Franz Bardon Quotes

Man... About the Body ~Man is the true image of God; he has been created in the likeness of the universe. Everything great to be found in the universe is reflected, I a small degree, in man. For this reason, man is signified as a microcosm in contrast to the macrocosm of the universe. Strictly speaking, the entire nature manifests itself in man and it will be the task of this chapter to inform about these problems...

Karma ~ An immutable law, which has its aspect just in the akasa principle, is the law of cause and effect. Each cause sets free a corresponding effect. This law works everywhere as the most sublime rule. Consequently every deed proceeds from a cause or is followed by any result. Therefore we should not only accept Karma as a rule for our good actions, as the oriental philosophy puts it, but its signification reaches farther and is a very deep one. Instinctively all men have the feeling that something good can bring good results only and again all the evil must end up with evil or, in the words of a proverb, “Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap”. Everybody is bound to know this law and to respect it. This law of cause and effect governs the elemental principles, too. I have no intention to enter into details of this law, which could be expressed in a few words, as they are quite clear so that every reasonable man will understand them. Subject to this law of cause and effect is also the law of evolution or development. Thus development is an aspect of the karma law.

In reality, magic is a sacred science, it is, in the very true sense the sum of all knowledge because it teaches how to know and utilize the sovereign rules. There is no difference between magic and mystic or any other conception of the name. Wherever authentic initiation is at stake, one has to proceed on the same basis, according to the same rules, irrespective of the name given by this or that creed. Considering the universal polarity rules of good and evil, active and passive, light and shadow, each science can serve good as well as bad purposes. Let us take the example of a knife, an object that virtually ought to be used for cutting bread only, which, however, can become a dangerous weapon in the hands of a murderer. All depends on the character of the individual. This principle goes just as well for all the spheres of the occult sciences. In my book I have chosen the term of “magician” for all of my disciples, it being a symbol of the deepest initiation and the highest wisdom.

A well-known maxim says, “A sound mind in a sound body”. The genuine truth of this aphorism represents itself immediately to everybody dealing with the problem of man. There surely will arise the question, what health is from the hermetic point of view. Not every one is capable to answer this question at the first instant. Seen from the hermetic angle, health is the perfect harmony of all the forces operating inside the body with respect to the basic qualities of the elements. There need not prevail such a great disharmony of the element to set free a visible effect which is called disease. For disharmony in the form of sickness is already an essential disturbance in the workshop of the elements inside the body...

Magic Psychic Training... Introspection or Self-Knowledge ~ In our own mansion, meaning our body and our soul, we must find our way about at every moment. Therefore our first task will be to know ourselves. Each initiation system, no matter which kind it may be, will put this condition in the first place. Without self-knowledge there will be no real development on a higher level.

As I have already mentioned in the introduction to this volume, this handbook is not destined to be the steppingstone in the search after wealth and honor, but it has to serve the purpose of studying Man the microcosm in relation to the macrocosmic Universe together with their laws... He who stands upon the purely materialistic position, an unbeliever in religious matters, ignoring supernatural phenomena and only concerned in material interests, undoubtedly will regard this book as sheer nonsense, and I am not purposed to convert such people to any faith or to change their ideas. This work has exclusively been written for those who seek...

...The Mystery of Breathing ~ Breathing is to be given your very careful consideration. Normally each living creature is bound to breathe. There is no life at all without breathing. It is obvious that a magician ought to know more than the mere fact of inhaling oxygen and nitrogen which the lungs absorb and exhale as carbon dioxide and nitrogen. The lungs cannot exist without breathing and food. All we need for our life, and what preserves our life, to wit, breathing and food, is tetrapolar, four elements plus a fifth, the vital element or akasa principle, as we have said in the theoretical part about the elements. But the air we are breathing has a finer degree of density than the grossly material food has. But according to the universal laws, both of them have the same nature, being tetrapolar and serving to keep the body alive. Let us therefore return to breathing... By normal or unconscious breathing, the body is supplied only with as much elemental substance as is necessary for its normal preservation. Here also the supply depends on the consumption of elemental substance. It is quite different with conscious breathing.