Could the famous American rocket builder be so keen on occultism that he wanted to create a magical creature – a homunculus? Parsons’s activities are known only by rumors from acquaintances, but there is no smoke without fire.
John “Jack” Parsons (1914-1952) was a legendary American rocket engineer. He was one of the founders of Aerojet Corporation, which today is one of the largest manufacturers of rocket engines and rocket boosters in the world.
It is also believed that he was involved in the NASA space program, including the landing of astronauts on the moon in 1969, although by that time he was already long dead. In honor of him a large crater was named on the moon. However, no less than an engineer, Parsons was known as an alchemist and occultist, and many very strange stories are connected with this side of his activity. It is often assumed that it was because of this that he died.
In 1939, Parsons, already a well-known rocket builder at that time, was fascinated by Marxism for a while, but then he suddenly joined the religious movement of the British occultist Alistair Crowley under the name Telema. Moreover, he headed the California branch of Telema.
Then Parsons made friends with another famous occultist, Ron Hubbard, and he even temporarily lived in his house. Parsons had no problem with the fact that Hubbard was sleeping with his wife, for him sex mattered primarily as a concentration of “magical energy.” According to rumors, he even tried to use this energy to “call various Deities to Earth.”
How this could happen in parallel with his serious scientific work and the work of a rocket builder is very difficult to understand, but it was a reality.
After World War II, the occult side of Parsons’ life began to prevail over engineering so much that his activities led to an investigation by the FBI. Parsons was scared, and he soon told the FBI that he had “severed all relations with the dark world.”
However, all this was only in words. Now we turn to the topic voiced in the title of this article. According to the memoirs of director and artist Renat Drux, published in The Occult Explosion, Jack Parsons worked on very strange experiments, trying to create what the ancient alchemists called the homunculus – a tiny artificial man with magical powers.
Medieval alchemists had several “recipes” for the like. One of them involved the roots of the mandrake, which grows on the ground, where the “life seed” of the hanged man fell. In order to create a homunculus with the help of such a root, one must find it with the help of a black dog, then wash it, pour honey and milk (or blood), and then store it in a flask, in which a homunculus will then arise.
Another method, which was published in an 18th century book by Dr. David Christian, recommended taking a black chicken egg, piercing it with a needle, and replacing a small piece of chicken protein with human sperm. Then close the hole and bury it in manure on the first day of the March lunar cycle.
Thirty days later, a tiny person should develop in this egg, which will have magical powers and will protect its “parent”. It was supposed to feed him with lavender seeds and earthworms. It is not known which of the recipes for the creation of the homunculus was used by Parsons, however, according to rumors, this was what destroyed him.
On June 17, 1952, Jack Parsons worked in his laboratory and, according to official figures, tried to make explosives for his engineering project. Suddenly, something happened and an explosion rang out in the laboratory, which killed Parsons. When his body was found, half of his face was missing, his body bones were all broken, and his right forearm was completely torn off. Moreover, he was still alive for some time and died while in the hospital.
According to unofficial data, a strange explosion occurred precisely because of the experiment with the homunculus, because Parsons was a very experienced engineer, often worked at home with hazardous substances and would hardly have made a gross mistake when working in explosives.
According to his colleagues, Parsons assured that he was always very serious about his safety and suspected that the explosion was either rigged by someone in order to kill Parsons, or something else more incomprehensible happened here. The police finally concluded that his death was an accident, but Parsons’ death is still shrouded in mystery and causes lively discussions.
