It was not long after my own encounter with strange aerial phenomenon that I began to see a link between UFOs to such seemingly disparate topics as psychedelics, psychotronics, and ritual magick. As the years pass, the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH) makes far less sense to the observer than other theories ranging from mind control conspiracies or — on the other hand — fissures in the space-time continuum which provide a portal of entry for ghostly apparitions that can be saucer-shaped or even take on the form of Moth-Men, Chupacabras or the Blessed Virgin Mary.
UFOs encompass a wide range of phenomenon and cannot be categorized simply in terms of little gray skinned buggers from Zeta-Reticuli shoving probes up human rectums (Ouch!). To me the term “UFO” simply suggests something unexplainable hovering in outer or inner space, whether it is machine-like elves encountered under the influence of DMT, or nuts and bolt craft performing inexplicable aerial maneuvers over Area 51.
UFOs are limited only by our imagination, and to consider them merely craft from another galaxy is as narrow a view as postulating that newborn babies are delivered exclusively by storks. UFOs are also — in my estimation — a product of altered consciousness, which is not to suggest that all sightings are in part, or in whole, complete hallucinations. What I’m suggesting is that in order to observe UFOs, one must often enter into a more receptive state, much like a psychic or channeler tunning into voices or subtle energies. Channelers must first induce in themselves a trance state before being able to contact “voices from the beyond”. The same goes for magickal workings wherein magicians carry out rituals in order to invoke spirits and/or demons.
A corollary to the above statement is the famed Amalantrah Working of legendary occultist Aleister Crowley, which consisted of a series of visions he received from January through March of 1918 via his then “Scarlet Women,” one Roddie Minor. Throughout his life, Crowley had a number of Scarlet Women, who acted as “Channels” for otherworldly transmissions of angelic and/or demonic origin. The Scarlet Woman also played a large part in Crowley’s notorious sex ritual, at times combining drugs and bestiality to stir up those strange energies into which good ol’ Uncle Al was trying to tap. To quote Crowley chronicler Kenneth Grant from Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God:
“Crowley was aware of the possibility of opening the spatial gateways and of admitting an extraterrestrial current in the human life-wave… It is an occult tradition — and Lovecraft gave it persistent utterance in his writings — that some transfinite and superhuman power is marshaling its forces with intent to invade and take possession of this planet… This is reminiscent of Charles Fort’s dark hints about a secret society on earth already in contact with cosmic beings and, perhaps, preparing the way for their advent. Crowley dispels the aura of evil with which these authors (Lovecraft and Fort) invest the fact; he prefers to interpret it thelemically, not as an attack upon human consciousness from within, to embrace other stars and to absorb their energies into a system that is thereby enriched and rendered truly cosmic by the process…”
It was through the Amalantrah Working — which included the ingestion of hashish and mescaline in its rituals — that Crowley came into contact with an interdimensional entity named Lam, who by the way just happens to be a dead ringer for the popular conception of the “Grey” alien depicted on the cover of Whitley Strieber’s Communion. Crowley called them “Enochian entities” because he purportedly contacted them by using “Enochian call”, a Cabalistic system/language devised by 17th century Elizabethan magician, Dr. John Dee. From this alleged encounter, some have inferred that the industrious Mr. Crowley intentionally opened a portal of entry through the practice of ritual magick, which allowed the likes of Lam and other “alien greys” a passageway onto Earth plane. Dr. John Dee and his “scryer”, Edward Kelly, had their own strange encounters with — as they call them — “little men” who moved about “in a little fiery cloud”, thus a pattern exists in the lore of ritual magic connecting UFOs to sorcery.
Some now believe that what Crowley tapped into was the same unconscious reservoir of high weirdness that helped launch the current rash of alien abductions, as reported by such “experts” in the field as Bud Hopkins, John Mack, David Jacobs et al. When making these connections, bear in mind that many abductees recall their encounters with these gray skinned creatures only after they’ve been hypnotically regressed. Once again, we see that trance state — not unlike those ASC’s produced during rituals such as the Amalantrah Working — are often the triggering factor which opens up a portal for these strange entities. According to Kenneth Grant, this tradition has been continued by current day adepts of the Great Beast, who follow in his footsteps practicing ritual magic to invoke these “alien entities”.
In Outside the Circles of Time, Grant writes:
“Some believe that the UFO phenomena are part of the “miracle”, and a mounting mass of evidence seems to suggest that mysterious entities have been located within the earth’s ambience for countless centuries and that more and more people are being born with innate ability to see, or in some way sense their presence… Prayer for deific intervention in ancient times has now become a cri de coeure to extra-terrestrial or interdimensional entities, according to whether the manifestations are viewed as occuring within man’s consciousness, or outside himself in apparently objective but often invisible entities. New Isis Lodge has in its archives the sigils of some of these entities. The sigils com from a grimoire of unknown origin which forms a part of the dark quabalahs of Besqul, located by magicians in the Tunnel of Quliefi. The grimoire describes Four Gates of extraterrestrial entry into, and emergence from, the known Universe.”
What Grant is speaking of is a form of ritual magic(k) practiced by such groups as the Golden Dawn, and the Ordo Templi Orientis(O.T.O.). “Sigils” are line drawings and diagrams that serve as signatures of entities accessible to a trained magician familiar with “Enochian calls” and other methods of summoning “spirits”. A grimoire is a directory of such sigils, and a manual for their use.
A noted disciple of Crowley’s, Jack Parsons — one time head of the California branch of the O.T.O., and renowned rocket scientist — carried on this tradition of interdimensional contact when, in 1946 — with the aid of “Frater H.” — he made contact with some sort of entities not at all unlike Crowley’s “Lam”. This all took place during a series of magic rituals deemed the Babalon Workings. What makes this story all the more bizarre is that Parson’s accomplice in this endeavor — the aforementioned Frater H. — became more commonly known afterwards as the charismatic cult leader L.Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.
Apparently, Hubbard played a role similar to that of Edward Kelly, “scryer” for the aforementioned Dr. John Dee, of whom Crowley was an ardent admirer. A scryer works as a receptor of otherworldly communications, often using a crystal ball or similar device in conjunction with the magician’s rituals and ceremonies to summon beings from other dimensions. Together magician and scryer work hand-in-hand in summoning these otherworldly beings: be they angels, demons or spirits of the dead. Crowley’s Scarlet Woman, in many instances, performed this same function; for instance Crowley’s first wife, Rose Kelly — while in a magical trance — received the first three chapters of the infamous Book of the Law, the manuscript that laid the foundation for Crowley’s “religion”, Thelema. Furthermore, the portal of entry for the extraterrestrial beings that Crowley theoretically opened (when he invoked the entity “Lam”) may have been further enlarged by Parsons and Hubbard with the commencement of the Babalon Working, thus facilitating a monumental paradigm shift in human consciousness. As Kenneth Grant wrote, “The [Babalon] Working began… just prior to the wave of unexplained ariel phenomena now recalled as the ‘Great Flying Saucer Flap!’ Parsons opened a door and something flew in.” Such researchers as John Carter suggest that the detonation of atomic bombs over Japan — during the latter part of World War II — may have also played a part in opening this door between dimensions or, at least, attracted the curiosity of our intergalactic neighbors.
As Thelemic history instructs, 1947 ended the first stage of the Babalon Working, as Parsons and Hubbard parted ways amid a cloud of turmoil.(Apparently, Hubbard split with Parsons wife and a large part of his fortune.) It was the same year the Modern Age of UFOs flew into view with the Kenneth Arnold sightings over Mt. Rainer in Washington state, followed not long after by the legendary saucer crash in Roswell, New Mexico.
1947 was also the year that marked the passing of the Great Beast, Aleister Crowley. Not long after these monumental events, in 1948, Albert Hoffman gave birth to LSD, which indicates that strange things were indeed aloof in the collective unconscious of humanity between the years of 1946-48. Connecting all this high weirdness up even tighter is conspiracy researcher John Judge, who — in an interview on KPFK radio, Los Angeles on August 12, 1989 dubbed “Unidentified Fascist Observatories” — stated that Kenneth Arnold and Jack Parsons were flying partners, though I have as yet, been unable to find additional corroboration to support his claim.
As for L. Ron Hubbard — though it is not well publicized by current day members of the Church of Scientology — much of his “religion” was based on a bizarre cosmology he apparently concocted, perhaps to see how much his flock was willing to swallow, a thesis which suggested that several million years ago the souls of dead space aliens (Thetans) entered into the body of Earth humans, and that is part of the reason why today were so screwed up as a species.
Another interesting “UFO” parallel to note is that Parsons and Hubbard’s “visionary experience” with these alien-like entities transpired in the California desert, which during the late 40’s and 50’s was a hotbed for flying saucer activity. It was in this setting that such famous “Contactees” as George Adamski and George Hunt Williamson invoked their own brand of cosmic messengers transported by saucers, cigar-shaped vessels and the like, often originating from nearby Venus, or other seemingly uninhabitable planets in our solar system.
In the 1930’s — prior to his “Space Brother” encounters — Adamski operated a monastery dubbed “The Royal-Order of Tibet,” which afforded him a permit to make sacrificial wine during the Prohibition. After the Prohibition ended, Adamski’s monastery suddenly closed its doors, and he afterwards opened a burger stand near the Mount Polomar Observatory. While there, Adamski claimed to have helped astronomers photograph several UFO’s — a claim that afterwards was never verified by anyone at the observatory.
Adamski’s first encounter with the “Space Brothers” occurred in the Mojave Desert on November 20, 1952, when — in the company of George Hunt Williamson and some other friends — he witnessed a cigar-shaped craft being pursued by military jets. Just before disappearing from sight, the craft ejected a silver disc, which landed a short distance from Adamski and his party. When Adamski arrived at the saucer he was greeted by a man with long blonde hair, wearing a one-piece suit.
Telepathically, the “man” informed Adamski he was from Venus, and that he was concerned about the possibility of atomic bomb radiation from Earth reaching other planets in the solar system, and that various beings from throughout the galaxy were visiting Earth harboring these same concerns. According to Adamski, he was taken aboard one of the alien ships and flown around to several venues throughout the universe, including the dark side of the moon. During the course of his ariel foray, Adamski took an array of spurious photographs that have been widely viewed as a hoax. In “Unidentified Fascist Observatories”, John Judge asserts that Adamski was an asset of the CIA, who in his lecture tours throughout the 50’s and 60’s dispersed disinfo on behalf of the Company.
Adamski’s colleague — George Hunt Williamson — went on to author several UFO books, such as Other Tongues — Other Flesh, and promulgated the idea of a cosmic good-versus-evil battle taking place between the “good guys” from the dog star, Sirius, versus the evil shit-kickers from Orion. Strangely enough, the planet Sirius is a recurring theme found throughout Occult and UFO lore.