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Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
- My Seven Years in Occult Los Angeles with Manly Palmer Hall
- Narrated by: Tamra Lucid, Danny Goldberg
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
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Making the Ordinary Extraordinary
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Publisher's Summary
- Details how the author and her boyfriend developed a close friendship with Manly Hall and how Hall at first mistook her boyfriend as his heir apparent
- Explains how Hall adopted the author as his “girl Friday” and personal weirdo screener, giving her access to the inner circles of occult Los Angeles
- Richly depicts the characters who worked and gathered at Hall’s Philosophical Research Society, including Hall’s wife, the famed “Mad Marie”
In the early 1980s, underground musicians Tamra Lucid and her boyfriend, Ronnie Pontiac, discovered the book The Secret Teachings of All Ages at the Bodhi Tree bookstore in Los Angeles. Poring over the tome, they were awakened to the esoteric and occult teachings of the world. Tamra and Ronnie were delighted to discover that the book’s author, Manly Palmer Hall (1901-1990), master teacher of Hermetic mysteries and collector of all things mystical, lived in LA and gave lectures every Sunday at his mystery school, the Philosophical Research Society (PRS). After their first tantalizing Sunday lecture, Tamra and Ronnie soon started volunteering at the PRS, beginning a seven-year friendship with Manly P. Hall, who eventually officiated their wedding in his backyard.
In this touching, hilarious, and ultimately tragic autobiographical account, Tamra shares an intimate portrait of Hall and the occult world of New Age Los Angeles, including encounters with astrologers, scholars, artists, spiritual seekers, and celebrities such as Jean Houston and Marianne Williamson. Tamra vividly describes how she used her time at the PRS to learn everything she could not only about metaphysics, but also about the people who practice it. But when Tamra begs Hall to banish a certain man from the PRS - the same man who inherited Hall’s estate and whom his wife, Marie, later alleged was Hall’s murderer - Tamra and Ronnie are the ones banished.
Tamra’s noir chronicle of an improbable friendship between a 20-something punk and an 80-year-old metaphysical scholar reveals Hall not only as an inspiring esoteric thinker, but also as a genuinely kind human being who simply wanted to share his quest for inner meaning and rare wisdom with the world.
Critic Reviews
“Beautifully written, touching, historical, fast-paced, and fun. This is a book magical people everywhere will love and learn from.” (Amanda YaTeS Garcia, author of Initiated: Memoir of a Witch)
“A must-read...this MTV-era story vividly recalls the surreal time when Tamra Lucid’s hot mess of a boyfriend became an apprentice to the greatest metaphysical scholar in America, Manly P. Hall. Part witty manifesto, part feminist grimoire, part LA love letter, this book brings to life an unforgettable mystical friendship, and the road to magic it reveals is lined with palm trees, red carpets, and night-blooming jasmine. A very important document for anyone interested in the life and legacy of MPH, especially if they wish for a more intimate portrait of the man and his remarkable relationship with his wife Marie, not to mention the politics and inner workings of the PRS. I’ve yet to read anything else offering such a wonderfully tender inside perspective.” (Caroline Ryder, coauthor of Dirty Rocker Boys)
“A compellingly written portrait of life with one of the most significant occult voices of the last century - a rare, through-the-looking-glass account of an esoteric circle that quietly impacted the outer world in which we dwell.” (Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award-winning author of Occult America)
