Title: SEPHER YETZIRAH: THE BOOK OF FORMATION AND THE THIRTY TWO PATHS OF
WISDOM
Author: WILLIAM W. WESTCOTT
Publisher: Occult Research Press
City: New YorkYear: 1950s (First Edition of this imprint;
ND provided)
Binding Style: Softcover
Pagination: 43Illustrated: No
Book Details + Condition: First Edition Thus. Softcover booklet,
Small octavo. Stapled in printed card covers. A reprint of the revised edition
of Westcott's translation of the Kabbalistic treatise "Sepher
Yetzirah". It was first published in 1887 and later reissued as the tenth
volume of the "Collectanea Hermetica" series, edited by W. Wynn Westcott
(1848 – 1925). The present edition was published by Occult Research Press, an
early imprint of what would become Samuel Weiser Publishing. Some fading and stains to wrappers; wear to corners and edges; old folds to a few pages; and interior is clean and free of markings. Please see pictures. 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."
