>>7903913 lb
Many people take the explanations of Bill Cooper or Texe Marrs and others as, for lack of a better phrase, "gospel truth" but in truth their understanding is totally wrong because their foundation assumptions were wrong (though both are very good men and are not trying to misdirect or lie to people). This is a sticky topic here because many are religious and cannot go outside their comfort zone, so will not (as in refuse) look further.
Manly P Hall was a man, like me (he was probably an aspie) who likes to research because he wanted to learn. He researched the oldest cultures around the world, their holy books, their myths and legends - all with an open mind. He wrote several books, one such was The Secret Teachings of All Ages, a truly mammoth undertaking. He gave lectures weekly on various topics, which you can find online at archive.org What sets him apart is that he is not pushing an ideology or religion or point of view, just relaying what that group of people/civilization/etc said and what they understood about it.
Just like neither Bill Cooper nor Texe Marrs are the be-all-end-all, neither is MPH. It's always good to get more sources of information and points of view.
And in order to understand how the human brain understands symbols themselves (whatever the symbol is, from whatever time or culture), I recommend Rene August Schwaller de Lubicz two books attached. They use Egypt as an example, but these two are extremely crucial for understanding why symbols and ideograms have always been used (as opposed to letters together forming words). We (all humans) think analogically and that is why a symbol can have many meanings and combinations can have multiple sets of meanings, or a "constellation" of meanings.
Very important.
Thank you for being open minded.