How about Franz?

[Kuganthrope]

Greetings,

What do you think of Franz Bardon's work? Would you reccomend any of his books to an ''uninitiated'' person?
Thanks for your attention, and pardon me if I happen to be ignorant of any relevant posts.





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[Lady Dunsany]

I confess I have not read any of his works, I have looked at them. they seem to cover a variety and are supposed to be geared towards ones who are on their own. I am sure there is ones here who have read and utilized his written word.

[Kuganthrope]

I see Lady D. Anyways, some of his works that I am aware of are ''Initiation Into Hermetics'', ''Magical Evocation'', ''The Key to the True Quabbalah''. So I might try as well to gain one of these books...

[Lady Dunsany]

I think Initiation into Hermetics would probably be a good way to start. I looked at it online, they have the whole book there and it seems to cover quite a bit. http://www.rexresearch.com
It seems they have his book there if you do not want to buy it.

[Kuganthrope]

Well, I already had an older pdf of initiation into hermetics and one of evocation (found on net), but it was full of grammatical and spelling mistakes so I feared it was non credible.

[Lady Dunsany]

This is a problem as unfortunately these errors seem to be more of the norm. I have a translation of an old book and it is missing important parts. Even one of Israel Regardie's books have errors. Perhaps you would be better off purchasing the book after all.

[arkham]

this is my main area of study.

I would recommend his books to anyone interested in Hermetics, they are a great read.

I would recommend reading a variety of sources also tho, as more viewpoints on things only lead to higher knowledge which is a great advantage.

http://www.abardoncompanion.com/

[Lady Dunsany]

Thank You. I knew one of our members would know.

[redhand]

When I was 13 I was introduced to Hermetics through Initiation Into Hermetics by my grandmother. I think this was a test in more ways than one as it is a tough book even for adults to work through. But, I have to say I learned a lot, not just about hermetics but, about myself. I finished it in 9 months.

There are errors but, this is a great place to start the serious study of Hermetics and Magic for anyone of any path!

[Johanna]

I would suggest you really make a committment to follow thru if you start Initiation Into Hermetics, at some point I may start again, I got stuck on the dark mirror get depressed and put it aside.

[Kuganthrope]

Ok, thanks a lot everyone, I'll see to it.

*Edited* Check out Balpheron's post on Occult training Grounds --> Books --> wow?!. I found out that among maaaany other stuff, this torrent includes Franz Bardon's work.

[bakeneko]

My 2 cents: His books are great. Not sure about the English translation but in German they are haha.
One just need to be aware that he did dictate them under quite a bit of stress and had no real chance to revise anything. Some formulations are a bit problematic therefore and need a student who still keeps his brain running (note: never try to get thoughts out of your head by force; for most humans this simply does not work).
And as this was mentioned before: If you have problems with the dark mirror (like frustration or outright depression), do the light mirror too at the same time to balance your mood out a bit (still stay realistic though).

[xervans]

When I started in the occult, the first thing I read (after some fairly unrelated books such as the S.B. & others) was Bardon's IIH. It's a great book if you don't have a teacher, and was written within the last half-century so you won't have to go decoding the jargon like you do with Agrippa.