Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons | 
 enlarge | Author: John Carter
Creator: Robert Anton Wilson
Publisher: Feral House
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 333090
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 239
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0922915970
Dewey Decimal Number: 509
EAN: 9780922915972
ASIN: 0922915970
Publication Date: March 10, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Scientist, poet, and self-proclaimed Antichrist, Jack Parsons was a bizarre genius whose life reads like an implausible yet irresistible science fiction novel. Sex and Rockets looks at his short life and dual career as cofounder of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and leader of the Agape Lodge of Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). Author John Carter scours primary documents and interviews surviving friends and contemporaries to deliver an intriguing portrait of a dreamy, driven man equally interested in rocketry and magick. From his early childhood and deep attachment to his mother (who killed herself hours after he died) through his nonacademic research and brilliant innovations in solid fuels to his mysterious 1952 demise in a garage-laboratory explosion at the age of 37, the reader gets the impression of a man whose obsession with explosives and propellants was nearly single-minded. Yet this same man found spiritual fulfillment through Crowley's Law of Thelema, conducted magickal operations with L. Ron Hubbard, and signed an oath asserting himself to be the Antichrist--clearly Parsons wasn't a boring guy in a white coat. Carter pulls off the difficult task of integrating Parsons's disparate drives into one compelling story; though there are some rough spots and awkward transitions, one gets the sense that this illuminates the man's life better than a smooth, flawless work would. Robert Anton Wilson's introduction is smart and funny as always, initiating the uninformed into the basics of Crowleyanity while placing Parsons in the context of his times. While it might not be possible to read universal themes into Parsons's life, Sex and Rockets is an excellent study of a passionate life fully lived. --Rob Lightner
Product Description
A brilliant scientist, passionate poet, and political dissident, Jack Parsons (1914-1952) was one of the most enigmatic figures in history. In Sex and Rockets, John Carter divulges the life of a genius and self-proclaimed Antichrist in a biography that reads like science fiction. Using in-depth research including interviews with Parson's peers, Carter offers an intriguing portrait of this dark figure shrouded in cultish myth, from his childhood to his mysterious death in 1952. Parsons cofounded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), led the Agape Lodge of Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO), and mingled with notable scientists, thinkers, and writers of his day, including Ray Bradbury, L. Ron Hubbard, and Robert A. Heinlein. Among Parsons' hobbies including explosives and solid rocket fuels was the avid practice of magical rituals in the vein of Aleister Crowley. Carter initiates readers into the world of angels and demons, magical languages, and numerology used.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 Fascinating - but poorly written July 29, 2008
An absolutely fascinating story about the world of Jack Parsons, both his rocket expertise and his journey into the occult. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard puts in a brief appearance as a shadowy occultist and con man. The book suffers, unfortunately, from being poorly written and presented. The scientific sections have all the charm of a Unix manual, and the occult sections are tedious - too heavy on the fine points of arcana and not enough on the human foibles and interactions.
Most Deadly Bomb of All? The Turgid Prose Bomb July 13, 2008
Fascinating man, boring biography--author John Carter's turgid prose style--the man apparently has no sense of humor--and the lengthy quotations from Thelemic rites, etc.--make this read One Big Snooze. Indeed, the sections about Parsons-as-rocket-scientist are much more lively, and they're not why I picked up a copy of the book at all. Carter apparently didn't gain access to a host of source documents, and that may not be a bad thing--he'd have quoted them lengthily.
In the end, one gets little sense of the man nor of what drove him into the metaphorical arms of Aleister Crowley and Black Magic. Carter's sense of proportion is best-represented by his statement toward the end of the book, that Parsons had achieved more in five years as a rocket scientist than Robert Goddard did in a lifetime. Well, of course he did; he stood upon the shoulders of a giant--Goddard.
Few footnotes, no endnotes, flawed index: a hugely important character appearing on many of the book's pages--Wilfred T. Smith--is missing in action. Not that many will want to re-thumb their way through this. If magick is indeed this boring, few will follow The Path.
 luminary March 9, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Sex and Rockets is an illuminating and inspiring book that provides a detailed account of the rich and bizarre world of Parsons. The reader takes a mind-bending mystical journey through a dynamic realm of magic and science that reads more like great fiction than reality. Parsons was as interesting as any character in a science fiction novel of the time.
He was a visionary in the world of the occult and an accomplished iconoclastic rocket scientist. The author confidently conveys the humanity behind Parsons and the extent of his influence upon many diverse realms of thought. Additionally, the author uncovers miraculous details.
This penetrating work offers a straightforward portrayal of events and includes a thoroughly entertaining foreword by RAW and extensive photographs. I preferred the elegantly written "Strange Angel," for the language and the insights into the relationships, but this well-researched and enjoyable book was certainly worth the time. The author and his publisher deserve much credit for their accomplishment.
Strongly recommended to science, occult and literary enthusiasts.
 Honey, I blew up the magician. January 10, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
By day, Jack Parsons was one of the founders of Jet Propulsion Laboratories and basically single-handedly invented the rocket. By night, he was Frater 210, the self-proclaimed Antichrist, a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis, and a follower of Aleister Crowley (rhymes with 'holy'.) Oddly enough, he was a very meticulous, if reckless scientist, but a very sloppy and reckless magician. (Though his death might suggest otherwise. He was killed in an explosion in his home when he was 37.)
The information in the book was great and I drank it up, but Carter's writing is simply bad and uninteresting. His speculations are often spotty and he blindly repeats some untrue myths about Crowley as fact. Otherwise, it was a nice view into the early years of the OTO and Thelema in America. My favorite parts, I think, were the excerpts from Crowley's correspondence. He was intelligent and witty till the very end. (Jack Parsons sent large amount of money to Crowley on a regular basis, supporting Crowley in his last years.) Much of this time period was not covered in Crowley's autobiography, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley.
L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, also appears in quite a large chunk of this book as a magical scribe and con man. Parsons and Hubbard performed some powerful rituals that were well beyond their skill levels and there is a whole branch of conspiracies that say they opened a sort of magical portal and that's where UFOs came from. Considering that Aleister Crowley once contacted an entity named LAM who looked much like a modern grey alien, it's an interesting story to delve into, which this book only touches upon. Parsons and Hubbard also had strange connections with John Dee & Edward Kelley. (Hubbard stole a very large sum of money and ran off with Parsons' wife. Kelley did the same to Dee way back in the ye olde 1500s.)
Hopefully further books will be better written. I can see why this is the only book John carter has written.
DISCUSTING SAGA OF ABERENT SATANISM AT NASA November 8, 2007
0 out of 15 found this review helpful
While everyone knows that the early days of rocket science were full of good CHRISTIAN PATRIOTIC MEN like Werner Von Braun, this book lays out the very scary case that one of the pioneers of rocket science, indeed, one of the VERY FOUNDERS of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was NOT a CHRISTIAN at all, and was, in fact, a WORSHIPPER OF SATAN, and, a fanatical follower of one of the wickedest men of the entire 20th century! According to this book, Jack Parsons even tried to create his OWN SCARLET WOMAN (Rotting Goddess: The Origins of the Witch in Classical Antiquity), with whome to conceive a "magical childe" (a supreme BLASPHEME if I ever heard one). He is alledged to have commited SEX ACTS which would shock even the most hardened LIBERAL HOMOSEXUAAL, and then proceded to try to sell AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SECRETS to the ISRAEL Government when the jews were trying to get a leg-up! His sickness was finaly put an end to when he (OR GOD) blew Himself up inside his own home, in a laboratory in his garden shed while handeling rocket fuel. (Talk about the SPARK OF DIVINE JUSTICE.) Altogether a disquieting, disturbing tale of one of the lesser known, but more improtant (if the aurther is to be believed) pioneers of what would become NASA. CHILLING.
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