Mitch Horowitz

Manly P. Hall believed that philosophy must be a living and relevant guide to life.

ng others. To Hall, the inner meaning and authentic purpose of philosophy is self-refinement. T

Manly wrote: “The name Pythoness, or Pythia, given to the female hierophant of the oracle, means literally one who has been thrown into a religious frenzy by inhaling fumes rising from decomposing matter.”

Finding the book was, in a way, like finding myself

Egyptian symbolism, sacred

African ceremonial dances

­able, and lessons, was almost unthinkable to most scholars at the time. The idea of peering into Native American mysticism

The “Great Book” included Pythagorean mathematics; the mystery traditions of the Egyptian religions; the meaning and significance of hieroglyphs and pyramids; psychological alchemy; the Hermetic-influenced images that appear in the Tarot deck; the esoteric backstory, as he saw it, of the Shakespearean dramas; cryptograms; mystical Christianity; Kabbalah; Native American rites; and myths and traditions and symbols from different lands and civilizations.

He succeeded, gloriously, in creating a wholly distinctive and beautiful Mayan-Egyptian-Art Deco campus, and he spent the rest of his life there, writing, speaking, and publishing.

One of Manly’s central principles, which you’ll find enunciated throughout this guidebook, is that there’s no division between the individual and the surrounding cosmos; it’s all one whole.