Franz Bardon
If you have only a little money, with only the three basic books of Franz Bardon, you will have full access to a complete magic system. The magick system of Bardon is so easy, so simple and without extraneous, uneccessary rites. these three books are really the only ones you should need. Simply indispensable. Each book follows a roughly similar pattern: a mainly theoretical exposition followed by practical instruction. Reading and understanding them is a challenge, as they have been translated from German-and possibly from Czechoslovakian before that-into non-idiomatic English.
The books should be read in order, starting with Initiation into Hermetics. Read the first introductory chapters. Do not go on to another chapert until you have mastered the material in the one you have just read.
A self initiation course; this book is the best self- initiation course available. The techniques that you will find here to enhance your inner-selfare invaluable, but the process is tiresome and, unless you are totally dedicated, you may abandon it soon. You should have a personal magick working place and practice evocation two times a month; the mixing of other different theories and practices with the following of the course of initiation into hermeticism will make you mix hard and boring work with the most interesting work, so you won't abandon the course.
The Practice of Magical Evocation
Simply the best book about ceremonial magick you can purchase; everything about ceremonial magick is in this book; Franz Bardon here exposes a total ceremonial magick system very easy to perform without the handicaps and non-sense techniques of old grimoires; Franz Bardon moved the ceremonial magick one step further with an actual method; no again nearly impossible to write magick circles with hebraic letters and strange sigils, no more time being calculating the exact planetary hour; also, the books come with miriads of sigils of the planetary spirits. As curious note, Franz Bardon locates the 72 Genious / angels of the Qabalah in the sphere of Hod (mercury); many cabalists would scream for that; otherwise there is no problem, if you work with the ceremonial magick method of Franz Bardon, then proceeded with the 72 angels as he says. Don't mix both methods.
This book with the practice of magickal evocation is a gem too. Practice has showed that the suggestions of Franz Bardon that is needed to follow the course of initiation into hermetics previously to the practice book, was not a esential requeriment. Perhaps Franz Bardon tried to induce a bit of fear in the studients to make them to progress and build a correct self prior to the use of powerful magick formulae. This book has got some oppositions between some sections and others, and is terribly translated and sometimes hardly confusing; otherwise is a superb and a must-have book in your personal library. The practice of the sound, color and body feelings all at the same time require a bit of training, but after, you will be able to pronounce powerful magick formulas.
Franz Bardon: Questions & Answers
This is the first complete new book by Bardon since Initiation into Hermetics His oral teachings compiled from notes written by his students in Prague.
His Biography
Franz Bardon is one of the most important but least known occultists and magicians of the 20th century. He is mainly known through four books he wrote which were published in the 1950's. Many have borrowed his techniques and terminology without giving him proper credit.
Bardon was unusual in that he stressed practice and practicality above all else. Although his books contained lengthy theoretical sections, his emphasis was on the tangible, usable results of magickal training. His stated purpose was to give the serious student of magick the most complete and best possible magickal instruction obtainable outside of an occult lodge and without the benefit of a personal teacher.
Franz Bardon was the oldest of 13 children, and the only son of a very devout Christian mystic, Viktor Bardon. Although he had achieved a certain amount of spiritual advancement, Viktor felt that he was unable to obtain an advanced initiation, and prayed that he receive this blessing. The story is that an advanced soul entered the body of his son Franz to become Viktor's initiator.
In later life, Bardon became a stage magician who gained some fame in Germany in the 1920's and 1930's under the stage name "Frabato".
As Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party ascended to power in the 1930's various groups such as the O.T.O. and the Freemasons were banned and some of their members arrested. Otti Votavova avers that Hitler belonged to the legendary "FOCG" or "99 Lodge" of black magick, described in Frabato The Magician and Fire And Ice. Apart from this, Hitler and some of his intimate friends were supposed to be members of the "Thule Order," which was the external instrument of a group of powerful Tibetan black magicians.
Through the negligence of one of Bardon's disciples (who had not destroyed their correspondence as Bardon had ordered) the Nazis arrested and imprisoned them both in late 1941 or early 1942. While the prisoners were being whipped, the disciple lost his control and uttered a Qabalistic formula to immobilize the torturers. However, the effects of the formula were eventually canceled and the disciple was shot as revenge. Adolf Hitler offered Bardon high positions in the Third Reich under the condition that he help win the war with his magick. Bardon was further expected to reveal to Hitler the address of the other 98 of the 99 Lodges spread all over the world. When he refused to help, the Nazis cruelly tortured him. Among other things, they performed operations on Bardon without anesthesia, and forged iron rings around his ankles and fixed heavy iron balls to them.
After regaining his freedom, Bardon recommenced his occult work and healing. It was apparently this last work that got him in trouble with the Czech authorities. They strongly discouraged this type of thing in the very repressive political climate of postwar Czechoslovakia.
Regarding Bardon's last years, Ruggeberg wrote as follows: "The profession of Bardon was az a natural healer. He was able to cure cancer until the 2nd degree, without steel and rays, only with his own medicine made from plants and treated with alchemical means. For this reason the doctors of the official medicine became very jealous, because they could not reach such success with their chemical and nuclear treatments. After the publication of his books in 1956, a number of people came from Germany to visit him. The doctors took this opportunity to accuse Bardon to be a spy from the West, and that was the reason he was arrested in 1958 in Opava, Czechoslovakia." Russian Communist ideologies, thus they persecuted free-thinkers, Gypsies, Jews, Freemasons and anyone interested in the occult or esoteric subjects.
Bardon died July 10th, 1958. We can assume that he was born roughly around the turn of the century, and thus would not have been very old at his death