Bardon has his
detractors. In fact, Bardon seems to polarize people
into those that are devout followers and those that seem to dislike him
and his writings. Well, having read his book, Initiation into Hermetics, I can understand why.
Firstly, I have at times bemoaned the fact that there isn''t a
magick cookbook
out there - well - this would be it. It gets into serious practical
work and very quickly too. The introductory chapter''s are too short for
my liking and one is left just a little confused by his terminology. I
guess that living where and when he did, exposure to other
occult literature
and approaches were difficult to obtain and so what we find in Bardon
is something quite unique - pure Bardon in fact! His discussion of the
polar magnet and of the elements is at times difficult to follow but
worth contemplating
simply because it is a different way of looking at
things. But, the introduction seems short and I wish there were more
background in this book.
The rest of the book is a series of
exercises. Some of these appear
to be unique too in the sense that they are REAL magick - making things
catch on fire and the like. And I think that this is where Bardon opens
himself up to his detractors. You see Bardon spent part of his life as
a
stage magician - some would say that he was simply a good trickster
using sleight of hand and other techniques to wow an audience. His
students would argue that he used real magick to obtain his results on
stage. The point is simply that some of his exercises are designed to
obtain results that fall into the category of stage magick for some and
I guess that is where his detractors sit.
Now, there are some wonderful and very beneficial exercise in his
book - I particularly like his whole body breathing technique an find
it a most amazing way to meditate. Having said that, Bardon wastes no
time in explaining that it takes time to acquire the
skills designed by
the exercises and that one should not move on until each set of
exercises is fully mastered. He repeats this over and over again. Now I
realize that developing occult skills takes time and effort but again,
detractors could argue that no amount of time would produce such skills
and this is simply Bardon''s excuse.
Since it takes so long to work through the exercises, I cannot say
whether they are effective in the manner he portrays or not. I can say
that there are some great exercises in the book that are worthy of
using.
I''d love to hear from a Bardon follower who has worked their way all
the way through this book simply to find out if they indeed developed
these skills or not.
None the less, this is a good book and well worth reading even if
for a slightly different approach. You can argue about Bardon until the
cows come home but there is true value in this book. I for one will be
working through these exercises and using some of them now and in the
future.
8 out of 10
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