All Episodes

On Thursday October 27th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will recall and review Frank (Dune) Herbert's first published science fiction story "Nightmare Blues" (Operation Syndrome) 1954. This is an ominously prophetic and frightening tale of electronic mind control which seems to have been inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. A scientist (who ends up in a mad house) invents a machine that projects thoughts (a telepathy transceiver) which is stolen by a music industry producer promoter who uses it to enhance his star's vocal performances. However each city where they perform experiences catastrophic outbreaks of mass insanity. One of the mad scientist's former students, a psychologist, teams up with a ham radio operator to create an antidote machine. This story was published in 1954 and set in 1999. It deals with issues and theories that resonate today. So if you want to contemplate some high-tech horror, for Halloween tune in and we'll turn up the volume.

On Thursday October 13th, 2016 Poke Runyon host of the Hermetic hour
will present a reading of the mystical magical poem "The Hashish Eater"
by the late Poet and Fantasy writer Clark Ashton Smith. Smith was a friend and
colleague of H. P. Lovecraft whose magical fantasies were also featured
in Weird Tales in the 1930s and 1940s, and in "Dark of the Moon" from
Arkham House and in "New World's for Old" edited by Lin Carter. This poem
is a fantastic magical experience and invokes dreamlike visions. Tune
in and discover a magical psychedelic masterpiece.

On Thursday September 15th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a discussion on the Alchemical Classic "Splendor Solis" by
Solomon Trismosin 1582. This magnificently illustrated work is
considered to be the most beautiful illuminated manuscript of all the
Medieval and Renaissance occult books. It draws on all of the earlier
Alchemical classics such as the Turba Philosophorum. Solomon Trismosin
was said to have been the mentor of the most famous of all alchemists
Paracelsus. The twenty-two beautiful allegorical paintings that
illustrate the book are the work of the Renaissance master Lucas van
Leiden. The symbolic paintings have been likened to the twenty-two
greater arcana of the Tarot.This book has been a great influence on
Rosicrucianism and deserves a place in any study of that tradition, so
if you want to peek at the Splendor of the Sun, put on your dark glasses
and tune in.

On Thursday September first, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke
Runyon will discuss James Branch Cabell's romantic fantasy novel JURGEN
(1919).This delightfully satirical and deeply esoteric work is
considered Cabell's masterpiece and a classic of American literature. It
might best be quickly described as an Oz book for adults. Modern readers
will liken Cabell's tale to a Monty Python script. Chapter XXII was
inspired by Aleister Crowley's Gnostic Mass which prompted Crowley to
praise Cabell as America's greatest novelist. We will read the infamous
22nd chapter along with some of the symbolically described erotic
passages that got the original book banned in New York. This backfired
and made JURGEN a national bestseller in the 1920s. And it is still a
great read -- so if you want to spend an hour with Messers Cabell and
Crowley, tune in and we will follow Jurgen chasing his first love all
the way from puberty to Hell, which is a liberal democracy and up to
Heaven which is a Southern Baptist dictatorship, administered by a black
house slave. Maybe we can get it banned again!

On Thursday September 23rd, 2021, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will review Journey to the Castle (2021) by Ann Finnin who will join us on the show to guide us recalling her journey to find the roots of Traditional British Witchcraft. As most of us know modern British witchcraft is divided between Gardnarian and Robert Gravesian branches. The Gravesian branch springing mostly from Bill Gray and Robert Cochcrane (Roy Bowers) and imported to America by Joe Wilson as the Order of 1734. Dave and Ann Finnin’s Coven of the Roebuck grew out of 1734 but they wanted to get to the real roots of their inspiration. Go to England, meet the elders, walk the lay lines, visit the castles. Learn the truth first hand. This book recalls that quest, documents their discoveries and presents Ann’s insights on the meanings and significance of this most shamanic form of modern witchcraft. If you want to know how to cross the moat tune in and take notes.

On Thursday August 25th, 2016 The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a discussion on two modern classics that hold up mirrors to
modern society and recent history: George Orwell's 1984 (1949) and
Ortega de Gassett's Revolt of the Masses (1929).Both authors were
socialists and both were involved in the Spanish Civil War.
1984 is called a "dystopia"and describes British post World War II
socialism evolving into a nightmarish double-plus-ungood (Stalinistic)
tyranny where everyone is brainwashed into believing that: "War is Peace,
Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength." In "Revolt of the Masses"
Ortega de Gassett disputes the liberal dictum that universal literacy
and education can ennoble and uplift "the common people" into a body
politic capable of rational and reasonable self government, Hence
democracy must be controlled by an intellectual elite (sound familiar).
Both these books are classics and more important today than when they
were written. We will try to put them in a Hermetic perspective for you
(sociology is the new black magick) so if you want to peek into the
future from way back when, tune in and we'll part the veil.

On Thursday August 18th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will review new issues of old Hermetic Magick books. Starting with
Zoroaster's Telescope (1796-2013) and on to Urania's Mirror (1822-2004)
and finally The Harmonia Macrocosmica of Cellarius (1660 - 2013). The
first item on our list is more of a board-game than a book; a very
elaborate and frankly confusing French divinatory system that uses
hexagonal "tiles" with magical and astrological data drawn from an urn
or box and applied to a board called a mirror. which has hexagonal
compartments. Divination follows from the numbers in the mirror's cells
and the pattern various tiles make on the mirror. Urania's Mirror is a
small book describing the astrological constellations and their
mythology accompanied by a set of thirty-two cards on which the mythical
figures of the zodiac are depicted in very romantic style. This style is
influenced by our last selection: The Harmonia Macrocosmica of Andreus
Cellarius, a magnificently illustrated atlas of the heavens. So if you'd
like to explore some recent revivals of ancient wisdom tune in and we'll
have a look.

On Thursday August 26th, 2021, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon, will explore the place of Hermetics and Hermetic Magicians in the coming Futurist society influenced and augmented by genetic engineering, nanotech, computer technology, artificial intelligence, and Clio-dynamics We will refer to our broadcasts over the past few years dealing with these super-humanizing or DE-humanizing techs and tech-systems predicted by science fiction authors such as A.E. Van Vogt, L. Ron Hubbard, Issac Asimov, and Frank Herbert. We will consult current works on the subject by Michio Kaku and Marc Zimmer. We will suggest that much of this futurism derives from Hermetic philosophy and therefore we magicians should embrace it providing we can become more than human rather than a swarm of sub-human drones in a hive. So if you wanna be Slans. (Fans of the Slans are today’s futurists) tune in and we’ll open the gate for you.

On Thursday August 19th the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present two Prophetic essays by American rocket scientist, magician and philosopher John Whiteside Parsons. Chapters Two and Three of "Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword taken from The Seventh Ray, Book IV, Omnibus, The Violet Ray" a reprint of the original publication in the Seventh Ray, issue 19, 1977 (Chapter 3) and a previously unpublished chapter 2, "The Sword and the State." These essays from the 1950s are particularly important in the present political, spiritual, and socio-economic situation. They should be of particular interest to our Thelemic listeners and Hermetic students generally. I do not always agree with Jack but I do agree that his work should be revived and reviewed at this critical time. So if you want to know what Maestro Belarion predicted tune in and find out.

On Thursday August 11th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will discuss two prophetic science fiction stories from the 1950s: C.M. Kornbluth's "The Marching Morons" and A.E. Van Vogt's "The Weapon Shops of Isher." Both are considered classics of the genre and deal with controversial social issues. Kornbluth's "Morons" predict a future where the average I.Q. is 45 and a tiny intelligent elite struggle to preserve the self-destructive swarming mass of sub-human humanity. In Van Vogt's "Weapon Shops" a group of gun manufacturers and dealers struggle to arm the citizens of a tyrannical and corrupt world government headed by a psychopathic empress (she sleeps with snakes) who is determined to disarm and enslave them. Both of these stories deserve to be looked at again in light of present and pending events. So if you want a glimpse of today and tomorrow as seen by the prophets of yesterday, tune in and we'll roll back the clock to the 1950s.

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. So Frank Herbert's Spice Melange was conceived as a psychedelic agent that would enable astronaut navigators to warp space with the power of their minds -- and go anywhere in the galaxy mentally and physically. That is one Hermetic magical aspect. There is also a witchcraft cult that engages in genetic engineering, trying to breed a Demigod messiah who will launch a Jihad to conquer the galaxy. So if you'd like to consider the not so hidden inner meanings of this classic, tune in and we'll have a 21st century look back at Dune.

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
is a beautifully bound limited edition, featuring inclusions by John
Michael Greer, Chic and Tabetha Cicero, Aaron Leitch, Bryan Garner,
Jeffery Kupperman, Scott Stenwick and Isadora Forrest's account of her
forty day Raphael-Tiphareth retreat meditation which for me was the most
inspiring and memorable aspect of the book. I was also impressed with
John Michael Greer's article which reveals his own Lodge's interest in
the "Nassaene document" and "From Ritual to Romance" which we have been
writing and lecturing about for years. All considered Liber Spirituum is
a very impressive and useful work, so if you want to learn what's new in
the Hermetic universe, tune in and we'll have a look.

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 engineers, and the artists. We will examine this principle in Hermetic philosophy and even compare Atlas Shrugged to Aleister Crowley's Diary of a Drug Fiend (1922). We will examine Ayn Rand's background in relation to the message of the novel – so if you find the world weighing down on you – and who doesn't these days, tune in and we'll try to shrug it off.

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.