Franz Bardon, Book list and contents Options

FRANZ BARDON

The following are the books written by Franz Bardon with an overview of their contents:


Frabato the Magician

This is a story based around the facts of Bardon’s life, who was a great adept of the twentieth century. I recommend reading this first as it gives a feel for the greatness of this amazing man called Franz. His life is to be one long round of magickal battles during the 1930s as he is opposed by a black lodge. Bardon starts out as a stage magician although very much a magician in the true sense of the word.


Volume I - Initiation into Hermetics

This book is foundational and set into two parts headed: Initiation I – Theory, followed by Initiation II – The Practice of Magick.

Initiation I is the theoretical background to prepare the initiate for the magickal practice. In the first forty pages, this part introduces the beginner to the four elements: fire, water, air and earth and also looks at Karma, the Akashic/Etheric Principle, the human body in terms of its occult anatomy and descriptions of the physical, astral, spirit and mental planes, finally there are short talks on Truth, Religion, God and Asceticism.

Initiation II gets you practicing magic through exercises on the inner consciousness with thought control, auto-suggestion, sensing energies of the four elements, accumulation of Vital Energy. Tuition is then turned to outward consciousness and harmonising elements, passive communication, entity creation, clairaudience, clairvoyance and clairsentience. There is mental and astral work followed by use of magic mirrors and the loading of talismans, amulets and precious stones and volting through the electromagnetic sphere. There are short talks on telepathy, hypnosis, psychometry, invisibility to mention a few. Volume I ends with final words on the power of life and death.


Volume 2 – The Practice of Magical Evocation

This book follows on from volume I and introduces the magician to the communication with and evocation of entities and in fact, you will need to have studied Initiation into Hermetics before working through this volume. This material is divided into three parts: Magic, Hierarchy and Illustrations of Seals of the Principals, Intelligences, Genii and Beings.

Part I looks at what the practitioner needs to do magic, going into details about the circle, triangle, censer, mirror, lamp and wand and how to load them. Then it looks at the sword, dagger and trident, headband, robe, belt and other magical aids, finishing the first part with the Secret Book of Formulas, being in the sphere of beings, the advantages and disadvantages of evocation, servant spirits and last but not least, magical evocation.

Part II describes the beings that Bardon has experienced either by evocation or mental travel and there is a description of the 360 Principals of the Earth, Intelligences and genii of planetary spheres. Chapter 13 is the final chapter in with on Magical Talismanology.

Part III is a graphical representation of the seals of the principals, intelligences, genii and beings, listed in Part II.


Volume 3 – The Key to the True Kabbalah

This volume in Hermetic magic takes the magician through the Hebrew Kabbalah, again it is a book ordered into three parts: Part I – Theory, Part II – Practice and Part III – The Practice of Formula Magic.

Part I has chapters covering the Kabbalah, the Man as Kabbalist, The Laws of Analogy, The Esoterics of Letters, The Cosmic Language, The Magico-Kabbalistic Word –Tetragrammaton. Following on with The Mantras, The Tantras, The Sorcerers’ Formulas, the Theory of Kabbalistic Mysticism and finally Kabbalistic Magic.

Part II teaches the magician the practicalities of pronunciation and their vibrations to colour, number, elements and planetary spheres.

Part III on the practice of formula magic with the use of alphabetical keys to influence the mental, astral and material planes.

Hey all.

I just browsed through Bardon's Initiation to Hermetics, and I feel so sick I think I will throw up. This is definitely the worst treatise on magic I have seen in my entire life. Line after line of utter bullshit and idiocy. I don't know where to begin. It's all so far fetched and missing the point as it is possible to be.

Here is something I read which started to make me skeptical:
"The so called “sorcerers” are by no means initiates but only imitators to the mysteries, who counting partly on the ignorance and partly on the credulity of the individuality or a whole nation in order to reach their selfish aims by, lies and fraud. The true magician will always despise such practices." This is at the very beginning of the book. What is he trying to prove with such a statement? Does he really think we will take his word as an authority on these matters that soon?

I'm not sure how I shall approach my critique of the rest that he writes. I'm so angered right now I hope to only need to say how I perceive it, and that is that Bardon writes so much garbage and nonsense over the subjects he chooses, the book itself is completely useless as real information.

Heh, it's funny how personal I take it when I come over books like these. Maybe it is his writing style, because he should have been much much more humble in what he wrote. He's a nobody. Don't buy this book.


-thief