The Hermetic Hour

The Hermetic Hour for Thursday December 8th, 2011 will purify the air after our Necronomicon show with a discussion on the Golden Dawn and Regardie's Middle Pillar ritual. We will trace its origin back to Felkin's Stella Matutina  (second generation Golden Dawn) in the early 1920s, then Regardie's expanded meditational version published in 1932. We'll mention the 1991 edited version compared to the original. We will compare this Sphere based system to Paul Case's chakra system based on the Golden Dawn's Path attributes. The Middle Pillar was the inspiration for our 1970s' Hermetic Caduceus, the fully developed Sephirotic chakra system based on "The Lightning Flash" upon the Tree of Life -- so tune in and let's bring down The Light.

Following our show on Chaos Magick, The Hermetic Hour for Thursday December 1st, 2011, with host Poke Runyon, will feature a discussion on the writings of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and their influence on modern magick, especially that of the Kenneth Grant, and Chaos Magick traditions. We will summarize the "Cathulu Mythos" and the history of the fabulous "Necronomicon." Although both are essentially fiction, we will discuss Lovecraft's dream recall method, and the idea, purposed by Kenneth Grant, that Lovecraft actually created  what must now be considered a genuine mythology. Lovecraft's demons, loved and feared by millions, have become as real as those of the Goetia -- at least in the subjective realm of magick. We will recount some humorous episodes involving Necronomicon fabrications, and we will read from the most complete text of the Mad Arab's hellish book, the alleged "John Dee Translation."  So, tune in and shudder at the blasphemous ravings of Abdul Al Hazred.

The Friday following Thanksgiving, November 25th, 2011 -- on a Solar Eclipse -- the Hermetic Hour, with host Poke Runyon, will explore the history, the philosophy and the methods of Chaos Magic(k). Our special guest will be Maestro Andrieh Vitimus, author of "Hands-On Chaos Magic"  from Llewellyn Publications. We will trance the origins of the Chaos tradition from Crowley, through Austin Spare, Kenneth Grant, and Peter Carroll, who formally launched the modern Chaos tradition with his classic "Liber Null." Without making value judgments we will try to define what the Chaos system offers in comparison to more traditional forms of magick. We will discuss its relation to Thelema, shamanism, yoga and astrology. We'll discuss the use of nuerolinguistics, and Freudian psychology in comparison to the Jungian orientation in modern Hermetics. The unique sigil and talisman techniques will be mentioned, and the influence of Bardon, Crowley, Grant and Lovecraft will be discussed. So, if you want to learn what the Chaos I

On Thursday, November 17th, 2011 the Hermetic Hour, with host poke Runyon, will present a discussion on the relationship of the Hermetic Tradition with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This topic was suggested by one of our listeners who wanted to know "Where does Jesus fit in the Hermetic scheme of things?" A very good question. The Hermetic Tradition interpenetrates, incorporates, may have influenced, and certainly enhances the mystic and philosophical aspects of all three of the great religions --- and especially the tradition of Freemasonry. The Hebrew Kabbalah is especially compatible with Hermetic concepts and Gnostic cosmology. Alexandria in classical times, a hundred years before the "Common Era" saw the birth of the Hermetic tradition, and may even have influenced Jesus -- more so than Buddhism, which was not familiar to the Greco-Roman world. The similarities between Christian and Hermetic philosophy led to the popularity of the Hermetic writings in the early Renaissance, and their brief acceptan

Hermetic Hour host Poke Runyon will present a lecture on the magick of Franz Bardon, the 20th century European alchemist and magician. Bardon was the author of three books on magick, and one semi-autobiographical novel. His Eastern style methods of training, owing much to raja and tantric yoga, have had a considerable influence on modern Western practice. We will discuss each of his three books in sequence; where his information came from, and what his philosophy was. You will learn about "fluid condensers," "volts," "elementals," magnetic and electric fluids, and magick mirrors. His debt to P. B. Randolph will be mentioned. We will discuss the origins of his myriads of spirits, the way he derived his sigils, his unique concept of Kabbalah. Bardon's background as a professional hypnotist, alchemist and healer will be compared to his mundane life and problems. The Master was an over-weight chain-smoker who died after eating a bacon sandwich---but he was still "The Master," and we should appreciate him all the

On this Thursday's Hermetic Hour host Poke Runyon will welcome Wor. Frater Osiris, P.M. from Georgia, one of our Associate Members who recently staged an O.T.A. seasonal rite there. Mike will tell us just how he went about it, and how it was received. We have another Associate Member in Texas, Frater Heracles, who has also staged a seasonal, and will call in with his comments. This warms the cockles of my heart!  We've been putting on these delightful pageants four times a year, on the solstices and equinoxes, since 1974, and we are so happy to see the tradition spreading out across the country. Mike and John have been able to do very effective rituals by following the scripts and details in our Seasonal Book, and using their own ingenuity in the staging. This is very important because we have gotten more elaborate at Montsalvat and Rivendell over the years, and we need fresh talent to do it their own way -- like Wagner in modern dress. Same words and music, but a fresh, new look. Mike has even translated our

On the 27th of October 2011 the Hermetic Hour, with host Poke Runyon, will present a discussion of Halloween from the Hermetic perspective. Actually this is more of a Pagan holiday  but we Hermetics are Pagan as well as Biblical, so we celebrate anything we want. Our sister lodge Feraferia had a Samhain ceremony -- which I will briefly cover -- and since they departed for Northern California, we have developed at Samhain rite of our own, evoking Mot,  the original "Grim Reaper" Himself. We will also recall the 1974 and 1975 Tom Snyder Halloween Special on the old NBC Tomorrow Show, featuring Fred Adams, Ed Fitch, Issac Bonewits, and your host, in which we aired Feraferian and O.T.A. rites filmed by the distinguished Pagan film maker Jo Carson. I'll mention my strange adventure atop the Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico on the Day of the Dead in 1988, and we'll give a preview of this years "Dark Mother of All Halloween Parties" coming soon to a National Forest near you! (if you are in Southern Califoirnia). So, t

The Hermetic Hour for October 20th, 2011, with host Poke Runyon, will present a discussion on Vampires, then and now. We will look at the vampire legend from ancient times up to the 18th century when it took on its present form: somewhere between a ghost, a monster, and a seductive incubus. We'll look at the magick of the blood and its power,  from ancient human sacrifice to the mass animal sacrifices in today's religions. We'll discuss vampire-like personages in the past: Gilles d' Reis, Countess Bathory and Vlad Dracul. Victorian age fascination with vampires, and the present vampire craze among the gothteens. We'll discuss those unfortunates who really do have a disease that mimics some vampire symptoms. The spiritual aspects of the vampire mythos: a very dark immortality. We will carefully mention a modern form of  vampirism we suspect is going on today -- so join us for an hour with the undead.  

The Hermetic Hour for Thursday the 13th of October, 2011, with host Poke Runyon, will be a lively and controversial discussion on a recent aspect of the magical revival called "Old School Magic(k)." This is a development that came about after the 1990s revival of Solomonic Magick following the publication of Donald Kraig's "Modern Magick," and our book and video on the source of the evocation methods Craig described. Steve Savedow's "Goetic Evocation" came out at the same time, representing a more medieval approach to the same operation. In very simple terms we  can say that we were reviving Solomon's ceremonial magick on a Renaissance neo-Platonic Hermetic model, whereas Steve Savedow, Stephen Skinner, and Joseph Lisiewski seemed intent on reviving it on a Judeo-Christian model, attempting to recreate a medieval dualistic mindset. You will super naturalize yourself in the course of this work, but you can choose 500 years ago, or 1000 years ago. We should recall that the Hermetic writings were not available

On October 6th, 2011, the Hermetic Hour, with host Poke Runyon, will air a discussion on the revival of Magick as the supreme expression of a new Romantic movement in the second half of the 20th century. We will examine the original 18th century Romantic Movement in art and philosophy as a spiritual and intellectual rebellion against the dehumanizing aspects of the industrial revolution, carrying this on through the Victorian age of what we now reprise as "steam-punk" romanticism, to the death of all dreams and visions of beauty in the depressing horror of World War One. Then the cynical, jaded pseudo-romanticism of the "lost generation," typified by Aleister Crowley's visions of decadence. We will explain what romanticism is, and how Nazis, Bolsheviks, and devout Christians can all be equally "Romantic." We will look at the Faustian archetype, the Luciferian idea, Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and the little-understood philosophy of solipsism so important to the hermetic individuation process. This

This Thursday September 29th, 2011, at 8:00, your Hermetic Hour host Poke Runyon will reprise the National Geographic Channel's special "Finding Atlantis."  This time it looks like we've finally got it, and pretty close to where Plato said it was. So we are devoting an hour to Atlantis in the Hermetic (Western Esoteric) tradition, from Plato to Francis Bacon, to Ignatius Donnelly, and beyond. We'll reveal archaeological and historical information you've probably never heard, and discuss why the real story of Atlantis has been suppressed. It may surprise you to learn that more ancient writers than Plato wrote about it, and more artifacts and evidence have been recovered than you've been led to believe, especially in southern Spain where the latest discovery has been made. We will discuss ancient Tartessos, the Minoan-Phoenician connection, the theories of De Santillana & von Dechend, Hapgood, the Ice Age, and the very ancient origins of the zodiac and the alphabet. You may come to suspect  that Atlantean a

On The Hermetic Hour, Thursday September 22nd, 2011  host Poke Runyon will have as his featured guest a fellow Solomonic magician the distinguished author, scholar and magus Steve Savedow. Steve is the author of "The Magician's Workbook, volumes one and two -- the second volume of which is entitled "Goetic Evocation." This is a hair-raising account of a series of Goetic evocations carried out in Florida in the 1990s. Steve and his hardy crew went about their operations in a scrupulously medieval manner, authentic in every detail including their determination to conjure to visible appearance with nothing but their knowledge of the Art, their faith in God's power, and their will to succeed --- and they did it. Whether it was a good thing to do it this way is debatable but it was a significant and memorable accomplishment regardless of consequences. Steve went on to translate the important Solomonic grimoire  "Sepher Rezial Hemelach," which is one of the most important ancient texts of kabbalistic magick.  So, t

On Thursday, September 15, 2011, The Hermetic Hour, with host Poke Runyon, will feature an exploration of occult methods and magical practices involved in the realm of private investigation. Our featured guest will be "Lady Aurora," a professional private investigator of considerable experience and ability, who discreetly employs her psychic talents and magical techniques to aid in investigation, and solve her cases. We will discuss the nature and use of "invisibility," of "astrology," of divination -- especially radiathesia (use of the map and pendulum), and protection against psychic attack. Although we cannot reveal her identity or be too specific about her cases, we will visit with someone who is about as close to the fictional "Shadow" as you will find this side of Hollywood -- "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" Tune in and find out.  

On Thursday September 8th, 2011, the Hermetic Hour, with host Poke Runyon, will present a discussion on ancient Egyptian magick, and its later Gnostic and Hermetic variations. We will establish the very ancient Egyptian concepts of the immortal soul, in comparison to the early Mesopotamian and Hebrew peoples who had no concept of personal immortality, or life after death. The Egyptians developed the idea of man's internal and spiritual connection with divinity, which gave them a road map to paradise, if they lived a good life, and hope of greater glory to come -- this eventually became the core belief behind Gnosticism and its simplified variation, Christianity. But people who are close to The Gods, can also be powerful magicians --- and they were! So tune in and we'll get all wrapped up in Egyptian Magick!  

On Thursday the 1st of September, 2011 the Hermetic Hour, host Poke Runyon, will present an hour long discussion on the nature of "evil," and the theory and practice of "Black Magick." We'll avoid popular "goth" role-playing, and steam-punk vampires, to get down to the real history, and actual practices of the black magicians and serious satanists (fortunately the role-players are in the majority). We'll make it very clear that summoning, and commanding Dark Powers by the Power of the Light, for worthwhile purposes, such as personal development, is not "Black Magick," and was not even thought of as "Black Magick, and no magicians made "pacts" with demons or the devil until the advent of the Faustian School in the 18th century. Actually Black Magick can be done in white robes, calling on Jesus, and the Archangel Michael. We'll discuss the oft-maligned Church of the Final Judgment (The Process) and the wide-spread obsession with authenticating H.P. Lovecraft's "Necronomicon." Some of what you hear may be distu

This Thursday, August 25th, 2011, the Hermetic Hour's host Poke Runyon, will have as his featured guest Cerridwen Fallingstar, a distinguished teacher, and facilitator in the Northern California Goddess-centered NeoPagan community, whom we met at the recent Feraferian conclave north of San Francisco. Of special interest to our Hermetic magical process is the inspiration behind  Lady Cerridwen's magical historical novels. She channels them, recounting her own adventures from past lives -- but she also does very good research, and has a professional novelist's style and story-telling flair. Her first novel was "Heart of Fire," recounting the life of a Scottish witch. She then moved to medieval Japan for a two-decker saga "White As Bone, Red As Blood."  We are especially interested in the methods she used to recover these memories --- so, tune in and we'll find out how to go way, way back, and live it up!  

This Thursday, the 18th of August, 2011, the Hermetic Hour, with host Poke Runyon,  will feature a discussion on "The Magick of Nature." We begin by explaining that the Hermetic Tradition, unlike Gnosticism, is a blend of Natural and Transcendental magical perspectives and methods -- therefore we can include such subjects as sacred landscapes, land forms, flora and fauna, and humankind's relation to the eco-system as an integral part of our philosophy and our workings. The best example of the nature-oriented Western magick is Fred Adam's Feraferia, which we will again visit in our discussion. We will cover Lay Lines, sacred sites, and the connection of celestial aspects with seasonal changes, connecting the greater universe with the sphere of nature, and the earth-sky-love body of the Goddess Herself -- known to the Renaissance magi as the Anima Mundi. Tune in and we'll go outdoors for inspiration this time.  

The Hermetic Hour for Thursday, August 4th, 2011 with host Poke Runyon, will focus on Feraferia, and recent DVDs, books and ceremonies in that wonderful Pagan-magical tradition. Our very special guest will be Feraferia's avatrix (that's a female avatar) Jo Carson calling in from her northern California woodland retreat where she and her Feraferians have established a beautiful, rustic Feraferian library. Jo describes "FiFi" thus: "Although a small group, Feraferia has been a founding inspiration in the resurgence of Western paganism since the 'sixties. Fred Adams and Svetlana Butryn created Feraferia to be , in their words, "a Paradisal Fellowship for the loving celebration of Wilderness Mysteries with Faerie style, courtly elegance, refinement and grace... The Great Work of Feraferia is the lyrical unification of Ecology, Artistry, Mythology and Liturgy. Feraferia offers a Poetic Liturgy and Altruistic Theurgy of Holy Wilderness" Feraferia has been featured in many books, which may seem surprising since it i

The Hermetic Hour for July  21st, 2011 will feature a discussion by host Poke Runyon on Advanced Pathworkings. Pathworkings above the four lower spheres, Specifically  Tiphereth, number six, the Sphere of Transformation. In these higher Paths and Spheres we have found it effective to create a magical vehicle (both a physical model and an astral construct) to enable the inner plane voyager to fly over the lower Paths and Spheres he has already "walked" in the first three sessions: i.e. the 32nd, the 31st, and the 29th Paths. We call this device "Kusor's Boat," after the Canaanite craftsman god (Tubal Cain), who was credited as the inventor of the fishing boat. Our boat is shaped like an ibis, black on one side, and white on the other. It was also influenced by Abraham Merritt's "Ship of Ishtar" which was derived from Assyrian mythology. So tune in and prepare to voyage onward to evening isles fantastical -- and also symbolical, we can't forget that.  

The Hermetic Hour for this Thursday, July 14th, 2011 will feature a discussion by host Poke Runyon on how to write a "magical novel." Poke's very special guest will be himself ( who actually did such a thing, and even published it -- and a few people even bought it and read it). The novel, which was released in 2001, is called DRELL MASTER, and is still available from Amazon. It is a 1940s style mixture of sword-and-sorcery and science fiction, set on a post- apocalyptic 'Barbarian World' which has inhabited aerial floating islands, sailing airships, saddle-dragons, wizards, ancient scientific super-weapons, and (of course) Naked Amazons-- all the kind of stuff I loved from the pulp magazines when I was a kid in the 1950s. However, to give the story esoteric and philosophical value, I added Enochian Magick (why not?), Sex Magick (of course!), yoga and even an anti-globalization, environmental not-so-hidden agenda. My mentor on this monumental exercise was Fantasy Grand Master Lin Carter, whom I had grown up w