All Episodes

On Thursday August 6th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a shocking new Conspiracy Theory based on archaeology,
ancient history, mythology and anthropologica and medical research. It
boils down to this log line: "Refugees from Atlantis conquered the
ancient world with bread and beer." We will be citing current books by
David Perlmutter and William Davis along with a review of what human
beings are designed to eat and what wolves are designed to eat. How
hunting and gathering humans were re-programmed or genetically modified
to eat grain as slaves of the Gods, and then they turned wolves into
dogs by a similar process. This is all highly controversial but there is
good science and anthropology behind it. So if you want to free yourself
of your slave collar (that's the spare tire around your waist), then
tune in and we will start the revolution!

On Thursday August 27th, the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a newly discovered lost chapter from the Book of Shamgar which describes how the Purple Dragon and the Prophet Bezek found the Stone Pillar of Jacob upon which was inscribed Father Abraham’s Book of Creation (the Sepher Yetzirah). After fighting off bandits and the spells of a witch they brought the sacred stone back to the Tabernacle to take its rightful place beside the Ark of the Covenant and ensure Shamgar his election as Judge for the Tribe of Judah. This controversial document suggests that the Jewish tradition of Abraham’s authorship of the Sepher Yetzirah is correct and it also implies that he was the originator of the alphabet. So if you like ancient mysteries tune in and we’ll open the 32 gates wisdom.

On Thursday July 30th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon
will present a discussion on health and diet in relation to Hermetic
Magick. We will discuss various aspects of health and diet including
supplements, vitamins, so-called super foods and various diet regimes,
therapies, exercises, colonics, "The five rites," energized water, and
vegan advantages and problems. We will also discuss the great grain
conspiracy and genetically altered food. So if you want to go on the
wizard's diet, tune in and find out how to lose twenty pounds of ugly
ectoplasm.
 

On Thursday July 23rd, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
present a discussion on the Astrolabe as a magical device. Those of you who
have seen John Carter will recall the medallion of the Holy Therns that
enabled them, and Carter, to transmit themselves to other planets in the
solar system. It was a magical device that required a conjuration to make it
work. There is a very impressive scene inside a Thern temple with an
illuminated solar system on the transparent floor that shows the vectors and
the formulas. (if you can read Barsoomian.) Now this was created by an
earthling screenwriter, so do we, or did we, have anything like the Thern
Medallion in our magical tradition to inspire him? Yes, the Astrolabe -- a
marvelous hand held instrument from Classical times that could locate
celestial objects (stars) calculate their exact altitude and position.
Primarily used for navigation it was also used by astrologers and magicians.
Combined with the Soma Sophia (the completely gridded celestial sphere), it
also becomes a device to project consciousness (like the Thern Medallion) to
other worlds. With Soma Sophia derived formulas of course. This is all Sixth
Degree material but perhaps it will inspire some of you to keep climbing
Mithras' ladder, So, if you are curious to know how wizards explore the
heavens, tune in and we will plot a course and set sail. 
 

On Thursday August 6th, 2020 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a review of William Leonard Pickard’s magisterial novelized biography “The Rose of Paracelsus”(2019). This 650 page masterwork is already considered literature by the academic community. Like Mallory’s “The Morte de Arthur” “The Rose” was entirely written in prison. It recounts Pickard’s academic, scientific, and extra-legal career from the early 1960s until his arrest and subsequent imprisonment in 2000. It is beautifully written, fast paced and well structured. It is subtitled “On Secrets and Sacraments” which aptly describes what it delivers. Pickard was not only a psychedelic alchemist, he was also an intelligence asset (say researcher) for the Ivy League think tanks and indirectly for government agents. So conspiracy theory and even UFO buffs will be pulling quotes from The Rose for the next decade. Pickard connected with an international network of psychedelic alchemists and visited each in a world tour that reads like a James Bond adventure. Returning to the U.S. he visited his mentor the venerable psychedelic sage, Sasha Shulgin, who warned him against a demonic cultist who inhabited an abandoned underground missile base used for an LSD laboratory and an orgiastic temple. But like a character in a Richard Shaver or Sax Rohmer story Leonard Pickard was lured into this hellish underworld where psychedelics were used to en-slave and abuse young women.And because this cult had better government connections than Pickard, he was set up to take the rap for their criminal activities. He was given two life sentences in Federal Prison. Fortunately he has just been released and we hope he will be listening to this broadcast. So. Turn on, Tune in, and learn what’s under the rose.
 

On Thursday July 16th,2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon and Frater Solomon will discuss and briefly demonstrate a Pathworking to the late medieval artist Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights created and narrated by Frater Solomon. This was recently performed at Montsalvat for Inner Order members and, because of the complexity of the imagery it should be considered an advanced working. The presentation was enhanced by graphic backgrounds and sculptural figures on the altar, making it something of a "Perky Pat" layout. The spectral guide was a figure from Bosch's Revelation of St. John the Divine called "Tytinillus" a surrealistic version of a church choir proctor with an insect's tail. So, if you want to open your third eye and step into fantasy-land we will tell you how it's done.

On Thursday, July 9th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will have a discussion on "Cliodynamics" a new "science" of socioeconomic and political trend and event prediction. Contrary to popular belief this discipline was not spawned by Issac Asimov's Foundation Series (Hari Seldon's Plan) but is very reminiscent of it. One of the founders is Peter Truchin, a biologist at the University of Connecticut who has written a book called "War and Peace and War". In which he examines the rise and fall of empires on the cliodynamic scale. This book invites comparison to Oswald Spengler's "Decline of the West" which was avidly read by Hitler and George Bush's Neo-Cons.  It was the Machiavelli of the 19th century. Cliodynamics uses Malthusian mathematical formulas to predict economic and political events. So if you want to know what the boys in the think tanks are reading, tune in and we'll invoke the muse of history (Clio).

On Thursday July 2nd, 2015, the Hermetic Hours host Poke Runyon will present an essay on The Curse of the Maskim, the planetary demons of ancient Babylon. This will be an important commentary on the continuing influence of these ancient negative or demonic aspects of the seven planets upon magical theory and ritual. The origin of the Maskim in the underworld of early Mesopotamian mythology will be explained, along with their revolt against the heavenly powers and its influence on later Biblical themes of Wars in Heaven and Fallen Angels. The Maskim inf lance on Solomonic magick will be examined and Stephen Skinner's new book "Techniques of Solomonic Magic" will be critiqued in relation to this ancient demonic influence. The concepts of Earth centered verses Cosmic oriented astrology will be compared and explained -- This program may raise more questions than it answers but it will certainly stimulate thought, so tune in and cheer for the Lords of Chaos or the Forces of Light.

On Thursday June 25th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
have as it's guest the leading authority on the African-American folk
tradition of Hoodoo magic, or "Root Work," Catherine Yronwode of the Lucky
Mojo Curio company. Catherine is the author of "Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic"
and "Paper in My Shoe" along with several other related titles. She will
explain the differences between Hoodoo, Santeria and Vodoun, and describe
how this unique American folk-magic tradition arrived here with the slaves
in the old South and continued to evolve incorporating European (Solomonic)
and even Native American additions to become a living magical system now
practiced all over the United States. So, if you want to catch up on your
American magical cross-training (sneaky pete anthropology) this is a session
you need to hear. 
 

On Thursday July 2nd, 2020 - the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will reveal the lost Initiatory Scroll of the Soul Travel Boat written in the early days of the Order of the Temple of Astarte. This lost document was recently rediscovered while we were doing research for the second volume of Hermetic Yoga and we have decided to release it along with one of the advanced Pathworkings that uses The Soul Travel Boat. From Malkuth to Chesed via the 29th and 21st Paths. So if you want fly the skies of the Astral Plane with us tune in and climb aboard the Soul Travel Boat.
 

On Thursday June 18th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will
present a discussion on ancient Mesopotamian Mythology and its relation to
the Canaanite myths that comprise the Seasonal ceremonies of the Order of
the Temple of Astarte. As our in studio guest we will have Frater Isa from
our Ubar Encampment in Dallas, Texas. We will touch on such subjects as the
Annunaki (Elder Gods), How Man was created by the Earth Goddess as a slave
of the Gods, how Oannes brought civilization to the Sumerians, and the
numerous parallels between Canaanite and Mesopotamian myth and legend. Our
primary text will be John Gray's Near Eastern Mythology which is
cross-comparative. If you have been curious about the similarities between
Ishtar and Astarte, or Baal and Marduk, then tune in and we will try to sort
out the pre-Biblical family-trees for you.
 

On Thursday June 18th,2020 at 8:00 p.m. Pacific time the Hermetic Hour hosted by Poke Runyon will broadcast live the 46th Consecutive annual performance of the Order of the Temple of Astarte's Summer Solstice "Adonia" celebration. Based on the ancient Canaanite Ra Shamrah tablets the drama depicts the death of the Year King Prince Baal at the hands of the Dark Lord Mot on the longest, brightest day of the year after he has joyously served the Dew of Heaven to the celebrants in a Golden Goblet that would be remembered as the Holy Grail. He is mourned by his consort the Goddess Astarte who promises to resurrect Baal and vanquish Mot in the the Festival of Seven Gates at Autumn Equinox. This is the second time we have had to perform one of our Seasonal Rites on the radio rather than in our sacred henge at Rivendell but we urge you to vue our video version of this event in "Rites of Magick" on YouTube.
 
 
Baal: "Behold the Golden Dew of Heaven
       Born of Thunder Clouds on High
       Drink with me this Life Elixir!
       Dance ye round 'til the Cup be Dry!"
 
Astarte: "Each rose is the blood of the Year King
          Burn it and thy sorrows be forgot
          These waters are the tears of the Goddess,
          Shed them and thy sadness shall pass."            

On Thursday June 11th, 2020 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the Pagan Hermetic origins of the Sepher Yetzirah. This ancient book is the Philosophical and mystical foundation of the Medieval Hebrew Kabbalah. And eventually the Hermetic Qabalah which seems to recover its actual origins. It is traditionally attributed, by the Hebrews, to Father Abraham and was said to have been written by him in Harran where he is said to have “Made Souls” The Harranians were star-worshipers who preserved the star lore of ancient Babylon and eventually joined the Pythgorean - Hermetic magical tradition. The Sepher Yetzirah or Book of Creation describes how the Universe was created by the Word of God, using the proto-Hebrew Phonecian alphabet, the first alpha-numeric letter system. Which acquired twenty-four letters to accommodate the entire celestial sphere and the elements, and then became the origin of ancient Greek—which passed on its alpha-numeric heritage to Medieval Hebrew and Arabic. It has even been suggested that the second century Valentinian Magician Marcus wrote the earliest version of the Sepher Yetzirah. Even Gershom Scholem admits that the philosophy of the Sepher Yetzirah is Pythagorean. So, if you want to delve in to the depths of the mysteries join us for an hour of speculation on the origins of The Book of Creation.

On Thursday May 28th, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will have as its special guest Frater Julian of the Benjamin Franklin Encampment who is an expert in Pennsylvania folklore relating to witchcraft and magick. We will be discussing his paper on the mysterious Roman family in the colonial Quaker community, Johannes Kelpius "The Wizard of Wissahickon," and his Cave of Kelpius, and Apocalyptic prophecy in the 1690s. The Epherata Rosicrucian Cloister, then moving up toward modern times with Dutch pow-wow, hexcraft, the curious case of the Hexencat and its capture. The York County 1920s Hex murder case. So if you want to catch up on your American occult and witchcraft heritage be sure to tune in for Weird Pennsylvania on the air.

On Thursday May 21st, 2015 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present an interview with British author and magician Jake Stratton-Kent. Jake Stratton-Kent is especially noted for his defense and support of the Goetic aspect of ceremonial magick and his research linking this practice to the deities and oracles of ancient Greek mythology, especially the denizens of the underworld or Tartarus ruled by Hades or Pluto. He is more partial to the Grimorium Verum than the Goetia or Lesser Key of Solomon although he stresses that both are essentially Goetic from the ancient Greek word "Goes" meaning a necromancer. So if you want to meet a master of art magical, tune in and spend an hour with maestro Jake Stratton-Kent.