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CROWLEY'S APPRENTICE About the author Gerald Suster was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and has written numerous books including nine novels as well as a study of the occult ideas of Hitler, and a biography of Aleister Crowley. He was a personal friend of Israel Regardie and has had a long-standing interest in occult ideas. CROWLEY'S APPRENTICE The Life and Ideas of Israel Regardie by Gerald Suster RIDER LONDON SYDNEY AUCKLAND JOHANNESBURG Copyright © 1989 Gerald Suster All rights reserved Rider & Co Ltd An imprint of Century Hutchinson Ltd Brookmount House, 62-65 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4NW Century Hutchinson Australia (Pty) Ltd 88-91 Albion Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010 Century Hutchinson New Zealand Ltd PO Box 40-086, 32-34 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand Century Hutchinson South Africa (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 337, Bergvlei, 2012, South Africa First published in Great Britain by Rider & Co Ltd 1989 Set in Plantin by Avocet, Bicester, Oxon Printed and bound in Great Britain by Guernsey Press Company Ltd British Cataloguing in Publication Data Suster, Gerald, 1951- Crowley's apprentice: the life and ideas of Israel Regardie. 1. Occultism. Regardie, Israel, 1907-1985 I. Title 133'.092'4 ISBN 0-7126-2937-8 Contents Introduction lX 1 Adolescent Awakenings 1 2 Yoga and the Intelligent Teenager 10 3 The Approach to Magic 18 4 The Wickedest Man in the World 31 5 First Fruits 52 6 The Golden Dawn and a Poison Cloud 62 7 'On the Couch 79 8 A Friend in Jesus? 93 9 Solve et Coagula 102 10 The Art of True Healing 110 11 'It's a funny old world .. .' 127 12 The Occult Explosion 138 13 Light in Extension 149 14 The Sage of Sedona 160 15 Ecce Homo 181 To JAMES Introduction Dr Francis Israel Regardie (1907-85) is one of the most important figures in the twentieth-century development of what some have called the Western Esoteric Tradition. The elements of this tradition have their origins long before the birth of Christ; they survived during the Middle Ages, were openly revived for a time during the Renaissance and con tinued to exist during the Scientific Revolution, but the phrase 'Western Esoteric Tradition' normally refers to the synthesis accomplished by 'MacGregor• Mathers within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn during the early 1890s. Some proceeded to explore and build upon this tradition, taking it to pastures unsuspected by Mathers. Aleister Crowley is an obvious example; and Regardie stands out too as a figure of central importance. Earlier this year, Ms Laura Jennings, a leading representa tive of the Israel Regardie Foundation set up shortly before the latter's death, asked me for a brief testimony to the man's memory for the Foundation's records and possible publica tion. I endeavoured to oblige with the following: When a great Magician dies, one is sure to be bored by those who loudly proclaim: 'I was his Great Disciple'. In Regardie's case, they condemn themselves for he did not have disciples; he had friends. I was proud to be one of them though it was obvious to me that he was older, more accomplished and much wiser than myself. I first met Regardie in Los Angeles, after a correspondence on Crowley, in the Summer of 1972 and found him both impressive and delightful. I especially appreciated his kindness, his modesty and his gloriously sane and refreshing sense of humour. My return to England meant that I did not see him again until my stay in America 1981-2, which is when we became friends. At the age of 76, his vim and vigour put many young men to viii CROWLEY'S APPRENTICE shame. He was a consistently stimulating and charming companion and I treasure the memories of staying at his lovely home in Sedona and enjoying the excellence of his hospitality. He was a man who loved life and this was reflected in the broad range of his interests; he even shared my love of Boxing. He never forced his own views on others - 'The divine Genius is within you,' he used to say, 'do it yourself' - though one could aways t\lm to him for sagacious advice. I had the honour of receiving instruction from him - he was reluctant to teach though superb once he was persuaded to do so - and of witnessing his magical work. Here, his style was calm, authoritative, firm and courteous - yet the Power his Magic generated was awesome. There was a pure and shining integrity about his dedication to the Great Work and this was shown too in his impatience with pretension and inessentials. Whenever he was asked his Grade, he would reply: 'I'm a student. We're all students.' In my view, Golden Dawn Magic owes its continued survival to the tireless work of Regardie·. He was an excellent writer on Magic and Psychology and performed a lasting service by bringing these two· disciplines together. His style was crisp and clear, his contents of permanent value to any seeker after Wisdom. One particularly applauds his technical innovations which gave us the Middle Pillar Ritual and the Opening by Watchtower; and The Eye in the T"riangle, by far the finest study of Aleister Crowley. The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic is of course his greatest contribution: one might call it the essential compendium of pure Magical Oassicism, and all students owe Regardie a lasting debt of gratitude. One evening when I was sitting with Regardie out on his sun-deck and we were gazing at the canyons in the distance, I asked him for the greatest piece of wisdom about life that he knew. 'Sounds banal, I know,' he replied, 'but it's a funny old world.' That was in the Summer of 1982 and in the years since then, I have found that allegedly banal statement to be Of All Truth on every plane. I can hear Regardie's voice as I am typing this. 'Oh, yes,' the old man's chuckling, 'It's a funny old world.' The foregoing was an endeavour to summarize the essence of the matter, though obviously very much more needs to be said: hence this work. Its seed was planted in a curious way. INTRODUCTION IX Back in Easter 1982, my then wife, Ann, and I were staying at Regardie's home in Sedona, Arizona. The house could be reached via an uphill road called Inspiration Drive concerning which Regardie related to us an interesting local belief. Those who had lived in Sedona for many years held that if a writer or artist walked or drove up Inspiration Drive, a creation would result. The following day, Ann and I made a point of taking the car up Inspiration Drive - after all, it is not called Inspiration Walk. I have to confess, with all due shame, that to my conscious knowledge I felt no inspiration whatsoever. How ever, during the brief ascent of the road, Ann became calmly convinced that one of my future projects had to be a book on Israel Regardie. I thought about this for a time and gradually the conviction grew strongly within me that Ann was right. Therefore, when I next stayed with Regardie, I raised the matter and asked for his permission to proceed the moment I had the time and the publisher. He considered the proposal thoughtfully then responded by stating that no, he would not allow me to write a detailed account of his life. 'My life is of no interest to anybody except me,' he declared. 'No.' I retorted that he had misunderstood and I had not clearly explained the nature of my intended approach. It was not my purpose to explore and expound the day-to-day details of his worldly existence. It was the evolution and expression of his thought which fascinated me. My goal was to study the ideas of an interesting man who honestly sought wisdom and whose writings have influenced so many; indeed, one could see this influence growing with the republication of all his works. Therefore my book would indeed give an essential outline of his life, including anything he chose to tell me for publication; but its aims were to study the progress of his thought, scrutinize the traditions and ideas presented in a form intelligible to the general reader yet satisfying to the specialist, constructively criticize these statements which are open to question and, finally, paint a portrait of a man.