Only a fragment of The Golden Book of Wisdom survives, but the fundamentals of Bardon's system are still available. The fourth page in the Book of Wisdom is the fourth Tarot card, which depicts a wise man or, sometimes, an emperor. The description of the fourth Tarot card is of very great assistance to magicians, spheric magicians and Kabbalists, for it allows them to penetrate more deeply into the secrets of wisdom and thereby enables them to solve the greatest problems. This is true not only from the point of view of knowledge but, more importantly, from the point of view of cognition, and thereby from the point of view of wisdom.

Thus far, the high mysteries symbolized by the fourth Tarot card have been passed on only in the language of symbols, and consequently they have usually remained obscure to the intellectual. The reader will no doubt appreciate the fact

that, with the permission of Divine Providence, I have made an effort to translate the fourth book into the language of the intellect, in order to make it intelligible not only to the initiate but to the non-initiate, i.e. the philosopher and the theorist, as well.

Anyone who completely masters the Book of Wisdom will have a thorough knowledge of the foundations of the Hermetic philosophy, and may be considered a Hermetic philosopher from the standpoint of the universal laws. Also, the Hermetic brotherhoods and orders that teach the true Hermetic knowledge will class such a person with the philosophical practitioners.

If this fourth work is accepted with the same enthusiasm that greeted my three preceding books, then the description of the fourth Tarot card, which symbolically represents the Book of Wisdom, will also have done its job. Therefore, may this book too be an inexhaustible, ever-flowing source of knowledge and wisdom to the interested reader. May the blessing of Divine Providence accompany you all, to a high degree, on your path to perfection.

About Author:

Franz Bardon (December 1, 1909 - July 10, 1958). Czech occultist best known for his three volumes on Hermetic magic. These volumes are Initiation Into Hermetics, The Practice of Magical Evocation and The Key to the True Quabbalah. Additionally there was a fourth work attributed to him by the title of Frabato the Magician, supposed to be a disguised autobiography, though the factuality of its contents and its authorship are questionable.

Bardon's works are most notable for their simplicity, their relatively small theoretical sections, and heavy emphasis on practice with many exercises. Many 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 (which Bardon recommended if possible).