By Franz Bardon The Universal Master Key

by Franz Bardon

352 pages.

Genres: Occult, Esoterica

Unknown Binding

First published March 24, 2013

About the author

Franz Bardon (1909–1958) was a Czech stage magician and teacher of Hermetics. He is best known for his three volumes on Hermetic magic: Initiation Into Hermetics, The Practice of Magical Evocation, and The Key to the True Quabbalah.

An additional fourth work attributed to him by the title of Frabato the Magician, supposed by many of his students to be a disguised autobiography. Though the book lists its author as Bardon, it was actually written by his secretary, Otti Votavova. While some elements of the story are based on Bardon's real life experience, most of the book was written as an occult novel with much embellishment on the part of Votavova.

Bardon's works are most notable for their simplicity, their relatively small theoretical sections, and heavy emphasis on practice with many exercises. Students of his, such as William Mistele and Rawn Clark consider him to have written the best training programs of any magician of the 20th century. They were written with the intention of allowing students who wished to practice magic the means to do so if they could not study under a teacher.

Reviews

[Ryan Hunter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute blathering garbage. It’s hard to believe this was created by the same person that wrote initiation into hermetics. For something as important as elemental theory one would expect a master to be a bit more forthcoming or at least knowledgable on the subject. Instead the speaker drones on and on in empty platitudes unbecoming of a protestant preacher let alone a supposedly high initiate.

At the very least, characteristics of the elements have been confused for one another or repeated in inappropriate places. Said knowledge is not expounded in a tricky or clever way to conceal some greater truth but rather trips on its own tongue through profound clumsiness of thought and myopic vision. The speaker also has an irritating way of explaining basic concepts in overly verbose ways containing surprisingly little substance. It was often more useful to read the title of each heading than delve into the further twaddle supposedly meant to elaborate on that pith contained in its title.

What is to be found within this book would be better gleaned elsewhere, only the most basic of understandings is expounded within its pages. This book was so sloppy and poor it severely undermined my confidence in the author.

[IAO131 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I cannot think of a more misleading title for this book than 'The Universal Master Key.' There is nothing 'universal' in this book - it is mostly a hodgepodge of typical Western-style morality, slightly divorced from its Christian roots. A 'key' implies that something is being unlocked or revealed - or at the very least, that it enables one to interpret something anew or more clearly - yet there is no 'key' in the text. Rather, there is a list of somewhat arbitrarily delineated 'virtues' based loosely on the Four Elements. Nothing is given to elucidate these virtues or the Elements beyond very scant, hurried, and superficial treatments of what words like 'bravery' and 'intuition' mean to Bardon. A 'master key' implies it unlocks every lock, and there is nothing in the book approaching metaphysics, mysticism, or esoteric philosophy - it is literally a compendium on ethics according to the author. Perhaps there is a reason Bardon chose to never publish this text during his lifetime.