When it comes to Kabbalistic letter practice Franz Bardon’s third book entitled Keys to the True Kabbalah is a little misleading it it’s title.
Kabbalah was all the rage in European esoteric circles during the peak years of Bardon’s life. Most modern practitioners view the third book as both a third rail in terms of stuff you don’t want to talk about and as something that requires decades of practice.
Both are a little overly dramatic stance.
On a literal basis the letters represent the fundamental forces God used to create the universe. Simply put, these are God levers.
On a practical basis, a senior practitioner who specialized in the letter A had the ability to directly influence weather in about a 100-meter circle on demand. A cool trick to be sure, but not exactly earth shattering.
Frankly, initial the workings with these are akin to a monkey pulling on the controls of a nuclear reactor with a Cliff’s notes version of the instruction guide that was originally written in German and translated into English. With a few key parts left out well…just because.
First off, the initial instructions in Bardon’s book are fairly good and should be followed religiously. If you lack a background in music, simply hum the tones as best you can from deepest to highest without your voice cracking. Then arrange these on a chart with the letters, colors and sensations. Doing this in the beginning will save time later on and prevent mistakes.
For a great online introduction to this check out the SixtySkills Master course, where you can become initiated into the mother letters: Master Course (perseusarcaneacademy.com)
The tones are simply guides to get you moving in the right direction. Once you make contact with a given letter sounds develop that largely mirror sounds you find in nature. Some of these you can accurately create using a human voice, others not so much.
You need to be able to maintain three-part concentration (color, sound and sensation) for at least five minutes before progressing to the third book. Anyone who has made it thru lesson eight in Bardon’s first book is clearly capable of this. Additionally, having completed the emotional control work is very helpful as well. Completion of the second book before the third is not necessary and in some ways counter productive. Although that is a discussion for another post.
Keep in mind that the forces being manipulated have a physical component. Working with these is initially exhausting and improves with time and none of them, excepting the Akasha related letters, are physically draining.
When working with the letters initially, I performed the 4-6-2 meditations of two Akashic, 60 mental and 400 astral recitations with each letter sequentially. Each recitation took between 1:30 and 2 hours.
I did this daily for about two weeks until I finished with the letter L. By this point I was passing out while practicing with a given letter every 15-20 minutes. The letters have a physical component that your body has to adapt to in order to work with them. Nothing about this is unnatural, but each time you work with a new letter it is akin to using musculature actively that previously you had only used passively. Your body has to lay down new tissue, create additional chemical compounds, etc.
It took me about 4 months to recover from this and finish the rest of the progression. On a practical basis I could have done this after the first month, but I was busy, and it took a while to finish up.
Working with the letters, whether individually or in combination, roughly has two components: building wisdom and building power.
Building wisdom results in a type of out of body projection into the letter. Repeat exposure builds knowledge and familiarity with a given letter. This should be performed seated, or supine, and make up the first several sessions. Keep in mind that each letter is the equivalent of a multi-volume encyclopedia in terms of its depth and breadth. Bardon’s instruction to read the passage on a given letter and meditate upon it for a few minutes before each exposure is important for this reason. Sousing out where you want to take this will become important.
People frequently report meeting a guide, or guardian, at each letter for the first several sessions. The guardian doesn’t actually exist. It is a construct that allows for a more direct interaction with the letter and gradually goes away.
Power building is largely about bringing the force being worked with into form in the physical world. Standing postures, and sometimes moving modalities, are the most common way of doing this.
When working with a letter in this manner it is not uncommon for practitioners to develop a series of postures, or standing micro-movements, that are used to run the force through the fasciae in the body. Postures can be held from a minute, or two, up to a couple of hours depending upon what is being worked with.
When force is being developed for use in the physical world it is most often condensed into the astral first as a kind of intermediary step. When this is happening, the astral body will become thick and heavy, the term pregnant comes to mind.
At a certain point this power will discharge down into the physical.
The results of this can be explosive in nature and are definitely not subtle.
At present letter practice, and its following work with the planets, Zodiac and Sephirot are the main focus of my personal practice. FWIW, working in groups really aids the process and seems to be a major focus of the Haredim. I cannot say what their exact practices consist of, but it might make for an interesting line of research for the right person.
That said, my school conducts regular transmissions on this topic. You can check out the transmission page on the main website.
If you want to read a little more about what this is like to experience, check out this book by Rordan Phobos and company: Initial Experiences with the Kabbalah – SixtySkills
