Franz Bardon: Questions & Answers and The Great Arcanum
Franz Bardon, the greatest Hermetic teacher of all times, was born on December 1, 1909, in Troppau (now Opava) in the current Czech Republic. His father was a student of esoteric Christianity. In 1924, the spirit of a high Hermetic adept entered the body of fourteen-year-old Franz. His personality changed dramatically and with great suddenness; in time he became one of the most remarkable Hermetic magicians of the 20th century. Taking the stage name of Frabato, (Franz-Bardon-Troppau-Opava), he often performed throughout Europe as a stage magician although little did audiences suspect that his tricks were, in fact, quite real. But for the most part, he lived a seemingly ordinary life as an industrial mechanic in Opava, though he was certainly regarded there as the local sage. Like other workers for the Light, Franz Bardon attracted the notice of Adolph Hitler. He was incarcerated in a concentration camp for three and a half months. In 1945, shortly before the war ended, he was sentenced to death. However, before the sentence could be carried out, Bardon's prison was bombed. He was rescued from the badly damaged building by some Russian soldiers and succeeded in finding his way back home. After the war, Franz Bardon lived a quiet life in Opava, working as a naturopath and graphologist. He often traveled to Prague to teach, and his teachings formed the basis for his famous books on Hermetics, Initiation into Hermetics, The Practice of Magical Evocation, and The Key to the True Kabbalah. Franz Bardon's Hermetic work was interrupted forever in 1958, when Bardon was arrested during one of Czechoslovakia s notorious Communist purges. Bardon was falsely accused of not paying taxes on alcohol used in the production of his spagyric remedies. He was further accused of treason for allegedly making unfavorable comments about his country in a letter to Australia. On July 10, 1958, Franz Bardon died under "unusual circumstances" in a prison hospital in Brno, Czechoslovakia.