On Thursday May 4th, 2017 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon will

review and discuss "The Red Goddess" (2007) and "Lucifer Princeps"

(2015) by Thelemic magician Peter Grey. The Red Goddess is devoted to

establishing the history and mystique of the Thelemic composite pagan

goddess "Babalon", which he correctly derives from Ishtar and Astarte.

This evolution is for the most part well-researched and well reasoned

from a Thelemic perspective, although Grey is critical of Crowley and

seems to think that Babylon is too good for the Beast. Most importantly

he supports the Divine feminine in magical religion. In "Lucifer

Princeps" he does the same for Lucifer on the male side of the magical

religious pantheon. In this case he works from Isaiah back to the Book

of Enoch, correctly concluding that Lucifer was originally Semyaza and

of Canaanite origin. With the exception of his interest in Simon Magus

Grey seems to ignore the early Christian Gnostic contributions to Magick

but his books are nonetheless readable and thought provoking -- so tune

in and we shall look at our magical history through a glass darkly.