The Babalon Working was a concentrated series of esoteric rituals performed by Jack Parsons and L Ron Hubbard between late 1945 and March 1946. The operation, conducted primarily at Parsons’ Pasadena mansion, known as the Parsonage, aimed to incarnate the Thelemic goddess Babalon.
Context and Theological Goal
The Babalon Working was rooted in Thelema, the esoteric philosophy of Aleister Crowley. The primary objective was to incarnate Babalon, the divine feminine archetype of liberation and ecstasy in the Thelemic system.
Parsons believed that the world was ruled by a violent demigod, citing World War II as evidence. He conceived of the ritual as a daring attempt to shatter the boundaries of space and time and invoke Babalon as a counterforce to the destructive spiritual desolation perceived after World War II.
Parsons was convinced that by summoning this goddess, he could usher in a new age of unfettered liberty and facilitate the emergence of Thelema's Æon of Horus. The ultimate goal was the conception of a "moonchild" messiah figure. Parsons believed that the spiritual force of Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, would teach the world to love.
Participants and Roles
Parsons, who served as the chief magician and the Priest, employed intense focus and will cultivated through his years of magical training. Parsons deemed Hubbard, who moved into the Parsonage in late 1945, the most Thelemic person he had ever met, believing him to be in direct touch with a higher intelligence, potentially his Guardian Angel. Hubbard acted as the magical partner, seer, and scribe during the rituals. Although there is no formal record of Hubbard joining the O.T.O. or the A.'.A.'., Parsons considered him Thelemic enough for the advanced magical project.
Execution of Rituals
The rituals incorporated elements of Enochian magic, specifically using the Third Key Call from Dr. John Dee’s system. Parsons applied his scientific training and precision to the operation. The working commenced in two distinct phases.
The initial phase, conducted from 4 to 15 January 1946, focused on summoning an "elemental" human vessel—a receptive woman to host Babalon's descent.
This involved invocations of the Bornless One and the Enochian Key Call of the Third Aire. Parsons used an Air Dagger and an Enochian Air Tablet on a prepared altar. The final step involved sex magical elements, where Jack Parsons placed his own substance, referred to as the marrow of the wand, onto the letters of his elemental's name on the parchment. Parsons noted that Enochian magic has an extremely powerful psychic and mental effect on the practitioner.
During the initial phase, L Ron Hubbard functioned as the operation’s seer and scribe. Parsons recorded various phenomena, including a violent windstorm on 9 January that scattered ritual papers and extinguished candles, followed by rhythmic knocks and a paralysing light beam on subsequent nights.
Parsons felt discouraged by the apparent failure after eleven days. Parsons recorded that Hubbard, as the seer, detected the lingering energy of former O.T.O. leader Wilfred Smith in the room, which was preventing progress.
Manifestation and The Book of Babalon
On 18 January, following the intensive operations, Parsons experienced a feeling of tension suddenly stopping. Shortly thereafter, Marjorie Cameron, an artist and former WAVE cartographer, arrived at the Parsonage. Parsons described her as having bronze red hair, fiery and subtle, and an extraordinary personality. Parsons immediately became infatuated and convinced she was the elemental mate and manifestation of Babalon he had invoked.
Subsequent partnered invocations were conducted from 19 January to 27 February, including sacramental rites to entreat Babalon to possess the shrine. A key desert ritual followed on 28 February in the Mojave. During the peak of the working (1–3 March), Hubbard scryed visions of a savage and beautiful woman riding naked on a great cat-like beast—interpreted as Babalon astride the Beast of the Apocalypse.
Hubbard channeled dictated messages attributed to Babalon, which Parsons transcribed as seventy-seven verses of text. This communication was titled _Liber 49_, which Parsons proclaimed to be the fourth chapter of _The Book of the Law_. Liber 49 contained instructions for further rituals to facilitate the earthing of Babalon. The text prophesied that Babalon's physical incarnation upon humanity would appear in nine months.
Parsons and Cameron, whom he regarded as the Scarlet Woman, commenced a relationship, which Parsons viewed as a magical sacrament aimed at conceiving a "magical child" through immaculate conception.
Aftermath and Judgement
The working quickly led to Parsons’s financial and professional disaster. Parsons’s partner, Sara Elizabeth Betty Northrup, began a blatant affair with L Ron Hubbard. Parsons, attempting to finance his life after being pushed out of Aerojet, foolishly invested nearly $21,000 of his life savings into a fraudulent yacht business called Allied Enterprises, formed with Hubbard and Northrup. Hubbard and Northrup absconded with the money and a boat to Florida.
Parsons pursued them to Miami and performed an invocation to Bartzabel, the spirit of Mars, which he believed created a storm that forced Hubbard’s yacht back to port. Parsons recovered only a fraction of his investment after taking legal action. The Babalon Working was followed by Hubbard marrying Northrup.
Aleister Crowley, Parsons’s mentor, expressed strong condemnation of the working, deeming Hubbard a confidence man and calling Parsons a weak-minded fool. Crowley reorganised the Agape Lodge, removing Parsons from power. Parsons’s reliance on Hubbard's supposed prophetic visions and his reckless emotional decisions demonstrated impulsive decision-making detached from prudent risk assessment.
Parsons maintained his belief that Babalon was incarnate on Earth. Following the working, he embraced his magical identity, eventually declaring himself Belarion, [[Antichrist]], dedicated to fulfilling the law of the Beast 666. Parsons saw his death years later in a laboratory explosion as consistent with the Babalon Working prophecy that he would become "living flame".