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

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

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

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.

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.

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

[1][2] 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.

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

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

[16] Crowley urged Regardie to overcome his inhibitions, including by visiting prostitutes to lose his virginity;[17] from one of these encounters he reportedly contracted gonorrhoea.

[18] Then, in March, Regardie's sister—who had become aware of the content of Crowley's writings—contacted the French authorities to urge them to investigate what had happened to her brother.

[22] Regardie moved to Brussels in Belgium, where he began a relationship with Crowley's then-lover, Maria Theresa Ferrari de Miramar.

[31] The publication of works on Qabalah aimed at a general audience angered some occultists who thought Regardie was sharing information too widely.

[32] He rapidly progressed through the grades of the order, reaching that of Zelator Adeptus Minor, but grew disillusioned with the group's leaders, regarding them as being egotistical and preoccupied with collecting grandiose titles.

Regardie wrote an angry letter back, calling Crowley "Alice" and describing him as "a contemptible bitch".

[41] Crowley then circulated a document attacking Regardie, accusing him of exploiting his benefactors and of contracting gonorrhoea.

[44] From 1938 to 1940, Aries Press of Chicago published four volumes of Golden Dawn material edited by Regardie.

[46] The published material influenced many readers, resulting in the formation of many groups that used the Golden Dawn rituals as a basis.

[50] He followed this work with The Middle Pillar and The Art of True Healing, in which he showcased his psychological approach to Qabalistic magical practices.

The work starts as a memoir of Regardie's time with Crowley before moving on to a biographical account of the occultist's life up till 1914.

[64] Subsequent books, published by the UK-based Aquarian Press, included A Practical Guide to Geomantic Divination and How to Make and Use Talismans.

[59] He also established friendly contact with the author Robert Anton Wilson, who provided an introduction for the third edition of The Eye in the Triangle.

[67] He also became friends with the Thelemite Grady McMurtry, who asked for his and Yorke's approval before relaunching Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.)

She went on to establish a temple in Los Angeles, for which Regardie agreed to act as a consultant if they ran into difficulty.

[59] In 1984, Regardie's The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, a book over a thousand pages long, was published.

[73] Regardie died from a heart attack in the presence of close friends during a dinner at a Sedona restaurant on March 10, 1985, at the age of 77.

In addition to preserving the knowledge, Regardie also preserved a valid branch of the initiatory lineage of the Golden Dawn in America: The second significant task carried out by Regardie was, as an Adept, to bring a valid branch of the initiatory lineage of the Golden Dawn to America the alchemical melting pot where the New Age was incubating.

Then, in one of those graceful synchronicities which often play midwife to significant magical events, a couple in Georgia were inspired—at that time scarcely aware of what they were undertaking — to build a Rosicrucian Vault, the powerful ritual chamber required to pass on the Adept Initiation, at precisely the time when two magicians (one on the east coast of the United States and one on the west coast), unknown to each other or to the Georgia couple, came to be ready to receive that Initiation.

And so, in one remarkable weekend, Regardie presided over two Initiations into the Inner Order, the first and the last which he ever performed; and the Lamp of the Keryx was passed into American hands.

In his biography of Regardie, Gerald Suster described him as "one of the most important figures in the twentieth-century development of what some have called the Western Esoteric Tradition".