Qabalah - The Complete Golden Dawn Initiate

This is a most excellent, original and well researched work by one who has known firsthand, some masters in this tradition, no doubt! I was most impressed with the new introduction updating fresh evidence in Archaeology, mention of Isaac Luria, the Zohar, Spain and the Languedoc, influential sources such as the Rosicrucian Enlightenment and the new freedom of European scholars to read international literature such as the Quran. In order to understand the historical and philosophical context of Qabalah, one must know who was who and from what direction a part of the structure of the theoretical development came. From Doxa to Logos, Steven Ashe maps and navigates clearly through a complex and long history, making it very clear and interesting. This text is packed full of carefully researched information, composed with much knowledge by a true scholar with years of experience. It is a book that contains all of the curiosity and thrill within a true Magi on the quest for universal wisdom on the path of life which makes it a fascinating read, a must have for your reference library.

For the serious student or practitioner of the Hermetic arts, this work offers many valuable insights into the Tarot and its esoteric correspondences but I feel it is more of a work slated towards an individual of advanced development rather than a neophyte, but of course this is just my personal opinion. I found this work to be a very valuable contribution to my continuing evolution as a practitioner of the esoteric arts.

I couldn't believe how plain-English this was written. It's got a translation and commentary for the 50 Gates, Sefer yetzirah, sefer ha-bahir, tarot symbolism and correlates, zodiac invocations, GD rituals, and more. Plain English.There's too much to comment on. I'll just say this: I wish I'd come across this book 2 years ago. For the price, plain language, insight, detail, and volume of work, it's excellent.You can't go wrong if you're studying the magickal aspects of Kabbalah.

I really like this book. I have no interest in the Golden Dawn or any other Masonry, but this book is certainly helpful to anyone searching for truth about the human social condition. It's not a tell all kind of book, it does not explain the impetus of the social structure, but it's helpful in pointing out the mindset of egotism that most of us take to be normal human character.

Such books seem to assume you are a meber of something or another. Start with Donald Kraig's "Modern Magic" or you will be lost here!

Excellent

The author begins with rambling and expansive essays on the history of the Qabalah, none of which offer immediate practical use for a beginner. The author goes from a comparison between the Hermetic Tradition and the martial arts to a mention of the worthy hipster Colin Wilson as "the first to explain Magic in a social context", as if neither J.G. Frazer nor Aleister Crowley existed (and then mentions Crowley in an associated paragraph). The author then goes on to evoke neurology and advanced physics as useful ideas for the initiate (or beginner) in comprehending the already complex issue of the Qabalah. These illustrations serve to confuse the issue slightly rather than cause the initiate to feel as if they are studying something as innately important as the brain or esoteric and yet theoretically powerful as the very foundations of the universe. The Qabalah can only be considered fundamentally important if "received knowledge" is also considered implicitly true, although the author hand-waves away the concept of received knowledge as useless to spiritual progress. One begins to agree with him and to see the Qabalah as being of sole use to communicate with other occultists in the Hermetic Tradition.The author does convey some very useful information about the Qabalah which is welcome and intriguing, but it's not particularly useful to a beginner. Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah, The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford, and other beginner texts are of far greater handiness in conveying to the newcomer the light of Kabbalistic study within the Hermetic Tradition.

This is an excellent reference for those just entering the occult studies.

A very useful addition to the magickal library

very interesting but also very complicated