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Poke Runyon, occult author and ceremonial magician of the Church of
the Hermetic Sciences, takes on a tour through his neo-pagan church's
beliefs, tackling the church's own version of Yoga, which combines Eastern
and Western influences, Pathworkings, which in my understanding is some
sort of Astral projection, the churches Seasonal Ceremonies, its very own
Eucharist, its secret hieroglyphes based on what's called the Enochian
Watchtowers, and a surreal bit on alchemy, but more about that below. The
main achievement of this film is that it sheds a very sober and unexcited
light on its subject matter, the Church of the Hermetic Sciences,
which is especially refreshing and informative after all the
sensationalist mumbojumbo the media usually feeds us with on the subject,
and it gives a matter-of-fact background to many crude horror films
dealing with 'black' magic and the like. One also cannot credit Poke
Runyon highly enough for not trying to advertise his religion, trying to
convert his audience to his faith - to an extent where I believe it's safe
to say that whoever wasn't interested in neo-pagan religions before
watching this won't be interested in them afterwards, neither. Instead,
Runyon just presents us with the facts his religion is based on, and while
many of these facts might be disputable, this is actually true for all
religions, neo-pagan or otherwise. All of this said, the
documentary as a whole might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's the
last segment about alchemism called Massa Confusa by avant garde
filmmaker Eric Bossick that makes the film worth the watch for a whole
different audience: Massa Confusa tells the story of a one-eyed man
who wants to use alchemy to grow a second eye and in the process attract a
dancing girl via surreal images incorporating many neo-pagan symbols, and
the result is a nightmare-like trip that's nothing short of fascinatging -
aqnd in a twisted way, this short in the context of the documentary also
shows that the Church of the Hermetic Sciences is even open to
(self-)irony - something that cannot be said about all that many
religions, right?
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