Customer Reviews

Crowley's Apprentice: The life and Ideas of Israel Regardie

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The biography is very broad but interesting. I wish it could cover:
(1) More details about IR experiences with Magic.
(2) The root cause why IR hated Christianity .
(3) The advantages and disadvantages of using Enochian Magic. Paul Foster Case wrote some letters to IR regarding the danger of using Enochian Magic.
(4) Why IR didn't have children if he was married 3 times.
IR left a huge legacy on Magic and this biography is too short.

This is a superb biography of Israel Regardie who is responsible for great Occult classics such as 'A garden of Pomegranates', 'The Tree of Life' and countless others. The question you need ask yourself is, are you a Freud person or a Jung person? I was always a Jung person and so from an Esoteric point of view I always found Regardie far more instructive and interesting than Crowley.

Through the eye's of Regardie, helped along by Suster's flowing objective style, we gain a valuable insight into the existence of the former under the wing of the Beast himself. Regardie was infact Crowley's secretary for some years and this is as much a story of two great lives intertwined. I thoroughly enjoyed this work and gained an immense respect for Regardie for being the ultimate, cooler head prevailing, in all circumstances.

Some lovely moments at the end have our author spending time with
Israel in old age somewhere in California, Regardie mimicking the old Beast as he calls out in mock Crowley fashion...

"Love is the bleedin law, love under bleedin will"

Priceless stuff. Who was the greater Magician? I'll let you work that out for yourself.

I bought this book because I thought it was about Crowley cause I read the title wrong. It is actually a biography of Israel Regardie. it was a wonderful book, his life is more interesting than previously believed. Israel's life becomes another way of living with the occult as opposed to Crowley's extravagance.