| Episode number | MB25 (Part 25 of 42) |
|---|---|
| Original air date | July 1, 1993 |
| Broadcast | Hour of the Time, WWCR shortwave |
| Chapter title | America’s Assignment, Part II |
| Format | Reading with commentary |
| Primary text | America’s Assignment with Destiny by Manly P. Hall (Philosophical Research Society, 1951) |
| Listen | Stream the series on archive.org |
Episode Summary
Episode 25 aired on July 1, 1993, one day after episode 24, and continues Cooper’s reading of Manly P. Hall’s 1951 book America’s Assignment with Destiny. The episode opens with Cooper acknowledging that some of his research assistant Tom Swift’s reading from the previous night had been difficult to understand, being his first broadcast, and that Cooper would now re-cover the material to ensure no listener missed it. The episode therefore repeats the latter section of episode 24 before advancing to new content.
The repeated section re-covers the closing Quetzalcoatl narrative: the old priest-king, slowly dying from poison administered by a rival priesthood, departing Cholula after nearly twenty years, reaching the Gulf coast, blessing his four companions, stepping onto a raft of serpents, and disappearing into the land of the sun’s beginning. He left behind a priesthood that kept the Mysteries of the Feathered Serpent in secret. Cooper notes that Hall records multiple conflicting accounts of Quetzalcoatl’s departure and death, arising from different tribal sources and Spanish methods of recording, and suggests that some sacred records were intentionally concealed from the missionaries.
The new material focuses on the Popul Vuh, the Quiche Maya sacred book, and its significance as evidence for the existence of mystery school initiation in the pre-Columbian Americas. Hall traces the Popul Vuh’s transmission from a seventeenth-century compilation at Chichicastenango, to discovery by Dr. Scherzer around 1855 at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City, to French translation by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, to early English translation appearing serially in a Theosophical magazine under the title The Book of the Azure Veil. Cooper pauses to note the theosophical provenance of the earliest English translation and the implications for who had access to this material.
James Pryse’s commentary on the Popul Vuh receives particular attention. Pryse suggests that the deity Quetzalcoatl was known in Peru as Amaru, and that America derives its name from Amaruca, meaning Land of the Plumed Serpent. The priests of this god, Pryse claims, once ruled both continents from their center in the Cordilleras, and all native peoples who remained true to the ancient religion were still under their control at the time he wrote. Cooper reads this without additional comment, allowing the implication to stand that the mystery school of the Feathered Serpent maintained authority over the Americas into modern times.
The episode’s second half turns from Mesoamerica to the broader tradition of Amerindian mysticism. Hall surveys the esoteric doctrines of North American tribes, noting that among advanced tribes an elaborate system of secret doctrine existed known only to a small priestly class, while the mass of the people knew only the exoteric forms. Cooper inserts a direct commentary after one passage, telling listeners to apply Hall’s description of the conflict between the ancient mystery faith and temporal authorities to the Mystery Religion of today, where the same struggle is ongoing.
The medicine priests of North American tribes receive extended treatment. Hall’s account credits them with healing, prophecy, levitation of stones, creation of miniature thunderstorms, transformation into animals, and projection of consciousness to distant places. The vigil, in which an initiate sought solitude, built a fire, placed prayer plumes in a circle, and waited for voices, is described as the most widely practiced religious discipline of the Amerindian peoples. Cooper reads the manitos concept, a class of superhuman beings who served as intermediaries between a supreme intelligence and human communities, noting its structural parallel with the hidden masters described by Jordan Maxwell in the previous episode.
The episode closes with Hall’s account of totemism as a form of heraldry and a channel for spiritual energy through the social structure of the clan, with each clan’s totemic animal serving the same function as the guardian daemon of the Egyptian and Chaldean mysteries. Cooper offers a packet of information to listeners and closes with his standard good night.
Key Claims Made in This Episode
Documented from the broadcast. The site records these claims; it does not endorse them. Dated claims also appear in the series timeline.
- Cooper claims, following Pryse’s commentary cited by Hall, that the name America derives from Amaruca, meaning Land of the Plumed Serpent, the Peruvian name for the deity known as Quetzalcoatl, and that the priests of this mystery religion once ruled both continents from a center in the Cordilleras.
- Cooper claims the serpent symbolism common to the mystery religions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Americas represents the same wisdom tradition, and that the feathered or winged serpent specifically denotes illumination: wisdom given wings to become spirit-wisdom.
- Cooper claims, following Hall, that among advanced North American tribes an elaborate system of secret esoteric doctrine was held by a small priestly class unknown to the general population, that this esoteric system closely paralleled the mystery school structures of the Old World, and that its medicine priests were genuine initiates of esoteric orders.
- Cooper claims that the present-day conflict between those who hold the mystery faith of illumination and temporal authorities who seek to keep people in bondage through ignorance is the same conflict described by Hall in his account of ancient Mesoamerican religion, and that Hall’s description of the adversary applies directly to modern religious and governmental institutions.
- Cooper claims, following Hall, that medicine priests of the North American tribes performed verified miracles including levitation, transformation into animals, creation of miniature thunderstorms with forked lightning indoors, and projection of consciousness to distant places, as recorded by the skeptical observer Charles Lummis.
- Cooper claims, following Hall, that the manitos of Amerindian tradition, superhuman intermediary beings who governed the distribution of spiritual power through human communities, are structurally identical to the hidden masters of Freemasonry described by Jordan Maxwell in the preceding episode.
- Cooper claims, following Hall, that the Amerindian concept of cosmogony, with a three-zone universe of sky, earth surface, and subterranean underworld, paralleled that of the Chaldeans and other ancient Near Eastern peoples, indicating a single common source for these cosmological systems.
- Cooper claims that the Popul Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiches, is evidence of an elaborate mystery school initiation tradition in the pre-Columbian Americas, that its twelve trials parallel the signs of the zodiac, and that the twelve princes of Xibalba may represent the rulers of the lost Atlantean empire.
Primary Sources Cited in This Episode
| Source | Status | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Manly P. Hall, America’s Assignment with Destiny (Philosophical Research Society, Los Angeles, 1951) | Not public domain; read extensively on air | Library and used book copies; out of print; see our sources hub |
| Popul Vuh (Quiche Maya sacred text; English translation by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus G. Morley, University of Oklahoma Press, 1950; earlier serial English translation by Kenneth S. Guthrie in The Word) | Public domain | Search archive.org scans |
| Albert Reville, Hibbard Lectures (1894), quoted within Hall | Public domain | Search archive.org scans |
| Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928) (background reference) | Public domain | Search archive.org scans |
Notable Quotes
“From the latter name comes our word America. Amaruca is, literally translated, ‘Land of the Plumed Serpent.’ The priests of this God of Peace, from their chief centre in the Cordilleras, once ruled both Americas.”
James Pryse, as cited in Hall’s America’s Assignment with Destiny, read by Cooper, MB25, July 1, 1993
“You can apply this same logic to the Mystery Religion of today, where they refer to the adversary. They are talking about the same religious institutions, governments and groups of people that Mr. Hall refers to in discussing the ancient Mystery Religions of the Aztecs and Mayans.”
Cooper, MB25, July 1, 1993
Historians’ View
The claim that America derives its name from Amaruca, a Peruvian name for the plumed serpent deity, is not accepted in mainstream etymology. The continent’s name is conventionally traced to Amerigo Vespucci, the Florentine explorer, through Martin Waldseemuller’s 1507 map. The Pryse derivation appears in Theosophical literature and has no support in academic linguistics or cartographic history. Scholars of Amerindian religion note that Hall’s survey, while drawing on some genuine ethnographic sources including Franz Boas, is selective and heavily shaped by Theosophical interpretive frameworks that were not standard anthropological method even in 1951. The accounts of medicine priests performing physical miracles such as levitation and indoor lightning cited from Charles Lummis are from popular rather than peer-reviewed sources; Lummis himself acknowledges he cannot explain them and does not claim they constitute verified phenomena. We document all claims as broadcast; we do not endorse them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Mystery Babylon episode 25 about?
Episode 25 continues Cooper’s reading of Manly P. Hall’s 1951 America’s Assignment with Destiny. It covers the Pryse thesis that America is named after the plumed serpent deity, the Popul Vuh as mystery school evidence, and Hall’s survey of esoteric doctrines and medicine priest practices among North American tribes. The episode is part two of a three-part reading series; material connects to the Mystery Schools and Ancient Religion hub.
What is the Popul Vuh and why does Cooper read from it?
The Popul Vuh is the sacred book of the Quiche Maya people, containing cosmogony, mythology, and the legendary history of the Quiche. Hall, and Cooper following him, present it as evidence of an elaborate mystery school initiation tradition in the pre-Columbian Americas, citing its twelve ordeals as parallels to the zodiacal degrees of the Old World mysteries. A public domain English translation is accessible at archive.org.
What is the significance of the name Amaruca?
Cooper reads Hall’s citation of James Pryse’s claim that the name America derives from Amaruca, a Peruvian name for the plumed serpent deity Quetzalcoatl, meaning Land of the Plumed Serpent. Pryse further claims that the priests of this deity once ruled both continents from the Cordilleras. This is one of the series’ more striking claims about the Americas and the mystery school tradition; it connects to the broader lineage argument traced on the series timeline.
Where can I listen to episode 25?
The complete series is preserved at archive.org. The site never hosts or distributes the audio; see our content policy.
Continue the Series
- Previous: MB24: America’s Assignment Pt 1
- Next: MB26: America’s Assignment Pt 3
- Topic hub: Mystery Schools and Ancient Religion
- Topic hub: Luciferian Doctrine and New Age
- Related reading: MB08: Initiation (parallels to ancient initiation rites)
- Every dated claim from this episode appears on the series timeline
- Full index: Mystery Babylon Complete Episode Guide
- Sources referenced: Sources and Bibliography
