1893 - SEPHER YETZIRAH: THE BOOK OF FORMATION / KABBALAH - WILLIAM W. WESTCOTT

  SEPHER YETZIRAH: THE BOOK OF FORMATION AND THE THIRTY TWO PATHS OF WISDOM — Translated from the Hebrew by William Wynn Westcott —Supreme Magus of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia — 2nd Edition — Jewish Esoteric Kabbalah Theosophy Spiritual Magic Occult — VERY SCARCE

 Publisher: The Theosophical Publishing Society, London (1893)

 As per our research, there are no other 19th-century copies of this book available for sale on the open market today. 1893 edition of The Sepher Yetzirah, in well preserved condition. 43 pages. The boards and binding are solid and tight with light shelfwear. The pages are crisp and clean save for remains ex-libris label on the inside board, an inked note on the bottom of page 34, binding along the border of page 40, and small piece of repair tape for a very minor tear on the fore-edge of page 41. The Sepher Yetzirah is one of the most famous of the ancient Qabalistic texts. It was first put into writing around 200 AD. Westcott's Translation of the Sepher Yetzirah was a primary source for the rituals and Knowledge Lectures of the Golden Dawn. The Sepher Yetzirah is a formulation of the Creation through the Tree of the Sephiroth and twenty two Hebrew Hieroglyphs. Please see below for more information on Westcott.

William Wynn Westcott

William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) was an English Rosicrucian and Theosophist best known as a founder of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which was an offshoot of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia.  Dr. William Wynn  Westcott, S.L. MacGregor Mathers, and William Robert Woodman formed the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1881. The three men particularly wanted to expand their studies in Kabbalah, occultism, alchemy, and ceremonial magic. Westcott decoded old documents, Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscripts, which laid out five masonic initiations. MacGregor Mathers rewrote the rituals, and ultimately they decided upon ten levels of initiation corresponding to the ten sephiroth of the Kabbalah.

  "They taught Qabalah, Alchemy, Astrology, Geomantic and Tarot Divination, Tattwa Vision and the Pentagram Ritual. Much of the background material for these teachings came from Dr. Westcott; his occult and metaphysical library was unrivaled in his day."