On Thursday September 25th, 2014 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 Mythraites, 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 Elusinian 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.