Francis Israel Regardie (1907-1985), was born in England and came to the United States in 1921. He was educated in Washington D.C. and studied art at schools in Washington and Philadelphia. He returned to Europe in 1928 at the invitation of Aleister Crowley to work as his secretary and study with him. Later returning to London as secretary to Thomas Burke between 1932-34, and during that time wrote A Garden of Pomegranates and The Tree of Life.
In 1934 he was invited to join the Order of the Golden Dawn, Stella Matutina Temple, during which time he wrote The Middle Pillar and The Art of True Healing, and did the basic work for The Philosopher's Stone.
Circling back to the United States in 1937, he entered Chiropractic College in New York, graduating in 1941, and published The Golden Dawn. He went on to serve in the U.S. Army from 1942-1945, and then moved to Los Angeles where he opened a chiropractic practice and taught psychiatry. Upon retirement in 1981, he moved to Sedona.
During his lifetime, he studied psychoanalysis with Dr. E. Clegg and Dr. J. L. Bendit, and later studied psychotherapy under Dr. Nandor Fodor. His training encompassed Freudian, Jungian and Reichian methods.