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 Kieren 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 Phoenician, 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 Gnostic Christian Marcus - the First Rosicrucian? 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.