Gold: Israel Regardie’s Lost Book of Alchemy

225 Pages·2015·2.57 MB·English

by  Israel Regardie

About the Authors
Charles “Chic” Cicero was born in Buffalo, New York. An early love of
music and the saxophone resulted in Chic’s many years as a lead musician in
several jazz, blues, and rock ensembles, working with many famous performers
in the music industry. Chic’s interest in Freemasonry and the Western Esoteric
Tradition led him to become a member of several Masonic, Martinist, and
Rosicrucian organizations. He is a Past Grand Commander of the Grand
Commandery of Knights Templar in Florida (2010–2011) and a 9th Degree in
the Masonic Rosicrucians (SRICF). He was also a close personal friend and
confidant of Dr. Israel Regardie. Having established a Golden Dawn temple in
1977, Chic was one of the key people who helped Regardie resurrect a
legitimate, initiatory branch of the Golden Dawn in the United States in the
early 1980s. He is currently the G.H. Imperator of the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn (www.hermeticgoldendawn.org), an international Order with
temples in several countries.
Sandra “Tabatha” Cicero was born in rural Wisconsin. After graduating from
the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts
in 1982, Tabatha worked as an entertainer, typesetter, editor, commercial artist,
and computer graphics illustrator. She is currently the Supreme Magus
(Imperatrix) of the Societas Rosicruciana in America (www.sria.org) as well
as the G.H. Cancellaria of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Llewellyn Publications
Woodbury, Minnesota
Copyright Information
Gold: Israel Regardie’s Lost Book of Alchemy © 2015 by Israel
Regardie, Chic Cicero, and Sandra Tabatha Cicero.
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First e-book edition © 2015
E-book ISBN: 9780738743479
Cover art: 2285229/©James Steidl/Shutterstock.com
166564175/©Yure/Shutterstock.com
Cover design by Kevin R. Brown
Interior art credits on page xi
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To Donald Michael Kraig
with much love and appreciation
for your work and friendship
Contents
List of ILLUSTRATIONS
FOREWORD by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero
INTRODUCTION TO REGARDIE’S TEXT by Chic Cicero and Sandra
Tabatha Cicero
GOLD by Israel Regardie
INTRODUCTION
The True Book of the Learned Greek Abbot Synesius Taken Out of the
Emperor’s Library
CHAPTER ONE: Alchemy and Psychology
CHAPTER TWO: The Universal Agent, Polarity, and the Collective
Unconscious
CHAPTER THREE: The Mystical Experience
CHAPTER FOUR: The Great Work
CHAPTER FIVE: The Secret Fire
CHAPTER SIX: Magnetism, Visualization, and Healing
CHAPTER SEVEN: Alchemical Symbolism and the Aura
CHAPTER EIGHT: In Conclusion1
APPENDIX I: The Art of True Healing
APPENDIX II: Correspondences for Healing Rituals
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Illustrations
Hermes Trismegistus and the Book of Knowledge is a woodcut
of the title page of Zadith ben Hamuel’s De chemica
Senioris …, Strasburg: 1566...22
Title Page of Basil Valentine’s The Triumphal
Chariot of Antimony is courtesy of the Getty
Research Institute, Los Angeles (1386–582)...30
Osiris by the Llewellyn Art Department...47
Sun and Moon from the The Rosarium Philosophorum,
Frankfurt: 1550...60
Buddha by the Llewellyn Art Department...75
Mercury from the Second Key of “The Twelve Keys of Basil
Valentine,” engraved by Matthaeus Merian (1593–1650),
published in the collection “Musaeum hermeticum,”
Francofurti: Apud Hermannum à Sande, 1678...93
Venus from Pictorial Archive of Decorative Renaissance
Woodcuts by Jost Amman (NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1968)...117
Winged Dragon Eating Its Own Tail from the Alchemical
and Occult Collection (CD)...141
The Human Aura by Mary Ann Zapalac...146
The Middle Pillar by Mary Ann Zapalac...173
FOREWORD
by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero
F
rancis” Israel Regardie (1907–1985) was the author of several notable
books on ceremonial magic. Although he was born in England, he spent
most of his life in the United States. As a young man, Regardie studied every
text on magic and mysticism that he could get his hands on. In 1932, Regardie
was a twenty-five-year-old published author, with two of his most important
books in print that year: A Garden of Pomegranates, which describes the
mystical system known as the Qabalah, and The Tree of Life, a comprehensive
textbook covering virtually every aspect of magic from the perspective of a
practicing magician. This later book is still considered to be Regardie’s
magnum opus.
Publication of The Tree of Life brought Regardie an invitation into the Stella
Matutina, the most viable remaining offshoot of the Hermetic Order of the
Golden Dawn. He was initiated into the order in January of 1933 and made
rapid progress through the grades. However, Regardie was very disappointed
with the state of affairs within the group. He left the Stella Matutina at the end
of 1934, having concluded that much of the order’s teachings would soon be
lost due to neglect. Three years later, he published much of the order’s
teachings in four volumes titled The Golden Dawn. This was a game-changing
event in the world of ceremonial magic.
In 1938, Regardie published The Philosopher’s Stone, a work on spiritual
alchemy. At the time of its writing, Regardie was convinced that medieval
alchemy was a thinly veiled psycho-spiritual process—that the laboratory
operations of alchemy said to work on various substances in order to change
“lead into gold” were in reality focused solely on man’s mind, soul, and spirit.
The manuscript of Gold was written sometime between 1938 and 1941, as
indicated by the date at the end of the original introduction. The subject of