Seeking Recommendation Are there any books about Kabbalah to learn?

[Geron]

I have finished reading Jacob's book. Do you have any other recommendations?

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I don't know a lot about Kabbalah, but I'd start by browsing the library here.

 

[CowboyYggdrasil]

By no means an expert but I would say to get a general gist (with maybe some inaccuracies) the following are nice intros:

Lon Milo DuQuette’s Chicken Qabalah (there is also some nice related info in the book on the Thoth Tarot he wrote if that’s something else you find interesting).

Alan Moore’s Bumper Book has a really informative and visionary take in the related chapters, although I felt it was a bit overly opinionated and quantum woo for my taste.

Dion Fortune’s Mystical Qabalah is a classic. Admittedly never finished it and found her views on race… problematic… but did find some use in other parts.

These are all very modern and very hermetic takes. If you want to go a more traditional/scholarly route then Dr. Justin Sledge has a reading list broken into sections, which includes the Kabbalah. The entire reading list is available in the library here but unfortunately I cannot link it at the moment because I have not hit my weekly posting quota.

Safe travels!

 

[HoldAll]

Whatever you do, don't go near scholarly books on Jewish Kabbalah, they've ruined Hermetic Qabalah for me forever (Gershom Scholem has a few unfriendly things to say about Levi, A.E. White and Crowley, all other Jewish Kabbalah scholars seem to consider them beneath their notice). I used to love Dion Fortune's "The Mystical Qabalah", now it feels like some ludicrous fakery. The old rabbis weren't interested in drawing up endless lists of correspondences, and I've yet to find out where the various versions of the famous Qabalist Tree of Life glyph come from.

The Kabbalah is centered solely on the Jewish god and his creation, questions of orthodox Judaism, liturgy, and piety, Gentiles need not apply. Hermetic Qabalah, on the other hand, has cut itself loose from the torah, the bible, talmud and all the other sacred books of Judaism and aims to be non-denominational and universal, independent of Jewish scripture, cherrypicking some core concepts from various strains of Jewish Kabbalah and employing some of its methods of text exegesis like gematria. In comparison to wildly complex and often contradictory traditional Jewish Kabbalah, Hermetic Qabalah is relatively clearcut and simple - it's a well-rounded, useful system instead of a metaphysical maze.

Recommendations:
Gary M. Jaron - Qabalah Gates of Light The Occult Qabalah Reconstructed
R.J. Stewart - The Miracle Tree Demystifying the Qabala
Will Parfitt - The New Living Qabalah A Practical Guide to Understanding the Tree of Life

 

[Jsinclair]

To answer the question posited by @HoldAll , I offer "The Tree of Life as Material Text" by J.H. Chajes (author of the much-coveted tome The Kabbalistic Tree) :

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To answer yours I recommend the link in these posts :

Thread 'Moshe Hallamish - An Introduction to the Kabbalah (Judaica Hermen Mystic Religion)' Book – PDF - Moshe Hallamish - An Introduction to the Kabbalah (Judaica Hermen Mystic Religion)

Book – PDF - Daniel M. Horwitz - A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader

An unprecedented annotated anthology of the most important Jewish mystical works, A Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism Reader is designed to facilitate teaching these works to all levels of learners in adult education and college classroom settings. Daniel M. Horwitz’s insightful introductions and...

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Thread 'A Practical Guide To Qabalistic Symbolism by Gareth Knight' Book – PDF - A Practical Guide To Qabalistic Symbolism by Gareth Knight

I believe the Jacobs book you refer to is The Schocken Book of Jewish Mystical Testimonies. Louis Jacobs also translated the first source text that I recommend to Freshman students of Kabbalah, The Palm Tree of Deborah. Another, more recent, excellent annotated translation of this is by Moshe Miller. All three of these may now be found here :

Thread 'Freshman Kabbalah Trilogy' Collection - Freshman Kabbalah Trilogy


In regards to @HoldAll 's advice regarding Gershom Scholem, I absolutely agree. For better or worse, however, as I was cutting my teeth on Kabbalah, after learning the basics via Hermetic Qabalah, he was pretty much all there was at the time. Now I would recommend the bibliographies in his books more than the books themselves.

I do suggest four Academic alternatives : Daniel Abrams, Moshe Idel, the aforementioned J.H. Chajes, and Isaiah Tishby


Tishby authored the most erudite, readable, and exhaustive work on the Zohar available to date. You may find it here :

Thread 'Isaiah Tishby - The Wisdom of the Zohar: Anthology of Texts I-III' Book – PDF - Isaiah Tishby - The Wisdom of the Zohar: Anthology of Texts I-III

As in everything else, one must follow one's innate spiritual compass in regards to branches of a particular subject. Be it in C/Q/Kabbalah or Wicca vs Traditional Witchcraft or theistic vs non-theistic Satanism - to name but a few examples - it is always best to taste types A, B, and O to determine which best nourishes one's soul (or lack thereof).