The Secret Teachings of All Ages: An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy

The book looks to be what it promises to be. 25 pages in and it's quite interesting! *The Hardcover version from A & D Publishing has very low quality pictures*, where other soft covers and hard cover copies have fantastic and even color prints. The prints in this book are middle school photo copy of a photo copy level prints. Hardly able to read! Sad. Will need to buy a different version to tell what is going on in the prints.

Was introduced to this book in 1964, and have had the book near my desk at home since that time. Manly Hall was a unique individual and his encyclopedic compilation of information in one volume is masterful. Recently purchased the paper back edition to allow notes to be placed in the margins. My original shall remain unmarked. Purchased copies for two of my students also, this precludes the refusal of their request to borrow my original. The paper backed edition has the marvelous art work of the original, and frankly the prints look even better than the first copy purchased. Try it you will like it!

Dear Friends, Please note there are several editions of "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" by Manly P. Hall. Each is outstanding, but it might help to note some recent differences. The Philosophical Research Society of Los Angeles (www.prs.org) publishes beautiful, large-sized editions of Mr. Hall's original classic. Tarcher/Penguin, in partnership with PRS, publishes a "Reader's Edition," which features the complete, unabridged text in a more compact size and at a lower price, though with an abridged selection of illustrations. I am writing as the editor/publisher of the Tarcher/Penguin edition. If you would like to learn more about the new "Reader's Edition" of "The Secret Teachings," please visit either www.lapismagazine.org/horowitz.html or www.mitchhorowitz.com. You can visit PRS at www.prs.org. In any format, "The Secret Teachings of All Ages" is a book you will come to treasure. Best, Mitch Horowitz

Manly P Hall was a great scholar. I had the wonderful experience of hearing him lecture at his Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles shortly before his passing in 1990. Having read classical and comparative philosophy and religion for many years, my impression - shared by many laymen and scholars - is you really cannot do better than this book. There are many editions available, even a paperback edition currently in many bookstores. If you appreciate Joseph Campbell but wish to pursue the more mystical side of religion, Manly P Hall is an excellent resource. Whereas Campbell was a self-proclaimed "maverick" with no particular allegiance to any one form of religion, Manly P Hall was a thirty-third degree Freemason, and clearly sympathetic to the theory that in our ancient past there existed a system of mystery religions in which invocation of deities and angels was practiced and actually achieved. (Classic example, if memory serves, being Plutarch's tale of the invocation of the Neoplatonist Plotinus' guardian angel in the Temple of Isis in Rome by an Egyptian priest.) If you are sympathetic to "the old religions" and want a sympathetic scholarly accounting, - again, it is hard to imagine how you could do better than purchasing and studying this book.

Manly P Hall was a great scholar. I had the honor of hearing him lecture at his Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles shortly before his passing in 1990. Having read classical and comparative philosophy and religion for many years, my impression - shared by many laymen and scholars - is you really cannot do better than this book. There are many editions available, even a paperback edition currently in many bookstores. If you appreciate Joseph Campbell but wish to pursue the more mystical side of religion, Manly P Hall is an excellent resource. Whereas Campbell was a self-proclaimed "maverick" with no particular allegiance to any one form of religion, Manly P Hall was a thirty-third degree Freemason, and clearly sympathetic to the theory that in our ancient past there existed a system of mystery religions in which invocation of deities and angels was practiced and actually achieved. (Classic example, if memory serves, being Plutarch's tale of the invocation of the Neoplatonist Plotinus' guardian angel in the Temple of Isis in Rome by an Egyptian priest.) If you are sympathetic to "the old religions" and want a sympathetic scholarly accounting, - again, it is hard to imagine how you could do better than purchasing and studying this book.