Israel Regardie

Francis Israel Regardie (né Regudy; November 17, 1907 – March 10, 1985) was a British-American occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer who spent much of his life in the United States.

He wrote fifteen books on the subject of occultism.

Born to a working-class Orthodox Jewish family in the East End of London, Regardie and his family soon moved to Washington, D.C., in the United States.

Regardie rejected Orthodox Judaism during his teenage years and took an interest in Theosophy, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jewish mysticism.

It was through his interest in yoga that he encountered the writings of the occultist Aleister Crowley.

Regardie was born Israel Regudy on 17 November 1907 off of the Mile End Road in London's East End, then a poor area.

His parents, Barnet Regudy, a cigarette maker, and Phoebe Perry, were poor orthodox Jewish immigrants from Zhitomir, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine).

His family changed their surname to "Regardie" after a clerical mixup resulted in Israel's elder brother being enrolled in the British Army under that name.

Regardie emigrated with his parents to the United States in August 1921 and settled in Washington, D.C. Regardie's parents were Orthodox Jews who believed that the Talmudic stories were literally true.

With a Hebrew tutor he gained a linguistic knowledge which would prove invaluable in his later studies of Hermetic Qabalah.

In his teenage years, Regardie rejected this parental faith, coming to describe Judaism as "a load of rubbish".

He began reading the work of Helena Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy.

From there, he read Hindu texts like the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita as well as Buddhist texts like the Dhammapada and the Milinda Panha.

Interested in becoming a painter, he studied at an art school in Philadelphia.

He also joined the Societas Rosicruciana in America at around this time.

While in Washington, D.C., he came across a discussion of yoga in Book 4, a work by the occultist Aleister Crowley.

Impressed by it, he wrote to Crowley via the latter's publisher, receiving a response eight months later.

Crowley advised Regardie to meet with Karl Germer, his agent in the United States.

Regardie visited Germer in New York City, where he purchased the ten volume of Crowley's periodical, The Equinox.

In March 1926 he was initiated into the 0=0 degree of the Washington College of the Societas Rosicruciana in America, subsequently being initiated into the Zelator grade in June 1927.

Through Crowley's work, Regardie moved from the practice of yoga to that of ceremonial magic.

When Crowley asked Regardie to travel to Paris to serve as his personal secretary, the young man agreed; he told his parents that he would be studying with an English painter in Paris.

Contacting Crowley, he was invited to serve as the occultist's secretary, necessitating a move to Paris, France in 1928.

He followed Crowley to England before their association ended.

Living in England, he wrote two books on the Qabalah, A Garden of Pomegranates and The Tree of Life.

In October 1928, Regardie sailed from New York City to Paris.

Regardie hoped that Crowley would personally instruct him in occult practices, but this did not occur; Crowley expected his pupils to learn things for themselves and only seek his advice when in difficulty.

Crowley urged Regardie to overcome his inhibitions, including by visiting prostitutes to lose his virginity; from one of these encounters he reportedly contracted gonorrhoea.

Regardie spent much time studying Crowley's material, both published and unpublished.

As a magical name, he took "Frater NChSh" ("The Serpent"), although also became known as "Father Scorpio".

Through his involvement with Crowley, Regardie came to know Gerald Yorke, although the duo never became friends.

Crowley would sometimes play two simultaneous games of chess, one with Regardie and the other with Yorke.

In 1934 he then joined the Stella Matutina—a ceremonial magic order descended from the defunct Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—but grew dissatisfied with its leadership and left.

He also studied psychology, being particularly influenced by ideas from Jungian psychology, and explored Christian mysticism.

In 1937 he returned to the United States.

Concerned that the Golden Dawn system of ceremonial magic would be lost, he published the Stella Matutina rituals in a series of books between 1938 and 1940.

This entailed breaking his oath of secrecy and brought anger from many other occultists.

During the Second World War he served in the U.S. Army.

On returning to the U.S., he gained a doctorate in psychology before relocating to Los Angeles in 1947 and setting up practice as a chiropractor.

In 1981 he retired and moved to Sedona, Arizona, where he died of a heart attack four years later.