Robert Anton Wilson - Jack Parsons and Aleister Crowley

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Published 2018-10-18

Few people are aware of Marvel Whiteside Parsons (a.k.a Jack Parsons), co-founder of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories. Parsons made major contributions to rocket development, particularly in the area of solid fuel propellant. The solid motors on the Space Shuttle and the motors in the Minuteman missile were based on the solid propellant technology that he invented. He was a founding member of Aerojet Corporation, and he even has a crater on the dark side of the moon named after him. So why isn’t he as celebrated as the other founding fathers of spaceflight?

Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, was a British occultist, writer, mountaineer, philosopher, poet, mystic, drug experimenter, and chess player. He was an influential member in several occult organizations, including the Golden Dawn, the A∴A∴, and Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and is best known today for his occult writings, especially The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. He gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was infamously dubbed "The Wickedest Man in the World."
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Freedom Is a Two Edged Sword by Jack Parsons: amzn.to/2NtSxac

Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons by John Carter: amzn.to/2oifa6s

Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley by Richard Kaczynski: amzn.to/2ojmrmd

Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons by George Pendle: amzn.to/2ofhPhd

The Eye in the Triangle: An Interpretation of Aleister Crowley by Israel Regardie: amzn.to/2Nqklfi

All Comments (21)

@oncdunn 4 years ago

He's not relatively unknown for no reason..nasa does not want the public to make the connection between the occult and the religion of science.
@yetiplay 10 months ago

I was fortunate enough to see RAW speak at a rave in Chicago in 1993. It was one of the most interesting and captivating lectures I have witnessed- his delivery was somewhere between hyper-articulate intellectual colossus and a demented drunk who could not speak in linear thoughts. A puddle of liquid did not help matters...
@zachvanslyke4341 1 year ago

RAW was one of the finest men to ever live. RIP MY BROTHER 🙏thank you for your soaring intellectual curiosity and passing it down to us 🤍
@Epileptick0 3 years ago

This is unbelievably important for people to hear. In the 90s before the internet was popular I couldn't find any reasonable writings by Crowley. And completely forget Parsons. I firmly believe there is a lot of misinformation surround this topic.
@Spooky_515 1 year ago

Loved RAW ever since I read the Illuminatus trilogy when I was 18. Then read Prometheus Rising and he’s been my favorite writer ever since
@velvetclaw2316 2 years ago

What a fantastically interesting talk by this fascinating man
@aarcvault908 4 years ago

Outer space was also a major theme in Burroughs' literary work and critical essays.
@welkanektd5554 3 years ago

Aloha from Maui. Thank you so very much for this post and I went ahead and subscribed just based on the open minded post, and sharing this with the world at all. I appreciate this coming from what seems like a former acquantence of his perhaps a colleague and friend. I haven never heard about Crowley in the first hand ever besides his son and Lavey..i read Laveys and as it been said...Publsishers are more mysterious than magicians. haha. Have a lovely week. Forgive my trypos, I am not wearing glassesbut had to acknowledge the content. Mahalo (THANK YOU ) haha
@katejenkins8303 4 years ago

Excellent. So happy I found this
@TravisMagus 5 years ago

"You don't have to summon them. when you are ready them come for you."
@mariopimenteljr8312 3 years ago

Amazing!!
@yp77738yp77739 1 year ago

I couldn’t get through to the end, so not sure what I am missing but isn’t he just saying that everything we experience is just a result of the biochemistry of the brain and anything above and beyond that sits wholly within the absurd. I thought we all knew that long before.
@marcsalzman8082 3 years ago

I loved RAW, his writing, knew him & his family & learned much. Long complicated real life stuff & tons of synchronicities.....
@emersonsmithereens2094 1 year ago

Thank you so much for this..... If only what he said about Crowleyites had held true
@nayrtnartsipacify 4 years ago

The occultists are responsible for the modern world. Only men seeking the hidden reality of the world ever performed miracles. The black mirror you are watching this on is a fucking miracle nearly everyone takes for granted.
@vizagothx7294 3 years ago

@32:20 i think he's mixing up wheatley novels - he wrote "the devil rides out" and "to the devil a daughter" (among others) but i think he's referring to "the devil rides out"
@JSTNtheWZRD 2 years ago

Gram parsons was cool too. Flying burrito brothers🍄
@davidforshaw4810 2 years ago

The Universe is the practicle joke of the General, at the expence of the Particular!' Frater P. Onion Peelings.
@melissamoonchild9216 4 months ago

I once dreampt RAW was my uncle. I totally forgot about that till just now.
@Donatellangelo 5 years ago

I already knew about Crowley, so the Jack Parsons part was really interesting. Also, never hurt to know a little more about Aleister Crowley either.