All Episodes

On Thursday February 25th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a reading and commentary on a chapter, by Fraters Thabion
and Solomon, from the forthcoming book Hermetic Yoga, Beyond the Middle
Pillar, Vol. 2, titled Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the Holy Grail. This
will trace the story from Bethlehem to Camelot with some remarkable
surprises, such as Jesus was the grandson of King Herod the Great,
Jehovah was not his Father in Heaven, that he believed in equality for
women, and tolerance for the Gentiles. That he married a Phoenician
princess and sought to unite all Israel under the original Most High God
EL That his cousin Herod Antipas bribed Pontius Pilate to have him
executed, and that Mary Magdalene barely managed to escape with their
son to Southern France where they founded the Cult and the lineage of
the Sangreal -- Its all documented with the latest discoveries from
ancient archives, so tune in and we'll go beyond The D'Vinci Code.
 

On Thursday February 4th, 2016 The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a discussion on the fascinating military and occult career
of Lt.Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863-1942) the conqueror
of Tibet (1904) and the author of several books on travel, adventure and
mystical philosophy. Colonel Younghusband was an officer in British
Special forces in India during a cold war between the British and the
Russians for control of the Central Asian highlands north of India in
the latter days of the 19th century. Their covert conflict was called
"The Great Game" and was the stage for high adventure. Rudyard Kipling
novelized "The Great Game" in Kim. In 1904 Lord Curson the Viceroy of
India sent Colonel Younghusband up into Tibet with an invading British
army to flush out the Russians whom Curson was convinced had infiltrated
the mysterious country. After slaughtering the primitive Tibetan army,
Younghusband took Lhasa but could not find a single Cossack, or even a
Russian rifle, However he did stay long enough to have a mystical
experience that transformed him from a ruthless conqueror into a
peaceful mystical philosopher. He retired to England to write books
about his adventures and his visions, which included life on other
planets, a philosophy of free love, a spiritual drama society and an
expedition to climb Mt. Everest. -- If you want to spend an hour with
the Colonel, tune in and we'll hit the trail going up.
 

On Thursday January 28th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the Biblical personages Simon Magus and John the Baptist. We will discuss their association, their influence on the Gnostic movement and the rise of Christianity. We will have Frater Solomon as a guest commentator. Sources will be the works of Tobias Churton "Gnostic Mysteries of Sex" and "Mysteries of John the Baptist" also G.R.S. Mead's "Simon Magus" and "The Book of Enoch" which influenced Gnostic cosmology and the Mandanean books attributed to John the Baptizer. So if you want to be demystified about the Gnosis, tune in and we'll part the veil.
 

On Thursday January 21st, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will review the highlights of the previous year and discuss some of
the more noteworthy 2015 shows. This will also be a general call in
night for you regular listeners to give us your feedback and comments --
also suggestions and criticisms (however we decapitate trolls so don't
be one) Suggest subjects in the Hermetic area that you would like us to
discuss and cover in broadcasts this coming year. Our guest call in
number is: 347 857 1830. We go on the air at 8:00 p.m. Pacific Time and
sign off at 9:00 p.m. -- so let's hear from you.
 

On Thursday January 14th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a commentary on and a reading of the Rubaiyat a Sufi poem
from medieval Persia by the mystic and astronomer Omar Khayyam
translated by Edward Fitzgerald and published in 1859. The Rubaiyat is
quintessentially romantic in style and content. It is said to reflect
the ancient cyrenaic hedonistic philosophy of Aristippus and extols a
libertine lifestyle in preference to piety. When I was a teenager I
needed to break away from Christian fundamentalism so I adopted the
Rubaiyat as my alternative to the Bible. I memorized the entire poem so
that I could quote seductive passages to Baptist virgins while drinking
beer on the beach at sunset. Ah! Those were the days! Or as Omar would
put it: "Alas that Spring should vanish with the rose, and youth's sweet
scented manuscript should close, the nightingale that in the branches
sang, ah whence and wither flown again who knows?" And so, if you yearn
to know "What Omar's moving finger writ, " then tune in and we will
inoculate you against excessive piety.
 

On Thursday January 7th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will celebrate the New Year by announcing the release of "Hermetic Yoga,
Beyond the Middle Pillar, Volume One", on Amazon.com. Until this January
the sale of this book has been offered only to Active and Associate
Members of our Church and the O.T.A. at a special discount. Now we are
offering it to the Magical community at large. Hermetic Yoga is somewhat
controversial in its theoretical structure. It is a fully developed and
extended version of the Golden Dawn's "Middle Pillar" system which is
based on the downward progression of the Lightning Flash rather than the
planetary letter assignments on the Paths on the Tree of Life. Citing
Pythagoras, Robert Fludd, Jacob Boehme, Johann Gichtel, Rudolph von
Sebottendorff and Manly Hall, this Rosicrucian version of the Western
Interior Stars offers all the power and visionary magick of Eastern
Tantric practice to those of us here in the West. So if you'd like to
get inside yourself in a magical way and meet your Goddesses and Gods
then tune in and we'll raise your dragon for the New Year!
 

On Thursday December 24th, 2015 at 8:00 p.m. PT, the Hermetic Hour with
host Poke Runyon will review and discuss the magical historical novel
"Pythagoras the Mathemagician - by our friend and distinguished author
Karim El Koussa. This is a very important book for Hermetic students
because it makes the Pythagoras contributions to our Hermetic and
Qabalistic systems come to life by by recreating the life and work of
the man to whom we owe so much. And who better than a Phoenician scholar
to give us a biographic novel of the greatest of the Phoenicians, the
father of philosophy and the original Master of the mysteries. In this
book you will learn about the Masters' Egyptian initiations (very much
like our Crata Repoa), his mystic mathematics, sacred geometry, moral
and ethical teachings, vegetarian (vegan) dietary regime and his
cosmology The Music of the Spheres. So, if you want to find out how to
painlessly acquire a knowledge of the greatest of ancient Magicians,
tune in and we'll vist Crotona.
 

On Thursday December 17th, 2015 at 8:00 p.m. PT the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will have as our very special guest Dr. Paul Clark, Steward of the Fraternity of Hidden Light and author of the recent biography "Paul Foster Case" his life and works. Its Dr. Paul on Dr. Paul. Quite a fitting combination, as Paul Clark is certainly Paul
Case's successor in his Great Work in the Western Tradition. Paul Case (1884-1954) was a Golden Dawn adept who specialized in a study of the Tarot. When the Golden Dawn deteriorated in America in the 1920s Case carried on the tradition in his own school The Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.). After Case's passing in 1954 the B.O.T.A. was continued by Case's protege Ann Davies. Paul Clark joined the B.O.T.A. under her tutelege and in 1982, after Ann had passed on Paul Clark and two others
founded The Fraternity of Hidden Light which carries on Paul Case's school in an G. D. style initiatory structure. Paul's biography of his Master is a labor of love and a must read for anyone interested in the history of occultism in America. You will learn more about the Golden Dawn in New York, Philly, Chicago and California than you ever expected to see in print. This book is a treasure of occult history and lore. And no one is better qualified to write it than Maestro Paul Clark, so tune in and spend an hour with Doctor Paul on Doctor Paul.
 

On Thursday December 10th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a discussion on the Valentinian Gnostic origins of the
Dee-and-Kelley Enochian 30 Aethyr system. This ancient configuration indicates that John Dee had more to do with the actual construction than previously imagined. Apparently the Aethyrs did not spring full-armed from the brow of Kelley, like Athena from the brow of Zeus. Dee was the scholar and must have discovered the Valentinian model in research, thus directing Kelley's skrying. This has prompted us to add Valentinian angelic invoications to the Aethyrs, similar to the way the Shemehamphorash angels are used in Goetia.It acts as a spiritual safety
on what is otherwise an entirely elemental process and makes Enochian visions more spiritually and psychologically digestable. So if you want to experience sactified Enochian, tune in and we will fire up the Tablets.
 

On Thursday December 3rd, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will rebroadcast an interview of Merrick Rees Hamer by Ed Reib (V.H Fra.
BT) the host of the esoterinerd podcast. Appropriately enough this is
number 33 in that series. Merrick talks about his Masonic and Golden
Dawn interests, but most importantly he presents a cycle of original
Seasonal poems that are beautiful and inspiring. He also discusses his
role as Master Phylos in our 2007 film Beyond Lemuria, so we invite you
to spend an hour with the Master as he delivers a memorable performance
in magical style.
 

On Thursday November 19th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present the final discussion on the Tree of Life -- Kether and the
Supernals. In our series on the Tree we have worked from the bottom up,
and now we will have to shift into reverse and start down from above. We
will outline the theory of four dimensions on the tree and how each
dimension contains its own Tree. Kether of Malkuth being the heaven with
God on his throne (if that's what you want) We will also deal with the
two higher dimensions Atziluth and Briah and the Chokmah-Binah yin-yang
effect, Our main text will be Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabalah which is
the main source for both Gareth Knight and John Michael Greer's works on
the the subject. There will be some surprises in store, so tune in and
we will take heaven by storm.
 

On Thursday November 12th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon,
will present a discussion on our Astral Time travel method and its use
in connection with Hermetic Yoga. We will explain our method of
celestial consciousness projection in relation to stellar distances
(light years) and our use of the Tesseract as a sighting and measuring
device. We will also discuss the remarkable video The Star of Bethlehem
which reveals, using the Starry Night program a conjunction of Jupiter,
Venus and Regulus when the nativity was said to have taken place. We
will mention our Soma Sophia magical celestial tabliture in relation to
these phenomenon and cite the philosophy and the writings of Hermes to
back up our methods. So if you want to learn about magical time and
space travel tune in and we'll open the Star Gate.
 

On Thursday November 5th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a discussion on the mysterious hypothetical Sephira of
Da'ath. The eleventh sphere of the Tree of Life which was an actual
sphere in the so-called Tree before the Fall. This sphere is on the
brink of the Abyss between the dimension of Briah and Yetzirah and was
originally attributed to Saturn which is the most distant planet visable
to the naked eye in ancient times, thus theorized as the beginning of
the physical universe. Da'ath means knowledge and is related to the
descent of the Fallen Angels. This sphere is vitally important to magick
and to magical yoga. Our texts will be Dion Fortune, The Seventh Ray,
Book Three, The Red Ray, Hermetic Yoga, and The Book of Enoch, so for
Halloween let us journey to Mot's domain in the mountain of darkness at
the edge of the abyss.
 

On Thursday October 29th the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
present a discussion on the Fourth Sphere of the Qabalistic Tree of Life
Chesed or Gedulah the sphere attributed to Jupiter the King of the
planets, and the physical locus of the Third Eye. We consider Chesed the
home of Dagon, Capricorn, the amphibian god of ancient Canaan, who is
related to Poseidon the patron deity of ancient Atlantis which we also
place in the Jovian sphere. Once again our texts will be Dion Fortune,
Gareth Knight, Michael Greer, and our own Hermetic Yoga, Volume One. So
if you want to visit the sphere of prosperity (and we could all use some
of that) join us for an eye opener (Third eye that is).And those of you
here in Southern California don't forget our Halloween Party Saturday
nigtht, with the infamous Mot Mass honoring the dead.
 

On Thursday October 22nd, 2015 the Hermetic Hour will air an interview
of your host Poke Runyon (V.H. Frater D.a. L.) conducted by Ed Reib
(V.H. Frater B.T.) on his own "Esoterinerd" podcast show. Ed is a
Golden Dawn Inner Order member and the son of the late magician and
college professor John Dan Reib, who was one of Poke's close friends and
confidants. The interview is enlivened as they share memories of John's
outrageous guerrilla radio broadcasts. Poke and John both studied Franz
Bardon and were both fascinated by Richard Shaver. This interview will
take you back to the days of "Simon King of the Witches" here in the Los
Angeles area. It is both fun and informative, so if you want to return
with us to the 1970s and 80s tune in and we will tell it like it was.