New Interest in Gray
Magician/author Phillip Cooper's newest book was published in November by Weiser, entitled "Esoteric Magic and the Cabalah." I am not a 'fan' of Cooper, but thought this was an interesting, accessible book. Cooper makes his case for the Wm Gray assignments. If Cooper's book picks up any steam in the magickal world, there might be a resurgent interest in these assignments. I did not go deeply into them, but on the surface, some of the assignments made sense to me. I hope to spend some more time with this and probably will since I just received a copy of "The Talking Tree" yesterday.
I think it is important to take a fresh approach here, regarding the assignments, and consider any and all. Perhaps in the end, one would return to the GD system, but if so, it would by choice and not because everyone else in the neighborhood was doing it.
Spirituality is a personal endeavor, but to a point. The residual matter of the research of those before us, I have read, is still intact and accessible to all -- on higher planes. All you need in an Akasha Library card!
As I said, the Cooper book is mostly very good, IMHO. I liked it and recommended to a friend who is fairly new to the Qabalah, and she liked it also. It's very clear, matter of fact, and has a nice ritual for scrying the paths. Cooper has you take the pips of whatever spheres you are working (say, for instance, Hod (8) and Netzach (7)) and place those on the table, all the 7s and 8s, according to the magical directions (which he also describes in the book: Swords - East, Wands - South, Cups - West, Pentacles - North) Also one takes the corresponding pathworking arcana card (according to the Gray method, THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE, and GD assignment, TEMPERANCE) and places that in the center of the altar/table. Say the magic word and the inquirer will enter a realm where in which s/he blends all that's on the table and gains insight. It really is a more interesting ritual than I might be portraying here.
According to Cooper, Gray assignments are the only ones that make sense. While I'm not sure of that, I would like to check these assignments out myself.