Israel Regardie

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Israel Regardie (November 17, 1907 - March 10, 1985) was an occultist/psychologist. He was born in London.

Table of contents

1 Bio

1.1 Early Life
1.2 The Crowley Years
1.3 Exposing the Golden Dawn
1.4 Later Life

2 Quotes

3 Israel Regardie's Books

4 Links of Interest

5 References

Bio

Early Life

Born In London, Regardie moved to Washington D.C. with his family in 1921 at the age of 13. He developed an interest in occult matters early on and joined SRIA (Societas Rosicruciana in America) in 1926.

The Crowley Years

After reading a copy of Book Four by Aleister Crowley, Regardie started a correspondence with Crowley, later moving to Paris to become Crowley's secretary in 1928. In his diaries, Crowley called Regardie "the Serpent." In 1932 Crowley and Regardie had a rather large falling out with snide words said on both sides, but later Regardie made his peace with Crowley.

Regardie was an initiate of Ordo Templi Orientis under Crowley, and after Crowley's death, he was sometimes seen as a neutral arbiter of claimants to the work of that Order.

Regardie wrote a full-length biography of Crowley called The Eye in the Triangle.

Exposing the Golden Dawn

In 1932 Regardie joined an offshoot of the Golden Dawn called Stella Matutina and quickly found the order was starting to fall apart. In order to preserve the knowledge of the order, Regardie took the bulk of the Order's documents and compiled the book, The Golden Dawn (1937), which earned him the enmity of the other former members and the reputation of being an oath-breaker. In this respect, he was following in Crowley's footsteps; the older man had published condensed versions of the Golden Dawn rituals and instructions in The Equinox two decades earlier. The greater accessibility of Regardie's book cemented the status of the order's work as a wellspring of occultism for 20th century practitioners.

The various occult organizations claiming descent from the original Golden Dawn and the systems of magic practiced by them owe much of their continuing existence and popularity to Regardie's writings. In 1984, Regardie accepted initiation to the 7=4 Adeptus Major grade from one such group headed by Pat and Chris Zalewski in Wellington, New Zealand. In that same year, he edited The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, a book which featured full ritual texts and instructions from the original Golden Dawn, rather than the later Stella Matutina revisions.

Later Life

In 1937 Regardie Moved back to America and took up the study of psychology and psychotherapy and later started up his own practice. He largely adhered to the psychological theories of Wilhelm Reich.

He died from a heart attack in Sedona, Arizona on March 10 1985.

Quotes

"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.' -Pat Zalewski

"On the other hand, I cannot separate Crowley from The Golden Dawn, because Crowley was The Golden Dawn and The Golden Dawn was Crowley." -Israel Regardie (An Interview with Israel Regardie: His Final Thoughts and Views 55)

Israel Regardie's Books

Regardie, Israel. (1984). The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic. Phoenix, Ariz., U.S.A. : Falcon Press.
Regardie, Israel. (1989). The Golden Dawn : a Complete Course in Practical Ceremonial Magic. St. Paul, Minn., U.S.A. : Llewellyn Publications.
Regardie, Israel. (1998). The Middle Pillar. St. Paul, Minn. : Llewellyn Publications.
Regardie, Israel. (1970). A Garden of Pomegranates. Saint Paul, Minn., Llewellyn Publications.
Regardie, Israel. (1989). The Eye in the Triangle : An Interpretation of Aleister Crowley. Las Vegas, NV: Falcon Press.

Links of Interest

References

Portions of this text were originally taken from: Wikipedia. (2004). Israel Regardie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Regardie). Retrieved Sept. 22, 2004.

Regardie Bio (http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/Documents/Bios/regardie.htm) from the Hermetic Golden Dawn website (The Cicero's site)

Hyatt, Christopher S. (1985). An Interview with Israel Regardie: His Final Thoughts and Views. Phoenix, AZ : Falcon Press.

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