The Hermetic Hour

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon, will present a discussion on the 27th Path of the qabalistic Tree of Life leading from Hod to Netsach, This is the lowest of three cross members uniting opposite pillars on The Tree. Gareth Knight considers it "The main girder of the personality." It connects the sphere of the Intellect with the sphere of Natural Forces, so sparks are bound to fly. The Path is attributed to the planet Mars and the Tarot trump "The Blasted Tower." This prompted Gareth Knight to relate the Path to the mysterious alchemical allegory "The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz;" which he summarizes in the "Practical Guide." So tune in and we will walk the Path to "The House of God."  

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the twenty-eighth Path of the Tree of Life, which leads up from Yesod, realm of the Collective Unconscious of the microcosm, to Netsach, the realm of natural forces of the macrocosm. In the Hermetic Tradition this Path is attributed to Aquarius and the Tarot Trump "The Star," however, Aleister Crowley was moved to interchange The Star with The Emperor. We will discuss his reasons for this and its implications. This is an important symbolic path for neo-pagans and those who venerate The Goddess. So, tune in and we will try to walk this Path both ways.

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the symbolism and meaning of the 29th Path of the Qabalistic Tree of Life leading from Malkuth to Netsach. This is the Path of the Moon (Tarot trump) and is a watery route up to the seventh Sphere of Netsach (Venus) which is attributed to the realm of Nature and natural philosophy. Once again our texts will be Dion Fortune's "Mystical Qabalah" and Gareth Knight's "Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism." We will also summarize our own version of this Path as recorded in our special Pathworkings DVD used in our Associate Member Program. In our system the Goddess Astarte resides in the Temple of Netsach and Her divine body contains all the psychic centers (chakras) of the Lightning Flash. So, if you want to get up close and magical with Mother Nature tune in and we'll pay The Goddess a visit.

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the 30th Path of the Hermetic-Qabalistic Tree of Life. This is the Path of "Resh" and The Sun, called "The Collective Intelligence." It is the first Path in which we employ "Kusor's Boat," a magical device unique to the O.T.A. derived from ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian myth sources (also inspired by A. Merritt's "Ship of Ishtar"). The Boat enables us to fly over Paths already walked in the astral journeys at the base of The Tree. The Boat is shown in our Pathworking video available to Associate Members. Our text will again be Gareth Knight's "Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Vol. 2," and "Adamson's Quest" from THE SEVENTH RAY. This Path leads from Yesod, the Lunar sphere of memory, emotion and astral foundation to Hod, the Sphere of Mercury, reason, science and positive Solar-zodiacal progress. It questions the male and female spiritual perspectives and raises the current debate between techno-industrial progress vs. environmental and eco-centered spiritual philosophies, along with collectivism vs. individualism. So, tune in and find out about star-people and earth people, and why the Hermetic soul is androgynous.  

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion of the Thirty-first Path of the Tree of Life from Malkuth to Hod, reviewing its esoteric meaning and symbolism in the Hermetic Qabalah. This is the Path of Fire leading up the Pillar of Severity to the Mercurial Sphere of Hod. Texts for our talk will be Gareth Knight's Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism, Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabalah, and Poke Runyon's Adamson's Quest. We will also review our video presentation of this Pathworking in our DVD offered to Associate Members. So, tune in and "Walk the hot sands" of the Astral Plane.

On Thursday March 13th, 2025 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will deliver his 2007 lecture: The Great Secret of the Freemasons and Rosicrucians. Poke is known as Frater Thabion in the Rosicrucian community and is a 32 KCCH in Scottish Rite. This lecture discusses The Lost Word of Masonry, the concept of Deism, the Great I am, the total mystical unity of the Universal Mind and the profound underlying spiritual connection of the world's Abrahamic religions. You can obtain a published copy of The Great Secret in The Seventh Ray Book III available from Pokerunyon.com but listen to this presentation for a full understanding of these philosophical concepts.

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the symbolism and meaning of the Thirty-second Path on the Tree of Life. This lecture will include a review of our special Path Working on this subject which we have recorded for members and associate members. The Tarot symbolism, the relation to Saturn in the Cube of Space, and the traditional qabalistic associations will be covered. Text for this lecture are The Garden of Pomogranets by Israel Regardie and Volume Two of Gareth Knight's Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism. Tune in and start the journey upward.    

The Hermetic Hour will feature a talk by host Poke Runyon on Magical Pathworkings. These are hypnotic guided tours of the astral plane, "inner plane projections," intended to introduce the magical students to deeply significant symbolism from mythology and traditional occult correspondences. The kabbalistic Tree of Life is the road map. The central idea here is that the student confronts the symbol or archetype and receives personal knowledge he or she might not obtain by conscious study. They are astral initiations. We will look at the history of this type of working, the Eastern version that influenced the O.T.A.'s pathworking system, and we will even take you on a mini-pathworking, so you can experience some of the effect. This is an important part of traditional magical lodge instruction that is not well understood. Tune in and take the journey.                                      

On February 20th, 2025 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will narrate the astral journey or flight from Malkuth to Chesed using our Soul Travel Boat, which enables us to fly over the previously traveled 29th path, and Sphere of Netsach; beyond which lies the Great Wheel of Eternity that takes us back thru the Astrological Ages to the Times of Atlantis where we will meet Dagon the elder god from the Stars. Who shows us how to open our third-eye. This is a magical journey you won't want to miss, so join us on PodBean, or You-Tube and sail the dream-skies of the astral with us. -- Thabion  

Hermetic Hour host Poke Runyon will discuss "Divination for Magicians." We are qualifying this subject to exclude a number of techniques not often used in magick. We will lead off with Tarot, discussing its actual origins, the 19th century "Egyptian origin" myth, how it was thought to be "older than the kabbalah," and its subsequent influence on modern Hermetic "qabalah" -- from Eliphas Levi to Paul Foster Case. We will discuss various Tarot designs, and their particular attributes. We'll move on to Geomancy, discussing its ancient origins, and characteristics -- briefly comparing it to the Chinese I-Ching. We'll be taking calls on this subject, so join us and see what the future holds in store.