The Hermetic Hour

On Thursday August 3rd, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with co-hosts Poke Runyon and Lady Jo Carson of Feraferia will discuss the Fifty year Anniversary celebration of America's premier Goddess worshiping, nature oriented Neopagan religion founded by Artist-Philosopher Frederick Adams in 1967 here in Southern California. Lady Jo will direct a Feraferian Lammas ceremony here at Rivendell this coming Saturday evening. Poke and Jo will discuss the history of Feraferia and reminisce about Fred and his remarkable priestess Lady Svetlana. For those of you who missed the magical 60s and 70s here in So Cal tune in and we'll try to recapture some of the glamor and for those who do remember, we'll probably see you on Saturday evening, Evoe Kore!

On Thursday July 20th,2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present the dramatic conclusion of Shamgar, the Purple Dragon by Poke Runyon. The first part of this Biblical adventure was aired on September 4th, 2014's Hermetic Hour and has remained unfinished until the original manuscript was rediscovered. Now we can complete this Cecil B. DeMillish Biblical epic from the Book of Judges. Shamgar's saga recounts how a Phoenician Pirate who claimed to be descended from Pagan Gods, becomes a Judge of Israel and battles the Philistines, slaying them with an ox goad years before Samson used the jawbone of ass. Shamgar almost becomes Israel's first King but his magical ox goad is passed down to a future contender at the beginning of the common era. So if you want to enjoy the Old Testament from a Canaanite perspective, tune in and join us as Shamgar rides again.

On Thursday July 6th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the making and use of Masks, for magicians taking the roles of Gods and Goddesses in Seasonal Ceremonies. Our guest for this discussion will be Frater Isa Magister of the Ubar Hermitage in Dallas, Texas, who has been making and using masks in ceremonies for some time. Following this discussion we will be joined by our second guest Bryan Dini, The Purple Man, and head of the iconoclastic Purple Party (a sort of traveling Burning Man show) who staged a dramatic street version of Blake's America Prophecy which can be viewed on the internet. So, if you want to celebrate the 4th two days late, join us and  we'll do Blake and hang out the Gadston Flag.

On Thursday June 29th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will  present a symposium on the topic of Assumption of God and Goddess Forms  in magical ceremonies. Call in guests will include Frater Heracles John  Sheffield whose new rituals and articles suggested the topic, Soror  Urania Ann Finnin whose Celtic Church, the Roebuck, has been doing these  operations for years, and Soror Ariel Jo Carson of Feraferia who will be  presenting a Lammas Rite at Rivendell in August, so if you would like to attend                                                                                                       this meeting of the minds on the subject of being God and Goddess-like,                                                                                                            tune in and we shall bring the heavens down to Earth.

As most of our active and Associate Members know we are mainly focused on Solomonic Ceremonial magick, but we also use the Aethyr System from Dee and Kelly’s Enochian corpus, which provides us with an operative alternative when the Moon is not well aspected for Goetia. The Aethyr System, originally called “Terrestrial Victory” and was a thirty-level sphereical model of the Universe with the Earth in its center and the Aeythrs or Heavens (Gnostic Aeons originally) surrounding and expanding from the terrestrial center like the layers of an onion with the lowest as number 30 TEX rising on up to LIL as number one enclosing the outer limit of the circular universe. All of these levels are related to the Four Elemental Tablets, called The Watchtowers which relate to the celestial sphere and are positioned around the magic circle. Each of these Aethyrs have angelic governors whose sigils are outlined on the tablets. This is derived from Kamea Magic. The Aethyrs themselves derive from Valentinian Gnosticism, and the Book of Revelation The Magicians who explore these astral realms will activate the tablets, with Enochian Calls, and then scry into an orb on the altar within the magic circle. You can see this in our introductory video “The Rites of Magick.” We have discussed this on the Hermetic hour before but tonight we are going to go much deeper into the mysteries and paradoxes of this powerful system of magic. So, if you want to learn how to open Pinhead’s (Choronzon’s) Box tune in and chant with us: Zacar od Zamran!

On Thursday June 1st, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon, will present a discussion on the current magical phenomenon of "Pepe the Frog." Pepe is a meme (an iconic symbol like the smiley face) which was taken over by anti-progressive political forces during the last presidential campaign. Originally created as a Pogo type character in a counter-culture comic book, Pepe escaped into public domain and was used on the internet as a humorous joke platform until he was captured by the Donald Trump supporters in the Fall of 2016. Since then Pepe has developed a mythology (ancient Egyptian frog God Kek) and a philosophy of Primordial Chaos, or Anarchy, a Nation of his own "Kekistan" with a history and a world wide diaspora much like Judaism, with a national anthem: "Shadilay," and a green and black flag that looks like it came off of a Nazi U-Boat.  The magick behind Pepe's turn to the Right came from Cornelius Agrippa's "Natural Magic" (Duck powder creates frogs) and was implemented by Hillary Clinton when she ordered adult sized Donald Duck costumes to be fabricated and then sent her Ducks out against Donald Trump. Trump retaliated by capturing Pepe and adding the frog to his own crew of "Deplorables" (again using one of Hillary's creations against her) She confirmed Pepe's transformation into a "right wing bigot" on national television and even though Pepe's cartoonist creator killed him off, millions of devout Kekistanis throughout the world wide web would let him not let him die. Poke will be joined tonight by deep internet-lurker Frater SithMeth as we delve into the magical mysteries of Pepe the Frog.

On Thursday May 18th, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will  review and discuss "Astral Dynamics" (2009) by Robert Bruce. Robert  Bruce is an Australian writer not to be confused with the Scottish  "Robert the Bruce". In Astral Dynamics Bruce has delivered what may well  be the best practical manual on Astral Projection (OBEs and similar  phenomenon) since Ophiel's "The Art and Practice of Astral Projection"  (1961). Of course I must admit that I have a special interest in this  book because Bruce describes, validates and teaches methods and  techniques that we use in our magical instructions and training. His  description of the chakras (psychic centers) is virtually in-line with  our Western Middle Pillar system and his Third Eye projection is very  much like ours. He describes projecting into paintings and projecting  from Lucid Dreaming states. His energy work techniques are very  Bardonian and his description of the Astral Planes is in line with our  experiences. All considered this is a great book and we highly recommend  it. So Turn on, tune in and pop-out!

On Thursday May 11th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review "Lucifer Princeps" (2015) by Peter Grey.  This book is quite different in style from its predecessor "The Red Goddess" which, although well-researched, explored the background and origins of Aleister Crowley's "Babalon" in a popular style. Lucifer Princeps however is a scholarly work and might even be an academic dissertation or thesis edited for the lay reader. Being an academic work it suffers from the assumption that the reader is familiar with the material that the writer is working from. Fortunately this corpus is mostly Biblical and Apocryphal but he cross references other mythologies. Nevertheless the book is a wonderful resource and a great contribution to the Western Esoteric Tradition. He starts with Isaiah's lament and curse as the beginning of the Lucifer's Fall from Heaven story. This sets the stage for a parade of sources from ancient Summerian and Canaanite mythology. We learn about the first ascent to Heaven by the Summerian king Etana, and then the Canaanite god Athar who tries to sit on Baal's throne. We learn that the Yahwehists hated the pagan gods of the heavens and that the War in Heaven was actually Yahweh against El and the Elohim. Lucifer is finally revealed as our old friend Semyaza (Semhaza), the leader of the 200 Fallen Angels from the original Book of Enoch. The author concludes his work by offering us a mini-grimoire of Semhaza and his 20 officers, leaving us the job of obtaining their sigils -- which we will certainly do. So if you want get a head start on this project, tune in and give a listen.

On Thursday May 4th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will  review and discuss "The Red Goddess" (2007) and "Lucifer Princeps"  (2015) by Thelemic magician Peter Grey. The Red Goddess is devoted to  establishing the history and mistique of the Thelemic composite pagan  goddess "Babalon", which he correctly derives from Ishtar and Astarte.  This evolution is for the most part well-researched and well reasoned  from a Thelemic perspective, although Grey is critical of Crowley and  seems to think that Babalon is too good for the Beast. Most importantly  he supports the Divine feminine in magical religion. In "Lucifer  Princeps" he does the same for Lucifer on the male side of the magical  religious pantheon. In this case he works from Isaiah back to the Book  of Enoch, correctly concluding that Lucifer was originally Semyaza and  of Canaanite origin. With the exception of his interest in Simon Magus  Grey seems to ignore the early Christian Gnostic contributions to Magick  but his books are nonetheless readable and thought provoking -- so tune  in and we shall look at our magical history through a glass darkly.

On Thursday April 2Oth, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon  will continue to review and discuss the modern English (2004)  translation of Otto Rahn's 1937 Lucifer's Court. This was Rahn's travel  journal from Southern France to Iceland when he researched his personal  quest to solve the mystery of the Holy Grail as described in the  Medieval romance Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach. Rahn believed that  the Medieval Cathars -- the Gnostic Heretics who were wiped out by the  Roman Catholic Albigensian Crusade in the 1300s, were the keepers of the  Grail. In this instalment we will get into the possible Persian  Manichean origin of Parzival (Aryan of course) and Rhan's fascination  with Hercules and the Argonauts legends (also Aryan) We will also  discuss Nigel Graddon's 2008 Bio on Rahn and his rundown on all of our  favorite Nazi Spook Books influenced by Rahn's quest. So tune in and we  will follow the shadow of the swastika from Southern France to Tibet and  back again.