The Hermetic Hour

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.

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 February 5th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the recent Dan Brown novel "Inferno" and the the cult of Transhumanism that it seems to advocate. This is a highly controversial subject and deals with issues that are deeply challenging from a moral and ethical position. We will also go back to an earlier novel by H.G. Wells "Men like Gods" which deals with the same issues and projects a genetically perfected future utopia that seems to be the goal of the transhumanists. We will compare this form of human elitism with the process of Hermetic self development and ask ourselves which way we would rather follow to become "more than human?" So tune in and find out what's coming in the next 100 years.

On Thursday January 29th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion and review on a newly published collection of Old Testament pseudepigrapha (apocryphal works) edited by Bauckham, Davila and Panayotov from Erdmans. What makes this 800 page doorstopper of particular interest to us is "The Legend of Melchizedek" and Solomon's Hygromancy which is very similar to the medieval Greater Key of Solomon and may be a later version of the Key's original source. Poke will be joined by Biblical scholar Frater Solomon who first discovered this very interesting publication and brought it to our attention. So if you want to hear about some strange old magical manuscripts that have just come to light, tune in and we'll delve into this collection.

On Thursday December 26th 2019, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a review of the new shows we aired during 2019. These programs are all available for listening and download on our Hermetic Hour Blog Talk radio web site: > http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-hermetic-hour > so have your note book and pencil handy as you listen and jot down the ones you missed so you can catch up with us. And Merry Christmas, Happy New Year from Zandria and Thabion.

On Thursday January 22nd, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on Hermetic Magical Ethics. This will be somewhat controversial in that we will examine the ethical aspects of Hermetic philosophy in comparison to Christianity and other Gnostic variations including Crowley's Thelema and Golden Dawn Rosicrucianism. We will also question the merits of egalitarian collectivism compared to the American/Masonic work ethic and personal responsibility standards. We will review our newly adopted Code of Conduct for members of our magical lodges and explain some of the reasons for establishing these guidelines. So if you want to know how well-behaved and nice to each other magicians ought to be, tune in and we will give you our Golden Rules.