Thought this may be of interest

["anton_temple" <anton_temple@...>]

Thought this may be of interest

WORKERS FOR THE LIGHT
Interviews with those who promote and follow Franz Bardon's System 
Dieter Rüggeberg ? Germany 

Mr Ruggeberg, thoughout the world you are known as a tireless worker 
for the works of Franz Bardon. The great debt the world holds to you 
for ensuring that these works have become so far spread, is 
immeasurable. I have written this interview to stand as a record of 
your effort and opinions. 

Q: What inspired you to first promote Franz Bardon's magical system? 

A: In the beginning of the 60ths I came across the teachings of 
Rudolf Steiner where he pointed out that each human being has so 
much karmic debt on his shoulders that it is scarcely possible to 
remove it in one incarnation. These words impressed me very much and 
I thought by myself that it would not be enough to do the exercises 
of the Bardon book "Initiation into Hermetics" but moreover I had to 
reduce my karmic debt as much as possible at the same time. At that 
time, the English edition of "The Practice of Magical Evocation" was 
prepared by Mr. and Mrs. Pravica in Graz/Austria and I got my first 
chance to contribute to the Bardon books. Around 1969 I was offered 
to take over the management of the published and unpublished works 
of Franz Bardon. According to the story in "Frabato" this duty was 
bound to the highest responsibility imaginable and laid on my 
shoulders as a very heavy weight. Therefore I was in good hope that 
an initiate would come soon to take the burden over, since I was an 
undeveloped person with no knowledge in book production at all. But 
since there was nobody else I agreed and started in 1970 with 
publishing the 2nd edition of "The Practice of Magical Evocation". 
The initiate did not come and therefore I am today still in the same 
position as in 1970 but very thankful for the great chance I got to 
contribute to the spiritual development of mankind. 

Q: What most disappoints or saddens you about your career promoting 
the works of Bardon. 

A: After 32 years working for the Bardon books and the spreading of 
about 150 000 books around the world, there are not even ten 
students of Hermetics on this globe who support the Bardon work 
(printings, translations etc.) constantly with at least one dollar a 
year. 

Q: What has most pleased you about your career promoting Bardon's 
works? 

A: The fact that I succeeded to publish the Bardon books in several 
languages and spread them all over the world so far, that probably 
no persecution can ever destroy all of them any more in the future. 

Q: Many people have mentioned Darker forces trying to prevent these 
methods being revealed. Have you ever experienced this? 

A: Of course, there is a kind of boycott against magic and 
occultism, mostly exercised by the Christian churches with the same 
witch-hunting-terms as in the middle age. But since the Christian 
belief is vanishing and the esoteric interests of many people grew 
up during the past centuries we had no real severe difficulties. 
Basically all fanatic religions and materialistic conceptions of the 
world are the enemies of magic and occultism. 

Q: As progress can be slow and hard work, how many people do you 
believe have the potential to advance beyond the first book of the 
Franz Bardon system? 

A: As I pointed out above, not even ten students of Hermetics 
support the work of Franz Bardon constantly with at least one dollar 
in a year. Therefore I have to assume that there are not even ten 
students around the world who have at least gone through the first 
three steps of "Initiation into Hermetics". 

Q: Readers of Frabato read of Mrs. Otti Votavova using Franz 
Bardon's magic mirror. Did you ever see any of his magical items 
used? 

A: No, I did not. 

Q: Are any of Franz Bardon's students still alive? 

A: I have no knowledge about that. 

Q: Are there any other texts either in English or in German that you 
feel are on the same standard as those of Franz Bardon. 

A: I know several systems for occult development but in my opinion 
none of them has the standard of the Bardon system. 

Q: Which texts either in English or in German, do you think would be 
of use to those following Franz Bardon system. 

A: I learned a lot through the teachings of Rudolf Steiner (the 
founder of Anthroposophy) especially concerning the laws of karma, 
reincarnation and introspection. Moreover I can recommend the yoga 
books of Swami Shivananda, of Karl Brandler-Pracht and Dr. Georg 
Lomer. 

Q: Did you ever meet Franz Bardon? 

A: Unfortunately I never met Franz Bardon personally because he was 
already dead when I came to the books in fall 1958. Nevertheless I 
had the advantage to become acquainted with his secretary Mrs. Otti 
Votavova and visited her through many years in Prag until her death. 

Q:Franz Bardon must have had a big library. Tell me did any of the 
contents survive? Did anyone ever take an inventory? 

A: Mrs. Bardon, the wife of Franz Bardon, told me that the police in 
1958 took all the books with them and never gave them back. Only a 
few books survived, but mostly German books about medicine. An 
inventory is not known to me. I was told by Mrs. Votavova that he 
had a rather big library although this was not so easy during the 
communist times. As you perhaps know Franz Bardon was a natural 
healer and was able to cure cancer until the 2nd stage just with 
natural medicine. This was too much for the so called official 
doctors of medicine and they tried to drop him down by accusing him 
to have given the wrong medicine to his patients. Before the trial 
was finished he died in the prison hospital. During this process all 
his books were confiscated and never given back. This is the reason 
why we have only little knowledge about his library. Beside some 
parts of Dr. Lomer, he had a translation of a book by S. A. Kummer 
who was perhaps the only rune-initiate in Germany. He even visited 
the last one with his wife as I know. He also met Mrs. Alexandra 
David-Neel when she was in Vienna for a lecture. David-Neel was a 
French female magician initiated in the Tibetan mysteries.] 

Q. Many people ask about the source of the Bardon system. Everyone 
has their ideas about which tradition he drew from. Can you shed any 
light on this? 

A: The magical system of Franz Bardon is an Egyptian one. He points 
to this in the chapter of "Initiation into Hermetics" where he talks 
about the muladhara-chakra in Kundalini-Yoga. Several basic 
exercises of "Initiation into Hermetics" are known in other systems 
like Yoga and Tibetan Buddism too, but the eastern initiates still 
keep silence about the complete way. Since Franz Bardon is one of 
the highest initiates of our cosmic system he of course needs no 
books from tradition. 

Q: Does the FOGC still exist in Germany? Do you know if the 
mainstream Freemasons were aware of this order? 

A: I have no knowledge about the 99-order in Germany or elsewhere. I 
think that lodges like the FOGC will never die out completely 
because there existed 99-orders around the world. I have no 
knowledge whether Freemasonry has taken notice of the work of Franz 
Bardon and the 99-orders. After my knowledge the whole Freemasonry 
is rather involved in materialism today what does not exclude that 
some of them members of a 99-order. 

Q: What would be your advice to those following the Franz Bardon 
System. 

A: They should study other occult systems too, because this 
strengthens the confidence in the Bardon-System. From the experience 
of a few decades now, I know that the beginners have extreme 
difficulties with the introspection or self knowledge. Nevertheless 
this labour is inevitable! Even if most people are not able to do 
the exercises of the first steps I consider it most important to 
work on introspection, to change at least a few bad qualities into 
good ones, what can improve their life situation in many aspects. In 
addition I recommend a serious study of Karma-Yoga because in my 
eyes without reduction of negative Karma a greater progress in 
Hermetics is scarcely possible. Thank you for answering my 
questions. 




Merkur Publishing Inc Salt Lake City, Utah, USA 

Thank you for answering my questions. 



 

Merkur Publishing Inc. ? Salt Lake City ? Utah ? USA 

Q: What inspired you to promote Franz Bardon's magical system? 

A: Even though your choice of words is quite to the point, it does 
not really depict how we came into this position. It was quite a 
gradual process and we found ourselves in this position quite 
naturally. As far as promoting Franz Bardon's magical system, this 
is the first time that someone brought up the word promotion. We 
never thought of it in those terms; to us it was a very pleasant 
duty fraught with many challenges. However, it is true that we never 
dreamed that we would be doing what we are doing, and even after 
many years we are still overwhelmed by the position we are in, and 
we are very grateful for it and consider it a great blessing. 

Q: What disappoints or saddens you about your career promoting the 
works of Franz Bardon? 

A: We cannot say that we experienced really any disappointments, but 
we did have our share of countless challenges. In his books Franz 
Bardon makes the statement: 'We should be happy about the good 
things in our lives and learn from the bad things'. What saddens us 
somewhat is that very few people realize that they have the sacred 
sciences (the Holy Mysteries) in their hands, and in many instances 
they are not treated with the respect they deserve. The Hermetic 
Sciences are not dead letters but are actually the living word. And 
most people do not take the valuable time that is given to them to 
study the works of Bardon for the benefit of others. And if they do 
not want do to it for others they should at the very least do the 
Bardon exercises for their own benefit. In Initiation of Hermetics, 
Franz Bardon writes in the epilog: "Anyone who seeks the path to 
God, (and the path of magic or perfection is the path to God) should 
take Christ's words to heart, the great Master of the Mystics: 'Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself'. these words should be the 
sacred command for every seeker who is on the spiritual path.'" 

Q: What pleases you the most about your career promoting the works 
of Franz Bardon? 

A: That we have been given this great opportunity. 

Q: Many people have mentioned darker forces trying to prevent these 
methods from being revealed. Have you ever experienced this? 

A: Do darker forces exist? Yes, they do. But, as to their abilities 
that depends on one's belief system. If you believe that the so-
called darker forces have the ability to prevent these methods from 
being revealed, then they have been given this ability by you. 
However, if you do not believe that they can do this, then they will 
not be able to prevent it. 

Q: As progress can be slow and hard work. How many people do you 
believe have the potential to advance beyond the first book of the 
Franz Bardon system? 

A: Only very few human beings have the answer to that question. 
Because those who have succeeded would not break the seal of 
silence. Breaking the seal of silence would mean also loosing 
everything you have gained. Therefore, we do not know how many have 
succeeded or how many are progressing toward that goal. However, 
there should be considerably more now than in the past, otherwise 
these books and the knowledge they contain would be in vain. Anyone 
who is serious, and who follows the instructions exactly, acquires 
the necessary virtues and eliminates his passions and does not waste 
his time with other meaningless endeavors, has the potential to 
master the exercises in Initiation. Any person who wishes to succeed 
on the path to God requires the necessary virtues, because they give 
him the strength necessary to accomplish this; whereas his passions 
consume the energy he requires. When these books were not available 
to the world at large, the number of people who reached the level 
described in Initiation of Hermetic were about four in a billion. 

Q: What do you think is the most common characteristic that holds a 
student of Hermetics back? 

A: Pride!!!! 

Q: How can the previously mentioned characteristic be overcome? 

A: By turning it into love, especially love for thy neighbor and 
above all for God, and then turning it into humility without losing 
the virtue of love. This of course is a task that requires a strong 
will. But a person who has pride has no will of its own, and such a 
person is completely controlled by his passions. However you can 
regain your will through love. 

Q: Are there texts either in English or in German that you think 
would be of use to those following Franz Bardon's system? 

A: Yes, there are. Once you have worked through the maze of 
available literature on this subject, including all the well-known 
authors, there is only one which emerges -- the writings of Jakob 
Lorber. He received his information through the Inner Word, which 
means directly from Divine Providence or God. Everything that has 
been taken out of the Bible is now available again through his 
writings. His first work, The Household of God contains in detail 
information that was/is not contained in Initiation into Hermetics. 
Besides that it contains historical information from Adam to Noah, 
and for those who are interested in the exact location of Atlantis, 
which in those days was called Hanoch, this too is available. Jakob 
Lorber's books, twenty-five in all, contain details not contained in 
the Bardon books. We have assumed that Franz Bardon was aware that 
these books existed. And of course it is up to the seeker of truth 
to find them. However, if you spend your time on other literature in 
this field you have to expect that you will experience many dead 
ends. 

Q: Many people ask about the source of the Bardon system. Everyone 
has their ideas about which tradition he drew from. Can you shed any 
light on this? 

A: There is only one source and Franz Bardon mentions it several 
times. Divine Providence! 

Q: It is mentioned in an article by Franz Bardon called "Hermetic 
Sciences" that when we perform our exercises to develop ourselves 
(microcosm) this also causes an equivalent change in the universe 
(macrocosm). Can you explain this more? 

A: If you can imagine, on the physical level, if our lives were 
curtailed or extended, what kind of consequences our presence or 
lack of presence could cause. This also applies when we rid 
ourselves of our negative characteristics. Not only does this change 
in us affect the people in our surroundings, but also the spirits we 
attract and those we reject. From there it is a chain reaction, and 
it affects everything. This is very briefly the explanation and if 
you meditate on that you will find more variations and also the 
deeper meaning of the above statement. 

Q: What would be your advice to those following the Franz Bardon 
system? 

A: We get many calls asking for help with the exercises. This help 
cannot be given until all the preliminary work has been done by the 
student. Most of the callers expect results without adhering to the 
instruction given in the Bardon books. The exercises in his books do 
not require a teacher in the earlier stages, which is mentioned in 
the instructions. However most students do not even seem to have 
read that portion of Initiation. Before anyone begins with the 
practice the theory has to be studied to the point that it is 
completely committed to memory. And later when a teacher is needed, 
Divine Providence will provide one for the student. Failure will be 
imminent when the student is convinced by someone else, that they 
need a teacher or initiator at the earlier stages of their 
development. 

The negative characteristics have to be completely eliminated or a 
least to be brought into some kind of a balance. For example: 21 
negative characteristics of the fire element, 20 negative 
characteristics of the air element, 19 negative characteristics of 
the water element, and 18 negative characteristics of the earth 
element. What is of the utmost importance as a student of Hermetics 
or to the aspiring magician is to keep silent about your personal 
progress, otherwise you cannot be or become a magician. These are 
the basic rules to succeed. 

As supporting literature, not in place of the Bardon system, it 
would be advantageous to read Seven Hermetic Letters by Dr. Georg 
Lomer, and all the Lorber books which are presently available. All 
students of the Bardon system of Hermetics can keep up with Faulks 
Books for all future titles. 

Q: In Questions and Answers, by Dieter Ruggeberg, Franz Bardon 
recommends that the student pray before he performs his exercises. 
He also talks about magical prayer. Could you explain a little about 
this and perhaps recommend a prayer that the student could pray 
before his exercises? 

A: If we want to succeed in our spiritual development, we are really 
on the path to God, becoming one with God. Therefore we have to ask 
Him for guidance, and that He help us to be obedient in every way to 
Him, and only to do His will. We must ask God to bless our food 
before we eat, thank him after we have eaten, ask Him to bless our 
home, because all the instructions in the Bardon books are divine 
laws belonging to the divine order. Therefore, any student who is 
not within this order will not succeed. And remember: with God all 
things are possible, without God nothing is possible.