About Franz Bardon’s Initiation Practice

[kotatsu]

Hi everyone, I’ve recently discovered several books by Franz Bardon, and I’ve found them very inspiring.

I’m currently trying to follow the guidance in “Initiation into Hermetics” and work through the exercises step by step. I’m still practicing the exercises in Step One at the moment.

I’d love to know if anyone else here is also following Franz Bardon’s system and practicing the path of a magician. What has your experience been like so far?

If so, I’d be very happy to connect, share experiences, and support each other along the way!

 

[dzb10035]

It's done a lot for me personally. I practised Golden Dawn, grimoire magick, Gallery of Magick (GoM), Arabic / Jinn Magick, and Franz Bardon's systems at different points, sometimes concurrently. Of the ones I mentioned, Golden Dawn is the one that I found least effective, but maybe it is because I never really was compatible with the complex symbolism in it.

For practical results oriented magick, GoM, grimoire magick, and Arabic / Jinn magick have been fantastic in different ways. They have created many practical benefits in my life. So I cannot deny the effectiveness from rituals of each of these areas. But to me, that's really where the benefits stop. For more profound and spiritual goals, I never really felt like these systems did that much for me.

That's where Bardon's system comes in. Through the different step 1-2 practices, I really do feel like they have made a concrete difference in my personality and character. Through them, I have gained a slowly growing mastery over myself which continues today and makes a tangible difference in how I life my life. Also direct work with the vital and elemental energies has been rewarding from an experiential standpoint, even though I have not used these practically yet. The concentration exercises and conscious breathing / eating exercises have been able to help improve my ability to focus intention and power for the practical systems I practise from above. In this sense, I would say Bardon forms a strong foundation for my other practices while also providing a strong toolkit for deeper change within the self. It also provides a strong framework of understanding for magical theory that can be applied across many areas of the western mystery tradition, such as the elements and the planets.

But again, I emphasise that this is my experience and not necessarily others. You will find a subset of what I said to be true and maybe other parts of what I said to be false.

 

[kotatsu]

It's done a lot for me personally. I practised Golden Dawn, grimoire magick, Gallery of Magick (GoM), Arabic / Jinn Magick, and Franz Bardon's systems at different points, sometimes concurrently. Of the ones I mentioned, Golden Dawn is the one that I found least effective, but maybe it is because I never really was compatible with the complex symbolism in it.

For practical results oriented magick, GoM, grimoire magick, and Arabic / Jinn magick have been fantastic in different ways. They have created many practical benefits in my life. So I cannot deny the effectiveness from rituals of each of these areas. But to me, that's really where the benefits stop. For more profound and spiritual goals, I never really felt like these systems did that much for me.

That's where Bardon's system comes in. Through the different step 1-2 practices, I really do feel like they have made a concrete difference in my personality and character. Through them, I have gained a slowly growing mastery over myself which continues today and makes a tangible difference in how I life my life. Also direct work with the vital and elemental energies has been rewarding from an experiential standpoint, even though I have not used these practically yet. The concentration exercises and conscious breathing / eating exercises have been able to help improve my ability to focus intention and power for the practical systems I practise from above. In this sense, I would say Bardon forms a strong foundation for my other practices while also providing a strong toolkit for deeper change within the self. It also provides a strong framework of understanding for magical theory that can be applied across many areas of the western mystery tradition, such as the elements and the planets.

But again, I emphasise that this is my experience and not necessarily others. You will find a subset of what I said to be true and maybe other parts of what I said to be false.

Thank you for sharing so much in detail. It’s all been very helpful!

 

[Frater M.M.]

I looked at IIH years ago. I think it's a good book, very comprehensive system with great exercises in it. I never had the will to work through it properly though but I can imagine some people will get mileage out of it.

If you haven't come across Rawn Clark's work, you might find his commentary useful on this

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. I did. Looks like this is just a snapshot of the old site, though. I'm pretty sure there was a second edition to his companion book at some point.

 

[kotatsu]

I looked at IIH years ago. I think it's a good book, very comprehensive system with great exercises in it. I never had the will to work through it properly though but I can imagine some people will get mileage out of it.

If you haven't come across Rawn Clark's work, you might find his commentary useful on this

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

. I did. Looks like this is just a snapshot of the old site, though. I'm pretty sure there was a second edition to his companion book at some point.

Thank you for sharing! I’ve also read some of Rawn Clark’s work, and I found it very helpful as well.

 

[Jsmiffee]

It took me a long time to see that what Franz Bardon acheived with his 3 books ...., book1 IIH , book2 PME , book3 KTQ was incredible , arguably the greatest grimoires of the 20th century ,in my estimation he even did it better than Aleister Crowley who wrote many many books in his lifetime , nearly 100 in all , but Franz only wrote 3 , he took the eastern mysticism system and condensed it down following the Golden Dawn tradition and laying out the steps the ascent in the same way , incredible ! Those books are not for the faint hearted thats for sure ! , in IIH there is a striking similarity with Gurdjieff's system , from the very beginning you have to work on yourself , observe yourself , you have to categorise yourself amd your traits , Bardon defines these into elements , Gurdjieff defines these into centres , in IIH this is known as the Soul Mirrors , to master the steps in book 1 could take a person several years .