Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

The Book of the Law. I cannot write the name at present. First instructions were received direct
through Ron, the seer. I have followed them to the letter. There was a desire for incarnation. I do not
yet know the vehicle, but it will come to me bringing a secret sign. I am to act as instructor guardian
for nine months; then it will be loosed on the world. That is all I can say now . . .'[21]
Crowley, who was by then in his seventies, chronically addicted to heroin and facing death, was
irritated by his disciple's secrecy. On 19 April he despatched a terse reply: 'You have got me
completely puzzled by your remarks about the elemental . . . I thought I had a most morbid
imagination, as good as any man's, but it seems I have not. I cannot form the slightest idea of what
you can possibly mean.' On the same day he wrote to Karl Germer, head of the OTO in the United
States: 'Apparently Parsons or Hubbard or somebody is producing a Moonchild. I get fairly frantic
when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts.'
While Parsons fretted over Crowley's letter, his faithful scribe was facing more earthly, and much
more familiar, problems. Having contributed his meagre savings to Allied Enterprises, Hubbard
was badly in need of money. He had written virtually nothing since leaving the Navy and his wife
was rapidly losing patience with his repeated excuses as to why he was unable to send any money
home to support her and the children.
Polly recognized by this time that there was little chance of saving her marriage. Towards the end of
the war, she and Ron had briefly discussed moving to California when he was discharged from the
Navy, but Polly refused to uproot the children. She had a nightmare vision of trying to raise a family
while trailing forlornly after her husband, backwards and forwards from one coast to the other.[22]
Nibs and Katie were happily settled in Bremerton, enjoyed school, and had friends and family all
around. Polly had left The Hilltop and moved in with Ron's parents to be closer to the facilities of
Bremerton; it was an arrangement she found perfectly satisfactory. Both Harry Hubbard, who had
retired from the Navy and found a job as manager of Kitsap County Fair, and his wife enjoyed
having their grandchildren around.
But while Polly was content to live with her in-laws, she still needed money to feed and clothe
herself and the children and, not unreasonably, she expected her husband to provide it. Ron's
problem in this regard was not just that he was broke (nothing unusual), but that he had reached
the limit of his credit with the residents of 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue, having borrowed from
everyone who was prepared to lend.
In February, the Veterans Administration had awarded him a pension of $11.50 a month for a ten
per cent disability caused by his ulcer. Ron did not consider this miserable amount to be nearly
sufficient and on 18 March, two weeks after completing his duties as a black magic scribe, he
lodged an appeal, producing a dramatic new disability which he had somehow neglected to
mention on his original claim form. 'I have lost between sixty and eighty per cent of my vision,' he
claimed in a letter typed on his distinctive initialled notepaper, 'and as my profession is that of
writer, my present inability to read or use my eyes seriously affects my income. I cannot work either
long hours or under the slightest adverse conditions. My income at the present time, due entirely to
service connected injuries, is zero. Would you please advise me as to the steps I should take to
gain further pension?'[23]
After his years in the Navy, Ron was well aware of the speed with which the wheels of bureaucracy
moved and his need for money was urgent. His solution was to persuade Parsons that the time
had come to activate Allied Enterprises. Towards the end of April, Ron and Sara [she was only
called Betty at South Orange Grove] left for Florida with $10,000 drawn from the Allied Enterprises
account at the Pasadena First Trust and Savings Bank. Parsons approved the withdrawal so that