The Hermetic Hour

On Thursday February 14th, 2019 The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the first Ancient Astronaut Theorists, before Van Daniken, Sitchen, and the rest there was Richard Shaver and Ray Palmer and the Shaver Mystery. In recent years more and more of their fantastic 1940s revelations about Ancient extra-terrestrial Aliens and their high technology and their continued influence on, and interference in, earthly affairs (mind control and child trafficking and madness) has been confirmed and exploited by later whistle-blowers such as Tom DeLonge, Corey Good, David Wilcock and others. It seems that Shaver and Palmer wrote their History Channel documentary scripts but are never credited as the source. Are these Ancient Aliens still with us? "Our original Ancient Astronaut theorists say yes!" So tune in and let's return to the thrilling days of yesteryear and revisit The Shaver Mystery.

On Thursday March 9th, 2023 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the philosophy behind his 2001 science fiction novel Drell Master and its forthcoming sequel Drell Mistress. The novel is set on a planet called Thoon which has suffered a human generated apocalypse dividing it into three eco-zones: Sky Islands, a poisoned surface world, and an industrialized cavern world. Its human population is divided into groups which inhabit these levels. A Secret Society strives to reunite them. It programs an artificial intelligence in the form of the three planetary gods with a prime directive to serve the best interests of Humankind, but the prime directive would relegate humans into a hive society. And the hero Brand of Valadeen and heroine Lira of Jhalimar as Master and Mistress of the drells struggle to save humankind from the living death  of a drell hivedom. Like all good science fiction this is metaphoric. Put your thinking caps on and tune in.

On Thursday January 31st, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will air a discussion on the life and work of Victorian Age British artist and writer William Morris (1834-1888) on the modern Hermetic revival. Morris was a Renaissance man of many talents. An Oxford scholar who idealized and romanticized the medieval period and yearned to recreate Camelot in the modern era. He was appalled by the pollution, social misery and esthetic mediocrity caused by the industrial revolution and he believed that Karl Marx held the key to creating a utopia (although Morris admitted that he could not understand Marx) But we need to understand Morris in order to fathom the continuing fascination our cultural elite have for Marx's continually failing system. So, come with us back to the Gas-light era and we will see where a lot of today's progressive ideas got started.

On Thursday January 17th the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss "The Cygnus Mystery" (2006)  and "The Cygnus Key" (2018) by Andrew Collins. These recent books are in the tradition of "Hamlet's Mill" (1969), "The Sirius Mystery"(1976) and Gordon White's "Star Ships" (2016) and they all fall into the category of popular celestial archaeology. Most importantly for us in the Hermetic community they all seek to validate our ancient Initiatic Code which holds that we descend from the Heavens and to the Heavens we shall return via the Milky Way as our "River of Souls." Like so many of his predecessors in this Collins locates the ancient Shamanic origins of this in old Hyperborea in North Central Asia. He presents a good case for Cygnus the Swan bringing down the souls like the stork brings babies. He suggests that the  Paleolithic genius-giant Denisovan hominids recently discovered in Siberia were the originators of of our Celestial mythology and that they carried it all the way down to ancient Egypt. I am not sure I agree with all his ideas but for the most part he seems on the mark -- so if you want to follow the Starry Path to immortality, tune in and we'll fly with the swans.

On Thursday December 20th, 2018 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the Hermetic origins of the Holy Grail as presented in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Medieval romance “Parzival. This is a follow-up on an earlier broadcast from three years ago in which we read Janinne Rene’s Article on Parzival from The Seventh Ray issue number 19, January 1977. In the introduction to her article I stated that: “Much of the symbolism and the allegory of Kellner’s original O.T.O. derived from Parzival.” This and other fascinating secrets embedded in Wolfram's medieval masterpiece will be the subjects of tonight’s broadcast. So, if you want to find the Grail we have the clues for you. Eschenbach’s Parzival is like Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia. It's one of those old books full of secrets and magick. And our job on the Hermetic Hour is to dig them out for you.

On Thursday December 6th, 2018, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss “The Spiritual Meaning of the Sixties” (2018) by Tobias Churton. This is a 653 page door-stopper of a book subtitled: “the Magic, Myths & Music of the Decade that Changed the World,” And it certainly lives up to its subtitle. Even though Churton’s previous books have been in the mystical, occult genre, this one should break into the mainstream and be read by every thoughtful reader interested in the present spiritual, philosophical and political divisions in what we call Western Civilization. Using the Music, films, television, and popular fads of the period as his mirror of reflection he leads us through the decade. The cultural impact of the Beatles, and rock music, the sexual revolution, psychedelics, the Bomb, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, and the rise of feminism are all dealt with in turn. And the inability of established religion to cope with the spiritual challenges of the time is considered. The author was a child in England and Australia during the period and gives us a remarkable picture of the era from a growing child’s perspective. My one criticism of the book stems from Churton’s memory picture. I was a teenager in 1950s America. I recall that repressive era which preceded the social liberation of the sixties. I think Churton should have added “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.” (1956) to his list of media catalysts. So if you want to look back at the days of Flower-Power and Strawberry Fields Forever, turn-on, tune-in and give a listen.

On Thursday February 2nd, 2023 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon  will review and Discuss the controversial 2011 book Caesar's Messiah  by Joseph Atwill. The subtitle of this work is: "The Roman Conspiracy  to Invent Jesus and Atwell presents convincing evidence that the  Flavian family of Roman patricians with the help of renegade Jewish  historian Josephus, may have done exactly that.Atwill purposes that  the Gospels were written by members of the Flavian family to make the  Jesus story correspond with Titus's conquest of Judea and Jerusalem.  He presents quotes from Josephus "War of Jews" to back this up. This  will be a hard book for fundamental Christians but not for Gnostic  Christians. Atwill holds off presenting his Imperial time-line until  page 302, keeping the casual reader unaware that Christianity was  flourishing and perishing in Rome long before the Gospels were  written. So even though he may be correct about Roman influence on the  Synoptic Gospels, he is wrong in assuming that Christianity began in  Rome as a False-Flag operation. Perhaps the most shocking event  described in the book is the alleged origin of the Christian  Eucharist. Josephus recounts a wealthy Jewish mother killing and  eating her infant son and offering part of him to her neighbors.  Saying that he will be "A myth to the world." Of course Atwill is nice  enough to suggest that Josephus wrote the dialogue but it still sent  me to my copy of Josephus to make sure he wasn't exaggerating. He  wasn't. So join us for an hour exploring gaslighting and false news  in the first century.

On Thursday November 15th 2018, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review "Son of Chicken Qabalah" and interview its distinguished author Lon Milo DuQuette. This 2018 book is a sequel to Lon's popular "Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford" (2001). Lamed Ben Clifford is Lon's fictional creation. Lon thought all of us Hermetic Qabalists needed our own Rabbi, who would not sneer at our Tarot cards and pagan correspondences on the Tree of Life. Ben Clifford's Qabalah was for all of us and it was presented in a humorous style that made the otherwise dry subject come alive. It became one of the best introductions to the subject at least from a Hermetic perspective. The fictional Ben Clifford has passed away but he has left a legacy: a three degree Qabalistic initiation system based on the Sepher Yetzirah's Cube of Space and the Golden Dawn's Hermetic Hebrew alphabet correspondences. Starting with the Three Mother Letters in the first degree (the original tetragrammaton) the candidate next internalizes the Seven Double Letters attributed to the planets, and finally, in the Third and last degree, he or she, installs the Twelve Simple letters internalizing the entire Hermetic Qabalistic universe. This is all accomplished with mudras, flashing colorsm a pitch pipe and geometric mandalas. What we did with a  yoga system in "Hermetic Yoga, Beyond the Middle Pillar" (2015) Lon has done in a Temple initiation format. This little book of his is a treasure and will make Hermetic Magick come alive for everyone who conscientiously studies it.

On Thursday January 19th,2023 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss the 2016 book "The Ba'al Theory of Christianity" by author Glenn Young. This book is subtitled: "Exploring the Impact of Human Sacrifice on Western Religion." This subtitle and Young's insistence on equating Carthaginian child sacrifices with Palestinian Phoenician ritual practices is our only real complaint about this otherwise well-researched  and strongly presented book. The author touches all the bases in explaining the differences between Yahwehism and the original worship of El and the Elohim. He describes Ezra's rewrite of the Bible and even mentions Joseph and Moses as the possible leaders of the Hyksos. Although he is wrong in assuming that Sidon and Tyre practiced child sacrifice in Classical times he may be correct in assuming that Carthaginian practices might have influenced the Druids and the Nordics and later the witchcraft persecutions. It is unfortunate that he fails to consider that even though the Carthaginians were originally Phoenician they, like the ancient Egyptians, were also African. This will be a very thought provoking and controversial subject.

On Thursday January 12th, 2023 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review "Letters on the Royal Art" by 19th century German author J. B. Kerning. Kerning was a musician, a mystic and a Freemason. The book is composed of letters describing the spiritual absorption of the symbols, words and signs used in the three degrees of Blue Lodge Masonry in the form of an internal awareness which purifies and sanctifies the whole body. This is similar to a yoga chakra system and may have had an influence on the Golden Dawn's Middle Pillar ritual. The book and other works by Kerning may have influenced Bardon's "Key to the True Qabalah." Kerning was a singer and teaches a magical Masonic Alphabet in the manner of a musical voice teacher. He is perhaps the first modern Western mystic to emphasize internalization of spiritual ritual. His concepts enabled the development of "Bringing Down The Light" in  20th century magick.