Welcome to Unexplained Extra, with me, Richard McLean Smith.

For the weeks in between episodes, we look at the stories that for one reason or other

didn't make it into the show.

For the last episode, we are the witchcraft.

We took an in-depth look into the extraordinary life and death of pioneering rocket scientist

and a magician, Jack Parsons.

As a scientist, Parsons is perhaps best remembered as a founding member of what would eventually

evolve into NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

As a practitioner of ritualistic magic, it is with the Babylon working that he is most

synonymous.

It is ambitious attempt to conjure the divine feminine essence into being.

There has been much dispute about how exactly Parsons intended to do this, whether by literally

producing a child incarnation of the goddess, or by summoning her into the body of a living

woman, the body thereby acting as an avatar within which the divine soul could emerge.

From a feminist perspective, it is a somewhat complicated proposition, since on

the one hand, Parsons is working presents a genuine attempt to overthrow the dominant

masculine and patriarchal order, which he considered repellent.

Some have been critical, however, that it is yet another example of a man putting himself

center stage as the savior and orchestrator.

Ironically, such a view fails to recognise the woman at the centre of it all.

She positioned as little more than a muse, both professionally and as a plot point in

the life of Jack Parsons.

...