Franz Bardon’s most important work is the Key to the True Kabbalah. While his first book Initiation into Hermetics attracts the most attention in meditative circles, the majority of the techniques in the book are derivative. They can be found elsewhere individually. This is not to denigrate the work he put forward to integrate them into a cohesive curriculum. It is merely a statement of fact.
His third book, Key to the True Kabbalah, however, was only the second book written on the topic in 1200 years, the other being the Sephir Yetzirah, in which the mother letters of Jewish Kabbalah, or what is better referred to as letter magic, are described.
My book on Initial Experiences with the Kabbalah is the third book on the topic, although it could be considered the fourth if you include the out-of-print works by Dexheimer. It can be found here: Initial Experiences With The Kabbalah – Kindle edition by Phobos, Bob Smith and Rordan, Phobos, Rordan. Health, Fitness & Dieting Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Out of the three, Bardon’s book is the only one presenting a complete method of working with the letters in a written medium. The description of the letters is fairly complete, although some errors exist as the book was published post-mortem. I eventually published a video course to address some of these shortcomings and will eventually publish a written book on letter magic.
The video course on letter magic can be found here: Sixty Skills Kabbalah (perseusarcaneacademy.com)
At the beginning of the third book Bardon has a one-page description of what he calls the “The Symbolism of the Third Tarot Card.” This is the most important writing on the theory of Hermetics in all of his works as it is the only place where he outlines the meta-system behind his works. Oddly, almost no one reads this or makes any attempt to understand it.
Here he clearly describes the relationship between the Sephirot, the Zodiac, the planets and the elements, or letters.
By going from the elements to the Sephirot a practitioner completes the Path of Enlightenment in Hermetics. By going from the Sephirot to the letters a practitioner completes the Path of Manifestation.
Over the last three years, I completed the upward path in my private practice group. The lessons learned were extraordinary. The magical achievement of everyone involved increased greatly.
I began the downward path in the last few months and it will be another year, or two, until this is completed as well.
The culmination of the upward path resulted in breaking through to a place beyond spatial constraint, beyond time, beyond sensation and beyond physicality. Yet, consciousness remained.
As human beings define things based off of these parameters, I lack the ability to positively define what I experience on the other side of this. Upon returning, I find my magical potential greatly enhanced. This matches what the sages describe of the Nirvanic states of existence. It can only be described in the negative…”it is not this…it is not that.”
Traditionally, these experiences occur accidentally. This method provides a way to turn this into an ability where these states can be achieved at will with great predictability.
I made a video on this topic that covers a lot of additional material here: https://youtu.be/iSoZdzzqjOQ
As such, this represents a comprehensive system of development that rivals, and in some ways surpasses, the Six Yogas of Naropa, the Eight Limbs of Patanjali and all of the other known systems of yogic development.
Additional video-based coursework covering the upward path utilizing the Zodiac and Sephirot will be published in the next few months via Perseus Arcane Academy (Home – Perseus Arcane Academy).
Some curious observations came out of doing this work.
First, you end up with twelve planets once you count the outer planets and the extra solar realm, or the space between the stars.
Next, you end up with the twelve constellations of the Zodiac.
And then finally, twelve forces of the Sephirot once you include Da’ath and the constellation of Sirius.
Working with Sirius specially resulted in the performance of some yogic exercises that resemble the upper levels of Trulkhor practice from Tibetan Buddhism as well.
The consistency with the need to work with twelve forces was very interesting.
From a standpoint of meditative practice, the letters were used to establish a state of equilibrium at the vital level, the planets at the astral/energetic/level of sensation, the Zodiac at the mental level and finally the Sephirot at the Akashic/Void level.
By consistently working with these the overall level of equilibrium at the various levels of reality strengthened greatly as did the overall energetic flow through.
During this time period many lessons regarding how to employ the letters were learned and several unusual events happened in the lives of practitioners. One of which included a former teacher, who was a walk-in, spontaneously deciding to contact me after almost twenty years of absence.
One of the most notable issues in conducting this training was that of Akashic drain on the lifeforce of the practitioners involved. Working through the Sephirot took a full year, of one month per force, and this resulted in the need to nap for an hour a day towards the end of the series. All of the practitioners gained weight and had their health impacted to one degree or another.
This led to a loathing of what would happen when approaching the Sephirot through the downward Path of Manifestation. This resulted in a pleasant surprise in that these sessions, and we are currently working through Da’ath, being rather invigorating. The draining aspect was reversed in this case. One of the spirits contacted during this period bluntly referred to the group as a “bunch of idiots” in our lack of understanding regarding the use of Akasha.
While Akasha is traditionally viewed as a dissolving force and something out of which power can be drawn, the manifestation aspect of Akasha was clearly something that we did not properly understand.
Many lessons continue to be learned on this issue and the group expects to learn many more. In theory, this should result in the ability to manifest the physical aspects of setting objects on fire, turning water into ice and the like. We will know in the next year if this is accurate as the practice evolves.
