Editing Ceremonial magic (section)

===Jack Parsons===
{{main|Jack Parsons (rocket engineer)}}
[[Jack Parsons (rocket engineer)|John Whiteside Parsons]] (1914–1952) was an American [[aerospace engineering|rocket engineer]], [[chemist]], and [[Thelema|Thelemite]] [[occult]]ist. Parsons converted to [[Thelema]], the [[new religious movement]] founded by the English occultist Aleister Crowley. Together with his first wife, Helen Northrup, Parsons joined the [[Agape Lodge]], the Californian branch of [[Ordo Templi Orientis]] (O.T.O.) in 1941. At Crowley's bidding, Parsons replaced [[Wilfred Talbot Smith]] as its leader in 1942 and ran the Lodge from his mansion on Orange Grove Boulevard.

Parsons identified four obstacles that prevented humans from achieving and performing their [[true will]], all of which he connected with fear: the fear of incompetence, the fear of the opinion of others, the fear of hurting others, and the fear of insecurity. He insisted that these must be overcome, writing that "The Will must be freed of its fetters. The ruthless examination and destruction of taboos, complexes, frustrations, dislikes, fears and disgusts hostile to the Will is essential to progress."{{sfnp|Parsons|2008|pp = 69–71}}

In 1945, Parsons separated from Helen, after having an affair with her sister [[Sara Northrup Hollister|Sara]]; when Sara left him for [[L. Ron Hubbard]], Parsons conducted the [[Babalon Working]], a series of rituals intended to invoke the Thelemic goddess [[Babalon]] on Earth. The Babalon Working was a series of [[magic (paranormal)|magic]] [[ceremony|ceremonies]] or [[ritual]]s performed from January to March 1946 by Parsons and [[Scientology]] founder [[L. Ron Hubbard]].{{efn|{{harvp|Urban|2011|p=39–42}}: "The aim of Parson's 'Babalon Working' was first to identify a female partner who would serve as his partner in esoteric sexual rituals; the partner would then become the vessel for the 'magical child' or 'moonchild,' a supernatural offspring that would be the embodiment of ultimate power... According to Parson's account of March 2–3, 1946, Hubbard channeled the voice of Babalon, speaking as the beautiful but terrible lady..."}} This ritual was essentially designed to manifest an individual [[incarnation]] of the archetypal divine feminine called [[Babalon]]. The project was based on the ideas of Crowley, and his description of a similar project in his 1917 novel [[Moonchild (novel)|''Moonchild'']].{{efn|{{harvp|Urban|2006|pp=135–137}}: "The ultimate goal of these operations, carried out during February and March 1946, was to give birth to the magical being, or 'moonchild,' described in Crowley's works.  Using the powerful energy of IX degree Sex Magick, the rites were intended to open a doorway through which the goddess Babalon herself might appear in human form."}}

When Parsons declared that the first of the series of rituals was complete and successful, he almost immediately met [[Marjorie Cameron]] in his own home, and regarded her as the [[elemental]] that he and Hubbard had called through the ritual.{{sfnp|Pendle|2006|pp=263–271}} Soon Parsons began the next stage of the series, an attempt to conceive a child through [[sex magic]] workings. Although no child was conceived, this did not affect the result of the ritual to that point. Parsons and Cameron, who Parsons now regarded as the Scarlet Woman, ''[[Babalon]]'', called forth by the ritual, soon married.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

The rituals performed drew largely upon rituals and sex magic described by Crowley. Crowley was in correspondence with Parsons during the course of the Babalon Working, and warned Parsons of his potential overreactions to the magic he was performing, while simultaneously deriding Parsons' work to others.{{sfnp|Sutin|2002|pp=412–414}}

A brief text entitled ''Liber 49'', self-referenced within the text as ''The Book of Babalon'', was written by [[John Whiteside Parsons|Jack Parsons]] as a transmission from the goddess or force called 'Babalon' received by him during the Babalon Working.{{sfnp|Pendle|2006|pp=263–271}} Parsons wrote that ''Liber 49'' constituted a fourth chapter of Crowley's ''Liber AL Vel Legis ([[The Book of the Law]])'', the holy text of [[Thelema]].{{sfnp|Nichols|Mather|Schmidt|2010|pp=1037–1038}}