Franz Bardon and initiation

Franz Bardon (1909-1958) is the name used to refer to the spiritual Individuality and adept that entered into the body of a fourteen year old boy Franz Bardon in 1924, and dictated three books on initiation that are the most advanced guides for spiritual development in the modern western world.

In the book Frabato by Otti Votavova (1903-1973) (see references and download section below) he is described as:

an Individuality that had incarnated hundreds of times and has been a teacher of in the Mystery schools for millenia.
a member of the White Lodge that rises to the level of the circle of the twelve in the 20th century, replacing another Master.

The three books of Initiation are intended for the modern western person without guidance from a master, and are regarded as the best modern initiation pathway for the western culture and current cultural age.

Initiation into Hermetics (IIH): This is the english title of the book originally called 'The way to the true adept' (Der Weg zum wahren Adepten). It is a densely written initiation guide consisting of ten steps whereby the student develops the mental, astral and physical bodies. Each step has criteria that the student has to reach before taking on the next step (using self-assessment of the newly developed faculties as a feedback loop for one's advancement). The first three steps correspond more or less to what is found in other books such as Rudolf Steiner's Knowledge of the Higher Worlds (KHW). Only when the student has reached step eight in IIH is he/she ready to also take on the next two books. Step 10 is about achieving 'Unity' or God experience.
Practice of Magical Evocation (PME) is about spirit evocation.
Key to True Kabbalah (KTK - or sometimes also KTQ when written Quabbalah) is about the cosmic language of creation.

Aspects

names
- Franz Bardon is the legal name of the 14-year old boy whose body the adept of the White lodge took over in 1924. On the timing, see also the note under point 2 on Franz Bardon and initiation#Introduction below.
- he is also referred to as Master Arion
- Frabato was the name that Franz Bardon used as a stage magician before WWII
- in an interview of son Lumir Bardon by Martin Faulks, Lumir mentions he cannot disclose the true name of his father, but says it ends on 'ananda'
Individuality
- lots of speculation exists about previous incarnations and the individuality of Franz Bardon. Hints are given in the last chapter of the 'novel' Frabato that Bardon dictated to his secretary at the end of his life. Multiple versions of this book exist, with various opinions about which is the true and unedited version (see 'Further reading' section below).
- a handwritten archive note has been shared by Walter Ogris stating oa "body born on 1.12.1909, died 10.07.1958" but also "not entered into this world through the body of a mother since 1651". This might imply that the process of regular incarnation is not always followed.
publishers: The works of Franz Bardon have been made available to the world and distributed thanks to Dieter Rüggeberg of Rüggeberg Verlag (DE), as well as people from Merkur Publishing (US). Another early publisher was Alexandre Moryason (FR, website in English). More recently also secondary literature comes from Falcon Books Publishing (UK). More information is available via these sites.
Note: Rudolf Steiner provided a spiritual scientific body of knowledge that can be used as background and explanation for the exercises in IIH, see Initiation exercises

Illustrations

FMC00.408 shows pictures of Franz Bardon as appearing in his books such as IIH or 'The way to the true adept'

Lecture coverage and references

Franz Bardon

introduction of earliest German editions

The system which has been built with the utmost diligence is not a speculative method, but it is the positive result of 30 years of research, practical exercises and repeated comparison with many other systems of many different lodges, secret societies and the Oriental knowledge, which is only accessible to especially talented and only to a few selected individuals. It is therefore - let it be understood - to be destined from out of my own practice for the practice of many, and has been proven from my students as the best and most useful system.

1958 - Otti Votavova and Franz Bardon

excerpt from the esoteric novel 'Das Original-Manuscript des Frabato' (2015 version) dictated by Franz Bardon to his student and secretary Otti Votavova (1903-1973) who published it posthumously after Bardon's death, excerpt here in computer translation, edited SWCC (phrased re-ordered for flow but literal content retained without any changes).

For another (full) version of Frabato in EN, see free PDF download in Further reading section below.

For a summary statement of the below, see also White Lodge#Otti Votavova - Frabato (1958)

Frabato also belonged to the Brotherhood of Light ...
[about the Brotherhood of Light]
The Brotherhood of Light is a spiritual organization of the highest adepts on Earth .. that connects the highest spiritual bonds. It is neither a lodge nor an association, but a group of spiritual beings, some of whom are embodied and some of whom have already attained immortality. This Brotherhood is the highest conceivable hierarchy on our planet. Before the material existence of the world, this hierarchy was already fulfilling its sublime purpose of helping humanity, and it will continue to exist until this planet has completely fulfilled its task and the last human being on Earth has reached perfection.
Each of its members has a specific mission to fulfill on our Earth. All missions assigned to the brothers of the spiritual organization pursue the best interests of humanity as a whole.
The Hierarchy counts 360 Masters, who are the spiritual teachers of humanity, each of whom has to fulfill his assigned mission on Earth. There are also 72 Sages [or 'wise men', or 'enlightened ones']. And there are 12 adepts who have reached the highest level of spiritual perfection and take on the most important and difficult missions. These adepts usually work on the Earth from the astral Earth belt zone, only rarely does it happen that one of them takes on a physical body and fulfills his mission in the world in human form.
...
The head of the Brotherhood of Light is the original initiator with the rank of a mahatma, which means something like representative of the divine order, guardian of all secrets, guardian of the Brotherhood of Light. The hierarchy calls him Urgaya, "the old one of the mountain" or also "the old master". He is the original initiator since the world came into being and only embodies himself very rarely. In most cases, he only takes on some form for a very short time in order to appear to this or that member of the Brotherhood of Light or to strengthen him in his task.
[note: the original initiator Urgaya is also called 'Mahum Tha-Ta' by Hans Albert Müller, and 'Maha-Chohan' by the Theosophists]
[see topic page White Lodge, section Aspects and Note 2 on the 'prime initiator' or 'the one initiator' or 'lord of the world' or 'eternal youth' and compare with info on Sri Guru Babaji]
The 12 adepts with Urgaya, their chairman, form the Council of the Ancients [editor: re White Lodge], which meets in an advisory capacity in different eras, or on the occasion of special missions and important decisions concerning the fate of peoples. In such cases, Urgaya spiritually calls all adepts together, regardless of whether they are embodied on earth or in the earth belt zone. Exceptionally, if a general assembly takes place, the 360 masters and the 72 initiators or sages are also called upon. Such general assembly is held in a specially created magical room in the Earth Belt zone, protected and visible only to the Brothers of Light and impossible to perceive astrally or spiritually by anyone else.
The Brotherhood has no permanent domicile in the world, though there are certain clues in the Orient, where several embodied Brothers of Light carry out their missions.
[About Frabato - the spiritual Individuality behind Franz Bardon]
[the section below is about such general assembly]
Frabato .. did have the option of dissolving as a Perfected One and entering the universal Divine Light, but then his missions, which were never easy, would have to be taken over by another brother. ...
... all 360 initiates received their tasks, of the 72 enlightened ones, 71 brothers were already entrusted with more difficult tasks, and all of the 12 adepts without exception were given the most difficult tasks ..
... Frabato, who was first in the order of the 72 Enlightened Ones ...
... Frabato had not yet reached the rank of one of the twelve adepts ...
... Frabato .. had served the light faithfully for millenia .. always acted as a teacher on Earth
... entrusted the secret teachings .. in the most hidden temples under penalty of death, who upheld the laws with all severity and mercilessly executed those who transgressed against the iron laws ... performed initiations as a temple priest under heavy oaths ... placed particular emphasis on silence. ...
... taught silence for hundreds of incarnations, had adapted himself to all situations and kept the commandment of silence.
[new mission, Frabato was told]
"your future mission is to make the true initiation and all spiritual knowledge in general openly and clearly understandable to mankind by publishing book material ..."

... [first Book of Wisdom] .. "you must make this understandable to people, not under the seal of secrecy, but openly reveal it to the world. You will hide nothing, but reveal the laws of spiritual training to people."

second pillar was the key to hierarchical magic, to sphere magic and symbolized the knowledge of the beings

third pillar, which symbolized the mystical word or the creative word. "You will also make the third leaf of the Book of Wisdom understandable to people!"

"Every human being must be given the opportunity to take the path to true initiation, the path to central perfection, even where he has been placed by fate."
"... you must not be considered a miracle worker to the outside world. You may no longer make use of all magical powers, which you have done up to now, because from now on your mission is different ... you must not use your magical abilities and powers in the future ... you must adjust yourself so that you do not resemble an initiate on the outside"
"... even if there are only a few people on earth who have reached the necessary state of maturity through diligence, perseverance, conssistency and hard work on themselves, your mission will have been fulfilled. Those, however, who only enrich their intellectual knowledge with the help of your writings will remain with mere theory in the present incarnation, but this will benefit them insofar as fate will give them the opportunity in the next incarnation to begin and continue with practical work on themselves.
Your writings will reach the whole world. In time they will become known to everyone and Divine Providence will see to it that they are received above all by those who are ripe for their content. "
[previous mission]
... convince people of the higher powers ...
... I faithfully fulfilled the mission you gave me by incarnating myself into a 14-year-old boy at your request in order to be a spiritual teacher for his father. I traveled all over Europe, giving lectures to convince people that there is something higher than just the material world. I set forces in motion to convince people of the divine omnipotence, healed the sick in order to do good, revealed the future to people, warned them and intervened to help wherever it was necessary.
[after WWII .. Frabato is told]
"A Brother of Light from the Twelve has dissolved as an Individuality after completing his mission and has entered the primordial light. His position is vacant and providence commissioned me to transfer it to you: you have been accepted into the ranks of the Council of the Ancients and from now on, like the other eleven brothers, you have the highest rank that a Brother of Light can occupy in our hierarchy.
[from the Epilogue by the author]
In this work, I have described the life of an initiate in the form of a novel. Those who know how to read between the lines will be able to glean much more ... ... particularly important is the fact that all events, everything depicted, is based on pure truth ...
...
The White Brotherhood of Light written about in this book is not a worldly organization, is it not based on Earth. It is an association of advanced souls whose meetings take place exclusively in the [astral] Earth belt zone.
Anyone who has mastered the practice of the first three leaves of the Book of Wisdom is admitted to the Brotherhood of Light .. if this is the case, you will draw the attention of the Brothers of Light to yourself without having to worry about it.

Discussion

Note 1 - Bardon practitioners

Below follows a small sample of some known Bardon practioners that have come forth via publications via the internet and/or books.

Milan Kumar

Bardon had several study circles in various cities, and one of his well known students was Dr. Milan Kumar. A short essay by him is contained as author 'Dr. MK' in 'Memories of Franz Bardon', a book written by son Lumir Bardon.

Jef C.

Jef C. (US, born 1945) found the books by Bardon is a small bookshop in 1971 and started practicing. In the period 2001-2002 he participated in an online forum where he gave some insights in his path. These posts were so out of the ordinary that they were stored for many years and later published by Marten Crawford in 2014 in the booklet 'The adept magician' (see below for a PDF excerpt). This book contains the story told by these online forum posts by an unnamed magician who tells about his path of some three decades of going through Bardon's three books and the three 'great transformations' after each of them.

The first practitioners to come forth actively and publicly in the age of the internet were William Mistele and Rawn Clark.

William Mistele

William 'Bill' Mistele (US) started practicing IIH in 1975 and wrote his online commentary to IIH around 1998-1999 and this is still online, but was never published in book form.

Rawn Clark

Rawn Clark (US, 1958-2024) for many years published through the website abardoncompanion.com, started in 2001. The site then went off line and was brought back online by someone else as abardoncompanion.de. The site contains Rawn's first commentary 'A Bardon Companion' (his was and is freely available as PDF in the public domain), as well as his second commentary from the 2009 lecture series (available in book form). The published book 'A Bardon Companion' contains both V1 of 2002 (freely available) and the V2 of 2010. See movie A.

His third and most recent commentary, again a decade later, is now available on youtube. See Companions along the way, movie B (playlist)

Clark states he started with IIH in 1983 (aged 25), became involved in online forums (ao the BardonPraxis forum) a dozen years later (say around 1995) and spent the next 13 years (say until around 2008) answering questions online. In 2002-3 he performed a Bardon Questionnaire and published an analysis of the answers of 500 respondents.

Some further info on/by Rawn Clark on this site, ao:

Justin B. magician

Justin (US, born 1979) started posting his commentary on a blog justinbthemagician.blogspot.com in the period 2008-2012. The blog went offline, but the commentary was published in a 140-page PDF downloadeable from this site (see Further reading section below).

Since 2018 Justin has a new blog 'The Perennial Magic' on justinbmagician.wordpress.com and in 2022 started posting youtube movies, see eg here.

An interview is available here, five audio podcasts are available regarding IIH and Bardon's books on "Knowledge and Conversation" (Chris and Justin), see here

Virgil

Virgil has a blog since 2019 on livingfranzbardon.blogspot.com, an interview can be read here. See his books under the 'Further reading' section below.

Ray del Sole

Ray del Sole (DE) has over 20 years of experience with Bardon's teachings (starting approx. 1994) and is author of many booklets on spiritual growth. He has a blog sura-blog.raydelsole.com. An interview can be read here.

Purnacandra Sivarupa

Purnacandra Sivarupa is the name for Nicholas G. M. G. Scheman (US) who is the author of two popular web blogs that have both gone offline: magicalmessiah.wordpress.com and inpeaceprofound.com (back online in 2022). His postings included commentary on IIH, eg re-initiation into hermetics in 2015. An interview with him is available here.

Emil Stejnar

Emil Stejnar (Austria, born 1939) is the publisher of over a dozen books on magic.

Others

Just a selection of additional people who are active in public and whose work can be found on the web (facebook, youtube, forums)

Mark Rasmus, ao wrote 'Back Door Into Hermetics: A Guide to Becoming Initiated into the Mysteries' (2020)
Crystalf Maibach

Note 2 - On secondary literature around Franz Bardon's three books

Besides Bardon's main three books, additional flanker literature has appeared as practioners who started in the period 1970-80s and 90s started publishing over the internet first, as pioneered by the likes of Mistele and Clark who went online with their own sites in 1998 and 2001.

The internet has surely enabled people scattered all over the world to find eachother via internet forums first (eg FranzBardonMagi yahoo group), and later through the world wide web, thus bringing together a community of practioners where this was not possible before. This is a genuine positive from the 'free flow of information' via internet technology.

The next generation of students that benefited from the support by Clark and others furthered their initiation by a time the world wide web had matured, and this gave rise to many more blogs and commentaries.

However this community of practioners also found a mirror image in a wave of new books appearing, all related to Bardon in some way, or some new and unpublished materials.

Especially during the decade 2010-2020, after decades of silence on the book publishing front, there has been a new wave of Bardon related books and revival of general interest showing also in websites, blogs, and youtube movies.

However not all these books are written from experience or mastery, and so a word of caution is required. Filling a library with 'Bardon related' books will not help any student in practice, quite on the contrary it will only distract from focused practice of IIH and initiation exercises.

Books have been published by Seila Orienta, ao 'Das buch Anion'. Little documentation can be found, other than his son stating his father was a student of Franz Bardon.
Johannes H. von Hohenstätten states that he is "a student and friend of two masters called Anion and Ariane who helped him on IIH and asked him to write down his knowledge and experiences and make these public". Debated as to not trustworthy .
the website czechhermetics.com is another source of information and rumours about newly discovered unpublished materials
and so on .. .

This short note does not want to qualify or judge any source in particluar, but just conclude with the statement that the first book Initiation into Hermetics or IIH is all one needs. The path of Franz Bardon is experiential and one of practice, not one of intellectual study.

Note 3 - On Steiner and Bardon - anthroposophy and hermetics

Introduction

Rudolf Steiner and Franz Bardon were two adepts from the White Lodge, who each brought humanity a wealth of spiritual knowledge and wisdom.

People may be confused from being attracted to both streams, or come from one and learn about the other.

This note discusses that it does not have to be 'or' but can be 'and'. This in line with this website which focuses on the work by Steiner, Bardon, Beinsa Douno and Daskalos.

1/ These considerations are to be positioned in a new era for mankind:

the year 1879 represented the start of a new Michael age (see eg Schema FMC00.239),
the year 1900 represents the end of the kali yuga or 'dark age' (see eg Schema FMC00.013).
And on a cosmic level and as a result of the Mystery of Golgotha, the 20th century is also the start of what can be called the 'Christ in the etheric' period where new faculties will develop naturally in mankind (such as natural clairvoyance and karmic remembrance and insight, see eg Schema FMC00.081).

2/ Council of guidance

Rudolf Steiner lectures on the fact that at certain key periods in time, certain councils or meetings are held by the White lodge to make for step changes in the guidance for mankind. Examples are given, ao at the 4th century AD (1909-08-31-GA113) or at the end of the 16th century (1912-12-18-GA130). For more on this, see White Lodge#Aspects.
In the last chapters of the book Frabato, Bardon refers in a very similar way to a council of the White Lodge (see PDF download below).

Note: On the side, it is interesting to note that, regarding timing, the above council where the adept (who would take over a body of a young boy and be known as Franz Bardon in earth terms) received his mission, may have taken place at the time of Rudolf Steiner's illness in 1924 and subsequent non-recovery and death in 1925. For more info on the potential link, based on a quote by Ita Wegman - albeit still only a hypothesis - see The life of Rudolf Steiner#2017-10-24-DL

3/ The terms:

These relate to streams as we know them in the world, from a historical cultural development point of view, in different timeframes.

Hermetics is usually linked to the name of an ancient adept Hermes Trismegistus in the ancient Egyptian cultural age, whereby Trismegistus means 'trice-great'. However Daskalos is said to have stated that this is erroneous, and that with 'Hermes Trismegistus' is meant any human being who fully masters the three bodies (physical, astral and mental) and thereby reaches a higher state of consciousness allowing him to travel equally in the three worlds. See quote here: Seven hermetic principles#Markides quoting Daskalos. Steiner explains why our current age sees a revival and has a link with the third Egypto-Chaldean cultural age - see eg Remembrance.
Just as theosophy and anthroposophy are quite related and have the same basis, so also hermetics is the name of the direct initiation science in the Egyptian cultural age. Both theosophy and hermetics have continuity of traditions down into the middle ages. Hence it is normal to find people also in the overlapping zones or streams (see also The Michaelic stream), and one should not draw up category walls between words like hermetic, esoteric christianity, theosophy, anthroposophy as they are but different versions of the spiritual science of initiation, or the 'ancient wisdom teachings of all the ages' taught in the mystery schools (see Mystery School tradition).

Perspectives on streams and lineage

On self-initiation

Conclusion note

Steiner's mission was to be a teacher, to bring a foundation for spiritual science, the teachings of reincarnation and karma, and announce the Christ in the etheric (the last point together with Beinsa Douno).

Bardon was not teaching in an intellectual manner, he was an initiator with a different mission, and his focus was to bring to mankind a system whereby mature souls can - and will - develop to adepthood through self-initiation.

Related pages

References and further reading

Frabato

Otti Votavova: Das Original-Manuscript des Frabato (2015)
- Note there are quite a number of versions of the Frabato book, see below as well as The Three Frabatos
  - The ‘Bauer’ Frabato (1958, in DE, published by Hermann Bauer Verlag)
  - The ‘Rüggeberg’ Frabato (1979, in DE published by Rüggeberg Dieter Verlag - and in EN 1982 by Rüggeberg Verlag and 2003 by Merkur)
  - The ‘Aurora’ Frabato (1990, in DE, published by Verlag Aurora)
- Digital PDF download version

Related source material

Lumir Bardon: 'Memories of Franz Bardon' (1992, 2004 in EN)
Dieter Ruggeberg: 'Franz Bardon: Questions & Answers and The Great Arcanum'
Alexandre Moryason published in French, see his website moryason.com for information on Franz Bardon and his teachings
- Paroles de Maître Arion suivi du Livre d'Or de la sagesse (2001)
- Le Cercle de Prague: Enseignements inédits

Furthermore more books are now appearing:

Josef Drabek (1891-1961) & Franz Bardon: An aid for introspection (2022 in EN, original in CZ 2015)
- magnificent work, the better/more complete version of the version published earlier as 'The Universal Master Key'
- over 750 pages; comments on character attributes per element
- see more on: Initiation exercises#Elemental balance - character transformation
The Universal Master Key (2013)
- discovered notes from the Prague study group with Bardon, compiled by Dieter Rüggeberg and published by Faulks Books
- approx 330 pages; comments on character attributes per element: fire 40 properties, air 57, water 36, earth 35
The golden book of wisdom
- see info on background and publishing of this book on this and other pages on czechhermetics.com
- a book with this title was already published by Seila Orienta in 2014

Commentaries and companion materials

Several Bardon practitioners have written companions to IIH to support students with their first steps and expand on the very concise writings of the IIH book, the below is a non-exhaustive selection.

The most systematic and elaborate is Rawn Clark's 'A Bardon Companion'. If one picks only a single book additional to IIH, this would be recommended. However all individuals with different personalities offer various perspectives and styles of commentary.

Rawn Clark: 'A Bardon Companion' (V1 2002, V2 2010, for V3 2022)
- also contributions on youtube
- copy of old website on abardoncompanion.de
William Mistele, see website www.williammistele.com

Justin B. magician: Justin's Commentary on Franz Bardon's training system (PDF dowwload)
Marten Crawford: 'The adept magician' (2014)
- publication of a sequence of remarkable postings on a public internet forum in the period 2001-2 by someone (anonymous, called 'Jef C.') who had followed Bardon's initiation system over three decades (since approx 1971)
- as the book is no longer available and people have been looking and asking for this, this PDF download contains excerpts
Franz Bardon community (Falcon Books)
- The Franz Bardon Tradition: Interviews with experienced practitioners (2021)
- Equipoise: Insights Into Foundational Astral Training (2019)
  - contributions by > 20 practitioners
Virgil
- The Elemental Equilibrium: Notes on The Foundation of Magical Adepthood (2017)
- The Gift To Be Simple: My Answer to a Student's Question: An Answer to a Students Question (2020)
- The Spirit of Magic: Rediscovering the Heart of Our Sacred Art (2019)

More and others

William R. Mistele
- 'The four elements' (2019)
Emil Stejnar
- Franz Bardon: Tatsachen und Anekdoten um einen Eingeweihten (2010)
- see also website of Walter Ogris: archivhermetischertexte.at
Johannes H. von Hohenstätten
- Das Leben des Franz Bardon (2013)
- Die Verkörperungen des Meister Arion (2013)
- Das 1. kleine Arkanum: Franz Bardons geheimer Schlüssel zur Gottesverwirklichung (2013)
- Der hermetische Seelenspiegel (2014)
- Auf der Suche nach Meister Arion (2015)
- Das magische Gleichgewicht (2016)
- and more oa on runes
Josef Drabek
- Magical diaries of a Bardon student
- An aid to introspection
- more info ao see this page on czechhermetics.com
Ray del Sole
- Preliminary Practice for Franz Bardon´s Initiation into Hermetics (2010)
- The Path of the Mystic: Special Edition for Franz Bardon Practitioners (2017)
- Mystical Extra Training for Franz Bardon´s Initiation into Hermetics (2020)
- Autohypnosis for Franz Bardon´s Initiation into Hermetics (2020)

Mark Rasmus with Jake Senn: 'Back Door Into Hermetics: A Guide to Becoming Initiated into the Mysteries' (2020)
Jacob Abramowitz (six books called The Franz Bardon series)
- ao: 'Quintscher's training manual for magicians', 'Lomer's letters for spiritual self-training', 'Kummer's rune and finger magic'
- this is qualified as an example of unfortunate mis-use of the name of Franz Bardon to sell books with materials using related thematic names and materials