About Ina Custers van Bergen

About Ina Custers van Bergen

Ina Cüsters-van Bergen (Roermond, 1957) is the Director of Studies of the Academy for Hermetic Arts and Sciences. She has a professional background as a psychiatric therapist, NLP practitioner, and hypnotherapist, and holds a master’s degree in Hermeticism. She is the author of numerous works on the Hermetic Mystery Tradition and the Hermetic Kabbala. She founded the first internationally acknowledged school for applied High Magic and practical Hermetics in the Netherlands; the Academy for Hermetic Arts and Sciences.¹

From an early age, Ina’s work has been driven by research into transpersonal consciousness. At seventeen she began practicing Yoga and Zen Buddhism, worked with the material of Fritz Perls and Eva Pierrakos, and applied the methods of Bioenergetics of Alexander Lowen.² This lifelong quest through Eastern and Western approaches eventually led her to the work of Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki of the Servants of the Light School. Immersing herself in that study, she progressed from supervisor to European coordinator and then to Magister.

In November 2003, after completing her Magister Degree in the Hermetic Mystery Tradition, Ina and her team established what was then the Temple of Starlight, with authorisation to found a European school in the lineage of Dion Fortune.³ Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki wrote in a foreword to the Dutch edition of The Temple of High Magic:

“Ina Cüsters-van Bergen knows exactly whereof she speaks. She is fully trained in the Sacred Science of High Magic and went through the entire curriculum. She has worked with many students and initiates and has learned how to avoid the obstacles stumbled against by the reckless. The Sacred Science is a strenuous lover, because she will absorb all your time, energy, patience and dedication.”⁶

In 2005 the process of separation from the Servants of the Light began, and by 2007 the school became fully independent, with Ina Cüsters-van Bergen as Director of Studies.⁷ The Academy now exists in direct lineage to the world-famous Golden Dawn, a foundational English magical order that educated many well-known magicians and mystics.⁸

Over the years, false online accusations and defamatory texts have circulated about her person and her work. These texts were never grounded in facts, actions, or professional practice — then or now — and they do not describe her work, conduct, or the reality of her teaching. They have no bearing on the practice she leads.⁷

Her present work focuses on the development of education, rituals, lectures, and training programs that bring the Hermetic Mystery Tradition into lived, embodied experience. Central to her approach is the responsible transmission of knowledge and the practical application of hermetic principles in both daily life and professional contexts. Students are guided to understand and apply these teachings in personal development, creative work, and vocational paths, with clarity, discipline, and ethical awareness.

Ina made her debut as an author in 2007 with De weg naar de oude mysteriën, later translated as The Temple of High Magic in English. This book offers a thorough introduction to the Hermetic Mystery Tradition and serves as a practical handbook. International colleagues welcomed the work enthusiastically, including a positive review in Inner Light Magazine.¹⁰

Today, Ina Cüsters-van Bergen teaches and gives lectures in multiple languages, publishes internationally, and offers ritual work and training courses across Europe. She remains devoted to the professionalization of Hermetic education and to the careful, contemporary transmission of a living tradition, grounded in integrity, experience, and continuity.

Footnotes

  1. David V. Barrett, Secret Religions, 2011, pp. 238–239.
  2. Interview with Ina Cüsters-van Bergen, PDF
  3. http://web.archive.org/web/20041213094043/http://servantsofthelight.org/aboutSOL/lodges.html#daughter
  4. Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, foreword in De weg naar de oude mysteriën, 2007, pp. 15.
  5. Nick Farrell, Initiation Rights, https://www.nickfarrell.it/initiation-rights/ — discusses mechanisms of initiations and group dynamics relevant to these experiences.
  6. Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, personal statement on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=116771951826729&id=113839735453284&scmts=scwspsdd&extid=aIaXOFq4PZFixEiT — an independent perspective on the situation. (Access depends on privacy settings.)
  7. Andy Cooper, personal statement on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=115438121960112&id=113839735453284&scmts=scwspsdd&extid=He76kwzzABwz8qIU — another independent perspective. (Access depends on privacy settings.)
  8. Ellic Howe, Magicians of the Golden Dawn. A Documentary History of a Magical Order, 1887–1923, 1978.
  9. Review in Inner Light Magazine 03/2010.
  10. Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, Inleiding, in: Ina Cüsters-Van Bergen, De weg naar de oude mysteriën, 2007, pp. 15
  11. Ellic Howe, Magicians of the Golden Dawn. A Documentary History of a Magical Order, 1887–1923, 1978.
  12. Gareth Knight, Foreword, in: Ina Cüsters-van Bergen, The Temple of High Magic, 2010, pp. xi-xii.
  13. Review: The Temple of High Magic. Initiations in the Western Mystery Tradition by Ina Custers van Bergen, in: Inner Light Magazine 03/2010.
  14. Ina geeft les in hoge magie – Ik wil de zwarte band onder de spirituele scholen zijn. Interview met Ina Cüsters-van Bergen, in: Paravisie 02/2011, pp. 59–61.
  15. https://themagicalbuffet.com/blog1/?p=2708

Read more about Ina Cüsters-van Bergen’s publications at the section ‘Books’ of this website.