The Franz Bardon Self-Initiation Course

The Young Franz Bardon

In the olden days the when the aspirant wanted to learn about the mysteries of the Universe, he had to find a Guru or attempt to join a mystery school. Either way the course of learning always included several steps of initiations* as he moved foreward in leaning. Now, this is not available, as real Gurus or mystery schools do no exist. However, the next best thing is available, the Bardon Self-Initiation Course.

Franz Bardon was a mysterious teacher of high-magic, the practical applications of the occult and esoteric knowledge. We have only a few details of him and who he really was. For example, we know very little about the lineage of his teachings. We know nothing about by whom or where he had learned all that he knew! Some people say that Bardon’s father wanted so much to learn about the esoteric that he asked his son to be “overshadowed” by a benevolent and “old” soul, which did occur when the child was six months old. At any rate, the purity and exactness of Bardon’s teaching is very refreshing in the jungle of esoteric books that are not all that practical – high on terminology and theories but very short on practical advice.

The few facts that we know are as follows; Franz Bardon was born in Czechoslovakia in 1909 and that he died in 1958. He was the first of 13 children and an only son. During his young adult years, Franz worked as a stage performer under the name “Frabato”. According to all reports, he was one of the few such performers who not an illusionist.

The name “Frabato” is interesting. Bardon attended public school in Opava, and after that apprenticed as a mechanic. His stage name was “Frabato,” which is an abbreviation of Franz-Bardon-Troppau-Opava.

Certainly parallels exist between Bardon’s system and other important esoteric systems of practice throughout the world, but where Bardon’s ideas originated has no real bearing upon the fact that his system has been proven to work.

His  three books are as follows;

The first book by Franz Bardon to be read is “Initiation Into Hermetics”, known in the original German edition as “Der Weg zum Wahren Adepten”.

Bardon’s second book, “The Practice of Magical Evocation” is quite unique, with so many books written on magical evocation, you best forgetting all you have read and read only this book.

The third and final volume in the series by Bardon is “The Key to the True Quabbalah” (published in 1957). At least this is the last completed and published piece. A partial manuscript of a fourth book was later printed as an appendix to “Frabato” and it is also rumored that there once existed a manuscript for a fifth volume concerning Alchemy, but the latter was lost when Bardon was arrested by the communist government of Czechoslovakia.

It must be said that all three books of Bardon must be carefully read and re-read before the aspirant will systematically follow all the exercises described upon. I would say the span of time is based on the aspirant’s allotted time to spend on this endeavor and his spiritual and esoteric level especially in the areas of meditation and mental focusing.  It is also highly advised that before you even purchase any of the Bardon book’s you would read the Bardon companion book written by Rawn Clark. The companion book will help and speed up the progress of initiation. This essay is based on information from Rawn Clarks book the Bardon Companion. This book is now sadly out of print, you can purchase them from Amazon via private parties (and very inflated prices).

The good news is; the book is online and free, if you can tolerate staring at your screen….(it is even available in French on the http://www.abardoncompanion.com/CommentariesLinks-fr.html plus in Italian, Spanish, German, Romanian, and Polish too. Also there are partial Russian and Slovakian links, as translation is in progress in those languages)

Bardon was a healer who had lived through a difficult period, of post WWII Europe. He was imprisoned by Hitler’s for failing to aid the dark-powers of the Third Reich only to be freed and soon murdered by the communist who did not act any kinder or gentler than the Nazi’s. He was arrested because of his healing activities and died in captivity due to ambiguous circumstances. He left us a immense value and legacy in his books.

* Usually, there were seven initiations