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The Works of Franz Bardon

Franz Bardon was a Czech occultist and student and teacher of Hermetics. Renowned for primarily three books:

1 - Initiation into Hermetics
2 - The Practice of Magical Evocation
3 - The Key to the True Kabbalah

His first, Initiation into Hermetics, published in 1956, is his most impressive, comprehensive, and influential. In it, he puts forth an energetic model of the magical universe, drawing on Hermetic and Eastern philosophies. In Part I he presents his theory, and in Part II he presents a 10-step program of mental, physical, and psychic training. He called all of his disciples magicians, the word being “a symbol of the deepest initiation and the highest wisdom.”

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According to Bardon, the cause of all things existing is the akasha, an Eastern term for what the alchemists called the quint essence, or Fifth Element or power. In Bardon’s universe, electric and magnetic fluids are comparable to yin and yang. Electric fluids (masculine, or yang) are warm, positive, and red in color, and magnetic fluids (feminine, or yin) are cool, negative, and blue in color. Together they make up the vital power or life force, which Baron Karl von Reichenbach earlier called the “od” or “odyle” force. Bardon occasionally used von Reichenbach’s term od. According to Bardon, every part of the body is governed by either electric or magnetic energy or is neutral. Disease arises when imbalances occur.

Bardon’s second book, The Practice of Magical Evocation, is a monumental ceremonial magic grimoire on the making and use of magical tools, the proper evocations of numerous spirits, and the dangers of pacts with spirits. To evoke a spirit, the magician works in a proper magical environment to create a sphere hospitable to the entity. He enters a trance and projects his consciousness into the sphere and then calls it back. Bardon said that he contacted all of the named spirits himself and omitted many more because he thought they were unsuitable for beginners.

Bardon’s third work is The Key to the True Kabbalah, in which he gives a unique system based on the sounds of letters of the alphabet. He presents a method of empowering letters and combining them using magical keys to create magical effects.

He wrote a fourth book which we have not read and these three works are quite controversial because they claim one can make great progress solely using them without a teacher. Which is very very thin ice. The books are also full of warnings. The sheer number of such warnings should be sufficient warning in itself to any intelligent reader that much of what he teaches is potentially highly dangerous. Yet, the hunger for mystery and magical 'thrills' that motivates so many seekers mean that few will heed that warning. Thus, the first book is worth a listen and the second and third have some decent things, but also many many red flags. We will still share them here so you might have a listen and see what you think of them for yourself if you so choose.

He passed away in 1958 so hence our sharing of them in the here & now.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/lnxw5639j2qka69/AudioBook_FranzBardon_InitiationIntoHermetics.mp3
https://www.mediafire.com/file/2y8ggt3zdjlyduy/Audiobook_FranzBardon_ThePracticeOfMagicalEnvocation.mp3
https://www.mediafire.com/file/qjngw8uzf1333bq/Audiobook_FranzBardon_TheKeyToTheTrueQabbalah.mp3

Esoteric and Divinatory Tarot

We’ve been doing some tarot research and as a result were chatting with a gentleman named Attila Blaga. Like Dracula, he lives in Transylvania in Eastern Europe and is VERY KNOWLEDGABLE about esoteric tarot. We chatted about maybe getting him on the podcast but I came to find out that he can read English perfectly but can not speak it very well.

Initially inspired by Ospensky and Gurdjieff and following the trail from there, his work on the Tarot is very worth your time. As much like with astrology, there is a lot of main stream water down info out there regarding the subject, but getting to the underlying real deal is much more rare to come by. His site is worth a deep dive when you have three extra spare days on your hands. He also makes his own decks as well.

http://tarotator.com/

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Masterpiece Mystery: Van der Valk

My dear mother has been watching this PBS show “Masterpiece Theatre” since I was a young sprout. So basically for over 40 years. The show is a fluffy yet somewhat sophisticated murder mystery drama anthology television series which premiered on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the early 70’s, making it America's longest-running weekly prime time drama series. The show has UK affiliation as well and has presented numerous acclaimed British productions. Many of these are produced by the BBC, but the line-up has also included programs shown on the UK commercial channels ITV and Channel 4.

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In terms of its production, it was always quite decently written and cast with good directing and acting (for bad acting = bad directing). Yet, it always looked visually so cheap to me in terms of its cinematography. “Van der Valk” is a modern reboot detective series filmed entirely on location in Amsterdam. Which has all the good aspects of the original show but is also very nicely shot. My mother dear was watching the second episode and it caught my eye. I mention this here because not only was it a really good murder mystery story, and we all may love one of those now and then, but this episode was quite packed with esoteric and occult symbolism. So much like in the lightweight yet fun Dan Brown esoteric mystery books/films, and even though all television “Tells You What To Vision”, this one is still worth a watch.

The trailer and watch link can be found here “officially” - http://www.pbs.org/video/episode-2-only-in-amsterdam-q9rqxm/

… or by likely searching something along the lines of “Masterpiece Van der Valk Episode 2 streaming” in a non safe search web browser and seeing what other options might be out there if you don’t fancy a sign up with PBS.

Mystery of History

Thanks to you, our documentary short subject film “Mystery of History”, derived from the essay of the same name, is complete. It’s a brief glimpse of how the topic of race has long been used as a tool to divide and conquer. Told primarily through the illustrations of John Clark Ridpath’s history books. With the reality of an underlying unity being at the heart of our mystery of existence.

Watch on either YouTube or Vimeo:

This one is in the same style as Balanced Opposites and sections of Transmutation, telling the story through old artwork. Which we find is a really decent way to do it for a zero budget project. We always aim to grab artwork that is so old the artists are long gone and also give credit when possible. 

On a side note, this piece has a few technical flaws in it such as me buzzing the wide shot of my talking head footage. “Buzzed” means slightly out of focus so my face is a bit soft. Also my eye-line glancing down to my notes will be something to prevent  in the future. The scratchy jacket we were wearing was also picked up by the microphone, so there are some un-removable un-desirable sounds of it in the audio. These things are fine for this piece, especially since we made it 100% solo during Covid and am also giving it away freely. Yet, they are all part of the continuing learning experience and we’re conscious to not repeat these imperfections in future projects.

We use to work in Los Angeles at a company called Digital Domain. They have a features department and commercial department. Occasionally certain famous directors would do a project through the commercial department to test future techniques they wanted to implement on features. So the commercial basically amounts to the mindset of “get your client to pay for your research and development”.  We like this idea of using shorter length projects to test things for longer form projects so we’ve also adapted it into our filmmaking philosophy. 

We’ll also be giving away a zip file of all the images from the film. Stay tuned for that.

Podcast 105: Kaya Martinez & Khari Allen Lee - Thriving Over Just Surviving (Extended for Patrons)

Kaya Martinez and Khari Allen Lee on having partners to navigate stormy seas with, natural mental and physical healing, evolving self with evolving times, future proofing, the importance of being able to gather, abundance, aging with grace, and in the exclusive extension for patrons, misperceptions about race and culture.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/bc97iqvk4545vzi/AnInfinitePath_ep105KayaMartinezAndKhariAllenLee_Patron.mp3

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An Infinite Path podcast official URL http://www.aninfinitepath.com

Spotify | iTunes | Google Play | Overcast FM | Stitcher | Player FM
Elevate yourself with a membership to nilesheckman.com, purchasing our current extended episode archive or essay volumes, or sharing a proactive review on iTunes.

Niles’ work can be found elsewhere on YouTube and Vimeo.

Here’s our affiliate link for Jambo Superfoods as well.

Regenerative Agriculture

If you’re in the mood to watch an uplifting and non-depressing documentary about climate change and regenerative agriculture, Kiss The Ground is worth your time. Narrated by Woody Harrelson, it highlights land stewards leading the charge of regenerating the world’s soils and how healthy soil has an incredible ability to take in excessive carbon. Even though a truly de-polarized perspective does allow us to see that global warming is both natural and man made, if you’re a hardcore polarized right winger who thinks “greening” and" “sustainability” are code words for communism because big oil and big agriculture have told you so, perhaps we can still all agree that pollution is bad.

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Yet again, who would have thought the natural way of farming with happy animal grazing, cover crops, perennials, and trees, while not chewing up the land with giant combines would be better than tearing large swaths of land to then spray with gazillions of gallons of poisons and chemicals?!?!?!?! Example 63,546 of why big anything (in this case big agriculture) is dreadful and why small agriculture is the way.

It’s available to watch on Netflix, which is a bit problematic, but it’s official site is here - http://kisstheground.com/

It’s always great when a documentary creates both good content and then has a call to action regarding the subject matter. Which this one does. Even though the vast majority of anthropogenic climate problems are cause by about 50 to 100 mega corpses, it never hurts to have each of us do our part to be part of the solution as well.

Essay: Two Brilliant Minds Decode The Wake (Exclusive for Patrons)

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An Infinite Path podcast official URL http://www.aninfinitepath.com

Spotify | iTunes | Google Play | Overcast FM | Stitcher | Player FM
Elevate yourself with a membership to nilesheckman.com, purchasing our current extended episode archive or essay volumes, or sharing a proactive review on iTunes.

Niles’ work can be found elsewhere on YouTube, Vimeo, and Patreon.

Here’s our affiliate link for Jambo Superfoods as well.

Book Share: The Fulcanelli Phenomenon

In the realm of sharing books, this one is worth your time and is from 1980. The author was  Kenneth Rayner Johnson who passed away in 2011. Interestingly enough, while being primarily a horror fiction writer, he also penned this very peculiar esoteric work The Fulcanelli Phenomenon: The Story Of A Twentieth Century Alchemist In The Light Of New Examination Of The Hermetic Tradition

It is out of print and VERY DIFFICULT to find online. After dispatching our secret minions around the digital landscape of the world wide web, dark web, and under web, we have come back with gold at the end of the rainbow. So here it is for you fine excellent folks!

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*Obviously we are interested in very obscure and occult + esoteric texts which we share here. Of which 99.99999% of muggle humanity could absolutely care less about. Yet you fine folks are obviously a bit more Jedi like by being interested in, let alone caring enough to support, our work. Hence our sharing the more esoteric private stuff to you via this platform. As the podcast slowly continues, we've been thinking about keeping more of the esoteric stuff (such as Hermeticism and alchemy) more behind the private gates and have more (slightly) broader appeal content regarding mindfulness, personal development, and self empowerment more in the public half of the content. On that front, a more broad appeal recent text which we really enjoyed and would also recommend is The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28257707-the-subtle-art-of-not-giving-a-f-ck There is an audiobook version of it but we will hold off from sharing here because the author is young and very much still alive. 

*We've also corrected the error in the audiobook from our previous book share, TOLTECA where the voice went EQUALS EQUALS EQUALS. So do re-download that link for the fix if you fancy!

Grass Fed Natural Beef Ancestral Supplements

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Ancestral Supplements is a New Zealand based company which sells grass fed, pasture raised, humanly killed (if such a thing is possible), organ parts in dehydrated capsule form.

We are not profe$$ional nutritionists but the more we independently research diet and health the more we find eating natural foots, as close to natural the way our ancestors did (before the advent of industrial corporate petrochemical monoculture), is the best way. Who would have thought!?!?!?

When the native Americans would kill a buffalo, they would utilize every single part of it. Including the organs, which they claimed had massive health benefits. We will always have a few things to learn from our ancestors.

https://shop.ancestralsupplements.com/collections/frontpage?page=1

Strange Angle

In the realm of fluff entertainment, nearly everyone likes to plop down and watch a show now and then. Even though much of it is mindless distraction and John Michael Greer says the best thing you can do with your television, which "tells you what to vision", is drop it into a dumpster, we ourselves don't own a TV but are also known to of course watch a few shows via the computer screen. Strange Angel is one such show which we enjoyed and is worth your time.

It's about the rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons and a somewhat overdramatized sex party representation of Thelema as well. Thelema is an occult social or spiritual philosophy developed in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley. Crowley of course is problematic, as he did many good things in his life and many not good things as well, but Thelema, which comes out of his text The Book of the Law, is actually quite good. For the "Do what thou will shall be the whole of the law" is excellent which is Crowley's flowery way of writing "follow your true will."

David Shoemaker, who is affiliated with various Thelemic organizations, was on episode 76 of the podcast which has been freshly uploaded to censor happy YouTube and will be on the podcast again, has an attitude regarding the show which is "that it's worth watching because it's quite decent and could be way worse." It's available in all places, at CBS, so go figure. You can do the thing where you sign up for a trial at their site, binge watch it and then cancel the trial. So you don't have to give a major TV network any of your cash-o-la.

https://www.cbs.com/shows/strange-angel/

Book Share - Tolteca

We were chatting to one of our Mexican mates, Carlo Alvite, the other day. He was on episode 84 of the podcast and can be seen in episode 2 of Shamans of the Global Village, 

His path has involved following the linage of the Toltec tradition. Much like the Taoists and Gnostics, the Toltec's linage stems from the ancient world. They wrote little to nothing down and much of their history is completely unknown or often put into the "They practiced human sacrifice" box. When in reality all real signs point to them being a civilization of much greater consciousness and advancement.

Since it's hard to find any decent/real information regarding them, Carlo sent me this book call Tolteca - The Way Of the Warrior. Warrior not in the since of conquering other's on the battlefield, but being a warrior in your own life. The work was written in 2008 so it is a more recent writing, yet it is penned anonymously, so hence the share here. It states:

As the reader progresses through the work, the concepts, at first ambiguous and uncertain, will dawn on him or her and become clear. By the book's end, all the concepts presented are fully explained. 

All the bare required information is included here for the Student, making a stable interlocking structure that functions as the blueprint for the structure of a warrior-seer's life – his path, his Decisions and Actions. All one has to do is bring his or her innocence, Courage, and persistence to that Structure, and remake him or herself to its Intent. The result of fully aligning with this Structure will be a warrior-seer. Innocence, Courage, and persistence will turn into Power. 

The work is also influenced by Carlos Castineda, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Zen. A bundle of self-empowerment.

Written Version:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ou3xgpyrrm9koc9/TOLTECA_The_Way_Of_The_Warrior-Seer.pdf
Audiobook version (Made by Your's Truly): https://www.mediafire.com/file/njes3qs1o4wwdud/Audiobook_TOLTECA_The_Way_Of_The_Warrior-Seer_cleaned.mp3

Internet Comment Protocols

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Most people are really cool. Most comments are excellent. Yet, every once in a while, you may get one from a hurt person, looking to hurt other people. 1000000% of the time of which they will not be using their real name out of cowardice and thus you have to just laugh back at them and feel sorry for them.

Numerous years ago, the Huffington Post, which used to be a fairly decent journalistic source but has now devolved into being more about gossip and infotainment, realized they needed to tie their comments to people's Facebook profiles, so folks were forced to use their real names to decrease toxic political comments by anonymous trolls. 

Yet censor happy YouTube, of which the back archive of the podcast is slowly being uploaded, along with half of the essays and half of the documentary narrations, allows anyone to create a profile, with their real name or not. So every once in a while a comment such as this one by this fine lady or gentlemen will pop up. 

The narration we did a while back "Waters Above The Firmament" has of course attracted seekers, flat Earthers, and religious folks. There are some outstandingly excellent theologians out there, and there are bad shit crazy religious people out there - and there’s no shortage of the latter in the world. Some of which have watched this and it's challenged their dogmatic reality tunnels. But, if it's real it can take the pressure. 

My attitude on this comment is to never give it any of my energy by not even replying via following the mindset of the hilarious site "E-mails From an Asshole" at  http://dontevenreply.com/. For as Robert Anton Wilson once said regarding debate, "Don't teach a pig to sing, it will just upset you and annoy the pig". 

Future essay on all this in the works...

*On another note, R.A.W. also suggested something he called "Omnidirectional Reading" meaning reading sources that support your reality tunnel, while also reading  sources which challenge it. So from a political perspective, since the Huffington Post could be said as being "left leaning" whenever we look at the Huffington Post, we also make sure to then look at the "right leaning" Drudge Report. 

Podcast 104: Hazel Mandala & Mark Nara - The Above & Below and Within & Without of Geometric Based Art (Extended For Patrons)

Hazel Mandala and Mark Nara on proactivity in challenging times, geometric based art, mixing between simplicity and complexity, Islamic architecture, evolution and individualization of craft, and in the exclusive extension for patrons, specific sacred geometric patterns and symbols we are drawn toward and our conjectures regarding the symbolism in alchemical art.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/v82cfafkeclgvcl/AnInfinitePath_ep104HazelMandalaMarkNara_Patron.mp3

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Hazel Mandala - https://www.hazelmandala.com/
The Mark of Nara - https://www.themarkofnara.com/

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An Infinite Path podcast official URL http://www.aninfinitepath.com

Spotify | iTunes | Google Play | Overcast FM | Stitcher | Player FM
Elevate yourself with a membership to nilesheckman.com, purchasing our current extended episode archive or essay volumes, or sharing a proactive review on iTunes

Niles’ work can be found elsewhere on YouTube, Vimeo, and Patreon.

Here’s our affiliate link for Jambo Superfoods as well.

Mystery of History Documentary Short Subject In The Works...

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Our next documentary Short subject film, Mystery of History is in the works. Derived from the Mystery of History private essay, it will be in a similar style and flavor as Balanced Opposites.

This is just a minor update so continue standing by for its completion please. As a lesson in how insanely long quality filmmaking takes:

  • Time required to write and record the essay, which has only an audio component - 2/3 days.

  • Time required to make the film version which is basically the same exact script yet with a visual component added - 2/3 months!

*Note, this also is not full time, but side time, amongst life's other responsibilities. So that takes even way longer as its sporadic and scattered. For a rule of art creation in regards to GOOD/FAST/CHEAP is you only get 2 of the 3.

Magical Egypt Official Site

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The following is quite possibly the best documentary series on ancient Egypt out there, Magical Egypt. Its official site is - https://magicalegypt.net

There are two seasons complete at the website and a third season in production. Episodes can be found online by dirty re-uploaders. Such as episode 1 from season 1 by some random dude who likely has no affiliation with the actual creation of the series here - https://vimeo.com/414101496

While that's just sent out as a taster link, like Shamans of the Global Village, it's an independently made series and does require your support to be sustainable and have return on investment. So do consider purchasing on their website to support. They are selling physical DVD's which makes it sound like it's 1992, but do offer circa 2020 streaming versions as well.

We can speak the most toward season one because it was influenced by and primarily featured the wonderful wonderful wonderful John Anthony West, who has sadly since transitioned out of his meat suit. We regret no longer having the option to do one of his Egyptian tours, which I suspect were... well... magical.

Custom Anamorphic Rigs

So it's usually customary to keep this membership section seperate from any sort of TECH WANKERY (spending time idling over technology) rather than focusing on content but here are the latest efforts of customizing our anamorphic documentary camera rigs which we have been doing, amongst other things which involve being away from screens and the internet, during corporatized government imposed lockdown.

Anamorphic ăn″ə-môr′fĭk - adj: Of or relating to a widescreen film or video that has been converted to a storage format with a lower aspect ratio by shrinking the image only along the horizontal axis in order to minimize loss of resolution.

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These rigs consist of a DSLR camera, which shoot incredible video and are 80% as good as high end film cameras that cost as much as a luxury German automobile. Alone with a series of components which combine a "taking lens" mounted up against the back of an "anamorphic projection lens". Real anamorphic film lenses can cost as much as a down payment on a house. Since that's too expensive, there is an indie film subculture, which I'm very much a part of, which consist in combining a lens with an anamorphic projection lens (a lens from the past used in movie theatre projection), then a focus ring, in order to act together as one to create a system of components which all act as a single lens to basically get the same look as a real anamorphic self contained lens, yet for a fraction of the cost. Building a new rig requires tons of research and micro tweaking. One of these rigs is over two years old re-tooled and the other is new. Doing so constituted bout two months of side work/study and required multiple trips to the hardware store for screws and bolts. There are an extensive series of components required to put this type of lens combination together and have them be reliable for professional use. Here are the exact components for these two rigs. Which consist of an A cam (primary camera) and a B cam (secondary camera):

A cam = Panasonic S1H + S1H Smallrig Cage + SmallRig Mini Top Handle + 8" tripod plate + Sigma MC-21 Canon to Leia L mount + Helios 44-2 54mm lens + 49mm-77mm step up ring + Rapido V3 Full Clamp + Kowa 16H inside Rapido Front Full Metal Jacket + Rapido FVD-35A + 115mm to 105mm step down ring + Aurora-Aperture 105mm Power XND Mark II Variable Neutral Density Filter 0.3 to 2.1 Filter (1 to 7-Stop)

B cam = Panasonic GH5 + 6" tripod plate + Metabones Speedbooster 0.71x M43 Mount + Helios 44-2 54mm lens + 49mm-77mm step up ring + Rapido V3 Lite Clamp + Kowa For Bell & Howell + Rectilux Hardcore DNA + 86mm to 95mm step up ring + NiSi 95mm Enhanced Varible Neutral Density Filter 1.5-5 Stops. With an extra feature of a Zcam S6/F6 cage custom mounted around the Kowa to protect it and also mount the SmallRig Mini Top Handle. (Had the extra cage, long story, but it totally worked custom mounted this way and does a really nice job of helping contain the HDMI cable so it's not hanging out in the way all the time) + Small HD 501 External Viewfinder.

So why go through all this effort you ask? Seems like a massive amount of work to make a custom setup like this. Well... it is. Yet, the final result of what you get IS WORTH IT. Think of this as a bit of an exercise in perseverance and will engagement.

If You Have an Android Phone...

Smart Audiobook Player is outstanding for listening to spoken word - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ak.alizandro.smartaudiobookplayer&hl=en_US

It costs $2USD but is worth every penny. Essential requirements for gobbling up audiobooks, lectures, podcasts, which this app has:

  • Ability to speed up audio any amount you so choose.

  • Skip forward or back both 10 seconds and 1 minute (essential for reading dense texts).

  • The ability to change its interface to a darker mode so it’s not like you’re staring into a lightbulb with those dumb bright/white windows.

Looks like this one is not available for iPhone so if you know of another comparable app through the iTunes store please let us know. Or if you have a dumb phone or no cell phone then good on you.

*Only negative thing about this app is how you find the files on your phone through the directory structure. Which is quite overly complicated.