‘Alchemy Journal returns!’

     

The front cover of the new issue of Alchemy Journal,

Vol. 13, No. 1, published August 20, 2017.

Alchemy Journal is back, after an absence of—well, too long!

The International Alchemy Guild announced today that its quarterly periodical of esoteric thinking and practice returns this very day with Volume 13, Number 1.

The new editorial team is Editor Daniel Coaten and Assistant Editors Jim Baldwin, Tracy Cranick, and Gabriel Maroney, with Founding Editor Dennis William Hauck.

Alchemy Journal now is an online publication. Click here to sign up and get access.

This issue contains:

• Alchemy Praxis Aphorisms by Lynn Osburn
• The Alchemical Incubator by Vince Norman Martin
• Arcanum Djinn: Angelic Magic as Modern Medicine (Part 1: The Living Stone) by Gabriel Quinn Maroney
• Original Prayers by Alchemists: Cease Not Thine Operations on Me! from Louis Claude de Saint-Martin
• News from the Archives by Jim Baldwin
• Alchemy Astrology: Eclipse Within by Timothy A. Wilkerson
• Modern Alchemy Book Reviews by Dennis William Hauck

The Alchemy Guild “is an international organization whose members are practicing alchemists or interested in studying various aspects of spiritual and practical alchemy.” Read more here.

This is so exciting it actually may motivate me to start writing again.
     

‘Ritman at risk’

    
Ever skeptical of the effectiveness of on-line petitions – I’m still lobbying for the return of The Bottom Line! – I nonetheless submit to you this global rallying cry for the preservation of the Library of Hermetic Philosophy, known more widely as the Ritman Library, in Amsterdam.

According to the petitioners:

It is widely known that the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam, founded by J.R. Ritman, was in great danger in the 1990s, when the ING bank took possession of the collection and threatened to sell it. Fortunately, the Dutch government intervened, and the BPH was put on the list of protected Dutch heritage, and the State eventually acquired more than 40 percent of it. The books remained at the same physical location, integrated with the rest of the collection, and the government would eventually acquire all of it. As part of this process, there were great plans for further expansion. Largely due to the financial crisis and a change of government this was taking somewhat longer than originally anticipated, but nobody doubted that the library was safe.

Last week this turned out to be incorrect. An extremely valuable medieval manuscript owned by the BPH (The Grail of Rochefoucauld) was put on sale at Sotheby’s, and this triggered a reaction from the Friesland Bank, which took possession of the library, that had apparently been brought in as collateral, in order to get back a 15 million euro loan from Mr. Ritman. At present the BPH is closed, and intense negotiations are going on behind closed doors. It is impossible at this moment to predict the outcome, but there is no doubt that the situation is extremely serious. There is a very real possibility that the Friesland Bank will try to sell at least the 60 percent of the library that is still owned by Mr. Ritman, and nobody knows what implications this will have for the rest of the collection and the BPH as a whole, including its staff. The brand-new government of the Netherlands has announced a program of radical financial cuts in the culture section and elsewhere, which makes a renewed intervention from that side highly unlikely.

If the Ritman library would go down, this would mean an enormous blow to international scholarship in Hermetic studies. The damage would be irreversible. By signing this petition you express your concern, and ask the Dutch government and Friesland Bank to do their utmost to ensure that the collection will be saved and will remain available for the international scholarly community.

Additionally, you can express your concern by means of a signed letter. The initiative for this petition comes from the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam (organizationally independent of the BPH, and not in any danger itself), so please send your letter to its director:

Prof. Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Oude Turfmarkt 141-147
1012 GC Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Or e-mail to: w.j.hanegraaff (at) uva.nl

Sign the on-line petition here.

My thanks to Paul Hardacre, editor of Alchemy Journal, for bringing this to my attention.
    

Support the (Alchemical) Arts!

     


Alchemy Journal seeks Patrons

As Magpie readers may know, patronage is a longstanding necessity in the publishing world that serves readers of esoterica and similar literature. Alchemy Journal now seeks patrons to help ensure its excellent quality bi-annual periodical will continue to provide:

• More new alchemical writing, including essays, articles, poetry, interviews, and reviews;

• Outstanding new contributors, including alchemists from North America, Europe, Australasia, and around the world;

• Public conversations and dialogue about alchemical literature, philosophy and lifestyle;

• New publishing projects, including special thematic issues and anthologies; and

• Fresh initiatives and events, including alchemical lectures, workshops and gatherings.

The following is a modified note from the publishers:

Alchemy Journal seeks Patrons in order to continue to publish its high quality periodical which both honors and preserves the alchemical tradition.

We receive no financial support whatsoever from the International Alchemy Guild, and draw no salary or remuneration via our publication of the Journal. We cover only the production costs associated with each issue.

The opportunity remains for you to stand alongside the likes of renowned occultist, author and publisher Stephen Skinner; nature pharmacist Gabriel Quinn Maroney of Arcane Alchemy; Jungian analyst and author Stanton Marlan; and alchemist and magus Rubaphilos Salfluere of Heredom Group – the first four Patrons of Alchemy Journal.

We thank them for their gracious support, and hope you also may wish to support alchemical publishing via Patronage. However small or large, any contribution is welcome.

You also may know of other individuals or organizations with an interest to support Alchemy Journal’s Patronage Program, and we encourage you to please share the details of this program with others. Patronage of Alchemy Journal can be of an individual or organizational nature, and starts from as little as $250 (the Patronage Level of the majority of our Patrons to date). Patrons will be acknowledged prominently within Alchemy Journal and on its website, for their gracious financial support.

Please do let us know if you are interested in becoming a Patron of Alchemy Journal, and we can discuss options further. (We are flexible!)

We thank you for considering Patronage of Alchemy Journal, and look forward to your response.

With thanks,

Paul and Marissa
Alchemy Journal

To become a Patron of Alchemy Journal send an e-mail to alchemyeditor@yahoo.com
     

We Three or Three Such As We

     
I wrote this book review for the previous (Spring 2009) issue of Alchemy Journal, the theme of which was “The Alchemical Feminine,” but due to space limitations the editor said he was keeping it on file until the Fall issue, but it didn't make the cut there either. Hmmmmph! So I'll stick it on the Magpie.

We Three or Three Such As We
By Judith Rasoletti and Emile Lancée
LeesMijnBoek, 2008, 217 pp., 32.50EUR
(no ISBN)

The authors of the books we read – any books – presumably are professionals motivated by not only experience and knowledge of their subjects, but also hopefully a love for the same. In this particular book, we have it all.

This book’s subject is one that most Freemasons do not hear discussed with much accuracy or kindness: women in Masonry. Co-authors Judith Rasoletti and Emile Lancée have mixed together a trilogy of biographies with vivid descriptions of Freemasonry’s rituals, symbols and teachings. (And frankly we don’t hear those three subjects discussed regularly in most lodges either!)

The biographical subjects are Aimée Bothwell-Gosse, Marjorie Cecily Debenham, and Charlotte Jones. Not household names, and not found in Masonic reference books, but what makes their stories memorable is one night in 1949 at Lodge Castalia in Yorkshire. Jones, a widowed mother of two, was to be initiated; Debenham served as Worshipful Master; and Bothwell-Gosse, founder of the lodge, was seated with the dignitaries in the East. No one could have known it, but in time, these women and others will have built two “co-ed” Masonic jurisdictions in Great Britain and one international organization.

There are other actors who set this stage earlier. The book tells how Elizabeth St. Leger was initiated in a regular lodge in Ireland in 1712. Annie Besant entered Masonry in the French Co-Masonic circles at the fin de siècle. Maria Deraismes was a suffragette with a reputation for writing, oratory and political organizing who was initiated by a French lodge that suffered suspension by its grand lodge in retribution. These names do appear in popular Masonic references and other books. Before proceeding, it also must be noted that the United Grand Lodge of England acknowledged (not to be confused with recognized) Masonry for women. In a statement published more than a decade ago, UGLE explained how two grand lodges in Britain that admit women are “otherwise regular in their practice,” and while inter-visitation is not possible, discussions do take place between UGLE and the women Masons “on matters of mutual concern.” So we’re not talking about science fiction here. Furthermore, please know that co-author Rasoletti delivered a paper of these three biographies at the Second International Conference on the History of Freemasonry in Scotland last May.

As regards the symbolism of Masonry explained in this book, the authors let their biographical subjects do the talking. The results are splendid. Freemasonry is described glowingly, respectfully, as a cultural institution that advances moral truths and psychological understandings. This is the European model at labor – not a raffle ticket nor bowl of chili to be found. Big ideas are topics in lodges from the beginning of the Masonic journey. The Entered Apprentice does not Pass to Fellowcraft until he/she presents a “Piece of Architecture” to the lodge. In other words, the new Mason authors a paper demonstrating an understanding of a symbol. It repeats after the Fellowcraft Degree, and throughout the Mason’s career after the MM° and beyond. In fact, this very book is dedicated as a Piece of Architecture.

Marjorie Cecily Debenham, who would rise to become Grand Commander of her jurisdiction, the Order of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masonry for Men and Women, says this of Working Tools (in language that perhaps Alchemists can appreciate):

Now the journey continues, which for the Mason is a constant attempt to polish his stone, that Rough Ashlar which needs attention day and night. Masons polish the roughness with their Working Tools, the Chisel and the Mallet, alternating between the active and passive poles of their personality. The hidden aspects of their psyche are revealed with each blow of the mallet, chiseling another fine line that can be incisive or divisive, or smoothing, just as the relationships in their lives out there mirror the progress in here.

Those two sentences are but a tiny clue of how Freemasonry is regarded by Masons in some jurisdictions the mainstream does not recognize. I don’t want to turn a book review into a “their way is better” essay, but the differences between the two systems are very significant. Mainstream Masons attempt to memorize and recite 18th century prose, while the Masons in this book themselves speak in style and content worthy of ritual use.

In keeping with the theme (The Alchemical Feminine) of this issue of Alchemy Journal, I must relate the bold thinking behind Chapter 5, titled ‘Mixed Masonry Worldwide: Blueprint for the Future.’ An essay within, written by Maarten Zweers, says:

We really need the woman’s spiritual as well as concrete input from the feminine point of view to avoid missing the connection with the new time we live in and falling into the pitfall of non-fertile rigid thinking.

This aspect is much more fundamental than men realize. The bigger dramatic works that describe the transfer from the old to the new culture, they all point in the direction of the rescue of the masculine by the feminine. Countless plays by Shakespeare, Goethe, Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio,’ works of Wagner, Von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss, everywhere the male gets stuck at the end because of the old cultural habits. The relief comes from the feminine world. The petrifaction of the masculine that loses all creativity and power to act manifests itself to a terrifying degree in our society and the masculine Lodges.

The back of the book provides several very useful appendices, listing timelines that quickly chart the histories of the several feminine and mixed Masonic obediences that comprise the historical aspects of the book.

Honorable Fraternity of Antient Masonry (HFAM), founded in 1904, which became the Order of Women Freemasons in 1958.

Honorable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons (HFAF), founded in 1913

The Order of Ancient Free and Accepted Masonry for Men and Women (AFAM), founded in 1925.

The Order of Ancient Free Masonry for Men and Women (AFMM&W), founded in 1979. Its first Grand Master was Charlotte Jones, formerly of AFAM.

Little information about these organizations is available outside the organizations themselves, and this book could have done the valuable service of shedding more light. For example, the departure of Jones from AFAM that led to the creation of AFMM&W is glossed over as just a typical splintering that “seems to happen so often in Freemasonry.” The reader is told only that Jones and several other members left AFAM over a disagreement concerning “a constitutional matter dealing with secret ballots that was seriously mishandled.” The reader can pardon the authors for protecting privacy, but the reader also has cause to wonder if candor and objectivity are possible when an author is personally involved with the subject.

There are other flaws in this book, but most are stylistic. First is the layout. In short, this book looks like it was designed in Microsoft Word with margins that are too wide. The typeface is a sans serif that implies a levity that this serious work does not deserve. There are plenty of terrific graphics, but captions are absent, and space is wasted by the huge margins surrounding them. The Introduction explains the captions are found in the back of the book to prevent distraction from the illustrations, and yet these illustrations are frustratingly small, again due to the layout, which defeats the purpose of isolating many of them.

On the editorial side, 16 pages are devoted to a facsimile of Bothwell-Gosse’s ‘A Short Sketch of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite,’ when instead the text could have been typeset efficiently so that space could be devoted to other purposes. In addition, a poor choice was made to allow many repeated uses of the Masonic punctuation called the triple period. This triangle of dots appears on many official and ceremonial Masonic documents. It is distracting in this book. For example, twice on page 135 the title “Most Illustrious Brother” is presented as an abbreviation that actually mutates the triple period, and it’s not a matter of secrecy because the abbreviations guide in the back of the book decodes it all. A simple style would have benefited the reader, or at least this one.

We Three or Three Such as We is, on the whole, an important book because it tells of people and events in Freemasonry that are little known. The stories of these women and their lodges deserve to be recorded and read and understood, and hopefully one day embraced as a standard part of the endlessly diverse story of Freemasonry.

Alchemy Journal

     
The new (as above: spring/so below: autumn) issue of Alchemy Journal is hot off the presses!

Vol. 10, No. 1

Northern Spring/Southern Autumn

(March 2009)

Theme: Alchemical Feminine

• The Modern Mystery School by Gudni Gudnason
• The Influence of Women in Alchemy by Abigail McBride
• The Mother-Space, the Ultimate Alchemical Feminine by Dr. Bruce Fisher
• Anima Mundi, Soul-Filled World by Iona Miller
• The Seed in Spring by Steve Kalec
• The alchemical feminine in new works by Michael Pearce
• The Salts of Life by Karen Bartlett
• Shekhinah, the Feminine Presence of God by Dr. Theresa Ibis
• Beyond Passions by Tamara Nikolic and Jay Hochberg
• Mater Alchemæ by Rubaphilos Salfluere
• To Pursue Their Full Measure of Happiness: Sex, Gender, Politics and Alchemy by Andrew Minkin
• Twenty-First Century Turba Philosophorum: the 2008 International Alchemy Conference by Dennis William Hauck
• Hymn to Kali by Ramdulal Nandi
• A profile of Modern Magister Jeannie Radcliffe
• Russell Burton House, plus Nicki Scully and Linda Star Wolf reviewed by Rubaphilos Salfluere; Dr. Ross Mack reviewed by Iona Miller; Paul Foster Case reviewed by Darcy Kuntz; Russell Burton House reviewed by Mike Ridpath; Ruth Rusca and Dr. Christine R. Page reviewed by Alexander Price; and Alexander Roob reviewed by Jay Hochberg.

Through the kind offices of Paul Hardacre, editor, my review of Alchemy & Mysticism appears here:

The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy & Mysticism
By Alexander Roob
Taschen, 2006, 575 pp., US$14.99
ISBN 978-3-8228-5038-1

In celebration of Taschen’s 25th anniversary, the world-renowned publisher of artistic and sumptuously illustrated books proceeded to create a line of titles covering all manner of iconic and symbolic messages, from movies and photography, to art and architecture, to tattoos and even chairs. Inevitably the publishing spree would touch on esoteric arts. The result is The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy & Mysticism by Alexander Roob. Formerly a professor of fine arts at the University of Hamburg, before joining the faculty at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart in 2002, Roob is not identified anywhere in the text as an Alchemist, Rosicrucian or Freemason, and yet he obviously is well attuned to those sciences’ hidden wisdom and the innumerable symbols communicating occult knowledge.

“A rich world of images has etched itself into the memory of modern man,” Roob’s Introduction begins, “despite the fact that it is not available in public collections, but lies hidden in old manuscripts and prints.” Medieval art depicting Christian mysticism leads to the Romantic work of William Blake, and along the way the symbols of Kabbalah, Alchemy and Freemasonry are seen as very closely related, and themselves often shown to be parallel to teachings in medicine, chemistry and color theory.

It is not easy to write a review of this book. If a picture really is worth a thousand words, then this book has a million things to say. There isn’t a single page past the Introduction that does not feature at least one esoteric illustration, and it is that 26-page Introduction that contains most of the paragraphs of text to read. The majority of text throughout the book consists of the detailed captions to the many illustrations and other descriptions for context. This book really is a museum, as in “a place of the Muses,” in that it gathers the studies of the Arts and Sciences, and more.

Roob does not play favorites. Both spiritual Alchemy and the work in the laboratory are explored. Their histories, mechanics and relevance are presented in detail, and it is shown that knowledge of both is necessary to succeed in the Great Work. And so, Roob’s goal is to define the many symbols one would need to undertake those labors. Perhaps an Alchemist with many years of experience could find deficiencies of this book, but this reviewer cannot believe a detail has been omitted.

The first chapter, titled ‘Macrocosm,’ begins with this admonition taken from an Enlightenment era French text: “I assure you that anyone who attempts a literal understanding of the writings of the hermetic philosophers will lose himself in the twists and turns of a labyrinth from which he will never find the way out.” That’s a daunting signpost to find at the outset, but if nothing else, this author shows that to be true. And that must explain the exhausting compendium of facts, speculations, myths and artistic samplings that are submitted to the reader via the hundreds of color and black-and-white illustrations, sometimes with incongruent results.

It is the fall of Adam and the banishment of Lucifer to the dark abyss – “two cosmic catastrophes” – that produced the “primaterial chaos of the elements” needed for the Work. Indeed the fall of Adam (the Hebrew name means “red earth,” as in the red of the lapis) marks the end of “inner unity” for man, casting him into the “external world of opposites.” The earliest understanding of a first man is shown as androgynous. “The feminine that was essential in Adam, before it was separated from him in sleep, was his heavenly spouse Sophia (wisdom).” The narrative explanation continues, decoding many plates from Hieroglyphica Sacra drawn by the theosophist Dionysos A. Freher:

“Adam, created in a state of purity and perfection, is at the point of intersection between the divine world of angels and the dark world of fire. Three creatures make claims on him. 1) Sophia, the companion of his youth. 2) Satan, below him. 3) The spirit of this world…. In order to force him to a decision, there follows the temptation of the Tree of Knowledge. The two S’s, Sophia and Satan, are the two contrary snakes of the staff of Mercury (Caduceus) and must be united.”

Many concepts, including Chaos, Saturnine Night, Torment of the Metals, and Resurrection lead up to Aurora, the sun, or “the final maturity of matter after it has passed through all seven spheres.” Gold.

One important service this book renders that cannot be ignored is its demystifying of Masonic symbols, especially those of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. The double-headed eagle, which to my knowledge never really was satisfactorily explained in AASR rituals as an esoteric symbol, is shown here connected to Apollo, the sun. The pelican of Rose Croix Masonry is symbolic of the lapis, an agent of regeneration. Other Masonic symbols explained in the Alchemical context are the Pillars in the Porch of the Temple, as Sun and Moon and fire and water; the Winding Stairway, as the “slow and organic course of the process of spiritual maturity;” and the Sun – where the Master of the lodge presides – of course as the “imperishable spirit, immaterial gold.”

Author Roob devotes considerable space to explaining the role of the feminine in Alchemy. It is shown that the word “matter” comes from the Latin root “mater,” as in “maternal.” But perhaps to allow for different points of view, seemingly varied interpretations of the feminine role are given. In one instance, Eve represents the element mercury, complementing Adam’s sulphur. Under the heading ‘Conjunctio,’ we learn “Woman dissolves man, and he makes her solid. That is, the spirit dissolves the body and makes it soft, and the body fixes the spirit.” An early 16th century painting is narrated thus: “I am hot and dry Sol, and you Luna are cold and moist. When we couple and come together… I will with flattery take your soul from you.”

A German engraving from 1628 depicting “coitus,” shows King Gabricius and his sister Beya who want to embrace “to conceive a son whose like is unknown to this world.” This union causes Gabricius’ death, after which he is “enclosed in her womb, so that nothing can be seen of him. So great is her love that she has absorbed him entire into her nature and divided him into indivisible parts.” A 17th century color painting shows a royal couple seeking to give birth to a son with a red head, black eyes and white feet, those colors serving as crucial symbols.

The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy & Mysticism is an encyclopedic work that unites centuries of religious, mythological, artistic and literary traditions to explain many complicated nuances surrounding Alchemy. For its overwhelming beauty it is highly recommended, but its step-by-step decoding of so many arcane or misunderstood symbols will prove to be its enduring value to students of the esoteric arts. This book could be improved only by making it larger – not thicker, but larger – in a coffeetable size. Perhaps for the publisher’s golden anniversary.

This issue of Alchemy Journal is available for USD$15 plus postage.

Take out a subscription for 2009 and receive two issues (March and September) for only USD$30 plus postage.

Archived issues, submission guidelines and advertising rates available here.

Alchemy Journal is published by Salamander and Sons for the International Alchemy Guild
   

Master of the Mysteries

     
Through the kind offices of Paul Hardacre, editor and publisher of Alchemy Journal, my review of the new Manly Hall biography published in this month's issue appears here also.


Master of the Mysteries: The Life of Manly Palmer Hall
By Louis Sahagun
Process Media, 2008, 295 pp., US$19.95
ISBN 978-1-934170-02-1

This biography wonderfully demystifies its subject and educates its reader. If you read much about Freemasonry, by now you surely have encountered some of the writings of Manly Hall, who wrote brilliantly and poetically about the Craft as a young man, several decades before he actually was initiated into the fraternity.

Our author is a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times where he won a Pulitzer Prize for a series on Latinos in southern California, and where he writes on subjects varying from religion to crime to the environment to politics. Sahagun uses reportage from the archives of his newspaper to sketch the socio-economic landscape of California at the very moment the Golden State began to blossom into, as Woody Guthrie would later call it, the Garden of Eden. That, plus the numerous personal interviews and countless facts, large and small, culled from Hall’s and others’ writings, enables Sahagun to show the reader the early twentieth century wonderland of endless opportunity where a Canadian teenager with a sixth-grade education was able to transform himself into a world-renowned authority on timeless teachings and founder of a school of esoteric higher education whose writings appeared on President Harry Truman’s bookshelf.

And there is no mistaking this book is a biography written by a newspaperman, and not a work of hagiography penned by a fan. Hall’s writings are well known to several generations of Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Alchemists, Hermeticists, and others who delve into occult knowledge and who may be naturally disposed to romantic idealization, but the details of Hall’s life have not been disseminated as widely as his works. Sahagun performs the valuable service of not only rendering a portrait of a man, but also of revealing the inconsistencies – perhaps hypocrisies – of a man who personally touched thousands and reached many thousands more the world over with his messages of discovery and self-improvement. Even the narrative of the book lends itself to consideration of duality as Master of the Mysteries begins with an improbable Horatio Alger-like tale of a teenager arriving in Los Angeles, and concludes with an unexpected murder mystery worthy of a Hollywood film noir.

Late in 1919, Hall arrives in the City of Angels seeking a reunion with his mother, who had abandoned him in infancy. In his exploration, Hall meets Civil War veteran Sydney J. Brownson, who occupied a part of southern California’s occult culture as a phrenologist. Recognizing potential in the teenager’s intellect, personality and physical appearance (this book’s front cover depicts the Barrymore-like visage of the young Hall), and thinking he found in Hall a younger version of himself, Brownson plays mentor to Hall’s apprentice, imparting an education in religions and ancient histories. Less than a year later, Hall would appear before his first audience – a group of half a dozen gathered to hear about reincarnation – beginning the career that would define the rest of his life.

Hall’s message in this embryonic phase incorporated knowledge from ancient Egypt and Classical Greece to medieval Christianity and the modern mysticism of Helena Blavatsky. He spoke of the importance of self-control and the necessity of right thinking and right action to achieving harmony with the laws of the universe. The ideas he espoused “impel the believer to remake his own life, correct his faults, strengthen his character, and deepen his knowledge.” In time, Hall’s repertoire would enable him to speak extemporaneously for 90 minutes, a format he would never abandon, promptly concluding his every lecture at that hour-and-a-half mark with the sign-off: “Well, that’s about all for today, folks.” He made it look so easy that his fame began to spread among fringe religion and hidden wisdom circles, and he became a peer among those who led the various fellowships and congregations of diverse seekers that always seemed to be looking for leaders. His audiences grew in size, and his appearances increased in frequency during this period of unusual spiritual exploration. Another trademark Hall adopted at this time was the one dollar admission fee paid by each audience member, not an insignificant sum at the time. Also commenced was the building of Hall’s collection of “rare and unusual” books that eventually would total 30,000 volumes and would serve as the research library of what would become the Philosophical Research Society. And it also was during this period when Hall first explored his potential as a leader of an organization – in this case, the Church of the People, with 600 congregants. “Hall had no experience whatsoever in running a church – or anything else. But the 19-year-old was naïve and enthusiastic enough to take on the duties, which included counseling in a small office people old enough to be his grandparents.” For this role, Hall “began boning up on comparative religion, philosophy, sociology and psychology,” which enabled him to answer questions with “warm, reassuring words and admonishments of Confucius or some other sage. Seemingly overnight, Hall became a one-stop source of an astonishing range of eclectic spiritual material that resonated with the intellect, and the subconscious.”

The Manly Palmer Hall the occult world cherishes to this day was born.

For comedians, timing is everything, and for salesmen, it’s “location, location, location.” For young Manly Hall, success involved both time and space. One of the most useful aspects of this book is its author’s description of the spiritual scenery of southern California in the 1910s. “It was a time when many civic and business leaders, judges, architects, physicians, engineers and entertainment industry figures were members of Masonic lodges, whose neoclassical temples were among the most imposing buildings on the southern California landscape” at a time when Hollywood consisted of only a “sparse mix of buildings and citrus groves.”

“In those days,” Sahagun continues, “the city attorney, city marshal, city treasurer and first mayor, George Dunlop, all were Masons,” as were Hollywood’s first newspaper publisher and other prominent entrepreneurs. “Hall hoped to catch their attention.” And he wasn’t alone. Newspaper advertisements for other occult organizers were abundant, and Hall kept track of them: Dr. Nephi Cottam and his craniopathy; Manneck of India; Institute for Metaphysics founder Edwin Dingle; astrologer Charles Robert Wilson; the National Academy of Metaphysics’ courses on ancient teachings; Princess Zoraida, the crystal gazer; Pneumandros, who offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who could prove that his healing powers were bogus; and Professor J.W. Parker, who claimed the Great Pyramid in Egypt was “the Bible in stone”; Prince of Destiny George Terry; Katherine “Purple Mother” Tingley; and of course H. Spencer Lewis, founder of AMORC, were among those who made California an interesting place for those outside of mainstream religions, to say nothing of the many yogis, swamis and dealers of occult books.

Yet Hall prospered where most of the others failed. By cultivating the right connections and indulging his penchant for publicity, Hall managed to ensure a steady stream of revenue and an aura of inspired confidence always characterized his endeavors. His panache is perhaps best memorialized in a single book that has captured imaginations all over the world. Nicknamed "The Big Book," Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages was as grand as the decade dubbed The Roaring Twenties itself. Seven years in the making, with a production cost of $150,000, much of it raised through advance sales, The Big Book’s publisher accepted the project on the condition that the book be designed by John Henry Nash, a veteran of Vatican publishing. The result is the iconic 13 by 19-inch massive tome laden with 54 full-color plates depicting ancient and medieval symbols; hundreds of black-and-white illustrations copied from rare books; and of course the hundreds of pages of Hall’s essays on Masonic, Hermetic, Rosicrucian, Pythagorean, Native American, Qabbalistic, and other esoteric topics, mostly dictated in four-hour sessions day after day. The book’s first two print runs totaled 1,100 copies, and were sold out in advance at the price of $100 each. That’s $1,261 in today’s money. “It is a living human document pulsating with mental and spiritual vibrations of a profound thinker,” said George Barron, curator of M.H. de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. “It takes all knowledge for its province, and reduces whole libraries to the compass of a single tome.” It has sold more than one million copies in more than 80 years. Sahagun writes:

"Hall’s life would never be the same. Overnight he went from being just another earnest young preacher in the City of Angels to becoming an icon in 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. His presence at a dinner gathering or civic event inspired awe."

This biography spans the coming decades of Hall’s life interspersing its major events with its even more revealing private moments, and therein is found the man many readers are meeting for the first time. There is his first marriage, to his longtime secretary, which was practically a secret, the extant mementos of which evidently are merely some “census data, a wedding certificate, a few photographs” and the coroner’s report of her suicide. We have the details of the founding and construction of his Philosophical Research Society, his famous travels around the world, his relationships with various admirers and supporters, and his eventual admission into Freemasonry, which marked the end of his writing on that subject.

Also remarkable are his many interactions with famous personalities; with almost Gump-like precision, Manly Hall appears in the most unusual company. Or maybe it’s not unusual at all that he influenced and befriended a future leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, a Nobel laureate in physics, the governor of California, and the mayor of Los Angeles. That he saw one of his writings adapted to the screen by Warner Brothers which promoted the movie with a séance at Hall’s home; that he wrote a screenplay for Boris Karloff; or that he hypnotized Bela Lugosi in a film trailer promoting the movie Black Friday. And that one of his admirers was Elvis Presley; or how his mentoring in the 1950s of a young L.A. policeman, who had a partner named Roddenberry, would result a decade later in the Star Trek episode ‘Mirror, Mirror’ concerning parallel universes. That he was friends with Harry Houdini, Aldous Huxley and Helen Keller, with whom he shared a love of Swedenborg’s occult writings. Or that on October 27, 1963 he lectured on President Kennedy’s horoscope, predicting danger for JFK; or how one of his books was found among the possessions of a young Rosicrucian student who had just murdered Robert Kennedy.

There also are stumbles, the kind inherent in any human existence, and it is without unkindness that Sahagun shares various incongruities:

"Living in the spotlight was not easy for Hall, who struggled to apply his teachings to his own life. His home life was a catastrophe of marital strife, physical ailments, alternative health regimens, and overeating all the while he tried to live up to his image as a “maestro” of practical esoteric philosophy."

Hall believed in the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of deity, but authored an essay in 1942 titled ‘The Jew Does Not Fit In’ which echoes a view not unfamiliar to Nazism. He wrote of good will toward men, but supported using birth control to limit reproduction of the “mentally and physically unfit.” He never claimed to have received a formal education, yet he also failed to correct those who addressed him as “Doctor Hall.” He lectured on fostering harmony in marriage, but the domestic Hall was the hen-pecked husband of a domineering and often irrational second wife. He resolutely believed a healthy body was fundamentally necessary to a sound mind, but he bloated himself into obesity and its inherent health risks by overindulging his addiction to sweets, and spoiled his matinee idol looks with an enormous midsection that he tried to conceal with cleverly tailored dark suits. Hall was endlessly generous in loaning priceless books and artifacts for public display, but he governed PRS with an autocrat’s manner. He made a career out of distilling the words of the ancients, but publicly belittled an employee who attempted the same in his own way. Hall devoted his life to preserving ages-old wisdom, and yet told one of his top aides that PRS was built only for his own needs, and that he didn’t care if the school endured after his death.

Of course the cruelest dichotomy comes at the end of life. Where a man of such accomplishments had every right to set aside his working tools and peacefully depart for “the undiscovered country” at the end of long, illustrious labors, Hall died in circumstances that only the most generous and hopeful souls could call “uncertain.” Hall confidantes, private detectives, Los Angeles police and others suspect Hall was murdered by a seemingly opportunistic and manipulative aide who sought to gain control of the master’s notable wealth. The details of the body’s discovery are upsetting and need not be revealed here, and even more shameful is the ineptitude of the original autopsy performed by the county coroner, a performance that Sahagun suggests foreshadows its dismal performance in the post mortem examinations four years later of O.J. Simpson’s alleged victims. The district attorney never was satisfied that enough evidence had been amassed to proceed with murder charges. “I hated to see that guy get away,” said one LAPD detective. “We worked that case 12 hours a day. The problem was we couldn’t do that forever. We only have so many Hollywood detectives.” Because the accused was a leader in PRS, the organization wound up paying his legal fees; he died in 2001 of adrenal cancer. In 1995, five years after his death, and after repeated exhumations and examinations, Manly Palmer Hall’s body was at last cremated.

Master of the Mysteries is a very well written book, and the reader can see it is the work of a newspaper reporter, as nearly every paragraph consists of no more than three sentences, allowing for easy comprehension of the fluid prose. The writer’s own words and those of his many sources are woven together in seamless narrative unblemished by either jarring errors or obvious omissions (although researcher/publisher Jay Kinney is misnamed, twice, as “Jay Kenny,” a personal peeve of mine). The book’s illustrations were chosen wisely. This useful collection of photos, pamphlets, book covers and frontispieces, personal notes, archival records, newsletters and newspaper ads serve up history in the manner of a time capsule. This life of Many Hall is meticulously annotated with hundreds of endnotes, with an average of 53 citations per chapter. Hall’s Masonic maxim “To learn is to live, to study is to grow, and growth is the measurement of life” is revealed as his genuine way of life, but there is no mistaking this biography as anything other than a chronicle of one mortal’s existence. With the gamut of manly strengths and weaknesses, Hall is defined here in a way that recalls the wisdom of Ecclesiastes, in which Solomon himself admonishes “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not…. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Anyone who feels indebted to Hall for sharing the Secrets should read this biography to attain greater appreciation for the man, foibles and all.