All Episodes

On Thursday May 12th, 2022, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will continue with a dramatc reading of Poke's Magical adventure novel The Tomb of Prester John reading Chapters Five,Six and Seven. This sequence is one of the most exciting and revealing episodes in the story. We follow Sophie and Doc in their exploration of the eerie catacombs under the Biblical Christian Church of Thyatria in Akhisar Turkey. From the museum where they meet Graduate Anthropology student Ioanna Erzan who guides them to the catacombs. They find the Tomb of Theodas Jezebel's bishop and Sophie is entranced by his mummified body. They find a huge gallery with a skylight that floods the vault with moonlight. Doc sets up the Lamp of Truth and Sophie Draws Down the Moon and performs her sacred dance in the nude with the Lamp of Truth illuminating the chakras tattooed on her body. At the climax of her dance she collapses in Doc's arms. And they hear applause from From Khalil ibn Iblis and his terrorists who have been watching the performance. They are holding Iaonna Erzan as a hostage. But before they can capture Doc and Sophie, a Flash Bang grenade announces the arrival of Colonel Renda and Turkish Special Forces rappeling down through the skylight. Using Ioanna Erzan as a hostage shield Khalil and his men escape.But Renda says "We fed her a cookie, so they won't get far." Unfortunately Khalil detects the cookie and Ioanna is murdered. Doc and Sophie return to their hotel to spend the rest of the night under guard, where Doc has to hypnotize her to recover the secrets she learned from Channeling Jezebel. They learn the real secret of Christ's crucifixion and the origin of Prester John's treasure. And Doc discovers the Secret of the Lamp of Truth. So join us for high adventure and some amazing revelations.

On Thursday May 18th, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will 
review and discuss "Astral Dynamics" (2009) by Robert Bruce. Robert 
Bruce is an Australian writer not to be confused with the Scottish 
"Robert the Bruce". In Astral Dynamics Bruce has delivered what may well 
be the best practical manual on Astral Projection (OBEs and similar 
phenomenon) since Ophiel's "The Art and Practice of Astral Projection" 
(1961). Of course I must admit that I have a special interest in this 
book because Bruce describes, validates and teaches methods and 
techniques that we use in our magical instructions and training. His 
description of the chakras (psychic centers) is virtually in-line with 
our Western Middle Pillar system and his Third Eye projection is very 
much like ours. He describes projecting into paintings and projecting 
from Lucid Dreaming states. His energy work techniques are very 
Bardonian and his description of the Astral Planes is in line with our 
experiences. All considered this is a great book and we highly recommend 
it. So Turn on, tune in and pop-out!

On Thursday May 11th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review "Lucifer Princeps" (2015) by Peter Grey.  This book is quite different in style from its predecessor "The Red Goddess" which, although well-researched, explored the background and origins of Aleister Crowley's "Babalon" in a popular style. Lucifer Princeps however is a scholarly work and might even be an academic dissertation or thesis edited for the lay reader. Being an academic work it suffers from the assumption that the reader is familiar with the material that the writer is working from. Fortunately this corpus is mostly Biblical and Apocryphal but he cross references other mythologies. Nevertheless the book is a wonderful resource and a great contribution to the Western Esoteric Tradition. He starts with Isaiah's lament and curse as the beginning of the Lucifer's Fall from Heaven story. This sets the stage for a parade of sources from ancient Sumerian and Canaanite mythology. We learn about the first ascent to Heaven by the Sumerian king Etana, and then the Canaanite god Athar who tries to sit on Baal's throne. We learn that the Yahwehists hated the pagan gods of the heavens and that the War in Heaven was actually Yahweh against El and the Elohim. Lucifer is finally revealed as our old friend Semyaza (Semhaza), the leader of the 200 Fallen Angels from the original Book of Enoch. The author concludes his work by offering us a mini-grimoire of Semhaza and his 20 officers, leaving us the job of obtaining their sigils -- which we will certainly do. So if you want get a head start on this project, tune in and give a listen.

On Thursday April 21st, The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a dramatic reading of Chapters Five and Six of the magical adventure novel.  In these chapters we will follow Doc Roland and his beautiful lady archaeologist partner Sophie Iskandar as they continue their quest for the vast treasure of of the legendary Priest King. In these episodes they visit the museum in Akhisar, modern city of biblical Thyatria, and then explore the catacombs under the ruins of Jezebel's church. With the ancient magick lantern called the Lamp of Truth, Sophie dances under the full moon to channel Jezebel's spirit -- revealing her incredible secret. In the process Doc discovers the secret of the Lamp of Truth. They return to their hotel and again meet Colonel Renda of Turkish Security forces who informs them they are involved in the gruesome murder of a female Turkish college student. This is a magical tale on the James Bond and Indiana Jones model. Join us for High Adventure.

On Thursday May 4th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
review and discuss "The Red Goddess" (2007) and "Lucifer Princeps"
(2015) by Thelemic magician Peter Grey. The Red Goddess is devoted to
establishing the history and mystique of the Thelemic composite pagan
goddess "Babalon", which he correctly derives from Ishtar and Astarte.
This evolution is for the most part well-researched and well reasoned
from a Thelemic perspective, although Grey is critical of Crowley and
seems to think that Babylon is too good for the Beast. Most importantly
he supports the Divine feminine in magical religion. In "Lucifer
Princeps" he does the same for Lucifer on the male side of the magical
religious pantheon. In this case he works from Isaiah back to the Book
of Enoch, correctly concluding that Lucifer was originally Semyaza and
of Canaanite origin. With the exception of his interest in Simon Magus
Grey seems to ignore the early Christian Gnostic contributions to Magick
but his books are nonetheless readable and thought provoking -- so tune
in and we shall look at our magical history through a glass darkly.

On Thursday April 2Oth, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon 
will continue to review and discuss the modern English (2004) 
translation of Otto Rahn's 1937 Lucifer's Court. This was Rahn's travel 
journal from Southern France to Iceland when he researched his personal 
quest to solve the mystery of the Holy Grail as described in the 
Medieval romance Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Rahn believed that 
the Medieval Cathars -- the Gnostic Heretics who were wiped out by the 
Roman Catholic Albigensian Crusade in the 1300s, were the keepers of the 
Grail. In this instalment we will get into the possible Persian 
Manichean origin of Parzival (Aryan of course) and Rhan's fascination 
with Hercules and the Argonauts legends (also Aryan) We will also 
discuss Nigel Graddon's 2008 Bio on Rahn and his rundown on all of our 
favorite Nazi Spook Books influenced by Rahn's quest. So tune in and we 
will follow the shadow of the swastika from Southern France to Tibet and 
back again.

On Thursday April 13th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon 
will review and discuss the modern English (2004) translation of Otto 
Rahn's 1937 Lucifer's Court. This was Rahn's travel journal from 
Southern France to Iceland when he researched his personal quest to 
solve the mystery of the Holy Grail as described in the Medieval romance 
Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Rahn believed that the Medieval 
Cathars -- the Gnostic Heretics who were wiped out by the Roman Catholic 
Albigensian Crusade in the 1300s -- were the keepers of the Grail and 
that they were devotees of Lucifer. He was very favorable to Nazi Aryan 
race theories and was invited to join Himmler's SS. Rahn's veneration of 
Lucifer as the God of the Medieval French and German heretics may be the 
main source of what has been called Nazi Satanism. Lucifer was actually 
another name for Semyaza, the leader of the Fallen Angels in the Book of 
Enoch. We will try to sort out the errors in Otto Rahn's work and give 
him credit where credit is due. In spite of his political incorrectness 
he was an intrepid anthropologist and folklorist and his book is a 
fascinating read for those interested in the occult history of Europe. 
So tune in and we will explore the castles and caverns of the lost land 
of the Troubadours in search of the Holy Grail.

On Thursday March 30th the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon (or
Roygnon) will review and discuss the 1982 Bestseller "Holy Blood, Holy
Grail" by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. This is the
book that generated "The Da Vinci Code" and is the first mainstream
modern speculation on Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene and possibly
having heirs who become The Grail Family and, according to the author's
become the magical, holy bloodline of the Legendary Merovingian dynasty
of French Kings in the days of King Arthur. This bloodline is
perpetuated and protected by a medieval secret society that still exists
in modern France, The Priory of Sion (Zion). The book is a door-stopper
and not very well organized. They try to make it read like a detective
story rather than a straight forward documentary presentation. Unless
you are fascinated by the subject you may get bogged down with all the
mystery before you reach the solution -- but if you stick with it the
overall effect is convincing. And to devout Christians perhaps shocking.
There are some problems, not with the idea of the Grail family. That is
very well presented, but with the authenticity of the Priory of Sion
itself. Yes there was one back in medieval times -- but is today's
fraternity and its family leadership directly connected to the early
medieval Merovingians? In any case the book is a great introduction to
this fascinating subject. It certainly got me to looking into my old
French antecedents. I discovered the Merovingian "golden bees" on the
Roygnon family crest and began to wonder if I had a little of this
magical blood? I recall Hamlet said: "To bee or not to bee." I wonder if
he was Merovingian. Tune in and we'll explore the mystery of the Grail
Family.

On February 27th, 2022 The Host of the Hermetic Hour was the call-in guest of Masonic brothers At the Fort Worth, Texas Masonic Lodge's weekly Pod cast. Poke was interviewed by the Master, Worshipful brother Gabriel, who was very knowledgeable on esoteric subjects  and asked me some very provocative questions. We covered everything from my childhood, through, spearfishing, scuba diving, special forces, Novel and screen writing and the illness that got me into magick -- through self-hypnosis -- and on then into  anthropology, while doing the Golden Dawn and witchcraft, writing my Master's Thesis on Magick -- after which I did The entire Masonic program. Master Gabriel asked me: "After all those other traditions how did Masonry affect You?" -- "I'll be honest with with you, I Told him, I thought these Muggels couldn't show me anything; but they totally blew me away! The Third degree was awesome." I realized that I had been hit with the full force of a Three Hundred year old Egregore (collective spirit)Master Gabriel came in at that point for a Fuller more philosophical explanation of the term. We continued discussing magick,the nature of spirits,the Golden Dawn, astrology, Kabbalah and even reincarnation -- all in all it was a very enjoyable hour and a half with a lot of very stimulating conversation. I'll be responsible for what I said and nothing I said reflects official Masonic teaching or doctrine. Thanks to Bros. Billy and Wor. Bro. Gabriel for letting us rebroadcast it.

On Thursday March 10th, 2022 the Hermetic Hour with Host Poke Runyon will present a dramatic reading of Chapters Four and Five of his magical adventure novel The Tomb of Prester John. This will be of particular interest to those seeking to understand the origins of the Gnostic Mass and its roots in Valentinian and Simonic Gnostic traditions. Doc Roland's Lady archaeologist partner, a belly dancing former Scarlet Woman, channels both the spirits of Jesus's Mary Magdalene and Simon's Helen in their quest to find the Tomb of the medieval warrior priest king, while being stalked by her former lover Khalil Ibn Iblis, the Gnostic priest turned terrorist assassin. The Tomb of Prester John is a novel that delivers magical secrets in fiction form. In this episode you will discover that Gurdjieff's enneagram is the entrance to the Ninth Gate, that Jehovah is Popeye, and that The Gnostic Mass was originally Christian. So come with us on a quest for the Tomb of Prester John.

On Thursday March 16th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will review and discuss Joseph P. Farrell's 2014 book "Thrice Greatest
Hermetica and the Janus Age".This is a confusing title for a sometimes
confusing book, but it is still worth our attention. Basically it
outlines an historical conspiracy theory that goes this way: The
Medieval Knights Templar (the first military industrial and
international banking conglomerate) in collusion with the Republic of
Venice launch a Roman Catholic Crusade allegedly aimed at Palestine but
deflected to Constantinople to destroy and loot the Byzantine Greek
Orthodox half of the old Roman Empire. The Templars are okay with this
but when the greedy Pope sicks them on the Gnostic Christians (Cathars)
in their own home turf, Southern France, they back out.
The Cathars are destroyed. The Pope's buddy the King of France asks a
loan from the Templars, they refuse him, so he and the Pope turn on them
and destroy them in France. But they survive in Scotland, England and
elsewhere. and they are still allied with wealthy Venice. They are an
underground network, Meanwhile the Roman Church allies with Genoa,
Florance and Spain. The Venetians and the Templars make it to America
before Columbus (a Genoavian-Spanish agent) but Columbus plants the
Spanish flag. The Templars and Venetians infiltrate England with a
culture war -- infusing the English (Dee, Fludd and Shakespeare) with
Hermeticism and the proxy war for the New World is on. Drake, Morgan et
allia against the Spanish. What a plot! Sounds crazy but Joe has a PhD
from Oxford in Medieval Church history so he is worth reading on
subjects like this. Tune in and we'll check it out.

On Thursday February 24, 2022 the Hermetic Hour with Host Poke Runyon will continue reading his magical adventure novel "The Tomb of Prester John". Thus far we have followed archaeologists Doc Roland and Sophie Iskandar, working for the CIA think tank Myth Tech searching for the legendary Tomb of Prester John and the fabulous treasure it holds. In these new episodes they fly to Berlin to discover the coded secrets in Prester John's letter to Frederick Barbarossa. Then off to Turkey where they team up with Nuri Renda an agent of the Turkish MIT and are stalked by Sophie's sinister terrorist boyfriend Khlil ibn Iblis. So tune in for cloak and dagger thrills.

On Thursday February 17th, 2022 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will discuss and review the current trend in Fantasy novels involving themes and characters from The Arabian Nights mainly the Jinn which King Solomon imprisoned in his sealed jars. A few weeks ago Poke had been putting together a show dealing with The CITY of BRASS from Burton's version of the Nights, citing it as an inspiration for many classic fantasy adventure stories. But then he discovered that an American Lady author, Shannon Chakraborty,  had in fact published a magical novel called The City of Brass in 2017. So he decided to postpone the show until he had read her book. He then discovered another British author Jonathan Stroud who had a series of Jinn fantasies called The Bartimaeus Triology launched in 2003 which he needed to catch up on.  And while we are at it we might as well throw in the old Victorian classic Vatheck by William Beckford (1893). So, if you would like to take a ride on a magic carpet, tune in and we'll be off.

On Thursday March 9th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar Winning 1976 motion picture Network. Network is a scathing satire on the intellectual and moral corruption of American Television networks, especially their News Departments. Much of the corruption Network presents was just beginning to come about in 1976, but was fully in place by the 1980s according to Dave Itzkoff in his book “Mad as Hell” 2014, and is presently erupting in the Network News Media's efforts to actually support the overthrow of the elected government of the United States of America. The focus of the 1976 film is t.v. Anchorman Howard Beale who is about to be fired for low ratings. Depression and alcohol have driven Beale to madness and he becomes The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves preaching his mantra chant: “I'm Mad as Hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!” This drives his ratings sky high until the Network entertains a bid from a Saudi Arabian conglomerate. Beale urges his viewers to protest the Arab deal to the White House and is successful in delaying the procedure. The head of the Network's corporation Arthur Jensen confronts Beale and convinces him that the New World Order has made populist democracy obsolete. So Beale goes back on the air trying to sell the Globalist agenda. Telling his followers that democracy is obsolete and that they should accept dehumanization. Of course his ratings drop to the cellar. But Jensen won't let the Network fire him, so the executives convince the radicals of their documentary Mao Tse Tung hour to machine-gun Beale in the studio as he comes on stage for his show. This will up their ratings and pay for Beale's deficit. It's all a business. That's the gist of it but stay with us and we'll dig deeper into this masterpiece of American prophetic cinema.

On Thursday February 23rd, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present the the modern yoga ritual version of the Chemical Wedding
of Christian Rosencreutz. This is the fully developed Rosicrucian
version of Hermetic Yoga Beyond the Middle Pillar as presented in volume
one of Hermetic Yoga, Beyond the Middle Pillar. This advanced
version, draws upon The Naassene Document, the Gospel of
Philip, the Gospel of Mary, the Chemical Wedding itself, and the works of
Jacob Boehme and Johann Gichtel. This reveals that the Ninth Degree of
the O.T.O. and the Great Rite of the Gardnerians are both derived
from original Valentinian Gnostic Christian sources. So if you want to
experience some R-rated Rosicrucian yoga, tune in and we'll take you into
the mirrored chamber of the Sacred Marriage.