[Opinion] The Foundational Principles of Franz Bardon's System

[weirdbird]

He says something like dont proceed until you can do this perfectly, regarding keeping a perfect clear mind for a bascially indefinite period.

If I remember correctly, 10 minutes was the goal? Bardon does mention that you have to achieve a "sweeping success" in the balancing of your elemental qualities before moving forward to the exercise sets 3 and 4 which is one of the more difficult requirements in his system. I always found the elemental theory and the elemental breathing to be the cornerstones of his practice.

People need to learn to "separate the creator from their work".

I have to agree with Beyond on this one, we most certainly should not separate the creator from their work, especially when it comes to instruction manuals. With that being said, doctors do get sick and make poor lifestyle choices while still being able to treat other people, not all dietitians are fit and not all fitness instructors are muscular, but I'd certainly prefer mine to be. In the same vein, I believe it's a good idea to scrutinize the author's credibility while studying the occult.
IIH is an interesting book in any case (regardless of Bardon's health and his history of being arrested for tax evasion), and most of the exercises you can find in it you can also encounter elsewhere so the information there has a fairly big overlap with other modern systems.

Now, Crowley is a wholly different case - being healthy and rich was not his explicit goal, and we simply do not know how him dying fits in with his entire Great Work, so maybe he did know what was coming and chose not to change the course of events. You can draw the parallels with Carlos Castaneda and his unexpected and mysterious demise for example - did he die or did he truly shift into the Third Attention, leaving our world behind? If we are to look for a teacher among the semi-public figures who do achieve results through their use of magic, then I suppose Gordon White and Rufus Opus would be fairly high on our ranking, although making an income by selling talismans feels a bit like cheating. Besides that, dying in the occult circles does not always mean actually dying - faking one's own death to get out of the social obligations was a favored trick by the taoist practitioners.

But I personally feel that careful study of Eliphas Levi, particularly his Dogma et Ritual are essential to understanding the likes of Bardon and other popular 20th century magi.

I can absolutely see the parallels, and I am convinced Bardon did read Levi at some point of his life, but to be brutally honest, I am a big Eliphas Levi hater so I wouldn't recommend it as an entry point into the 20th century occultism over something more foundational, even Agrippa.

 

[WonderFire]

Bardon's techniques were taken up by other people who report success with them and bits and pieces of IIH keep popping up everywhere. The ultimate test of any technique is if its usable IRL, especially by people other than its author. So, I judge him positively.

 

[taschr]

One of the things that endlessly frustrated me when I was beginning was either the inconsistencies of the famous historical books or how obscure they were. Comparing with something like Buddhism which is extremely simple, but with work reveals endless depth, these systems of abstract symbolism and correspondences seemed more confusing and frustrating than anything. With Bardon one has a much simpler framework to begin with, where one who has developed the skills necessary can see and feel immediate results, whatever those results mean. For this reason I found it an extremely useful introduction to certain visualization practices that absolutely opened up parts of my mind which allowed easier entry into the more abstract texts. I still maintain that one can pull out what is useful and leave the rest behind without needing to fall into some kind of guru worship or whatever.

I'm many years into my practice now, having explored comparative religion and most esoteric lineages for over a decade, and I still feel this way about much of what I read. I still utilize what I learned with IIH, even though I may not be working precisely as Bardon instructed. I don't feel this makes it useless at all, if we take this mentality then one can find flaws in all esoteric thought that make one question if its worth pursuing.

I commonly see harsh criticism applied towards more modern writers, Bardon and those from the Golden Dawn lineage have all been heavily derided for cultural biases that were common in the early 1900s. We now supposedly know better, but ancient books clearly have the same cultural biases, we just ascribe value to them because they are older and more mysterious. To me there is little difference in the source of something if I can apply it to my own practice and produce results with it. With Bardon I am explicitly looking to induce more mystical states, I don't care if I can't grant myself phyiscal immortality with his work. I'm not sure why we need an all or nothing approach when there is clearly no one book or school of thought that provides everything and produces no doubt and just works everytime.

 

[Beyond Everything]

Now, Crowley is a wholly different case - being healthy and rich was not his explicit goal,

Actually he did his portion of failed money magic.

Post automatically merged: Today at 1:08 AM

where does one start in that case, to stand on their own two feet?

I hope you see the irony in asking this...but more seriously, this is a very deep and important topic that is basically not covered anywhere.

In order to truly progress, we need to tap parts of the self that are not normally accessed (including by standard esoteric techniques). Dependency is a killer for this, and there are all sorts of dependency traps in spirituality. These range from limiting thoughtforms one takes in by adopting certain philosophical/religious stances to the detrimental energetic effects of egregores.

We need to dive deeper and deeper within ourselves and root out the dependencies and passivity that is there. First you have to take a scalpel to yourself, take a microscope to yourself, take a searchlight to yourself. You have to not only develop a true 'I' but develop the ability to operate in liminal states and the ability to ferret out things energetically.

 

[mag1caljeet]

Actually he did his portion of failed money magic.

Post automatically merged: Today at 1:08 AM

I hope you see the irony in asking this...but more seriously, this is a very deep and important topic that is basically not covered anywhere.

In order to truly progress, we need to tap parts of the self that are not normally accessed (including by standard esoteric techniques). Dependency is a killer for this, and there are all sorts of dependency traps in spirituality. These range from limiting thoughtforms one takes in by adopting certain philosophical/religious stances to the detrimental energetic effects of egregores.

We need to dive deeper and deeper within ourselves and root out the dependencies and passivity that is there. First you have to take a scalpel to yourself, take a microscope to yourself, take a searchlight to yourself. You have to not only develop a true 'I' but develop the ability to operate in liminal states and the ability to ferret out things energetically.

Yes haha, I realised how ironic it would be to ask this, but I figured it wouldn't hurt.

But it sounds like taking the old maxim "Know thySelf" to the purest and deepest level. This sounds like a long and daunting process.

And by ferret things out energetically, I assume you mean in the internal landscape of consciousness right?

 

[Angelkesfarl]

His ill health preceded his political persecutions, so I'm not sure what your point there is. Speaking of which, I see none of the spirits who fortell the future had the courtesy to tell him emigration would be a smart idea lol Nor did the letters he said provide such perfect guidance and clairvoyance avail him to make the kind of moves others did to avoid such things. I think it's entirely fair to look at claims made in books versus actual results. To not do so is approaching the level of a religious zombie's blind faith.

"We have already touched upon this (in my earlier replies), but allow me to deepen your understanding of the 'Cosmic Law' here. You are absolutely correct that we cannot separate the dietician from the diet; however, we can and must separate the Cosmic Law of the Elements from Franz Bardon’s physical body. If he failed to utilize the 'vehicle' perfectly, the design integrity of that vehicle remains intact. Our purpose is not to justify Bardon’s health, but to distill the 'timeless mechanism' of the Law from his fleeting human experience. Let us focus on the methodology that grants us Sovereignty, not on the human who partially failed to apply it."

"We are in total agreement that demonstrable performance and tangible results are the only true metrics, and you strike gold when you ask: 'What results did they actually achieve?' > The secret here is that the most potent magical achievements are rarely documented publicly; they are preserved as 'inherited achievements' within dedicated schools. > Regarding the potential use of spirits to propagate a specific agenda, you are approaching the genuine reality of the greater Mystery Schools. Bardon provided the Map (the IIH system), but the missing arcana concern the 'Spiritual Security Framework' that protects the practitioner from external manipulation (or political persecution) that he himself faced. Therefore, we must integrate his system with a robust 'Protection Mechanism'; this is precisely what leads us to the science of Saturnian Sigils which guarantee that essential security and final manifestation."

 

[mag1caljeet]

"We have already touched upon this (in my earlier replies), but allow me to deepen your understanding of the 'Cosmic Law' here. You are absolutely correct that we cannot separate the dietician from the diet; however, we can and must separate the Cosmic Law of the Elements from Franz Bardon’s physical body. If he failed to utilize the 'vehicle' perfectly, the design integrity of that vehicle remains intact. Our purpose is not to justify Bardon’s health, but to distill the 'timeless mechanism' of the Law from his fleeting human experience. Let us focus on the methodology that grants us Sovereignty, not on the human who partially failed to apply it."

"We are in total agreement that demonstrable performance and tangible results are the only true metrics, and you strike gold when you ask: 'What results did they actually achieve?' > The secret here is that the most potent magical achievements are rarely documented publicly; they are preserved as 'inherited achievements' within dedicated schools. > Regarding the potential use of spirits to propagate a specific agenda, you are approaching the genuine reality of the greater Mystery Schools. Bardon provided the Map (the IIH system), but the missing arcana concern the 'Spiritual Security Framework' that protects the practitioner from external manipulation (or political persecution) that he himself faced. Therefore, we must integrate his system with a robust 'Protection Mechanism'; this is precisely what leads us to the science of Saturnian Sigils which guarantee that essential security and final manifestation."

can you elaborate?