Manly Palmer Hall

Manly Palmer Hall (March 18, 1901 – August 29, 1990) was a 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, published in 1928.

Born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada in 1901, the Hall family moved to the United States in 1904. In 1919, Manly settled in Los Angeles, CA. Hall was a member of a number of societies: Theosophy, Freemasonry, the Societas Rosecruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis, and the American Federation of Astrologers.

After writing his first book, The Initiates of the Flame, in 1922, Hall began collecting rare books on the mystery schools and esoteric philosophy to begin assembling the text for a magnum opus of occult history. During this time he also travelled extensively in Europe, Asia and Egypt.

In 1923, Hall was ordained a minister by the Los Angeles-based Church of the People, an occult / metaphysical congregation. As the leader of the Church of the People, Hall started a magazine titled ” The All Seeing Eye.”

By 1928, after 6 years of work and raising $100,000 for the first edition, Manly Hall finally published what has become a valuable classic for those who want to learn about the history of the occult and the “Ancient Wisdom” mystery schools: The Secret Teachings of All Ages.

A quarter of a century later, the sheer breadth and scope of the work remains impressive: “pythagorean mathematics; alchemical formulae; Hermetic doctrine; the workings of the Kabala; the geometry of Ancient Egypt; the Native American myths; the uses of cryptograms; an analysis of the Tarot; the symbols of Rosacrucianism; the esotericism of the Shakespearean dramas – these are just a few of Hall’s topics.” – Mitch Horowitz

Freemasonry
Raised as a Mason on 22 November 1954 into Jewel Lodge No. 374 , San Francisco. He later received his 32° in the Valley of San Francisco AASR (SJ). Hall was bestowed with the honorary 33º of Scottish Rite Masonry, at a ceremony held at the Philosophical Research Society (PRS) on December 8,1973.

In his over 70-year career, Hall delivered approximately 8,000 lectures in the United States and abroad, authored over 150 books and essays, and wrote countless magazine articles.

Philosophical Research Society
In 1934, Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society (PRS) in Los Angeles, California, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the study of religion, mythology, metaphysics, and the occult. PRS maintains a research library of over 50,000 volumes, and also sells and publishes metaphysical and spiritual books, mostly those authored by Hall.