All Episodes

On Thursday June 25th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will have as it's guest the leading authority on the African-American folk tradition of Hoodoo magic, or "Root Work," Catherine Yronwode of the Lucky Mojo Curio company. Catherine is the author of "Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic" and "Paper in My Shoe" along with several other related titles. She will explain the differences between Hoodoo, Santeria and Vodoun, and describe how this unique American folk-magic tradition arrived here
with the slaves in the old South and continued to evolve incorporating European (Solomonic) and even Native American additions to become a living magical system now practiced all over the United States. So, if you want to catch up on your American magical cross-training (sneaky pete anthropology) this is a session you need to hear.

On Thursday June 18th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on ancient Mesopotamian Mythology and its relation to the Canaanite myths that comprise the Seasonal ceremonies of the Order of the Temple of Astarte. As our in studio guest we will have Frater Isa from our Ubar Encampment
in Dallas, Texas. We will touch on such subjects as the Anunnaki (Elder Gods), How Man was created by the Earth Goddess as a slave of the Gods, how Oannes brought civilization to the Summerians, and the numerous parallels between Canaanite and
Mesopotamian myth and legend. Our primary text will be John Gray's Near Eastern Mythology which is cross-comparitive. If you have been curious about the similarities between Ishtar and Astarte, or Baal and Marduk, then tune in and we will try to sort out the pre-Biblical family-trees for you.

On Thursday May 28th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will have as its special guest Frater Julian of the Benjamin Franklin Encampment who is an expert in Pennsylvania folklore relating to witchcraft and magick. We will be discussing his paper on the mysterious Roman family in the colonial Quaker community, Johannes Kelpius "The Wizard of Wissahickon," and his Cave of Kelpius, and Apocalyptic prophecy in the 1690s. The Epherata Rosicrucian Cloister, then moving up toward modern times with Dutch pow-wow, hexcraft, the curious case of the Hexencat and its capture. The York County 1920s Hex murder case. So if you want to catch up on your American occult and witchcraft heritage be sure to tune in for Weird Pennsylvania
on the air.
 

On Thursday May 2ist, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present an interview with British author and magician Jake Stratton-Kent. Jake Stratton-Kent is especially noted for his defense and support of the Goetic aspect of ceremonial magick and his research linking this practice to the deities and oracles of ancient Greek mythology, especially the denizens of the underworld or Tartarus ruled by Hades or Pluto. He is more partial to the Grimorium Verum than the Goetia or Lesser Key of Solomon although he stresses that both are essentially Goetic from the ancient Greek word "Goes" meaning a necromancer. So if you want to meet a master of art magical, tune in and spend an hour with maestro Jake Stratton-Kent.

On Thursday May 14th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
present the second part of a discussion on Gerald Gardner's 1949 novel of medieval British Magick and Witchcraft High Magic's Aid. The emphasis will be on readings
of the actual rituals from the book, including "Making the Great Circle," "the Witch Cult initiation," and "The Spirit Dantalion." Poke will be joined by his long time friend and colleague Gardnerian Elder Ed Fitch as they discuss the influence of Solomonic
Magick on Gardner's original version of modern Wicca. Gardner used rituals from both the Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon in High Magic's Aid, so if you want to get the feel of the way it was in the beginning then tune in and we'll conjure some old fashioned spirits for you.
 

On Thursday May 7th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss Gerald Gardner's classic novel of medieval magick and witchcraft in England "High Magic's Aid." We consider this a very important work in the Modern Hermetic
Tradition because it vividly describes the synthesis of surviving Paganism with the Solomonic school of ceremonial magick in the Middle Ages. A mix of esoteric themes that returned in the form of Gardenarian and Alexandrian Wicca in 1950s England, from which it quickly migrated to the United States. Gerald Gardner was a member of the O.T.O. and worked closely with Aleister Crowley to produce the first modern Book of Shadows. High Magic's Aid tells the story of three Saxon Solomonic magicians in the days of Robin Hood's King John 11th century, who are not able to work their magick effectively without the help of a female Witch. They rescue their priestess from the local inquisition and dig up her precious Athame and white handled knife without which they can not operate. The story is very well written and well researched. Better than Crowley's fiction although he was probably Gardner's editor. We strongly recommend this book to our neo-pagan and wiccan friends who may think that witchcraft and magick cannot co-exist. They can, and they did, and they do -- so
if you want to know where and how the wizards and the witches got together tune in and "Merry Meet!" and "Blessed Be!"
 

On Thursday April 30th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the quasi-Masonic Rite of Memphis, sometimes called the Rite of Memphis and Misraim which is highly irregular in orthodox Masonic circles and is usually considered a Clandestine (unrecognized and proscribed) organization to which regular Masons cannot belong. This collection of rites or degrees (96 of them) has a long and colorful history which we will delve into consulting Mackey, Calvin C. Brut, John Yarker and Allen Greenfield. In the 1880's the Rite of Memphis infiltrated the Scottish Rites Northern Jurisdiction and went into competition with Scottish Rite itself to see which system would become an accepted Advanced (Red Lodge) along with York Rite for regular American Masons. Scottish Rite's 33 degree system won the turf war, with Albert Pike's help and the Rite of M&M disappeared into the College of defunct Masonic Rites (yes there is such an institution). The same thing had happened to it in France a hundred years earlier when the Grand Orient absorbed it and locked it up in their archives -- but the M&M is not easily suppressed. Its founder, after signing it over to the Grand Orient, sneaked it into Moldavia (one of Dracula's hang outs) and it briefly rose again. Recently Masonic mavericks Allen Greenfield and Jeff Peace have tried to resurrect it here in the United States. Jeff Peace tried to get a number of regular Masons who were interested in the esoteric involved in M&M, at their peril. So if you would like to explore a delightfully conspiratorial and deliciously controversial secret society that claims to have "All the Secrets of ancient Masonry and certainly enough of its degrees" then tune in and we'll sail up the Nile to the Pyramids. 
 

On April 16th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review the new semi-biographical novel by fantasy grandmaster Michael Moorcock "The Whispering Swarm." This remarkable book should be of special interest to magicians and Hermetic students. Moorcock is the modern heir to the mantles of J.R.R. Tolkien, and Robert E.Howard. His fiction is deeply magical and steeped in Hermetic lore. The Whispering Swarm is somewhat experimental. His protagonist is himself and he tells his life story up to his passage from adolesence into adulthood through the entrance into a secret enclave in the multiverse, inhabited by historical and fictional characters he has read about. Raised in London during and after WWll, he discovers an ancient hidden medieval village called the Alsacia, or The Sanctuary, inhabited by magical monks in an old Abbey, a tavern full of swashbuckling cavaliers, including the Musketeers from Dumas and a glamorous Hughwaywoman called Molly Midnight. He also lives in the real world, having a wife and children and a job as an editor, but is driven to escape into The Sanctuary by the tumult of Whispering voices in his head (the Swarm). Most importantly it explores Moorcock's two warring personalities in emotional spiritual and political conflict. He is a romantic at heart and an agnostic socialist in intellect -- so he fights to save King Charles from Cromwell's Ax because his cavalier heroes need his abilities to walk between the worlds. One wonders all through the book, just how much of the fantasy is real, or a metaphor for reality. So, if you want to visit an adult's Land of Oz then follow us through the London fog to the hidden gates of the Sanctuary and we'll find the Swan with Two Necks tavern for a shant of ale and an hour of High Magical Adventure.
 

On Thursday April 2nd, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss the newly published book "The Secret School of Wisdom" Authentic rituals and doctrines of the Illuminati edited by Joseph Wages, Rienhard Markner and translated by Jeva Singh Anand. Host Poke Runyon (Marion Roland) will be joined by his fellow Beyond Lemuria stars Merrick Rees Hamer (Master Phylos) and Frater Solomon (Samyaza) in our discussion of the various aspects of the Bavarian Illuminati: their Masonic infiltration, Christian-based socialist ideology, and conspiratorial agenda. We will discuss Adam Weishaupt's mysticism and contradict some previously held opinions about his atheism. We will discuss his relation with Baron von Knigge and some of the later individuals and organizations influenced by the Illuminati -- so If you want to immanenitize the eschaton (whatever that means) tune in and be illuminated.

On Thursday March 26th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a review of the new book:
"The Universal Master Key" alleged to be a newly discovered manuscript
by the late Franz Bardon. This book is actually a reconstructed series
of lectures by Bardon to his students on mastering and balancing the
four Hermetic elements in the personality as set forth in the first
section of his book Initiation into Hermetics. The texts of the lectures
are rewritten from a collection of class notes by the students and
rendered in Bardon's writing style by his publisher and editor Dieter
Ruggeberg. The book is published by Faulks Books which mistakenly
represents it on the internet as taken from a "newly discovered
manuscript by Franz Bardon." However it does not appear to be entirely a
hoax. If Dieter wrote the entire book, he has at least mastered Bardon's
style and philosophic attitudes. The book is certainly worth a place in
a Magician's Bardon collection. It is very moralistic and sermonizing in
tone with a strong emphasis on ethics and spiritual integrity. It has
its short-comings. It was supossed to be organized according to the
qualities of each element but he seems to go off the track into a
general discussion on how to live and die well in this and higher worlds
-- so if want to revisit the Bardonian internal tetragrammaton process,
tune in and we will go to Hermetic Sunday school with Reverand Franz.
Next week we revisit the Bavarian Illuminati.
 

On Thursday March 19th, 2015 Dr. Claire Fitzpatrick, a distinguished
Hermetic healer and broadcaster of her own magically related podcasts,
also an associate member of the Church of the Hermetic Sciences since
2011, will share with us her recent interview with the Hermetic Hour
host Poke Runyon. This interview is very similar to last week's
biographical interview we did with Merrick Rees Hamer. Poke told Dr.
Claire that she got him to remember things that he thought he had
forgotten, we will preface the interview with a short biographical
introduction to Claire and her work and her equally distinguished
life partner and colleague, Masonic scholar and Alchemist Ariel Malachi
Sirocco, also an associate member of CHS. So tune in and find out what
our East Coast folks are doing and enjoy the secrets she managed to coax
out of old Frater Thabion.
 

On Thursday March 12th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon,
will have as its honored guest Merrick Rees Hamer a leading Masonic
ritualist and lecturer in California, a master story-teller, talented
musician, and a leader in the Golden Dawn Rosicrucian Magical
tradition. Merrick is also a classical actor having portrayed "The
Master Phylos" and his evil counterpart "Magister Abaddon" in the Church
of the Hermetic Sciences Production of "Beyond Lemuria" filmed at Mt.
Shasta in 2006 and recently re-released in a second edition. He is also
a leading officer in the Church and in its magical fraternal order the
O.T.A. Merrick will give us a history of his creative and esoteric
interests and accomplishments. So if you would like to spend an hour or
so with a modern master of traditional magick and the arts related to
it: music, drama, and poetic expression, then join us and be inspired.
 

On Thursday March 5th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
have a discussion on the magical heroic fantasy fiction of British
literary lion Michael Moorcock. Moorcock. Although Moorcock did not coin
the term Multiverse he did much to popularize it in his Elric of
Melnibone series. H.G. Wells used it in Men like Gods, and Richard
Shaver's Red Dwarf called it the "Simultane." Parallel Worlds is perhaps
the best description of it. What Moorcock did coin was the "Chaosphere"
that mace-like symbol of the black ball with eight spearheads emerging
that was adopted by Peter Carroll as the symbol for their Chaos Magick
system. Moorcock's literary concept of the Chaos world is presented as
an ocean of swirling colors and energies dashing against the cliffs of
his fantasy world -- and periodically invading and claiming lands ruled
by the Lords of Law. The Lords of Chaos, one of which is Elric's patron,
play a constant game with men as the pawns. Moorcock was perhaps
influanced by Vance's Cudgel, to create his anti-hero The Albino
ex-emperor Elric of Melnibone, who struggles to overcome the sociopathic
heritage of his race and finally secumbs to it under the influence of
his black-magick sword which is a vampiric weapon with a evil mind of
its own. This was a perfect fictional character for the darkness that
followed the era of the flower children, a presage of the current goth
and black metal fads. Moorcock describes himself as an anarchist and is
a controversial literary figure in Britain. He is presently writing a
Dr. Who novel, his first using someone else's character. So if you want
to discover the magick of Michael Moorcock tune in and we'll navigate
the multiverse.
 

On Thursday February 26th, 2015 our very special guest will be philosopher, author, Magus, songwriter, and folksinger Lon Milo DuQuette. Lon will discuss his latest books "Homemade Magick" from Llewellyn, and as editor: "Horror and the Occult" from Weiser. He will also invite us all to hear him in concert at the MTG recording
studio in Mission Viejo, California this Saturday night. So if you want to catch up on the latest doings and offerings from one of America's most creative and talented magicians, be sure to listen in.
 

On Thursday February February 12th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host
Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the late medieval Dutch
surrealist painter Hieronymus Bosch whose remarkable works have not yet
become the secret code behind a Dan Brown novel (hint Bro. Dan) but
would certainly provide a great background for such a story. His most
famous work "The Garden of Earthly Delights" is a phantasmagoria a of
bizarre and nightmarish symbolism. Which scholars relate to the Gonostic
sect of the Adamites -- a cult of mystic nudists who were trying to
recreate the Garden of Eden. Super Catholic Spain had taken over the
Netherlands in those days and the Inquisition was burning the Dutch
Adamites as fast as Bosch could paint them but the King of Spain was
Bosch's biggest fan, which probably kept Bosch alive.So you can look at
some great Bosch graphics on your computer while you listen to us
recount the tale of the Devil's painter.