Hi, Moonbow,
I am new to this forum, but not new to Kabbalah. I have to say that I began as a student of the Kabbalah before pursuing the tarot, and while I don't consider myself a consummate expert by any stretch of the imagination, I have read enough to at least be dangerous (LOL)...
When I first began reading up on Kabbalah, I had no idea that so many different 'flavours' of it (if you will) existed. I soon learnt that the Christians have their own unique mode(s), the Hermetics have theirs, and the Jewish adherents have theirs. I must say, however, that through my limited perusal of the subject, I was never drawn to the sort of conclusion which dictated that Kabbalah was something which *preceded* Judaism, but which was borne out of it. The sages say that while the Torah answers the 'what?' and the Talmud answers the 'how?', the Kabbalah answers the 'why?'. And while I haven't delved into other mystical traditions outside of Jewish Kabbalah (once I realised which resources were considered 'kosher'), I have never encountered any books which attribute to Kabbalah any mystical language other than Hebrew (and occasionally Aramaic). Kircher and other European scholars discussed it using Latin, Greek or the vernacular tongue of their society to explain kabbalistic concepts, but always the Hebrew is there (and not Arabic, or Farsi, or Hindi).
Whether or not similar traditions exist in other cultures is not for me to answer, as I'm not qualified. I can, however, tell you that I came to favour the Lurianic 'sect' of kabbalah, and why.
During my initial exposure to Kabbalah, I found many different resources, few of which were actually Jewish (or Hebrew) in origin. Most of the non-Jewish Kabbalah resources I stumbled upon focused on the thaumaturgic (practical) side of Kabbalah, as a school of thought which attempted to answer questions regarding the practise of magic/the performing of miracles. A resource which I still own (for I rarely throw away books
) is The Kabbalistic Encyclopedia, written by David Godwin. I don't consider it a 'kosher' resource, for various reasons. The first of these concerns the nature of the resource itself, which is that of practical Kabbalah (magic/miracles). Many Jewish Kabbalah students, teachers, or written resources will readily denounce any book or class or student of Kabbalah which focuses on thaumaturgy as being of a non-kosher tradition. The focus of so-called 'kosher' (or Holy) Kabbalah seems to be on an intangible, spiritual level: meditation, ecstatic visions, a private spiritual relationship with the Divine, etc. As for so-called 'Christian [C]abalah', I haven't researched much into this, but I understand it as being 'borrowed' [confiscated] from early Jewish sources. Not having read up on this area, I feel ill-disposed to attempt answering questions regarding it, or discussing it with any level of authority. The 'kosher' tradition, of course, denounces it as well, since it was doubtless 'adapted' to accommodate the understanding of Jesus as the Messiah.
Within the 'kosher' tradition, it is said that the Rabbi Isaac Luria (a/k/a, the Ari Z'aL) was the greatest kabbalist ever to have lived. That was good enough for me. I began reading every scrap of information I could get my hands on which bore his name and information on his teachings. The most significant of these teachings involves 'tsimtsum' ('contraction'), which is Luria's prophetic account of how the Universe was originally created. It bears striking similarity to the Big Bang Theory which has been in vogue in scientific communities for decades now.
There is also a 'minor' difference in the Tree of Life diagramme which Luria provides us, versus the one developed by Kircher (or at least represented in his work). In the Kircher model, the Tree of Life has 10 sefiroth and 22 paths; there are 3 paths which connect Malkuth with the next 3 lowest sefiroth (Netzah, Hod, and Yesod). In the (earlier) Lurianic model, the Tree of Life likewise has 10 sefiroth and 22 paths, but there is only one path which connects Malkuth with the rest of the tree. This path interconnects Malkuth with Yesod, the next lowest sefirah. The two paths which are absent from Malkuth to Netsah and Hod in the Lurianic model are present elsewhere in the tree: one connects Hokhmah (sefirah 2) with Gevurah (sefirah 5), and the other connects Binah (sefirah 3) with Hesed (sefirah 4).
The Lurianic model of the Tree of Life (Etz haHayim) simply made more sense to me. The last sefirah (Malkuth) is joined to the tree by way of a single path, which represents a singular path between the physical world and the spiritual world. This allegory agrees with my understanding that there is a single avenue from the physical to the spiritual; how we traverse that path is what characterises it in our experience. Secondly, the 'Lightning Flash' which orders the sefiroth as they emanated (and incidentally, resembles a zigzag bolt of lightning) connects Binah (sefirah 3) with Hesed (sefirah 4), a path which is absent in the Kircher (European) model of the tree but which is present in the Lurianic model of the tree.
A final reason why I feel the Lurianic model of the Tree of Life makes more sense is how the 22 paths correlate with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alef-beth (alphabet). In Hebrew, letters belong to one of three groups: Mothers, Doubles, and Elementals. There are 3 'Mother' letters: Alef, Mem, and Shin; there are also 3 horizontal paths to the Lurianic model of the Tree of Life. These horizontal paths could be considered 'mothers' of a sort, because they determine the geometric structure of the tree and how large it is. Four horizontal paths would mean a predictably larger number of emanations, whereas only two horizontal paths would likewise mean a predictably smaller number of emanations. There are 7 'Double' letters: Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaf, Peh, Resh, and Taw. These are so called because in Hebrew, they are capable of representing two different sounds, a 'hard' and a 'soft' sound. There are also 7 vertical paths on the Lurianic model of the Tree of Life.
There are 12 'Elemental' letters in the Hebrew alef-beth: Heh, Waw, Zayin, Heth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samekh, Ayin, Tsaddi, and Quf. These 12 letters belong to neither of the other two previous groups. There are also 12 diagonal paths on the Lurianic model of the Tree of Life.
When you look at these sets of 3, 7 and 12, it is only natural to group them with one another: the 3 'Mother' letters with the 3 horizontal paths, the 7 'Double' letters with the 7 vertical paths, and the 12 'Elemental' letters with the 12 diagonal paths of the tree. In my experience, the Golden Dawn approach to the kabbalah, and specifically the Tree of Life, doesn't share these associations, and the result isn't nearly as poetic or inspired. Just my opinion.
Now (please forgive my long-windedness) I came to accept the teachings of R' Luria and all that entailed prior to my pursuit of the tarot, so you can imagine my dismay when I discovered not a single tarot deck aligned with this (what seemed to me a very sensible) system. Well, that wouldn't do. Not at all. So I created a tarot deck design based on Lurianic teachings of Kabbalah. I'm hesitant to post the link here which I posted in the Tarot Deck Creation section, so check out my post there for the link, or check my profile for it, or PM me and I'll send it to you.
Oh, and Moonbow, if you haven't already done so, do yourself a huuuuge favour and purchase Kaplan's Sefer Yetsirah. It's available in paperback from amazon.com for under US$20. Read it before you read anything else. I promise you won't regret it. It helped me out so-o-o-o much which I first explored the Kabbalah.
Now I'm (whew!) done. Shutting up now.