EARLY YEARS: Francis Israel Regardie was born in 1907 to an Orthodox Jewish family in the East End of London, an impoverished area that twenty years previously had been the stalking ground of Jack the Ripper. When he was still a teenager, he emigrated along with his family to the United States, settling in Washington, D.C. Regardie was early on attracted to the writings of Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society, in addition to Qabalistic and Rosicrucian studies. While living in D.C., at the age of 20, Regardie became an Initiate of a Rosicrucian group there. RELATIONSHIP WITH ALEISTER CROWLEY: Shortly after, Regardie came across a book of Aleister Crowleys and was immediately awestruck by the elder magicians talent and evident genius. In 1928 He began a correspondence with Crowley, who was then living in Paris, and was eventually offered a job as Crowleys personal secretary. Regardie travelled to Paris to join him at a great personal sacrifice and while there he served as Crowleys secretary. He also provided the British magician with some financial assistance needed to help the latter maintain his outlandish hedonistic lifestyle. The arrangement may have been ideal for Crowley, who utilized Regardies services as secretary and errand-boy, while pursuing women and drugs to his hearts content. It was less than idyllic for Regardie, who became disillusioned by Crowleys failure to truly teach him the higher secrets of magic, which he had to get from extensive reading instead. The whole episode came to an end less than a year later, when Crowley was deported from France, accused of being a German spy. THE GOLDEN DAWN: Regardies resonance with the Golden Dawn derived in part from the intuitive knowledge that he demonstrated in his 1932 book, The Tree of Life. With the sponsorship of Dion Fortune, he joined the Stella Matutina in 1933 but quickly became disillusioned with its egotistical leadership and departed less than two years later after attaining the grade of Adeptus Minor. Three years after that, he published his landmark collection The Golden Dawn, making the secret rites and teachings of the on-again, off-again Order available to a wider public for the first time, and making possible todays resurgence of interest in the Order. Several years later, Regardie and Crowley parted company after an acrimonious public clash of personalities. Regardie returned to the United States and studied chiropractic medicine in New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and afterward moved to Los Angeles to open a chiropractic clinic and also work as a Reichian therapist. He had studied psychology and psychiatry with several notable teachers and was a strong proponent of Jungian analysis all his life, as well as the work of Wilhelm Reich. Both Jung and Reich are known among the 20th centurys most unique and controversial psychological theorists, whose writings straddled the border between science, religion and myth, and incorporated a strong element of sexuality. It is easy to see how this emphasis blended well with Regardies magical and esoteric studies.DR. CHRISTOPHER HYATT: It was in Los Angeles in the early 1970s that Regardie met Dr. Christopher Hyatt and served as a mentor to the younger man by introducing him to the Golden Dawn tradition of Magic as well as Reichian Therapy. Regardie served as a much better mentor to Hyatt than Crowley had to Regardie; in any case, Regardies and Hyatts similar backgrounds (both were Jewish and inclined to psychotherapeutic methodologies) helped them mesh and eventually led to a branch lineage of the Golden Dawn formed by Dr. Hyatt in Phoenix, Arizona, in the early 1980s. In a sense, Regardie went beyond his erstwhile mentor Crowley in terms of bringing the practice of medieval mysticism into the modern world by tying it to the new science of psychology. Regardies most well-known works, The Middle Pillar, A Garden of Pomegranates, The Tree of Life, and of course his The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic are some of the most widely read books on the art of Magic today. Regardie introduced the Golden Dawn system to a far wider audience than it had ever had before. Regardies books were always written for a broad audience and made a point of explaining esoteric concepts in a rationalistic fashion that mid-20th century readers, already exposed to the discoveries of psychology, could accept. NEW FALCON PUBLICATIONS: Regardie died, in retirement, in 1985, in the magically powerful area of Sedona, Arizona. Before passing to the other side, Regardie helped establish Falcon Press, now New Falcon Publications with his student Dr. Christopher S. Hyatt Ph.D. Today New Falcon Publications proudly publishes much of Dr. Regardies great work. Israel Regardie (1907-1985) was the messenger to the modern world charged with preserving and perpetuating the teachings of Aleister Crowley and the Golden Dawn. He takes his place among such luminaries as Madame Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, S. L. MacGregor Mathers, and Dion Fortune. Even in such distinguished company, Regardie stands out as a figure of central importance.
