This post serves as an introduction to the book Unlocking the Keys to Magic, this book is a result of the interviews we did on the first version of the studentsoffranzbardon.com blog. We did not want to lose these as so much good information was shared so generously.

Now here we are in 2023 several years since these were first published on the blog, we have spent time to make the questions clearer, many community questions were very long so these are now concise and to the point while retaining the original meaning.

We also contacted those interviewed to see if they had additional information they wanted to add as well as adding in updated introductions, contact details and providing information on opportunities to learn from those interviewed.

This is a great book to have as it shows very diverse approaches to the teaching of Franz Bardon. Despite these differing approaches the practitioners in this book all still managed to be successful in their Practice and have made their way past the first book Initiation into Hermetics onto the 2nd and 3rd books. So this book is a great reminder that there is more than one way to approach the work.

Available as Kindle, Paperback and Epub

Who is being interviewed?

A good question, inside Unlocking the Keys to Magic we feature some well known practitioners from the community as well as some individuals who prefer to maintain their privacy. In the following list we present who is featured and provide additional links for you to see their work.

Andre Consciencia

André lives in Moita, Portugal and has been a dedicated practitioner of magic and mysticism for more than two decades.

He was with the Fraternitas Hermetica (an order based on the works of Franz Bardon) while still a minor and had an initiator that stood even after the order vanished. He also has worked with his old initiator for 20 years. He has experience of other magical systems such as AMORC, Order of Michael’s Grail (with roots on Dion Fortune), Thelemic Golden Dawn, Astrum Argentum and the Typhonian OTO.

André teaches neo-shamanism and has his own active group of practitioners. Aside from his shamanic path, which he puts to use as a simple way to reach the uninitiated, he has been through the hermetic magical systems of Franz Bardon, as well as through systems presented by Rosicrucian orders and Thelemic organizations, still being a member of the Chaorder of SilverDusk and a member of the Inner Council of the Horus Maat Lodge.

Aside from his magical path, Andre is an accomplished author, poet, playwright, musician and founder of a Theater Company – CIA.Mefisteatro.

A published author in a number of writings, notably:

Poesis collection, Minerva publishing.

Projecto Prometeus, illustrations by Alice Basílio, 2007.

Á Beira-Lua, Corpos Editora and World Art Friends, a collection of poems, 2008.

‘A Boca da Noite‘, by Abismo Humano, 2012. A collection of short stories with the adventures of a man who is climbing a mountain in order to marry a star.

Gem of Silence and Iomik & The Emerald Woman, Melting Books publishing 2018. Two fictional titles connected to the works of Paracelsus,

Trono de Cera e Dorso de Fada, a poetry book published by the City Hall of Moita, 2018 (including photographic works of Eunice Correia).

Editor in the Silver Star: A Journal of New Magick. Published by the Horus Maat Lodge.

Translatior to portuguese of ‘The Horus Maat Lodge, the Grimoire of a PanAeonic Magickal Tribe’ and ‘The Chaldean Oracles’, to which he writes the commentary.

The Way of Abrahadabra, Published by Sirius Limited Esoterica, 2020.

The Path to IPSOS Vol I. Published by Sirius Limited Esoterica, 2020.

The Path to IPSOS Vol II. Published by Sirius Limited Esoterica, 2021.

His work was accepted at The Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, an anthology curated by Robert N Stephenson, with the Golden Tooth.

He participates in magazines such as Silver Star – A Journal of New Magick and SilkMilk (Inspiralink Productions), Tumzantorum and in the Portuguese magazine Abismo Humano as well as in the Brazilian magazine Mallarmargens, where he began to publish his translations, debuting with T. S. Elliot.

In 2010 he formed a therapy program through creative writing and shamanistic performance and this started his career as a performer, using poems unique to the performances and often inviting other artists, from performers to dancers and musicians. In parallel he began working with music (i.e. Babalith, O Culto do Fogo Negro), working on a variety of projects, solo and collective, and created his first play Língua de Fogo, (Tongue of Fire) featuring the dancer Soraya Moon. In 2017 he released O Verão Nas Nossas Bocas, a semi auto-biographical fiction where the life of the character is seen from the lens of the Sun.

In 2018 he founded his own Theater Company of CIA. Mefisteatro, with Eunice Correia – debuts with the kabbalistic play, Twilight Circus. As a playwright, he wrote the plays and music for Rumpelstiltskin, Three Strange Stories and the ritual play ‘Sapho’s Bone’.

In addition to his Neoplatonic approach to poetry, fiction, music and theatre, he has been a member of various magical orders and has written nonfiction articles to their archives. In The Way of Abrahadabra, he intended to strip the formula from the folk rituals of Thelema and its most religious and popular aspects, presenting it and elaborating it instead through hermetic methods.

Andres Teacher Page.
Andres Interview 1, Interview 2, Interview 3.

Chris

Chris is one half of the ‘Knowledge & Conversation’ podcast that he co-hosts with well known magician ‘Justin B the Magician’. He has been involved in Magick for many years and now in addition to his training within the Franz Bardon system he has also studied deeply the teachings of the Buddha, getting to know these in theory and in practice with a particular focus upon the Vajrayana teachings paying attention to the similarities between the various vehicles rather than just the differences. Though having abundant experience he prefers to see magick through the lens of Kabbalah and most recently committed to further study of these ancient teachings by joining the Freemasons.

Chris’s Blog

Yogic Engineering

Yogic Engineering – is the creator of the blog called ‘Yogic Engineering’. From posts on that blog and indeed in the interview below you will see that he is a practical individual who is interested in results not magical fantasy. He is a private individual hence us using the name of his blog in this interview as his name. In his own words from his blog:

After almost 30 years of experience in yogic and meditative practice, a long career in government and way too much time spent in out of the way places I am now at the point I feel comfortable sharing what I’ve learned. My experience with yogic practice started in the late 1980’s. Over the next 30 years, I’ve studied Surat Shabd yoga, the Taoist yogic practices, Vajrayana Buddhism, and finally Hermetics. While I have studied Tai Chi, Bagua, and Xingyi at various times my martial practice mostly centered around firearms via CQB. Frankly, better teachers exist for all of those things. My unorthodox career has allowed me to road test a lot of the yogic practices under circumstances that most people do not have access to. I’m now at the point where I can share some of this with you.

Yogic Engineering Blog

Scott Turner

Scott lives in Chile with his wife and three children. He teaches classes in visual effects in a small art college and works on commercials for television.

Bob Smith

Bob has led a pretty full life as you will see from his interviews, as a result of this life of searching, discovering and practice he founded ‘Sixty Skills’ so this is perhaps the best way to introduce Bob, by introducing Sixty Skills:

Sixty Skills is transforming the traditional transmission of meditative, and yogic, instruction from one of master to disciple to a modern online learning format. Sixty Skills has covered the globe and over a thirty year period derived the key techniques from all the major schools of Buddhism, Hermetics, Hindu-Yogic, and Taoist practice.

Bobs Teacher Page
Bobs Sixty Skills Curriculum
Bobs website

Ray Del Sole

Ray del Sole, born in 1975, works near Frankfurt in Germany as a non-medical practitioner for psychotherapy. He studied architecture with a focus on project management in Bochum. In parallel, he earned certificates in communication and rhetoric, corporate health management, cultural training, general project management, increasing corporate efficiency, business administration for engineers, and moderation of work groups, among others. This was followed by postgraduate studies in natural scientific building biology at the Neubeuern Institute and management studies with business administration at the FFH Darmstadt. After several years as a self-employed architect, he changed industries and followed his spiritual nature. Since he had done a complete training in Prana Healing in Switzerland very early and was interested in psychology and healing due to his spiritual studies, he completed trainings in anxiety and stress management, as a psychological counselor, hypnosis and reincarnation therapist, hypno-coach and alternative practitioner for psychotherapy. He is a member of the VFP, the Association of Free Psychotherapists. Especially in the English-speaking world, Ray del Sole is known as a spiritual author of a number of books and as an expert on metaphysics and mysticism. A number of ebooks have also been translated into several other languages. As a coach, spiritual healer and teacher, he accompanies interested people on the spiritual path in his Sura Academy.

Rays 2022 Interview
Rays Website

Sifu Mark Rasmus

Sifu Mark Rasmus began his martial arts training in the 1970s and by 1986, he opened his first school in Brisbane, Australia under the encouragement of his Wing Chun teacher, John Dugan. After teaching his first class, Mark realized that this was his life’s path and he also began his journey in Tai Chi Chuan. During the late 1970s, Mark embarked on his journey into Hermetics, when he met his first mentor, William Cook Edwards. Over the course of more than three decades, Mark has combined his expertise in martial arts and Hermetics to create the Elastic Force System, and has become a living master of Applied Hermeticism. Mark has taught thousands of students, teachers, and masters around the world the theory and application of internal martial arts, Tai Chi, Chi Kung, Hermetics, Evocation, and Quabbalah. His vision is to create masters and teachers in every discipline and area of expertise with the goal of raising the group consciousness and having an overall evolutionary impact.

Sifu Mark Rasmus website

Wayne

Wayne is a life long practitioner having started practicing over four decades ago in the summer of 1977! This should point to the degree of experience that Wayne is bringing to this interview. His practice is well rounded in meditational practices, energy work and the martial arts being an experienced practitioner and teacher of Wing Chun.

Michael Lamb

Michael Lamb is an Kabbalistic Alchemist, having studied for nine years at The School of Inner Knowledge, with Hermetic Lore, Universal Healing, Colour, Sound, The Elements, Vibration, Numerology, Astronomy/ Astrology, Cosmology, Astral & Mental Projection, Occult Mysteries, Electro Magnetism, Ancient Eastern & Western Philosophy, Tarot, Kabbalah, Dozens of Meditation techniques & an Absolute Love for Life. He has appeared on several radio shows recorded meditations and taught in Europe, whilst visiting many Sacred sites.

Michaels website