Israel
Regardie (Francis Israel Regudy) (born on November 17, 1907 in London,
England, died March 10, 1985 in Sedona, Arizona) was one of the 20th
century's most significant occultists and a renewer of occult literature.
Biography
Israel Regardie was born in London to poor Jewish immigrant parents.
His family chose the surname 'Regardie' after his brother due to a mixup
was enrolled in the British Army under this surname. Regardie emigrated
to the United States at the age of 14, and studied art in Washington,
DC and Philadelphia, PA. With a Hebrew tutor he gained a linguistic
knowledge which would prove invaluable in his later studies of the Qabalah.
With easy access to the Library of Congress, he read widely and became
interested in theosophy, Hindu philosophy and yoga; he also joined the
Rosicrucians at around this time. After reading Part One of Book Four
by the occultist Aleister Crowley, he initiated a correspondence which
led to his return at 21 to the UK at Crowley's invitation to become
the latter's secretary in 1928. The two men parted company four years
later in 1932.
Two years later
in 1934, he joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. When the group
disbanded, Regardie acquired the bulk of the Order's documents and compiled
the book, The Golden Dawn, which earned him the enmity of the other
former members and the reputation of being an oath-breaker because of
the information it revealed. However, the book transformed the work
of the Order into an entire new branch of the Western Occult Tradition.
As Regardie observed in his A Garden of Pomegranates, "...it is
essential that the whole system should be publicly exhibited so that
it may not be lost to mankind. For it is the heritage of every man and
woman--their spiritual birthright." The various occult organizations
claiming descent from the original Golden Dawn and the systems of magic
practiced by them owe their continuing existence and popularity to Regardie's
work.
In 1937, at the
age of 30, Regardie returned to the U.S., entering Chiropractic College
in New York. In addition, he studied psychoanalysis with Dr. E. Clegg
and Dr. J. L. Bendit, and psychotherapy with Dr. Nandor Fodor. He opened
a chiropractic office and taught psychiatry -- Freudian, Reichian and
Jungian -- retiring in 1981 at the age of 74, when he moved to Sedona,
AZ.
He died from a heart
attack in the presence of close friends during a dinner at a restaurant
in Sedona, Arizona on March 10, 1985 at the age of 78.
Legacy
Regardie is the principal reliable source for much of what is known
about the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. His writings and the students
he has taught or influenced provide much of the foundation for modern
Western occultism. In addition to preserving the knowledge, Regardie
also preserved a valid branch of the initiatory lineage of the Golden
Dawn in America:
The second significant
task carried out by Regardie was, as an Adept, to bring a valid branch
of the initiatory lineage of the Golden Dawn to America the alchemical
melting pot where the New Age was incubating. Such tasks are not always
easy. A. M. A. G. waited here four decades until the threads of the
pattern came together. Then, in one of those graceful synchronicities
which often play midwife to significant magical events, a couple in
Georgia were inspired—at that time scarcely aware of what they
were undertaking—to build a Rosicrucian Vault, the powerful ritual
chamber required to pass on the Adept Initiation, at precisely the time
when two magicians (one on the east coast of the United States and one
on the west coast), unknown to each other or to the Georgia couple,
came to be ready to receive that Initiation. And A. M. A. G., with the
right to confer the Initiation in such a Vault, was the connecting link
among them. And so, in one remarkable weekend, Regardie presided over
two Initiations into the Inner Order, the first and the last which he
ever performed; and the Lamp of the Keryx was passed into American hands.[1]
Israel Regardie
(1907 – 1985)
Written and compiled by George Knowles.
Francis Israel Regardie
was an occultist, author and one time secretary to the legendary Aleister
Crowley. As an adept of the now defunct secret order known as the Hermetic
Order of the Golden Dawn, he became infamous among the occultists of
his day for breaking his oath of secrecy and publishing the order’s
complete rituals in his book “The Golden Dawn”. Today this
book is a classic best seller and has been revised and re-issued several
times. Overshadowed by his association with Crowley, much of his work
has been left unappreciated by those outside of the realms of high magic
and occultism.
Regardie was born
Francis Israel Regudy in London, England on the 17th November 1907.
His parents were poor Jewish immigrants and during the course of WW1
when his older brother joined the army, his name was accidentally written
down as “Regardie”. Rather than change it, it was then adopted
as the family name. Later Regardie also dropped the use of Francis,
preferring to be known simply as Israel Regardie.
In August 1921 at
the age of 13, his family immigrated to the United States and settled
in Washington D.C. There Regardie was educated and studied art in schools
in Washington and Philadelphia. A bright an intuitive scholar, even
at that age, he became interested in the theosophical works of Madame
Blavatsky, yoga, and Hindu philosophy. He would often be found at the
Library of Congress conducting his own studies. Soon after he found
a Hebrew tutor who taught him to read Hebrew, an ability that aided
him enormously when he started his Qabalistic studies.
On the 18th February
1926, Regardie applied for membership to the Washington College of the
Societas Rosicruciana in America (S.R.I.A.). He was initiated into the
Neophyte grade on 18th March 1926 and advanced to the Zelator grade
on 2nd June 1927. It was during this time that Regardie became interested
in occultism and having discovered a book by Aleister Crowley, was soon
captivated by his activities and writings.
Regardie wrote to
Crowley in Paris and eventually received a reply. Soon after he was
offered the job as his secretary in Paris. Regardie saw this as an opportunity
to learn magic from a published authority, and in October 1928 he traveled
to France and accepted the job. For the next three years Regardie tried
to get Crowley to teach him the magical arts. However Crowley never
offered and Regardie, a reserved and modest young man, did not pursue
the matter. Instead he continued to study on his own, reading every
book, article or manuscript that became available to him.
As would happen
with Crowley, fueled on by the British tabloids, his reputation got
the better of him and the French authorities asked him to leave the
country. Crowley returned to England and later married his second wife
Maria Ferrari de Miramar in 1929. In an effort to repair Crowley's damaged
image, Regardie co-authored with P.R. Stephenson (another of Crowley’s
associates), the book called “The Legend of Aleister Crowley “.
It was published in 1930, by which time they were gradually drifting
apart.
Regardie continued
with his occult studies and already established as a co-author, published
the first of his own books A Garden of Pomegranates and The Tree of
Life in 1932. The first contained his Qabalistic studies and was based
on research and knowledge gleaned from various sources. The Tree of
Life however was based on the teachings of the Golden Dawn, which had
ceased to exist in 1903. When published it caused a lot of excitement
among the occult elite and was considered one of the most complete and
understandable texts on practical magic ever written. That same year
1932 he became secretary to Thomas Burke.
Although the original
Golden Dawn had ceased to exist, it continued to live on through its
descendant orders, the Stella Matutina and the Alpha et Omega. As a
result of The Tree of Life and with the encouragement and assistance
of one of its members, Dion Fortune, Regardie was invited to join the
Stella Matutina in 1933. However as had happened to the original order,
there was much infighting among its leaders and the order was in an
advanced state of decline. Regardie due to his extraordinary abilities
made rapid progress through the grades, but considered the chiefs to
be more concerned with attaining grandiose titles than with the practice
of magic. He also concluded that the Order and its teachings would not
survive much longer without some effort to place its teachings in the
hands of a greater number of people, those who could appreciate them.
After reaching the grade of Theoricus Adeptus Minor, he left the Order
in December of 1934.
That same year in
1934, Aleister Crowley became embroiled in a famous and sensational
libel case in which he sued Nina Hamnett, a prominent sculptress. Losing
the case he was forced into bankruptcy and could no longer afford to
keep Regardie on as his secretary. As a result, and as would happen
with many of Crowley’s friends and associates, they suffered a
complete falling out. Regardie was deeply wounded by the break-up of
their friendship, and was only able to pardon him in later years. Regardie
throw himself into his work writing The Art of True Healing, and doing
his groundwork for The Philosopher’s Stone.
Regardie next turned
his attention to psychology and psychotherapy, and began studying psychoanalysis
with Dr. E. Clegg and Dr. J. L. Bendit in London. He also continued
writing and in 1936 published My Rosicrucian Adventure followed by The
Philosopher's Stone, a book about alchemy from a Jungian perspective.
At the time he didn’t believe in the validity of laboratory alchemy,
(but later in the 1970’s while working with practical alchemists
such as Frater Albertus of the Paracelsus Research Society, he changed
his mind on the matter. Unfortunately one of his alchemical experiments
went wrong and he seriously burned his lungs in the lab. He gave up
the practice of alchemy and suffered from the effects of the accident
until the end of his life).
In 1937 breaking
his oath of secrecy to the Stella Matutina, he published the bulk of
the Golden Dawn's rituals and teachings. Written in four volumes he
called it simply The Golden Dawn. It caused a storm of protest at the
time and some people openly criticized him for his actions, although
many Adepts of the Order were secretly grateful to him. His reasons
for doing so he explains in his book My Rosicrucian Adventure:
"...it is essential
that the whole system should be publicly exhibited so that it may not
be lost to mankind, for it is the heritage of every man and woman and
their spiritual birthright. My motives have been to prove without a
doubt that no longer is the Order the ideal medium for the transmission
of Magic, and that since there have already been several partial and
irresponsible disclosures of the Order’s teachings, a more adequate
presentation of that system is urgently called for. Only thus may the
widespread misconceptions as to Magic be removed."
Later that year
Regardie returned to the U.S. where he entered the Chiropractic College
in New York City to study psychology. Studying psychotherapy under Dr.
Nandor, his training encompassed Freudian, Jungian, and Reichian methods
and techniques. A year later in 1938 he published The Middle Pillar,
which gives a step-by-step account on how to perform the practical exercises
of Golden Dawn’s ceremonial magic. In the same book he also compares
these magical techniques to the methods and hypotheses of psychoanalysis.
He sought to remove the synthetic walls that had been erected between
magic and psychotherapy.
After graduating
in 1941, Regardie served in the U.S. Army till the end of WWII, during
which time he explored Christian mysticism and wrote about his ideas
in The Romance of Metaphysics published in 1946. After leaving the army
he relocated to southern California and set up practice as a chiropractor
and Reichian therapist. He taught psychiatry at the Los Angeles College
of Chiropractic and contributed articles to various psychology magazines.
He also wrote several more books including: The Art and Meaning of Magic,
Roll Away the Stone, Twelve Steps to Spiritual Enlightenment, A Practical
Guide to Geomantic Divination, How to Make and Use Talismans, and Foundations
of Practical Magic.
During the 1960's
an old acquaintance of Aleister Crowley moved into Los Angeles and made
herself known to him. They met occasionally for he and Sybil Leek had
much to reminisced about the great man.
Through out his
career, Regardie’s own achievements were often overshadowed by
his association with Aleister Crowley, which often frustrated him, but
his charitable nature and his ability to be forgiving toward his old
friend was evident when he authored perhaps the most definitive biography
on Crowley called The Eye in the Triangle. But he was also irritated
when people linked him solely to Crowley’s teachings:
“One of his
pet hates was people associating him with Crowley’s brand of Thelemic
Magic and the Book of the Law. I can still recall him thumping the table
at dinner one night saying "Dammit, I’m a Golden Dawn man
and not a Thelemite, and I wish people would realize it", writes
Pat Zalewski author of The Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden
Dawn.”
Regardie retired
from his practice in 1981 and moved to Sedona, Arizona where he continued
to write. His later books included Ceremonial Magic, The Lazy Man's
Guide to Relaxation, and The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic. While
retired he continued to give advice on health and magical matters until
the end of his life. He died of a heart attack on the 10th March 1985
while having dinner with friends at one of his favorite restaurants.
Although he is gone, his legacy remains in his written works, which
continue to teach and inspire new generations of students.
One of Regardie’s
primary objectives throughout his career had been to preserve the teachings
of the Golden Dawn, but he had also set himself another task. As an
Adept of the Golden Dawn, he felt it was down to him to bring a valid
branch of the initiatory lineage of the order to America. He waited
patiently for four decades before he was able to achieve his goal. A
couple in Georgia were inspired to build a Rosicrucian Vault, the powerful
ritual chamber required to pass on the Adept Initiation. At the same
time two magicians (one on the east coast of the United States and one
on the west coast), unknown to each other or to the Georgia couple,
came to be ready to receive that Initiation. Regardie was the connecting
link between them and using his title and order motto A. M. A. G. he
had the right to confer the Initiation in such a Vault. And so in one
remarkable weekend, Regardie presided over two Initiations into the
Inner Order, the first and the last that he ever performed, and with
the following oath the Lamp of the Keryx was passed into American hands:
“I further
promise and swear that with the Divine Permission, I will from this
day forward, apply myself to the Great Work, which is: to purify and
exalt my Spiritual Nature so that with the Divine Aid I may at length
attain to be more than human, and thus gradually raise and unite to
my Higher and Divine Genius, and that in this event I will not abuse
the great power entrusted to me.”
Regardie's Order
Motto
A.M.A.G. - Ad Majorem Adonai Gloriam - “To the Greater Glory of
God”