14 • gold: israel regardie’s lost book of alchemy
Daath, Tiphares to Tiphareth, Malkus to Malkuth, and so on, to reflect the modern usage. In his later years, Regardie also turned to Sephardic spellings and pronunciations, so we are confident that he would have approved of these changes to his text. Explanatory titles have been added to the various chapters that Regardie had originally listed as numbered “commentaries.” Because of this change, readers will have a better preview of what is contained within the chapters. Additionally, all British spellings have been changed to American, which, in the original manuscript, were not consistently one way or the other. Readers should note that Regardie’s use of the term “man” or “men” to represent humanity as a whole was common for the time period in which Gold was written and was not intended to be sexist or to refer only to males. It was conventional for authors of Regardie’s era to use these terms to reference all humankind, regardless of gender. The following is a description of the various chapters and sections of Gold. Regardie’s Introduction examines claims and theories around the authorship of The True Book of the Learned Greek Abbot Synesius, as well as the social and spiritual environment in which the book was written. Following the Introduction, The True Book of the Learned Synesius, a Greek Abbot, Taken Out of the Emperour’s Library, Concerning the Philosopher’s Stone is given in its entirety. Chapter One: Alchemy and Psychology continues the discussion that Regardie started in his book The Philosopher’s Stone concerning what he believed to be the true nature of alchemy and its relation to spirituality, philosophy, and psychology. To be concise, Regardie thought that descriptions of chemical operations in alchemy constituted a smoke screen designed to conceal the real subject of the Royal Art: the human mind: “Since the advent of modern psychological knowledge,” he writes, “we have been given a key to the understanding of myths, epics, legends and dreams of every kind … It is to this