On Thursday February 22nd, 2018 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon

will present a discussion on the life and career of the 18th century

magician and alchemical adept who called himself  Count Alessandro

Cagliostro. He was perhaps the most colorful and adventurous character

in our Hermetic tradition. Vilified as a rogue, a scoundrel, and a

charlatan by the academy and the Church in Europe he was loved by the

common people for his healing touch and alchemical medicines which he

administered freely to the poor, and dearly to the rich. He claimed to

be able to create gold to support his charity work and lavish life

style. He and his glamorous wife Lorenza founded an androgynous 

quasi-Masonic Egyptian rite which allegedly involved nudity and sex

magick. Cagliostro was featured as an anti-hero in a series of novels by

Alexander Dumas, and depicted on film by Orson Welles in the (1949 )

movie classic BLACK MAGIC. We will consult Sax Rhomer's ROMANCE of

SORCERY ( 1914 ) for a more accurate version of the Count's adventures

than Dumas' novels and the screenplay offer -- so if you'd like to meet

the real Count Cagliostro, tune in and we'll follow him on his journey

as he invented himself.