The Hermetic Hour

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 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 nightmareish doubleplusungood (Stalinistic) tyrany 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 enoble 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 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 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 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 Alphabet from his modern classic "The White Goddess." Adams delineated and extended Graves' twenty Celtic Ogham glyphs into a twenty-four letter system that he mounted on a series of Hermetic Enneasphere mandalas coordinating them with the Trees, the Tarot Trumps, astrological and planetary signs, and myth themes. Jo Carson reconstructed the system from Fred's rudimentary publications, notes and graphics. We have experimented with the Oracle and found it to be remarkably accurate and inspiring. So join us as we explore the divinatory magick of an American master as revealed by his worthy successor.

On Thursday June 16th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon willl 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 allignments 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 inormation, 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 Modal on Panape 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 fantastic alien being that resembles an animated and illuminated kabbalistic Tree of Life. It is called “The Dweller” or “The Shining One” – a beautiful, alluring vampiric creature that stalks human prey, harvesting and feeding on their souls. The Dweller or Shining One is worshiped as a god by a faction of the Murians, who are as evil as their diety and are plotting to conquer the surface world. Into this setting come a group of adventurers from our world – so we can have a hero and a heroine to save both worlds ( love conquers all) -- and someone to tell the story. That, as the Irish say, is the gist of it. But there is a lot more behind the scenes in Moon Pool than just a good story. So If you want to learn the horrible secret of the Shining One then tune in and listen as we open the door to The Moon Pool.