Introduction
What is to follow was originally part of a book that we may or may not publish. But we thought it was more useful being available on the blog ASAP rather than sitting in a hard drive gathering digital dust. So then instead of us removing every mention of book, we have left it all intact to maintain the flow. Keep this in mind when reading this and over the next several weeks as we gradually post as much of this material as we can.
This book aims to provide a concise path to building the fundamentals required in what we call ‘Hermetic Fundamentals’. Essentially, Hermetic Fundamentals (I go further down this Rabbit Hole in Mind Body Fundamentals) here is based around the original teachings of Franz Bardon, not the wider body of work known as Hermetics and is aimed at providing the foundation required to move from Steps 1 – 4 of Initiation into Hermetics (Bardon’s first training manual – IIH). Though there are many other influences in this book from multiple traditions, the aim remains being to build all the skills necessary to then gain success in the specific steps of IIH. As building success in each and every exercise is important in building momentum and positive expectations that this is indeed an achievable task.
Why is this book necessary? Why not just do Franz Bardons exercises? A good question. Firstly, this book is not required, you can absolutely stick to what Bardon has written and make great progress. In fact for some people it might actually be better to do that. If you are a content junkie and like acquiring information for the sake of it, then perhaps think carefully whether this book will be a help or a hindrance. Though if you truly do feel like you are stuck building some mental muscle and then returning to IIH with a new perspective can be extremely beneficial to your practice.
But, there is somewhat of a learning curve involved, maturity, life circumstances to consider which can often make the simple task of following simple instructions seem extremely complex. We also now have an active Bardon community with many experienced individuals putting their spin on their approach to working through the steps (yes I see the irony here). It can be a little confusing learning to trust yourself among all these different voices.
A word of caution. Opinions will be in this book, you do not need to agree with them; they are simply my insights and current beliefs useful to me (for now) and perhaps to you.
The first of these opinions is that you absolutely must learn to trust yourself and not be influenced by gurus, teachers, books or anything else. Personally, only when I took this on fully and took full responsibility for my progress did I actually start to make real progress.
So in the process of this journey I have used various methods to achieve the step, often I have found it is not the difficulty of the step it is just the amount of exposure we have to it as well the amount of concentration we bring to the table. It is clear from working through Steps 1-4 that concentration and attention is heavily involved. So why not develop these qualities to a high degree and then be free to apply where we please.
One last thing is that I have not tried to go step by step mirroring Bardons books, instead I have provided a toolset. It should be self-evident how this aids you in the steps of 1-4. I then go on at the end of this book to provide a training schedule. Again, I do not include the specific exercises of IIH as after completing this training the idea is that you return to your normal exercises with a new perspective and improved abilities ready to successfully move through these early steps.
I truly hope you get value from this book.
Author – SOFB
