Last night I went to a lecture and book signing by Louis Sahagun, author of a biography of Manly Palmer Hall called Master of the Mysteries. Sahagun is a journalist at the Los Angeles Times and was working night duty on September 2, 1990 when the call came in that Hall had died at 89 years of age. Knowing nothing about the man, Sahagun looked him up in the files, finding little until he got back to the 1930s and 40s when he stumbled onto stacks of clippings. He wrote a brief obituary that didn’t begin to touch on the accomplishments of this internationally known metaphysician and occult scholar who eventually was a victim of extreme elder-abuse and probable murder.
Sahagun became fascinated by Hall’s story, was given access to several archives, interviewed dozens of people who had known Hall, and examined the police and medical reports on what is still an open suspicious-death investigation.
Hall is of interest to those of us in the Tarot world for his creation of what’s known as the Knapp-Hall Tarot deck, first published in 1929 by artist J. Augustus Knapp, illustrator of two of Hall’s first books, including the famous The Secret Teachings of All Ages (the latest edition is in its 16th printing).
I’ll leave you to read the fascinating details of the book from this article in the L.A. Times or listen to this podcast interview with Sahagun.
I want to talk here about the conversation I had with Louis Sahagun about the cult status of spiritual teachers. During his research Sahagun discovered an amazing but flawed human being—someone who married disastrously, fell behind the times and finally succumbed to the machinations of a conman. Despite this, Sahagun felt that he had found a man of immense talents and great personal integrity who warned against putting teachers on a pedestal. It is apparent that Hall’s scholarship left something to be desired (he had only a 6th grade education but a photographic memory), but it’s hard for many to accept that Hall could have been less than perfect. Sahagun was struck by the number of followers who seemed to do nothing with their lives but slavishly espouse the teachings. On the other hand, hundreds of people—mostly in the arts—creatively integrated Hall’s metaphysical principles into their work—making it their own. These included such diverse people as an L.A. mayor, a governor of California, Elvis Presley and Bela Lugosi.
Personally, I’ve been struck by the number of people who discover lies, misconduct or incorrect facts in the lives and work of their heroes and respond by either completely rejecting the teacher and work or by rejecting any evidence of a problem. Typical is a comment about the book from someone who regularly attended Hall’s lectures: “I wasn’t aware of any controversy surrounding Mr. Hall’s death either…. It was natural causes—and I suppose natural causes for an author to claim controversy.” This person has no desire to examine the evidence before claiming that the biographer must be lying.
When writing my biography of four original members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Women of the Golden Dawn: Rebels and Priestesses, I believed it vitally important to examine their flaws as well as their strengths. How are we to learn from someone’s story if we don’t see how that person navigated the difficulties of life? How can we evaluate a work if we aren’t willing to explore what’s true and what isn’t and what ‘works’ and what doesn’t? It’s important to realize that everyone is human. Just before I completed the biography, an acquaintance sent my text involving a different spiritual teacher, now deceased, to that person’s organization. I received a phone call asking me to remove quotes from letters that included accusations of an affair with someone he later married. It was felt this might harm the public perception of him as a great and good man. I ask, how are we ever to develop discrimination if we believe that spiritual teachers are somehow more perfect than the rest of us or that everything they write is Divine Truth?
The way I see it, there are three unacknowledged magical “initiations.” The first is when we come across a teaching or practice and have to determine if it contains a truth or way to which we want to commit ourselves. The second initiation is when we discover we’ve been betrayed by ‘lies’ and we have to decide to leave or continue the work. The third initiation is when we discover that the lie itself contains a greater truth. The second initiation is betrayal and until we have confronted betrayal and moved through it we will never encounter the third initiation. We experience these three initiations all the time, although a fourth is proposed that takes us beyond the world of truth and lies.
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July 14, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Ferol Humphrey
Wow, Mary, this last paragraph is pretty wonderful to contemplate. I very much appreciate your words here, and wholeheartedly agree with the premise that we do our best living and learning when we see our teachers as real people with a spectrum of understandings and responses. I have learned enormously from one or two very flawed teachers. When we extend this courtesy that our teachers may be human, during their lives or afterward, this grace may possibly extend to ourselves as well. Energy does perpetuate itself in kind. Love your blog. When I crave solid scholarship and a feisty determinism, I find it here. Thank you, and glad you liked the Kitchen Tarot ~
July 16, 2008 at 1:00 am
freesparrow
This is a thought provoking post, Mary.
I think self-acceptance is the key to being able to accept flaws in others, including teachers, and this comes with age and experience of making mistakes, of being wrong. People who are genuinely humble, honest about their own limitations and flaws have somehow opened me up at times, given me the liberty and permission to acknowledge and understand my own.
My best teachers have been the common but extraordinary people one meets in daily life, often those who may share a journey of some kind, whether spiritual or not.
Like Ferol Humphrey, I also enjoy your blog. Thanks for keeping it up!
July 25, 2008 at 4:02 am
tero hynynen
Hi Mary, and thanks again for the info. Manly P. Hall has been in “blind spot” for me for a long time, I’ve been planning to find out more about him.. and now there’s a good reason to it. I ordered the book and got it, it looks very thorough and well done. Looking forward to learning more about the man. Isn’t the tarot world just filled with really interesting people..!
October 12, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Richard Davis McLeod
When alive, Manly P. Hall would always give a lecture just after January 1st, giving his predictions for the up coming year. I was fortunate enough to see him on two of these occasions. Mr. Hall had a very large body with an average size head, and the two were not in proportion. The two did not seem to go together. It was odd seeing him in the movie he later made sitting behind a desk and looking very normal, realizing that if he stood up, it would be a shock to see the large size of the remainder of his body. During all his talks, he would talk in a very folksy manner during his speech.
His Library at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, had at the time the largest collection of metaphysical books, statues, and other items of any such Library in the world. After his death, I understand most of this very valuable collection was sold at auction. The Research Society and Library are still there and active, but just how much of the collection exists from what was originally there before the auction is unknown to me.
In his later years, he had to be helped out onto the stage. He sat in a huge throne like chair, and very effectively in his folksy speaking manner gave his predictions for the up and coming year. That particular Sunday talk was always well attended. He would quickly end the talk rather abruptly and without notice, and all of a sudden make the statement, “Well, that’s all folks!”. Just like Porky Pig or Donald Duck would end each of the early cartoons. The talk was over and he was helped up from his Throne like chair to the area behind the stage.
The Philosophical Research Society which he founded and headed for 60 years in Los Angeles was for most of that time one of the most respected institutions in the City of Los Angeles. The foyer in front of the auditorium has a wall with framed Proclamation after Proclamation honoring Manly P. Hall for his accomplishments in the field of Philosophical Research and his contributions to the City of Los Angeles. His list of published books is quite impressive.
Manly P. Hall actually made a movie in the 1930’s which starred the noted actress Anna May Wong and many other noted character actors in Hollywood at the time. A very young Mr. Hall begins narrating the movie entitled “When Were You Born”, and sits at a desk explaining each of the signs of the Zodiac and their characteristics. The plot then begins with Anna May Wong as an Astrologer trying to solve a murder. Each of the suspects has one of the different Zodiacal signs, and each is investigated until the murdered is discovered. Manly P. Hall wrote the screenplay for this motion picture and was responsible for it being made in very good Hollywood fashion of the time. The film has been shown on American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies in the past. It is quite well done. If you ever get the chance, do see it.
October 14, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Richard Davis McLeod
Manly Palmer Hall arrived as a young man in Los Angeles by train from Canada in 1919 with only a 6th grade education. Los Angeles, called the City of the Angels, must certainly have had a direct beam of Spiritual Energy directed on the City around the turn of the Century and for the next 30 years. The actual number of Spiritual Traditions that started in Los Angeles at that time is amazing!
The list of people beginning a variety of Spiritual Traditions there at that time is quite impressive. Starting with Manly Palmer Hall who eventually designed his own Tarot Deck (Knapp-Hall Tarot), and founded the Philosophical Research Society Society in Los Angeles to countless other original upstarts is astounding for just one city to contain.
Mind you, Hollywood had its’ beginnings there also at this time as the Film Capital of the World. Manly Palmer Hall even made a respected movie himself in the 1930’s entitled “When Were You Born”, with noted Hollywood actress, Anna May Wong. I have always wondered just how much Hollywood figured in to this equation?
In addition to Manly Palmer Hall, we can list, Paul Foster Case (supposedly the last person connected with the Golden Dawn Society) who started the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A), and of course it is still there today, and now has groups all around the world working with his Tarot cards, and other aspects of their teaching.
Aimee Semple McPherson started the Foursquare Gospel Church, building the magnificent Angeles Temple in 1923. She is credited with the founding of this Church, and also being the first minister to have a Radio Station attached to the Church, and becoming the first Minister to preach Christianity over the air waves. There have been many movies based on her life, most notably Elmer Gantry with Jean Simmons and Burt Lancaster. The last one to my knowledge was Faye Dunaway playing Sister Aimee, with Bette Davis playing her mother.
Then there was Vivekananda founding the first Hindu Temple in the US (The Vendante Society) in Hollywood. Many today say there is not a Hindu Temple with as much powerful energy in India, as the Temple that continues to sit in Hollywood today (now sadly next to the Hollywood Freeway), having been built in 1933.
Next comes along Paramahansa Yogananda with his own California hybrid blend of Hinduism and Christianity, who was there at the same time starting up the Self-Realization Fellowship on Sunset Boulevard which is also still there, with Fellowships now all over the world, even India. He also built the World Peace Gardens on Sunset Boulevard which is the resting place of Mathatma Gandhi getting the center stage with the ashes entombed in a stone elephant with a large Lotus blossom in front of a beautiful lake, with statues of Religious leaders in and around the gardens, which had one been a set for silent movies. It was built in 1947. Now who would ever dream Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes were entombed in Los Angeles?
Ernest Holmes was also on the lecture circuit in Los Angeles and later he started the Church of Religious Science, which now has Churches all over the world and a beautiful modern Sanctuary built by noted Los Angeles architect Paul Williams, who also designed a building you have all seen, the “Theme Building” at LAX. Ernest Holmes also was there lecturing at the same time as these other people coming to Los Angeles in the teens, about the same time as Manly Palmer Hall.
Pentecostalism also got its’ start in Downtown Los Angeles right about this turn of the Century period. It has certainly flourished with conversions from the Mainline Christian faiths to this very emotionally based form of Christianity, which is the largest growing branch of Christianity today in this country if not the world. Even our current contenders in the Presidential Office can note that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin come from Pentecostal backgrounds. Remember Rev. Wright!! It used to be that most all Presidents and Vice-Presidents were Episcopalian (Anglican, Church of England)!
Mary Baker Eddy (although from Boston) saw a tremendous rise in Christian Scientist membership in Los Angeles also during that time period with beautiful Churches that still are in the City.
There are many other lesser known groups in Los Angles in addition to the mainstream Churches, Temples. Synagogues and so forth, but I think you get the point.
My, Los Angeles must have been an amazing “City of the Angels” during that early time in its’ history from 1900 until 1930 and beyond!
October 10, 2019 at 12:34 pm
Adam Gasper
I have an original 1929 Knapp hall tarot card deck. Looking to sell them. How can I go about doing that?
October 10, 2019 at 3:46 pm
Mary K. Greer
Adam,
eBay! I’m not sure what the current going rate is now. Try a search on closed sales on Ebay. It just depends on who is looking. I don’t sell decks so I’m not the best person to ask. You could also check on Tarot garden.com to see if they have one for sale.
Mary