On Thursday September 18th, 2014 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon

will present a discussion on the career and contributions of Marcus the Valentinian (died 175 a.d.). Marcus was as much a Hermetic as he was a

Gnostic Christian. The Church Fathers accused him of being more Pythagorean than Christian. He was the developer of the Soma Sophia system of celestial Greek qabalah which we have decoded and perfected (see The Seventh Ray, Book III ) and, according to Kiren Barry Marcus had an influence of the creation of the later Sepher Yetzirah. Marcus developed some of the basic concepts of what became the qabalah. Marcus was a Phonecian, influenced by the earlier Samaritan Simon Magus. Like Simon Marcus had a Priestess whom he venerated as an equal. He gave communion with his priestess by his side and turned water into wine at the altar. The early Church Fathers considered this blasphemous.

Marcus's cult spread from the Middle East to Southern France in the days

before Constantine force-reformed Christianity. So, if you want to explore the most ancient origins of what we call "The Western Tradition," then tune in and we will spend an hour with a man who may have been the first Rosicrucian.