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To: alt.magick From: ctuttle@bu.edu (Christopher Tuttle) Subject: Re: Frabato, the Magician (9406.fbardon.ct) Date: 49940624 Quoting: |wl-silveroak-ely@society.com, |> rcbright@astro.ocis.temple.edu (Robert C. Bright) |>I read _Frabato the Magician_ recently and was surprised to learn that |>Bardon considers the god of the 99 Lodges was Baphomet. Is this so? |>Bardon also says that Baphomet is a demon whose deal with the 99 |>Lodge folks is a personal demon and stuff for life in exchange for |>the death of one of its members each summer solstice. (Then |>eternal service) Does anyone have any thoughts on this subject? |>Signed |>"Confused in Philadelphia" |One thought... Who is Bardon, and why does he claim demonic presence? |I've seen plenty of people criing demon far to easilly. Franz Bardon was a 19th century German magician. He belonged to a ceremonial magical order (the name escapes me at the moment!), one of many that sprang up in Germany between the late 17th and early 20th centuries. He is most famous for a two-volume work on ceremonial magic training called _Initiation into Hermetics_ -- of which the first volume is quite useful (although quite densely written), whereas the second volume is pretty obtuse and not really useful to anyone not following the system in its entirety. Quite a few parts of Initiation into Hermetics (vol. 1) have found there way into other western occult "systems/traditions" (without citations, I might add) . . . for example, the preparatory method for "Universal Condenser" later found in the Witchcraft of both Paul Huson and Alex Sanders seems to have been "borrowed" from Bardon. Bardon's group seems to have been greatly influenced by both the Rosicrucian and Freemasonic movements. Since the "traditions" of both of these groups claim the Knights Templar in the "historic" lineages it's not surprising that Baphomet should appear in Bardon's novel, _Frabato, The Magician_. Baphomet is the hermaphroditic "god" that the Templars were accused of worshipping instead of Yahweh (the most common image of Baphomet is that drawn by the late 18th-early 19th c. French magician, Eliphas Levi); Baphomet, because of its hermaphroditism, really appealed to magicians of the time because of the close association between magic and alchemy -- the central theme of alchemy being the "Chymical Wedding," that is, the marriage of one's spiritual self to one's emotional self, the body to the soul -- symbolized by a hermaphrodite. _Frabato, the Magician_ is a 19th c. novel -- written during the rise of Romanticism when Europe was obsessed with occultism, especially things having to do with demons, Black Masses, etc. As a result, Bardon sets his story in a similar framework -- expecting it, I'm sure, to attract more readers in the event that some of them will see beyond the "trappings" to the underlying messages. Thus, don't take Bardon's portrayal of the Lodge, and of Baphomet, too seriously. The "mythic" attributes he gives to Baphomet are most likely the creation of his own imagination -- at least, they don't correspond to anything I've come across amongst the "actual practices" of the contemporary groups. The closest comparison that can be made is to extant 'confessions' coerced from tortured Templars by the Inquisition in the 14th century. Most modern historian/magicians believe that you can't take the 14th c. Church- recorded material at face value. Hope this helps . . . . If you enjoyed Bardon's novel, you should try Sir Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's _Zanoni_ and _A Strange Story_ -- both of which contain much more useful/practical magical information gleaned from the contemporary occultism (Bulwer-Lytton studied with Eliphas Levi). Light in Extension, Thoth Christopher A. Tuttle/Thoth former Co-Editor, Tides: A Journal of Wicca and NeoPagan Spirituality (POB 317, BU Station, Boston, MA 02215; or ctuttle@acs.bu.edu) [Nota Bene: Tides ceased publication (temporarily?) on 1 April 1994]
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