The Hermetic Hour

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.

Supporting the National Effort to restrict public events in order to suppress the Corona Virus, we have moved our Annual Spring Equinox, Nuptiae the Spring Marriage and Communion of the Elements ceremony from the Rivendell Henge to the Hermetic Hour. All our presenters will recite the ceremony on the air Thursday March 19th, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.  pacific time. We invite all our Active and Associate Members to listen in and we suggest that you have incense (frankincense or sandal wood) and a candle, a cup on Mead and a platter of wheat crackers so you may take communion with us. If you want to see what a Hermetic Communion looks like review "The Rites of Magick" which you all should have a copy of. Let us hope and pray that we don't have to do this for Summer Solstice. But let's make the best of this alternative. Take care and be well, Thabion, Poke Runyon host The Hermetic Hour.

On Thursday March 12th, 2020 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss "The Grand Key of Solomon the King" (2009) and other works translated by Mamdouh Al Daye otherwise known as Nineveh Shadrach. Nineveh is a Golden Dawn adept whom we have known since 1998 when he sent us a copy of his first book "The Magical Tome of a Divine King;" this was also a Solomonic grimoire in Arabic called "The Medicine of Solomon" which was eventually pirated and became "The Book of Smokeless Fire." "The Grand Key of Solomon the King" is commonly referred to as "Al Ajnas" and is attributed to Asaph Ben Berechiam in the Ishtar Publishing edition, probably to help Solomonize the work. Arabic editions would be attributed to Asif ibn Barkhiya, an Arab version of the same legendary Jewish sage of Solomon's court who supposedly wrote the book. It dates back to the 12th century of the common era. Not quite as old as Picatrix but old enough to make it venerable on the magician's book shelf. I'll be joined by V.H.Frater SithMeth who has some thoughts on "The Book of Smokeless Fire." So if you would like to spend an hour in the study of forbidden and forgotten lore, sit on your magick carpet, rub your magick lamp and join us.

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 February 27th, 2020 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion of the mysterious Ideomotor effect which motivates such divinatory devices as the Ouiji Board, the Pendulum and the Golden Dawn Ring and Disc. It is also related to dowsing rods and our Zero Lite. Although the effect is considered a scientific rationale for the phenomenon, it in itself is miraculous and may be more complex and supernatural than the de-bunkers imagine.So if you want to learn how to contact your deep mind, tune in and hang out with the pendulum swingers.

On Thursday February 20th, 2020 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a lecture on the Lightning Flash or Flaming Sword on the Tree of Life and its relation to the Blasted Tower of the Tarot on the 27th Path. This is a remarkable synchronicity between Tarot symbolism and Qabalah. In this case it marks the dividing point of the united soul in its descent down the the Paths of the Tree Before the Fall. When the House of God is struck by Lightning Eve falls toward Netsach and Adam falls toward Hod. From then on the human soul is divided. The Goddess rules the Sphere of Nature on the pillar of Mercy and the Fool rules the Sphere of Knowledge on the pillar of Severity. From there on down to Malkuth they remain divided, united only in dreams. So if you want to know why you can’t find your Soul-Mate, tune in and we will tell you where to look.

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. 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.

Hermetic Hour 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 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 Gnostic 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.