The Hermetic Hour

Seven Gates: Astarte's Descent into the Underworld at Autumn Equinox

Frater Thabian leads the Festival of Seven Gates, a ceremonial drama staged around a henge and an alchemical altar. The episode follows the goddess Astarte as she descends through seven planetary gates, leaving a colored veil at each, to confront the Dark Lord Mot and reclaim the grail that will revive Baal. The ritual interweaves Orphic hymns, pentagram and alchemical operations, processions, and a sacramental sharing of the grail. Mot is overcome, Baal is resurrected, and the celebrants close the ceremony with chants and a vanishing pentagram, marking the seasonal rebirth and the coming rains. Much gratitude to Lucy Von (Soror Cleopatra) for recording the audio of this year's "Festival of Seven Gates" at Montsalvat Temple in Pasadena, CA.

The "Why" of Magick

The Hermetic Hour's host Poke Runyon will lead a discussion on Hermetic Philosophy, from ancient Alexandria through the Renaissance, and into the modern era. We will look at the early work of Empedocles and Pythagoras, the Pomander and the Asclepius, the Emerald Tablet, and the Chaldean Oracles. We will consider the Gnostic connection, and how the kabbalah arose from Greek, Assyrian, and Gnostic roots, and how it joined with Hermeticism in the Renaissance. We will establish why astrology is so important in the magical art. Most importantly we will look for The Great Secret of Hermetic-kabbalistic philosophy. This is the "Why" of Magick. This is the Holy Grail that we search for. This is the reason we dedicate our lives to an art that destroys the fools, and makes the wise immortal. I doubt that you have ever heard anything like this before. Tune in and we will open the pathway to enlightenment. Nosce te Ipsum -- Tu es Deus.

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Alexandria: Birthplace of the Western Esoteric Tradition

The Hermetic Hour will feature a discussion by host Poke Runyon on the 1st century " Alexandria Connection" where the elements that make up the Western Esoteric Tradition (Hermetic Tradition) came together and began the synthesis that was finally codified by Abbott Trithemius and Cornelius Agrippa in the 16th century. We will trace the Pythagorean, Ancient Egyptian, Gnostic, NeoPlatonic, Biblical (kabbalistic), Alchemical, Astrological, and even Christian influences that were shuffled together in a spiritual-intellectual ferment in what was perhaps the greatest university our Western world could boast of until the modern "Age of Enlightenment." We have dealt with this subject before, but this time we will focus on the particular people and their traditions: Alexander (Himself), Ptolemy the astrologer king, Hypatia the Pagan martyr, Hermes Trismegistus, and Marcus and Simon Magus. We will touch on the Greek Qabalah, the Osiris myth, and the influence of Zoroaster. So, if you have a burning desire to visit the Library of Alexandria, join us -- but no smoking inside, please...

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Tangled Lodges & Secret Ops: The Early OTA Years

The Hermetic Hour will continue with Poke Runyon's informal history of C.H.S./O.T.A., introducing Louis T. Culling, Israel Regardie, Grady McMurtry, and our intrigues with the nascent O.T.O. that was reforming after Jack Parsons blew himself up. We will also discuss our secret war on terrorists in Los Angeles, the Themis War, and the development of our Seasonals, and our yoga system. So tune in, turn on, and get ready to return to the thrilling days of yester-year. (like the Lone Ranger....)

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Born of Psychedelia: The Secret Origins of the Order of the Temple of Astarte

The Hermetic Hour host Poke Runyon will feature an informal history of the Order of the Temple of Astarte (O.T.A.) and The Church of the Hermetic Sciences. We'll cover the whole story, from the psychedelic era of the late 1960s through the early 70s, and on into 80s and 90s. We'll try to be honest without getting too gossipy---but we can't avoid some controversial events and personalities. You'll meet Israel Regardie and Grady McMurtry, along with Louis T. Culling, Fred Adams, and Joe Wilson. We'll cover the birth of The Seventh Ray, and the Themis War. This will be a mixture of nostalgia and tradition. Most 21st century NeoPagans and magicians have no idea who started---and in some case revived---all this activity back in the late 60s. This will be a revelation for some, and nostalgia for others. Don't miss it.

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Journey a Million Miles Between Your Ears

Hermetic Hour host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on Scrying and Traveling in the Spirit Vision. The essential difference between these modes of visionary experience will be explained. We'll set forth the ancient and modern philosophical and practical magical field theory -- which is not any further "out" than some current theories of quantum physics. We'll describe what happens in scrying, as in angelic crystal invocation, and spirit evocation in mirrors, compared to traveling in the spirit vision, as in "astral projection," such as pathworkings and Enochian Aethyr exploration. We'll explain the importance of yoga and self-hypnosis in these techniques -- and answer any questions you have on the topic -- so, tune in and you'll learn how to journey a million miles between your ears.

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The Holy Guardian Angel Retreat: A Practical Guide

The Hermetic Hour's host Poke Runyon will discuss the concept, history, and current application of attaining "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel." This is actually a world-wide practice, and an essential stage in the development of any shaman or magician. All serious magical students should make contact with their own guardian spirit. In the Western Tradition this is typified by the medieval "Book of Abramelin," in which a kabbalistic magician gives his son detailed instructions on how to conduct a year-long (or longer) devotional retreat in order to acquire blessings, wisdom and power from his Holy Guardian Angel so that he can become the master of all spirits, good and evil. This book had a profound influence on Samuel Mathers, Aleister Crowley and Franz Bardon. Cagliostro even had a 41 day version of it in his Egyptian Masonry. In the O.T.A. we require a three-day version of it as developed in Charles Russell's G.B.G. system. We have the anchorite do 22 rituals; one for each path on the Tree of Life during his or her stay in the Temple. A record is kept, and a juice fast is maintained. As far as we know, we are the only magical system in the West that has such a requirement at the present time. We place this in our third degree, as a prerequisite to advancement into the Inner Degrees of the Crata Repoa. If done correctly this can be one of the most profound spiritual experiences of a lifetime. I will share with you some of my retreat experiences, and visionary knowings. I will suggest the "dos" and the "do nots" for those of you who might want to try it on your own --- however, this is an intense, and demanding procedure which requires health, strength, maturity and self-discipline to accomplish. It should be properly supervised. So, turn on, tune in, and let's climb the Holy Mountain together.

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Summoning in the Triangle: A Step-by-Step Guide

The Hermetic Hour's host Poke Runyon will guide you, step-by-step through the entire procedure of summoning a Goetic Spirit to visible appearance in Solomon's Triangle of Art. We are not going to actually get something to appear on your computer screen (although we might do that next year....), but we will give all the necessary explanations and instruction necessary to perform such an operation -- the catch is, you first have to train yourself in the skills and internalize the rituals we are describing, so this is like someone telling you exactly how to sky down the north face of the Matterhorn. In other words, you can imagine how exciting it is, but you have at least a year's work ahead before you can do it. But then, who knows... you might have some interesting dreams... So, tune in, turn on, and let's see what appears in a glass darkly. fWWTq9Yx5aYuHAm2Vxtx

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Bringing Cosmic Power Down Through the Four Qabalistic Worlds

Host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the Spheres of Malkuth and Yesod in the Hermetic Yoga system. We will develop the Western concept of bringing down cosmic power through the four worlds of the qabalah, the Cube of Space in the human head, with Saturn in Da'ath. How to awaken The Dragon (the Western kundalini). Seed letters, Roses and jewels of the psychic centers (chakras) and envisioning the Gods Within will be explored. This will be a workshop session, so tune in, turn on, and go deep with in yourself---and on to the Greater Self Beyond.

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Listen to My Voice: A Guided Lesson in Self-Hypnosis

Host Poke Runyon will teach you how to hypnotize yourself -- and get started in Hermetic yoga. We will cover theory and practice, and demonstrate some induction techniques ......"Listen to my voice....You are completely relaxed....." and so on. Then on to pranayama, yoganindra, tratakam, and samadi. It's really not as complicated as it sounds, but the jargon is intimidating. Tune in and let us entrance you

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Creative Visualization for Magical Results

Hermetic Hour host Poke Runyon will discuss Creative Visualization, one of the essential techniques of magick. Starting with the theory of Platonic preform images vs. the kabbalah's magick of the Word, and the number, we will move on to explain the highly developed Tibetan tantric imagery and its effects. We'll give examples of successful creative visualizations (ours and others). We will discuss how people visualize, and how they can train themselves to control the process. The use of magical color will be explained. We will mention works by Franz Bardon, William G. Gray, Ophiel and others. We will discuss our particular methods and their applications. Tune in and get the picture.

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Secrets of the Purple People: Phoenicians & the Hermetic Tradition

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the ancient Phoenicians and the Hermetic Tradition. This follows last week's review of "Jesus the Phoenician" by Karim el Koussa. The references for this evening's discussion will be the recent "Phoenician Secrets" by Sandford Holst and "The Phoenicians, the Purple Empire of the Ancient World" by Gerald Herm, Our focus will be on Phoenician contributions to, and influence on, Western occultism and magick. It has recently been established that the Phoenician culture is one of the oldest in the world. It's roots go back nine thousand years. The Phoenicians were building and sailing ocean-going ships long before the Pyramids were built. The first pyramid was built by European architects brought from Malta to Egypt by Phoenician contractors. The Phoenicians were very secretive about their business and their religion. We will discuss their astrological religion (the Labors of Hercules), their magical alphabet (the real origin of the Qabalah) and their possible connection with Atlantis. So, if you want to voyage with the Purple People on ancient seas, tune in and we'll hoist the mainsheet.

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Orphic Hymns: Guiding Souls Through the Celestial Spheres

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 Mithraites, and the Italian Renaissance Hermetics. Most recently 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 Eleusinian 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.

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"The Hermetic Link" a Review with Freeman Presson

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a review on a very important recent book on the Hermetic Tradition by Dutch author Jacob Slavenburg titled: "The Hermetic Link." Reviewing this book will be a team effort between the host and our esteemed guest Frater Ophis (Freeman Presson) who beat us to the punch and reviewed Slavenburg's book on his website two years ago. How did we miss it? No excuse because it should not have been missed. Certainly there have been other surveys of the Hermetic Tradition, usually combined with other related elements such as Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, magick, etc. but this is the best and most complete tracing of the great Hermetic Gnosis from ancient Egypt, through Alexandria, Harran, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the so-called "Enlightenment" and the present modern age. Slavenburg takes us from Zosimus to the Kybalion in a sympathetic, very thoughtful and comfortably philosophical style. He quotes Peter Kingsley ("Reality") frequently and does as good a job as Kingsley in getting across the deepest meaning of the Hermetic Mystery (the Great I AM) - perhaps he does it better in that he uses excerpts from Hermes to reveal the treasure we ardent Hermetic devotees hold so dear, whereas Kingsley in Reality depended on pre-Hermetic Parmenides and Empedocles. If all this is Greek to you, it shouldn't be and Slavenburg goes a long way toward establishing the true and enduring magnificence of our venerable Tradition. Tune in and get yourself Hermetically sealed. (Preserved for the next incarnation.)

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Marcus the Valentinian: Father of Greek Kabbalah and the Soma Sophia

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.

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The Naassene Document

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.

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The Mystery of Melchizedek

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present a discussion on the Biblical mystery man Melchizedek who appears in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, and later in the New Testament. Melchizedek literally means King and Priest or Priest-King. He was said to have given the first communion to Abraham in the days before Joseph became a leader in Egypt. Although legendary he was said to have established an order of priesthood to rival that of Moses brother Aaron. He represented the original Canaanite god El ("the most High God") whereas Aaron's priesthood was that of Moses' Jehovah (Yahweh). After the Babylonian captivity Ezra attempted to overwrite all references to El in the Bible and make Jehovah the supreme being. The New testament declares twice that Jesus the Nazareen is a priest after the Order of Melchizedek -- We will look at this in relation to the Egyptian and Phoenician situation at the time and later Gnostic Christian writings. So if you want to do some Biblical detective work tune in and we'll solve the mystery.

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Rosicrucian Yoga

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present the the modern yoga ritual version of the Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. This is the fully developed Rosicrucian version of Hermetic Yoga Beyond the Middle Pillar as presented in volume one of Hermetic Yoga, Beyond the Middle Pillar. This advanced version, draws upon The Naassene Document, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Mary, the Chemical Wedding itself, and the works of Jacob Boehme and Johann Gichtel. This reveals that the Ninth Degree of the O.T.O. and the Great Rite of the Gardnerians are both derived from original Valentinian Gnostic Christian sources. So if you want to experience some R-rated Rosicrucian yoga, tune in and we'll take you into the mirrored chamber of the Sacred Marriage

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The Splendor Solis (1582)

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.

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The Chemical Wedding, Part 2: Symbols of Internal Alchemy

The Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will present the second part of The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz by Valentin Andreae 1616, followed by an interpretation of the symbolism in relation to internal alchemy, the extended Middle Pillar chakra system and Valentinian Gnostic Christianity. We will describe the Sacred Marriage within the adept him/or/herself as an analog to the operations on the Sixth Day in the Tower of Olympus. We will refer to works by Jacob Boehme, The creation of the Magical Child, Johann Gichtel and the mysteries of the Spiral and the Lightning Flash. And the Homunculus of Paracelsus. This is the lost Key to Rosicrucian Sex Magick and the ultimate secret of the Hieros Gamos. Tune in and be enlightened.

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