Christian Hermetics: Why Christianity and Magic Are the Same Thing - Virgil

Roughly a century ago, Divine Providence commissioned an advanced initiate to reveal to the world a thorough and balanced system of initiation into the mysteries of magic. In theory, this advanced initiate could have taken over the body of any number of people to complete his task, but Divine Providence specifically directed him to take over the body of a young boy named Franz, who was the son of a man named Viktor Bardon. And so Franz Bardon, at an early age, experienced a drastic change in personality and developed a high degree of skill in the magical arts overnight. As it turns out, Viktor Bardon was an intermediate-level Christian mystic who found that he needed more guidance in order to advance further along his path. In order to receive this guidance, he had prayed to God to send him a teacher, and this is why the advanced initiate took over his son’s body and not anyone else’s.

Now, if you are a Bardonist, then there is a good chance that you have heard all of this before. But have you ever wondered why God would send Victor a teacher of magic when he was walking a Christian path? It might seem strange, but when you realize that Christianity and magic are actually the exact same thing, then it makes perfect sense. As for why Christianity and magic are the same thing, that is what I am about to explain.

To begin with, let’s figure out what exactly Christianity is. Of course, some definitions can be quite long and there are many traditions of Christianity, including many mystical and esoteric traditions, but when I study the Gospels, there are two things Jesus said that I think really capture the essence of Christianity.

Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (Matt. 7:21)

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matt. 5:48)

The first statement quoted above reveals the practice of Christianity – doing the will of God. The second statement reveals the end goal of Christianity – perfection. Thus, Christianity can be defined as a way to perfection through doing God’s will. For magic and Christianity to be the same thing, the end goal of the magical path must also be perfection, and the practice of magic must also consist of doing God’s will. Let’s take these two points one at a time.

The end goal of the magical path, or at least what Bardon considers to be the magical path, is indeed perfection. This is a trivial matter to prove since Bardon either explicitly states this or strongly implies this at various points throughout his three books. In Step 9 of IIH, for example, Bardon writes that the student who has reached this step “will realize that he has already covered a good distance on the path of his perfection.” In the last sentence of the epilogue of IIH, Bardon gives his blessing to “all the readers desirous of perfection and who have chosen this book as their leader.” In PME, Bardon writes that “a diligent pupil of magic can reach perfection and become an adept after conscientious training.” Later on in the book, in the chapter called “Advantages and Disadvantages of Evocational Magic,” Bardon literally defines a “true magician” as a perfect human being. KTQ also contains several passages indicating that Bardon considered perfection to be the end goal of the magical path.

Clearly, Christianity and the magical path lead to the same goal, but is the practice of magic (as Bardon defines it) the same as the practice of Christianity? In other words, does the practice of magic consist in doing God’s will? It actually does, and this can also be proved through various passages in Bardon’s books. However, I think it is more interesting to answer this question by looking at the way Bardon lived his life, and to see that he always made it his goal to do God’s will. In the epilogue of KTQ, Bardon writes the following.

I should, however, be very pleased, if I were permitted by Divine Providence to reveal at least two more leaves of the Book of Wisdom in order to help the most talented ones on their way. It is left to Divine Providence alone to decide on this.

In this situation, Bardon’s desire was to reveal at least two more leaves of the Book of Wisdom. However, he didn’t let his desires guide him through life. He let God’s will guide him, and so although he desired to reveal two more leaves, he left it up to God to decide whether he would do this. The last sentence of this passage reflects the same attitude Jesus had in the Garden of Gethsemane when he said “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

Regardless of what God ultimately decided regarding the fourth and fifth leaves of the Book of Wisdom, we know that Bardon was definitely tasked with revealing the first three leaves to humanity. This was his divine mission. In other words, it was God’s will that he should do this. In Memories of Franz Bardon, we get a glimpse of the many trials and hardships he faced in order to fulfill this divine mission. If he had been concerned about fulfilling his own desires instead of doing God’s will, then he certainly could have avoided many of those trials and hardships, but he didn’t. To borrow a phrase from Christianity, Bardon chose to take up his cross (see Matt. 16:24).

In addition to Bardon’s writings and Bardon’s life, there is one other piece of evidence that strongly suggests, even proves, that the magic of the Bardon system consists in doing God’s will. As many students are aware, William Mistele once asked the Earth-zone spirit Eralicarison, whose area of expertise is initiations, for a ritual that could help students of Bardon’s system. Eralicarison provided William with a ritual that includes the following prayer.

May the work I perform in training to be a magician serve the highest light of Divine Providence. May divine justice, fair play, and harmony shine through and within all that I do. May the words I speak, the breath I breathe, the light in my eyes, and the love in my heart transform the world around me. May my path be anointed with divine beauty.

May all who enter my life see divine peace reflected through me. May the truth of the universe, the mystery of creation, the light which sustains and shines within every created being use me as its servant. May my will be so perfected that in the end there is no distinction between the satisfaction of my desires and the work of Divine Providence on earth.

Remember that Eralicarison’s ritual, and therefore this prayer, is specifically tailored for students of Bardon’s system. Clearly, this prayer is an expression of one’s desire to do God’s will, and no one who does not desire to do God’s will could utter a prayer like this seriously. Thus, the magical path is for those who desire to do God’s will, and the practice of magic consists in doing God’s will.

Since Christianity is a way to perfection through doing God’s will, and since magic is a way to perfection through doing God’s will, it follows logically that Christianity and magic are in fact the same thing. They overlap one-hundred percent in essence, and it would not be incorrect to use the terms “Christianity” and “magic” synonymously, although I would avoid doing so because you might confuse people who are not aware that they are the same thing, or who have a very narrow view of what Christianity and magic are.

Given that Christianity and magic are the same thing, it’s not surprising that Jesus was such a great role model for magicians. Note that when you pray the Rosary, you contemplate the events of Jesus’s life. By contemplating these events, you gain a deeper understanding of them, which translates into a deeper understanding of what it really means to be a magician. This is one of many reasons that the Rosary is such an extraordinarily powerful and useful tool for aspiring magicians. According to William Mistele, “Christ’s life is a perfect example of one who chose to follow a divine mission, to accomplish it here on earth, to share both in the full suffering of mankind and at the same time to live with an inspiration of giving and love that derives from the highest ecstasy of being in union with God from within.”

Different people pray the Rosary to achieve different purposes, and it is quite common to adapt the Rosary to better suit whatever purpose you are trying to achieve through it. If you are praying the Rosary as a way of accelerating your advancement along the magical path, one easy way you can adapt it to better suit this purpose is to modify the Hail Mary as follows.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, the perfect role model for all magicians. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I will write several articles and essays explaining what the Rosary can teach us about the nature of magic, and describing other ways the Rosary can be adapted to better suit the purpose of accelerating one’s magical advancement. But in the meantime, consider what it really means to take up your cross. Think about what must be done to crucify your egotism so that your latent divinity may be resurrected in its place. Does crucifixion sound pleasant? If you have chosen Bardon’s system as your path, then know that the path you have chosen is not an easy one to walk. Everyone wants to be resurrected as an immortal, but no one wants to die as a mortal. As grim and unpleasant as it sounds, this is a path for those who want to die; not in a physical bodily sense, but in a deep spiritual sense.