All Episodes

On Thursday December 26th 2019, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
present a review of the new shows we aired during 2019. These programs are all
available for listening and download on our Hermetic Hour Blog Talk radio
web site: > http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-hermetic-hour > so have your note
book and pencil handy as you listen and jot down the ones you missed so you can
catch up with us. And Merry Christmas, Happy New Year from Zandria and Thabion.

On Thursday January 22nd, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a discussion on Hermetic Magical Ethics. This will be
somewhat controversial in that we will examine the ethical aspects of
Hermetic philosophy in comparison to Christianity and other Gnostic
variations including Crowley's Thelema and Golden Dawn Rosicrucianism.
We will also question the merits of egalitarian collectivism compared to
the American/Masonic work ethic and personal responsibility standards.
We will review our newly adopted Code of Conduct for members of our
magical lodges and explain some of the reasons for establishing these
guidelines. So if you want to know how well-behaved and nice to each
other magicians ought to be, tune in and we will give you our Golden
Rules.
 

The Hermetic Hour for Thursday December 12th, 2019 -- will feature a discussion and review of the
new edition of The Tarot of Ceremonial Magick by Lon and Constance DuQuette which was first issued
in 1995 along with the book of the same title. Your host Poke Runyon will have as his guest the Maestro
himself, Lon Milo DuQuette, who will describe and explain his masterpiece. The new deck has improved color
separation and is more attractivly packaged and available at a lower price than previous editions. These
cards describe a 360 degree magick circle with symbolic connections to the three Great Pillars of Magick:
Astrology Enochian Magick and Goetia. They are a marvelous tool for the practicing magician and even the
armchair magician. The book is still in print and this new issue of the deck is a welcome manifestation
of the the wisdom of the Master and the symbolic art of his Lady. Although this deck is not intended for
fortune telling, we invite you to join us as we shuffle the deck of the Multiverse and let the Maestro
deal the cards.
 

On January 8th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
present a reprise of the 1977 article in the old Seventh Ray number
nineteen by author Janine Renee titled: Parzival and the Hermetic
Grail. The author researched and wrote this at our request. It forms an
important element in our reconstructed linkage of ancient Phoenician
rituals to early Valentinian Christian Gnosticism and to medieval Grail
lore. The major source for Janine's article is the 1965 "The Krater and
the Grail: Hermetic Sources of the Parzival by Henry and Renee Kahane.
Modern neo-pagans have never lost their fascination for the Holy Grail
quest. The idea that the Grail was originally pagan (The Hermetic
Krater) goes along with the recent revelations of Jesus and Mary
Magdalen and the paganizing of Christianity. So if you want to start on
your own Grail Quest tune in and we will give you directions to to the
Grail Castle Montsalvat.
 

On Thursday November 21st. 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review Tobias Churton's "Aleister Crowley in India." This is another in a series of books by Churton covering portions of Crowley's life and work, We have already reviewed his "The Beast in Berlin" and will certainly get to last year's "Aleister Crowley in America," but Crowley's India adventures should probably have been first in the series. I personally found this book to be fascinating. In its pages I rediscovered Crowley and relived the excitement of his early magical experiences along with big-game hunting and mountain climbing adventures. Churton had access to many records and archives not available to previous writers. We have a more Crowley-favorable version of the infamous Kangchenjunga tragedy than previously reported. The primary theme of this book is magical yoga or yoga for magick. We start with Crowley and Bennett in Ceylon studying Theravada Buddhism together and then on to Crowley's discovering and adapting the Gnostic tantric system of Sabhapaty Swami. So if you'd like to return to the thrilling days of yesteryear, then join us and sit down, shut-up and get-out with Aleister Crowley.

On New Years Day 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the importance of Canaanite/Phoenician mythology in Magick and magical Qabalah and in Solomonic ceremonial magick. We  will explore how it can relate to Alchemy, astrology, and Hermetic Solarism. We will discuss the Alchemical symbolism of our Canaanite Seasonal rites and the relation of Canaanite Gods and Goddesses to the Sumerian and classical Greek Pantheons. So if you want to explore what lies behind the myth of Solomon being the Master Magician, tune in and we'll introduce you to the real "oldest religion".

On Thursday, November 7th, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the scientific technology behind modern ceremonial magick and reveal for the first time a device he developed in the early 1970s for training students to make use of the "Troxler Effect" (facial reflection-distortion in a dark mirror; the "Bloody Mary" effect) for Magical spirit evocation. This device called "The Zero Lite" was based on U.S. Army battlefield research and it is so sensitive to human will power that it can respond to non-verbal telepathic commands in group practice. We stopped using it in the late 1970s but in recent years we have encountered students who subconsciously override the Troxler effect in the mirror, even when they consciously want it work for them, and so we are going back to Zero Lite training for Second Degree candidates. And so, if your spirit doesn't want to show up for you, then listen in and we'll tell you how to solve the problem.

On Christmas night December 25th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a special program in which Frater Thabion, your host and the founder of the Order of the Temple of Astarte, will trace the books and films that influenced and inspired him to create and develop his unique American system of Magick. I grew out of the Oz books and graduated to the Mars books (John Carter) then into a teenage fascination with Richard Shaver's hi-tech Lemurian survivor stories. I will go to my 1950s early college days watching films such as Jean Cocteau's Orpheus, and Orson Welles Black Magic (on Cagliostro and Mesmer) and move on through to a study of Voodoo in line with my Caribbean adventurer-fiction writer persona. The Saragossa Manuscript for Kabbalah and mirror magick, Graves The White Goddess. Then my illness which I tried to cure with self-hypnosis. This led to a serious study of hypnosis along with Tibetan Tantra (Evans-Wentz) and finally Western Magick. Mastering the Goetia with the mirror method led to Jungian psycho-philosophy and the study of anthropology culminating in a Master's Degree in the subject from California State University. During this program I created the modern Hermetically oriented Neo-Canaanite Seasonal ceremonies for our magical order The Temple of Astarte, The main purpose of our Goetia was to bring up and reestablish the Secret Goddess of old King Solomon himself. We use the 1770 Hermetic-Masonic rite of Crata Repoa as a structure for our system and I will discuss the sources behind this. Perhaps some of these books and teachings will help others to understand our perspective on the Western Tradition and what we expect to accomplish by what we call The Great Work.

On Thursday December 18th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
present a discussion on the Mission Statement of the Church of the Hermetic
Sciences and the Ordo Templi Astartes. This is one of the topics that was
discussed at our last Board of Director's Meeting as especially important
with our membership increasing and new lodges begin opening around the
country. In the magical community we are known as the folks that know how to
make ritual magick work, but that in itself is not enough of a reason for
people to join us unless they simply want to learn our techniques and
methods to use for their own purposes. Frankly, that is not what we are here
for and we are not teaching magick so that it can be misused. We consider
magick to be a system of mental and spiritual development that leads to what
we refer to as enlightenment -- which we define as a close personal
relationship with God. We follow a pattern of hermetic mytho-philosophy born
in Alexandria in the first century and perfected by the Renaissance
neo-platonic/hermetic magi in 14th-15th-16th century Europe culminating in
the Rosicrucian tradition. We combine paganism, Qabalah, astrology and
alchemy in line with Jungian psychology in a neo-romantic Quest for the Holy
Grail based on a linage of eternal goddesses and dying gods from the time of
Melchizedek to the beginnings of Christianity. So, if you have wondered just
why we do what we do and where we are going with it, tune in and be
enlightened.
-- 
 

On Thursday October 17th, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will announce and open Enoch Adamson's campaign for President of the United States. As the Hermetic Party candidate Adamson is uniquely qualified for the office, having mastered the thirtieth and thirty-first Paths of the Tree of Life and attended a meeting of the Grand Council in the Library of Hod. He will outline his program to solve all the major problems and issues the country is facing. He has the solution for gun-control, social justice, race relations, immigration, education, credit card debt, foreign relations, the space program, climate change and UFO disclosure. So if you want a candidate who can really get it done, don't vote Republican or Democrat. Vote Hermetic. "Let's make Humanity Great Again!"

On Thursday December 4th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with Host Poke Runyon will review and discuss the latest controversial book attempting to prove a marriage between Jesus and Mary the Magdalene: "The Lost Gospel" by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson. This is basically a reinterpretation of an ancient text, the elaborated story of Joseph and Aseneth from Genesis seen as a coded allegory for Jesus and Mary the Magdalene being married and having a family. They make some very good arguments for this interpretation. Apparently this is not a new idea but this "Lost Gospel" has been speculated as a coded text for hundreds of years. We find it particularly important because it lines up with the Nassaene Hippolytus document behind our conception of the secret Holy Grail history suggested in From Ritual to Romance. Frater Solomon discovered a link from The Lost Gospel to the Crata Repoa that I find is quite significant. It also seems that Mary the Magdalene (Mary the Lady of the Tower) may have been known to the original Rosicrucians. So if you want to get a Hermetic view on "The Lost Gospel" tune in and we will start decoding.

On Thursday October 3rd, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss "Seeking Light, the Neophyte's Notebook" by Corrington Wheeler. The author will join us for the discussion. Corrington Wheeler is an American singer, songwriter, voice actor, video film maker and ceremonial magician. He is also a Scottish Rite Mason and a student of several magical traditions. His book is only sixty pages long but is well worth reading. Some of it is catharsis (wisdom from personal experience) but there is much derived from research and study. I was reluctant to invite Corrington on the Hermetic Hour until he explained to me that he wanted to lead other young people to the Light. Reading his book confirmed this. Most of the youthful musicians attracted to magick whom I have encountered are on the dark side which I consider spiritually corrosive. Corrington is a delightful exception to this trend and can hopefully be a positive voice in his peer group. So if you want to meet a young magician who is pouring new wine into our old bottles, listen in and meet Corrington Wheeler.
 

On Thursday November 13th the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the relationship between the mystic roses or chakras of yoga with the Seven Seals of the Book of Revelation in the Bible. This is of special interest to Rosicrucians and the Rosicrucian tradition in our own Inner Order the O.R.C. We will follow the order of the Seven branch candlestick as does the Golden Dawn but we will mention other arrangements, such as suggested by James Pryce (1910) in Apocalypse Unsealed and his current imitator: Zachary Landsdowne, author of "The Revelation of Saint John" (2006). Revelation has been the cornerstone of Christian mystical texts since the first century of the common era. So if you want to discover what those Seven Seals are hiding then tune in and let's open them up.

The Hermetic Hour, hosted by Poke Runyon, will present a lively review of magical fiction and films. We will go from "The Saragossa Manuscript"(1841) through Dion Fortune's "Moon Magic", Somerset Maugham's "The Magician" (novel and film), Chambers "The King in Yellow", Lovecraft's dream cycle, Merritt's lost worlds (that influenced Shaver), Jack Williamson's "Darker than You Think" (Jack Parson's favorite), Clark Ashton Smith dream-maker extraordinary, his imitator Jack Vance (from which we got Dungeons & Dragons), "Valis" by Philip K. Dick -- just to name a few. Then the films: Orson Welles' "Black Magic" on Cagliostro, Jean Cocteau's "Orpheus", Merrian Cooper's "She", "Simon King of the Witches," "What Dreams May Come," "Crowley," and Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain." A smorgasbord of mind-benders. Tune in and feast on it!
 

On September 23rd, 2010 at 8:p.m. the Hermetic Hour, with host Poke Runyon,
will lead a discussion on Angel Magick (good spirits too) with an emphasis
on crystal ball scrying techniques, training, equipment, and talisman
construction and charging. We will discuss the recent books recounting Dr.
Thomas Rudd's 17th century work in this field, and relate some experiences
we've had in the circle doing this work. This will be call-in night, so have
your questions ready on any topic we've covered. Tune in and get
Theurgerated, or Thaumatergified.