The Hermetic Hour

On Thursday August 5th, 2021 - the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on Magical (Electional) Astrology from Ficino to Campanella with Bishop Michael Beeson (V.H. Frater Suen). We will refer to D.P. Walker's book Demonic and Spiritual magic from Ficino to Campanella, recounting Campanella and Pope Urban's magical astrological operation. We will discuss Planetary Hours, Lunar Mansions, and other aspects of electional astrology. We will recommend the books of Christopher Warnock (Renaissance astrology) and Michael Beeson's own podcast, Hacking Fate. So if you want to know how the old wizards did it, tune in and find out.

On Thursday July 28th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review and discuss Frank Herbert's 1965 science-fiction classic Dune from a magical (Hermetic) perspective and as a prophetic political allegory. Sci-Fi Writer Orson Scott Card wrote: "Remember that Herbert wrote Dune in the 1960s, before the first oil embargo, before any Islamist government was ever formed. Whether Dune had any causal influence on the rise of Al Qaeda, Herbert certainly did a superb job of predicting the rise and the power of such an ideology. The spice must flow, and so must the oil. So the political allegory is obvious but what about the hermetic magical aspect: in the 1960s when Herbert conceived Dune the big psycho-spiritual experience was LSD. Acid offered expansion of consciousness, instant enlightenment and for some, extension of consciousness. Soul travel. Hermes once wrote that one could go anywhere in the Universe instantly at the speed of thought. Some Eastern gurus had also declared that this was possible. S

On Thursday July 21st the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review two new books in the Hermetic field: "The Emerald Tablet" by Martin Faulks from Faulks Books and " Liber Spirituum" compiled and edited by Adam Forrest from Azoth Press. The Emerald Tablet is only 84 pages, and follows upon Martin's first publication "The Universal Master Key" (2013) (reviewed by the Hermetic Hour on March 26th, 2015). Martin Faulks is an ardent Bardonian and the Emerald Tablet is a commentary on that ancient document from a Bardonian perspective. Martin brilliantly analyses each paragraph or aphorism of the Tablet in relation to the Four Hermetic Elements in a process of internal alchemy and the ascent and descent of the Holy Spirit on the Middle Pillar. The second new publication is "Liber Spirituum" from Azoth Press, (251 pages hardbound) which is a compilation of articles on traditional magical evocation, invocation, and talisman making edited and introduced by Golden Dawn authority Adam Forrest. This

On Thursday July 7th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on Ayn Rand's magnum opus Atlas Shrugged (1957) from a Hermetic Perspective. This book has been read by almost as many people as the Bible. It is particularly important today because it predicted the deterioration of American industry and infrastructure under socialist governmental regulation. Rand's principal characters are heroic industrialists struggling to keep their enterprises going under worsening conditions. Until a Genius inventor named John Galt convinces them all to quit and let the looters and the parasites of socialism try run the country without them. Hence the title: Atlas, he who holds up the world, Shrugged.. Whether you love it or hate it the novel is powerfully written and the characters are dynamic. They resonate with frustrated achievers in today's America. Atlas Shrugged is Hermetic in the same way that Freemasonry is Hermetic. It is an elitism of the creative mind. The builders, the doers, the e

On Thursday July 8th, 2021, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon and Very Honored Frater Suon will present a discussion on the Ars Notoria, a medieval Solomonic grimoire of prayers and meditations designed to assist in learning the Hermetic arts such as astrology, alchemy, philosophy and even theology. Although attributed to Solomon it is heavily Christian but filled with Hermetic and magickal lore. It was often included in the Lemegeton compendiums of Solomonic grimoires; along with the Goetia and the Almadel. It originated in the 13th century but we are most familiar with the Robert Turner 1656 translation available from Trident Books (1997) but we will also discuss Stephen Skinner & Daniel Clark’s (2019) compendium of earlier versions. So tune in and learn how the old wizards remembered their spells.

On Thursday June 23rd, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon and guest Jo Carson will present a preview- review of her forthcoming book: "The Green Pulse Oracle - A Tool for Eco-Psychic Insight." Lady Jo Carson is the President of Feraferia, America's First Goddess-centered, Ecology-oriented Neo-Pagan religion founded in 1967 by Artist and philosopher Frederick Adams (1928-2008). Jo Carson is the leader of Feraferia and dedicated to preserving and continuing the work of Fred Adams and his consort Lady Svetlana Butyrin. As a film maker Jo has produced and directed "Dancing with Gaia" (2009) a documentary DVD on ancient and modern Paganism centered on Fred Adams and Feraferian activities. She is the author of "Celebrate Wilderness" (2014) a portfolio book of Feraferian art, text and photos. She is presently readying "The Green Pulse Oracle" for publication. This is a system of divination similar to Geomancy and I-Ching. It is based on Fred Adams' further development of Robert Graves' Tree A

On Thursday June 16th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a review of the 2010 book Babylon's Banksters, the Alchemy of Deep Physics, High Finance and Ancient Religion, by Joseph Farrell. Although this book is somewhat dated in light of current events, it is important in that it presents the background of world-wide financial manipulation from a Hermetic and Magical perspective. Farrell quotes authoritative sources to establish a relation between business cycles planetary alignments and Solar activities, lending credit to astrology, ancient aliens and even the Pythagorean music of the spheres. The book raises more questions than it answers but it is fascinating and filled with provocative information,such as the investment formula developed by a Chinese communist Triad Tong family that brought on the 2008 Great Recession (shades of Fu Manchu!) So if you want to know how evil magicians manipulate the stock market tune in and we'll give you an overview.

On June 9th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with Host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the secret meaning behind Abraham Merritt's classic Fantasy novel “The Moon Pool.” (1919). This Lost Race fantasy adventure story, similar to Rider Haggard's “She”was very influential on other fantasy writers, movie makers and comic book writers and artists. It was one of the major sources of the 1940s “Shaver Mystery”. Moon Pool is based on the idea that the Moon was pulled out of the Earth half a billion years ago when our young world was in a molten state, leaving a huge cavity in the area of the Central Pacific, which sealed itself over and eventually became a vast air filled cavern under the ocean. A subterranean world with its own flora, fauna and people. Its only connection to the surface world is the ancient ruined stone city of Nan Madol on Pohnpei island in the Central Pacific Ocean. In these haunted ruins is a mysterious doorway that only opens when the Moon is full, revealing The Moon Pool from which rises a fan

On Thursday May 19th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will air a discussion on the noted British 19th century occultist, spiritualist and magician Frederick Hockley ( 1809 - 1885 ) mentor of Francis "the Magus" Barrett and Kenneth "the Cypher manuscript Mackenzie". Hockley was an ardent Freemason and Rosicrucian with genuine Rosicrucian connections and documents. He was a collector and a transcriber of occult manuscripts and several of his once rare treasures are being reissued today. We will read Hockley's account of "Raising the Devil" (a homunculus in a bottle) from "The Rosicrucian Seer" by John Hamill, and then discuss our own attempt to replicate this operation. We will discuss Hockley's influence on the Golden Dawn and the occult revival. So if you'd like to "Raise the Devil" with old Fred Hockley tune in and we'll get it on.

On Thursday June 3rd, 2021 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a reading off the newly drafted Corpus Christi ceremony which will represent the Rosicrucian climax of the ancient pagan seasonal ceremony round. It will be performed following the Spring Sacred Marriage Nuptiae rite. In keeping with the Sacred Marriage being the supreme sacrament and passion of early Gnostic Christianity. The ritual will follow the ancient Naassene document honoring Jesus as the last of the pagan dying Gods coming down to rescue and marry Mary Magdalene so that they may rule together as King and Queen of Israel. So if you want experience the Second Coming, Valentinian style, tune in and receive the Gnosis.

On May 27th, 2021 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will have as honored guest Lady Jo Carson Avatrix of Feraferia who will discuss her restoration and fulfillment of Master Fred Adams cosmos encompassing mandala, the Enneasphere which incorporates Qabalistic astrological and Tarot correspondences in one great design. This masterpiece can be seen on Feraferia's website: < feraferia.org > under "latest additions" and on < chsota.org > on the blogs as "Fun with Enneaspheres" if possible look at the graphics on these websites while listening to the show. And also check out Lady Jo's film DANCING WITH GAIA. We just released it on Amazon. So tune in and get introduced to the Celestial Key to the Hermetic mysteries.

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 Adamson'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

On Thursday May 6th, 2021 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a revised chapter from the new edition of The Book of Solomon’s Magick, Chapter Five, the Qabalah of Wizardry. This revision is necessary because our version of Qabalah has undergone some evolvement since this chapter was published twenty-six years ago. We have discovered the Celestial Tetragrammaton, restored the Eleven Sphere Tree of Life before the Fall. Evolved the sacred marriage from Baal and Astarte to Jesus and Mary Magdalene in the Rosicrucian degrees and created new kameas for the outer planets. I suggest you have your Tree of Life diagrams handy as you listen so that you can follow along the paths.  

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

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 l

We have had a photocopy of a 300 year old magical manuscript in our archives for fifty years and have used it or research, study, rituals, and publications but until we began a serious study of Valentinian Gnosticism we had no idea what secrets were hidden in this Elizabethan era manuscript that we had been using for years. The structure of the Celestial and Terrestrial versions of the Tetragrammaton was set forth in the First Conjuration of the Goetia. Elizabethan magicians were NeoPlatonists and Hermetics. They were partial to Christian Gnosticism and venerated the most high God, honoring Jehovah as the God of the Earth Sphere. I now wonder if Soane 2731 influanced us to realize the two Tetragrammatons years before we discovered them in the text of the First Conjuration.

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.

The Hermetic Hour for Thursday April 1st, 2021 with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the forthcoming Bishop’s Consecration ceremony and investiture we will be performing this weekend upon one of our senior Rosicrucian adepts. It will be modeled after the Roman ceremony altered to conform with Hermetic and Gnostic Christian (Valentinian) dogmas and symbolism. It will be divided into the traditional three parts: The Examination, The Consecration, and The Investiture. In our case The Communion of the Elements will replace the Mass as the ceremony of Consecration. Honey replacing wine. In The Investiture, Hermes will replace Moses, Melchizedek replaces Aaron and through Christ our Lord is extended to: “Through Christ our Lord and Mary Magdalene our Lady.” Although our broadcast is on April fools day the actual Ceremony will take place on the 3rd – but if the broadcast date casts aspersions on the merit of the occasion we might ponder why the Fool is at the top of the Tree?

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, Ho