Title: SEPHER YETZIRAH: THE BOOK OF FORMATION WITH THE FIFTY GATES OF INTELLIGENCE AND THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM
Author: Translated from the Hebrew by William Wynn
Westcott, Supreme Magus of the Rosicrucian Society of England
Publisher: J.M. Watkins
City: LondonYear: 1911 (Third Edition)Binding Style: Hardcover
Pagination: 49, followed by 1 page of Notes and 2 pages of more works by WestcottIllustrated: No
Book Details + Condition: Scarce 1911 (third edition) of SEPHER YETZIRAH: THE BOOK OF FORMATION WITH THE FIFTY GATES OF INTELLIGENCE AND THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM. "Translated from the Hebrew by William Wynn Westcott, Supreme Magus of the Rosicrucian Society of England." In very good condition: The boards and binding are solid and tight
with light shelf wear; bumped corners; small occult bookstore label on inside front board; sporadic foxing on a few pages; otherwise clean and free of interior markings. 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.
