When Jack Parsons Invited L. Ron Hubbard Into His Occult World
Before Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard joined rocket scientist Jack Parsons in one of the strangest occult episodes of the 20th century.
Jack Parsons didn’t treat magic like a casual hobby. By day he helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and played a key role in early American rocketry. At night though, he ran the Agape Lodge.
The Occult Side
The lodge was the California branch of Aleister Crowley’s occult movement, Thelema. Weird stuff.
Parsons wanted spiritual advancement and real transcendence from those rituals. He poured his heart, soul, and money into the group.
The ceremonies weren’t just something he did on weekends. They sat right at the center of everything. His whole weird worldview.
Sometimes he probably forgot to eat dinner because he was too busy summoning things.
L. Ron Hubbard Enters The Room
Everything changed when L. Ron Hubbard breezed into Pasadena in August 1945.
That charismatic young author quickly charmed his way into Parsons’ inner circle. Hubbard had a larger-than-life personality that just captivated everyone in the house.
Parsons grew instantly infatuated with his new friend. He wrote to Aleister Crowley, describing Hubbard as the most “gentle, intelligent and sincere” man he had ever met, per Vocal Media.
Crowley watched from England and expressed concern about Hubbard almost immediately. He was not wrong.
The Babalon Working
In early 1946, per the Occult Encyclopedia, the two men started a series of intense occult ceremonies called the “Babalon Working.”
Jack Parsons believed they were trying to summon a physical incarnation of a divine feminine entity. Hubbard acted as the scribe or “medium,” sitting in the dark room and chanting whatever he saw in his mind’s eye.
It was a weird overlap of ancient mysticism and pulp science fiction. Parsons believed they were attempting to open a doorway to higher realities.
Perhaps Hubbard simply wanted to see what would happen.
Friendship Turns Sour
The mystical brotherhood collapsed over cold, hard cash. The Human Exception documented the fallout. L. Ron Hubbard and Sara Northrup, who was Parsons’ ex-girlfriend, convinced the rocket scientist to pool his life savings into a business called Allied Enterprises.
The plan involved buying yachts in Florida and shipping them to California for a profit. Instead, Hubbard and Sara allegedly took tens of thousands of dollars of Parsons’ money, fled to Miami, and boarded a yacht.
Jack Parsons chased them across the country in a panic. He finally secured a court injunction during a literal harbor storm to stop them from sailing away.
It’s clearly hard to reach spiritual transcendence when you are standing on a Florida dock screaming about your missing boat money. A seagull probably laughed at him.
The Parallel That Matters
The real fascination of this story is how differently those two men approached belief. Parsons looked for genuine revelation and cosmic truths. Hubbard, according to critics, used the whole episode to study how belief systems actually function.
To supporters, he was just an ambitious writer caught up in a strange California occult world.
To critics, the escapade foreshadowed a lifelong talent for influence, persuasion, and building belief systems from scratch.
One man reached for the stars through rockets and magic. The other may have learned just how powerful belief systems can be. Years later, he would build one of his own. Go figure.
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