No other book in history has done more to clarify the esoteric, mystical, and occult traditions of the world than Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages . Now, historian Mitch Horowitz provides the first companion work to Hall's opus. The Seeker's Guide to The Secret Teachings of All Ages helps twenty-first century readers enter and experience (or re-experience) Hall's hallowed pages and also clarifies and expands on some of the book's key themes and topics. Mitch explores developments and historical discoveries since Hall published his Great Book nearly a century ago and adds fresh dimensions to subjects, ● The antiquity and legacy of Ancient Egypt ● The mystical origins of the world's major faiths ● Strange beasts and anomalies in history and today ● The origins and esotericism of Tarot
MITCH HOROWITZ is the editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin and the author OCCULT AMERICA: THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOW MYSTICISM SHAPED OUR NATION (Bantam, Sept '09), which has been called "a fascinating book" by Ken Burns and "extraordinary" by Deepak Chopra. Visit him online at www.MitchHorowitz.com "
Excellent, wide-ranging overview of an important and difficult primary text. This is an excellent primer on Manly Hall in general, but specifically on The Secret Teachings of All Ages.
Providing a brief overview of the numerous topics covered in Brother Manly P. Hall’s the Secret Teachings of All Ages, Mitch Horowitz includes his own personal understanding and practices in a text that will surely motivate the reader to explore Brother Hall’s work while also encouraging the reader to delve into personal studies and find meaning in relation to the reader’s life.
I liked this book but I really feel like it is one I need to come back to and revisit again. There is just SO MUCH info that it really is hard to take it all in at once.
While I enjoyed Horowitz’s perspective and unbiased approach in Occult America, and most of it in this book, And The Secret Teachings of All Ages had a profound impact on me, I found this book mostly unnecessary.
It reminded me of a book I read as a child named The Truth Behind a Series of Unfortunate Events. That book, while not completely inaccurate or not entertaining, felt like I bizarre sidestep and springboard from the series that I loved so much.
Similarly, this book, while it had some interesting takes, it didn’t do what I had desired: It failed to expand upon, illuminate and update the ideas presented in TSTOAA.
And while I like Horowitz, he’s starting to chafe me with frequent references to his own works, contributions, and sometimes word-for-word repeats of things he had written in Occult America (a better book, despite being written 10+ years earlier, as well as what felt like he had said in this book already, as well as sometimes in the same sentence.
Some good perspectives, but not worth the ride. Feels like it was made under a rushed time limit.
I could not ask for a better elucidation of Manly Palmer Hall than this and he does to a pretty good extent capture the essences and realities of Manly Hall with a few comfortable blanks that the reader can fill in to their satisfaction. I am not going to ramble too much in my review except to mean if you are serious, get a copy of this book and fill in the blanks in other ways with it.
audiobook. interesting book. I'd never heard of the book or author this book is about .... who knows what keyword i was searching for when this popped up. but has definitely whetted my appetite to read the real Secret Teachings of all Ages .... maybe just maybe it's the book I've been looking for for several years now. and what is that??? you ask.... well if it IS I'll let you know. ... *suspenseful silence
Having slogged through Hall’s dense work several times, Horowitz set off positive bells regarding what I read and didn’t always understand when reading Hall. There are lots of refs to other works that compliment the opus. It’s an easy, lively read.
His chapter about Judaism and the Kabbalah left out the real, savage teachings of the Talmud - then he mentioned he’s Jewish and it tainted the chapter. Makes me wonder what other omissions are found in his work to further certain narratives.