Nuclear Metaphors

The United States is, famously, a nation founded by religious zealots, and fire and brimstone is in our DNA. If we are going to have a collective vision of the end of the world, of course it would be borrowed from biblical stories. Armageddon comes from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. It refers to the prophesied gathering of armies for battle during the end times. Colloquially, it’s been used to signify the end of the world. Armageddon is used frequently to describe nuclear holocaust. Not to get too pedantic but even in the end of the world MOVIE Armageddon the solution is a nuclear bomb!!

The apocalyptic language of Armageddon looms large in Jacobsen’s book. Nuclear armed submarines are called “the handmaidens of the Apocalypse,” described as deadly, invisible snakes moving silently through the deep sea, waiting to strike. “Doomsday” is a word that’s frequently associated with nuclear war as well; another synonym for the biblical end times. There’s the Doomsday plane, technically called a Boeing EB-4 called “Nightwatch” built to stay aloft if the US is under nuclear attack. You may also be familiar with the Doomsday Clock, an online nuclear proliferation risk calculator maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. I don’t recommend checking it right now, kids!

As Jacobsen’s book made clear to me, the Devil, and Hell, are everywhere in nuclear terminology. She conjures a scenario where an American nuclear power plant is attacked, causing a massive nuclear double event, called “the devil’s scenario.” It helps that the plant she chose is in central California in Diablo Canyon. During the Fukushima catastrophe, Japanese officials referred to a potential meltdown as “the devil’s chain reaction.” In the run up to the Trinity detonation, the “demon core” of plutonium melted down and killed a scientist. 

Missiles and materials reference the Devil, and Hell, as well. American military officials refer to the Russian RS-28 Sarmat nuclear warheads as ‘Sons of Satan.” Russians named them after the Sarmatians, mounted warriors of the Steppe. Our missiles, of course, are called Minutemen, after our own mounted colonial soldiers. The American military employs Hellfire missiles, and the Brits have Brimstone missiles – those aren’t nuclear but you get the point. 

The development of the bomb, and the rockets used to propel them, are cloaked in undeniable occult overtones. I’ve been thinking about this ever since I saw Oppenheimer, and thought about his apocryphal statement “Now I am become Death, Destroyer of Worlds.” This quote is from the Bhagavad Gita, a 700 year old Hindu text. Oppenheimer didn’t really say this – he wrote it in his journal. The association of this strange, prescient phrase over the first atomic bomb detonation is irresistible, though. It imbues the scientist with god-like, magical powers over life and death for all of humanity. It’s not that far off the mark, either – that’s what Jacobsen’s whole book is about. 

America’s most famous rocket scientist, Jack Parsons, was a documented occultist and magical practitioner. He led a wild life full of sex, drugs, magic, and dangerous experiments with explosive materials. He and his team, the Suicide Squad, developed the rocket fuel that would allow us to fire missiles, jets, and rockets into space. His quest to summon a Thelemic goddess who would give birth to the magical Antichrist (The Babalon working) went hand in hand with the magic he was performing with explosives. 

I think the principle that ties these figures together is working to create something almost wholly imaginary at the time – a massive bomb that could kill thousands and poison the land with radioactivity for decades, and the fuel that could power a flight into actual outer space. Mark Heyman, thehe creator of the series Strange Angel, about Parsons, said:

“Now, rocket science is sort of synonymous with the most esoteric of sciences. We have that expression, ‘It’s not rocket science.’ It’s implied that it’s meant to be the stuff of really, really educated experts,” says Heyman, “Whereas, back then, it was almost the opposite where it was the stuff of science fiction. It existed in popular culture, but in the way that dragons and time travel existed. It was actually the stuff of entertainment. So, it wasn’t taken seriously not because it was too complicated or too difficult. It wasn’t taken seriously because it was seen as imaginary.”

It feels to me like everyone involved in developing this technology, the language and policies around it, knows that they’re delving into unholy shit. You might go as far as to say otherworldly, evil shit. Bombs that can destroy all of civilization – what is more Satanic than that? What better to look to than ancient scripts and shady occultists (CROWLEY) to describe such dark workings? All of this puts us back to Jacobsen’s real question: we can destroy civilization several times over, for what? 

Enjoy the book and stay away from the news, friends.