeah, all right. Everyone's at clifton's eating soup. I love it. Oh, yeah, man split pea Wednesdays Now these meetings were certainly impressive just for the amount of brain power in the room It's sort of like that uh Crew of directors who all hung out in the 70s like, you know spielberg and lucas and scorsese and copula all fucking hanging out Yeah, it's like when everyone uh, it was like when bill gates and clinton used to hang out with eppstein that that Yeah, great minds But in last podcast land These sci-fi meetings at clifton's cafeteria

Are more known for being the place where a certain sci-fi writer supposedly made a bet with robert Heinlein That he could make a religion out of science. All we do is replace gods with beakers. Yeah, all of this is being done around soup And it's a soup based life. It is a soup based life, isn't it? Now that story isn't true But there's no doubt that had it not been for those meetings at clifton's cafeteria Jack Parsons would have never met L Ron Hubbard the ginger lover extraordinaire The smartest man with the best body who's ever lived in the 20th century. There you go And L Ron Hubbard may have never learned what he needed to learn in order to eventually create

Scientology And it's with the entrance of L Ron Hubbard and the eventual destruction of jack Parsons That will conclude our series in two weeks after the Thanksgiving holiday You must be careful who you pretend to be Because we are who we pretend to be and jack Parsons He will be amoliated like so much rocket fuel on his way to magical purity And the problem is with every genius is that they're absolved to the godhead while the artists who must a lot of times decipher A genius works. They live on and on and on the smoke parliaments in space

About how they used to be a clam you sound like someone trying to explain that really shitty movie where everyone walks backwards What a movie where everyone tenet tenet. He's mixing it up with inception. No, I'm talking No, tenet is the It's hard for the people to see you go Tenet like you just you do the hands it's the dumbest thing I've ever seen but everyone's like I think I get it It's like no, it was just poorly written. It was just it's just sparingly written All right, everyone. Well, thank you so much for listening. He's pro teacher today I thought that you were the lamp light of libertarian freedom and all you are

So happy to have all this infrastructure. What's happened to him? I always be cozy. You guys have been trying to speak for me for a long time. Oh Yeah, you all you do is talk Thank god Okay, everyone. Well, thank you for listening We will see everybody in indianapolis and grand rapids this weekend marcus He's uh, not gonna be there, but we're gonna have jackie's of broski and holden mcneely Yes, so they'll fulfill half of what marcus can bring so there you go. I would say we need two others to completely fulfill you

But Eddie is busy Yes, he's on it and larson is on his honeymoon right now enjoying his life and swimming in swimming in a lot of water Yeah, and thanks to everybody who's thanks everyone who is understand being very understanding about me taking these shows off I'm still good enough to record still good enough to you know live a life But just not good enough to travel to two different cities and perform for six hours over the course of two days So thank you very much for thank you and for understanding Yeah, I like about our fans is that they are they are fairly chill. They are excited. Yeah, you guys are really chill They're cool. Thank you. They're cool. Sometimes they get riled up, but so do I all right everyone

Well, thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting all the shows here on the network And what we're doing on serious has been so fun and you guys are just being wonderful So hail yourselves hail Satan again. We're just relations everybody find your path yourself. It's important It is remember you go out there every day, right? You fucking find your locus and sometimes it takes some reading Sometimes it takes getting your butthole licked in a mansion. Yeah, well, you think it's fine, but then he blew up a building It's all I can't believe that he's just don't commit add some domestic terror He's his becoming he said Before I started like capital. He said he wanted to become a police officer before I last no I didn't say that

I said when I was nine years old and my mom told me not to he's Oh my god. All right This show is made possible by listeners like you Thanks to our ad sponsors You can support our shows by supporting them for more shows like the one you just listened to go to last podcast network.com