Manly P. Hall (1901–1990)

Here I go again, putting up a review based on initial impressions. I'm not even 100 pages in.

My first impulse was to crow "hoo-boy, here is a dopey-ass book," but I think I'll half resist that impulse. For now.

This looks like it will be a good compendium of weird sh*t -- which is, really, what I'd hoped for. I didn't pick this up thinking I'd ultimately wind up an initiate into gosh-darn bona fide mystical knowledge. My initial impression of Hall is that he's kind of a latter-day Pliny the show more Elder. Pliny sorta stuffed everything he could find into his vast Naturalis Historia, appearing (at least) to pretty much credit everything he heard as true. Hall shows a similar tendency to just accept stuff as long as it furthers his mission.

So if you're looking for rigorous scholarship, you won't find it here. Rigorous scholars do not cite the Encyclopedia Britannica (which is not, despite appearances, a knock on the E. B.), nor do they blandly accept that Atlantis was a real thing, at least not without giving good reasons for it. My own belief is that rigorous scholarship would have shown Hall that most of the stuff he was presenting was downright goofy.

Still, as I've already pretty much said, compendia of weird sh*t are not gonna get sneezed at -- not by me. Just know what you're getting into, here.

UPDATE: I'm having qualms about continuing with this book. There's just so much bland averral of outlandish crap as fact I can take. Every time Hall comes out with something really nutty, like a statement that the Great Pyramid is some tens of thousands of years old, my eyes do an uncomfortable dance, and I find myself dreaming of actual coherent argument.

UPDATE UPDATE: yeah, this book is sitting on my head, but I'm close enough to being done with it that I can't feature tossing it aside. A couple of the more egregious things (in my opinion) that Hall does here: 1) he tries to mash everything together, to ... well, have everything connect to everything else, so that all the contributions of different cultures feed into this ... one big overall 'thing'. This is insulting, though not so insulting as, say, Erich Von Daniken's claim that ancient cultures were too stupid to do stuff without the help of 'ancient astronauts.' 2) OMFG he is one of those people who think Shakespeare couldn't have written Shakespeare! If I had known this earlier, I might have thrown this volume against the wall. show less

This one I acquired with the massive lot I inherited from my late Uncle Joe. I am not a believer in the occult or any mode of religious thought though I like to read such works on occasion. This one is really far-out man. It is a hodge-podge collection of beliefs cobbled from Hinduism, Egyptian myth, Christianity, and medieval European lore on witchcraft including bits from classical literature such as Dante, Milton and even a definite influence from Blavatsky especially found in the show more repeated references to Atlantis. Of course, I’m assuming more Blavatsky’s version than Plato’s (unfortunately). All of this has some terms ripped from science & astronomy at the time (1920s) thrown into the mix.
There are a (very) few tidbits that I find relevant such as on page 24 item #47 the last sentence which reads:
As of old, so today, the cry is seldom “Save souls,” but is usually “Show us miracles.”
Then other parts of the text can be taken the wrong way (if they weren’t meant in that context already that is) such as Item #59 which refers to the “Brown Man” who was “ordained to labor in the fields” and the “Black Man” described as “the creature born into slavery”. Yikes.
There are other questionable passages in the text such as Item #90 that strikes me as slightly fascistic.
Our natures cannot be allowed to just grow, […] anymore than children can be allowed to run around promiscuously and then be expected to amount to anything; they must be trained, and there must be a thorough understanding as to who is master and who is servant. [pg.37]
Granted this passage is in the section titled The Mechanics of Magic and is referring to the discipline of magic but the metaphor is a bit of a collar tugger but not out of place.
Then there’s Item#102 pg.41. It begins:
No man who is sick should be healed merely because he has an ailment. He should learn the lesson that accompanies the disease which he has brought upon himself. To affirm health is foolishness; to find out the reason for the ailment, make right the wrong and become healthy again, is wise and proper. To be so moderate, so wise, so thoughtful, as not to become sick, is still better philosophy.
The context is you shouldn’t use magic on people who do not specifically ask per item for it but it also places blame for illness which for the most part is just plain wrong. Then the rest of the passage runs with the contextual not really relating to what it has already put forth with the blame game. This is repeated throughout the book and items don’t necessarily relate to the previous or next item either. Again, this passage can be misconstrued and has been, unfortunately, a refrain from the American right and anti-vaxxers in general.
On the other hand, some of the rich imagery was really cool in my opinion. Also, the illustrations are really neat. I especially liked the image of the "Black Morning” at the beginning of time in the text. It sent my mind off in a million directions, so there’s that.
Overall, I’m not angry or disappointed that I read it, it was a fast read although its formatting diced up any sort of narrative momentum that could have been possible. I would only recommend this if you like reading esoterica such as 19th-century spiritualism & mysticism and belief in Atlantis. Otherwise, I can’t recommend this one. show less

I'm still slowly reading through The Secret Teachings of All Ages, about halfway through this gargantuan compendium of all things arcane in the disciplines of religious mythology and mystical religions, with their always intriguing ancient rites, symbols, and of course, "secret teachings". The book, I'm discovering, is really more of a reference work than a book to pick up and read from start to finish, though finish it I happily will.

The lengthy introduction provides abstracts of just about show more every philosophic movement in history, and serves as an excellent refresher course for students of philosophy. Someday I'd like to itemize the founders and features of each philosophy with maybe an abstract of my own, for later reference, just for fun.

I can't say I believe much of what I'm reading in this book, however, at least regarding the history and veracity of the ancient gnostic's vast (and complexly convoluted) underworld network of behind-the-scenes movers and shakers in world politics, religion, and thought.

The core conception of The Secret Teachings of All Ages -- that an "Elect" few denizens of ancient secret societies have existed from time immemorial, and are still operating today, covertly shaping and re-shaping and preserving in the process, through the eons, the world's major movements (and advances) in mathematics, the sciences, philosophies, and religions -- I find dubious at best. Too conspiratorial for my taste, like The Da Vinci Code. Guess I'm just a Doubting Tomás.

Nevertheless, as a fan of good books like Foucault's Pendulum -- that contain their own unique compendium of secret societies -- I'm inevitably fascinated by and attracted toward what Manly P. Hall has termed "The Mysteries" that are veiled within the symbolism and creeds and esoterica of secret societies.

Manly P. Hall authored somehow, what in less skilled hands might have become a tedious and too-recondite reference work, a remarkably readable tome. In fact, The Secret Teachings of All Ages is not just plain readable, but pretty darned unputdownable. show less

As always, I enjoy Manly P. Hall's works. I've slowly been making my way through all of them, and I may not always agree with his analysis, but I can say one thing: His knowledge is astounding, his heart is great, and while few people have the breadth of his understanding, he obviously holds no grudge, and gives everything he's got with an open hand. Granted, this field is rife with cooks, madmen, and aristocrats, and tens of thousands of really bad books have been based on these related show more fields of study, but at least THIS author can retain his sense of humor. :) I wish the world was full of his like. show less