REVIEW: Secret Destiny of America v0.3

SECRET DESTINY OF AMERICA

CHAPTER 1: THE ORIGIN OF THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL

• “World democracy was the secret dream of the great classical philosophers.”
• “America can not refuse the challenge of leadership in the post-war world.”
• “The greatest of all known problems is the human proble,. And not until all embracing examination is made into every phase of human needs can there be an adequate reconstruction policy for a postwar world. That man is physical is obvious, but he is also mental, and emotional, he is spiritual, and he has a soul.”
• “I dedicate this book to the proposition that American Democracy is part of a Universal Plan”
• “Our world is ruled by inflexible laws which control not only the motions of the heavenly bodies, but the consequences of human conduct. These universal motions, interpreted politically, are impelling human society out of a state of autocracy and tyranny to democracy and freedom.”
• “An Order of the Quest”
• “World democracy was the secret dream of the great classical philosophers”
• “The mechanism for the accomplishment of this ideal was set in motion in the ancient temples of greece, egypt , and  India.”
• “Not only must we preserve that which we have gained through ages of striving, we must also perfect the plan of the ages, setting up here the machinery for a world brotherhood of nations and races. This is our duty and our glorious opportinity.”

CHAPTER 2: THE WORLDS FIRST DEMOCRAT

• AKHENATEN? WHAT?
• It think Hall’s definition of democracy is “exemplify social consciousness in the administration of a great nation”
• “Religious intolerance was impossible among those who worshipped Aton.” King he executed the priests of the previous religion
• “Professor Breasted”

CHAPTER 3: WESTWARD OCEAN TRAVEL TO THE EARTHLY PARADISE

CHAPTER 13: BACONS SECRET SOCIETY

• “Colonization of the Western Hemisphere was largely motivated in the desire to pillage the fabulous treasures of the new world.”
• “For the promulgation of the Christian faith, the Western Hemisphere offered virgin territory.”
• Bacon’s Society of the Unknown Philosophers advised the colonization scheme
• “Free of the political despotism that held europe in its clutches”
• Again with the Order of the Quest
• Ah okay, bacon claims that the SUK were rosicrutians partially.
• Magistar Johannes Kelpius
• Order of the Mustard Seed
• And ABC Book for Young Students Studying in the College of the Holy Ghost
• “Any account of the secret societies in America would have to contribute tribute to the man who has been called “The First American Gentleman””
• I bet franklin would get a kick out of that
• “Franklin was not a lawmaker but his words became law” King he signed the declaration of independence. He was one of the most important framers.
• Franklin was received by the Lodge of Perfection
• “Franklin spoke for the Order of the Quest”

CHAPTER 14 - A PROPHECY WRITTEN IN THE YEAR OF WASHINGTONS BIRTH

• Vindication of the True Art of Self-Defense by sir william Hope Bart
• Written in the margins are a prophecy apparently

“Tis Chaldee says his fate is great

who se stars do bear him fortunate

Of they near fate, Amerika,

I read in stars a prophecy

Fourteen divide, twelve the same

Sixteen in halves-each olds a name

Four eight seven six- added ten-

The life lines mark of four gt. Men”

Some bullshit numerolgy about george washington, Abraham Lincoln. Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley

CHAPTER 15 - THE UNKNOWN MAN WHO DESIGNED OUR FAN

• The flag was designed by Francis Hopkinson
• Hall cites a book called Our Flag, the Evolution fo the Stars and Stripes by Robert Allen Campbell.
• AAAND THATS A BRIGHAM YOUNG STAMP
• https://archive.org/details/ourflagorevoluti00camp/page/n9/mode/2up
• Oh my god I think Hall found some mormon propaganda and reported it unccritically
• Oh my god hit page 70 they start talking about zodiac
• Hall claims that Campbells work claims that there was a secret meeting with the founding fathers and a secretive old man of unknown origin simply called “The professor” who actually designed the flag

CHAPTER 16 - THOMAS PAINE AND THE RIGHTS OF MAN

• He just sort of describes Thomas Paine
• I see, he is claiming Paine is closer to the Destiny than the rest of the framers

CHAPTER 17 - THE UNKNOWN WHO SWAYED THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

• Hall cites a dude named A.P. Warrington, who claimed to find a book of lost speeches from the framers.
• Hall asked for a copy but Warrington moved to india and died.

CHAPTER 18 - THE SYMBOLS OF THE GREAT SEAL

• “Is the Anerican Eagle actually a phoenix?”
• No
• Gaillard Hunt, The History of the Seal of the United States
• Cites the story about Franklin proposing the turkey
• “The phoenix of china is identical in meaning with the Phoenix of china”
• No its not. Zhuque is completely different.
• “The Phoenix of the greeks is the same as the Thunderbird”
• NO IT IS NOT THEY’RE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
• Even if it was a phoenix thats not evidence of some sort of mystical interlopers
• “The combination of the phoenix, the pyramid, and the eye is more than chance or coincidence” The eye wasnt used by freemasons very much in 1780
• It was designed in 1782

CHAPTER 19 - THE PROPHETIC DDREAM OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN

• This dream is false. It was the invention of a journalist named Charles Wesley Alexander
• Who wrote under the pen name Wesley Bradshaw,  for the Soldier’s Casket, a periodical for Union veterans of the Civil War
• https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/george-washingtons-vision/
• Another Mandala

CHAPTER 20 - THE END OF THE QUEST

• “In america shall be erected a shrine to Universal Truth, as here arises the global democratic Commonwealth.”
• Call to action
• Individualist approach to the Great Work
• “The democratic commonwealth ca never be legislated into existence. Nor can it result from formal treaties or conferences.”
• “Permanent progress results from education”
• “According to bacon there are three sources of learning: Tradition, observation, experimentation”
• “Where there are many laws there is much lawlessness” Actually I agree with that one
• “Ony enlightened men can sustain enlightened leadership’ only the wise can recognize and reward wisdom” ok hold up
• “The Great PHilosophers of the past were truly great because they approached the problem of life as priest-philosopher-scientist. The title of The Wise is properly applied only to those in whose consciousness the unity of knowledge has been established as the pattern of The Quest”
• “It was part of the ancient plan that has descended to us to build the ideal university, the college of the six days work.”
• “Hold sciences as sacred as theology.” That is not how theology or science works
• “In the postwar world one of two courses lies before us. Either we make the old mistakes again, and try to force our own concepts upon the universe; or we will gather our strength for one heroic effort to put things right”
• “This is the secret empire of poets, this is the order of the Unknown Philsophers, this is the Brotherhood of the Quest”
• Alright plato chill

AMERICAS ASSIGNMENT WITH DESTINY - 1951

• We in the proper postwar now babey
• So the whole theory about greek colonies in america brings up questions about the actual people that actually lived here. Like the Mayans
• Hall uses the prevalence of serpent imagery in Mayan art to claim that they are members of some sort of Pythonian order
• “A number of authors have trie to prove that Quetzalcoatl was a foreigner who, reaching the shores of the New World at an early time, attempted the civilization of the aboriginal tribes. Lord Kingsborough favored the possibility that this wanderer was the Apotle Thomas, and that the ancient Central American Indians came under Christian or Jewish Influence.”
• Yeah I bet he did
• Oh my god this is mormon shit
• Quetzalcoatl is not a religious symbol in the Latter-day Saint faith, and is not taught as such, nor is it in their doctrine that Quetzalcoatl is Jesus.[39] However, in 1892 one president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, John Taylor, wrote:[40]
• 
  
• The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the Savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being. But the history of the former has been handed down to us through an impure Lamanitish source, which has sadly disfigured and perverted the original incidents and teachings of the Savior's life and ministry.
• — Mediation and Atonement, p. 194.

--

History will tell you that America was born on July 4th, 1776 in a sweaty and melanin-deprived room in Philadelphia. According to Manly P. Hall, history is wrong.

To understand this book, we have to understand the year it was published. 1941 saw America at its most American. The bombing of Perl Harbor had broken the chrysalis of isolationism to reveal a new America, one still dripping the ichor of neo-colonialism and eager to lay the eggs of empire in the brains of anything with a flag, and by golly did many Americans think that was just cracker-jack.

“America can not refuse the challenge of leadership in the post-war world.”  is the first sentence of the text. Hall makes his intentions known. This book has an explicit and topical political purpose. However, to linger too long on Hall’s political intent is to miss the forest for the trees. When hall says “American Democracy” he does not mean “The political system of liberal democracy as the country of the USA practices it.” He means “The 2000 year old extradimensional spell conducted by a Dionysian cult that the unenlightened call America.”

“Our world is ruled by inflexible laws which control not only the motions of the heavenly bodies, but the consequences of human conduct. These universal motions, interpreted politically, are impelling human society out of a state of autocracy and tyranny to democracy and freedom.This motion is inevitable,” To Hall, America is inevitable. It is a physical constant of the universe. Fire is hot, electrons have a negative charge, the moon orbits the  earth, and American Liberal Democracy is the ideal system of governance. Which begs the question: How did he get there?

Hall’s story of America begins with the invention of Democracy, with a single man, an ancient and glorious historical leader who Hall dubs The First Democrat. That man is Akhenaten.

Akhenaten was a despotic priest-king known for actively and explicitly turning against the wishes of the people by establishing a new religion with himself at the head. Records indicate he was almost universally reviled by his subjects for trampling on the existing religious practices of Egypt. Of all the historical figures that could be given the title of The First Democrat, Akhenaten is maybe the worst possible choice. It is difficult to find a historical ruler who is less of a Democrat than Akhenaten. Ghengis Kahn is more of a democrat than Akhenaten.

While the state of Egyptology at the time was still young, and rose-tinted views of Akhenaten were not uncommon, Hall’s unorthodox views on egyptian history are only a single brick in his temple to America. Most of those bricks are the Order of the Quest.

Hall paints an image of an ancient and nameless secret society, one dedicated to the ideals of republic and utopia as set forth by Plato, a group that has been working behind the scenes of history since Athens to guide the lives of Great Men with the ultimate goal of Doing an America. For lack of a better name, Hall calls them the Order of the Quest. Hall seems to understand that the idea of The Order is a bit far-fetched, and spends the remainder of the text pulling from history, mythology, and folklore in an attempt to provide evidence for their existence.

“Calculations based upon Plutarch’s description of ancient voyages seem to indicate that the Greeks not only reached the coast of America, but explored the St. Lawrence River and part of the Great Lakes area.” No they almost certainly did not.

“It was in an old book which is in the British Museum that I found another and even more important key to the meaning of the Golden Fleece. It was known to the Greeks as the Golden Fleece was in reality a parchment on which was written the secret of human immorality.” I will say I would be fascinated to know what book Mr. Hall is referencing here. This clever omission of a name is the beginning of an unfortunate pattern. Hall avoids citing his sources with a brazen confidence that I find admirable. If there is anything to respect about Manly P. Hall, it is his penchant for making wild claims with brazen confidence. For instance:

“We have now in America, enshrined in the Congressional Library, a Golden Fleece--the American Declaration of Independence, written on the skin of an animal and preserved as the magic formula of human hope.”

Delightful.

“The real name of Christopher Columbus was Prince Nikolaso Ypsilantis, and he came from the Greek island of Chios.” Hall actually does cite his source here, pointing to a text called “Christopher Columbus Was a Greek” privately published in 1937 by a man named Spyros Cateras. While the origins of Christopher Columbus are the subject of some academic speculation, the general consensus is that Columbus's family was from the coastal region of Liguria, that he spent his boyhood and early youth in the Republic of Genoa, and that he subsequently lived in Savona, where his father Domenico moved in 1470. I was unable to locate a copy of the text claiming he was a Byzantine prince, but Hall seems to overlook a crucial detail: many people are greek. Even if Christopher Columbus was a secret Byzantine prince, that doesn’t mean he was a member of an ancient secret society of Platonic philosophers.

Next on the historical chopping block is mesoamerica. Hall spends a chapter relaying anecdotes about several indigenous nations. He covers the Maya, the Inca, the Aztecs, but also lumps in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Halls claims are fairly stock-standard repetitions of old Colonialist narratives, but they serve a purpose. The existence of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is a roadblock to the idea that Democracy itself was the result of some ancient Greek conspiracy.

[add the montezuma annecdote]

As an occultist, I would expect him to use the confederacy as further evidence that the ancient greeks had visited America, but to my surprise, this is not the avenue that Hall takes. “It resulted from the simple discovery by aboringinal minds that one lived longer, more safely, and more happily if disputes among peoples were solved by arbitration rather than open strife.” Hall goes a step further, and takes the naturalistic approach, using the existence of the confederacy as proof that the republic is a natural and ideal.

“Some years ago, while visiting the Theosophical colony at Ojai California, A. P. Warringon, esoteric secretary of the society, discussed with me a number of historical curiosities, which led to examination of his rare old volume of early American political speeches of a date earlier than those preserved in the first volumes of the Congressional Record.

He made particular mention of a speech by an unknown man at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The particular book was not available at the moment, but Mr. Warrington offered to send me a copy of the speech, and he did; but unfortunately neglected to append the title or the date of the book. He went to India subsequently, and died”

I laughed out loud when I read this for the first time. The tone verges on self-parody. It scans like a joke. The idea that the theosophical society has copies of unknown speeches written by the founding fathers that are completely unknown to congressional scholars is fantastic. I hope to deep night that they do. It would be hilarious. I am, however, skeptical of the existence of this document. Hall qualifies this section with: “There is no reason to doubt the accuracy and authenticity of Mr. Warringtons copy, but I am undertaking such investigation as is possible to discover the source of the speech.” While I can personally imagine several reasons to doubt the authenticity of a book of unknown speeches by the founding fathers, I will be a good occultist and take Mr Hall at his word for the moment.

The alleged document details a scene immediately before the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. The scene is tense. The founding fathers make their speeches, but the attitude is one of apprehension around the treason that every man in the room is about to commit. None have yet signed. But then, a strong, bold voice rings out. None recognize the voice, but it speaks with conviction and power of Angels and Lexginton and Destiny. “It is not given to our poor human intellect to climb to the skies and to pierce the Council of the Almighty One. But methinks I stand among the awful clouds which veil the brightness of Jehovah's Throne.”

The speech completes.

“The unknown speaker fell exhausted into his seat. The delegates, carried away by his enthusiasm, rushed forward. John Hancock scarcely had time to pen his bold signature before the quill was grasped by another. It was done.

The delegates turned to express their gratitude to the unknown speaker for his eloquent words.

He was not there.”

This moment marks a notable turn in the text. We have now introduced the supernatural. Hall has hinted at mysticism before. A mysterious unknown man vanishing into thin air at a momentous point in history would add significant credence to Hall’s claims of secret orders guiding history. The chapters leading up to this point have been Hall setting the stage for this claim, if he can convince the reader that this Mysterious Teleporting Patriot existed, the rest of the text will follow suit.

Hall begins to show his rosicrucian colors, providing occult analysis of several common symbols of the United States. First up is the Great Seal of the United States. He claims that the bird on the seal is a phoenix. It is not a phoenix. Even if it was a phoenix that wouldn’t really mean much. Next is the use of the Eye of Providence, the eye in a triangle symbol present on the back of a dollar bill. While nowadays this symbol is associated with freemasonry and The Illuminati, the symbol was common for the time, representing benevolent oversight. The Freemasons did not formally adopt the symbol’s use until 1797, 14 years after the creation of the great seal.

The pyramid below the eye has 13 layers, representing the original thirteen colonies. Hall claims it is the pyramid of Giza. “The Pyramid of Gizah was believed by the ancient Egyptians to be the shrine tomb of the god Hermes, or Thot, the personification of universal wisdom.”