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Speaker 1: Please be aware the following episode contains some adult themes.
Speaker 1: You're listening to unexplained with me, Richard mc lean smith.
Speaker 1: We are the Witchcraft Part two. That evening, after returning
Speaker 1: from Robert Rapinski's home, Jack went directly to his study
Speaker 1: and closed the door behind him. Placing the curious book
Speaker 1: on his desk, He turns the page and begins to read.
Speaker 1: When the neophyte enters upon the path of evil, they
Speaker 1: are but a drunkard groping in the dark. When the
Speaker 1: neophyte enters upon the path of good, they canst but
Speaker 1: bear the dazzling brilliance of that light. And on it continues,
Speaker 1: the words, glowing like burning coals, Dear children of Earth,
Speaker 1: long have you dwelt in darkness? Quit the night and
Speaker 1: seek the day. The book's title, conks on Packs, is
Speaker 1: thought to derive from the Eleusinian Mysteries, a secret rite
Speaker 1: of the ancient Greeks whose purpose, according to Plato, was
Speaker 1: to lead us back to the principles from which we descended.
Speaker 1: Although Jack doesn't know this, he feels something of its
Speaker 1: sentiment emanating from Alice to Crowley's text. But what grabs
Speaker 1: him most aside from Crowley's belief in the power of
Speaker 1: magic is his betrayal of life as a duality of
Speaker 1: the light and the dark, not for him the piety
Speaker 1: and hypocrisy of a morally virtuous vision, but rather something
Speaker 1: more mutable and honest, something more real. Many hours later,
Speaker 1: when Jack finally makes his way to bed, there is
Speaker 1: only one thought in his mind. He must find out more.
Speaker 1: It won't be long before he does. One afternoon in
Speaker 1: January nineteen thirty nine, Jack and Helen are entertaining siblings
Speaker 1: Francis and John Baxter, when Francis spies the strange book
Speaker 1: in Jack's study. Sensing his enthusiasm for its subject matter,
Speaker 1: the pair invite him to join them at an upcoming
Speaker 1: event that they think he might find interesting. A few
Speaker 1: days later, as a pale sun dips below the horizon,
Speaker 1: Jack makes his way driving west across the Colorado Bridge
Speaker 1: toward a small tree lined street on the northern fringes
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, eventually pulling up outside the large three
Speaker 1: story house of seventeen forty six were known a boulevard.
Speaker 1: Francis and John are waiting for him outside. A middle
Speaker 1: aged woman with short white hair greets them at the door.
Speaker 1: Her gaze intents as she silently inspects the new arrival
Speaker 1: before heading back inside. John and Francis step in to follow,
Speaker 1: but Jack hesitates, noticing for the first time how unkempt
Speaker 1: the front lawn is and the way the paint peals
Speaker 1: liberally from the outer walls. But with the others waiting
Speaker 1: for him, he takes a breath and steps into the house.
Speaker 1: He is led into a large woodpaneled room, the air
Speaker 1: heavy with the smell of incense, where an odd looking
Speaker 1: mix of women and men are assembled. Some turn and
Speaker 1: nod to Francis and John, others continue to talk quietly
Speaker 1: amongst themselves, trying hard not to stare at the new arrival.
Speaker 1: Conspicuous in his sharp suit vest top and thin pencil
Speaker 1: lime mustache, Jack just has enough time to catch a
Speaker 1: glimpse of a peculiar goat legged statue in the corner
Speaker 1: of the room. When the white haired woman appears again
Speaker 1: and asks them all to follow her stairs, Francis nods
Speaker 1: for Jack to proceed with the others. Together, they make
Speaker 1: their way somberly up a large staircase, continuing all the
Speaker 1: way to the top, stepping through into a dark and
Speaker 1: cramped attic space. Parsons finds himself in a bizarrely decorated
Speaker 1: room like nothing he has ever seen before. At the back,
Speaker 1: a curtain is opened to reveal an altar of some sort,
Speaker 1: positioned in front of a black wall and laid over
Speaker 1: with a crimson cloth bearing candles and artifacts, including a
Speaker 1: tablet of hieroglyphics, which Jack recognizes from his book. Perhaps
Speaker 1: strangest of all is the three step to dais that
Speaker 1: leads up to the altar, painted black and white like
Speaker 1: a chessboard, at the front of which stands an upright coffin.
Speaker 1: Jack is ushered into one of the two rows of
Speaker 1: pews positioned to face the altar, and when the last
Speaker 1: of the group has taken their seat, an ominous hush
Speaker 1: falls over the room. A man robed in white and
Speaker 1: yellow appears carrying a small book. Pausing in front of
Speaker 1: the altar, he kisses the book three times and places
Speaker 1: it open underneath the tablet, before turning to address the congregation.
Speaker 1: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,
Speaker 1: he says, Love is the law. Love under will They
Speaker 1: all reply in perfect unison. Jack watch is mesmerized as
Speaker 1: the group rise together, drawing their right hands across their bodies,
Speaker 1: before continuing, I believe in one Earth, the mother of
Speaker 1: us all, and in one womb wherein all othergotten, and
Speaker 1: the mystery of mystery in her name Babylon. And I
Speaker 1: believe in the Serpent and the lion mystery of mystery
Speaker 1: in his name Bafomet. A woman appears dressed in a
Speaker 1: robe of white, blue and gold. Holding up a sword.
Speaker 1: She strikes it toward the coffin, from out of which
Speaker 1: steps another man, also wearing a white robe and a
Speaker 1: gold half crown, its front fashioned into the shape of
Speaker 1: a serpent. Forty minutes later, with the strange ritual complete,
Speaker 1: Jack watches intrigued as two by two, the members of
Speaker 1: the group pair off and disappear into the depths of
Speaker 1: the house. John and Francis reappears soon after, alongside a
Speaker 1: slight balding man who introduces himself as Wilfrid Smith. Only
Speaker 1: then does Jack realize he's talking to the figure that
Speaker 1: appeared out of the coffin, who it also transpires, is
Speaker 1: the leader of the group. As Smith explains, the ritual
Speaker 1: Jack had just observed is known as the Gnostic Mass.
Speaker 1: The house they are standing in is the Agape Lodge,
Speaker 1: otherwise known as the US headquarters of a secret society
Speaker 1: called Ordo Templi orientis the Order of the Temple of
Speaker 1: the East, established in Germany in the late nineteenth century
Speaker 1: by wealthy industrialist Karl Kellner and journalist Theodore Royce. The
Speaker 1: order had begun life as an advanced theosophic movement, combining
Speaker 1: the knowledge of Freemasonry with that of another secret order
Speaker 1: known as the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light. It is the
Speaker 1: claim of such esoteric organizations that behind the veil of
Speaker 1: reality lies a deeper, hidden world that can only be
Speaker 1: comprehended once a certain degree of knowledge, known only to
Speaker 1: the highest ranking members, has been learned. Attainment of these
Speaker 1: mysteries are said to provide nothing less than the answer
Speaker 1: to humanity's purpose and ultimate destiny, an understanding of one's
Speaker 1: place in the cosmos, and the power to achieve a
Speaker 1: complete mastery of the self. Kellner had joined the Freemasons
Speaker 1: hoping to discover how to access this higher plane, only
Speaker 1: to find their teachings somewhat lacking. He became convinced that
Speaker 1: something crucial was missing, some kind of key without which
Speaker 1: their knowledge was useless. At some point in the eighteen nineties,
Speaker 1: Kelner claimed to have found it. The key, he said,
Speaker 1: was sex magic, the performance of sexual acts, either as
Speaker 1: a magic ritual in itself or in conjunction with a
Speaker 1: magical right. With Royce's help, Kelner set about collecting all
Speaker 1: the secrets of Freemasonry and the Hermetic Brotherhood, fusing them
Speaker 1: together in a series of ten mysteries, also known as degrees,
Speaker 1: to be used with his new key. When Kelner died
Speaker 1: in nineteen o five, Royce continued their work and gave
Speaker 1: the Order its present name. Five years later, Royce initiated
Speaker 1: Alice to Crowley into the Order. At first drawn to
Speaker 1: the ot O as a fellow practitioner of sex magic,
Speaker 1: Crowley would eventually succeed Royce at the top of the organization.
Speaker 1: Back in nineteen o four, Crowley claimed to have received
Speaker 1: communication from an entity known as I Was, who told
Speaker 1: him that he was a messenger for the Egyptian god Horace.
Speaker 1: He eventually came to believe that many years ago, humans
Speaker 1: once lived under the feminine spirit of the god Isis,
Speaker 1: governed by a matriarchy that fostered egality and eccentricity. At
Speaker 1: some point, this had given way to the masculine age
Speaker 1: of the god Osiris, a patriarchal era of great darkness,
Speaker 1: hypocrisy and ignorance. As he was informed by I was
Speaker 1: it was now time to restore the balance. The aon
Speaker 1: of Horace, representing the child of creation and the spirit
Speaker 1: of rebellion, would deliver that change. In response to this revelation,
Speaker 1: Crowley developed a philosophy of thought that would enable others
Speaker 1: to establish the new age of Horace, which he called Thelema,
Speaker 1: meaning simply will in Greek. When Royce died in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty three, Crowley, having been steadily rising up the ranks
Speaker 1: of the Oto, became its natural figurehead and promptly converted
Speaker 1: it to a thelemic organization. The Agape Lodge, as Smith
Speaker 1: went on to explain to Jack, was a church of Thelema.
Speaker 1: But Parsons hadn't come for the history lesson. He had
Speaker 1: come for something else. But what about the magic, he asks, Well,
Speaker 1: says Smith, as the great Beast says himself. Magic is
Speaker 1: but the science and art of causing change to occur
Speaker 1: in conformity with will. But is it real, asks Jack. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: says Smith, it is very real. Perhaps it was Parsons
Speaker 1: rare and refined air that drew Smith so mostly to
Speaker 1: him that evening, or perhaps it was more the fact
Speaker 1: that the organization hadn't had any fresh blood for some time.
Speaker 1: Either way, it was clear from the outset that there
Speaker 1: was something special about him. When Parsons left that evening,
Speaker 1: the group's three senior members gathered by the window to
Speaker 1: watch him go, Regina, Carl Smith's lover and the Woman
Speaker 1: with the Sword, and Jane Wolf, the Woman with White Hair,
Speaker 1: both agreeing with Smith that he would make the perfect
Speaker 1: addition to the order. Wolf, who had been a successful
Speaker 1: silent film actress before devoting her life to the study
Speaker 1: of Thelama, later wrote to inform Crowley of the a
Speaker 1: one man proleesque in Attainment that had just signed up.
Speaker 1: Are you always taking care of your family? Do you
Speaker 1: often take care of others and not yourself? Now it's
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Speaker 1: slash Unexplained Podcast. Jack, who had all but given up
Speaker 1: on the Rocketing Dream, spent the next few weeks poring
Speaker 1: over a number of Crowley texts that Smith had sent him,
Speaker 1: eager to uncover more about how to conduct the magic.
Speaker 1: Although he wasn't quite sure what to make of Smith himself,
Speaker 1: his knowledge would be vital if he was going to
Speaker 1: make it work. Then one morning in early spring, Jack
Speaker 1: received a call from Theodore von Carmen. Having run out
Speaker 1: of funds the previous year, it was clear to von
Speaker 1: Carmen that the GAUST research team's only hope was to
Speaker 1: convince the government that their rockets could be used for
Speaker 1: military purposes. With the German government now openly arming for war,
Speaker 1: the United States were keen to keep ahead of the game,
Speaker 1: and despite remaining skeptical, agreed to give the team a
Speaker 1: thousand dollars if they could find a way to help
Speaker 1: bomber planes take off on short runways. Von Carmen wanted
Speaker 1: to know if Jack would be interested in returning Ed
Speaker 1: Foreman had already expressed interest, which was all Jack had
Speaker 1: to hear. Jack and Ed, who had spent the last
Speaker 1: few months working back at the Halifax Powder Company, quit
Speaker 1: their jobs immediately and returned to Caltec. For the next
Speaker 1: few months, the pair, along with Frank Melina, worked tirelessly
Speaker 1: to come up with a plan. In June, they delivered
Speaker 1: it to the National Academy of Sciences Air Corps Committee.
Speaker 1: Their proposal was to strap a series of rockets to
Speaker 1: the under side of the plane in order to give
Speaker 1: it a ten second jet assisted take off otherwise known
Speaker 1: as a jato, enough to half its take off distance.
Speaker 1: The committee, suitably impressed, offered a further ten thousand dollars
Speaker 1: to continue the work. There was only one problem. What
Speaker 1: the team hadn't told them was that the current record
Speaker 1: for such a device was only five seconds. The suicide
Speaker 1: squad were back. The next few months were a blur
Speaker 1: of sweat and toil under the baking California sun as
Speaker 1: the team raced to meet the academy's deadline six thousand
Speaker 1: miles away. In a low rise, gray stone building perched
Speaker 1: high up in the Bavarian Alps, Adolf Hitler delivers a
Speaker 1: speech to his military command. I have prepared my death's
Speaker 1: head formations, with orders to kill without pity or mercy,
Speaker 1: all men, women and children of Polish descent or language.
Speaker 1: Only in this way can we obtain the living space
Speaker 1: we need. Ten days later, shortly after four forty am,
Speaker 1: while citizens of the Polish town of vi Lun sleep
Speaker 1: in their beds, the drone of engines high up in
Speaker 1: the sky draws near, and soon twenty nine Stucca planes
Speaker 1: have materialized from out of the dark and clouds above,
Speaker 1: and from under their wings a cascade of small black
Speaker 1: dots tumble with terminal velocity towards the houses below. In seconds,
Speaker 1: the air will shake with fire, thunder, and screams. By
Speaker 1: the evening, three hundred and eighty bonds have dropped on
Speaker 1: the town, killing one thousand, two hundred in total, and
Speaker 1: the unmentionable odor of death rises high into the September night.
Speaker 1: The Second World War had begun. Since January, Parsons, although
Speaker 1: he had only returned to the Agape Lodge a few times,
Speaker 1: had been digging deeper into Crowley's magic workings, growing closer
Speaker 1: to the group's leader, Wilfred Smith in the process. As
Speaker 1: word of the German Army's blitzkrieg through Poland hits the newsstands,
Speaker 1: it's hard not to think of Crowley's vision of the
Speaker 1: masculine age of a Cyrus and what misery and destruction
Speaker 1: it had wrought. With the team now caught up in
Speaker 1: a rapidly growing military industry, their work was beginning to
Speaker 1: face a different level of scrutiny. For the next few months, Parsons,
Speaker 1: who had always relied on intuition and a large degree
Speaker 1: of trial and error, continued in vain to find the
Speaker 1: right explosive mix for a ten second thrust. But everything
Speaker 1: he tried ended in disaster as the money dwindled and
Speaker 1: the college staff grew tired of his endless explosions. By
Speaker 1: spring nineteen forty, it was beginning to look like his
Speaker 1: rocket dream was once again coming to an end. Realizing
Speaker 1: that time was fast running out, Von Carmen and Frank
Speaker 1: Molina went back to the mats. After months of intense calculation,
Speaker 1: they finally cracked the problem, and a few weeks after
Speaker 1: the German Army capture France, the team make a successful
Speaker 1: demonstration to the National Academy and their funding is duly continued.
Speaker 1: But now they want to see at work on a plane.
Speaker 1: With more money coming in, Caltech agrees to build a
Speaker 1: four acre test facility back where it all began, on
Speaker 1: the dust flats of the roy Oseco. The team has
Speaker 1: grown from three to twelve and a more professional structure
Speaker 1: has developed, with the twenty six year old Jack being
Speaker 1: designated the head of solid Propellants. Outside of work, Jack
Speaker 1: is becoming a regular feature at the Agape Lodge. Intrigued
Speaker 1: by his growing obsession, Helen also begins attending frequently joining
Speaker 1: Jack at the order's regular social events, where guests were
Speaker 1: encouraged to do whatever they wilt, as per Crowley's teachings.
Speaker 1: Despite everything that Jack had achieved as a scientist, he
Speaker 1: would never truly be accepted by the scientific community, and
Speaker 1: he knew it. Frank Molina, for one, was growing increasingly
Speaker 1: concerned about him, unnerved by the way he stockpiled explosives
Speaker 1: and how he kept them casually distributed outside on his
Speaker 1: balcony and mixed them alone in his basement. Perhaps Malina
Speaker 1: envied something in the chaos how Parsons seemed to get
Speaker 1: by on instinct alone. But although there was a time
Speaker 1: and a place for the risk takers, he thought, when
Speaker 1: it came down to it, real science was about crunching
Speaker 1: data and discipline, something Jack had never been cut out for.
Speaker 1: Though von Carmen remained an enthusiastic supporter those like Frank
Speaker 1: and the other Caltech students to Cambridge with his often
Speaker 1: reckless and impatient approach, and balked at his lack of
Speaker 1: formal education at the lodge. However, rather than being treated
Speaker 1: as a threat, Jack's rebellious and adventurous spirit was admired.
Speaker 1: When Jack and Helen are formally initiated in February nineteen
Speaker 1: forty one, the lonely boy who had dreamt only of
Speaker 1: sending rockets to the moon, who had been bullied mercilessly
Speaker 1: at school for being nothing but himself, finally feels accepted.
Speaker 1: Emboldened by his welcome into the lodge, Jack promptly announces
Speaker 1: that he will give a set of talks at his
Speaker 1: and Helen's house, inviting all members to attend, as well
Speaker 1: as a number of the rocket research team intrigued by
Speaker 1: the eccentricities of their colleague. For the next few months,
Speaker 1: Jack spends his day's beavering away in his homemade lab
Speaker 1: or at the GALCID test site, while nights are a
Speaker 1: whirl of Stravinsky and cocaine, science and mysticism, and of
Speaker 1: course Crowley. As Jack's occult knowledge increases, he begins dabbling
Speaker 1: deeper into the magic, sexual and otherwise. Seances are frequently
Speaker 1: held in conjunction with the talks, and soon it isn't
Speaker 1: only his wife that he is performing magic with. In
Speaker 1: June nineteen forty one, Helen leaves Pasadena to take a
Speaker 1: holiday with her mother, Olga and younger sister Nancy. A
Speaker 1: few weeks later, she returns home to find her other sister, Betty,
Speaker 1: casually walking around her house wearing her clothes. Betty is
Speaker 1: a little shocked by her sister's sudden appearance, having not
Speaker 1: expected her back until the next day. Nonetheless, the seventeen
Speaker 1: year old Betty collects herself, and, looking her sister in
Speaker 1: the eye, tells her that she is with Jack. Now,
Speaker 1: Helen is speechless. As it would transpire, Jack had been
Speaker 1: growing closer to Betty for some time, cruelly informing Helen
Speaker 1: shortly after her return that he and her sister were
Speaker 1: far more sexually compatible, and it was only right that
Speaker 1: they should explore that. Thellema discouraged monogamy and all notions
Speaker 1: of ownership when it came to relationships, considering such conventions
Speaker 1: to be unnatural and harmfully respective in the journey to
Speaker 1: realizing the true self. There are few conventions, however, that
Speaker 1: are harder to transcend than those pertaining to affairs of
Speaker 1: the heart, And though Helen might have understood the principle,
Speaker 1: putting it into practice was something else entirely carme August.
Speaker 1: Back at the Galct Rocket Range, the Jato rockets are
Speaker 1: ready for testing, with the first flight test due to
Speaker 1: take place the following week. Pilot Lieutenant Homer bowshe looks
Speaker 1: on as a slightly worse for ware Parsons, rigs up
Speaker 1: six rockets onto a rack, steps back, and fires them up.
Speaker 1: After a loud roar the rockets look to be holding
Speaker 1: when a sudden sputtering is followed by a huge explosion
Speaker 1: and pieces of casing flying everywhere. Parsons can only look
Speaker 1: on in dismay as Bowshe's face drains of all its color.
Speaker 1: Since missing the deadline is not an option, the team
Speaker 1: work endlessly to resolve the problem. Some days the jets work,
Speaker 1: others they don't, and seven days later, Jack still has
Speaker 1: no idea why. On the day of the test at
Speaker 1: the march Field Air Corps base in Merino Valley, Boushey
Speaker 1: sits in the cockpit of a small propeller plane as
Speaker 1: the team make their final checks on the six rockets
Speaker 1: strapped underneath, before standing back and hoping for the best.
Speaker 1: Having failed to find the solution via traditional means, Jack
Speaker 1: tries something else. A short time after take off. Parsons
Speaker 1: eyes the plane in the sky as it turns back
Speaker 1: into view and begins to stamp his feet, chanting under
Speaker 1: his breath, much to the bewilderment of his colleagues, Give
Speaker 1: me the Sign of the open Eye and the toke
Speaker 1: an erect of thorny Thigh and the world of Madness
Speaker 1: and Mystery. O Pan EO Pan the words coming from
Speaker 1: the hymn to Pan, an invocation to the great goat
Speaker 1: footed god of fertility and the wild. The team look
Speaker 1: back up to the sky as a brilliant flash of
Speaker 1: light is followed by the jet thrust of six fully
Speaker 1: functional Jato rockets, powering Bowshe's plane through the sky for
Speaker 1: a full ten seconds. It is a reprise of sorts
Speaker 1: for Parsons fuel mix. In a week's time, however, they
Speaker 1: will have to do it all again, but this time
Speaker 1: directly from the takeoff. Only two days later, another test
Speaker 1: run on a stationary plane results in a catastrophic explosion. Mercifully,
Speaker 1: Jack has by now at least uncovered the problem cracks
Speaker 1: in the powder mix caused by temperature fluctuations, meaning the
Speaker 1: rockets have to be used within twenty four hours of
Speaker 1: manufacture or they will malfunction. Over the next two weeks,
Speaker 1: with Jack manically preparing each rocket and delivering it personally
Speaker 1: to the test site, the team will successfully use one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty two Jato rockets over sixty tests, earning
Speaker 1: them another one hundred thousand dollars in funding. Rockets it
Speaker 1: seems are becoming a big business, but without a permanent
Speaker 1: solution for the temperamental mix. The team no, it can't
Speaker 1: be sustained, and Jack's extracurricular activities are starting to interfere.
Speaker 1: Early one morning in November, Frank Molina is woken by
Speaker 1: a phone call from the local police. They are calling
Speaker 1: to let him know that one of his employees has
Speaker 1: been taken into custody and will likely be going to jail.
Speaker 1: A desperate Melina drives immediately to the station and begs
Speaker 1: the police to keep the incident quiet, worried that they'll
Speaker 1: lose their funding if anyone finds out. Asking to speak
Speaker 1: with the employee, he is duly led into a small
Speaker 1: interview room where a tired and disheveled looking man is
Speaker 1: waiting for him. His name is Paul Seckler, a galcit
Speaker 1: security guard that Jack had given a job to. He
Speaker 1: also happened to be a resident of the Agape Lodge.
Speaker 1: The furious Melina demands to know what happened. Seckler does
Speaker 1: his best to remember. The last thing he could recall
Speaker 1: was visiting Jack's house and being asked to take part
Speaker 1: in a peculiar ritual. The next thing he knew, he
Speaker 1: was sat behind the steering wheel of a car he
Speaker 1: didn't recognize, speeding down the road with a gun laying
Speaker 1: on the passenger seat beside him. Having tried to make
Speaker 1: his way back to Jack's house, he found the local
Speaker 1: police force waiting for him at the Colorado Bridge. A
Speaker 1: perplexed Mallina is later informed by the officer in charge
Speaker 1: that a deranged settler had been seen running out of
Speaker 1: Parson's house late the night before, where he threatened a
Speaker 1: young couple at gunpoint before stealing their car. When Melina
Speaker 1: confronts Jack and Ed, who had also been present, about
Speaker 1: what had happened, they refused to tell him. Malina's patience
Speaker 1: with Jack is running out, and it couldn't have come
Speaker 1: at a worst time. Prior to nineteen forty one, there
Speaker 1: were few outside of Hawaii who gave much thought for
Speaker 1: the island of Oahu, much less to the shallow bay
Speaker 1: known to islanders as Why Momei or Waters of the Pearl.
Speaker 1: By the end of December seventh, it would be wrenched
Speaker 1: violently into the American consciousness after a surprise attack is
Speaker 1: launched by the Japanese government on the American naval base
Speaker 1: located there in Pearl Harbor. By the following day two thousand,
Speaker 1: four hundred American military personnel were dead, and the United
Speaker 1: States government had formerly entered the war. Back in the
Speaker 1: Arroyo Seco, the team, spurred on by the latest developments,
Speaker 1: are making significant progress expanding their expertise to incorporate liquid fuels,
Speaker 1: spearheaded by Martin summer Field, a trusted friend and colleague
Speaker 1: of Frank Molina's who had joined the team in the
Speaker 1: summer of nineteen forty. In April nineteen forty two, four
Speaker 1: years after declaring they could do what nobody else thought possible,
Speaker 1: the group gathered in the Mahave Desert to witness two
Speaker 1: liquid propelled rockets the takeoff of a hulking fourteen thousand
Speaker 1: pound bomber plane. As the team, led by Melina and
Speaker 1: summer Field, celebrated with von Carmen, there were two noticeable absentees,
Speaker 1: Jack and Ed. Though the pair had good reason not
Speaker 1: to be there, there was something symbolic in their absence.
Speaker 1: Since the beginning of the Second World War, the nature
Speaker 1: of rocket science development was rapidly changing, due largely to
Speaker 1: Jack and Ed's pioneering work in the days when nobody
Speaker 1: wanted anything to do with it, More and more brilliant
Speaker 1: scientists were entering the field, leaving little room for self
Speaker 1: taught experts. It was in every way a science, quickly
Speaker 1: leaving the likes of Jack Parsons and Ed Foreman behind
Speaker 1: in the glare of its after burn. With the war
Speaker 1: effort now in full swing, the American aviation industry went
Speaker 1: into overdrive as one manufacturer after another cashed in on
Speaker 1: the war. In the next year alone, over sixty thousand
Speaker 1: planes would be manufactured and bought by the United States government.
Speaker 1: Frank Molina, an avowed socialist, had always been uncomfortable with
Speaker 1: the idea of profiting from war. But not only were
Speaker 1: these extraordinary times, but even in the closeted environment of academia,
Speaker 1: he understood that if he were ever to realize his
Speaker 1: dream of taking rockets to space, compromises would have to
Speaker 1: be made. The rest of the team were in agreement,
Speaker 1: but despite everything they had achieved, they were unable to
Speaker 1: sell their Jato product to the aviation industry. Perhaps they
Speaker 1: saw it as competition for their own devices, or perhaps
Speaker 1: it was the stigma still attached to rocketry which continued
Speaker 1: to cloud the minds of the establishment as to what
Speaker 1: was and what wasn't possible. In response, the rocket research team,
Speaker 1: now officially consisting of Parsons, Foreman, summer Field, Molina, and
Speaker 1: Von Carmen started their own company. Aerojet Engineering Corporation was born.
Speaker 1: Despite the success with the liquid Jato rockets, the U. S.
Speaker 1: Navy were unwilling to countenance anything other than a solid
Speaker 1: fuel propellant, so when the order came in for a
Speaker 1: hundred rockets, it was on Parsons to make it work.
Speaker 1: But Jack was at a dead end. No matter what
Speaker 1: he tried, he was unable to scale the rockets up
Speaker 1: to the necessary size without cracks appearing in the mix.
Speaker 1: What he needed was an impossibility, a solid fuel with
Speaker 1: the properties of a liquid. After yet another explosive disaster
Speaker 1: at the Arroyo test site, a despondent Parsons takes a
Speaker 1: few moments to gather his thoughts. Wandering to the back
Speaker 1: of the site, he catches a whiff of something sweet
Speaker 1: and acrid on the warm breeze. Turning, he sees some
Speaker 1: construction workers pushing asphalt across the roof of a nearby building.
Speaker 1: He watches for a moment as they pour the gloup,
Speaker 1: glinting black and gold under the sun, a solid fuel
Speaker 1: that acted like a liquid. Moments later, Jack is back
Speaker 1: in his laboratory, surrounded by billowing clouds of smoke and
Speaker 1: the sweet choke of petroleum, concocting a thick blackness from
Speaker 1: liquefied tar and potassium percolate to infused cries of EO pan.
Speaker 1: He pours the resultant mix into an unused rocket casing
Speaker 1: and waits for it to set. Parsons had just created
Speaker 1: galcid fifty three, the fifty third fuel mixed by the
Speaker 1: rocket research team. It was the first casta will composite
Speaker 1: propellant ever invented. According to Frank Molina later, it was
Speaker 1: one of the most important discoveries in the long history
Speaker 1: of solid fuel rockets. It was also the last serious
Speaker 1: contribution to rocket science that Jack Parsons would ever make.
Speaker 1: While Parson's professional life was hitting its peak. Back at
Speaker 1: the Agape Lodge, things were threatening to unravel. In response
Speaker 1: to Jack and Betty's continuing affair. Helen sought comfort with
Speaker 1: the group's leader, Wilfred Smith. Although Jack had encouraged the union,
Speaker 1: Smith's lover, Regina Carl, had been far less sympathetic. Once again,
Speaker 1: the theory and practice of Crowley's insistence on doing what
Speaker 1: thou wilt, making for difficult bedfellows. With Parson's reputation, however,
Speaker 1: steadily growing among the Agapey Lodge members, Ever, the chemist
Speaker 1: he recognized the growing discontent as a perfect opportunity for change.
Speaker 1: Buoyed by the successive aerojet Jack, proposed that the group
Speaker 1: abandoned the crumbling frames of Winona Boulevard and moved the
Speaker 1: Agape Lodge to Pasadena. And so it is that on
Speaker 1: June ninth, nineteen forty two, the group, led by Jane Wolfe,
Speaker 1: carrying a large portrait of Alister Crowley, make their way
Speaker 1: through the doors of one zero zero three Orange Grove Avenue.
Speaker 1: The house was a significant upgrade and much more befitting
Speaker 1: for a secret magic Order. Set over three floors, the
Speaker 1: property was the former residence of lumber millionaire Arthur Fleming,
Speaker 1: who was a long standing donor to Caltech had hosted
Speaker 1: Albert Einstein, among many others. Within its walls. It included
Speaker 1: a twenty five acre garden with a pretty pagola and
Speaker 1: fountain that would make a perfect stage for the order's rituals.
Speaker 1: A large ornate mahogany staircase swept into a grand entrance hall,
Speaker 1: over which was placed the portrait of Alister Crowley. A
Speaker 1: garage located a short distance from the house was promptly
Speaker 1: converted into Jack's home laboratory. Wilfrid Smith, still acting as
Speaker 1: the official head of the lodge, and Helen, took the
Speaker 1: master bedroom on the second floor, while Betty and Jack
Speaker 1: shared another bedroom on the same floor, installing a large
Speaker 1: statue of the Great God Pan in the corner. The
Speaker 1: two couples were joined by Regina Carl and Jane Wolf,
Speaker 1: among many others who would come and go over the
Speaker 1: next few months. By nineteen forty two, largely thanks to
Speaker 1: the charismatic Jack, forty new members had been admitted into
Speaker 1: the aga A Lodge. But if it was order that
Speaker 1: Jack was hoping for, he would not find it here,
Speaker 1: as more and more initiates, keen to adopt the principles
Speaker 1: of Thelama, struggled with the reality of applying its teachings
Speaker 1: before the mind was ready to follow. One new member,
Speaker 1: Grady McMurty, who Jack had been introduced to earlier in
Speaker 1: the year, was particularly upset to discover his wife Claire,
Speaker 1: had participated in sex magic rituals with both Smith and
Speaker 1: Parsons without his knowledge. McMurty was equally dismayed to discover that,
Speaker 1: six months after the group had moved into Orange Grove,
Speaker 1: they hadn't practiced the Gnostic Mass once and duly informed Crowley,
Speaker 1: who in return blasted Parsons for his naivete and ordered
Speaker 1: Smith to stand down as the group's leader, blaming him
Speaker 1: for the group's lack of focus. Crowley's response is a
Speaker 1: double blow for Parsons. Not only had he upset his
Speaker 1: spected leader, who he still had high hopes of meeting
Speaker 1: in person, but the threat of losing Smith, who had
Speaker 1: become an invaluable and trusted instructor, was the last thing
Speaker 1: he had expected. By the end of nineteen forty two,
Speaker 1: rumors are swelling about just what exactly has been going
Speaker 1: on at the new Agape Lodge, and soon there are
Speaker 1: reports of men in black suits keeping watch of the house.
Speaker 1: But amidst the chaos, one thing remains consistent, the magic.
Speaker 1: It had been the case for some time that science
Speaker 1: was no longer the priority for Jack, at least not
Speaker 1: in the traditional sense. Having remained an avid fan of
Speaker 1: science and fantasy fiction over the years, one author's book
Speaker 1: in particular, had awokened something in him that he had
Speaker 1: been suspecting for some time. Written by Jack Williamson, Darker
Speaker 1: Than You Think tells the story of a race of
Speaker 1: lycanthropic witches who for a long time had been forced
Speaker 1: to live in the shadows after losing an ancient war
Speaker 1: with Homo sapiens. Not until the coming of the Child
Speaker 1: of the Night will the magical race be set free
Speaker 1: to rule the earth once more. To Jack, the book
Speaker 1: drew parallels with Crowley's own prophecy of the coming Age
Speaker 1: of Horace. Unlike Crowley, however, who saw the current era
Speaker 1: of death and destruction as the period of transition from
Speaker 1: one age to the next, for Parsons it was more
Speaker 1: evidence of the continuing ills of the masculine age of
Speaker 1: a Cirius. Where Crowley saw the Age of Horace as
Speaker 1: a balance, it was far more important for Parsons to
Speaker 1: focus on returning the feminine to its rightful place at
Speaker 1: the top. With Jack now being treated as the de
Speaker 1: facto lead of the lodge, it was beginning to occur
Speaker 1: to him that perhaps he was that Child of the Night,
Speaker 1: destined to help usher in the new age As the
Speaker 1: ever impatient Jack continues in his efforts to harness the
Speaker 1: power of real magic, a number of strange shapes and
Speaker 1: terrifying noises are reported at one zero zero three Orange
Speaker 1: County Avenue. Concerns that he is getting ahead of himself,
Speaker 1: and rumors of black magic begin to circulate. Jack Williamson's
Speaker 1: book also tells of a flame haired woman whose arrival
Speaker 1: is pivotal for the creation of the new age. Jack
Speaker 1: two will meet such a woman, but not before undertaking
Speaker 1: one of the most ambitious and infamous magical workings ever
Speaker 1: to be recorded. But there is one more ingredient required
Speaker 1: before Jack's ambitions can be fully realized, the arrival of
Speaker 1: another flame haired individual, a master of story and the
Speaker 1: tall tale who going by the name of Ron, will
Speaker 1: soon cast his own particular spell on all who crosses path.
Speaker 1: Join us next Tuesday for the final installment of Unexplained.
Speaker 1: We Are the Witchcraft. If you enjoy listening to Unexplained
Speaker 1: and would like to show your appreciation, you can now
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Speaker 1: me Richard mcclained smith. Please subscribe and rate the show
Speaker 1: on iTunes. Feel free to get in touch with any
Speaker 1: thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
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