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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Various Recipients
[A letter sent anonymously in an effort to smear Israel Regardie's reputation]
[undated: circa Fall of 1937]
Israel Regudy was born in the neighborhood of Mile End Road, in one of the vilest slums in London.
Of this fact he was morbidly conscious, and his racial and social shame embittered his life from the start.
"Regardie" is the blunder of a recruiting sergeant in Washington on the occasion of his brother enlisting in the United States Army. Regudy adopted this error as sounding less Jewish. "Francis" which he has now taken appears to be a pure invention.
About the year 1924 he began to study the work of, and corresponded with, Mr. Aleister Crowley. He put up so plausible an appeal that the latter gentleman paid his passage from America and accepted him as a regular student of Magic.
Apart from his inferiority complex, he was found to be suffering from severe chronic constipation, and measures were taken to cure him of this and also his ingrained habit of onanism.
The cure in the latter case was successful, but Regudy abused his freedom by going under some railway arches and acquiring an intractable gonorrhoea.
Mr. Crowley supplied him with shelter, food and clothing for over two years, and was ultimately able to get him a good job as Book-keeper and Secretary to a firm of publishers.
Regudy betrayed, robbed and insulted his benefactor.
For some years his life was somewhat obscure, but he seems to have been wandering for the most part around the West of England as a vagrant, existing on the charity, according to some accounts, of various elderly women; according to others, of some obscure religious orders.
His studies in the Qabalah and Magic enabled him to ingratiate himself with Dion Fortune, who picked him out of his misery and helped him in every possible way.
He betrayed, robbed and insulted his benefactress.
Being now a little more on his feet, he was able to move about more freely, and soon managed to scrape acquaintance with a middle-aged lady occupied in varieties of "healing" by massage and other devices. He switched over to this form of human activity, and made considerable sums of money. He was thus able to betray, rob and insult his benefactress, go over to America, and start a quackery of his own.
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