Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon, Overview, Commentary and Ideas

The last part of the book then progresses to astral projection. Already, much of the training has been towards strengthening the spiritual senses. The inner senses belong to the inner body of the astral realm, to which the corresponding body consciousness can be wholly transferred, and it is, in essence, your ticket to another world! An extra exercise is given here, to breathe energy specifically, to the senses, eyes, ears etc. with the intention of strengthening them.

There is also a brief practice, to take religious pictures and breathe elemental energy into them, then locate consciousness within the divine figures within the pictures. This is reminiscent of working with godforms in occult practice, i.e. creating the mental image of a god and invoking its energy into the form, then transferring consciousness to it. That practice isn’t presented here, rather, essentially, the book ends with an astral projection exercise, so it might even be seen as a type of culmination. The first exercise is to look at oneself in the mirror, and then transfer consciousness to the double (and by now there should be some proficiency of moving consciousness around), then once in the double, you walk off fully in the mental body, out of the room, leaving the physical behind, and go forward, completely, into a new world.

List of the Separated Exercises

Spiritual sense training
Mind Training
- Observe thoughts (like Vipasanna)
- Have a single thought for ten minutes
- Have no thoughts for ten minutes
- Have one idea for ten minutes
- Have a vacancy of mind for ten minutes (same as C)
- Look at an object and recreate it in the mind
- Isolate the object from the background
Sense Training
- Sounds (ticking clock, wind, etc.)
- Hunger for five minutes
- Thirst for five minutes
- Satiation for five minutes (my addition)
- Taste for five minutes
- Combine two senses, eyes closed
- Combine three senses, eyes closed
- Combine two senses, eyes open
- Combine three senses, eyes open
- Scene with movement, five minutes
- Scene with people, five minutes
- All the senses combined, e.g. in a forest, eyes closed
- All the senses combined, e.g. in a forest, eyes open

Journal Exercises

Record all mind contents for two weeks
Categorize them according to the elements
Meditate on each elemental list for one week each (a month’s work)
Further separate into positive and negative (black and white)
Heal negative by pore breathing in the contrary element
Stop allowing any negative thoughts and develop the opposite (overarching mental discipline)

Daily Rituals and Reminders

Breathe in wish essence, 7 breaths, morning and night
See desire essence in food consumed, three times a day
Expel negativity with waste on toilet breaks (my addition)
Impregnate water with wish essence when drinking
Remove negative energy with water when bathing

Pore Breathing

Breathe in desire via pores (like 4a but extended period)
As 5a but out breath carries doubt away from self
Accumulate each element X4 seven breaths, then expel
As 5c but expel through hands only
Use pore breathing to impregnate a room with elemental energy
Accumulate 4 elements to their respective areas of the body (concentrate on kinesthetic also)
Condense elemental energy to a sphere in the body, imbue with intent and release
Create a sphere in a particular place, bound there with an intention and expiry date, but lasting beyond a practice session.

Loosening Consciousness

Put consciousness into an object
Locate in the solar plexus and accumulate elemental energy there
Exteriorise ghost hand
Be aware of mental/astral body while moving
Project oneself into religious pictures

Bardon Commentary

BLACK AND WHITE SOUL MIRROR can be the front and back of a notebook, with antidote elements and leaving elements to go cure yourself. The problems and the antidotes are recorded in the notebooks.