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.