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Manly Palmer Hall (March 18, 1901 - August 29, 1990) was a prolific Canadian-born author and mystic. He is perhaps most famous for his work The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, which is widely regarded as his magnum opus, and which he published at the age of twenty five; the first line of which is, "Philosophy is the science of estimating values."

In one chapter of The Secret Teachings of All Ages he discusses the mystical and occult qualities of Pythagorean mathematics. He talks about the ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras (circa 382 BC-circa 307 BC) and the secret brotherhood known as the Pythagoreans that he started and how they influenced Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry.

He has been widely recognized as a leading scholar in the fields of religion, mythology, mysticism, and the occult.

Carl Jung, when writing Psychology and Alchemy, borrowed material from Hall's private collection.

In 1934 Manly P. Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, California, dedicating it to an idealistic approach to the solution of human problems. The PRS claims to be non-sectarian and entirely free from educational, political, or ecclesiastical control, the Society's programs stress the need for the integration of philosophy, religion, and science into one system of instruction. The PRS Library, a public facility devoted to source materials in obscure fields, has many rare and scarce items now impossible to obtain elsewhere.

In 1973 Mr. Hall was recognized as a 33º Mason (the highest rank possible in the Scottish Rite), at a ceremony held at PRS on December 8th.

In his long career, spanning more than seventy years of dynamic public activity, Mr. Hall delivered over 7,500 lectures in the United States and abroad, authored over 150 books and essays, and wrote countless magazine articles.

Works

• Selected Major Works
  • The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928 www PRS Considered his magnum opus, originally published in an expensive, lavishly-illustrated edition, the Secret Teachings was venerated by occultists but little known to the general public. However, seventy-five years after its initial appearance, the Secret Teachings was made available for the first time to the broader reading public. The book covers a wide range of broadly esoteric topics, including Pythagoreanism, alchemy, Hermetic doctrine, the Kabala, Ancient Egyptian Mystery doctrines, Native American myths, cryptograms, the Tarot, and Rosicrucianism.
  • Other Books & texts
    • LECTURES ON ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY: An Introduction to Practical Ideals
    • The Adepts Series PRS
      • Classical Tradition, Part One: The Initiates of Greece and Rome
      • Classical Tradition, Part Two: Mystics and Mysteries of Alexandria
      • Western Tradition, Part One: Orders of the Quest—The Holy Grail
      • Western Tradition, Part Two: Orders of the Great Work—Alchemy
      • Western Tradition, Part Three: Orders of the Universal Reformation—Utopias
      • Western Tradition, Part Four: Masonic Orders of Fraternity
      • Western Tradition, Part Five: America's Assignment with Destiny
      • Eastern Tradition, Part One: The Light of the Vedas
      • Eastern Tradition, Part Two: Arhats of Buddhism
      • Eastern Tradition, Part Three: The Sages of China
      • Eastern Tradition, Part Four: The Mystics of Islam
      • Eastern Tradition, Part Five: Venerated Teachers of the Jains, Sikhs, and Parsis
  • Lady of Dreams: A fable in the manner of the Chinese (Los Angeles 1943)
  • THE BLESSED ANGELS: A Monograph
  • Lectures on Ancient Philosophy—An Introduction to the Study and Application of Rational Procedure, The Hall Publishing Company, Los Angeles, First Edition 1929, Rosicrucian and Masonic Origins (chapter 19)
  • Preface to The Fable of Cupid & Psyche
  • Preface to The Hymns of Orpheus
  • Preface to OCELLUS LUCANUS “On the Nature of the Universe” & Extracts from Taurus, Julius Firmicus Maternus and Proclus
  • Preface to SALLUST “On the Gods & the World” and Other Works
  • Preface The Devolution and Evolution of Astrology to Augusta Foss Heindel's Astrology and the Ductless Glands www
  • Introduction to Max Heindel's Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine, 1933 www
• Essays
  • ATLANTIS, An Interpretation
  • Symbolic Essays
  • Noah and His Wonderful Ark www

Notes

1. Manly P. Hall's Obituary, Scottish Rite Journal, November, 1990, p. 22. .

References

• Library of Congress holdings
• Philosophical Research Society biography.
• The Lost Keys of Freemasonry.
• The Secret Teachings of All Ages, online.

• 1901 births
• 1990 deaths
• American occult writers
• Esotericists
• Hermeticism
• Masonic scholars
• Theosophists
• Western mystics