The Secret Teachings of All Ages
An encyclopedic outline of the hermetic, qabbalistic and rosicrucian symbolical philosophy.
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About the book
First published in 1928 as an oversized, lavishly illustrated folio, The Secret Teachings of All Ages is perhaps the most comprehensive single-volume survey of Western esoteric tradition ever assembled. In its pages Manly P. Hall ranges across alchemy, the Qabalah, the Tarot, astrology, Pythagorean number theory, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, cryptography, the mystery schools of Egypt and Greece, and the symbolism hidden inside myth and scripture. More than two hundred illustrations, many by the artist J. Augustus Knapp, turn the book into a visual as well as a textual encyclopedia.
Hall's aim was not to argue for any single doctrine but to show the common symbolic language that he believed runs beneath all the world's initiatory traditions. The result is a reference work that readers dip into for decades, following its cross-references from one arcane subject to the next.
About the author
Manly Palmer Hall (1901–1990) was a Canadian-born writer and lecturer who became one of the twentieth century's best-known interpreters of esoteric philosophy. Remarkably, he completed this enormous work while still in his twenties, funding its costly first printing through subscriptions. In 1934 he founded the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, which continues to preserve his library and legacy today.
Why it still matters
For students of the occult, comparative religion and symbolism, The Secret Teachings of All Ages remains a foundational reference — a single doorway into dozens of traditions that would otherwise require a whole shelf of rare books to approach. Because Hall never renewed its copyright, the work has entered the public domain, making this landmark of esoteric scholarship freely available to everyone.