I first discovered Franz Bardon’s initial work in 2011. I was soon to be 22 years old. I was unable to procure the item until a couple of years later. I had been working at a used bookstore in Anchorage, Alaska. While being an amazing place to absorb information it was also an avenue to developing the self and improving one’s attitude, due largely to being born with a reading list that I was going to be unable to finish(!)

I think there is quite a magic to the way that our minds are capable of working. I do not recall precisely how old I was at the time of working at the bookstore, yet I am confident in being able to produce a resume that could inform me.

I purchased the book: Initiation Into Hermetics, having not seen the item on the shelves ever, and having waited a while before deciding to dive into magic I chose the book as it had flashed into my vision during a time when I was not aware that such a phenomena had meaning.

I bought it online. It was delivered. I began reading. I was immediately halted. The practices inside the book require serious focus and dedication. It required an ability to empty one’s mind and while this might sound easy enough, once attempted I discovered that my post-college days had left me with a ceaseless and importune thoughts- as in the I myself was harassing myself to continue with some unknown work, due to an extra-planar experience in college.

Magic.

I began to sit. I began to attempt to sit. I attempted to begin. I was unsure why the title was what it was, dedicated to magic, and why I was being told to focus my attention. Unknown to me at the time (thankfully), magic requires an ability to use the mind. The reason I am appreciative of this unknowning at the time was simply that had I known then what I know now about the causal implications and responsibilities directly consequent with magic and one’s own personal character, life’s choices, and directions I am not sure I would be here.

I have only gratitude to my family and friends for making amends, for always being there, and for constant inspiration and encouragement. I can choose to be in a good mood, or I can choose to be in a bad mood.

The book continually encourages, and may in fact be said to abide by the dictum to know thyself. Many books of magic are this way.

I continually climb a mountain every night in my sleep that is akin to and included with Dante’s cosmogony. I fear, reverently, the consequences of misusing magic. I deeply abide, to the best of my ability, with respect to magic’s power. I approach with caution each and every day a beautiful notion of how one in Julius Evola’s Introduction to Magic Part 1, which is that maybe this is my gateway to eternity. Magic is my road to eternal life.

I do not know, but perhaps think (I might hope to say wisely), that I am not special because of this, but am serving and helping the divine, helping serve one whom I pray to, and to that which He may Source from. I am humbled, utterly. Yet struggle continually with pride and my doctor says as long as my job or work is not oppressive, then perhaps a little Dharma, a little simple life is not such a bad thing after all. I have returned to the basics.

I feel good, because of this Czech Magician, a man – really a boy at the time of his cohabiting with the spirit that brought our world this magic.

The exercises offer great respite, during the weekends of course – I must still work a 9-5 but maintain my practice in solitude and by my own calendar, from anything other than peace. Peace reigns supreme when I step inside the circle that is outside of my job. I am happy. I am fulfilled. I am satisfied, and hopeful. I believe I can make a difference in the world, and am part of something larger.

I drink water with intention, which may change based on what I perceive to be necessary. I breathe with appreciation for the air which is unseen. I can choose to be in a good mood, or I can choose to be in a bad mood.

I believe in the verisimilitude of this Initiation Into Hermetics. I believe in the life that Franz Bardon must have lived, to write a book (perhaps three) of this sort, and then to be persecuted in the second World War, living through a concentration camp to die…later.

death.

death. It must be that which is taught about in books of magic, like Initiation Into Hermetics, which is simply change. I will not stand here and regurgitate Science’s “facts.” I am no scientist, so were the reader looking for facts and figures, graphs and charts, or…well excuses me, I do not know enough about science to describe it except in terms that are not of it.

Similar to magic, should I desire my own truths, my own inner knowing of who I am, and what is true for me, I will describe my antics in terms of the grimoires, the books, and the various subjects I have read.

I make no illusions. Eventually change will end for me.

I was halted, in my reading of this Bardon-book. It was there, subject to its own potent inertia, waiting for great attention and time, practice and dedication. Books have their own destiny(!) My own thoughts were circular – get on with the work, and ceaseless. These thoughts: get on with the work, have been in my life for now almost 11 years.

I recommend the book for the following reasons: it is an encouragement, should you fall further than you thought possible. It is an inspiration; it has brought me to a peace and a new way of living that no other book on this planet has ever contributed to. I can focus and eruditely pontificate on matters of no well repute, or I can simply say that I love this book. It, like so many books of magic, demands revisiting. It is very similar to reacquainting with an old friend.

“Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I am still early on in the book, having read Virgil’s book: The Gift To Be Simple some part of me believes that I will never know the mysteries of magic, the endless font of giving to oneself, nor the ceaseless loss of an eternity into a black hole. 11 years later, I continue to practice – of the 30-35 parts divided as 3-4 parts per Step (actually there are many other little exercises), thought observation, though occlusion, and vacancy of mind.

These mean watch thy thoughts, exclude certain thoughts, and clear thy mind.

I continue to drink water intentionally, breathe intentionally, look within and question, give myself encouraging thoughts to build upon, concentrate, develop an astral equilibrium, and control my body posture, and generally improve my well being. Why?

Why not?