The Mysterious Case Of Manly Palmer Hall

12/23/2017

In my research into the world of the Occult over the last 10yrs (the minimum period of study before one can write on the subject I'm told), I've become somewhat attached to the writings/audio lectures of one it's leading notaries in particular, Manly Palmer Hall (1901-90). During this process of familiarisation I've come to understand that, if opposed in life by the creeds, philosophies, ambitions & actions of others (as we are), we must first become acquainted with these doctrines before openly coming out against them (as I am). Secondly, we must understand that in some respects they'll be in the right & we in the wrong & visa versa. Thirdly, the people in power today who are enslaving us in a one-world, sociological drover farm are doing so in the belief (according to their religion), that they are doing right thing by mankind. These things I learned from Bill Cooper. I'd add that there is much within the teachings of the Mystery Schools which I'm in agreement with, & it's those aspects of Manly Hall's work I'm most drawn to, because in truth, much of it is fascinating, insightful, helpful in our daily lives & in that respect, I for one am most appreciative, however, there are many aspects of it's teachings I don't agree with, I despise it's politics & elitism & have done everything in my power to try & alert as many people as I can to the lethal machinations of Manly Hall & his ilk. It may seem as if I'm being a touch hypocritical by saying that but I see it as symptomatic of our relationships with each other on earth, sometimes we're kind & sweet, sometimes cruel & murderous, it's always been this way, so one might liken the Mystery Schools say to an abusive parent, or perhaps......Brother?
In any event I for one am ready to grow out of it.
That said, it's with Manly Hall's life story we're concerned with here, as it amounts to quite an open-ended murder mystery story.

The only biography I can find on Hall is the 2008 hatchet job done by Los Angeles Times columnist Louis Sahagan; Master Of The Mysteries, The Life Of Manly Palmer Hall. As it's all I have it'll have to do as my main reference text. Sahagan's bio raises more questions than answers, Hall's birth & death are shrouded in mystery, as was much of his life, perhaps purposely so & unfortunately Mr Sahagan (evidently well read on Freemasonry) does nothing by way of effort to try & penetrate that veil although there are a few helpful pieces of information from which to glean a clearer picture, but not much.

When one listens to early (90's) Bill Cooper shows, he regularly quotes from documents eulogising Hall, 'Freemasonry's greatest philosopher' etc (Scottish Rite Magazine obituary - Sept 1990) to illustrate his points, however when I look for similar commendations today on the internet, usually Freemasonic websites (& Sahagan), they nearly all portray Hall as although being brilliant, regard him as a bit of a fruitcake to boot. On the conspiratorial front, I've heard people like Alan Watt talk him down, 'he's just someone they put out there', says Alan. In other words, Hall's legacy is being tainted, & the circumstances of his murder is an indication he was silenced. The casual references to him being rather eccentric may be the reason eminent psychologist Carl Jung spent so much time with Hall at the PRS although we have nothing concrete to go on with this so we'll have to stick with conventionality for the time being which holds that it was Jung seeking out Hall for help not the other way round.

Most sources give Hall as being Canadian, however, Sahagan has him as moving from Ontario to the US with his grandmother aged four, where he lived for the rest of his 85yrs, hardly long enough to be called an ex-pat in my imestitude but there we go, plus in his lectures he refers to America as 'our nation', not Canada. What we do know is that Hall ended up in New York by 1917 & had begun working as an office clerk aged 16, eventually working as a runner in Wall St. Whilst in New York he came under the wing of one Harry Houdini, stage magician, Freemason & as it turns out, British Intelligence Operative (see; 'The Secret Life Of Houdini' Klaus & Sloman 2006). Other members of British Intelligence were based in New York during WW1, working feverishly to bring the US into the War, among them another kind of stage magician, one Aleister Crowley. Also in town by chance were Leon Trotsky & future Irish Premier Eamonn de Valera, both of whom had firm links to London & proceeded from there to foment war in their own countries. (See; 'De Valera was a British spy' by John Turi & 'My Life' by Leon Trotsky).

Whilst ever so briefly recounting his childhood, Sahagan mentions that Hall lived in Washington DC before moving to New York. In between these two American cities is Quakertown, Pennsylvania. There, in 1916 was held a convocation for the 400th anniversary of the Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross (i.e. the beginning of Martin Luthers revolt against the Catholic Church). As one of the heads of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, Freemason & British Intelligence Officer Aleister Crowley must have been in attendance, as that body was the parent of the American branch of the Rose Cross. When Manly Hall moved to California in 1919 (the year Crowley went back to England), he was brought under the patronage of the widow of the founder of California's Rosicrucian Fellowship, Max Heindel & was given a cross which he wore with pride at his sermons. According to his Wikipedia page, his (Welsh) father (who we're told he never knew) was a Rosicrucian, & I believe it was at this convention that Manly received his Rosicrucian degrees;
'& one of Freemasonry's greatest philosophers that has ever lived, 33rd Degree Freemason & master Rosicrucian Manly P. Hall' (gnosticwarrior.com).

Hall says he was raised as a Mason in Jewel Lodge No 374, F. & A.M. San Francisco, California in November 1954. I traced that address on google maps & found it to be on 'Mason St' (must have struggled for another name perhaps?), which is off California St, famous for being home to Anton Lavey's Church of Satan, so not too far for the brethren to go to mass on a Sunday then eh?
Whether this is when Hall actually became a Mason or not we'll never know, & we have no reason to disbelieve him, what's certain is from the moment he left New York, he wore the trappings of a Rosicrucian, mixed with Rosicrucians & wrote liberally on the subject of the Rosicrucians.

A young Manly, with his 7 pointed, jewel encrusted
rose cross.

When Hall moved to California in his late teens, he was immediately employed at a New Age church as preacher. Nowhere does Louis Sahagan explain how & where Hall acquired at the tender age of 19, his capacity to speak effortlessly & authoritatively on the vast number of subjects that he did, 'seemingly overnight' (Sahagan), someone somewhere must have coached or programmed Hall for him to do what he did, he did not emerge, Athena like from the forehead of Zeus, fully helmed & laden with wisdom, it had to have been nurtured somehow. Hall always kept Crowley books in his desk in his office at his world renown Philosophical Research Centre, one of them, says Sahagan......was signed, & a signed book kept by a man of Hall's standing means a meeting took place. Crowley had many disciples in the Americas, Jack Parsons for one, & Hall's practice of keeping Crowley books by his side it indictes to me that Hall was another. One can hear echo's of Crowley's mantra 'Love is the law, love under will' in Hall's lectures when he speaks of the 'Will' (See Hall's 'Consciousness & Mind' Lecture). Rosicrucian Crowley would have been on hand to coach the young student as he was in the US for 5yrs from 1914-19, & because both men ended up in the same town & both men having connections to British Intelligence presents us with a more than likely Hall-Crowley connection, furthermore, to suggest Crowley was absent from such a momentous event in the history of the Rose Cross as the one mentioned below when he was around would be inconceivable;

'Given from the City of the Pyramids, under the Night of Pan, in the Fourteenth Year of the Aeon, the Sun being in the Sign of Cancer. To the Imperator of the Ancient & Mystical Order Rosae Crucis. Dear Sir & Brother, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law! A.·. A.·. Our whole work is based upon the Law of Thelema as laid down in the Book CCXX; cooperation between us would therefore involve the official acceptance of this Law. The A.·. A.·. is the Third Order of Secret Chiefs, containing Three Grades, Ipsissimus, Magus & Magister Templi: it will be necessary for you to recognise To Mega Therion - 666 - as Magus of the Order & Logos Aionos, the Supreme visible authority of the A.·. A.·. We admit your right to claim the Grade of Magister Templi on subscription to the Oath of that Grade.'

(Above: Aleister Crowley issuing orders to America's 'Imperator of the Ancient & Mystical Order Rosae Crucis' Lewis Spence in 1918).

'My Dear Brother,
In accordance with the power vested in me as President of the Royal Fraternity Association, Inc., & at the request of the Order of the Illuminati, Degree "Knights of the Rose Cross," I herewith invite you to be present at a special sessions of the Association
to begin October 1st and end October 30th, 1916.......
"This Incorporation shall have the power to call a Convocation
at any time, & when so convened, shall have the power to select teachers, & to ordain such teachers to the ministry, as shall in
their opinion, be fitted for the position. & such ordained men shall have the power & the right, to officiate at weddings & at funerals, & possess all such other powers as ministers of God usually possess."
In accordance with the laws, made & provided for in our Corporation, we issue this invitation that you may be present.
God be with you.
Fraternally yours,
(Signed) R. Swinburne Clymer, President.'

Hall was an Anglophile. He was also a proponent of the barbaric 'Caste' system in India, which he enthusiastically likened to the social strata of the rest of the world. During one lecture, Hall lovingly recounted the afternoons he spent in England with genocidal psychopath Sir Francis Younghusband, a British Officer who butchered his way through the pacifist Tibetans to reach western China at the turn of the 20th Cen, just before the Chinese 'Boxer Revolution' broke out in that country, in case if anyone was wondering what all the hullabaloo surrounding Tibet was about. Incidentally, Crowley was in the area for both events. Hall was able to intimately describe the Throne room inside Windsor Castle wherein the super-elitist 'Order Of The Garter', convenes (https://www.royal.uk/order-garter),
an 'Order' (religious term) formed by Donald Trump ancestor King Edward III in 1348.

Wealthy widows of the Rosicrucian Fellowship were not the only sponsors of Manly Hall when he landed in California in 1919, he found patrons almost everywhere, including a pair of oil barons (Caroline & Estelle Lloyd) who paid for his worldly travels & funded the construction of the Philsophical Research Centre
in 1934).

We need not speculate any further as to Hall's British Intelligence contacts, because nobody operates within the circles he operated in without being involved in some manner. Sahagan writes; 'In April 1937, for example, Hall had lectured at a tea in his honour at the opening at an exhibition of his rare Elizabethan books sponsored by the British Empire Chamber of Commerce in New York's Rockefeller Center.' Hall openly preached against Christian Churches, something that Aleister Crowley claimed was his raison d'être. He preached that the Armageddon depicted in the Book of Revelations 'must be fought', against the Christian Church & then Asia, citing Rosicrucian Nostradamus as his reference for the Asia hit. His disdain for the 'proletariat' as he put it was palpable, a characteristic found in all elitist, aristocratic spheres.

Manly Hall was a Qabbalist & an Alchemist. He became heavily involved in the burgeoning 'Horror' film industry in Hollywood, writing scripts & hypnotising it's stars;

'Dracula' is listed as one of the names of the infernal Demons of Hell in the Satanic Bible (1966).

Hall's first wife committed suicide in 1942, his second marriage to German born Marie Bauer is portrayed as a somewhat marriage of convenience by Sahagan, they slept in separate bedrooms from the beginning & according to Sahagan, the mentally unstable Marie claimed Hall was bisexual. These personal issues are only of interest to us in that they reflect the tribulations of the man I consider to be Hall's master, Aleister Crowley, as his domestic life was a similar litany of disasters.

Apart from in the writings of Aleister Crowley, the only solid proof I can find for Freemasonry's espousal of the Luciferian philosophy is to be found in Hall's now legendary, 'seething energies of Lucifer' quote in'The Lost Keys Of Freemasonry' (1923). Albert Pike's alleged quote along the same lines, although probably true, cannot be attributed with any certainty. Both Preidents Roosevelt & Truman were both huge fans of Hall, as was Ronald Reagan, Elvis & a whole host of film stars, rock stars etc. With such a galactic list of fanfare as this, it would be absurd to suggest Hall was considered delusional during his lifetime, however I feel that this Lucifer quote from Hall is one of the main reasons for modern day Freemasonry's wishes to distance itself from him & the reason they're so quick to tell people that he wasn't a Mason when he said it....As if that'd make any difference, he was made an Honourary Mason shortly after & the bloody book in which the quote is found is about Freemasonry.

Furthermore, in 1929 Hall published a book named;
'Rosicrucian & Masonic Origins'.
He says of them, 'these separate yet interdependent orders, one visible & the other invisible. The visible society is a splendid camaraderie of "free & accepted" men enjoined to devote themselves to ethical, educational, fraternal, patriotic, & humanitarian concerns. The invisible society is a secret & most august fraternity whose members are dedicated to the service of a mysterious arcanum arcanorum.' Hall is implying that Rosicrucianism is an inner body of Freemasonry, elsewhere Hall places Sir Francis Bacon at the head of both organisations when they began to emerge openly towards the end of the 16th Cen. He ends his treatise with this message; 'To her loyal sons, Freemasonry senses this clarion call: "Arise ye, the day of labor is at hand; the Great Work awaits completion, & the days of man's life are few"'.
What non-member could speak thus on Freemasonry or Rosicrucianism? It appears Hall at least thought of himself as belonging to one or the two.
Moreover, the description of Many Hall's Magnum Opus,
'The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy' at book retailer Amazon.co.uk begins;
'The Secret Teachings of All Ages is perhaps the most comprehensive & complete esoteric encyclopedia ever written.'
.....& 'Rosicrucian & Masonic Origins' was written a couple of years later?? In any case, we have an admission from Freemasonry in the 'Temple & The Lodge' (Baigent & Leigh) that Freemasons are the modern Knights Templars & the Templars banner was the Rose Cross so none of it flies.
('arcanum arcanorum' is a term used in witchcraft btw)

Richard Kaczynki in his now considered definitive biography of Crowley says the Great Beast 666 roamed the American continent from 1914-19 issuing orders & creating new Rosicrucian chapters busily roaming hither & tither, sometimes publicly chastising his American brethren as he went, as was the case with his (ostensible) public spat with R Swinbyrne Clymer, the man who presided over the above mentioned 1916 Convocation of the Rose Cross College.

Again from Louis Sahagn, 'Charles E Toberman, often referred to as the "father of Hollywood" Al Ridenour in a May 2002 Los Angeles Times wrote "Master of the Hollywood [Masonic] Lodge in 1914, Toberman was not only responsible for inciting Sid Grauman into Hollywood to create the Egyptian, Chinese & El Capitan theatres, but also for the construction of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood Bowl, Pantages Theatre & Max Factor Building. Before any of these developments stood along the boulevard, however, Toberman built the new Lodge headquarters there in 1922.....In those days when Hollywood was an independent city, the city attorney, city marshal, city treasurer, & first mayor, George Dunlop, were all Masons.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn_d3hwPt_o&t=58s

'Los Angeles is the greenhouse of Amrica. It is a place of experimentation in which we are combining facts & producing new species...It is primarily fitted to be the greatest cultural centre of the world. A city that is sacred in being the nucleus where the finer principles of life can come into expression.'
(Manly Hall - circa early 1920's). - Manly Hall.

In 1970, Alchemist & possibly Los Angeles most notorious resident Jim Morrison published a book entitled, 'The Lords & New Creatures'.

(Incidentally, there were no pictures of Hall's father on the internet to be found anywhere until I dug this out from the archives)

These men are telling us that Freemasonry is behind what we see in Hollywood today. If Crowleyite Jack Parsons said this aeon would be characterised by war, schizophrenia & infantilism, then we don't have to look too far to see who's behind it if the above statements are anything to go by, & they are. One of the leading protagonists in the programme to brainwash the world was Manly Hall. However, in what was to be his last public speech on 26th May 1990, made & filmed at the Scottish Rite Temple in LA, Hall can be seen chastising his brother Masons for something. Four months later he died, suspected murdered by the police. Marie Hall accused Hall's personal assistant Dr Fritz of the murder but the case never went to court & Fritz died in 2001 still claiming his innocence. Hall was found on his bed (not in it) by Fritz with 1000's of ants streaming from his ears, nose & mouth. What could be the significance of the ants? Does it matter? What could Hall have done to deserve such a fate? Are ants used in witchcraft?.....Yes; https://thepurplebroom.wordpress.com/2016/12/20/an-abundance-of-horror-the-ants-the-land-the-dead-and-curses/

Hall in his final speech says that 'As a Mason, I have a right to speak out' (& that he was) 'not asking for treason' from his brethren. In what context this was used is impossible to say, however it is clear evidence of a dichotomy. What it pertains to is anyone's guess, & mine would be this. In his last years Hall can be heard giving a few respectful & insightful lectures on Christianity, in total contradistinction to the full frontal putrid diatribes Crowley would launch against that religion, Hall would say such things as, 'Our own dear master Jesus'....... Was he playing a double game, did he mean it in a traditional Christian sense or was he saying something sacred within his own religion? True, in his early days he would equate the Church with the great sea monster Typhon & so on but there's no sign of that towards the end, in fact Hall sounds more like a great Church historian rather than it's great nemesis which he once was.......something had definitely changed.

One thing is for sure, whatever he was saying was taken as treasonous by someone. Louis Sahagan relates how Manly adored the writings & life of St Paul of Tarsus. Paul's Christianity was a mystical one, 'the Christ in you', etc & there's no doubt Manly Hall espoused his teachings. Paul famously persecuted the Christians before converting to his own brand of Mystic Christianity, a fact that no doubt would have rankled in the heart & soul of Manly Hall, despite the anti-Christian programming of his early years. In any event, just like in the ministry of St Paul, the attacks against Christians in the life of Manly Hall ceased towards the end of his life from what I can ascertain. It appears extremely likely that he was killed for something he was saying judging by the sinister death scene in my estimation, I haven't heard anything else resembling Masonic treason coming from the mouth of Hall during his final years apart from his thoughts on Christianity, although of course there may have been as he did cover a huge amount of subjects, even in old age.

Maybe Aleister programmed Manly too well & he couldn't shut up!
Or maybe he wasn't murdered after all & it was all a tragic set of unbelievable circumstances, or maybe with the passage of time certain aspects of his training began to loosen their grip....again, we'll never know.
This is all I can manage to extrapolate from it,
& I hope I'm right for the sake of the soul of
Manly Palmer Hall.
https://youtu.be/OYrKYUb9ITE

6 Comments

Stephen O'Brien

10/28/2019 05:05:39 am

Fascinating stuff. Along with Cooper, I think Hall was one of the most insightful speakers I've ever had the luck to stumble across. Even though he did have questionable affiliations, I have gotten the impression that he did not have malevolent intent when he spoke of the mysteries of life to those that would listen. Especially, as you've stated, when he got older. I like listening to his lectures concerning Christianity and the information gleamed from those is more than you'd get listening to any priest or pastor. I do have an interest in Jung's psychology and I didn't know he visited Hall at the PRS as you've stated here. Is there any references you can provide to substantiate this claim of Jung's cohortion?

Vinny Donnelly link

10/29/2019 11:58:26 am

Hi Stephen, I'm on holiday at the minute so haven't got any references to hand but Hall was referenced in Jung's book; 'Psychology and Alchemy (Collected Works of C.G. Jung)' & I believe it was that book Jung used Hall's library to write it. Concerning Hall & any malevolent intent etc, he was at the centre of the communist threat that eventually did bring down America from within. He didn't like the common man very much & I've upoaded videos of him saying the commoner; 'has to be reduced to extremity before we can teach him anything' & he would take the piss out of us which is not a good sign. He was an Achemist & trained many other Alchemists, meaning he was messing with peoples minds all his adult life. He was also British Intelligence according to my research & most probably trained by Alesteir Crowley himself (see; 'Secret Agent 666' & 'Perdurabo' for Crowley's infuence on America) so there's no doubt the guy was instrumental in the destruction of the Church, State & Mob, if not THE player of the 20th Cen.

That said, he was a phenomenal lecturer, the likes of which I've never heard & I've learned a hell of a lot from him. I especially like his lectures on Psychology but as I say, these & the ones on Christianity mostly stem from the latter stages of his life & it seems to may as if his tone had changed, from one of a vitriolic demagogue to the old sage-type on this & other issues, so I can only assume that he did in fact change from his anti-Christian stance into one of more tolerance & it was that which got him killed.

We'll never know, because the rest of his life is just as shrouded in mystery, my aim is to help people learn the symbology of the Mysteries so they can protect themselves against it's machinations & Hall said it all, so there really isn't any need to go any further but I suppose in this world we have to. So I can only advise caution when listening to Hall, because of his history there's always the chance he's speaking with forked tongue, as Bill says, 'Listening to everyone, believe no one unless it checks out in your own research'.

Big D

3/5/2020 12:13:12 am

Im a Christian raised by my Grandmother. All the way back to my Great grandmother theres proof of the relious background in Christianity and its not just a way of life or means to please God so others approve. Its my personal faith and salvation to Heaven. I began researching occult teachings when i felt in my soul, so phonetically profoundly that an evil of some sort was in motion to tear my family apart...I became aware and certainly correct. Manly Hall is one of a few writters ive researched. Alister Crowely was really the first. I felt Crowley was smart maybe enlightened...but not by God. He was gladly a sick derranged drug/evil/sex addict. His openly dark love for evil and blasphemous lack of God made me resent and disaprove of him. Manly Hall resonated deeply with me with the very first book i tead of his. I read several to dozens of Crowelys. This first book of Halls was The Secret Teachings...very profound...very precise...very much beyond any of Crowleys combined.

Andreas (Les Officerables)

5/27/2020 07:40:03 am

Hi Vinny,
Interesting stuff you have put together here. Thanks!
I have a few questions if you can help me with:
Can you expand further on what Alan Watts thought of Hall apart from the "someone they put there"? Any relevenant video or other material that Alan talks about him? The reason I ask is because I know that Alan Watts had an admiration if I can use this word on Alister Crowley. Particularly, he suggested his books to Robert Anton Wilson as one of the very interesting books that he read. What are your views on Alan Watts and RAW?
I am now delving further into this after listening to Alan Watts and Terence McKenna for years.
Robert Anton Wilson, Aldous Huxley are of my interest, and now Alister Crowley and Hall caught my interest from Alan on researching further.
I am on treat with caution on these things, since I feel like I may be messing with weird stuff here 😉

Wish you all the best, take care.

Vinny link

5/28/2020 02:10:49 pm

Hi Andreas, it's a common mistake but it's to Alan Watt, Scottish radio host I was referring not to English philosopher/guru Alan Watts. I don't know what RAW is unfortunately, I have read a biography of Watts & can tell you that along with Crowley, M P Hall & many others he was British Intelligence, he would have to be. He was preaching the veiled religion of Communism in the universities, on television, even in US jails at the height of the Cold War for years as were all those famous gurus of the 20th Cen. He was a pupil of Alice Bailey, who's publishing company 'Lucifer', later 'Lucis' became the publishing company for the U.N. All of them were & are brilliant orators however as I said, M P Hall underwent covert military training before leaving New York & beginning his New Age ministry on the West Coast which I understand as him being programmed by Crowley, or British Intelligence, as Hall himself said later; 'I have coached & guided several practicing Alchemists' Hall in one of his lectures, Alchemy being brainwashing essentially as it applies to us & I can't see how Watts is any different.

He was one if not the main progenitors of the Hippie Movement, & when in 1970 England had one of those mass gatherings at the Isle Of Wight festival, one of the locals, an retired military officer when interviewed in a documentary on his thoughts of the festival said something along the lines of, 'I've been around a long time, & I can tell you this has all the hallmarks of Communism', & indeed it did.

Leanne

7/13/2020 07:01:24 am

Hi Vinny, Thank you for this piece. Very insightful. I have only been studying occult sciences for the last year but my intuition has always led me away from Alestair Cowley, Manly P Hall & Alan Watts. I am drawn to HP Blavatsky teachings, the original, Theosophy ones, not the Neo-Theosophical ones. Should I be wary of delving too far in? My intuition hasn't gave me any cause for concern with her teachings, if anything I feel positively drawn to keep going with my labour of love for studying Blavatsky writings.

The Mysterious Case Of Manly Palmer Hall

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