Franz Bardon (1 December 1909 – 10 July 1958) was a Czech occultist and student and teacher of Hermetics.
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Initiation into Hermetics is the title of the English translation of Franz Bardon's first of three volumes concerning self-realization in line with the Hermetic tradition.
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Paul Oskar Kristeller, Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance. Stanford University Press (Stanford, California, 1964.) P. 62. Similarly, Pico believed that an educated person also should study the Hebrew and Talmudic sources, and the Hermetics, because he believed they represented the same view seen in the Old Testament, in different words, of God.
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He was born in Troppau (Opava), Austrian Silesia. During World War II Bardon was held in a concentration camp for refusing to participate in Nazi mysticism. Bardon was rescued by Soviet 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.
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Initiation into Hermetics provides step-by-step instruction in the form of practical exercises. These exercises are aimed at developing body, soul and spirit. The result of the practical exercises is the development of occult abilities which can be of benefit to the student, in as far as changing his existence for the better. Bardon's training system is comprehensive.
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Kassner can be characterized as an antirationalist. His writings deal with themes and concepts of medieval mysticism, hermetics, and Indian philosophy. For him the most important ability of the mind (Verstand) is not reason (ratio) but rather the imagination (Einbildungskraft)which he believed make "living perception" possible. He believed that he had overcome the analytical and rational dissection of the world by means of a "totality" of perception.
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Bardon 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 Kabbalah. An additional fourth work attributed to him by the title of Frabato the Magician, supposed by many of his students to be a disguised autobiography. Though the book lists its author as Bardon, it was actually written by his secretary, Otti Votavova.
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This is to pre-train or rebalance the perceptions of the five external senses. The books are designed to be followed in a specific order for proper benefit. Tome 2 of Magical Evocation Practice must be attempted only after the total mastery of the first degrees of the first book Initiation into Hermetics, Tome 1. Only then is it preferable to understand and put into practice the rest without risk of negative karma with health consequences or worries during new incarnations.
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Bardon's Ontological 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.
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Stanford University Press (Stanford, California, 1964.) P. 62. Similarly, Pico believed that an educated person should also study Hebrew and Talmudic sources, and the Hermetics, because he thought they represented the same concept of God that is seen in the Old Testament, but in different words. He finished his "Oration on the Dignity of Man" to accompany his 900 Theses and traveled to Rome to continue his plan to defend them. He had them published together in December 1486 as "Conclusiones philosophicae, cabalasticae et theologicae", and offered to pay the expenses of any scholars who came to Rome to debate them publicly.
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He wrote a dissertation on the poetry of Pindar and published a history of classical literature for the general reader. Regarding his own poetry he has outspoken views, not just in his oft-quoted programmatic opening poem "Farewell Dinner," in which he dismisses the hermetic Hans Faverey and calls for "butter-baked images / and bulimic verse". Pfeijffer's poetic polemics leave no room for doubt as to what kind of poetry he prefers. He feels akin to Lucebert, and he abhors the paper verse of introverted hermetics and meek-hearted dreamers ("stumble, stiff romantic, mumble on"). Poetry should have life, and preferably, in Lucebert’s words, "life in full".
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Libavius was an orthodox Lutheran, and in his theological treatises, which he wrote under the pseudonym of Basilius de Varna, he criticized Catholicism, specifically the Jesuit order, and later on in his life, Calvinism. This can also be seen in some of his non- theological works, particularly in some of the works produced during his involvement with the conflict between the Paracelsists, anti-Paracelsists, Galenists, and Hermetics. In 1597, he wrote the first systematic chemistry textbook, Alchymia, where he described the possibility of transmutation. In this book he also showed that cuprous salt lotions are detectable with ammonia, which causes them to change color to dark blue.
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Initiation into Hermetics is divided into 10 practical steps. The program further subdivides each step into three areas – Non-being spirit or Mind (Spiritual abstract universal mental body; see Spiritual bodies: Theosophical society); Soul as mental body into the astral, psychic and emotional body; the astral body and physical body – 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. Also, there occurs a purification of the personality, where the magician should become incapable of wishing harm to his fellow man.
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It notably included an extended discussion between Aderca and Lovinescu, summarizing the compatibilities, and disagreements, between the two Sburătorists.Crohmălniceanu (1972), p.37 Elsewhere, Aderca approaches Ion Barbu to discuss the principal stages in Barbu's poetry: Barbu rejects Aderca's calling his 1920s hermetics phase șaradistă ("charades-ist"), opening up a field of debates between later exegetes of his work. Ioana Pârvulescu, "Este Ion Barbu Șaradist?", in România Literară, Nr. 31/2009 Ion Pop, "Încă o dioptrie?", in România Literară, Nr. 38/2009 In other chapters, Cezar Petrescu recounts his ideological preparation and his various youthful choices,Crohmălniceanu (1972), p.317 while Arghezi speaks about his commitment to art for art's sake. The book also includes exchanges between Aderca and sculptor Oscar Han, who reacts against the official policies in regard to national landmarks.
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