Carroll "Poke" Runyon

The Rites of Magick is a feature length (90 minute) dramatic documentary on the rites, ceremonies and meditative practices of America’s oldest continually operating Magical tradition: The Order of the Temple of Astarte in Southern California. The O.T.A. is the religious-fraternal order of The Church of the Hermetic Sciences incorporated in 1971. This production was filmed and video-recorded in temples, outdoor henges, and retreats of the Order from 1974 to the 21st century. It is divided into six chapters: Hermetic Yoga, Pathworkings, Seasonal Ceremonies, The Magical Eucharist, Enochian Watchtowers, and -- as a special bonus feature -- a surrealist Alchemical Fantasy from the talented avant-garde filmmaker Eric Bossick.

Anthropologist and Ceremonial Magician, Poke Runyon explains and demonstrates the authentic techniques of ancient Ritual Magick. Learn how to invoke Angels and evoke Spirits to visible appearance. Stand in the Magick Circle with Masters of the Art as they conjure the Spirits of Bael and Astaroth (Baal and Astarte) to visible appearance in the Dark Mirror upon Solomon's Triangle.

On January 3rd, 2001, documentary writer/producer Wayne Darwen brought a professional TV news crew into the Temple of the O.T.A. to visually record a remarkable event: the summoning of the ancient spirit Vassago. Only 13 days after the ritual was visually recorded, President Laurent Kabila of the Congo was assassinated! See the entire operation in sequence, exactly as it happened with no rehearsals and no retakes. This 2011 edition has ten more minutes of new footage with commentary on the Vassago Prophecy, as subsequently revealed in the following 2 years, plus a new prophecy from Vassago.