Looking for tree of life book recommendations

orlovgrrl

I am looking for book recommendations. I am studying specifically the journey through the 22 paths of the sephirot. Any great works out there on the subject?
 

Grigori

Is there a particular tradition or approach that interests you?
 

Richard

I am looking for book recommendations. I am studying specifically the journey through the 22 paths of the sephirot. Any great works out there on the subject?
The Fool's Journey along the Paths is a nice way to learn some of the meanings of the Trumps, but if you seriously want to learn about the Paths/Trumps, I would suggest P. F. Case's book, The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages. It is an intermediate level book about the Trumps, which will not lead you astray.
 

Carla

The Fool's Journey along the Paths is a nice way to learn some of the meanings of the Trumps, but if you seriously want to learn about the Paths/Trumps, I would suggest P. F. Case's book, The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages. It is an intermediate level book about the Trumps, which will not lead you astray.

Would you also recommend Case's Tarot Card Meanings: Fundamentals and Tarot Card Meanings: Interpretations?
 

Richard

Would you also recommend Case's Tarot Card Meanings: Fundamentals and Tarot Card Meanings: Interpretations?
I don't have those books yet, Carla, but I suspect they are updated versions of some of his earlier writings, in which case I would really like to have them. He changed some of his card attributions to be more in line with those of Book T and Rider-Waite. In addition, Case seems to be generally well-liked among Thelema/Thoth weirdos. ;)
 

bradford

I like this one. Maybe thru interlibrary loan.
Cordovero, Moshe; tr. Moshe Miller. The Palm Tree of Deborah. Southfield, MI: Targum
Press, 1993. Sometimes spelled Tomer Devorah.
It's mainly a classical journey through the Sephirot, with an emphasis on the ethics of the spheres. Traditional Kabbalah. Nothing to do with the paths, the worlds or the alphabet. The Sefer Bahir is good there too.
I would do something traditional for a good foundation before reading any new age stuff, and wouldn't go anywhere near Research Center of Kabbalah publications.
As far as Qabalah (Hermetic) goes, I still like the Book of Thoth and 777.
 

Karrma

Advice I got

I asked a scholar, professor, artist, about one that would not have too much magic in it, and he recommended one that was a couple of hundred dollars, and another by Michael John Greer, called Magical Kabbalah. Guess which one was in my budget. The MJG book does have good clear explanations and pictures of basic kabbalah, the paths, as well as basic magical meditations/practice, and I have been able to read, study, practice, skip around to where my interest is at the moment. It is well organized and more into the basics, tells you don't get caught up in little details.

I did download a couple of books that were in the Jewish Tradition, and they were ok for getting a basic understanding of how complex it can be, but not good for learning the paths.

I happened to pick up another book at the second hand store, and had 2 competely different possible pathways, both more in the Jewish tradition. So everwhere you look the paths will be different, so pick one, and study it.

Actually John Michael Greer, Paths of Wisdom, A guide to the Magical Cabala
 

treedog

I am looking for book recommendations. I am studying specifically the journey through the 22 paths of the sephirot. Any great works out there on the subject?

By now you've no doubt found lots of good material to read, but having just started this course of investigation I can say how it's going for me... I really like the book that LR recommended by P.F.Case. I started with some Lon Milo Duquette (Thoth oriented) and am now 2/3 of the way through Dion Forutune's Mystic Qabalah. As well, I just started Robert Wang's Qablaistic Tarot. This is all Hermetic tradition (if I'm saying that right), you know... Golden Dawn perspective.

I have a copy of The Tarot Handbook by R. Pollack. It's not Qabalah, but it gave me something to get ahold of earlier on. It began me thinking. I appreciate her. I also have a copy of The Tarot by Mouni Sadhu. I was just not ready for that one. And the asignments of the Trumps to Hebrew letters is different from that of authors I'm reading so I set it aside.

I keep massaging it from a few different angles, and slowly connections are being made. Maybe it takes some whacked sense of dedication, but what a journey! So, again: Case, Duquette, Fortune and Wang. This is what's working for me now in terms of Tree of Life.
 

Zephyros

Qabalah is not a body of knowledge, it is a method of thinking - Dion Fortune

:)