The Hermetic Hour

On Thursday December Seventh, 2017 on the 77th Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a report on the conditions and events that led up to the "Day of Infamy". This report will be based largely on information from Nicholson Baker's 2008 book "Human Smoke, The Beginnings of World War Two, the End of Civilization." We will trace the Pearl Harbor story from 1934 to 1941. Revealing beyond any doubt that Washington knew the attack was coming, where and even when. The attack was used to get us into World War Two and lay the foundation for an American socialist dictatorship, on the European model, empowered by a military-industrial complex which has ruled in Washington ever since the end of the war in 1945. Pearl Harbor was our first great disillusionment, followed by the Kennedy Assassination, the Viet Nam war and 9 -11. We need to look back at ourselves and examine the evil that has crept into our Republic under the mantle of what is called "Democracy."

This is the Hermetic Hour for November 30th, 2017. I'm your host Poke Runyon and tonight I'm again channeling the spirit of Howard Beale. In March of 2017 we reviewed Paddy Chayefsky’s 1976 film classic NETWORK on the Hermetic Hour. I gave my own dramatic reading of Ned Beatty’s speech in which he converted news caster Howard Beale from a critic of incipient Globalism and its mass media brain-washing propaganda machine into an advocate of The New World Order. Of course Beale’s ratings tanked and the Network had their left-wing terrorist group kill him right on camera. I was certain that even before Howard’s mythical spirit passed the Pearly Gates he would have realized that his original vision was the True perception of International political-economic and social corruption. I imagined him looking down on us from heaven – a sort of Ascended Master if you will, who would watch over us and perhaps communicate with us again. “The Mad Prophet of the Astral Plane.”

On November 2nd, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the Biblical mystery man Melchizedek who appears in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and later in the New Testament. Melchizedek literally means King and Priest or Priest-King. He was said to have given the first communion to Abraham in the days before Joseph became a leader in Egypt. Although legendary he was said to have established an order of priesthood to rival that of Moses brother Aaron. He represented the original Canaanite god El ("the most High God") whereas Aaron's priesthood was that of Moses' Jehovah (Yahweh). After the Babylonian captivity Ezra attempted to overwrite all references to El in the Bible and make Jehovah the supreme being. The New testament declares twice that Jesus the Nazareen is a priest after the Order of Melchizedek -- We will look at this in relation to the Egyptian and Phoenician situation at the time and later Gnostic Christian writings. So if you want to do some Biblical detective work tune in and we'll solve the mystery.

On Thursday October 26th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a preview of our annual Dark Mother of All Halloween Parties and the infamous Mot Mass -- A symbolic journey to the underworld where the Canaanite Dark Lord Mot, the original Grim Reaper, challenges each celebrant with: "What say you to honor the Dead." and then bids them drink from the Cup of Souls. We began holding this event here at Rivendell in 2004 and finally formalized the ritual in 2010. Incorporating the Orphic hymn to Death and Lord Byron's "Lines Inscribed upon a Cup formed from a Skull." Last year we culminated the rite with the summoning of the spirit of King Solomon. Mot evoked our ancient avatar Solomon and V.H. Frater Solomon received the spirit and channeled a remarkable oracle. This year we will call up the spirit of Melchizedek. Halloween has become one of America's favorite holidays, but like Christmas, we often forget to celebrate its true meaning. At the culmination of the rite Mot pours the dregs of the skull cup into the earth with these parting words: "A libation to those remembered this night. And, as you return to the realm of Light. Pray to be honored by those you knew - when this cup is passed for you!"

On Thursday October 12th the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon and special guest Frater Soun of Ubar will discuss the mythical Labours of Hercules in relation to the Hermetic tradition. We will develop the background of the myth evolving from Babylon's Gilgamesh through Melqart of Phoenician Tyre into the ancient Greek hero myth so often seen in films and television. We will look at works by Manley Hall, Albert Pike, Robert Graves , Alice Bailey and especially the French author Charles Francois Dupuis (1742-1809) who seems to be the only scholar who has sequenced the twelve labours in proper Zodiacal order. The labours of Hercules are a chart of the souls journey through a cycle of lifetimes. They represent the great wheel of birth and death and are considered one of the Keys to the mysteries. So If you want to follow the big guy with the lion skin and the club tune in and we'll go adventuring.

On Thursday October 5th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon joined by Frater Soun, Magister of Ubar Lodge in Dallas, will air a discussion on the evolution of the the Solar Hero in mythology from the Sumerian Gilgamesh who was the model for the Phoenician Melqart, who in turn inspired the Greek Heracles. Gilgamesh is a four thousand year old epic adventure story which circulated throughout the whole Middle East with copies found among the Hittites and the Canaanites. Even as Ishtar and Tammuz were translated into Astarte and Ba'al, and subsequently became Aphrodite and Adonis. Gilgamesh like Hercules slays a lion, a bull, a giant and many-headed monster. His victories and Hercules' labours are seen as representing the sun's yearly progress through the signs of the Zodiac. So tune in and we'll go back to the  days of myth and legend and make our way through "The Circle of the Beasts" as the Zodiac was originally called.

On Thursday September 7th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a follow-up to our previous review of "Sekret Machines" (2017) by Tom DeLonge and A.J. Hartley. In this program we will look at their major source work: "Insiders Reveal Secret Space Programs & Extraterrestrial Alliances" (2015) by Michael E. Salla, Ph.D. and his (2017) sequal "The U.S. Navy Secret Space Program & Nordic Extraterrestrial Alliance." These books and the plot of Sekret Machines are primarily based on the revelations of the age regressed whistle blower Corey Goode and other former U.S. Navy and Air Force operatives in a parallel secret advanced Space Program with alleged bases on the Moon and Mars. We will also examine Tom DeLonge and Peter Lavenda's (2017) book "Gods, Man and War" which establishes the historical and anthropological validity of the Ancient Alien and UFO connection without evoking secret space program conspiracies. So if you want to return to the absolute elsewhere for another hour, tune-in and we will have both a critical and a sympathetic look at this phenomenon.

On Thursday August 31st the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a review of the recent best selling novel: "Sekret Machines - Chasing Shadows" by Tom DeLonge and A.J. Hartley. This book purports to be The Truth about "The Phenomenon" (UFOs, Ancient Aliens, the Nazi Bell et allia) presented as fiction. It is very effective as a Dean Koontz-Dan Brown style multiple-viewpoint thriller. Readers will at first believe that this is a novelized version of the "X-Files" t.v. series but the final chapter proves that the 1940s Shaver Mystery by Raymond A. Palmer and Richard S. Shaver was the real inspiration for this project. We do not say this to discredit Sekret Machines but rather to recommend it. So if you want to spend an hour in the Absolute Elsewhere, tune in and we will take the elevator down to the "deep utilities" and visit with the Deros who run The New World Order.

On Thursday August 17th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon is honored to present a review and discussion on the new book of magical fiction "Stories of Magic and Enchantment" by William Mistele, with the author as our guest. This book is handsomely published by Falcon Books, a new publisher in the field. As regular listeners will recall, we have supported Bill Mistele from the beginning of his writing and publishing career, having had him on as a guest with his first book "Undines" (2010.) This was followed by "Mermaids, Sylphs, Gnomes, and Salamanders" in 2012. As you might suppose Bill is very much into Franz Bardon's Hermetic Elemental personifications. He writes from a deep empathy for sacred nature and its spirits, encountering them in human form as magicians often do. He favors the feminine spiritual perspective. His stories are remarkably free from the usual horror and conflict we associate with supernatural fiction. We might say they are totally opposite to Lovecraft, while being lovingly crafted. Bill has a degree in philosophy and has spent years studying and meditating with Buddhist and Taoist teachers. He finally devoted himself to the Bardonian system of magic and has more books in the works. So, if you would like to meet a true magical maestro and learn about his visionary work, tune in and be enchanted.

On Thursday August 10th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with co-hosts Poke Runyon and Lady Jo Carson of Feraferia will recap last week's wonderful Feraferian power weekend at Rivendell. It began on Thursday evening with our previous broadcast of the Hermetic Hour then Friday evening we did advanced Feraferia initiations at Rivendell Henge and Temple for five candidates, this was followed by the Lammas (lughnasad) ceremony in the henge in which we invoked the Goddess Aphrodite for over thirty-five O.T.A. and Feraferian members and their guests. Some came from as far away as North Carolina to attend along with Feraferian and O.T.A. elders from the early days in the 1960s and 70s. This was a wonderful reunion and reconnection with the old and new. Rivendell seemed the perfect local for such a happy event. And we are already planning a Beltane here next May. Once again Lady Jo Carson, President of Feraferia will be our guest host as we recap our adventure and discuss what we have planned in the future. So, tune in join us ( we have the echo problem corrected so the sound is fine now) Hear us on Thursday, Evoe Kore! Good Magick!