by Robert Wilkinson
Today would have been the 120th birthday of the amazing sage Manly P. Hall.
There are few greater lights of the 20th Century than Manly P. Hall (March 18, 1901 – August 29, 1990). An amazing renaissance man, he was the consummate artist-philosopher and prolific author of more books than most read in a lifetime on some of the most amazing topics you could ever read.
His works include The Secret Teachings of All Ages, to Man – Grand Symbol of the Mysteries and Astrology, Kabbala, and the esoteric history of the US. From Wikipedia,
Hall delved deeply into "teachings of lost and hidden traditions, the golden verses of Hindu gods, Greek philosophers and Christian mystics, and the spiritual treasures waiting to be found within one's own soul." Less than a year later, Hall booked his first lecture, and the topic was reincarnation.A tall (6', 4"), imposing, confident and charismatic speaker who soon took over as preacher of the Church of the People in 1919, he read voraciously on "comparative religion, philosophy, sociology and psychology," and "seemingly overnight . . . became a one-stop source of an astonishing range of eclectic spiritual material that resonates with the intellect, and the subconscious...."
After The Secret Teachings of All Ages was published, "Hall's life would never be the same," noted a biographer. "Overnight, he went from being just another earnest young preacher in the City of Angels to becoming an icon of the increasingly influential metaphysical movement sweeping the country in the 1920s. His book challenged assumptions about society's spiritual roots and made people look at them in new ways." Hall dedicated The Secret Teachings of All Ages to "the proposition that concealed within the emblematic figures, allegories and rituals of the ancients is a secret doctrine concerning the inner mysteries of life, which doctrine has been preserved in toto among a small band of initiated minds." As one writer put it: "The result was a gorgeous, dreamlike book of mysterious symbols, concise essays and colorful renderings of mythical beasts rising out of the sea, and angelic beings with lions' heads presiding over somber initiation rites in torch-lit temples of ancestral civilizations that had mastered latent powers beyond the reach of modern man."
Manly P Hall, the world is a better place for you having been here. You were a “philosopher’s philosopher,” a Master of many fields of the Ageless Wisdom, and an inspiration to me when I was much younger and trying to figure it all out. Thanks for everything, and may you celebrate your life here, wherever you are in the Heavenworld of Devachan. Aum Namah Shivaya!
For more about this remarkable man for the Ages, please take a new look at the article Manly P. Hall on "Self-Unfoldment By Disciplines of Realization" (which is one of my favorite books of all time!)
© Copyright 2021 Robert Wilkinson
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