“Can you imagine how the ingratitude of those
whom I so much helped hurts me?… ”
Franz Bardon^[1]

et us approach the painful necessity to present an apology of Franz Bardon. Is it, in fact, so necessary ? Today, some people throw slanders but we believe that it had no the will and then the consciousness to libel Franz Bardon but rather that to raise the truth on him :

• Wilhelm Quintscher was the “Master” and Franz Bardon the disciple ;
• A revelation : Franz Bardon showed himself such a Fakir… Then, he is not credible ;
• Magical Seals spread by Franz Bardon in “The Practice of the Magical Evocation” are incomplete, incorrect, etc. ;
• The Hermetic Circle of Prague threw away Franz Bardon, etc.;
• The Magic of Franz Bardon is of “black” character (argument expressed by members of the Theosophical Society of France and Germany).

Our answer :

1. Wilhelm Quintscher : this one was a good magus and Franz Bardon’s friend. He had developed magical capacities by practicing adequate exercises. But does it mean that he had reached a Master’s Spiritual Evolution ? Only by comparing his writings (almost untraceable today : did those who libel him have them in hands ?) with those of Franz Bardon, we are struck by the difference between the two persons : the one is a pupil (W. Quintscher), and the other is really the “Master” (Franz Bardon). A sad event arisen during the last Great War binds these two persons : while they were tortured together by the Gestapo, W. Quintscher was not able to refrain (we do not formulate here a criticism ; far from it ! for situation was atrocious and who could bear it…) from using a Kabbalistic Formula so as to paralyze his torturer. Then, Franz Bardon, who suffered too but who did not use any Formula, said to him : “You have just missed an exceptional opportunity that Divine Providence gave you to make an immense step on the Path towards Perfection.” The slanderers will answer to our comments : “All what you say do not prove anything”…  We respond beforehand : “Sit down quietly in mediation ; enter in the deepest of your own, and, with real sincerity invoke, pray, W. Quintscher so as he coats you at once with his protection during this meditation, with his Master’s vibrations. You should feel the vibration, and this last should have to bring you Peace and Enjoyment, Heat and Security. Note your impressions. Make then the same exercise but by calling, by praying from the bottom of your soul, Franz Bardon, so as he brings you his protection, etc. Note the difference.”
   
   
2. Franz Bardon was a Fakir : it is not a revelation ! A whole book — “Frabato the Magician” — is dedicated to this part of the Magus’s life wherein he agrees to exhibit himself on scene and to make real magical operations without special and mendacious effects, for helping humanity to open eyes thanks to demonstrations of the existence of invisible forces. The Dr K, his Disciple, wrote ten years ago without even thinking that this Master’s work on scenes would damage his credibility : “All which is said in “Frabato the Magician” was really represented to public and sometimes even more. In yogi's dress, he lied down on shards of glasses… He made demonstrations of phenomena which Magi know very well”.[2] Is the Love carried by a being towards his fellow man — so as to educate this last — in such a point that he voluntarily leaves himself absorb by the derisory situation of a Fakir ?  Is this Love so little perceived, “felt”, recognized  ?  Did not H.P. Blavatsky behave in the same way until to risk her health by demonstrating through these notorious “phenomena”  that only dense “materia” does not prevail in the Universe ? We know how the humanity thanked her. Did not these two beings continue the famous promise of the Brothers Rosae Crucis “to deliver our brothers of ignorance and death” — spiritual death, the only one, witch really exists, and which is the worst …?
   
   
3. Magical Seals : it is enough to practice really Magic of Spheres, that means to be really able to contact an Being of Spheres mentioned by Franz Bardon (without thinking that we are in touch with such an Genius while we just become a toy for the entities who live on sub-etherical planes or on the Astral Plane and who have fun persuading us that Evocation is successful, that what we ask for will come true, that it is necessary to do this or that — generally something which tightens in a more dense contact and enables them to come again for vampirising the deceived practitioner …) to verify that the Magical Seals which he gives are correct ; sometimes the contacted Genius asks for some change in the drawing or in the colour ; then this should be made and used only by the one who has this precise contact, because this necessary change is motivated by the physical, psychic and mental structure of the practitioner and tends to facilitate the “staking in presence” of this last one with the Genius if meeting takes place on the Astral Plane; and even then, with an etherical densification, for the safety of the practitioner.
   
   Some questions to those who dispute the attributes of the Genii and the validity of the Magical Seals, and who deduce that certain Spirits do not belong to the Sphere of Jupiter but to that of Saturn, etc. What do they know really about it ? Did they reach the necessary degree of Spiritual Evolution to contact the Sphere of Jupiter, to say that Genii attributed to this Sphere are not correct ? And, better, to assert that (because there is needed a fantastic Evolution!) some of them belong to the Sphere of Saturn ? Did they operate a real Magic Evocation? Do they know that a real contact (then, without falling under the power of a delusion) with the Great Entity named “Ashm … aï” and belonging to the “Zone girdling the Earth” (it seems easy to most of the readers) requires a preparatory “work upon their own Elements” ? Do they know that a great purification of the their own etherical and astral bodies is required otherwise they will not hold out?… Then, it takes time to risk oneself on the Sphere of the Moon, to that of Mercury… and finally on that of Jupiter …
   
   Do they get their appreciation out the comparison between Franz Bardon’ Teachings and Names and Seals which are found in books of magic spells, which circulated here and there during centuries, which do not correspond to a Reality but which are only shortened approaches ? If yes, why do they give more credit to these books than to Franz Bardon’s writings ? They could simply say, for instance: “the Names of Genii and the Seals given by F. Bardon do not correspond to those given by C. Agrippa, etc. but it is necessary to have a practice so as to be able to see who says the truth”. This argument is justifiable and then acceptable. We always forget that Names of Power, Seals of Entities, Element, Colour, etc. revealed here and there, during ages, were deliberately altered.
   
   A last precision : Franz Bardon always says in his first book “Introduction into Hermetism” that before approaching the real practice of his second one, “The Practice of the Magical Evocation”, it is necessary to have completed and succeed in doing the Ten Stages described in the first book, otherwise the student goes to his loss …
   
   
4. “The hermetic circle of Prague” and Franz Bardon : at the end of the fifties of the last century, Czech police made circulated gossip and slanders on this atypical Being (it is necessary to admit it) who possessed “powers” very well known all around and which disturbed enormously a Society in full totalitarian and atheistic reorganization. Police did not hesitate to foment “false” scandals so as to impute them to Franz Bardon by using the press and other means of communication in order to soil the reputation of the one it wanted to seize and to find a “motive” to a foreseen arrest. If we trust, then, what spread of obnoxious on Franz Bardon the Czech newspapers of that time, we make a mistake.
   
   
5. Opinion of the members of the Theosophical Society on Magic, notably that of Franz Bardon : they did not read really H. P. Blavatsky’s writings. And if they did, they very badly understood them. Then, we name them “members of the Theosophical Society”  and not  “Theosophs”.

We could expose a vain and unlimited argumentation because who is determined to refute, will always refute and who is determined to accept, will always accept. Then, if it is rightful to wonder about the validity of a so fundamental Teaching as that of Hermetism, it is necessary too to agree that in reality only practice will be able to demonstrate in the long run its authenticity, its quality and its value.

In fact, we are human beings whose subtle senses are not much — or not at all — developed and, consequently, we cannot trust these last in order to discover a priori — otherwise by immediate intuition — the value or the insignificance of an Esoterical Teaching. The appreciation which we will have of the value of a Spiritual Way will be based then on the experiment. However, even this last is not reliable because :

• We may, since the beginning, (and it is this beginning which is psychologically so important to get conclusions) make painful experiences by following a Way and conclude that this one is harmful — and then abandon it — while we would only have approached a purificatory phase which is required by spiritual progression ;
  
  
• We may, since the beginning, make magnificent experiences, have the sensation of contacting extraordinary invisible beings by following a Way and conclude that this one is authentic, sure, adapted to us, while we sink into a sweet and brilliant dream emanated towards us by derisive entities, bound sometimes to a doubtful spring of energies, etc. All this is only tending to prolong our sleep on what we really are.

Consequently, as regards the value of Franz Bardon’s Teachings and, in corollary of his own person, it is enough to practice them or, if we do not “feel” them, to close his books and choose an other Way. There is no blame in this last attitude.