The Hermetic Hour

On Thursday November 6th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will report on our visit to Austin Texas' Avalon Lodge and participation in the recent S.O.M.A. magical conference there along with initiations and our Mot Mass.  The next week we were off to visit Atlantis Lodge in Atlanta Georgia there to deliver a lecture at the Atlanta Masonic Center, do another Mot Mass (our Halloween cermony honoring our ancestors) and confer fourth degree Ordo Rosae Crucis initiations on our Texas and Georgia Lodge Masters. Very. Honored. Fraters Heracles Avalon and Osiris Atlantis will both be our call-in guests. Their hospitality in Texas and Georgia was wonderful and for V.H. Sor. Zandria and myself it was more like an extended vacation than a fraternal business trip although we all worked hard to make all these events successful and rewarding. Members came from all over the United States to help and participate. We thank you all and consider ourselves honored by your support. It was a magical adventure we will remember always, so if you want to catch up on our nation-wide progress be sure to tune in and be informed.

On Thursday October 16th the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present an advance review on his forthcoming book Hermetic Yoga Beyond the Middle Pillar this is a new offering from CHS/OTA that has been a long-time in the works. The yoga system described and brought to life in this book has been practiced by the O.T.A. since 1975 and is an extension of Israel Regardie's Golden Dawn Middle Pillar exercise following the Lightning flash going down the spheres from Kether to Malkuth forming a complete straight line chakra system similar to the Hidhu system of Laya Yoga, In this case the Spheres of the Tree of Life are the planets within. this system traces its origin to two German Rosicrucian mystics Jacob Bohme and Johann Gitchel. The late Frederick Adams of Feraferia was also working on a similar system and an essay of his is included Adams also provided the beautiful cover art depicting a Goddess in the stars. Also included is an essy by Frater Osiris (Michael S. Downs) linking Hermetic Yoga to The Chemical wedding of Christian Rosencrutz via Johann Gitchel' s spiral path of the planets in his natural man drawing which is one of the keys to the Hermetic Yoga conception. The book will be followed with a deck of Yoga cards which will enable the practitioner to carry the system in his pocket for meditation and study. This is going to be a great aid to magick and spiritual development and provides a vital resource that Western magicians have needed for centuries. Now we can call on the Gods within and exercise all of the powers that our oriental colleagues have called upon for centuries. So if you want to get a head start on the latest magical tools of empowerment tune in and we'll start warming up for the session.

On Thursday October 9th 2014 the hermetic hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the mysterious Naassene document featured in Hippolytus's influential refutation of all brassieres. Everybody loves a secret document especially if it is ancient and reveals secrets, and the good bishop Hippolytus had a real doozie in his purported Naassene Gnostic sermon, which forms chapter five of his marvelous refutation of all heresies which before Nag Hammadi yielded much of our knowledge of what the Gnostics were actually preaching. This Naassene Gnostic sect is according to the good bishop venerating the cosmic serpent hydra draco et all there are several. but they are mainly trying to do is equate the Christian passion and resurrection with a series of ancient dying gods from Osiris Persephone to Adonis Phoenician and Attis Anatolian and establish Jesus as the last of the year kings or green men of antiquity. Fortunately Hippolytus provides us with a full transcript of his copy like Beowulf his original has suffered rewrite by both Jewish and Christian editors in attempts like making Grendal a descendant of Cain to add Old testament prophecy and New Testament symbolism into the otherwise pagan dying god theme.The Naassene document has influenced many modern occult writers For us in the O.T.A. the main inspiration for our seasonal ceremonies besides the Ras Shamrah tablets was Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance (1920) which owes much to the Naassenes. So if you want to find out where the Holy Grail's first holy blood came from tune in and we'll open the old bishop's secret book.

On Thursday October 2nd, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on Princess Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils. which was actually the Phoenician version of Babylonian Ishtar's descent into the underworld to resurrect the Dying God; in her case Tammuz, in our case Ba'al Hadad We have used this obviously fact-based legend to reconstruct Anath's vanquishing the Lord of Death at Autumn Equinox to revive Prince Ba'al the rain and vegetation god of ancient Canaan. If you are wondering about where the head of John the Baptist comes into this, we will solve that mystery also. Our special guest for this program will be Frater Heracles of our Austin, Texas lodge who just presented a spectacular Festival of Seven Gates and will give us his first hand impressions of this revived ancient rite and how it is done in the 21st century. So, if you want to know where the Dance of the Seven Veils started -- and is still going -- tune in and chant: "Down and down the path we go, to the caverns far below!"

On Thursday September 25th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion of The Orphic Hymns which are the Western Esoteric Tradition's oldest liturgy. These hymns to the planets, the gods and goddesses, the stars and all aspects of ancient Greek mythology were used by the Orphic sect before the Golden Age of Greece, in the days of Pythagoras, to guide the dead souls on their spiritual journey up through the celestial spheres and into the realm of the zodiac and beyond. This was a special and separate aspect of Greek mysticism which had its influence on Pythagoras`, the Gnostics, the Mythraites, and the Italian Renaissance Hermetics. Most rectently Christopher Warnock has included the hymns in his "Planetary Magick." We will concentrate on the 18th century Thomas Taylor translation -- which we use -- and read a Robert Graves poem combining a number of Orphic memorials into a connected instruction which may have played some part in the Elusinian Mysteries. So. if you want to know what that strange stuff they sing to harp music accompaniment at the beginning of Seasonals, then tune in and we'll take you back three thousand years.

On Thursday September 18th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the career and contributions of Marcus the Valentinian (died 175 a.d.). Marcus was as much a Hermetic as he was a Gnostic Christian. The Church Fathers accused him of being more Pythagorean than Christian. He was the developer of the Soma Sophia system of celestial Greek qabalah which we have decoded and perfected (see The Seventh Ray, Book III ) and, according to Kiren Barry Marcus had an influence of the creation of the later Sepher Yetzirah. Marcus developed some of the basic concepts of what became the qabalah. Marcus was a Phonecian, influenced by the earlier Samaritan Simon Magus. Like Simon Marcus had a Priestess whom he venerated as an equal. He gave communion with his priestess by his side and turned water into wine at the altar. The early Church Fathers considered this blasphemous. Marcus's cult spread from the Middle East to Southern France in the days before Constantine force-reformed Christianity. So, if you want to explore the most ancient origins of what we call "The Western Tradition," then tune in and we will spend an hour with a man who may have been the first Rosicrucian.

On Thursday September 11th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review the new book "The Chemistry of Alchemy" by three chemists Cathy Cobb, Monty Fetterolf and Harold Godwhite. The authors are all chemists and chemistry teachers, but they have a fond affection for Alchemy and reveal the Art as their hobby. This is a one-of-a-kind book: an introduction to practical laboratory Alchemy through history from a scientific perspective so that the student learns what alchemical terms really mean ( for instance Mercury can mean any metal in liquid or molten form, and Sulfur is any sulfide) and what the old alchemists were trying to do and how they actually tried to do it -- and in some cases did it. The book is filled with fascinating experiments that the apprentice can try in his or her kitchen laboratory with the professional chemists' emphasis on safety and with safer substitutes for dangerous materials such as real mercury. They even have a recipe for making what some alchemists thought was The Philosopher's Stone. You will also learn how to make "alchemical gold" good enough to have gotten you buried alive or burned at the stake in the Middle Ages. Although the authors retain their scientific perspective they have profound respect for the genuine accomplishments of The Art and its venerable adepts. This book is a must-have for anyone who aspires to be a modern alchemist. -- So tune in and we will spend an hour in the laboratory with modern masters of the ancient Art.

On Thursday September 4th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on Shamgar, son of the Canaanite War Goddess Anath "who killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad and saved Israel "(over a hundred years before Samson) and became a Judge (ruler of all the tribes) of Israel. Shamgar's story is briefly told in the Biblical Book of Judges. Beyond that lies the realm of myth and legend in which it is suggested that Shamgar was a Phoenician pirate called "Tekheleth Tholi." The Purple Dragon based in Tyre and sent by King Abi Milki to aid the Israeites against the Philistines. He joins the host of the Hebrew Judge Ehud, and marries his daughter Jael, who eventually tries to kill him. His ox goad is said to have been a magical weapon forged by the blacksmith Tubal Cain. The legend is perpetuated in the Gnostic Christian tradition of Marcus from whom we get the Greek Qabalah. Shamgar's exploits should be considered symbolic rather than historic, like the story of Hiram Abiff in Masonry or the Labors of Hercules in Phoenician and Greek astrological lore. If you want to return to the days when Gods and Giants walked the earth, tune in and we'll evoke the shade of Shamgar.

On Thursday August 28th, 2014 at 8:00 p.m. the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present an interview with one of the New Age's most enchanting and inspiring spiritual personalities Maitreya McClendon Wexler. Maitreya was a famous model on the fashion scene, cover girl and glamorous diva who married a man of great power and influence in the entertainment industry. With the resources to support her world-wide quest for spiritual truth from a feminist perspective she traveled from the Far East to the Amazon seeking the wisdom of the masters to support her vision of the Divine Feminine -- not the feminine of the anti-female feminists here at home, but the true power and beauty of the Eternal Female archetype. Those of us involved with Feraferia can easily understand this and will relate to Maitreya's vision of the Goddess. She has collected a marvelous film record of her spiritual adventures which we can view, and has written and published several books on her vision. She has established resource centers where like-minded and hearted souls can come together to study and meditate with her. So, if you would like to meet her and share an hour with her discussing her experiences and her offerings to us, tune in and be enchanted.

On Thursday August 21st, 2014 at 8:00 p.m. Pacific time the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the historical development of "cultism" in esoteric societies, staring with Baron von Hund's Masonic Strict Observance in the mid 1700s, which in turn influenced Wisehaupt's Illuminati, Blavatsky's Theosophy and even The Golden Dawn with their "Secret Chiefs" and more modern groups we will tactfully leave unmentioned.This is an important issue because the paradigm that began with Strict Observance and was adapted by Blavatsky has since been applied to any esoteric group that has an initiatory structure. So if you want to find out what was and what is behind esoteric cultism, tune in and we will lift the veil.