The Secret Teachings of All Ages

Manly Palmer Hall (1901 –1990) was a Canadian-born author and mystic. He is perhaps most famous for his 1928 work The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Born on March 18, 1901 in Peterborough, Ontario [1], he was raised by his maternal grandmother who brought him to the United States when he was very young.

In 1928, at the age of 27 years, Hall published The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy.

In 1934, Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society (PRS) in Los Angeles, California, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the study of religion, mythology, metaphysics, and the occult. He was also the author of a masonic curiosity, The Lost Keys of Freemasonry in 1923, more than thirty years before he joined a lodge. The preface of later editions states "At the time I wrote this slender volume, I had just passed my twenty-first birthday, and my only contact with Freemasonry was through a few books commonly available to the public." Later, in 1944, he wrote The Secret Destiny of America which popularized the myth of a masonic purpose for the founding of the USA. In 1950 he weighed in again on the meaning of Freemasonry with his booklet: Masonic Orders of Fraternity.

Many people were charmed by his childhood memories from his book “Growing up with Grandmother”.

Hall spent decades researching eastern philosophy, occult studies, astrology, and a wide variety of related topics at a time when such subjects were still unknown territory in the western world. It is in no small measure due to his extensive writings and teachings that these subjects are so widely known today.

“To learn is to live, to study is to grow, and growth is the measurement of life. The mind must be taught to think, the heart to feel, and the hands to labor. When these have been educated to their highest point, then is the time to offer them to the service of their fellowman, not before.”

“My fleeting contact with high finance resulted in serious doubts concerning business as it was being conducted at that time. It was apparent that materialism was in complete control of the economic structure, the final objective of which was for the individual to become part of a system providing an economic security at the expense of the human soul, mind, and body. I felt strongly moved to explore the problems of humanity, its origin and destiny, and I spent a number of quiet hours in the New York Public Library tracing the confused course of civilization. With a very few exceptions modern authorities downgraded all systems of idealistic philosophy and the deeper aspects of comparative religion, Translations of classical authors could differ greatly, but in most cases the noblest thoughts were eliminated or denigrated. Those more sincere authors whose knowledge of ancient languages was profound were never included as required reading, and scholarship was based largely upon the acceptance of a sterile materialism. Fortunately, since contemporary scholarship had little regard for the wisdom of the past, there was no premium on the earlier texts As a result I assembled a fair collection of the works of those forgotten sages to whose labors the world owes a tremendous debt of gratitude.”

Wisdom is taught to realize that man is not essentially a personality, but a spirit.~Manly P. Hall

[1] City of Peterborough
Peterborough, Ontario - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
C.L.P.O.A. ~ Chandos Lake Property Owners Association - Apsley, Ontario