Customer Reviews

Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire (Adept Series)

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This is a great book! Don't be mislead by the diminutive size of this volume, only fifty-four pages. The book is packed with more than enough ideas to ponder in just one sitting. The title is somewhat misleading, only a small portion of the book deals with Melchizedek. The mystery of fire and its meaning to mankind is the actual theme of the book. The author attempts to provide his readers a method to discover the origins of man, who he is, and his true place in the universe. Hall describes how man's body is a living temple, and man a high priest serving at the initiation and rituals occuring in the vaious chambers and passageways of the human body. Lurking just beneath the surface of the world's greatest classical literature from ancient times is the collective esoteric knowledge of the human race. It isn't free. It must be worked for. Read and re-read and ponder to discover the essence of the writer's thoughts burried beneath symbolism and allegory. The possession of the occult keys to human salvation through knowledge of self is the goal for which the wise men of all ages have labored. It was the hope of possession of these ancient formulae that strengthened the candidates who struggled valiantly through the danger and disappointments of the ancient initiations. Sometimes, actually, giving their lives in their quest for the truth. It is unlawful to reveal to the uninitiated the key links to the chain of mysteries. It is possible, however, without breech of confidence, to explain certain of the lesser secrets which will vindicate the intergrity of the older hierophants, but also reveal part of the mystery of man's divine nature. This book should be appreciated by Freemasons!

Don't pay attention to the "rubbish" review. Buy this book! People like this should not be reading any of the Mystical books! To a person who is NOT READY all is rubbish. This is why the first Tarot key is called "The Fool". Because to a "normal" person anyone with knowledge of the Mysteries is a Fool! This is why we have the gargoyles, sphinx, and "monsters" outside mystery schools! To frighten the weak of mind away! I have been a Rosicrucian (BOTA, AMORC) for 28 years and a Mason for one. I am also a Computer Scientist. I can tell you that Hall's other book "The Secret Teachings of all Ages" is the ONE most popular book with all students of the Path. Yes, all Mystery Schools (Hermetic, Alchemy, etc.) and the Freemasons work on the transformation of Man. They are the "Builders of the Adytum" (Temple (body)). This should not be too hard to understand to a "normal" person after all we have the example of the Buddha, Jesus, etc. They transformed themselves (Cosmic Consciousness, Christ Consciousness) to "Sons of God". After all, we are ALL "Sons of God" because there is nothing in this Universe (and HE that forms it) OUTSIDE of HIM! Think about it...

The Occult Anatomy of Man, Melchizedek and the Mystery of Fire and Spiritual Centers in Man are three books that I highly recommend for any serious student of the occult. I have Spritual Centers in Man under its original title, An Essay on the Fundamental Principles of Operative Occultism....it is pretty much the same book. It talks about the various spiritual centers but what I like about it most is the beginning subject matter which is the requirements of the occult student and what he or her should expect on the path of Occult Studies. The Occult Anatomy of Man explains how man is a microcosm of the universe and Melchizedek relates Biblical symbology to the various parts of the physical and spiritual bodies. Kundalini, chakras and the various bodies of man are covered in all three books. I recommend them all.

Just finished reading this very short book. It's in three parts ... wish I could give a quick synopsis -- perhaps it's best to check out the glowing reviews on amazon.com. I highlighted and underlined quite a bit -- a bit too much to print out the interesting parts here.

The first part is an introduction in defense of the fact that all religions, east and west, have "fire" or "light" as their fundamental deity -- sometimes appearances to the contrary -- but Manly P. Hall is quick to point out that this "fire" is not necessarily physical or material fire, but the fire known as "akasa" or "the astral light" or, several other names, basically it is the "ethereal fire" that is one (Hall says the highest) of the four elements of the ancients.

The content of the second part of "Melchizidek" is a little harder to pin down. It's title "Man, Grand Symbol of the Mysteries" is the same as the title of another entire book by Hall. The chapter is necessarily less detailed, touching mainly on the idea introduced previously that there really are three aspects of the "fire" worshiped by all races, corresponding to the three aspects of man's constitution -- heart (heaven), body (hell), mind (earth, or the middle ground). In the first part he calls these Will (heart, heaven), Action or Friction (earth), and Wisdom or Intelligence (mind, meeting between heaven and earth). I may be a little off on the correspondences, but they're never very clear in occult writings, and when they are, they're often contradicted in other writings.

In any case, the second part also involves a defense of the argument made at the book's outset, namely that almost all, if not all, religious lore, writings, symbolism, processions, rituals, even architecture pertain to certain secret, i.e. occult, knowledge of man's true, spiritual, constitution as well as to the means of achieving spiritual regeneration -- resulting in membership of the highest mystery school on Earth -- according to him -- the order of Melchizidek.

The third part of the book explores the phenomenon of the kundalini energy, the chakra/nadi system as well as the role played by both the pituitary (the mother gland, Isis) and the pineal gland (Osiris?) in achieving spiritual regeneration.

I am perhaps cheating the reader of this review of the many quotable quotes from this short, enjoyable and highly readable book. Compare Hall's easy-reading writing style to a mentor of both his and mine -- the venerable H.P. Blavatsky, whose writing (cf. the Secret Doctrine) is often very difficult reading.

Quotes from Melchizidek (this is not representative of the numerous passages I found interesting in the book, but here are a few).

"The auric body of a snake is one of the most remarkable sights that the clairvoyant will ever see, and the secrets concealed within this aura demonstrate why the serpent is the symbol of wisdom among so many nations."

"The golden ornaments upon the altars of Christian churches should remind the philosophical observer that gold is the sacred metal of the sun, because, according to alchemists, the sun ray itself crystallized in the earth, thus forming this precious metal, which, incidentally is still being made."

"The initiates view the blood as a mysterious liquid, somewhat gaseous in nature, which served as a medium for manifesting the fire of man's spiritual nature. This fire, coursing through the system, animated and vitalized all parts of the form, thus keeping the spiritual nature in touch with all of its physical extremities."

"The Egyptians considered the juice of the grape to be more nearly like human blood than any other substance. In fact, they believed that the grape secured its life from the blood of the dead who had been buried in the earth."

"The highest of each kingdom in Nature was considered symbolic of the sun. Hence, the scarab beetle, being the most intelligent of all insects, the eagle the most aspiring of all birds, and the lion the strongest of all beasts were considered fitly symbolic of the solar disc."

This booklet talks about various esoteric and philosophical concepts.

Hall believed that there are mystical connections between various organs in the human body and things like psychic abilities and etheric energies in nature. His view of the human body and how it functions was not purely scientific. He believed that a human being is primarily a spiritual being.

Like the ancient Egyptians Hall believed that people have both a physical body and an etheric body. The Egyptians actually had more 'divisions of the self' than just body, mind, and spirit.

He talks about the different glandular systems in the human body and how those affect the heath and mind of a person.

The subject of initiation comes up in this book and other books about philosophy and ancient mysteries. According to the legends the initiation candidates in Egypt and other places went through a training process where they learned about arcane and potentially dangerous knowledge. In some cases they experienced the initiation rites with their spiritual body as the physical body laid in a comatose like state. Hall believed that Jesus Christ, Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle experienced the initiation rites at some level.

The connection with Melchizedek is that he is like the father of these ancient mysteries. This knowledge is passed down to a chosen few in every generation. The initiates are sworn to secrecy about what they learn since this type of knowledge becomes very dangerous in the wrong hands as the Atlanteans found out.

Elisabeth Haich stated that Moses was also an initiate of that ancient and secret priesthood in Egypt, the 'Order Of Melchizedek'.

According to Edgar Cayce Adam, Melchizedek, and Jesus Christ are all the same person. He may also be Thoth, the great teacher of mathematics and occult sciences and the architect of the Great Pyramid. I think Hall is right that Christianity is just one part of a long process of spiritual evolution that traces its origins back to Atlantis and to other worlds really.

Manly Hall was well informed about the legends of the ancient past. Some of the things he says match up with the Edgar Cayce material and other mysterious sources. Hall says Christ was a member of the Essenes religious cult. Cayce agrees and adds that Christ traveled to Egypt and India with His cousin John The Baptist and Christ went through the Egyptian initiation process.

Like Helena Blavatsky, Earlyne Chaney, and others Hall had a sort of condescending view of Christianity as it exists today. He felt that the vast majority of modern Christians are ignorant about what Christianity really means. He mentions some branch of Gnosticism which he thinks captured the true meaning of Christ's message.

Gnosticism may have been a valid religion at one time but the so called scriptures that are associated with Gnosticism today are pure crap. I don't know what happened.

Hall's books are very informative but for me he sometimes gets too philosophical.

Jeff Marzano

Initiation

Initiation in the Great Pyramid (Astara's library of mystical classics)

Fulcanelli: Master Alchemist: Le Mystere des Cathedrales, Esoteric Intrepretation of the Hermetic Symbols of The Great Work (Le Mystere Des ... of the Hermetic Symbols of Great Work)

The Philosopher's Stone: Alchemy and the Secret Research for Exotic Matter

The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Reader's Edition)

Egyptian Heritage: Based on the Edgar Cayce Readings

Lives of the Master: The Rest of the Jesus Story

Edgar Cayce's Story of Jesus

Jesus: His Words Decoded, His Mystery Teachings Revealed

Edgar Cayce on the Revelation: A Study Guide for Spiritualizing Body and Mind

For such a small booklet, it has a lot of information that you need to process. There are just so many things that are all connected to make ONE, being who you are and how things work, it truly is amazing.

Impressive work! Truly, a book full of that hard to find, almost lost information.

A great read, only useful and enjoyable if you are on a higher phase of your understanding, and spiritual development.

Manly P. Hall left a legendary source of knowledge of consciousness and the esoteric. A must have for any serious student of the subject.