The Hermetic Hour

On Thursday May 12th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present an interview with British author Gordon White featuring his book "Star.Ships, a Prehistory of the Spirits." Gordon is a journalist, a magician, a scuba diver and a scholar of prehistoric archaeology. He and host Poke Runyon have both explored the lost city of Nan Madol above ground and underwater at different times. In the book Star.Ships Gordon focuses on the accumulating evidence of lost, sunken, and buried ruins from the antediluvian (Ice Age) period such as Gobekli Tepe and others along with genetic evidence of the migrations of early man to develop a remarkable thesis regarding our astrological mythology.  He proposes that the spirits of the stars, the zodiac, are antediluvian and that the rise of planetary gods and spirits are post diluvian -- with the end of the Ice Age (15 to 12,000 years ago) being the demarcation point. He will concede some extraterrestrial contact (Temple's Sirius Mystery) but prefers inter dimensional spiritual realms more in line with Jacques Valle and Carl Jung as the source of alien contact. Poke Runyon agrees with Gordon White on almost all of his points and heartily recommends Gordon's book. So if you want meet Gordon and spend an hour with us exploring this fascinating subject, tune in and we'll learn about the prehistory of the Spirits. Special thanks to Frater Isa for arranging this great show.

On Thursday April 28th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present the concluding chapterof the first volume of my Inner Plane fantasy novel Adamson's Quest, The Library of the Ages -- in which the Hero Enoch Adamson in his role as the Fool of the Tarot finally reaches his goal the Library of the Ages, which represents the Sphere of Hod at the upward terminis of the 31st Path on the Tree of Life. Here Adamson will meet his mentor and sponsor Hermes Trismegistus and receive the answers to his questions from a council of sages including Jesus and Mary Magdalene and even Nicolo Machievelli at a dinner party which is modeled on Steve Allen's "Meeting of the Minds" format. This novel was begun in 1973 when we first began to develop our Qabalistic Path Working program. So if you want to sit in on an Inner Plane esoteric council meeting join us and be enlightened.

On Thursday April 21st, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will discuss his Magical Inner Plane novel Admson's Quest and offer a dramatic reading of Chapter Eleven. This fictional journey up the paths of the Tree of Life was begun back in 1979 in the old pamphlet style Seventh Ray and has been continued in the new journal version of T7R since 1999. The final installment Chapter Twelve is in the works and should be ready by next week. We did a show on Adamson four years ago that is still available in the archives for those who wish more background on the story. Adamson's experiences reflect the anxieties of the times (late 1970s) he tries to overcome psychosomatic illnesses, psychological neurosis, Freudian complexes, Jungian archetypes and Qabalistic paradoxes, while dressed as the Fool in the Tarot, more recently he deals with contemporary problems: reptilian illuminati, pollution, invasion of privacy, social engineering, virtual reality and military-industrial corruption. So, if you want to join the 2084 Army's virtual reality nano-tank corps and battle giant mole-crickets (Mike Charlies) in the non-whitehouse lawn then tune in and let's roll!

On Thursday April 7th, the Hermetic Hour's host Poke Runyon will be joined by V.H. Frater Heracles for a discussion about the application of Traditional shamanic drumming techniques to Hermetic Magick. We will also review and discuss Michael Harner's latest book "Cave and Cosmos" in relation to the O.T.A.'s Qabalah, Solomonic ceremonial evocation, Initiations, pathworkings and Hermetic Yoga. Michael Harner is the founder and leader of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies. He is universally recognized as the foremost authority and most respected teacher on Shamanic philosophy, spirituality, and method. So if you would like to learn how to drum your way into the lower, middle and upper worlds, then tune in and pick up the beat (180-220 per minute).

On Thursday March 31st, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a review of John Michael Greer's new translation from the Latin version of "De Imaginibus of Thabit Ibn Qurra" titled "Astral High Magic". This book replaces an earlier publication translated by Christopher Warnock in the Renaissance Astrology list. De Imaginibus is the technical side of Sabian elective astrology. How to make talismans. Thabit Ibn Qurra was the most famous of the Harranian astrological magicians. We will also discuss the Sabian planetary magick and hermetic affiliations. The surviving Mandanean cult claims to be preserving their traditions along with works attributed to John the Baptist. We were first on the scene with Sabian lore in our 1999 Book One, of the Seventh Ray (the Blue Ray) with our translation, from the German version of the Arabic original, of the Sabian planetary rituals from Picatrix. So if you want to know how to keep scorpions out of your house, among other things, tune in and we'll see how the Magi do it.

On Thursday March 17th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion and book reviews on Magick in Colonial America. Frater Thabion (Poke) will deal with H.P. Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" a novel of necromantic alchemy set in Colonial Providence Rhode Island.Lovecraft's occult source material will be Poke's main focus. Our guest Frater Phergoph from The Valley Forge Encampment in Pennsylvania will discuss Daniel Harms "The Long Lost Friend" a new translation of a Pennsylvania Dutch grimoire from the Colonial period. This should be a fun evening for you East Coast witches and warlocks.

On Thursday March 10th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon and Guests Lady Jo Carson of Feraferia and Lady Ann Finnin of the Roebuck, will have a discussion on "Fairy Magick". We will recall the classics in this field such as "The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries," Evans-Wentz,(1911) "The Faerie Queen" by Edmund Spencer (1590) and more recently Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Sussana Clarke (2004) Lady Jo will mention other recent books in the field, including one she is working on involving Fred Adams extrapolations from Robert Graves' Celtic "Tree Alphabet" from "The White Goddess" (1946) which should be a veritable Qabalah of fairyland. Lady Ann will mention the Roebuck's connections to Celtic fairy lore. I will delve into "The Book of Oberon" (2015) a translation of an Elizabethan 16th century magical compendium mixing Solomonic and fairy lore in a compendium similar to the Lemegeton - and including Lemegeton material. So let's all spend an hour under the hill with the changelings and the little people -- and remember what the old cunning man said: "Aye! You can see them if they want you to." He also asked: "What is your name? What is your quest? What is your favorite color?"

On Thursday March 3rd, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will have as a special guest occultist and author Ann Finnin who will discuss her latest book, a romance novel with an occult theme called "The Dear Departed".In this case the title tells the story: A Victorian age romance novel dealing with spiritualism. Ann informs us that the story is told in Dion Fortune's style and the hero is a roguish Hermetic magician aiding the prim Victorian heroine against a Svengali-like spiritualist. cult leader. Ann Finnin is also the author of The Sorcerer of Saint Felice, a novel of magick and alchemy in medieval France. Ann is the High Priestess of the Roebuck a Celtic Wicca tradition. She is a certified hypnotist, an accomplished astrologer and a talented harpist. She can be seen officiating as priestess in our Rites of Magick video, and as The Enochian speaking Christian charismatic in Beyond Lemuria. So, join us for an hour with Ann Finnin and The Dear Departed.

On Thursday February 25th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a reading and commentary on a chapter, by Fraters Thabion and Solomon, from the forthcoming book Hermetic Yoga, Beyond the Middle Pillar, Vol. 2, titled Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the Holy Grail. This will trace the story from Bethlehem to Camelot with some remarkable surprises, such as Jesus was the grandson of King Herod the Great, Jehovah was not his Father in Heaven, that he believed in equality for women, and tolerance for the Gentiles. That he married a Phoenician princess and sought to unite all Israel under the original Most High God EL That his cousin Herod Antipas bribed Pontius Pilate to have him executed, and that Mary Magdalene barely managed to escape with their son to Southern France where they founded the Cult and the lineage of the Sangreal -- Its all documented with the latest discoveries from ancient archives, so tune in and we'll go beyond The D'Vinci Code.

On Thursday February 4th, 2016 The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the fascinating military and occult career of Lt.Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863-1942) the conqueror of Tibet (1904) and the author of several books on travel, adventure and mystical philosophy. Colonel Younghusband was an officer in British Special forces in India during a cold war between the British and the Russians for control of the Central Asian highlands north of India in the latter days of the 19th century. Their covert conflict was called "The Great Game" and was the stage for high adventure. Rudyard Kipling novelized "The Great Game" in Kim. In 1904 Lord Curson the Viceroy of India sent Colonel Younghusband up into Tibet with an invading British army to flush out the Russians whom Curson was convinced had infiltrated the mysterious country. After slaughtering the primitive Tibetan army, Younghusband took Lhasa but could not find a single Cossack, or even a Russian rifle, However he did stay long enough to have a mystical experience that transformed him from a ruthless conqueror into a peaceful mystical philosopher. He retired to England to write books about his adventures and his visions, which included life on other planets, a philosophy of free love, a spiritual drama society and an expedition to climb Mt. Everest. -- If you want to spend an hour with the Colonel, tune in and we'll hit the trail going up.