The Hermetic Hour

On Thursday May 2nd, 2018 The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present the official Vision and Mission Statement of the Church of the Hermetic Sciences and its fraternal order, the Order of the Temple of Astarte. This is the same document that is in our training manual and delivered to new initiates when they begin training. It gives our history, our philosophy, our traditional initiatory system, our accomplishments, our special programs: yoga, visualization, ceremonial magick, alchemy, divination, soul-travel and celestial qabalah. As a bonus feature we will discuss the mystery of the Pagan Communion Set and the mysterious magical alphabet inscribed thereon. We will direct you to our website where you can see it and perhaps help us solve the mystery. So join us and get magical.

On Thursday June 12th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on ancient and modern Multiverse concepts in relation to Hermetic Magick, the Qabalah, astrology and Fortean phenomenon. We will examine philosophical. scientific, literary and cinematic models of the Multiverse, sometimes called the "Holographic Universe" or "Parallel Worlds." We will trace the idea through the "nesting spheres" of the geocentric age, to the heliocentric Renaissance, the invention of the telescope and the discovery of other galaxies and anti-matter, both in terms of science and the pages of science fiction. Our references will be Mary-Jane Rubenstein's "Worlds Without End," Michio Kaku's "Parallel Worlds," the science fiction of Phillip K. Dick, and Richard S. Shaver, and films such as "The Matrix," "Dark City," and "Lost Highway." Our challenge will be to reconcile ancient Hermetic philosophy with the Multiverse concept --- so, if you want to go through the looking glass or down the rabbit hole, tune in and we will tour the endless "nows" of the Simultane.

On Thursday April 18th, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will air a discussion on the future impact of Artificial Intelligence on human creativity and individual expression. Will it serve us or will it dominate us? We will start with a recent article in the L.A. Times April 16th: "That Computer can call my Agent" which deals with A.I.s writing screenplays. We will look back at Asimov's "Foundation." We will visit "Drell Master" (2001) and its World dominating computer "Jaskamoor" and finally the final chapter of "Adamson's Quest" for the Hermetic perspective. So if you wonder whether they will serve us, or we will serve them. Tune in and make up your mind (before they make it up for you!)

On Thursday April 11th, 2019, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will invite V.H. Frater SithMeth to discuss his recent expedition to Pluto's Cave north of Mt. Shasta. This is the same Lava-tube cavern complex that we used as a location in our 2007 science-fiction film BEYOND LEMURIA. It is considered a spiritual location and has been used for Shamanic visionary retreats. It has also been connected with the legend of J.C. Brown's  lost Lemurian treasure. We discussed the Cave on our broadcast "Mystical Mt. Shasta" in January, 13th. 2011. Which you can still access. So, join us as we once more enter the underworld and share mystic experiences.

On Thursday, June 6th, 2014 The Hermetic Hour will present a reading by Poke Runyon (Fra. Thabion) of his 1976 essay "Negative vs. Positive Gnosis" from Gnostica magazine, no. 40. This is an important instructive paper dealing with the ancient and modern spiritual differences between Thelemic (libertine) Gnosticism, Hermetic neo-Platonism and ancient and modern Paganism (wiccans, druids, etc.) These differences are so deep and so misunderstood that many New-Agers involved in the Occult do not know what they profess to believe in. They participate in various groups simply because they are attracted to the style and glamor of the organization and because it provides a rebellion against the religion of the parents. The article explains the fundamental differences between  Gnosticism of the negative world view and Hermetic magick of the positive world view, comparing them to the Pagan and neo-Pagan "natural" world view. You will discover how similar Thelemic Gnosticism is to the Fundamental Christianity it rebels against, and how similar Hermetic magick is to Tantric Buddhism. This paper will be reprinted in text form and posted as an instruction on our web site. So tune in and become transcendentally demystified.

On Thursday May 28th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review the 2008 book "The Music of Pythagoras" by musicologist Kitty Ferguson. This is a wonderfully erudite and deeply meaningful book on the accomplishments, and lasting influence of the most important of the pre-Socratean philosophers, and perhaps the most important ancient avatar of the Western Esoteric Tradition. As a musicologist Ferguson is able to fully expound on the master's development of "The Music of the Spheres" from mythical Orpheus through Kepler to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (we can all whistle that one). The Pythagorean harmonious universe of music, mathematics, and geometry has been re-validated in modern times with the advent of new theories in quantum physics. It was, of course, the bed rock of Qabalah, Alchemy and Magick. We will demonstrate some applications of the Pythagorean magical scale used to activate psychic centers (chakras) and discuss the employment of these techniques in magical operations. So tune in, tune up and we'll sing along with the planets.

On Thursday March 21st, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the various traditions of the Underworld from the mythologies, religions and folklore of cultures around the world with our guest Very Honored Frater Solomon. Michael Johnson (Frater Solomon) is a Bible scholar with a background in Social Science. Mike has compiled maps of the underworld which locate the Hells of the major religions. Your host (Frater Thabion) will join in with references to Kenneth Grant’s “Tunnels of Set”, Shaver’s dero caverns, the underground kingdom of Agartha and the Shamanic under and over worlds and the proto-psychological Kabbalistic metaphore of The Nepesh, the Nechamah, and the Ruach. So if you want to take the E-ticket ride through the Great Fun house below the horizon, tune in and we’ll go below.

On Thursday May 22nd, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a review on a very important recent book on the Hermetic Tradition by Dutch author Jacob Slavenburg titled: "The Hermetic Link." Reviewing this book will be a team effort between the host and our esteemed guest Frater Ophis (Freeman Presson) who beat us to the punch and reviewed Slavenburg's book on his website two years ago. How did we miss it? No excuse because it should not have been missed. Certainly there have been other surveys of the Hermetic Tradition, usually combined with other related elements such as Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, magick, etc. but this is the best and most complete tracing of the great Hermetic Gnosis from ancient Egypt, through Alexandria, Harran, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the so-called "Enlightenment" and the present modern age. Slavenburg takes us from Zosimus to the Kybalion in a sympathetic, very thoughtful and comfortably philosophical style. He quotes Peter Kingsley ("Reality") frequently and does as good a job as Kingsley in getting across the deepest meaning of the Hermetic Mystery (the Great I AM) - perhaps he does it better in that he uses excerpts from Hermes to reveal the treasure we ardent Hermetic devotees hold so dear, whereas Kingsley in Reality depended on pre-Hermetic Parmenides and Empedocles. If all this is Greek to you, it shouldn't be and Slavenburg goes a long way toward establishing the true and enduring magnificence of our venerable Tradition. Tune in and get yourself Hermetically sealed. (Preserved for the next incarnation.)

On Thursday March 7th, 2019 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and comment on the 1948 science fiction novel by Stuart J. Byrne “Prometheus ll” recently republished by Armchair Fiction. This remarkable work, like so many early science fiction efforts was set in a future time, in this case 1970, and predicted a Third World War between the United States, its traditional allies and post Soviet Russia. Of course Russia did not become post soviet until the 1990s, but the Russian leader in Byrne’s novel seems and acts a lot like Putin. In this story the Russians are allied with China and they have conquered all of Latin America. They are on the verge of swarming our southern border. But their leader Nicholas (not Valdamir) has literally made a deal with the devil (the deros of the subterranean world) which has escalated World War lll into another dimension and brought in the forces of Agartha, the subterranean good guys and finally the Elder Gods (the original ancient astronauts) who arrive from hyperspace just in time to save the human race. Of course we have a pair of young Army officers and their sexy Army nurse girl friend, who team up with the underground good guys and Space Gods to help save America and humanity. It would have made a great Saturday Morning serial but at least it got its debut in Amazing Stories, March 1948.   So tune in and we’ll put it on old time radio for you.

On Thursday February 28th, 2019, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss "The Eighth Tower" by the late UFO investigator John A. Keel (1930-2009). He was most noted as author of "The Mothman Prophecies" (1975) and film (2002). Keel was more interested in monster sightings, like the mothman and big-foot than he was in UFOs but he believed that the two phenomenon were related and emanated from the same source. He was an ardent successor to Charles Fort "The Book of the Dammed" (1919) which was a collection of fantastic anomalies such as UFO sightings, monster sightings and other fantastic events such as rains of frogs and ghost ship sightings. Mostly newspaper clippings collected from the beginning of the industrial age to the First World War. Like Charles Fort, Keel was a journalist who continued the collection from the 1920s, through the UFO era. The Eighth Tower is a Fortean book but with an agenda that Fort was very cryptic about. What do all these strange things mean mean? Fort concluded that "We" humankind, "Are property." Keel expands on that. After continuing Fort's bizarre collection he brings in Carl Jung's Collective Unconscious, the world soul, universal mind and the Seven Demonic Towers of the Yazidis and postulates an Eight Tower that is a sort of empyrean Godforce over the rest. This is not an easy book to get through but it will take you down the rabbit hole, so join us for some Fortean adventuring.