kaos

cites his sources or the context in which something was said or to who, which is a
disappointing omission given that Carter has obviously done plenty of research.
Sex and Rockets is the first book-length biography of Parsons. Previously the only
serious work of biographical research had been Michael Staley’s essay “The Babalon
Working/Belovèd of Babalon”, which I remember eagerly reading in Starfire 3 back in
1989 in the aftermath of the kaos-babalon working. At this time in London, Parsons
was spoken about by occultists with deep respect and love, here was a guy who “was out
there man”. When I read the description of how the explosion tore off his right forearm,
broke his other arm and both legs, and left a “gaping hole” in his jaw and shredded his
shoes, leaving him conscious for a further 37 minutes before he died, I was quite shocked,
never having read that before. There’s the standard witticism about the crater on the
dark side of the moon that was named after him, and how they must have got the idea
from the crater he left in his coachhouse floor, but Carter’s graphic description made it
fresh and serious, especially Parsons’ last words as reported by Jet Propulsion Laboratory
archivist John Bluth: “I wasn’t done.” (Curious words given that he proclaimed himself
“The Antichrist” in 1949 and one of the seven recorded versions of Christ’s last words
on the cross was: “It is finished.” [ John 19:30]. These were the last words used in
Scorsese’s movie. Marjorie Cameron apparently said Jack’s last words were: “Who will
take care of me now?”) On hearing of his death, Parsons’ mother Ruth committed
suicide, adding fuel to the ugly rumour concerning his “exteriorization” of the Oedipal
complex and the peculiar home movies, involving also the family dog, that may or may
not exist, which Shedona Chevalier of babalon.net has taken publisher Adam Parfrey
to task for including a paragraph about.
These days you can find a copy of Parsons’ Book of Babalon in seconds off the Internet,
but part of its attraction for me 15 years ago was that you really had to track it down, it
was seriously sought-after material, a treasure map of sorts that you might find a dogeared
mimeographed copy of in a friend’s collection that had been much read and passed
around, and sometimes pencil-annotated by several hands, which probably made it
seem a lot better than it may appear now to the short-attention-span generation who
skim it rather than study it. When Michael Staley published it in Starfire along with his
essay many people were grateful for that.
Staley’s essay, however, contains a stupendous error that has led most who have read
his influential work into a complete misapprehension of Parsons’ Babalon Working.
Sex and Rockets mentions and corrects the error, repeated by others since 1989, although
Carter does not attribute its source, which may not ultimately have originated with
Staley. Even so, on reviewing the material again for the first time in years—not only
Carter’s book—I found it hard to credit how Staley could have got it so wrong. Parsons,
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