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ISRAEL REGARDIE
HIS FAVORITE STUDENT REMEMBERS
By Frater Stonehenge Equinox
(As told to Lon Milo DuQuette)
It wasn’t long after
Israel Regardie met me that his health began to fail. Even though we met
in person only twice I still managed to have a profound effect upon his
life. They say you never have a second chance to make a good first impression,
and, if I say so myself, Regardie’s first impression of me was a lasting
one.
At the time I did
not know his address, so I staked out his Post Office box in Studio City.
After three days he finally appeared to pick up his mail. He almost missed
his chance to meet me for, alas, I had fallen asleep on the sidewalk near
the newspaper racks in front of the building. Destiny, however, could not
be thwarted and the gods guided his tiny footsteps to tread upon my left
hand and forearm. Luckily he was not hurt badly in the fall, and as I helped
him gather his mail from the gutter I seized the opportunity to introduce
myself.
"Equinox is my name,
Stonehenge Equinox. You’re the reason I’m into magick."
He responded with
an astounding display of mental telepathy.
"I don’t suppose you’re
insured?" he asked (not concealing the fact that he already knew the answer).
I followed him to
his car where I displayed my tattoos and treated him to an impromptu performance
of my original Diagonal Pillar Ritual. He feigned disinterest, but I could
tell he was favorably impressed. Great magicians don’t need words to communicate
with each other, and so I was not surprised to see him speed off in his
car without uttering a sound (although he did gesture).
Our next meeting was
more intimate. As providence ordained, I found his phone number on the
restroom wall at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore and immediately gave him a call.
Playfully disguising my voice I told him I hand thrown my back out and
made an appointment for a chiropractic adjustment. There’s no question
that the man was omniscient but he seemed genuinely surprised to see me
when I and my (then) girlfriend, Diana Ishtar Sophia Morgana, appeared
at his door.
The dear man asked
if I had come for the spinal adjustment, and voiced his delight that I
had brought someone to help me home. What a saint! And you know, he was
right. After his treatment I was unable to walk for three weeks!
Thus began a five-year
odyssey of intense spiritual correspondence. Every Friday I mailed him
my magical record, dream diary, and excerpts from my (still) unfinished
novel, Sex Wizards of Phlegm. Each week, like clockwork, my letters and
packages were returned to me seemingly unopened and unedited. However,
to a trained clairvoyant like myself, adept in traveling in the spirit
vision, they were a treasure-chest of deeply personal magical instruction
and encouragement. Each page dripped with his energy and all were alive
with psychically transmitted practical advice, initiatory ordeals, and
occult secrets. I was in this manner that he consecrated me "Psychopomp
of North Hollywood."
Then, shortly before
his death, he chose to abandon our astral correspondence and communicate
to me on the material plane by actually writing me a letter. It was in
this last letter that he poignantly revealed his deep personal affection
for me by beginning his message by addressing me as "Dear." It was also
in this letter that he revealed a precognition of his own death. After
advising me on matters of metal health, personal hygiene and proper use
of the English language, he closed with these chillingly prophetic words…
"It will not be necessary
for you to ever contact me again!"