Manly P Hall
PEOPLE | 1901 - 1990
Manly Palmer Hall was a Canadian-born author, lecturer, and mystic who dedicated his professional life to exploring and disseminating knowledge of ancient esoteric philosophies, symbolism, and mystical traditions.
Over a career spanning seven decades, he authored numerous volumes and delivered extensive public lectures, emphasising perennial wisdom and ethical self-improvement without requiring formal academic credentials or institutional affiliation. His work synthesised doctrines drawn from global ancient sources, including Masonic, Hermetic, Kabbalistic, and Rosicrucian traditions.
Early Life and Education
Manly Palmer Hall received no formal education beyond the elementary level, equivalent to sixth grade. He instead cultivated an autodidactic method, engaging in voracious self-directed reading of philosophical, religious, occult, and mystical texts from his youth. During his adolescence in the 1910s, he developed nascent fascinations with esoteric subjects, including Theosophy and Rosicrucianism. These pursuits reflected his emerging view of occult knowledge as a means to formulate a coherent personal philosophy amid familial instability.
In 1919, at the age of 18, Hall moved to Los Angeles, California, where he began public speaking on occult and philosophical themes. In 1922, he began regular speaking engagements at the Church of the People in downtown Los Angeles, initially serving as a temporary pastor before being ordained as a minister on March 17, 1923, making him the permanent pastor.
Philosophical and Esoteric Foundations
Hall's worldview was profoundly shaped by ancient Greek esoteric traditions, particularly the Pythagorean teachings on numerology, cosmic order, and transmigration influenced his moral discipline. Platonic idealism, including the concept of eternal forms, formed a cornerstone of his synthesis of wisdom traditions. Additional foundational pillars included Hermeticism and Kabbalism, which he explored as vehicles for hidden knowledge through the Emerald Tablet and the Tree of Life. Eastern philosophies, such as Vedantic non-dualism and Buddhist doctrines of karma, also entered his framework, emphasising cycles of rebirth.
Hall maintained a commitment to Perennialism , positing a timeless core of wisdom threading through disparate cultures and eras. He revered Helena Blavatsky and respected her synthesis of comparative mysticism.
He formulated a core tenet that symbolism functions as the primary language of ancient mystery schools, encoding spiritual laws and universal principles inaccessible through purely empirical or literal analysis. Symbols bridge the material and immaterial realms, enabling initiates to intuit deeper truths.
Hall rejected God, not finding the philosophical depth in Protestantism, he fell for heresy and Satanic rebellion. He assailed Materialism as a limiting doctrine that constrained human potential by dismissing transcendent faculties.
His philosophy culminated in promoting a socialist United Nations programme.
The ultimate meaning of his extensive mystical discussions was just to adopt a socialist United Nations program. His work, such as The Secret Destiny of America, sought to establish a new order of world ethics founded on democratic idealism, which he philosophises into a religion where democracy is the god.
This framework recognised the necessity of conceiving the world as one interdependent structure, a move towards global government (Globalism). He presented a utopianism based on the idea that educating people enough would enable them to make the right decisions and eliminate war. This proposition, however, is a classic error, as high IQ and education have no necessary connection with virtue.
Hall asserted that world democracy was the secret dream of the classical philosophers. This assertion is simply not the case, as philosophers like Plato and Aristotle opposed democracy. Hall believed democracy was an ancient way of thinking handed down from Atlantis to Egypt to Greece. He identified Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh, as the world's first democrat, humanitarian, and internationalist, an assertion that is ludicrous.
Major Works and Institutional Career
Hall produced minor publications early in his career, beginning with pamphlets such as The Breastplate of the High Priestin 1920. He also launched his own All Seeing Eye Journal in 1923.
His defining achievement was the self-publication of The Secret Teachings of All Ages in 1928, at the age of 27. The comprehensive encyclopaedic outline synthesised doctrines of Alchemy, Astrology, Freemasonry, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, and ancient mystery religions. The original edition spanned approximately 550 pages and included over 200 black-and-white illustrations and a 16-page colour insert, making it a lavishly produced volume. The endeavour was privately financed, reportedly costing between $100,000 and $150,000, and released at a retail price of $100 per copy.
In 1934, Hall established the Philosophical Research Society (PRS) as a nonprofit institution in Los Angeles, California. The PRS was aimed at advancing research, education, and publication in esoteric philosophy and comparative religion. Hall served as its president until his death in 1990. The construction of PRS's permanent headquarters began in 1935. Under his guidance, the society amassed a library of rare volumes, including manuscripts and occult texts, supporting independent scholarship and fostering public access to philosophical resources.
Esoteric Affiliations and Controversies
Hall developed early ties to Rosicrucian circles through an apprenticeship with Max Heindel of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. He lectured at various Theosophical lodges and revered Helena Blavatsky, but he avoided formal membership in the Theosophical Society to maintain scholarly autonomy.
Hall was initiated as an Entered Apprentice on June 28, 1954, and raised to Master Mason on November 22, 1954, at Jewel Lodge No. 374 in San Francisco. He subsequently affiliated with the Scottish Rite, receiving the honorary 33rd degree on December 8, 1973, in recognition of his philosophical contributions. His pre-membership writings continued to draw scrutiny, with critics arguing that his speculative claims, such as unverified links to ancient Egyptian origins, lacked insider knowledge.
Personal Life and Demise
Hall married Fay B. de Ravenne, his secretary, on April 28, 1930. The union was reportedly unhappy, and de Ravenne died by suicide on July 17, 1941. On December 5, 1950, he married Marie Schweikert Bauer. This marriage lasted until his death, though accounts of the relationship vary, ranging from devoted companionship to emotional abuse. Hall produced no children from either marriage.
He maintained a disciplined routine centred on scholarly research, writing, and the administration of the PRS. He promoted a Quiet Way of modest existence, prioritising inner development.
Manly P. Hall died on August 29, 1990, in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 89, from natural causes while asleep. He signed his will six days before his death, directing the bulk of his estate, including intellectual property and rare books, to the Philosophical Research Society.
Legacy and Cultural Impact
Hall’s emphasis on Perennialism have a keen audience with The Anglo-American Establishment on account of it's metaphysical nature, without acknowledging God by His name. Likewise, Hall's efforts to democratise esoteric knowledge by presenting complex subjects in accessible formats has proved useful to Fabianism types. His core text, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, remains in print, sustaining its role in esoteric education. The Philosophical Research Society endures as a repository for esoteric research and a library of over 100,000 volumes.
The politician Ronald Reagan was a follower of Hall and his esoteric teachings and was inspired by his books. Reagan repeated a legend laid out in Hall's work about a mysterious hooded writer who came to motivate the founders to sign the Declaration of Independence.
Hall’s approach to esoteric knowledge systems, drawing on vast, often contradictory, sources to reach a predetermined conclusion about a democratic global order, functions like a highly decorated stage magician. The elaborate props (Kabbalah, Freemasonry, Atlantis, Akhenaten) serve to build anticipation, but the trick (the revelation that the meaning of all the mystical performance is merely to adopt a socialist UN agenda) is ultimately an anti-climax that reveals the mechanism was engineered for a mundane, political end.