Perseus Arcane Academy

Category: Franz Bardon

  • Every Moment is a New Beginning – On Falling and Getting Up on the Battlefield of Life, Part I

    Every Moment is a New Beginning – On Falling and Getting Up on the Battlefield of Life, Part I

    For Yuri and Maschenny

    In the writings of several spiritual teachers, you periodically find some version of the phrase “the battlefield of life.” I’ve always liked that. In many ways, life is indeed like a battlefield, and magical training is one battle we fight on this battlefield. It is a battle in which we fight for adepthood. This is a vast battle, so don’t make the mistake of thinking that it only takes place on a small part of the battlefield of life. No, the battle that is magical training takes place on the entire battlefield. Keep in mind that the second mental exercise of Step 1 is mindfulness, which is something to be practiced every waking moment, regardless of whether you are driving, sitting in on a meeting at work, doing the laundry, mowing the lawn, or whatever. Also, keep in mind that part of magical training involves dealing with various karmic problems, and these karmic problems can pertain to any area of your life. The more you practice mindfulness, and the more you wrestle with your personal karma and any form of group karma that affects you, the more you will see just how intertwined your magical training is with all aspects of your life. Some battles on the battlefield of life may take place on only a small part of the battlefield, but the battle that is magical training is not one of them.

    The thing is, whenever you’re fighting, there’s a chance that you’ll fall. Sometimes, an opponent may sweep your leg or strike you hard enough to knock you down. Whenever this happens, it’s important to get up right away and continue fighting. Otherwise, your opponents are going to trample all over you and you’ll be less likely to win the battle. Falling down isn’t necessarily an issue. It’s staying down after falling that causes people to lose the fight for adepthood.

    An Important Idea

    To master the art of getting up after falling, there is an idea that you should strive to have deeply ingrained in your mind. This is the idea that every moment is a new beginning. I sometimes see people say things like “Every day is a new beginning.” That’s good, but it’s not good enough. If you believe that every day is a new beginning, then when you fall, you’ll say to yourself “Well, tomorrow is a new beginning, so I’ll get up tomorrow and start fighting again.” Don’t wait until tomorrow. This very moment is a new beginning. Get up now and start fighting again now. If the idea that every moment is a new beginning is deeply ingrained in your mind, if you live and breathe the idea that every moment is a new beginning, then you’re well on your way to mastering the art of getting up after falling.

    Examples of Falling

    So, what does it mean to fall? Imagine, for example, that you eat junk food for lunch and feel really gross. That is falling. If around dinnertime you say to yourself “I already feel gross, so I guess I might as well have junk food again for dinner,” then that is staying down after falling down. But if you say to yourself “Every moment is a new beginning, so I am going to begin eating healthy right now” and then eat something healthy for dinner, then that is getting up.

    Or, imagine that you waste five hours of your afternoon watching anime. That is falling. If you say to yourself “I’ve already wasted pretty much my whole afternoon watching anime, so I might as well waste the rest of the day watching anime as well,” then that is staying down. But if you say “I’ve wasted pretty much my whole afternoon watching anime, but this moment is a new beginning, so starting right now I’m going to use my time wisely,” then that is getting up after falling down. Even if you’ve been watching anime from the moment you woke up in the morning and it is now evening and there are only a few minutes left in the day, even still, you can say “Nunc coepi” and at least spend those last few minutes in prayer or practicing thought-observation before going to bed.

    Basically, falling means making an unwise choices. Staying down means continuing to make unwise choices. Getting up means beginning to make wise choices again. Every second you have to make a choice regarding what you’re going to do with that second. So choices are something you make on a second by second, or really a moment by moment, basis. You can choose to get up at any moment, even if you fell really hard just moments before, and even if you’ve been down for a while.

    Getting Up Requires Strength

    You can probably recall many experiences from your own life when you’ve fallen. Therefore, you probably know that getting up after falling can be difficult. It isn’t always difficult, but it can be. The stronger you are, the easier it is to get back up again. Actually, the stronger you are, the harder it is to get knocked down in the first place. But whenever you do happen to get knocked down, the stronger you are, the easier it is to get up.

    So, what does it mean to be strong? If you’ve read any of my recent writings, then you already know the answer, as this is something I bring up a lot; I consider it a crucial teaching for those who want to successfully win the fight for adepthood. But for those who may be new to my writings, I will summarize what I have to say on this topic. Feel free to skip the next paragraph if you correspond with me a lot or if you were subscribed to my Christian Hermetics email list, since these ideas have already been beaten into you over and over again.

    Obviously, when it comes to the metaphorical battle that is magical training, being strong doesn’t mean having large muscles. Many people believe that being strong means having a strong will; but for me, that’s not what being strong means either. For me, being strong means having a strong yetzer hatov. According to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, one’s yetzer hatov becomes stronger when it is nourished with wisdom. Therefore, the way to become strong is to pray regularly, and preferably ceaselessly, for wisdom (see James 1:5). If the strength of your yetzer hatov is comparable to the strength of, say, Yuri or Maschenny, then you’ll win the battle for adepthood quite quickly and find yourself quite unscathed at the end. You know there are Bardonists who do successfully work through IIH, who do win the fight for adepthood, but who have many scars as a result of blows they received and falls they suffered while fighting. That won’t happen to you if you’re as strong as Yuri or Maschenny is, which is to say your yetzer hatov is as strong as Yuri or Maschenny is.

    Two Useful Phrases

    If you do research on the subject of falling and getting up again, you may periodically come across two phrases. The first is “Nunc coepi.” The second is “Nana korobi ya oki.” These two phrases provide valuable guidance for those who would learn to get up after falling, so I will discuss both of them.

    Nunc Coepi

    The phrase “Nunc coepi” means “Now I begin.” It is something you can think, or even say out loud, whenever you find that you have fallen. When you say to yourself “Now I begin,” what are you beginning? You are beginning to fight again. You can say “Nunc coepi” at any time, so you can get up and begin fighting again at any time. You don’t have to wait for the next day. You can get up and begin fighting again right this moment.

    Nana Korobi Ya Oki

    This phrase translates to “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” The idea here is that no matter how many times we fall, we never become frustrated and give up. We always stand up again and continue to fight. I mean, if you really want to become an adept, then when you fall what else is there to do but stand up and continue fighting for adepthood? You might think “This is hopeless. I’ve fallen and stood up a thousand times already. Why even bother?” But again, if you really want to become an adept, then even if you’ve fallen a thousand times already, you still stand up and continue fighting for adepthood. And you don’t wait for tomorrow. You stand up right this moment. You stand up and fight because that’s the only thing it makes sense to do. Staying down isn’t going to bring you any closer to winning the fight for adepthood.

    Additional Comments on Strength

    One of my favorite songs is Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb.”(1) I think its lyrics have a lot to teach Bardonists. Bardonists working through IIH are trying to climb the Mons Philosophorum. This climb involves fighting battles along the way. For example, if you look at the well-known image of this mountain, you will see the lion of pride depicted therein. That is just one of many opponents the Bardonist will have to defeat as he climbs up this mountain by working through IIH. Consider the following verse from Miley’s song though.

    The struggles I’m facing

    The chances I’m taking

    Sometimes might knock me down, but

    No, I’m not breaking

    As you fight your way to the top of this mountain (or the tower, to use my preferred metaphor), you may get knocked down every now and then (or all the time, if you’re really weak and bad at fighting). In this verse, Miley says that she’s not breaking. That’s an inspiration thought. But the thing is, in real life, people do sometimes break when they fall while trying to ascend up the Mons Philosophorum. This may even happen to Bardonists who try to follow Bardon’s path, the path laid out in IIH, up that mountain. So be strong, because the stronger you are, the less likely you are to fall down and the less likely you are to be hurt if you do fall. Be strong like Yuri and Maschenny, like Garam, Enne, and Adori.

    Battles are Messy

    Generally speaking, no one plans to fall. When a boxer goes into the ring, he definitely has a plan for how he’s going to win, but he probably doesn’t plan on being punched so hard he gets knocked down. When you fall, that might screw up your plans. For example, let’s say you plan to spend the whole afternoon praying and meditating, but then your lustfulness knocks you down and you spend much of the afternoon masturbating while watching porn. Ok, so that fall definitely screwed up your plan. But hey, that’s just how battles work. You get knocked down sometimes. You have to be able to adapt when that happens. You have to be able to revise your plan. If you spend the whole afternoon masturbating, don’t spend the whole evening masturbating as well. Say to yourself “Nunc coepi” and then get up and begin being productive. Take a shower to clean yourself physically, then pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy or whatever your tradition’s equivalent is to clean yourself spiritually, and then go practice thought-observation, or visualization, or pore breathing, or whatever.

    Here’s another example many Bardonists can probably relate to. Let’s say you plan to spend the afternoon practicing the exercises of IIH, but instead you end up spending the afternoon on Bardon forums discussing the exercises of IIH instead of actually practicing them. Is that a fall? I’d say it is. But it’s ok to fall (unless of course you fall so hard you break, which does occasionally happen). What’s not ok is staying down. So don’t spend your evening on Bardon forums as well. Say to yourself “Nunc coepi,” get up, and begin practicing.

    Those of you who are familiar with the TOG may remember Data Maschenny’s fight with Data Jahad. Honestly, that fight has been a source of inspiration to me from the day I first read those panels. Data Maschenny was knocked down really hard by Data Jahad. After Data Jahad knocked Data Maschenny down, he thought he’d won, so he was about to walk away. But Data Maschenny smiled, said “I’m not done yet,” got up (despite being badly injured), and continued fighting. We should be that way. If you spend your whole afternoon masturbating, then your lustfulness will probably think it’s won for the day. You have to say to it “Not so fast. I’m not done yet,” and then get up and continue fighting. Your lustfulness may have knocked you down, but you can still land a few strikes on it after getting up. You can clean yourself up and then grab your komboskini and repeat a prayer like “Lord Jesus Christ, please heal me of my lustfulness. Amen.” or “Lord God Almighty, please purify my heart so that I may be free of lustfulness. Amen.” Each time you repeat a prayer like one of these, you land a blow on your lustfulness. How powerful these blows are depends, of course, on how focused you remain while praying, as well as how much faith and humility you pray with. That said, even many weak blows will eventually wear down an opponent. If your komboskini has 100 knots, then you will land 100 blows on your lustfulness each time you go around the rope. When you strike your lustfulness in this way, you are not just striking it with soft fists. You are striking it with fire and lightning, with your sword and spear. Some of my readers will know what I mean by this; others may learn in time.

    The Importance of Wisdom

    There is a book called Where There is Light that is a collection of quotes from Paramahansa Yogananda (2). Many of the quotes collected in this book contain valuable insights for those walking any spiritual path, including Bardon’s magical path. Out of all the great and useful quotes I came across while reading that book, my favorite is the following one.

    ‘ It is not a sin to be tempted. Even though you are boiling with temptation, you are not evil; but if you yield to that temptation, you are caught temporarily by the power of evil. You must erect about yourself protecting parapets of wisdom. There is no stronger force that you can employ against temptation than wisdom. Complete understanding will bring you to the point where nothing can tempt you to actions that promise pleasure but in the end will only hurt you. ‘

    Earlier, I said that wisdom will strengthen you so that the forces which try to knock you down as you fight for adepthood can’t knock you down. Here Yogananda is saying that wisdom will form parapets around you that protect you from the forces that try to knock you down. These are slightly different ways of saying the same thing. Don’t focus too much on the specific metaphor used to convey the message. Focus instead on the message that is being conveyed, which is that wisdom is the crucial thing for those who would not be knocked down.

    Going to the Gym

    A friend of mine is a boxer. One day, he was attacked by a carjacker while trying to fill his car with gas. He was able to fight off the carjacker quite easily. Later, when my friend told me what had happened, I asked him what he thought about the incident. He said to me something along the lines of “I’m glad to have put in all of those hours at the boxing gym. The more time you spend at the gym, the easier of a time you’ll have if you get into a real fight.”

    That’s such an important lesson. Strength training is a big part of all martial arts and combat sports. Boxers do strength training, as is obvious if you just google “strength training for boxers” or some similar phrase. Kung fu practitioners do strength training, as is obvious if you’ve ever seen videos of Bruce Lee doing one-finger pushups or Shaolin monks running up hills while carrying giant jugs of water. Karatekas do strength training, as is obvious if you’ve ever seen videos of Mas Oyama lifting weights. To be a good fighter, you have to be strong. So if we want to win the fight against the lustfulness that tries to compel us to masturbate instead of practice VOM, or the fight against the laziness that tries to compel us to watch anime instead of practice conscious breathing, then we need to do strength training. And that means praying for wisdom. When you pray for wisdom, you’re hitting the gym. You’re getting stronger. If you spend enough time in the gym, you’ll become as strong as Yuri, Maschenny, Garam, Enne, or Adori. Then you’ll never be knocked down in a fight with lustfulness, laziness, your addiction to smoking, or any other vice or shortcoming.

    Of course boxers, kung fu practitioners, and karatekas don’t just do strength training. They also learn various techniques like punches, kicks, and throws. And so in the Buddhist and Christian traditions, we have various techniques for dealing with opponents like irascibility, lustfulness, arrogance, and greed. For example, many techniques for dealing with the opponent that is anger/irascibility can be found here. If you are a martial artist, it is important to learn how to throw a cross and a jab, and to launch a side kick or roundhouse kick. But imagine that you are fighting someone really strong like Kallavan. Even if you punch or kick him, he will not be hurt unless your strength matches his. I remember back when I practiced martial arts, someone taught me a technique for breaking out of a full nelson. But one time, an opponent got me in a full nelson and, even though I knew a technique for breaking out a full nelson, I wasn’t able to escape. Why? Because my opponent was ten time stronger than me. If your opponent is just that much stronger than you, then it doesn’t matter what techniques you know. You’re going to get overwhelmed and defeated. So strength is the main thing, the foundational thing. That book by Thubten Chodron I linked earlier contains eight techniques for dealing with anger. Even if you learn all eight of these techniques for dealing with anger, your anger will overwhelm you if it is just too strong, and you won’t be able to use any of the techniques you’ve learned. Same with lustfulness. The Buddhist, Yogic, and Christian traditions all teach various techniques for dealing with lustfulness. You can learn various techniques for dealing with lust, but if your lust is too strong, you’re just going to go masturbate instead of meditate anyway instead of trying to use these techniques. If you’re strong though, you won’t be overwhelmed by lust, and you can use the various techniques you’ve learned to deal with lustful thoughts and feelings. I hope it is obvious that this isn’t just useless philosophy or useless theory. The teachings I am trying to convey here are of great practical importance for many Bardonists, because many Bardonists are up against enemies that are as strong as Kallavan. They are up against strong smoking addictions that will cause them to die of lung cancer long before they get close to completing the work of IIH. They are up against strong lustfulness that compels them to spend all of their time masturbating instead of practicing the exercises of IIH. They are up against strong sloth and laziness that compels them to spend all of their time on social media or watching Netflix instead of practicing the exercises of IIH. Become someone who is actually able to defeat an opponent as strong as Kallavan or you’ll lose the fight for adepthood. Or, even better, become someone like Adori or Enne who could instantly wipe the floor with Kallavan. These are the Bardonists who work through IIH in a few short years at most. No opponent, even those as strong as Kallavan, stands a chance against them.

    There is Method to Getting Up

    You might think you know how to get up if physically knocked down, and you probably do. But the way you get up is probably not the best way. In BJJ, there is a technique called the “technical stand-up.” It is a good way to stand up again while in the midst of a fight, but it takes practice. The point is, just as in martial arts there are techniques for getting up, there are also techniques for getting up when you are knocked down on the battlefield of life. If you google something along the lines of “how to get yourself to do difficult tasks” or “how to get yourself to do unpleasant tasks,” you’ll find many articles containing practical suggestions and tips. Some good suggestions and tips can be found in this article, this article, and this article. Since getting up can be unpleasant and difficult, learning to get up consists largely of learning how to get yourself to do unpleasant and difficult things.

    Never Stop Fighting

    Each of the negative traits on one’s black soul mirror is an opponent whom we might overcome as we fight for adepthood. Imagine that a Bardonist is addicted to smoking and develops lung cancer. It seems that his addiction to smoking has dealt him a fatal blow and he will die of lung cancer before completing the work of IIH. He has already lost the battle. Imagine also that this Bardonists gives up fighting and says to himself “I’ve already developed lung cancer, so there’s no point in trying to overcome my addiction to smoking. I might as well just continue to smoke frequently for the rest of my life.” This Bardonist has been knocked down by a fatal blow, and he has decided that since he is already fatally wounded, there is no point in getting up and continuing the battle, since he has already lost the fight for adepthood.

    I think a Bardonist like this is making a grave error. In some sense, we never lose any battle, because each battle we die before winning is a battle we will resume in our next life. In yogic terms, addictions are produced by vasanas within our minds. Vasanas are things you carry with you from lifetime to lifetime. If you do not overcome these vasanas during your current life, then you will have to continue to fight them in your next life. Even if your addiction to smoking deals you a fatal blow, perhaps you can deal it a fatal blow before dying. So there is still reason to get up and continue fighting. If you kill this opponent, you will save yourself from the trouble of having to do so during your next life.

    The Most Important Fighting Skills

    Many Bardonists, and occultists in general, have an interest in martial arts. I was one of them too at one point. There is obviously nothing at all wrong with studying martial arts, and this can even be helpful, because it can help you remain healthy and having good physical health really is an advantage when it comes to magical training. However, keep in mind that the fight we engage in during our magical training is not a fight against other people, but a fight against our own vices and other shortcomings. Therefore, learning to fight effectively against our own vices and other shortcomings should take higher priority than learning to punch, kick, and throw other people. Over the course of the years, I have met a fair number of occultists, including a few Bardonists, who had studied martial arts and could easily break out of a rear naked choke or triangle choke, but who could not break free from the grip of their own narcissism or vyāpāda. If you can’t do that, if you can’t defeat the enemies preventing you from attaining adepthood, then it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve thrown other people or knocked them down. You won’t complete the work of IIH, and that’s that.

    Am I Contradicting Rawn Clark?

    In his book A Bardon Companion, Rawn Clark writes “It does no good to treat any part of self as an enemy. Self-transformation is not an adversarial process!” Yet, here I am talking about how magical training is a battle for adepthood taking place on the battlefield of life, and stating that you need to fight the vices and shortcomings that are trying to overcome you. Am I contradicting Rawn?

    No, I am not. What Rawn is saying is that we should not treat our vices and other shortcomings as literal enemies. What I am doing is portraying one’s vices and shortcomings, not as literal enemies, but as metaphorical enemies. To treat one’s vices and shortcomings as literal enemies is to harbor vyāpāda toward them and to attempt to eradicate these negative qualities while motivated by vyāpāda toward them. But when I say to “fight” against these negative qualities, all I am saying is to make a serious effort to eradicate them. When you practice conscious eating to cultivate patience, for example, you are “fighting” against your impatience. You obviously don’t need to harbor vyāpāda toward your impatience in order to cultivate patience through conscious eating. In fact, concentration is a major component of conscious eating, and vyāpāda and the other hindrances will hinder you from concentrating well. Therefore, the more vyāpāda you harbor toward your impatience, the worse of a fighter you will be. Similarly, you are fighting against your lustfulness whenever you take up your komboskini and repeat a prayer like “Lord Jesus Christ, please heal me of my lustfulness. Amen.” In texts on prayer, you see a lot of discussion of how faith and humility are the foundations of effective prayer, but have you ever seen anyone claim that vyāpāda is a foundation of effective prayer? I haven’t. So when I say to “fight” against your vices and shortcomings, I’m not saying to harbor vyāpāda toward them or to act against them in ways motivated by vyāpāda. The metaphor of a battle is just that – a metaphor. Don’t take it too literally.

    Spiritual Combat is an Extremely Vast Subject

    This article is specifically intended to be about the subject of getting up again after falling down on the battlefield of life; it is not meant to cover the entire subject of spiritual combat. When it comes to learning how to fight for adepthood, there is much more to learn than just how to get up again after falling. A BJJ practitioner who has learned the technical stand-up but doesn’t know any throws or chokes isn’t going to win against any opponents. As you go into the battlefield of life to fight for adepthood, what weapons will you use? Perhaps you will use a sword, or perhaps you will use some other weapon. Also, have you heard the story of how Saint Columba called the archangel Michael down to fight by his side during the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne? As you fight for adepthood, you too can call the archangel Michael down to fight by your side if you are familiar with certain devotional techniques. But these are all topics for another time. To learn to fight takes time and effort, but if you do not succeed in learning how to fight, how can you win the fight for adepthood? For now, learn to get up again after getting knocked down. This isn’t enough, but it’s a good start. Later, learn to fight with fire and lightning, to wield your sword and spear. These things will all be revealed in time.

    1 – John Shanks and Jessi Alexander, “Miley Cyrus – the Climb,” Miley Cyrus – The Climb (Genius Lyrics), accessed August 12, 2022, https://genius.com/Miley-cyrus-the-climb-lyrics.

    2 – Yogananda, Where There Is Light: Insight and Inspiration for Meeting Life’s Challenges (Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 2016), Chapter 9, Section 2, quote 6.

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  • Self Mastery with David Monaghan – The Art of Attunement

    Self Mastery with David Monaghan – The Art of Attunement

    Today I would like to welcome David Monaghan to the blog. David runs a beautiful website called The Art of Attunement which I highly recommend visiting after reading his interview. He has decades of experience to share with us from solo practice in a small hut in Australia to living in Buddhist Temples in Thailand.

    PAA: Welcome David, firstly we would like to thank you for taking part in this interview. Could you provide us with a brief introduction of your journey so far?

    David: Thank you James, I appreciate you having me on. My Hermetic journey began in 1999 when I started practicing Initiation Into Hermetics & Chi Kung with a friend of mine who I had grown up with. After roughly 6 months he had decided to travel to Thailand and introduced me to his teacher at the time, Sifu Mark Rasmus, to continue the training. Soon after this I realised, I had found my teacher and was ALL IN, so to speak, from that point forward. We trained constantly under Sifu’s guidance and had a small group of like-minded practitioners who were working together as a cohesive group. The training was a mix of hermetic meditation, chi kung & tai chi during these times.

    Sifu & his father, Eric Rasmus, who had both studied under William Cook Edwards in the 80’s at The School of Inner Knowledge, had a piece of land high in the mountains of Southeast Queensland. I was invited to build a small cabin on the land, which I did, and spent a large portion of my twenties living fairly isolated and practicing what I had be taught up until that point. I have very fond memories of these times, even though living without running water, electricity or a toilet and shower was difficult at times.

    During this period, I experienced many happenings that removed all doubt as to the capacity for one to awaken to the spiritual world while occupying a human body. These experiences grew over time, and I developed a yearning to push further into the practice. Hence, I decided to journey to Thailand with the intention of ordaining in the Thai Buddhist Forest Tradition at Wat Pah Nanachat in Northeast Thailand. Although difficult, this was a great experience and one that I highly recommend for any of your readers that are so inclined. Being immersed in practice, without any worldly distractions is a unique experience and allows for fast tracked progress if approached with a sincere intention. The spiritual energy within this temple was incredible and I had some great adventures during my stay, however due to some external circumstances I decided to return to Australia and took up residence in my forest cabin once more.

    Over the following years I continued the training and learning everything I could from my teacher. I also went and lived in another Buddhist temple in the same forest tradition in Canberra, Australia for some time.

    Basically, during my twenties, I was All In on the practice and lived it with every fibre of my being. I then met my wife in my early thirties and started a family soon thereafter, hence my thirties where focused around providing for the family and my ascetic lifestyle took a back seat. Now I am in my forties, my yearning for practice has switched on again with some force and I am enjoying practice and the path more than ever.

    PAA: Having started with training with Sifu Mark Rasmus way back in the year 2000, can you tell us how that training influenced you and where you went from there in your practice?

    David: Learning from Sifu is something that is difficult to put into words and I am eternally grateful for his time and efforts that he has dedicated to his students over the years. His depth of experience, knowledge, understanding and devotion to the Hermetic Sciences is on a completely different level to anyone else that I have ever encountered. I still consider myself to be a beginner on the path in comparison to his overall embodiment and level of understanding. I think one of the main reasons I have stayed under his direction for so long is that he always approaches his students from an equal footing and genuinely wants them to progress, rather than the usual hierarchal formats that quite often present themselves in some circles.

    I have been in the presence of many other teachers and so-called magicians; however, I don’t believe there has been anyone even close to that level of understanding, insight and overall capacity to see the different levels of reality. This made things somewhat difficult in the early years as I could I always sense my thoughts and feelings where highly exposed and there was not much my personality could hide in or out of his presence.

    I feel very grateful to have been able to train under Sifu’s guidance for so long and I consider myself to be very blessed to have had such a well-rounded, genuine and intuitive teacher. Unfortunately, due to my personal circumstances and responsibilities it has been some years since I have been able to be a student and have had to rely on my own personal accountability in respect to practice and development. This has given me the time & space to take ownership of the training rather than ride on the group energy which is a far easier pathway in some respects. Sifu does a fantastic job of holding the group energy, which allows for a faster development and much easier transmission of knowledge and understanding.

    PAA: You spent time in the Buddhist temples in Thailand. Could you share your experience? I personally like the Thai tradition for the somewhat measurable results through the various Jhana, how did your experience influence your Hermetic work?

    David: I have a deep respect and affinity for Buddhism, particularly the Thai Forest Tradition, although I also have a pull towards Tibetan & Shingon Buddhism. When you dive into the true teachings of Buddhism, it is a science in just the same way as Hermetics. In particular, the 37 Factors of Awakening from the Thai Tradition is something that has made a very large imprint on my consciousness and development. The 37 Factors overlaps the Hermetic framework perfectly and provides a very clear pathway to awakening.

    A brief overview of the correlation of the 37 Factors of Awakening from a Hermetic perspective:

    The Four Frames of Reference

    • Mindfulness in reference to the Body – Physical awareness
    • Mindfulness in reference to the Feelings – Astral awareness
    • Mindfulness in reference to the Mind – Mental awareness
    • Mindfulness in reference to the Mental Qualities – Akashic awareness

    The Seven Stages of Awakening

    Mindfulness, Analysis of Qualities, Persistence, Rapture, Serenity, Concentration, Equanimity.

    From a Hermetic perspective I consider this to corelate to the black & white mirror and balancing the four elements within the three bodies to generate magical equilibrium.

    The Four Right Exertions

    • Preventing negative qualities from arising
    • Releasing negative qualities that have arisen
    • Inviting positive qualities to arise
    • Nurturing positive qualities that have arisen

    From a Hermetic perspective I believe this corelates well to the different ways a Hermeticist can battle negative character traits, thus being;

    • Willpower
    • Autosuggestion
    • Alchemical Transmutation

    The Four Bases of Power

    • Concentration on Discernment
    • Concentration on Desire
    • Concentration on Intent
    • Concentration on Persistence

    From a Hermetic perspective we can easily see this in the four-fold key i.e;

    • Discernment correlates to the Air principle and the ability for one to “Listen”
    • Desire correlates to the Water principle and the ability for one to “Join”
    • Intent correlates to the Fire principle and the ability for one to “Intend or Will”
    • Persistence correlates to the Earth principle and the ability for one to “Persist or hold One Pointed attention”

    The Five Faculties & The Five Strengths

    • The faculty & strength of conviction
    • The faculty & strength of persistence
    • The faculty & strength of mindfulness
    • The faculty & strength of concentration
    • The faculty & strength of discernment

    From a Hermetic perspective these qualities are fairly self-evident and I consider them to relate to the qualitive and quantitative aspects of each of the above qualities.

    The Noble Eight-Fold Path

    • Right view
    • Right resolve
    • Right speech
    • Right action
    • Right livelihood
    • Right effort
    • Right mindfulness
    • Right concentration

    Again, from a Hermetic perspective I consider the above points are fairly self-evident and can be correlated into the black & white mirror work as well as the mental training exercises in Initiation Into Hermetics.

    This is obviously only a brief overview, and the 37 Factors of Awakening teachings and warrants further investigation and meditation, however I believe they will suffice for your readers and anyone that has interest will be able to dive deeper in their own studies.

    In respect to the different Jhanas or stages of concentration, as you indicated, this is also very beautifully described and laid out in Buddhism i.e

    The Four Form Jhanas

    • Appreciative Joy
    • Compassion
    • Loving Kindness
    • Equanimity

    The Four Formless Jhanas

    • Awareness of Infinite Space
    • Awareness of Infinite Consciousness
    • Awareness of Nothingness
    • Neither Perception Nor Non-Perception

    The Four Divine Abodes is also worthy of attention, thus being;

    • Appreciative Joy
    • Compassion
    • Loving Kindness
    • Equanimity

    The four divine abodes relate to states of awareness one should endeavour to maintain in everyday life. Whenever one is out of alignment with or not acting from one of these four states it is said that one is out of alignment with their true self and operating from the lower aspects of individualised personality.

    During daily activities one can reflect on these qualities and transform negative states into one of these four positive qualities through the willpower, autosuggestion or alchemical transmutation. This applies to not only actions but thoughts and feelings also.

    PAA: You run the Art of Attunement. Can you tell us a little about the name? From my training with Mark I am sure there is a story there to be told.

    David: Attunement is a term I was exposed to a lot over the years training under Sifu and I believe his teacher also used the term at The School of Inner Knowledge. I consider the term to encapsulate the overall goal of practice and the ability to connect with different vibratory levels. One of the most important teachings I received from Sifu was to always practice from our highest level of Attunement i.e prior to beginning any exercise we would raise our awareness up through the crown to our highest level of Attunement achieved in any past incarnation and practice from that state of awareness rather from the lower aspects of the personality. From my perspective The Art of Attunement is the process of bringing our material brain back under control through mastering thoughts and emotions and then learning to meditate into the silence to awaken to our true spiritual essence. Once this essence has been realised, we begin to open the doorway to Universal Consciousness, through building a vibrational scale of perception that allows the awareness to raise lower energies to higher, leading to the embodiment of our highest level of Attunement within the physical world.

    PAA: From the site you offer a variety of meditation programs, but I see you also teach about the Hermetic theory of awakening and working with energy. Can you tell us about your approach to teaching? Does it follow a more Franz Bardon Hermetic approach or is it more similar to the Buddhist approach?

    David: In my opinion and from what I can tell up until this point, the quickest way for someone to awaken the higher spirit senses is to learn how to tangibly feel energy. Once energetic sensitivity has been awakened, one then uses this energetic sensing as their meditation object and learns how to hold the awareness and the mind external of the physical body. With consistent and correct practice this ability becomes stronger, and the spirit senses naturally begin to awaken as they are not restricted by the physiology of the material body. Humanity still accepts the ability for one to “feel” subtle energies within the group consciousness, whereas if you tell the average person on the street that you can see or worse yet hear spirits, generally you are one step away from the funny farm or mental asylum.

    I have found through my own teaching as well as being in a student environment, that most practitioners that attempt to go only through the mental gate struggle to make progress as the mind is so subtle in its nature. Even Bardons Step 1 mental training is quite a feat to achieve for the majority of people and to be honest I don’t believe many can actually achieve success in this exercise without having a strong spiritual maturity already present with in the consciousness. To hold a completely vacant mind for 10 mins or more is a profound achievement in and of itself and displays a level of genuine mastery of the material mind. Don’t get me wrong I still believe these exercises are extremely valuable and worthy of practice and attention, I just think learning to feel energy first develops a stronger foundation to work from, especially for a beginner.

    In respect to my teaching style, it will vary from student to student, my goal is to become as empty as possible, step out of the way and let the energy flow through that will best help whoever I am working with. Having said that, obviously the majority of my work comes from Sifu Mark Rasmus, Franz Bardon’s works and of late I have developed a great affinity and connection with William Cook Edwards work from The School of Inner Knowledge. I also enjoy the teachings of Alice A Bailey as well as many others and have found it very advantageous to incorporate a considerable amount of Buddhist and Taoist principles and teachings.

    PAA: What sort of schedule would you expect beginning students to keep in order to actually make some progress? Additionally, how do you define and measure progress in meditative arts?

    David: It depends on the goal of the student, with each person being at unique level of spiritual maturity, I think it is somewhat pointless to place everyone in the same box. Not everyone is seeking full awakening, even if they think they are, hence it is up to the student to decide how far and how much they willing to push themselves. I see my role as just being a guide to the best of my ability to facilitate as much progress as possible and pass on the teachings and knowledge that I have so graciously been given.

    In respect to defining and measuring progress, in my opinion I believe it comes down to the perfection of one’s character. I have met many so called “magicians” who apparently have all these magical skills yet when it comes to their everyday character it is far from perfected. I think the ultimate gauge and a good question to ask yourself is if every being in the universe could see your every thought, feeling and action how comfortable would you be? This may depend on the level of arrogance within the character, hence, to take it one step further you could deepen this by reflecting on how much equanimity could you hold if your awareness was to suddenly transfer into a heavenly realm where your thoughts and feelings are no longer your own and you are an open book so to speak. Again this could be viewed with a certain level of arrogance or self-importance, however, if one is genuinely able to move the awareness into one of these higher levels, arrogance would quickly dissolve and the presence of such a quality would not allow the doorway to open to begin with.

    PAA: The common question we are often asked is how to proceed through the early steps of IIH. Vacancy of Mind, Visualization, and sensitivity to feeling Vital force. Can you offer those struggling in these areas any suggestions for their practice in order to move forward?

    David: There are many mental tricks one can adopt to allow for a faster progression, one that has helped me over the years is to develop an affinity for your meditation object. When you have an affinity or affection for something it is much easier for the mind to stay one pointed in focus. Thus, with the Vacancy of Mind exercise it is a good idea to develop a certain level of affection for that state of awareness, instead of always fighting thoughts from arising, you run to that state with a sense of bliss at being able to forget your everyday world for the time you are there.

    In respect to Visualisation one of the things that has helped me is to realise that if everything is made up of light and if white light has every colour of the spectrum within it then all colours exist within that light. Hence instead of imagining a colour or object you Will the colour or object out of the light that already exists.

    For sensitivity to Vital force the whole-body pore breathing exercise is the best place to start. If investigated and meditated on diligently one recognises that this is a natural phenomenon and one that is happening constantly with or without our knowledge. Softening the breath until it is almost imperceptible is one of the more important aspects of being able to listen to vital force. Once sensitivity to Vital Force has been awakened, building energy between the hands is the next step which allows you to tangibly feel the energy and erode any doubts as to its existence lurking in the back of one’s consciousness. The four bases of power as discussed above is a major key to this work and allows one to generate an energetic lock on the Vital Force as well as any other energetic frequency.

    PAA: Are you able to tell us about your experience with PME and KTQ? Are these a big part of your training or have you focused your efforts elsewhere?

    David: Training with Sifu for so many years, Evocation and Kabbalah where obviously a very large part of the training, however this is something I don’t generally discuss openly as I believe it is irrelevant to do so, especially in an open forum. In my opinion, perfection of the character is a far more relevant topic and unfortunately one that is quite often overlooked. Hence why Bardon made such a point of it with the Black & White Mirror.

    Having said that there is a large portion of Kabbalah practice within the Tiger Chi Kung system that I teach and was taught by Sifu, mainly building the four elements kabbalisticaly within the four regions of the physical, astral, mental and akashic bodies.

    PAA: Here we invite you to talk about any subjects that you feel are important.

    David: I think one of the more important aspects to the training, particularly for beginners and something that was strongly programmed into me by my teacher was to remember to focus on the process rather than the results. The results will come in and of themselves as a side effect of the correct processes being undertaken. The competitive nature of humanity often leads to performance anxiety and disrupts the mind from attaining one pointed concentration on a meditation object.

    Also, I believe the most important teaching I was ever given by my teacher was to develop and build the frequencies of Humility, Devotion, Reverence and Sacredness through all levels one’s being i.e body or actions, soul or personality and spirit or mind. This to me is the most important key that I have been given as it assists in opening the door to the higher frequencies and levels of existence.

    PAA: Thank you David for taking part.

    If you would like to contact David or learn more about his approach please contact David over on his site The Art of Attunement

    Rainbow Body, Jalu and the Miraculous (Updated for 2022)

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  • Magical Journey through Franz Bardons Universal System of Initiation- Interview with Antonio

    Magical Journey through Franz Bardons Universal System of Initiation- Interview with Antonio

    We are welcoming today Antonio a practitioner of Franz Bardons system who is generously sharing his personal experience of the path. He has his own blog that I encourage you all to visit: TUNA blog – spiritual enlightenment thanks to Franz Bardon (tuna-blog.azurewebsites.net)

    PAA: Welcome Antonio and thank you for joining us. Could you introduce yourself, your magical journey and how you came to be on this path of Franz Bardon’s teachings.

    Antonio: Hi, first of all I want to thank you for this opportunity of sharing my current experience with other practitioners. I’ve been a materialist oriented for years, striving for career goals and for other people acceptance and judgement. I’ve been in contact thanks to a friend of mine with freemasonry in 2013. I joined in 2014, but I still was missing something in my life, I wanted something practical to learn, to experiment, and primary, to get results. I’ve read lot of books about modern magic, but somehow, I’ve missed the Bardon’s entire path for months until my brother, scholar on compared and East religions, gifted me the first Italian edition (first 90nties if I’m not wrong) of IIH. I felt like Colombo discovering America continent. My greatest obstacle of the first months (almost 6) was meditating. I never had any meditation before, and I also had some fear of meditation, as it was a sort of hypnosis where someone else from everywhere in the world could ever take control of my mind…. I will never miss the memory of my first real result in vacancy of mind: I was on a simple chair, and I was so scared of the feeling I needed some other week to have again the bravery of retry the practice.

    PAA: From your blog you have lots of very helpful information. What do you feel are the main challenges that students face in the practice of Initiation into Hermetics?

    Antonio: Well, I have a little idea of the main challenges beginning practitioners may face at the first steps thanks to Facebook groups. In my opinion the two biggest I see are laziness and over-thinking. Laziness occurs to people that think it is like in the movies. You read IIH and start firing fireballs…. And when this is not happening, they start saying it is too difficult, it is badly written, it is cryptic, I was not born to practice as “you”, where this “you” is always someone who shared his/her results, eventually without specifying the difficulties faced, the time spent, the sacrifices overcome, and so on. The second category (I repeat, IMHO) are the overthinkers. People who try to syncretize all the knowledge available in all books from all kinds of magic, from all kind of traditions and cultures and eventually written in totally different historical ages. People who, eventually, start caring about the color of vital energy years before also trying to do the first ever practice.

    PAA: What has been the biggest challenge for you in your work with Franz Bardons material and how did you overcome it?

    Antonio: I think the worst challenges I had to face was during step 4, between 2017 and 2019. Yep. Two years. I felt the loneliness of me as practitioner trying to balance my time between family, work and hermetic. The difficulty of practicing something (transfer of consciousness) that I found (at the time) deeply wrong (because I mis-understood the practice as spying people inner thoughts). I waited for months with some good and some (let say) relaxed practice until I met two corner stones of my path… I’ve found the help from Ray del Sole and I’ve made my first meeting with my HGA. I will not go into the details, obviously, buy I want to add that at the time, I almost daily asked for help (in terms of praying for). When I’ve found Ray, I was extremely happy because with his suggestions my practice advanced to step 6 in few months. It was in that time that I’ve made a strange (without memory) dream. The only think I remember is that I awaked in the middle of night with a very powerful “mission” I definitely needed to do. Rising up and write down a “name” on my journal. Then it was Ray who identified him as my HGA. Later I’ve made additional contacts, then I’ve started a beginner communication, and so on.

    PAA: What advice can you give to those people who are perpetually on Step 1/2? Have they misunderstood the requirements of the step?

    Antonio: Well, it seems I already addressed this question above. I will instead talk of the keys of the progress in IIH path. Practicing exercises like in a gym is useless. When you end step 1, you should start being powerful in mind also in the everyday life. You are now a meditator. The same happens with step 2, you should become a new person by starting the changing of yourself. In other words, IIH changes you. Is not a sort of workout. Until you will overthink, or be too lazy, or repulse the transformation that IIH should bring into your life, you will never advance further. I personally like the idea of considering those people the “Fools” as for the tarot card # zero. They have an idea of what there is (in the Universe), because they have now made a basic experience, and they’ve read IIH, but they are still on their “relaxed” way.

    PAA: What steps have you enjoyed the most and got the most satisfaction out of completing?

    Antonio: In few words, step 7 clairaudience to me has been the key to go further in any step or plane or whatever. Bardon wants we are our self-teachers. He wants we enlighten ourselves learning and practicing. But he also wants we have encounters, first with our HGA, and later with beings from planes, not as magicians from other traditions only to prove we’re powerful and “force” those beings doing something for your personal benefit. No. He wants we became friend with those beings. Friends and also, he wants we learn from them. Later we can use the same practice to talk with gods and to “read the mind” as we all know from Frabato novel. This is because, imho, clairaudience it the first of the ability of high level we need to master. Yep, clairvoyance is a great tool too, we can see auras and we can access to the symbolic world. Something of incredible importance. But without the ability to talk we’re less than halfway on our path to self-learn and self-enlighten.

    PAA: I notice from your blog you share the same thoughts as I do about the importance of the depth point training. Can you talk more about this and how it shifts one practice at the start of the 2nd half of IIH.

    Antonio: Space magic or akashic point magic is the key to get into a position of power with anyone or anything. I already made some examples of key tools or key practices we find during the path of IIH. These keys are not only important steps in the practice. They each change the practitioner and the practice also of other steps. In step 4 transfer of consciousness, we can feel the target, or transform into the target, or both and interchange the two experiences. But when we’re at step 5, and we do the transfer of consciousness using the deep point as an access door, we rapidly get into the real target. It’s like we get a short way to the core of the target.

    PAA: What can you tell us about your work with the second and third books, PME and KTQ?

    Antonio: I chose to not work at this moment with KTQ. I’ve made some practice to “try”, but I’ve never actually worked with KTQ because I already have a huge amount of work with PME and IIH. Working with PME is greatly a mystery to IIH practitioners who didn’t reached step 8 to try. I personally have used the magical authority only once. Because the quest I was having was requesting the use of such practice. I prefer asking, eventually talking. And getting to what I consider the primary goal. Friendship. I can recognize in my life and also in the life of other friends here on Earth the influence of the beings from this or other planes. When you start a friendship, or even when you simply met some of those beings, you’re already into their influence sphere. And things start to move differently from how normally happens on other (normal) people.

    PAA: I notice from your blog you have returned to your religious practice in conjunction with IIH. What can you tell us about this? Was it like going full circle returning to some of the practices you did when younger prior to IIH?

    Antonio: Eh, this is a complex topic. Yes, I’ve made a return to Christianity thanks to the experiences I’ve made with IIH. Obviously, my current participation into the Sunday mass is totally different from other people. I can feel the energies. I can see the “angels” involved into the ritual. I can feel and interact with Jesus. But this also created into me a powerful crisis. The call of the right-hand path in participating this was to a mass is definitely strong. It is easier. It is full of gratifications coming straight from a god. For instance, the feeling of getting into the grace. A sensation of “rightfulness” mixed to the feeling of proximity to a god. The love. And all the other feelings. But there are also issues into this path (I mean in Christianity). The duality is strong. There is a hidden pure positive energy that always try to fight the negative energy of super dense astral beings (commonly referred as demons – in modern meaning). I felt the strongest resistance from negativity in the time I mostly I got closer to Jesus. All that grace, all those great feelings, asked a price. The absolute purity. You can fail. You can’t absolutely give time and energies to any of your negativity. In this, Bardon’s path is definitely gentler. It gives you time (and tools) to transform. While in Christianity you have not time, as your mind get into any negativity, you miss the grace…. You flow away…. And to get back, you have to righteously maintain the purest mind and conduct of actions. Jesus is really the god of salvation. He said “only through me, you’ll find the salvation”. This is true, in the meaning that between all gods I know (I’m not an encyclopedia), He is the only one actually giving you salvation only asking for absolute giving to Him. I’ve tried this experience as an initiate, so with totally different abilities and knowledge from other people, and I’ve found all true. But I’ve found Bardon’s path more suited to my destiny.

    PAA: Lastly is there anything else you would like to discuss or a message you would like to share with readers?

    Antonio: I’d like to conclude with something from a friend who helped me into the edge of my most difficult moments with my path. Be serious in your work but never be hard on yourself. Find the time to celebrate your successes, also the smallest, because this path is seriously difficult and any success worthy of a celebration.

    PAA: Thank you very much for sharing with us your journey.

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  • Magical Evocation and Invocation Simplified – An Interview with Jake Green

    Magical Evocation and Invocation Simplified – An Interview with Jake Green

    Today we we would like to introduce one of the new teachers here at Perseus Arcane Academy, Jake Green. He has a tremendous amount of experience that has been gained from some intensive training literally living and travelling with some very well known teachers from within the Franz Bardon community. The result of this is a clarity and understanding of the path of the Initiate, Sphere Magician and Quabbalist with the rare ability to teach the skills that allow others to gain the very same access and understanding to these teachings.

    Before we begin the interview lets have Jake introduce himself and his new course in the following video.

    Interview

    PAA: Thank you Jake for joining us. Please could you share a little of your journey, how you came to this path and what you have trained in over the years.

    Jake: I came into the Hermetic path when I was 15 years old. I’ve loved the idea Evocation since I was a little kid. Growing up, I went through catholic school for most of my primary education. A lot of Christian sermons were claiming things like Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh & Digimon would turn kids over to the occult at a very early age–– In my case, they were right!! All of my favorite forms of media were about summoning monsters or monster-related. Scooby doo. Or watching the Rugrats special where a Baby depiction of Moses drops his staff on the ground & parts the Nile river. As a very young child, I would draw monsters in my drawing book. I was all about monsters, dinosaurs, & sharks. When learning about animals or mythical monsters, I tried to understand “how many attack points does it have?” in reference to yugioh, a children’s card game where attack points= power. This type of lateral thinking quickly dissipated when I connected with real beings years latter. I also watched movies, like the Labyrinth & The Dark Crystal. Brain Froud, the art director of those films, is a gifted medium & his depictions of fairies in the films were strikingly accurate to the appearance & frequency of some of the faerie folk I met later on.

    Before I was an adolescent, I had many, many encounters with nature spirits & other beings out in the wilderness where I lived. I had a leprechaun friend whom I would talk to sometimes for hours. He would stand in patch of tall weaves in the grass about 3 ft high. He’d turn them left or right to communicate yes/no. While I often couldn’t see him with the naked eye, here’s what was curious–– The entire area would be still with no wind, whereas the weave of grass that he stood on would move delicately or vigorously depending on the answer or question I presented. Additionally, he would send me telepathic messages. pendulum-like yes/no was very effective in training me to communicate & understand him. I quickly understood intuitively that it wasn’t any treasures or material object he has that were substantive or important, but what I learned, the teachings, the true friendship & knowledge that I gained out of that connection.

    I have an unpublished memoir of 120-130 pages (20k words, a little smaller than a standard book) I’ve written about all my prepubescent experiences with ancestral land spirits, sasquatch, & various gnomes, sylphs, & magical experiences I was gifted by faeries. I’d be open to publishing if there’s any interest. Some stories are traumatic, others are very funny & involve me being at the the butt of many pranks!!

    I cannot claim to be a natural medium–– rather it was my connection with the forest & the fact that my mom had fairies with her for her whole life that made it possible for me to connect with them. Being prepubescent makes all sorts of beings more willing to come out of the woodworks to connect for better & worse.

    I still felt/saw spirits throughout my teens if I was traveling to really activated places, like New Orleans, old European cities & mountaintops, or in sacred regions in Hawaii. But it wasn’t as regular an occurrence. Between all my relationships with different beings, playing role-playing games like The elder-scrolls & travel, I unconsciously put those aspects together since travel awakens my spirit to psychic impressions more than anything else & the video games added fuel to the bonfire. 30 countries later, I still have the travel bug more than ever!

    As an adult, I don’t see spirits if I don’t want to, unless they “knock on the door” of my crown or periphery sight. I mostly just stay connected with higher light realms since the value is exponentially greater.

    Because of the organic relationships I developed with beings, faeries & spirits, I always hated how grimoire’s & books approached connecting & “dominating” them or asking them for unreasonable favors to materialize possessions, so I never followed the instructions of old grimoires. I also never connected with the beings of books like the goetica (with the exception of a few) because of all the negative hang-ups that I intuitively felt could happen. I’ve also never, ever asked spirits for anything material, only ever knowledge.

    I discovered Franz Bardon first when I was a part of the Evocationalmagic.com (now StudioArcanis) forum, which has since been debunk. I notice it had a whole section dedicated to Franz Bardon & I found it quite curious so I investigated the book.

    I started a website recently called www.Mysterycollege.com . One of my hopes was that serious practitioners that were apart of that forum & followers of Franz Bardons could find camaraderie there & at the Perseus Academy. I’m very shy with marketing myself, so I’ve mostly been focused on building the features. I’ve been playing around with achievements, gamification, and building a forum, which is a ton of work for a one-man crew (You know that too well, James!)

    PAA: You have spent the last few years intensively pursuing your path. Can you share some of the highlights over the last few years? It must have been a wonderful experience being able to live and travel with some of these teachers.

    Jake: I’ve spent tons of time with some of the best Franz Bardon practitioners around–– some are well-known & others who don’t reach out for the limelight. One of my favorite moments was going to the grave of Franz Bardon with Bob Smith & another member of our community Fabio in Opava, Czech Republic. I’ve had the pleasure of practicing & traveling with Bob full-time in many different countries across three different continents. Not a “spiritual” story, but a funny/shocking one. We rented a car from Prague & drove it across the country until nightfall. We were trying to “Czech” into hotels, but many were uninterested in hosting several foreigners. The Eastern side of Czech Republic is entirely different the western part (ie: Prague) We were even asked to leave by a dodgy hotel 1-hour outside Opava. The attendant of the hotel didn’t speak English, so a lady of the night who was there to get a room with her client was translating for the attendant, “sorry, there is no room available for you.” In hindsight, it is a very good thing that we left that town & didn’t stay there.

    Franz Bardon’s grave was quite magical and quaint. People leave little stones & crystals there & then it appears that the crystals become very charged this way. I haven’t tuned in to seeing whether it’s one of his serving spirits doing the charging or if Franz does this himself. I took a quartz crystal someone placed on his grave & it was charged very strongly, even though it was probably recently placed there within the last few months.

    Once you reach a certain level of momentum with Evocation, Invocation & Kabbalah, peak experiences happen with far more regularity so it is difficult to call out the best ones. This week as of writing this I’ve had a blast playing around with two-letter kabbalah combinations & integrating them with my morning affirmations & Visualization practice. Today I connected with some light realms while reading a book, which was happening in the background. Yesterday When I played Doom 3 in VR on my Occulus headset, I later felt some saturnian energies that were knocking at my crown & I politely declined. Doing this work is an amplifier of good & bad opportunities, so you’ve got to be extra conscientious of the media & information that you consume. Some people I know who are advanced simply cannot handle violence, horror, or reading the news because of their heightened sensitivity. One of my well-known friends in the community often watches anime for hours while streaming non-dual light! (I don’t recommend this approach if you haven’t been practicing for decades like he has) In other words, you can play & enjoy life as a normal human being with this work & still have extremely profound effects on a day-to-day basis.

    I recently watched a youtube documentary on consumerism & western cultures’ obsession with ‘newness”. The conclusion of that 90 minute documentary was that to combat the shallowness of western culture, the best antidote is to instead be a consumer of profound depth in fewer things (knowledge, consumer purchases, & community-oriented purchases.) For me, this translated to my experiences of gaining expertise in the Initation, Evocation & Kabbalah processes.

    That all said, there is a very important balance between treating all of these practices with the greatest level of the highest degree of sacredness & being able to apply the teachings during the most mundane activities. Most teachers adopt the attitude of sacredness because it is the best attribute for personal practice & the highest level of transmissions/teaching, at the cost of scaring off most students who’d feel inadequate. While if I talk only about media, games, & comedic encounters while traveling that may communicate too little reverence & take away the punch power to the teachings when transferring these lessons. At this stage for me, the best way to balance is to communicate both of these polarities so that people can find the middle ground for themselves & accept their own light & dark natures.

    PAA: You are known for your work with Sifu Mark Rasmus, being the co author of the very successful Backdoor into Hermetics. Can you talk about how your work with Mark assisted you in each of the books of Franz Bardon, IIH, PME and KTQ?

    Jake: Mark taught me about all the various hidden aspects of the Franz Bardon framework that are not publicly available. The irony is that even when publishing an advanced esoteric book like Franz Bardon did, it is still in many ways, “exoteric.” Exoteric means that these books were developed for the public OF HIS TIME. I can only image that Bardon had his Esoteric & inner circle practice where he could share energetic transmissions & help students gain abilities at a far more advanced pace then they would’ve on their own. Books are just far too limited. In traditional esoteric circles in Western Europe, people would visit their teacher in short spurts to get the attunements & get back to practicing on their own. The myth of a solitary practitioner isn’t helpful & I don’t encourage it. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I just stayed alone in my room and bashed my head against my copy of the IIH text, only repeating the observing & rising of thought exercise over and over and over again & being sorely disappointed…

    It is unfair to expect anyone to learn calculus on their own using a textbook, especially if they didn’t know how to add, subtract or knew what they should focus on reading. How discouraging would that be? Where would they know where to start? Attunements give you all the energetic information to make these instinctive calculations for magical practices so that they “just work.” In a post-enlightenment westernized world, Magic, akasha, light, universal principles, Esoteric Dharma teachings & Quabalah are much more conceptually difficult to comprehend because there is virtually zero consensus of belief in society that supports you on this path. Our perceptions of reality are largely guided by what our societies dictates we can see & no one is immune to their environment. What wants you to psychically evolve is your spirit & nature itself, which is why I believe getting direct transmissions, as well as practicing in the forest with plants & trees is the fastest way to grow & have breakthroughs in your practice.

    The beauty of technology today is that we can transfer far larger bandwidths of data than text. A text file is kilobytes (1,000s of bytes, ) whereas video is often gigabytes (billions of bytes.) The extra bandwidth carries Way more information for our intellect, feelings & spirit to discern nuisance. With videos, I’ve been able to help students far more than I would have with using books alone. Additionally, instead of reading & subvocalizing the words of a book in the voice you’re projecting onto the author, we can instead see each other eye-to-eye (albeit parasocially.) You can see a human versus a mythologized author, which really helps with getting a realistic feel for our soul mirror work & normalizing the hermetic lifestyle. If we feel that we are too separate from the possibility of getting truly competent in the framework because we worship our heroes too much, then we are missing out on so much. I’ve had at least a dozen people who have met me in person & who’ve read the Backdoor into Hermetics back-to-front & are often surprised to find myself being an easy-going goofy guy when not actively practicing or teaching. The author personality or teaching personalities are just one of many dimensionalities of being that we have. I can say the trait of a strong sense of humor is characteristic in the best practitioners I’ve met.

    All the advanced hermeticists I’ve met who have been highly competent magicians who I’ve seen with my own eyes demonstrate wild abilities are also very human –– in both their strengths & flaws. That’s why the practice of self mastery isn’t about reaching total perfection as projected by our egos, but about attaining equilibrium with all of our attributes

    It is my belief that if Franz Bardon were alive today, he would do transmissions via video as well to help accelerate student’s progress massively.

    PAA: What are some of the main challenges you see students get stuck on? What would be the solution to these challenges? For example we often see questions about how to attain the emptiness of mind, visualization, and depth point. Any tips for attaining these important IIH skills?

    Jake: One example I see students get stuck on is the gap between doing the initiation text & doing Evocational magic & invocation. For example, Bardon had a student who he started working with & initiated into Evocational magic after 3 DAYS of working with him.

    Emptiness of mind

    Visualization

    Depth point

    The best thing is to practice these exercises with trees & plants. If you can learn to connect with plants, they will do all of the heavy-lifting for you for developing all of these traits in record time.

    Don’t be afraid to apply the exercises to your own unique path & needs–– the Initiation into Hermetics book isn’t a bible; it is a training manual & skeleton framework to be further built out through direct experience & your own path. Backdoor into Hermetics provides a lot of unique ways to approach the book using your own intuition & getting the same results at an accelerated pace.

    A lot of people get caught up on the first few steps of the book because Bardon said not to progress if you did not do all of the proceeding exercises perfectly.

    The reality is that I haven’t mastered every single one of the above steps perfectly, at all times. Neither has Bob, Mark, or anyone else that I know of––We all have extreme competence in some areas, & less so in others. Everyone has strengths & weaknesses and the most optimal way to find your strengths to lean on is to keep progressing in the book despite those instructions.

    With Evocation for example, some spirits I see like 4k, others I can only feel them through my clairsentience. There are literally infinite variations of clairfaculties that all work slightly differently on varying levels of reality. Depending on the reasons we incarnate & due to our natural proclivities, we all have a natural tendency to have strengths in different areas. I for example get very clairvoyant connections with Saturn, whereas I don’t often connect very clearly with water spirits other than clairsentience. Bardon for example found it very difficult to connect with Air spirits, where I have a very strong resonance with Sylphs & find them to be exceedingly friendly to me, despite their shy tendencies.

    This is why in my latest course I have plans for people to connect with all of the various spheres in our solar system so that they can find what works best for them. I have various protective mechanisms working on the backend so that people don’t harm themselves. Unsurprisingly, great harm has happened to many, many students who did the evocation work in Bardon’s system & far more frequently in other Western/Eastern systems without being initiated into the right frequencies & universal principles to guide & protect them.

    Out of any magical practice, evocation & invocation have the most pitfalls and have caused people the most problems karmically & individually in their lives out of any from of practice. This is why the transmissions I provide are the most vital aspect of my new work.

    PAA: How important is physical training when it comes to building skills in IIH.

    Jake: The biggest thing about physical training is that it increases your total reservoirs of energy & your ability to conduct energy outside of yourself. Some people overplay the need to physically exercise–– the simplest approach is to just jump on a trampoline for 15-30 minutes a day & you’ll be able to do everything I can. Run some air element while you’re doing it, the letter Z & some of your favorite workout sounds & you’ll love to exercise in no time!

    If you’ve gotten 8 hours of great quality sleep, are breathing properly through the diaphragm throughout the day, eat high quality food, do an intense workout in the morning & are drinking 3 litters of high quality water on a regular basis, then your practice sessions are going to improve dramatically. Add this with vial breathing (pore breathing), then the first exercises will be far more manageable. On top of that, do an invocation of the Mercury Shchemorah angel Vehumiah (who I give you a transmission of in the course so you can start the IIH process with them) & you’ll literally double the time of unbroken concentration in the beginning exercises using a stopwatch. And that’s just through invoking & ignoring all the physical factors.

    What’s more important than physical training is the soul mirror work. I’ve been recently reviewing The Universal Master key every evening before I go to bed & every morning before I begin my day.

    I have an unreleased kabbalah course I’ve already produced that’s 9 hours long that includes transmissions for every single letter key, but I’d like to see the response I get from the Evocation/Invocation course before I decide to release it –– Either as a standalone, or as a potential combo package deal with the evocation course.

    Because I’m at a stage where I have a strong proficiency in the Initiation System, Evocation system, And Kabbalah, I find that the most important differentiator in the strength & quality of my experiences isn’t how much time I put into practice. Instead, I find that raising to my highest level of attunement, & working diligently on my soul mirror everyday is what is giving me exponential growth at this stage & everything else are just fun bonuses that happen out of the day because the work is super enjoyable! I want everyone to be able to experience the framework this way since I know how lost people are with the system. If they could feel the way myself, Bob, or Mark felt, they’d do it because it is super fun & entertaining for the sprit & six senses, rather than because they felt an existential anxiety of failing at this system & thus failing at maximizing this incarnation itself. I only say this because I felt this way when I first started the Franz Bardon system & I was “stuck” on the first step for years.

    The truth is that nobody is inescapably stuck–– most people who approach this work may have advanced proficiencies in other steps, but many wouldn’t even know because they havent’ tried anything else. As someone whose natural tendencies are extremely high in air as my predominant element, vacuity of mind isn’t my strength & being still isn’t! My mind moves at a mile a minute & I am always thirsty for knowledge & am addicted to learning new information. But I also get High-quality results out of the practice because I release on the idea of being distractible altogether because I can invoke strong levels of energy that suck my attention into whatever I’m practicing. This is why I encourage people who are even still on step one or to of the franz bardon training to join the course––– We create the right conditions for you to succeed from the first step.

    Once you’re connected with various aspects of extremely refined light, universal hierarchies, working with multi-letter Quabbalistic formulas throughout your day & you’re equalized with all the planetary sphere’s the work all comes back down to enobling the soul.

    PAA: Can you share some memorable moments from your training? What stands out in your memory as truly transformative moments.

    Jake: For peak experiences with the fire aspect, I recently did a 12 hour meditation sit with Nathan from the group. We built up a massive reservoir of akasha & light. We were too equalized to feel it at the time since you get used to working with energies, but when students entered our circle after the session afterwards, they were shocked & quickly unnerved with the build-up of energy that took place.

    Peak experiences with the water aspect have been releasing old traumas & rediscovering talents & different reservoirs of energy. I’ve never met a magician or spiritual practitioner who had a perfect childhood & I’ve not met a Bardonist who had a particularly great childhood.

    I really enjoy spending time raising up into light realms that I have no labels or names for. This year I’ve connected a lot more with Budhistic Deities & frequencies. For me, it is one of my most high value practices is to equalize with the energy of light realms & keep raising up the vibrational ladder. One of my first encounters with this was when I used psychometery with the BDK edition of Lotus Sutra & quickly I awakened to some brilliant light streams connected to that book. All The names of those Buddhas, beings & light realms stated in that book are highly accessible & cost nothing to gain from accounting-wise. For those taking my course, I’m happy to add some content related to this type of work upon request. There’s some parts of working & raising through vibrational scales of light mentioned in the Automatic Writing portion of the course.

    PAA: People may or may not know about your work with Reiki and your hugely successful Udemy course. Could you tell us about this, how it evolved and how the experience perhaps contributed to your current courses?

    Jake: Through the reiki courses, I was able to teach many students from all over the world on the topic of energy healing. I also received countless amounts of positive responses from people who were able to successfully receive the transmissions through video! I read hundreds of messages from people providing me feedback on transmissions. There was a spectrum of people who felt it very intensely & would cry, whereas some would just feel some warmth in their hands & would pick up the skill after a second session. I can count on two hands people who messaged me saying they couldn’t feel energy at all no matter how hard they tried. For them, I recommended seeing a Reiki master in person to initiate them. Out of a course with so many people, having such a small failure rate gave me the confidence to find a solution to the chief challenge that is preventing students from succeeding from the Franz Bardon Framework & prevented myself from “getting it” as a beginner––– getting transmissions for the energies of Franz Bardon’s work & our planetary hierarchy.

    PAA: Moving on now to your new course which I think is going to surprise many people in the sheer amount of information and detail that is included. The course is extremely detailed and has some aspect that are truly unique. Could you tell us about the course, what made you create it and what makes this a very special opportunity for those that want to learn.

    Sure! When I first started making courses & publishing content, Bob Smith & I were super tight & discussing how to help give the Franz Bardon framework a 2.0 update for the 21st century. We had a heart-to-heart & were both very concerned about the karmic repercussions of sharing the knowledge, insights, & transmissions that we had. We both knew of the possible consequences of magicians who make the wrong pact or do things that get them locked into what Bob calls, “ the Saturnian box.” Upon checking my own karma & carefully conversing with spirit guides, it seems that this wouldn’t happen as long as I tread carefully & share info in complete earnest for the benefit of the next generation of practitioners. I shared this insight with Bob & we both encouraged each other to create content for the Franz Bardon community. Not long after, we filmed the Building the Ball course. I was the cameraman & help setup the original logo, file uploads & course description while he taught the course. We’ve also worked together on some other projects as well that can be discussed in further interviews.

    During our discussions, we would often talk about Prometheus. According to Greek myth, Prometheus was a God who brought fire from gods at mount Olympus out of compassion for the people. As a consequence, he was chained to a location, only to be pecked at by birds until his eye sockets wore out, over & over again each day for eternity. We both came to the conclusion that this narrative was powerful, but was also for a different generation of people.

    So to start our journeys sharing this knowledge, we’ve both adopted the attitude of prometheus & the concept of sharing “Promethean fire” that is to focus on sharing the energetic transmission & knowledge despite any spiritual repercussions placed on us. Luckily, none of our concerns came to fruition & sharing has been a net positive experience for both of us & the people we’ve shared with.

    This whole course is dedicated to the younger version of me who struggled & struggled with the Franz Bardon framework & wanted more than anything to finally “get” it to work for me. I’m gifting this course to my past self & to all the future students who wont’ have to struggle for years & years like I did. I know how painful it is to feel like the work is completely insurmountable. All I want is for people to experience & awaken their true potential from the start instead of suffering like I did. That is why I am so open about my personal shortcomings & my own challenges as a practitioner. I personally learn & resonate more from teachers through both their humility–– having success, despite having shortcomings.

    I’d like to do seminars on the topics twice a year. I’m open to doing online seminars or in-person depending on the feedback that I get for this course & book projects I release.

    If you want to stay in touch with me, I go by “Jake” in the facebook forums. You can go to mysterycollege.com & subscribe to my newsletter. I’ve also got a youtube page by the same name. I’ll be sharing some early access content of my next book on the site, so check the site regularly for updates!

    And check out my newest course at the Perseus Arcane Academy, I love what the Perseus Academy is doing with democratizing access to all of this insider’s knowledge from different practitioners.

    PAA: Thank you Jake for sharing so much with us. I look forward to us having more discussions in the future both here on Perseus and over on the Mystery College.

    Learn more about Jakes Course: The Evocation Masterclass

    Useful Links

    Mystery College with Jake

    If you would like to see more about Jake’s new course then please visit here.

    Subscribe to his youtube channel here.

    Visit his site here.

    Join the Community

  • Taoist Magic and Franz Bardons Tradition: A Discussion with Jason Read

    Taoist Magic and Franz Bardons Tradition: A Discussion with Jason Read

    Today we have an interview with Jason Read, someone who has undertaken a very interesting course of study in Asia, he is a student of Franz Bardons work and the author of what I think will be some very interesting books on hard to find subjects within Taoist Magic, due to be released in the coming years. I hope that as more information comes out about his books we can do another update, but for now we have his insight on some questions I raised primarily focusing on Bardons work, for the Taoist segment of this interview scroll down to read about the training Jason received. Be sure to visit Jason’s blog after reading the interview. Update: Here is his new website.

    PAA: Please introduce yourself and let us know how you found the teachings of Franz Bardon.

    Fraternal greetings. Well I’m Jason Read, and I expect a few people know me through my work in Chinese folk magic rather than Hermetic endeavors. I found Bardon in my early twenties after having gone the usual route …you know…Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie, Crowley and the usual resources available in the 1990s. Back then Bardon was not very well known and I ordered his books from an advertisement I found in an astrology magazine of all places. I quickly realized that this was a logical system with definite goals and devoid of obscuration of method.

    PAA: Many have problems with the early steps like VOM in step 1 and the visualization exercises in step 2 (These are exercises in the first manual of Franz Bardon ‘Initiation into Hermetics’ often called IIH). What advice would you give to help students pass these steps?

    I expect most people say this, but stick with it. I think the alchemists speak of this in terms of fixing the volatile. Sustaining a concentrated image is hard work, and to make it real is even harder. Think of it in terms of alchemy. The imagination /mind is like Mercury, but the passion and sustained discipline is like sulfur that fixes the image so it becomes crystallized, salt. Yet don’t be rigid and tense in the visualization, relax into it, enjoy it. As alchemy texts say yet again, alchemy is child’s play!

    PAA: What in your opinion are the crucial steps of IIH that ensure success and did you follow IIH by the book or did you go your own way with it?

    The key of it all is sustained, gentle effort. The development of character is also important but overlooked by those wanting quick results. In fact the way your visualizations go can quickly indicate psychological complexes that are blocking the free flow of elemental energies. Even niggling muscular tensions as you sit in meditation may be locked in emotional traumas and the like.

    PAA: What challenges did you face during your training in IIH/ PME/KTQ. Was there any specific step that took longer for you than others?

    The most challenging aspect for me personally was inertia. Getting moving in the practice. Another challenge is distinguishing mere vivid imagination with actual ‘mental wandering’. I tend to think students mistake vivid mental impressions with actual experiences in spiritual realms and that can lead to delusion. I did exactly that, until one day there was an actual audible click at the base of my skull and an apparently complete disengagement from normal consciousness. That was a eureka moment for me, and I thought…’’Oh, so that’s it!’’ It’s a world away from my previous controlled fantasizing.

    PAA: Are you able to share anything from your work in the second and third book? Such as experiences in mental wondering? First Evocation etc.

    I had some experiences with invocations of the Elementals as at that time that was my capability in all honesty. Some interesting experiences, and I seemed to work well with Air and Fire in particular. In one experience we used in an experimental fashion, audio tech to record voices, similar to EVP, an experiment others might pursue with more gusto. Some interesting sibilant voices on the background of white noise.

    PAA: You have travelled and studied extensively in Asia. Can you share with us your journey and explain what you learned?

    Well yes. To cut a long story short I ventured to Malaysia and China to learn , specifically magic. By my (Chinese) wife , then girlfriend I was put in touch with a master of the folk magical tradition and studied with him for some 12 years. For me it consolidated alot and dare I say filled in some gaps. I can definitely see some Daoist aspects in Bardon’s work, though Bardon taught it at a basic level. I would say, my teacher, Dr Liang is one of the few people who I met who can authentically demonstrate magic physically.

    PAA: This sounds fascinating, can you give more details about the kind of training you underwent in Asia?

    Yes , of course.

    I will try to quickly summarise the methods used in our particular school, though they do vary from sect to sect. Of course there is also quite a lot that can never be discussed publicly nor printed due to oaths of initiation, what we call ‘Entering the Door’. So first and foremost you have to be inducted or passed through the door. Like many Asian systems you have to receive a transmission from an acknowledged Master who is capable of aligning you to the ancestral reservoir so to speak. You couldn’t just buy a book and hope to succeed in the methods even if they were fully published. It would be like, for example, trying to start up a computer with no electricity. Until you are ‘wired’ you cannot work with the method.

    However this isn’t a guru type relationship where you are ‘worshipping’ the teacher as some kind of living embodiment of a god as in some orthodox system common in Buddhism and Hinduism. So having your transmission or ‘chuan, the next stage is geared towards self-healing. In Daoist belief you have to revert towards , for want of better words, a ‘child-like’ state, something we refer to as the Pre-Heaven Nature. Generally speaking there is a kind of deterioration of the totality of the potential of human beings from puberty onwards. The energetic functions are lost, bits of your soul essence are scattered by trauma and repression, the workings of the energetic system are off balance and so forth. So for the first several months or even years there is work done to retrieve lost fragments of the soul complex and rebalance the energetic system that is represented by the six organs and meridians more well known to acupuncture and other TCM practitioners.

    Another aspect of this is ridding of spiritual parasites, some of which we are born with and

    have various names in Daoist literature, such as the Nine Worms. Another aspect is paying off your debts to the universe. Daoists believe you cannot function magically at your full potential until your debt to the cosmos is paid off. In other words we are all born in a kind of debt. There is a special set of ritual practices designed to do exactly this but due to brevity I won’t go on.

    Having all this complete, and aside from training in the basics of cosmology, and other aspects of Chinese metaphysics, then meditation and neigong can begin. Until the person is ‘repaired’ however, Daoists teach that magic is only a fantasy, and results, if any, are statistical at most. One only has to quickly read any number of ‘astral accounts’ on the occulture internet to quickly realise that those accounts are far more based on a fevered imagination than reality. Daoist esotericism constantly stresses the need for Zhen, reality. Yes, I realise this won’t be a fashionable statement in today’s world of Tik-Tok occultism and entitlement. It is at this point I should mention some interesting parallels to Bardonian magic. They are only parallels though, and we should not read too much into them.

    1. THE LIGHT IN ENERGY TRAINING.

    Getting beyond mere qigong which is an art these days more geared towards health and

    martial arts in most (not all) cases is difficult even in Asia. Due to Sun Yat Sen and Mao

    Ze Dong, much of the magical tradition in China was thrown away or discarded.

    However in the underground are to be found real magical exercises.

    One of these is called Jin GUAN Fa, the Golden Light Method. It is a special magical exercise in which the dizi (student) pore breathes golden light after speaking a special invocation and holding a mudra over the third eye and mentally envisioning a special Seal. (see picture). Particles of Golden Light infuse the body. These particles of pure solar light can be stored at the Yellow Court Centre (solar plexus) or Dan Tian (near navel). Advanced students can direct this light for healing or exorcising Xie (unhealthy qi or Spirits). It can also, in Masters, be seen by other students and even photographed as a golden aura around the master.

    COMPARE. BARDONS LIGHT EXERCISE.

    2. ELEMENTAL BREATHING/ORGANS.

    In five colours of red, green, black, yellow and white, representing fire, wood, water, soil and metal, the master inhales the elemental rainbow to empower, balance and strengthen the harmony of elements within.

    Along with this is associated the conscious centering of mind in corresponding internal organs. Going beyond this he actually communicates with the spirits and intelligences of the organs as entities in their own right. The organs are filled with purifying, life giving elemental essence. This can be extended into magic such as magically induced fire, and healing.

    COMPARE: BARDONS ELEMENTAL BREATHING, TRANSPLANTATION OF

    CONSCIOUSNESS AND ORGAN LOADING.

    3. CONSCIOUS EATING AND DRINKING.

    In Magical training, Taoist fangshi (magicians) are taught an intricate art of empowering food such as fruit, buns (Bao Zi), rice and water for certain aims. A typical one involves empowering water by use of a special seal called Zi Wei. the Seal of the Purple Palace to empower water with a purple essence representing the powers of the Stars. This is drunk and absorbed to help build a tangible magical body. Sometimes talismans are infused with will and entity essence and burned. The ashes were mixed with water, tea or wine and drunk.

    COMPARE:BARDON EUCHARISTICAL MYSTERY.

    4. CREATING MAGICAL ELEMENTALS.

    A basic process in Maoshan is to carve a wooden figure, usually with willow or peach Wood. It is drilled with a central axis from the top of the head (bai Hui) to form a hollow spinal channel. This is filled with special ingredients similar to FLUID OR SOLID CONDENSERS. In special cases the magician will employ ashes of bones of the recently deceased to kick start the operation by using an astral shell of the dead. The magical familiar is cultivated over a period of 49 days and fed a drop of blood, incense, rice etc. The Familiar can work for the magician.

    A highly developed art with many variants in Maoshan.

    Note that all statues and images undergo Kai Guang or consecration using light reflected

    from mirrors, filling with the 8 Treasures and opening the senses with cinnabar.

    In lesser operations a simple paper doll or zhiren or a straw doll of 36 straws is used but

    is opened with cinnabar ink.

    COMPARE BARDON CREATING ELEMENTARIES AND VOLTING.

    5. MAGICAL MIRRORS.

    Many kinds, moon mirrors, sun mirrors. Absorption and projection mirrors. Some are

    convex, some concave and some a flat plane. All are loaded.

    Even the well known bagua mirror has to undergo Kai Guang with cinnabar and ritual or

    it is inert.

    PAA: How does what you have learned from the Eastern approach fit with your experience of IIH? Are you able to combine them or do you practice them entirely separately?

    Some of the methods of IIH and Daoist magic are so similar that there is no need to practice

    them separately. All genuine systems have similar templates so to speak. For example, as well as energy work, visualization, mental and astral travel, we have the use of solid and fluid condensers in both mirrors and small statues made of willow that are used as mediums to converse with spirits.

    PAA: Where do you see your practice going now that you have the experience from both the Western and the Eastern systems?

    These days I am almost exclusively a practitioner of the Chinese system, but I acknowledge my debt to Bardon, who in many ways led me to that path. Bardon’s work also helps me to explain the Chinese system in concrete terms to those westerners who show an interest.

    PAA: Closing thoughts – anything you wish to discuss. This could be advice for practice, information on your own projects like books, podcasts etc.

    Franz Bardon has given a wonderful and genuine system to students. I believe it to be a great foundation for the exploration of other systems as it was for myself. Do not be discouraged when the system takes time to produce results…..they will come!

    As for myself, I am currently writing a series of books via Mandrake of Oxford on the subject of Chinese Magic that goes beyond just theorizing about qigong, martial arts and so on to the meat of actual practice.

    Thankyou for your time!!!

    PAA: Thank you very much for sharing journey with us.

    The Three Transformations – Free Course

    The ancient Chinese sages spoke of jing, chi and shen. The Hermeticists of old spoke of vital, astral and mental energies. Both spoke of ways to convert one energy into another. And the Three Transformations were born!

    Ever wonder how to do this exactly? Wonder no more. It turns out this is not some mysterious thing that exists only for the greatest of saints. All the details behind how to convert one of the basic natal energies into another, why you would want to perform the Three Transformation and the various issues involved are included in this SixtySkills course.

    Join the Course
  • 10 Steps to Divine Providence with Nenad – A Detailed look at the First Step

    10 Steps to Divine Providence with Nenad – A Detailed look at the First Step

    We are extremely fortunate at this time to have experienced practitioners sharing openly what used to be extremely difficult to access information. Not must that but we now have practitioners willing to work with students one-on-one to ensure practical success. One of those teachers is Nenad, he is a teacher of teachers as his courses are for those who have reached the latter stages of Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon. In order to reveal some of the depth of nenads courses I wanted to share this post. It shows some of the content of his 1st course, helping qualified students to begin to explore the 30 Heads of the Earth Zone under the close supervision of Nenad. This is a 310 day journey, certainly a huge commitment from both student and teacher but one that is absolutely worth it if you wish to proceed in an efficient and safe manner.

    The 10 Steps to Divine Providence are accomplished via nine courses:

    1st Course – Making the First Step to Divine Providence by evoking thirty Heads of the Earth Zone

    2nd Course – Meeting your guardian angel

    3rd Course – Making the Third Step to Divine Providence by becoming the number 73

    as the Shem ambassador on Earth

    4th Course – Making the Second Step to Divine Providence by traveling to the Moon

    and becoming Lunar magician

    5th Course – Meeting the Great Spirit of Tarot Through Tarot Magic

    6th Course – Meeting the 10 Archangels and traveling through the Tree of Life

    7th Course – Astral Projections in 280 steps

    8th Course – Making the Fourth Step to Divine Providence by becoming a friend with

    Venus

    9th Course – Mastering the Thirty Aethyrs of Enochian Magic

    * These courses can be taken out of order if you have experience in the content of the previous steps.

    1st Course – Making the First Step to Divine Providence by evoking thirty Heads of the Earth Zone

    Course objective

    There are 10 steps to Divine Providence, and the objective of this course is to ensure that the student has made the first step.

    The main objective will be achieved through:

    – Evocations of 30 heads of the Earth Zone

    – Visiting regions of the Earth Zone where those 30 heads reside

    – Continuing cooperation with them after the first successful evocations

    The point of this course is to encourage students to overcome their possible blockages

    and fears and start practicing evocations with the knowledge that they have already

    obtained through the first eight steps from Franz Bardon’s IIH.

    Guided instructions for protection will be also given during the course.

    Steps

    The following steps are made to get our student progress from the point where they have no or little experience of evocation to the accomplishing the course objective, which is to establish a successful communication with 30 heads of the Earth Zone:

    I Preparation period

    Duration: About 10 days

    It includes:

    1. Meditation and fasting

    2. Understanding of the Earth Zone

    3. Studying the related material

    4. The student will decide together with the teacher which 30 of the 360 heads of the

    Earth Zone would be most preferable to be evoked.

    II Preparation for ceremony

    Duration 5 days

    1. Arranging the altar for the Earth Zone.

    2. Setting up magical triangle for one of the 30 heads of the Earth Zone. The triangle

    should be differently arranged for each evocation. It will typically include magical

    tools like magical mirror, crystal ball, crystals, plants, pentacles and sigils.

    3. Arranging circle for one of the 30 heads of the Earth Zone.

    4. Usage and understanding of Divine and angelic names for the conjuration.

    5. Preparing offering.

    III Evocation

    During one day or one night. It will be decided by both the student and teacher.

    IV Mental and astral wandering to the part of the Earth Zone where the evoked

    spirit resides.

    It usually happens as a part of the evocation.

    V Sharing the result of each evocation and exchanging the ideas with the teacher

    about the problems, results, experiences, obstacles, successes, symbols, etc. –

    Duration: During approximately 3 days after the evocation

    VI Receiving instructions from the teacher how to continue the cooperation with

    the evoked spirits in the future.

    Duration: During approximately 2 days after the evocation.

    VII Rest with no magical working

    Duration: 2 days

    • Evocation of the first head includes 15 days preparation and two days rest.
    • Altogether it takes about 22 days to evoke the first spirit.
    • Preparation period for other 29 spirits is shorter.
    • Evocations of all other 29 heads of the Earth Zone takes around 10 days each, including 2 days rest.
    • Duration of the whole course is expected to be around 310 days.
    • Mentorship and close observations and supervision during all of this time is essential.

    Module Objective

    There are 30 modules in total, one for each spirit.

    The sample of this module applies to all 29 modules as well.

    Module objective is to make sure that the student is progressing smoothly on his first

    step to Divine Providence by following the following steps:

    1: Understanding of the Earth Zone where the evoked spirit resides (inhabitants,

    region, functions, connections with our world, the magician’s role, etc).

    2: Reasons why this particular head is being evoked, why it is important for the

    student’s life and spiritual aspirations and how it may effect his or her daily life.

    3: Applying ceremonial magic into evocations (magical circle, magic triangle, magic

    weapons, offerings, banning formula, sigils, talismans, etc).

    4: Learning how to communicate with the spirit and understand his or her messages.

    5: Learning how to astral and mental travel to the regions of the Earth Zone where the

    evoked spirit lives.

    6: Advanced magic with the evoked spirits. This include: further working with the

    evoked heads, attracting their energies and attention, making special magical links,

    working on the tasks with their help, following their signs and instructions, writing a

    magical diary etc.

    7: Further cooperation with the heads’ subordinate spirits, servitors and assistants.

    8: Dealing with the heads’ counter-genii.

    Module content

    There are 30 modules and the contents of each are specific depending on the spirits

    the student would like to evoke. This module content is based on the example that the spirit Padidi, the master of painting, is chosen to be one of the 30 evoked spirits.

    The content of Padidi’s module includes:

    1. Understanding of the Earth Zone

    – The student will be informed what Padidi’s role is in all of the four realms and his influences in all other regions of the Earth Zone. The Earth Zone is divided into 360 regions and four planes related to each letter of the YHVH (the last H includes our world’s reality). The Earth Zone is equivalent to Malkuth. The first Y is ruled by Divine names, the first H by archangels, V by angels and the last H by humans. The closest to us is the etheric realm. This is usually the place where spirits and magicians meet during the evocation.

    – The student will explore relations between Padidi and higher hierarchies. For example, the most important archangels of the Earth Zone are: Sandalphon (the governor of Malkuth), Uriel (the guardian of earth element), Gabriel (the water element), Michael (fire) and Raphael (air).

    – The student will also explore what other spirits live in Padidi’s region. Obviously many of them are painters and artists. Generally speaking, all over the Earth Zone, besides angels and demons, there are many different beings, some of them have similar names but are quite different, like elementals, beings of the four pure elements and elementaries.

    – Djinni, from Arabic origin, meaning “hidden, covered, or concealed”, are a class of

    spirits that are lower than angels. They possess magical powers. The Qur’an describes

    them being composed of “smokeless fire”, and capable of transforming into various

    animals. 

    – Animatics offer knowledge, a wonderful understanding of things, and diligence and

    providence. According to Agrippa, the Animastics are: Merlin, Priapus, Aphrodite, Hippo, Vertumnus, the 12 apostles, 72 of Christ’s students and include many saints. They are similar to the Meshartim. They used to be people from this world, but now they are half-angels or half-gods, because they did many good things to help humanity. Agrippa says that they give people more rewards than the angels do. They also announce good news.

    – Egregores represent a spirit that comes into existence through people’s fantasies. In contrast to other beings who were created by Divine Providence directly, egregores are created by human beings. If the egregores were created for some dubious reasons, they would then tend to develop strange characteristics as they grow up and get more powerful.

    – There are also guardian angels who come from different hierarchies of spirits as well as guardian genii whose purpose is, according to Bardon, to watch over their protégées.

    – There are psychopomps as eternal travelers. Their knowledge about all possible

    planes, regions, tunnels, channels and planets is marvelous. They can be angels, gods,

    humans, animals, or members of any different kinds of spirits.

    – Wanderers are different. They also go to many places and they do not have a set

    home to be at. Wanderers are often not too sure about their origins. They are traveling

    the universe since they separated from their consciousness groups.

    – There are also many different kinds of nymphs, dryads, oceanides, satyrs and all

    other kinds of natural spirits.

    – There are also heavenly musicians, saints, bodhisattvas, and of course a lot of

    humans everywhere.

    – Animals are also present all over the Earth Zone. Some species do not exist in our

    part of the world any more, and some might emerge in the future. All in all, the student will have an opportunity to go very deep into the mysteries of the Earth Zone during this course by evoking Padidi and 29 other heads of the Earth Zone.

    2. Identification of the student’s most important 30 heads of the Earth Zone to

    evoke:

    It is up to each individual to choose 30 of the 360 heads of the Earth Zone for

    evocations, because people have their own preferences in the line of their life

    situations and spiritual aspirations.

    The student may choose to work with the heads of the Earth Zone following this pattern, but this is just one of many possibilities.

    1st Head – Identified as the most important due to his or her astrological

    influences on the student’s natal chart.

    2nd Head – Identified as being of the secondary importance as for astrological influences

    3rd Head – Identified as being the third important as for astrological influences

    4th Head – Teacher of fire magic

    5th Head – Teacher of earth magic

    6th Head – Teacher of water magic

    7th Head – Teacher of air magic

    8th Head – Important for the student’s profession

    9th Head – Important for love or sexual magic

    10th Head – Important for the student’s finances

    11th Head – Important for health

    12th Head – Fairy magic

    13th Head – Magical protection

    14th Head – Entertainment

    15th Head – Karma

    16th Head – Enlightenment

    17th Head – Initiation into Moon magic

    18th Head – Initiation into Venus magic

    19th Head – Initiation into Mars magic

    20th Head – Initiation into Solar magic

    21st Head – Initiation into Jupiter magic

    22nd Head – Initiation into Saturn magic

    23rd Head – Cosmic magic

    24th Head – Important for the student’s hobbies

    25th Head – Divination

    26th Head – Nature

    27th Head – Agriculture

    28th Head – Science

    29th Head – Development of special mental or psychic powers

    30th Head – Art

    3. Applying ceremonial magic into evocations of the 30 heads of the Earth Zone. The student will need to make an altar of the Earth Zone with the teacher’s instructions. If the student wants to evoke Padidi, he or she will need to adjust the preparation, magical steps and rituals according to this spirit’s energy and characteristics.

    Divine and angelic names for the circle and conjuration should in the case of Padidi be: Dos, YHVH Tz’ Vah-Oht, Rochel and Haniel. The reason is that all of those Divine names and angels are related to art, beauty and Venus.

    Dominant colour of the space’s decoration should be colourful and beautifully arranged with some artistic details and paintings. According to numerology, 10 candles of different colours should be used as this spirit’s number is 64 (6+4=10). Alternatively you can use only 1 candle of any color as in numerology 10 also gives one (1+0 = 10). The triangle for Padidi is advised to be arranged like this:

    – A magic mirror, a crystal ball, a chalice, crayons, inks, paintings, and art

    books;

    – Topazes, pearls, opals, agates, and turquoises;

    – Lilies, lavender, angelica, and primroses.

    As for the offering the best are: sweets, fruit and cakes

    4. Learning how to communicate with spirits and understand their messages When a head, like Padidi appears in your room, you should treat him or her like your dear guest. The meetings between the student and the spirit usually occurs in the etheric realm, the densest part of the astral world and the closest to our reality. It is the most convenient place for them and us to meet. For this, the student will need to tune his consciousness into a bit higher level. With the first 8 th steps from Bardon’s IIV, it should not be that difficult to reach this level. If there are some problems, the teacher will give guided instructions to the student what to do how to be able to see and communicate with the spirits.

    5. Learning how to astral and mental travel to the regions of the Earth Zone

    where the evoked spirits live

    During the evocation, the head like Padidi can invite you to host you in his or her region. For this, the student will need to know how to astral project or mental project, or at least lucid dream. However, with the first 8 th steps from Bardon’s IIV, it should not be that difficult to reach that. Especially, when the evoked spirit comes to your space, he or she will certainly give you additional energy to push your achieve your OBE easier. Take on your journey your sigils with you. Commend your conscious where to lead you to at the beginning of your journey. You will have the feeling like that you are travelling around the space, from one part of the Earth Zone to another until you would reach the wished destination. Have a walk, look around, speak with spirits, talk to the Head and his assistants, collect knowledge and share experience.

    6. Advanced magic with evoked spirits. If you evoked Padidi, your future conjurations might be more specific. The first time when you evoke him, the

    conjuration should be more general:

    “In the name of Dos, YHVH Tz’ Vah-Oht, Rochel and Haniel, I ask you Padidi to

    visit me in your visible form. I would like to learn from you how to paint. I am fully

    aware about my limitations, so I also ask you to give me inspiration any time I paint.

    Amen.”

    Especially because Padidi is an art teacher, he will appreciate very much if you include some of your own paintings that you made in your future evocations. As his name, according to Mathers means “Topaz”, Padidi will also be happy if you include this crystal into your painting. The magical image of a painter holding a topaz in one of his hands will certainly facilitate your future evocations of this spirit. Padidi’s favourite paintings are the grandest masterpieces in art history and can be your future magical links to him. Have his sigil by your side any time you paint, if you are an artist.

    Dedicate 4° Gemini to Padidi. Enjoy art masterpieces from museums, art galleries and art books. Start a new diary specially dedicated to Padidi’s art and include your thoughts, sketches and drawings in it. You can also try to create magical links to Padidi through his favourite music, such

    as:

    – Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

    – Vaughan Williams – Job – A Masque for Dancing.

    – Igor Stravinsky – The Rake’s Progress.

    During the course, more information and many more details will be given about

    Padidi and other 29 heads.

    7. Further cooperation with the heads’ subordinate spirits, servitors and assistants. Heads are usually very busy spirits, so in future evocations the student may have opportunities to meet some of their assistants. Some of them may become permanent magician’s helpers too, if the head agrees and if there is a mutual sympathy. For example, Padidi may agree to send one of his spirits to be a muse any time a student would decide to paint. This helping spirit might even be some of the greatest late painters who now populate Padidi’s region of the Earth Zone.

    Who exactly will be your helping spirit sent by a head will often depend on your own specific interests. Each head has a lot of different subordinate spirits. Taking another example, Amia is the best teacher of crystal and precious stones from the Earth Zone, so he can help you evoke and cooperate with spirits of stones and crystals whichever you like, and they are numerous, such as:

    – Agate spirits help the magician strengthen his or her body and mind;

    – Alexandrite spirits are responsible for spiritual transformation and

    regeneration;

    – Amazonite spirits give joy and uplift depression;

    – Amber spirits bring harmony to the body and spiritualise the intellect;

    – Amethyst spirits strengthen the endocrine and immune systems;

    – Aquamarine spirits purify the mind and body and calm the nerves;

    – Aventurine spirits reject negativity, anxiety and fears;

    – Azurite spirits cut through illusion and help in meditation;

    – Beryl spirits provide protection and avert laziness;

    – Carnelian spirits heal other stone and crystal spirits;

    – Citrine spirits give cheerfulness and hope;

    – Diamond spirits provide will and power;

    – Emerald spirits enhance spiritual insights;

    – Jade spirits increase longevity and fertility;

    – Lapis lazuli spirits lead toward inner wisdom;

    – Malachite spirits reduce stress and enhance good sleep;

    – Moonstone spirits reveal stress and help women when they give birth;

    – Obsidian spirits protect and give strength;

    – Onyx spirits give information about any subject;

    – Opal spirits enhance intuition;

    – Pearls spirits enhance good judgment and promote mercy;

    – Quartz spirits have many diverse faculties from enhancing meditation to expelling fear and jealousy;

    – Ruby spirits refine lower passions;

    – Sapphire spirits strengthen the will;

    – Tiger’s Eye spirits rule over spirits who can help the magician to ground and focus;

    – Tourmaline spirits protect and aid in sleep.

    8. Dealing with the heads’ counter-genii. The student will have guided instructions how to protect against possible unwelcome guests. Nevertheless, it will still be possible to encounter the head’s counter-genius during the evocation. The heads are like “darker” twin brothers or twin sisters. Their faculties are usually the same or very similar, but their methods are different, sometimes dangerous. Not all of them are certainly “bad”, but their energy can feel darker. They sometimes show little empathy to human beings and they can cloud the magician’s mind with strange ideas. They are all also linked to Divine Providence, as everyone else is, but their influences can lead the student astray for a very long time. During this course, the student will learn who they are, why do they exist, what their specific faculties are and how magic with them can backfire or give no or very strange results. Like with all other heads, magic with Padidi can backfire, but in what way and to what extent, will depend on the magician’s maturity and readiness to improve as a human being and an artist.

    Lesson Objective

    In the case that the student has chosen Ubarim (17° Taurus) as one of the 30 heads of

    the Earth Zone, lessons objective is as follow:

    Lesson objective 1: Ubarim in the Earth Zone (his friends, his region, his function, his

    faculties, etc.)

    Lesson objective 2: The reason why the student identified Ubarim as one of the most

    important 30 heads of the Earth Zone. Set up a plan for evocation, cooperation and

    list of hopes and expectations.

    Lesson objective 3: Applying ceremonial magic into evocations of Ubarim (magical

    circle, magic triangle, magic weapons, offerings, banning formula, sigils, talismans,

    etc).

    Lesson objective 4: Evocation of Ubarim

    Lesson objective 5: Visit Ubarim in her region

    Lesson objective 6: Advanced magic with Ubarim and future cooperation.

    Lesson objective 7: Further cooperation with Ubarim’s subordinate spirits, servitors

    and assistants.

    Lesson objective 8: Dealing with Ubarim’s counter-genius.

    Lesson content

    In the case that the student chose Baalto (25 ° Taurus) as one of the 30 heads of the

    Earth Zone to evoke, the lesson contents will be as follows:

    1st lesson: Baalto in the Earth Zone – The student will have an opportunity to study

    the material on what so far has been written about Baalto by other occultists.

    2nd lesson:

    Identification of Baalto as one of the most important 30 heads of the Earth

    Zone. There might be a few possible reason such as:

    – The student might be born on (25 ° Taurus), or one day before or after that day.

    During those three days Baalto is especially active in our part of the Earth Zone.

    – The student might be interesting in earth magic

    – The student might like gnome kingdom

    – The student might have lost a thing that now he wants to be found

    3rd lesson: Applying ceremonial magic into evocations of the 30 heads of the Earth

    Zone

    1. Divine and angelic names for the circle and conjuration: Alla, Adonai Malek,

    Elemiah, Sandalphon and Uriel. The reasons for this is that the all of those names are

    directly linked to the earth element and gnome kingdom.

    Conjuration: In the name of Alla, Adonai Malek, Elemiah, Sandalphon and Uriel, I

    ask you king Baalto to appear in your visible form and to take my humble offering. I

    would like you to tell me if you are willing to teach me about earth magic. Your

    people are very diligent, practical, curious, smart and witty and I would like to absorb

    their qualities with your help. If you accept my request, I will use your knowledge to

    help people find lost objects and in many other ways too. I give you my word. Amen.

    2. Dominant colour of the space’s decoration: Brown – Baalto likes brown colour

    3. Candle: 1 brown candle. Baalto’s number is 55. In numerology it stands for the

    number 1 (5+5 = 10 = 1)

    4. Triangle should at least partly consist of:

    – A magic mirror, a crystal ball, pentacles, a chalice, a pendulum, old coins and

    statues or pictures of gnomes;

    – Agate, onyx, jet, brown jasper, peridot, amazonite, turquoise, obsidians, ambers,

    opals and quartz;

    – Sandalwood, petunias, lilies, cypress, branches of oak and beech trees, cypress,

    patchouli and vervain.

    5. Offerings: A cigar, coffee, brandy and cake

    4th Lesson: Evocation of Baalto

    A few days of fasting will be necessary before before each of the student’s first evocations. The student will also get instructions about protection. The objective is to meet Baalto into our world’s reality. The student is also expected to give his or her own contribution about knowledge what we have collected so far about Baalto, focusing on his methods, faculties, assistants, friends, region, etc.

    Many gnome kings honour Baalto and pay homage to him as their supreme ruler. He can agree to show you his form long enough to let you draw his picture. After the first successful evocation of this head, you may be able to see gnomes easily, but sometimes in very unusual places.

    If you want to find things which have been lost, you can ask Baalto for help. This spirit can teach you how to properly use a pendulum to find lost things and pets that have strayed. Baalto has a great sense of humour and he may inspire the magician to tell funny jokes and invent many amusing stories. Baalto’s subordinate spirits have great sense of humour. They like to laugh and to have a good time with each other. On the other hand, his messages can be very dramatic too. Baalto can also find a way how to influence people in a positive manner and exchange fitting gifts with one another. He can help you get rewards, promotions, a higher salary or anything else to improve your life and career.

    5th Lesson: Astral and mental travelling to the regions of the Earth Zone where Baalto resides.

    The student is invited to give his or her own contribution on better understanding of Baalto’s world. Baalto’s chamber is full of treasures. So, if Baalto likes you, he will also give you some gifts. Baalto’s gifts can be very precious if they come directly into our world from his region. His theater is famous for playing the best dramas and having the most talented actors of the Gnome kingdom. Baalto can guide you through underground tunnels and tell you many interesting stories about Tartarus. He can significantly enrich human understanding of mythology. No human writer has said very much at all about Pluto’s palace except that it has many gates, is crowded with innumerable guests and is situated somewhere in the Underworld. On the other side, Baalto’s gnomes have written thousands of books exclusively about this castle.

    6th Lesson: Advanced magic with Baalto

    The magical image of the ancient god Bel will make Baalto’s presence stronger and more obvious. Baalto’s name obviously relates to Baltazar, which translated from Akkadian means Bel Protects the King. He is attracted to music and paintings made in celebration of earth spirits. You will also probably need to dedicate a stone as a link to Baalto’s magic. Baalto may suggest some other magical links to him as well. Dedicate 25° Taurus to Baalto, Practice the earth element exercises from Bardon’s book “Initiation into Hermetics.” Surprise somebody with a nice gift. Help people find their lost things. Evoke a gnome king with Baalto’s help and ask him to show you his gnome kingdom. Take notes about your earth magic with Baalto.

    Suggested magical links to Baalto through music:

    – Mussorgsky – Night On Bald Mountain.

    – Mussorgsky – Pictures at an Exhibition – II Gnomus.

    – Respighi – The Ballad of the Gnomes.

    Suggested magical links to Baalto through paintings:

    – Henry Meynell Rheam – Once upon a Time, 1909.

    – Carl Spitzweg – Gnome Watching Railway Train , 1848.

    – Heinrich Schlitt – Gnome with newspaper and tobacco pipe, 1923.

    Besides Baalto, the student may establish cooperation with some other similar heads, like: Nadele, Amia, Kamual and Yromus. They are also great teachers of earth magic. The student will get a better knowledge and understand of the Earth magic, which is about too be diligent, hard-working, grounded, protected, full of energy, how to make money and learn how to save and invest. It is also about learning how to construct efficient pentacles and how to employ them as a magical tool to summon certain energies or evoke spirits. It includes practice of finding lost things and animals and ;earning how to use your pendulum. It is also about cultivation of friendship with your crystals and stones. Laugh and have a good time. Entertain your friends with good jokes. Give away gifts. Take care of ecology and help gnomes in their hard work to preserve our planet.

    7th Lesson: Further cooperation with Baalto’s subordinate spirits Gnomes live together with fairies, nymphs, sylphs and salamanders, in the etheric regions of the Earth with the mission, as cabalists would say, to be “expressers of powers of Assiah of Malkuth” which in other words means to protect nature and preserve the kingdom of plants and the forms of life on our planet. They help with financial matters and guard material goods. Ghob is probably the most famous gnome king. His supreme reagent is angel Phorlakh. Some other gnome kings are mentioned by Franz Bardon: Mentifil, Ordaphe, Orova, Idurah, Musar, Necas, Erami, and Andimo. Dwarfs possess magical talents, involving metallurgy, stone cutting, and craftsmanship. They are particularly known for their craft magical rings, magical swords, and enchanted talismans. They live in subterranean homes in caves or

    burrows. They are supervised by the following heads of the Earth Zone: Nadele,

    Baalto, Amia, Kamual and Yromus.

    8th lesson: Baalto’s counter-genius

    Some of Baalto’s subordinate spirits can also share some darker stories with you about: shadows, ghosts, nightmares, and the lamentations and torments of the Underworld. Some of those subordinate spirits might even be the one sent by Baalto’s counter-genius. Side-effects with Baalto are also possible. Gnomes are not always nice and friendly to humans. If you come across a mischievous gnomic creature, ask Baalto for help. The most powerful and malicious ones can bring people to madness and even to suicide. They can be manipulated by a black magician and sent away to trouble his enemies or innocent people.

    If you are experienced with the elements, fluids and Akasha and wish to participate in one of Nenads courses then please click here.

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  • Franz Bardons ‘Key to the True Kabbalah’ and the path of a Magician – A discussion with Ray Del Sole

    Franz Bardons ‘Key to the True Kabbalah’ and the path of a Magician – A discussion with Ray Del Sole

    Ray Del Sole - Teacher of Franz Bardons Teachings

    This post uses both Kabbalah and Quabbalah interchangeably. We are extremely grateful for Ray in spending the time answering our many questions in such detail. It was lovely to have this communication with him as he brings deep insight into many of these topics as he truly walks the walk and has spent countless hours seeing what works most efficiently and safely. I still remember back in 2008 when I discovered Franz Bardon and Initiation into Hermetics. I was so excited with so many questions, Ray was one of those kind individuals who answered my questions and even did some webinars with us early on, more than a decade ago. So as you can see, Ray truly knows this material intimately.

    If you would like to read more about Rays Magical Quabbalah course then please see here.

    PAA Thank you for this interview. Could you briefly introduce your organisation SURA and its approach to education.

    Ray: Thank you for the opportunity! I founded the Sura Academy around ten years ago with this idea to support spiritual seekers, especially those who walk the path of Franz Bardon. I offer personal coaching for an efficient approach in spiritual training. On our platform we discuss related topics, questions and experiences. We have a very nice international community of spiritual students who follow the universal path of initiation. Individual goals on the path are also supported by me as it is not a “must” to work in the way of Franz Bardon. An individual approach can make more sense.

    PAA: How does education within SURA Academy and nextsteptomastery.com differ from simply tackling IIH via solo practice by oneself.

    Ray: I have been on the path for about 30 years now and I would have liked to have had someone to give me advice, someone to discuss questions with. Unfortunately, no one was available and so progress was partially a real challenge, taking a lot of time and effort for studies and experiments. Having to do all on yourself is a big burden. This experience led me to the wish to be supported by brothers and sisters on the path, so that they can save precious time, making better progress in a most efficient way.

    PAA: Does everything within IIH need to be completed to safely move onto PME or is it sufficient to have the elements, fluids and Akasha training in place.

    Ray: A few topics are optional, simply depending on the preferences of the student/master. Here is the point to understand how things work and in best case you make experiences with the topics so that you can evaluate them. So, for example, depending on your individual activities in life, it is the question if or how often you need to work with elementals, with elementars or with astral traveling. Even such simple things like creating talismans is a question of individual needs or usage. Some magicians create talismans for others, or they like to use them by themselves while other magicians have not a single talisman. In conclusion the message is: Understand all topics, make practical experiences to know the practical application but if you make use of them in life is your individual decision.

    For PME and KTQ it is most important to have managed the refinement and empowerment process, so that you are in control of all energies and that you are able to unite with the divine virtues like described in the tenth step. Otherwise PME can be a disappointment and KTQ won’t work. The deities or spirits of the spheres expect a certain degree of maturity or mastery, otherwise a visit or a request of acknowledgement doesn’t work in the sense of Bardon. If you can do mental traveling and if you make it into the sphere of a deity, then it is a matter of kindness if the deity receives you and helps you. If you are a master then the deity receives you as the king or queen that you are (in the spiritual symbolic meaning). This is truly a difference. Then initiation, blessings and full support are offered by the deity.

    PAA: As a native German speaker what differences, if any, have you noticed between German materials and English materials? For IIH, PME, KTQ.

    I know the pronunciation is something often mentioned in KTQ, what about the instructions of IIH is it largely correct or are there some areas where you think the change to English has caused us to miss the point of the exercise?

    Ray: Indeed, the translations of all three books, in main of IIH and KTQ cause real pains. There are translation errors and the commentaries of the translators as well as their “correction” of mistakes are something which is counterproductive for the goals which Bardon had set for his books. We have to see that his teachings are in main detailed instructions which need to be followed to realize the desired results. If the instruction is changed due to translation errors, then the results are questionable or bad. Now, I do not blame the translators as they followed their human nature, with good intentions but the results are still painful. KTQ especially, suffers a lot from incomprehensible mistakes, for example regarding the right colors of the letters. Now, the problem is that Bardon´s way of describing things is very complex already in the German original teachings. So, it takes a high effort to understand what he means and then a high effort to translate everything correctly. In the end, – only an experienced practitioner can understand Bardon´s teachings completely and such a person would be needed for a high quality translation. I personally hope that the present translations of the new publisher are better. I can only recommend to compare translations with the original German teachings with Online translators like DeepL if something sounds strange or is questionable. I think that IIH and PME can be done even with the errors, KTQ not.

    PAA: What can we do to ensure our practice is rigorous and not self deceiving? Nowadays with so many people practicing on their own with no wider community there is the potential that we can fool ourselves and not truly attain what we think we have.

    Ray: Yes, this is an important question for sure. From my perception there are people who are lost in self deception. This should not be the goal. There are a few security factors which help very well. The focus on the personal ego with ego expansion leads in general to self deception. So, the true seeker should be humble and should go beyond the limitations of the ego, setting higher goals, following higher ideals. For example, if you desire truth, wisdom, refinement, etc. then you cannot get lost in ego traps. It is the mystical attitude which is needed to walk the path of the magician in a safe way. The development of the heart chakra and the crown chakra is also crucial, – divine love and divine consciousness. Both help to heal and to integrate the human self, the ego in a positive, lawful way. There is a mystery connected to the so-called ego which must be understood and realized. Otherwise imbalances and problems come up. Another point is that things simply must work. If you cannot do something, you are not a master in this aspect, – something needs improvement. If things work well, then it is a good sign of progress and mastery. One important point – there are things which a normal human cannot understand as these topics belong to the divine nature. For example, if you ask someone about the nature of almightiness then he might think about the Avengers, Superman or very rich people but he cannot create a realistic idea as he lacks experiences and comparison possibilities. On the other hand, if you realize the divine virtue of almightiness practically in yourself, you understand its nature and you can explain it even to normal people in a way that they comprehend it on an intellectual level. A last point is the acknowledgement of your maturity and progress by other initiates and especially by the deities of the spheres. A true master is a divine authority in creation and will be treated in this way. In conclusion, most important is the permanent introspection to check who we are, where we are, what we are doing, if there are any imbalance or mistakes which need to be corrected, etc. And if we walk the path in love and growing wisdom with humbleness and natural joy, then we can be sure to be on the right track. If possible, then it is good to get feedback from more developed, older brothers or sisters on the path. Self-reflection is simply important.

    PAA: You are well known for your organisation skills and efficiency. How can we best organise our time towards efficient practice? What can we do within IIH, PME, KTQ to make our training more efficient and impactful?

    Ray: Thank you. Yes, time is precious and we should focus on progress to not waste any time. Growing old and wasting time is unfortunately very easy and something which we regret at the end of the incarnation. Further on, this incarnation offers the greatest opportunities for growth. In comparison with other incarnations, it is the big lottery win. I recommend reading books about management and project management to understand how you can manage yourself, life and your training better. Indeed, it is very easy as you define standards, setting goals and milestones, going through evaluation and improvement processes. The right attitude and the focusing of all available techniques and powers on one goal offer efficiency. And certainly, a mentor or coach or older brother on the path can help a lot too. Without a mentor you can easily waste years without realizing the real cause of not making good progress. The right attitude is the mystical attitude. Bardon simply assumes that the future magician has a mystical attitude, a longing for enlightenment, refinement and the initiation into the mysteries of creation. Those who orientate only on their egos, desiring power and control over others lack the mystical attitude, do not care about refinement, love and wisdom, and block themselves in this way for real progress. Besides these points, I suggest looking for smart ways, smart approaches in the development of exercises. Many students just read the instructions of Bardon and get directly frustrated as it appears as a torture to do imagination exercises with a fork, for example. Indeed, we should enjoy all exercises, creating them in a motivational way, with fun and a higher meaning or application. If you connect different techniques or exercises in a smart way, you can easily get something of value. So for example why not directly working on an own talisman by applying imagination exercises and instructions for working with vital energy? This can be done easily and the results can be controlled well too. The point with Bardon´s books is that they are composed with a focus on the three Tarot Cards. This means that the teachings are limited to the Tarot Cards and not prepared in regards to efficiency or the level of motivation of the student or any further, smart factors. For example, it would make a lot of sense if the beginner studies directly the laws of wisdom, the wisdom teachings as they are very important for success and progress on the path. To overcome the limitations of the three/four Tarot Cards, I want to develop a training system with the focus on mastery and efficiency, integrating all important teachings, also those beyond hermetics – The Path of the Master. Bardon´s teachings would be reengineered. Unfortunately, I lack time but I hope that I manage this before I leave this world.

    PAA: In regard to the application of depth point and conscious transfer etc……..how can students efficiently practice these things and apply them. Knowing them is one thing but what practical things can they work on to gain true mastery of these practices?

    Ray: The use of the depth point belongs to the Akasha principle. It is simply the most efficient technique to control any kind of space, object, body, organ, room, etc. and to charge or accumulate energy in it. I always work with the depth point because of all its advantages. The transfer of consciousness is also a matter of the Akasha principle. The mind has no limitations and can move in time and space deliberately. Magic is a lot about moving or traveling to get specific information or to become active for some kind of operation. For the practical approach I think it is most useful to understand that the mind already belongs to Akasha, that the mind can naturally move in time and space independent from the physical body. We do not need to move the head or the brain. We just move the consciousness, our awareness, our attention, our sensation and this happens already by intention, by keeping the attention on an object for a longer period of time. It is a natural process. For the start it makes sense to move the consciousness into body parts. How does my right hand feel? Feel it. At some point you become the hand. You are the hand. Then take other body parts. Then take objects. And understand that it is on the one hand a natural process of attention and on the other hand it is a matter of imagination, similar to playing a role. “It is easier than I think. It is possible. I can do it. It is a natural ability. I just have to get used to it.” This is a good approach. Unfortunately, most think that it is difficult, unnatural, etc.

    The depth point works in three ways. One approach is to simply grow the size of the object to “as big as possible” with yourself as the small center point. The second approach is to shrink yourself by imagination to the size of an atom in the center of the object. And the third approach is to fix the depth point with your will and then to work with an object, for example to charge it quickly. In all cases, we work with the Akasha principle, going beyond time and space, the limitations of material forms. In the training we should make experiences with all different approaches. Later we choose our favorite techniques. School versus life. In general, it is all about imagination, intention, will. A great support in the mastery of such techniques is the training with the Akasha element as you refine your mind perfectly. The Akasha qualities of the mind will be increased and strengthened. Mind transfer and other techniques are much easier afterwards.

    PAA: With more and more people practising this work, do you feel it is good for an individual to go through each book? Or after IIH gravitate towards PME or KTQ depending on what attracts the practitioner the most.

    Ray: Bardon´s mission was to reveal the four Tarot Cards and the universal teachings they offer. These are teachings beyond the frame of time and space. The realization in time and space, in the material world is a different question. This means that not all spiritual seekers or students are of the same nature, the same level of progress or maturity but that we all are individuals with an individual history, individual goals and individual talents or abilities. Indeed, everyone should be picked up where he is on the path. Some are very old souls with lots of experiences while others might be complete beginners. This all means that the Tarot Cards, the books offer orientation and can be understood as a check off list for the human soul of what can and what should be accomplished on the path of universal initiation and development. And when you understand it in this way, you find freedom in making individual decisions for your studies and training. If you feel ready for KTQ then this training certainly offers great advantages for working with PME and in general in all fields of magic and mysticism. On the other hand, if you go through PME without KTQ you will have different experiences as you have a different status, a different understanding. Meeting kings and queens of the spheres as a prince or princess is different to such meetings when you are a king or queen yourself. KTQ makes you “old”, wise and powerful. Without KTQ after step 10 of IIH you are a prince, young and ready for adventures. The inner call will lead all of us to making the right decisions. In the end we all will finish the check off list completely, in this incarnation or a later one.

    PAA: What is your response to people who say these entities though ‘real’ are still contained within the practitioner’s own mind and an expression of the subconsciousness?

    Heavens

    Ray: We can create a lot by imagination, – monsters, demons, angels, also things like irrational fears, passions and addictions. We are creators by nature. However, this does not mean that we can easily create gods and goddesses, the spirits of the planetary spheres. They have a separate, independent existence outside of our minds. They are the administration of creation. Without them, nothing would work. All beings, including us as humans are receiving their influences and depending on our individual setting we receive more or less influences of the great diversity of deities in the spheres. This is comparable to a satellite receiver. Only in the perfect case, it is able to receive all TV programs in perfect quality. In the normal case, the satellite receiver gets only some and not all in good quality. Now, certainly, we are all connected as the spirits of the spheres are active on the highest mental plane and we are mental beings too, and on this plane time and space play no role. Due to our mental nature and the Akasha principle we can unite with these spirits to take part in their nature. The application of KTQ allows us to create all deities further on in ourselves. This means that we can invoke them. Indeed, there are no limits for the human spirit in the world of spirits. We just have to differentiate between our own imagination and real beings. Real beings offer information which we haven’t imagined while imagined beings look and behave exactly as we imagined them to do.

    PAA: Are you able to mention anything about the origins of Bardons Key to the True Kabbalah? Some say there is a connection to the work or Kerning and possibly others before him.

    Ray: I know such discussions and I know that it is a human desire to find sources. When we examine the polarity of God and humans, then we can see that God offers teachings which are received by humans. These higher insights are processed by humans with all their flaws and limitations, and as a result we have the religious, traditional and spiritual teachings on earth. Now, Franz Bardon incarnated, checked the present status of teachings and the used terms, and then transferred the eternal, divine four Tarot Cards into the present language. Bardon could have used a completely different language with different terms which he would have prefered but then no one would have been able to understand his teachings. In conclusion, it is not about the books of other authors which he has checked to see the level of initiation and to check which terms are in the present use. It is about the revelation of the eternal, universal teachings directly from the spheres. And KTQ is simply the highest level in science and arts of divine teachings. Imagine that you are a Quabbalist and that you visit a deity in the higher spheres. This deity will introduce itself in the quabbalistic way, according to the cosmic letters of its name. All deities are created by the Highest Spirit by using the cosmic language, the Quabbalah. These are practical experiences. And I also must point out that the “Magical Quabbalah” is not meant to be confused with lower kabbalistic teachings or the corresponding religion. I explain this in the course. And just to mention it – if you study the oracle of Manjushri you will find the cosmic language presented, certainly not with the term Quabbalah. We simply must distinguish divine teachings from human teachings.

    PAA: Should a practitioner planning the start of KTQ work with a being from PME prior to starting KTQ or is it possible to go straight into KTQ with the right guidance.

    Ray: All instructions are given in KTQ, so it is not necessary to take the effort of working with a deity from PME. If you have the right colors and the right pronunciation, then you can do the KTQ training without any problems. I have published a workbook “Meditation on the cosmic letters” and we have the online course with all exercises and instructions. KTQ does not have a difficult theory. So it is good to understand.

    PAA: What is the impact of working with letters from a karmic perspective? They are essentially so significant and the very essence of creation so surely there must be a weight upon a person who decides to do this work?

    Ray: The initiation and training with the letters offers the maximum of transformation, refinement and empowerment from human nature to the divine, macrocosmic nature. It is the maximum of spiritual development. The microcosm will be a perfect image of the macrocosm, meaning perfect balance in power and quality. The master who accomplishes this is then a complete divine spirit, a macrocosmic spirit on the same level as all the deities of the spheres, a true representative of the Highest and with this a true authority in creation.

    Karma

    Regarding karma, – as the mystical training works mainly on the Akasha plane, the transformation is not a matter of karma or fate and not connected to Saturn and the judges but it is all directly under the supervision of Divine Providence, the Highest. The cosmic language is used for own refinement, empowerment, for invoking deities in yourself, for research, for evocation, space impregnation but rarely for working on other people as everything must be justified and responsibility must be taken. As long as the master uses the letter for himself in 99% of all cases everything is fine. Applying divine energies for normal people is hard to justify. Special blessings or support in the development as well as special healing treatments can be imagined but normally “standard” energies are sufficient so that Quabbalah is not needed. So, in conclusion, it is more a matter if someone feels ready to undergo the comprehensive transformation process. For those who are ready, it is the highest fulfillment, the great treasure chest filled with the most precious gems.

    PAA: What did you find different in the German language versions of IIH PME and KTQ versus the English versions?

    Ray: Besides the translation errors, where for example simply wrong colors were chosen for the cosmic letters, there is a “standard problem of communication”. If you tell someone a story and this other person tells the story again, then you have deviations, simply because you have a different perception of what is important in comparison to the other person. And second, the other person adds content and details from his own imagination. This is a subconscious process. So even if you have the intention to offer a good translation, these problems occur easily, especially if it is a whole book you want to translate. And this means that a higher awareness is necessary to translate as perfectly as possible the instructions of Bardon. Today such things are easier as we have AI based translation technology – which certainly must be checked too. In comparison to the original German versions we find commentaries in the translations. They originate from good intentions but can be misleading or wrong or questionable. In the English versions it is also not always obvious who has written the commentary. I remember one comment where the translator said that he had to correct Bardon for some reason. This is what I call hubris. A translator is normally not a commentator and if a translator or commentator has the opinion that something is or could be wrong, then he can give a hint to the reader to check it if at all. But it is not usual just to change the text. Some comments are “nice” as the commentator compares for example letters in one quality which have a completely different nature and work in a completely different way. In conclusion, the ego of a translator should be quiet during the process of translation and the own opinion is also not requested as obviously the translators were not great adepts with theoretical and practical knowledge. Good intentions are nice but do not automatically offer any real value. Quite the contrary, they cause more confusion and problems if the necessary knowledge is not given. Again, these are subconscious processes which are the standard in communication.

    PAA: In regard to evocation, is this a large part of your practice or has Kabbalah now become the main practice as it allows a creation right out of Akasha.

    Ray: With KTQ things change. This means, as a master of IIH you can do evocation but you have to fulfill a lot of requirements. You need all magical tools. You have to prepare your room. You have to prepare yourself. And then it can still be a challenge to do the evocation. As a Quabbalist, you need nothing. No circle, no pentagram, no special tools, no cloths. As a Quabbalist you will choose a formula to express your divinity in the way you want respectively as it fits for the Spirit you want to contact. The application of the formula takes a few seconds. Then you can create a fitting atmosphere for the Spirit, as a formula directly derived from his name. And that’s it. In conclusion, the quabbalistic approach is much easier and faster and the Quabbalist has a completely different standing than the magician. On the other hand, the whole ceremony with cloths and tools is dropped which can be seen as a loss. But certainly, it is up to the Quabbalist and a Quabbalist can make use of all cloths and tools. Besides this, the Quabbalist can directly work with all divine virtues and powers which a Spirit of the spheres has. For a Quabbalist everything is directly available. A magician must work more. At some point, the Quabbalist can and will study the nature of the various Spirits of the spheres in a quabbalistic way to refine and empower his own nature to even higher degrees. This belongs to a higher Tarot Card and training.

    PAA: Can you provide more information about your new course? Specifically why the strict course requirements so people can understand why these things are necessary before going onto practice these things.

    Ray: Sure. The only energy where mastery is not required is vital energy. The five elements, light and the two fluids must be mastered as we need to be able to create them instantly, filling a whole space. Accumulation by breathing is also a part of the quabbalistic work. Mind and soul should be well-balanced, refined and empowered as we deal here with the highest, macrocosmic powers, powers which are beyond human nature. The student must be able to bear and to handle them. And this means that the energy system must be strong, clean and balanced. Then it is very useful to have experiences in the tenth step of IIH, to know how the unity with divine virtues feels like as we work only with divine virtues, divine powers and divine states of consciousness. At least the “taste” of the Divine should be experienced. The knowledge of human nature is important for working with organs. If you know the planetary spheres, it will help to understand the nature of the cosmic letters better. Then the student must understand that the whole course is based on transformation. If someone does not want to unfold his divine nature, then the practical training is not good for him. So, it takes a conscious decision to undergo the full refinement and empowerment process which is offered and requested. “I want initiations, powers and divine virtues, but I don’t want to change.” – this simply does not work. It is also important to understand that the “Quabbalah training” is a universal training in the cosmic language which stands beyond religion and human teachings. Confusing traditional ideas with universal teachings does not work. In the end, – certainly, even a total beginner on the path can start the quabbalistic training but here the training would take decades if success is given at all. Fulfilling the requirements offers good progress in a good time.

    PAA: Any other points you think are important for those working IIH and approaching a stage where they could practice Kabbalah.

    Ray: I think it is in main the call, the inner call to do the training. Before I started KTQ, I had a great respect and thought that this training is something which might come at the end of this incarnation. But due to some circumstances I felt the call to do it and it appeared that it was feasible. Much later, I got the insight that I had old connections to the teachings of the cosmic language. Looking back, I must say that it was not difficult for me to do the training. It was more the case that I have enjoyed this wonderland of spiritual gems, this treasure chest of the most precious gifts which are prepared for humans. And certainly, I still enjoy the quabbalistic work. It offers so much beauty and bliss. For those who lack clarity if KTQ is the right training or if they can make it, – I can only suggest trying it. The preliminary training does not offer total transformation, only the mystical training does it. So, the student who does not like it, can simply stop it.

    PAA: Lastly you have created several courses to help practitioners with their training some over on your sites and one new with us at Perseus. Could let people know what services and courses you offer and where they can find them all.

    The Magical Quabbalah

    Ray: I have offered several lectures and courses for the Templar Research Institute in the last years. In the future I am going to offer retreats with friends, – a combination of Yoga, Ajurveda, coaching and hermetic-spiritual exercises. At the moment we are working on the curriculum. This retreat is supposed to take place in nice areas with a holiday feeling. In general, I lack time, and that’s the main problem. Interested people can join my Sura Academy, can get individual mentoring or we meet for the Quabbalah training here at Perseus. Upcoming news will be spread on social media.

    The Magical Quabbala Course

    If you want to realize the macrocosmic divine nature in yourself, then this is the right course for you.

    The cosmic letters offer the highest, mystical transformation, the initiation into all main mysteries of God´s nature and the ability to create as God does. You become a true son or daughter of God and a divine authority in creation.

    You will get initiated into the application of the 27 letters of the cosmic language which is used by God, the Creator and all deities to create directly from Akasha. The cosmic language is used in the form of single letters, and two-, three-, four-letter formulas. You will learn how to use the letters and the formulas in the Akasha, on the mental, astral and material plane.

    As the cosmic language is connected to the laws of creation, you will also be initiated into them and their practical application. At the end of the course, you will learn the synthesis of the names of the deities and how to apply them in a quabbalistic way.

    What benefit do you get from participating?

    Certainly, you can walk the path of self-initiation by following the Key to the True Quabbalah by Franz Bardon. Unfortunately, this approach comes along with some problems. The English translation contains many mistakes, – details which are crucial. The correct pronunciation of the letters is necessary. The instructions and descriptions of Bardon are very complex and can easily cause confusion. And Bardon has described the techniques like we know it from school. When you leave school, you work in an easier, more practical orientated way.

    So, if you participate in our course, you will not only benefit from my long-term practical experiences but also from clear, easy to follow instructions, recommendations and reliable information. This offers the opportunity for efficient progress and good results.

    Requirements to enter this Course

    Please understand that this course has the following requirements for your safety and for making progress feasible:

    The mastery of the five elements, the two fluids, light and the transfer of mind are absolutely necessary. Mind, soul and body must be well-balanced, in good health. Your degree of personal refinement must be high. A high maturity is the basis for managing the great divine powers.

    If you have a basic ability to unite with divine virtues and divine consciousness, it will be beneficial. You need a basic knowledge of the human anatomy, – the location and shape of organs in the body.

    It will be useful to have a practical understanding of the spheres according to Bardon (PME) as we find all the letters in the spheres respectively the spheres are made of the letters.

    Please understand:

    It is a serious decision to undergo the quabbalistic training as you will unfold the complete divine, macrocosmic nature within yourself. You will become a perfect image of God. This must be desired and accepted.

    See Courses

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    Dive into one of these courses, these are serious courses, teaching important skills.

    We have (currently) four courses available from different teachers which allow you to learn, practice and experience their approach to Magick.

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  • New Release: Through the Soul Mirrors to the Sphere of the Sun

    New Release: Through the Soul Mirrors to the Sphere of the Sun

    This is the first of several new releases from Andre Consciencia. He is a practitioner with a wealth of experience, the author of many informative and beautifully presented books as well as being one of our teachers here on Perseus Arcane Academy with his course Magical and Mystical Introspection. He is based in Portugal and has the ability to describe in beautiful details the essence of what we seek to accomplish in our magical journeys.

    Through the Souli Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun

    Those familiar with Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon then you will be well aware of the Soul Mirrors. The black and white mirrors on which we analyze our selves, making note of everything that makes up our character and organizing into the four elements then further organizing by positive and negative traits. This new book by Andre takes this as a basis for understanding each and every exercise in Initiaion into Hermetics.

    From having an early view of this book the biggest thing for me was the uniqueness. It is written in a beautiful way as are all of Andres books. But this one really is on another level as he has been able to introduce things that most of us will be familiar with in a way that feels very personal, relatable and most importantly achievable without dropping the requirements needed for a solid foundation. It is hard to explain without ruining the surprise but with the permission of Falcon Books Publishing I am sharing what I can below of the interior of the book to give a feel for how special Andre’s writing is.

    An Early Glimpse of the Introduction

    Introduction

    This book follows up on the trail of Franz Bardon’s Initiation Into Hermetics, applying his techniques used in the soul mirror training in Step 1 and I have further elaborated upon them.

    The soul mirror is what distinguishes Bardon’s system of hermetic training from all other training systems of hermeticism or magic, for, having dominion over his own mind and soul, the magician is already a master in any exercise he might attempt. Introspection is an essential ingredient to the formula, for, without it, he hasn’t yet identified his mind or soul, to begin with. An Olympic champion cannot perform without perfect knowledge of his anatomy, for devoid of such knowledge, his anatomy will trick him into failing or else it will break in its own structure and destroy the athlete.

    The practitioner is, thus, expected to have built his soul mirror, white and black, before proceeding with the work in hand. But, to start with, we will ask him to rearrange it into a second soul mirror category according to the most basic instincts whose credits humanity ignores when attributing the real causes of his actions. We think this is a key to the roots of not only many problems, but also solutions concerning the different virtues and faults, and connects the magician directly to the evolution of mankind as a whole so that, while he is working on his individuality, he is also working for the evolution of mankind. This structure is inspired by Nema’s table of correspondences for what she calls, ‘The Forgotten Ones ‘ (1) and suffers from the author’s own 1 adaptations.

    It is expected, then, that the magician already holds Bardon’s Initiation Into Hermetics (“IIH”) in his hands, as this is something we want to make sure of. Through the Soul Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun is suitable even for those who have not done any exercises in IIH. However, it is important that the magician, male or female, is able to read from our source directly. This book is also appropriate for the mature adept. It doesn’t matter if he has completed IIH, The Practice of Magical Evocation, The Key to True Quabbalah or any system of magic foreign to Franz Bardon, as any may benefit greatly from it and take heed of the sphinx’s words,

    Man, if you wish to know the Gods and the Universe, know thyself

    Through the Soul Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun by Andre Consciencia

    As can be seen from the images in this post, the layout of the book is a labor of love to match the beauty of the content that Andre has created. I think it will really breathe fresh life into anyones practice as Andre is continuously pointing out things that seem so obvious now as I read them on a page but I had actually not considered things in that way previously. So you can certainly be an advanced practitioner of Franz Bardons system or indeed any other system and find immense value in what Andre offers,

    I want to share another little sample of Andres perspective this time from an interview I did with him on the blog over at studentsoffranzbardon.com as in this interview he talks about a number universal things we all need to have in place regardless the system. This is what he had to say about cultivating an emptiness of mind (known as Vacancy of Mind amongst Bardon practitioners), called a multitude of things in various traditions.

    ANDRE: Vacancy of Mind is the cornerstone of IIH. Some might say it is working with the soul mirror, which I can understand. But from my experience, those who can’t master vacancy of mind will always get poor results while working with the soul mirror. If one truly masters VOM, all that stands in the way of our belief and determination can simply be erased. Yes, if one is able to fix one’s thoughts on a single thought, things that might distract him from this thought stop distracting him. It means such distracting thoughts are not on the front panel of the mind nor are they allowed to come in there, so to speak. But with VOM, there are no front and back panels, you get the whole view, and when thoughts stop coming, that is when you truly know you have control over anything, or better put, over the mind. For instance, when one doubts, and asks while pore breathing “is this true vitality or just my imagination of true vitality?” one is losing vitality. If he removes this thought of doubt entirely, instead of simply not being distracted by it, he immediately starts to build true vitality. To highlight the importance of VOM, especially in its relation to the Soul Mirror, I like to remember the story of the Three Little Pigs. The big bad wolf is made visible by the black soul mirror, it starts to visibly peek around for its three little pigs, wanting to consume body, soul and mind. Sensations are very unstable, the pig of the body builds his house on them. Feelings are less unstable but still fragile, the pig of the soul builds its house with them. The pig of the mind doesn’t build his house on thoughts, mere mental imitations of sensations and feelings, automatisms, he builds his house on vacancy, the stuff of the mind. The big bad wolf of vice sweeps over the house of sensation, it all goes to ashes, but what lived inside sensations survives in the house of feelings. Then it is time for the bad wolf to test the house of feelings, and the soul (that was living in the house of feelings) and consciousness (that was living in the house of sensations and then in the house of feelings) survive in the purity of mind (whose quantity is the vacancy of mind). Sure, in the story, the big bad wolf doesn’t give up when he sees he can’t bring down the house of the mind, he tries to enter it from above, and that is when the fire of the spirit hits him. I hope what I have told here can be understood. One can also bring his attention to the story of Hercules and the Hydra. Before beating Hydra, Hercules was just an heroic personality, he wasn’t yet a true initiate. Hydra is the beast of thoughts, Hercules cuts one and two grow back in its place. It is when Hercules lifts the Hydra from the floor that she loses power, and he is able to dominate her. This means to portray that thoughts are but reflections of feelings and sensations, separate the mind from feelings and sensations, and the mind will be silent. Instead of feelings you will find love, the unity of feelings. Instead of sensations, bliss, the unity of sensations.

    You can go about Bardon all you like, without VOM, it will all be useless in the end except for the personality and its stimulus.

    I have attained VOM through many different methods over time, as some students cannot seem to do it the way I first did it. The way I first did it was very simple, to forcefully expel all thoughts and persist, until only electrical impulses were left, and then stilling the electrical impulses. In the end, there would be void compressing and transbundant light, and once that dynamic state is achieved, it is the other way around, you have to use your will-power to come back. Once this was mastered, I started practicing VOM with my eyes open, and then even while going about my business and while having conversations. To many this first approach seems to be impossible, so, in my book the Way of Abrahadabra I use the greater capacity people apparently have of fixing their thoughts on a single subject or object. I start with simple thoughts and images, after which come complex images and thoughts, and then I begin to reduce the concepts that fit in the thoughts/images being used. Eventually, you are focusing on the thought and image of a single star in the void black sky. Then, you remove the star, and there is only vital vacancy.

    What a description, anyone being told of the journey in such a way is surely going to be far more inspired to take that first step. In the coming months I hope to talk more with Andre about this and his many other books. So look out for an in-depth discussion with him, sooner rather than later. But I hope what I have shared here introduces you to some of his work and why I believe at least one of Andres books should be on your bookshelf.

    If you do purchase this book then please do share your thoughts on the forum.

    Purchase ‘Through the Soul Mirror to the Sphere of the Sun’

    More from Andre

    If you you would like to do a little more research on Andre before delving into his new release or commiting to his course then please have a look at the following interviews. He talks about a range of topics in great detail as well as sharing his own experiences in magic and how it all began for him. Really nice to hear his journey.

    Interview with Falcon Books Publishing

    Andres course – Magical and Mystical Introspection

    1 Nema (Margaret C. Ingall) was the founder of the Horus-Maat Lodge in 12/03/78. These are 1 notes taken from her contemplations

    Exploring the Profound Meaning in Andre Consciencia’s Occult Works
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    Please join us, introduce yourself and begin sharing and learning. We have areas covering all aspects of the esoteric from both Eastern and Western traditions, Energy work and Internal training all freely available on the platform. See you inside.

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