Franz Bardon (December 1, 1909 – July 10, 1958). Born in Opava in Czech Republic. Bardon was both a stage magician and student and teacher of Hermetics. During World War II Bardon was at one point held in a concentration camp for refusing to participate in Nazi Mysticism. Bardon was rescued by Russian soldiers who raided the camp. Bardon continued his work in the fields of Hermetics until 1958 when he was arrested and imprisoned in Brno Czechoslovakia. Bardon died in 1958 after consuming bacon which caused his death of pancreatitis.^{[1] [2]} December 1 is the 335th (in leap years the 336th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... is the 191st day of the year (192nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Coordinates: Country Czech Republic Region Moravian-Silesian District Opava First mentioned 1195 Mayor ZbynÄ›k Stanjura Area    - City 90,61 km² Elevation 257 m Population  - City 59 843 Postal code 746 01 Website: http://www. ... Hermeticism is either of two things: A tradition of study and practice of occult philosophy and magic. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... It has been suggested that Internment be merged into this article or section. ... Nazi mysticism is a quasi-religious undercurrent of Nazism; it denotes the mixture of Nazism with occultism, esotericism, cryptohistory, and/or the paranormal — especially in the traditions of Germanic mysticism. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Coordinates: Country Czech Republic Region South Moravia Founded 1146 Area  - city 230. ... Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas. ...

He is best known for his three volumes on Hermetic magic. These volumes are Initiation Into Hermetics, The Practice of Magical Evocation and The Key to the True Quabbalah. The word hermetic is commonly applied to literary or graphical symbolism that is exceedingly obscure, convoluted, or esoteric. ... The Sorceress by John William Waterhouse Magic and sorcery are the influencing of events, objects, people and physical phenomena by mystical, paranormal or supernatural means. ... The Key to the True Quabbalah is a book by Franz Bardon that details the theology of the Quabbalah (Kabbalah) of Hebrew origin. ...

Additionally there was a fourth work attributed to him by the title of Frabato the Magician, supposed to be a disguised autobiography. Though the book lists its author as Bardon, it was actually written by his secretary, Otti Votavova. While some elements of the story are factual, the majority of the book was written as an Occult Novel with much embellishment on the part of Votavova.^[3] Cover of the first English edition of 1793 of Benjamin Franklins autobiography. ... The word occult comes from the Latin occultus (clandestine, hidden, secret), referring to knowledge of the hidden. In the medical sense it is used commonly to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ...

Bardon's works are most notable for their simplicity, their relatively small theoretical sections, and heavy emphasis on practice with many exercises. Many consider him to have written the best training programs of any magician of the 20th century. They were written with the intention of allowing students who wished to practice magic the means to do so if they could not study under a teacher (which Bardon recommended if possible). (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

Metaphysics

Bardon's metaphysical system commences with Initiation Into Hermetics and is expanded on in the subsequent volumes. The highest reality is the akasha, which is associated with both God and the platonic "world of ideas", and which gives rise to (and binds/balances) the four elements of earth, fire, air, and water. These four elements make up the sum of all forces and processes in each of the three worlds. Bardon also posited "electric" and "magnetic" forces, which are used more as terms for the universal active and passive forces, respectively. These are expressed in the positive and negative aspects of the four elements. Air and earth are both considered pseudo-elements as they arise only out of the interaction of fire and water (this view is probably a variation of the cosmology of the Sepher Yetzirah). Plato and Aristotle (right), by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome). ... Akasha is the Hindi/Sanskrit word meaning aether in both its elemental and mythological senses. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Platonic idealism is the theory that the substantive reality around us is only a reflection of a higher truth. ... Several ancient Classical Element ideas exist. ... Sefer Yetzirah (Hebrew, Book of Creation[1], ספר יצירה) is the title of the earliest book on Jewish esotericism. ...

The three worlds or "planes" are as follows: the mental plane is the highest reality, save for the undivided akasha, and is the true and eternal ego. Where the akasha is in a sense the world of ideas, it is the mental plane that sets these ideas in motion. The astral plane is the next one down and contains the archetypes of the physical world and to some extent the vital energy behind it; the physical world is the lowest of the planes and requires little explanation. Each of these worlds forms a matrix for the world below it. Since humans also have three bodies corresponding to their presence in each of the three worlds, severing the link between any two of these bodies will cause the dissolution of the lower forms (or death). Such things as astral projection are still possible as they only involve loosening the hold between the bodies. The Mental Plane in Hermeticism, Theosophical, Aurobindonian, and New Age thought refers to the macrocosmic or universal plane or reality that is made up purely of thought or mindstuff. ... eGO is a company that builds electric motor scooters which are becoming popular for urban transportation and vacation use. ... The astral plane, also called the astral world or desire world, is a plane of existence according to esoteric philosophies, some religious teachings and New Age thought. ... An archetype is a generic, idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated. ... For the square matrix section, see square matrix. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Humans are considered to be special because they alone are "tetrapolar", or inherently containing all four elements. This concept is the basis of much of Bardon's training, which requires developing deficiencies and coming to a proper tetrapolar balance -- only then could the initiate progress spiritually. Bardon repeatedly emphasizes that the initiate can only develop an understanding of himself and his universe within the scope of their awareness and spiritual maturity. Thus the more balanced, more evolved student has access to a more comprehensive reality and more magical power.

Initiation Program

Bardon's training system is comprehensive. 'Initiation into Hermetics' is divided into ten practical steps. The program further subdivides each step into three areas -- Mental, Astral, and Physical -- with the intent of developing all areas of the self simultaneously and in a balanced way. This is to ensure that the student maintain a balance of the three bodies, which accelerates progress in the long run and minimizes injury to oneself in the process of growth. For other uses, see Mind (disambiguation). ... For information about the music group see Astral Projection (group) Astral projection is an out of body experience (OBE) technique, sometimes associated with the occult and the New Age movement, where it is said that the astral body, or double, which some believe to be one of several co-incident... With regard to living things, a body is the integral physical material of an individual. ...

Mental exercises begin with simple observation of the mental contents and progress from there, with each subsequent exercise building on the previous. The Astral exercises focus on systematically cataloguing the positive and negative aspects of the self and, later, transforming and purifying the negative aspects into positive. The Physical exercises stress physical health and development as well as the integration and use of the physical body and physical environment into magical techniques such as rituals.

Evocation

Bardon's second work, dealing with the evocation of spirits, outlined first the symbolic meaning of the traditional ritual tools and temple designs, then goes on to describe a method of evoking spirits. In essence, the magician creates an environment hospitable to the entity in the temple or other medium of contact. They then enter a trance, projecting their consciousness into the sphere of the entity in question, and call it back. Bardon emphasized two points about doing this sort of thing: first, that one must complete the necessary prerequisites of the training program or no success was possible; secondly, that the magician must call the spirit back under their "divine authority", not as a peer, otherwise they are liable to be manipulated by the entity. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value, which is prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. ... Spirits redirects here. ... An altered state of consciousness is any state which is significantly different from a normative waking beta wave state. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ...

Kabbalah

Some believe that Franz Bardon's third work doesn't seem to have its ideas as well developed as his first two. However they overlook that the first two works, that cover the first two tarots, is a pre-requisite to understanding and making use of the third work. Bardon himself says that it is

"quite up to the reader to study my books merely theoretically. In doing so, he will acquire a knowledge which he would not ba able get from any philosophical book. But knowledge is not yet wisdom. Knowledge depends on the development of the intellectual features of the spirit; wisdom, on the other side, necessitates the equable development of all four aspects of the spirit. Therefore knowledge is mere philosophy, which by itself alone can make a man neither a magician nor a Quabbalist. A learned man will be able to say a lot about magic, Quaballah, etc., but he will never be able to understand the powers and faculties rightly. With these few words I have explained to the reader the difference between the philosopher and the sage" [The Key to The True Kaballah, Franz Bardon, copyright 1975, pages 12-13]

The idea is that the True Kabbalah is not a mantic art, as some perceptions of it (primarily relating to gematria) suggest, but a method of empowering the letters of the alphabet to create magickal effects through their combination. Bardon links this to the Tantra of the east, but the basis of this comparison is not quite clear. Like his second book on evocation, the student must finish at least the first 8 steps of IIH to get any valid results or have equivalent training in a different system and avoid damage to the psyche which "...can cause a splitting of the personality, schizophrenia, with all its serious consequences." [Bardon, 1975, Page 55]. Bardon expands on this real possibility with the following advice "...someone who wants to apply the methods on the use of genuine qaballah at once, out of mere curiosity or inconsiderateness, exposes himself to various dangers. For in practice he would get into contact with various powers which he would not be able to control and thus he would be in danger of ruining his health. Therefore, anyone not sufficiently prepared for this step is herewith warned in time."[The Key to The True Kaballah, Franz Bardon, copyright 1975, page 62] This damage to the psyche "...clearly shows how inexusable it is if writings of Oriental origin are interpreted incorrectly and translated literally in an intellectual language" as Bardon has "...put the greatest secret into the quabbalist's hands, as in the practical application of the fourfold key, the key of realization by the word. Thousands of years this secret has been guarded." [Bardon, 1975, page 55 and page 112] This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Tantra (Sanskrit: तन्त्र weave denoting continuity[1]), tantricism or tantrism is any of several esoteric traditions rooted in the religions of India. ...

Criticisms of Bardon's Work

First, Bardon makes claims that the information he presents can be found in no other books, and that he is presenting the first full self-training program. A look at the time at which Bardon lived suggests that this is a somewhat baseless claim as Aleister Crowley published Liber ABA in 1913, about forty years before Bardon's books, and it contained comparable, if not greater, amounts of information and practical material, though perhaps more cryptic in form. This discrepancy can, however, be attributed to the different languages in which they wrote and the lack of available translations of certain material in Bardon's area. From another point of view, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn system of Magic is claimed to be different (in goal, fundaments and practice) from pure Hermetics Initiation by several students of Franz Bardon's work. Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947; the surname is pronounced // i. ... Cover of Magick, Liber ABA, Book 4 by Aleister Crowley. ... The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing a form of theurgy and spiritual development. ...

References

1. ^ Franz Bardon Bio by Merker Publishing, http://www.merkurpublishing.com/franz_bardon_bio.htm
2. ^ Franz Bardon Research, http://www.geocities.com/franzbardon/bardonsend.html
3. ^ Forward of "Frabato the Magician" by Dieter Ruggeberg ISBN #1-885928-15-7

See also

• Religion and mythology

Religion and mythology differ, but have overlapping aspects. ...

External links

• Hermetic Research is a Portal on serious Hermetic study and discussion.
• A Bardon Companion Features many articles, essays, correspondence extracts and downloadable resources
• William Mistele has written many articles about his experiences as a practitioner of Bardon's system.
• Franz Bardon Research The first English-language web site dedicated to the study of Bardon's teachings. It is no longer being updated but may still have useful articles for the beginner.
• Merkur Publishing The publishing company of Franz Bardon's books