The Hermetic Hour

On Thursday January 30th, 2020 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the beginning of magical training which we sometimes call "Franz Bardon for Dummies". We will certainly concede our debt to Bardon, and to Crowley but we will point out our improvements in their programs and explain the psychological and physical factors involved in conjuration to visible appearance, creative visualization, trance states, scrying and channeling and other skills and techniques the magician needs to master. So if you really want to know how to DO IT, remember the wisdom of the Sphinx who said: "In order for you to learn our teachings, we must first teach you how to learn." He also said:"He who doubts his powers, only lends power to his doubts."

On January 16th, 2020 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the controversial themes and symbols of the Medieval Holy Grail legend. We will first establish that the entire concept of “Lucifer the Light bringer” is a hoax launched in the Old Testament to cover-up Jehovah’s palace coup (the War in Heaven) and the subsequent exile of Elyon and his Elohim (the Fallen Angels). Next we will examine the Medieval Cathars, their origins and beliefs. We will consider the survival of Valentinian Gnosticism in Southern France and the Troubador Courts of Love. We will describe the Grail and its Hermetic-Sabian Celestial origin as set forth in von Eschenbach’s Parzival – and we will reveal what the physical Holy Grail really was. So if you want to know what those nasty French knights were hiding in their castle, join us on the quest.

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 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 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 August 29th, 2919 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss the new translation (2006) of the 15th century German Book of Abramelin attributed to Abraham von Worms, translated by Steven Guth and edited by Georg Dehn from Ibis Press. This new translation directly from the original German manuscript supersedes MacGregor Mather's translation of the French version in 1893 Which has been a cornerstone of magical libraries since the beginning of the last century. The new Abramelin is excellently introduced by my esteemed colleague Maestro Lon Milo Duquette. The old French version was poorly translated (from the German) and incomplete. The original has all four books and completes all the magic squares. This German version was used by Franz Bardon to name his solar spirits. It should go on the shelf of every magical library. So if you want to square-up with the Angels tune in and we'll run the numbers.

On Thursday August 15th, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the ancient "Sibylline Oracles" created, or re-created, in Greco-Roman Alexandria in the first centuries of the common era.These prophetic verses, attributed to the Sibyls, or prophetic priestesses of ancient Greece were actually a hoax, written by Jewish and Christian Gnostics in an attempt to recast the legendary lost prophetic books of ancient Rome to include the Bible and predict Christianity. They were so successful and popular that the early Christian Church approved of them. They were accepted into the Hermetic tradition, along with The Orphic Hymns and the Chaldean Oracles.They became an influence on western magick and Fairy lore. We will refer to Jake Stratton-Kent's summary of the Oracles in "Geosophia" (2010) and Milton Terry's translation 1899. So, if you want to catch up on this often forgotten aspect of western magical lore, tune in and we'll lift the veil.

On Thursday July 18th, 2019 the Hermetic Hour will review and discuss "American Cosmic" by Diane Pasulka. Again our guest reviewer will be Frater Dumuzi. Diane Pasulka is a professor of religious studies and approaches the UFO phenomenon from her academic perspective. She is a colleague of Jacques Vallee and shares many of his views. She quotes Carl Jung and cites the experiences and work of numerous "experiencers" (her term for contactees). She compares the UFO sightings and encounters to religious and mystical encounters such as the Miracle of Fatima and UFO artifacts to the Shroud of Turin. She also suggests that popular media feeds and perpetuates the phenomenon. Her approach is very subjective and impressionistic and her narrative is rambling and not well focused, but this, in and of itself, reflects the history of the activity she is attempting to describe. So, if you think "The Truth is Out There" tune in and we'll look in Dr. Pasulka's X-Files.

On Thursday July 11th, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon and his colleague Frater Dumuzi will present a review and discussion of the recent Graham Hancock books Magicians of the Gods (2015) and America Before (2019). These works are the latest in a series of speculative efforts to support the long-standing theory that our present civilization (especially Western Civilization) was preceded by an advanced antediluvian culture that might have been Plato's Atlantis. The survivors of which, according to Hancock, created the monolithic architecture of the late neolithic and passed on their knowledge of mathematics and astronomy to the Sumerians, and Egyptians. Recent discoveries such as the 12,000 year old temple complex of Gobekli Tepe in Turkey lend these ideas credibility but they are still resisted by the Cultural Marxists who believe that civilization must evolve from the simple to the complex. Hence Hancock's books are controversial. So, put on your fedora, oil up your bull-whip and join us for an hour of adventure.

On Thursday May 25th, 2023 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss "The Alchemical Search for the Unified Field" (2023)by Masonic author Richard Kretz. Who will be our call-in guest. This remarkable book is as Magical as it is Alchemical and the author teaches us how to create the Philosophers Stone within ourselves using the Hermetic elements and the electric network of the human nervous system. He draws on ancient Greek Pythagorean math and geometry arriving at a full seven chakra Hermetic Yoga arrangement on the Qabalistic  Tree of Life that is nearly identical to one we use. His cross-cultural training is in Native American Shamanism and his accounts of his apprenticeship under a modern shaman form one of the most moving and enlightening parts of the book. So if you'd like to learn the secrets of Alchemy tune in and meet a master of the art.