Best way to approach the 32 Paths as a Beginner
-
Hi,
I recently "got into" Qabalah and am wondering how to proceed. Although I have been a magickian for decades, the magickal circles I used to frequent looked down on the Tree of Life, so I pretty much ignored it. Now I know better and am familiarizing myself will the Tree and the Paths.
I'm now trying to "get" the 32 paths. I have my copies of 776 1/2 and 777. I've decided to approach the 32 paths by memorizing the 22 Hebrew letters (drawing them over and over and memorizing the names) and their tarot correspondence. I want to memorize 777. I don't want to try any pathworking until I've got everything memorized.
Is this a wise course of action?
Or should I do the path workings first and do the memorization in the process?
Any books anyone would like to suggest? -
Yes, learn the Hebrew alphabet and its Tarot associations as a start. - Except you might want to do that over about three months while doing the following exercise.
Start at the bottom of the Tree of Life with Tav, and go through the Hebrew letters in reverse order. Do the following practice three days per Hebrew letter (and rest one day per week). At that pace you will cover the POaths in 11 weeks.
The basic practice is: Prepare yourself for meditation (posture, relaxation, rhythmic breathering, centering - whatever your regimen). Place the corresponding Thoth deck Tarot card in front of you (e.g., The Universe for Tav). Visualize yourself in an egg of light the King Scale color of the Path you are working (e.g., indigo for Tav). Stop and reflect that you are opening from one sephirah to another (e.g., for Tav, you are in the Sphere of Malkuth, the Sphere of the Elements, and opening to Yesod). You may find it most useful to think of this primarily in terms of the psychological meaning of each sephirah, and secondarily in terms of its planetary and other primary attributes; e..g., for Tav, you are opening from the field of the physical senses to the field of subconsciousness etc.
Having established this basic idea, just look at the card and let your eyes be drawn to examine its parts as you witness what ideas and thoughts arise. If you wander too far, bring your attention back to the basics (Tav, means "cross," Saturn, opening from Malkuth to Yesod, opening from the world as it impacts my physical senses to my subconscious mind, moving inward, etc.).
Do this for about 5 minutes and definitely no more than 10 minutes. Write anything you discover or observe or feel in your diary.
While you are spending three days on one letter, you can easily learn to write the Hebrew letter, learn its basic astrological association, learn where it is on the Tree of Life and its King Scale color, and of course its Tarot attribution. You will be able to do all of this with almost no effort, because of how you are doing the meditation.
After the 11 weeks, take a week or two off, and then go back and spend one week on each Path, repeating the process - but stretching your meditation from 5-10 minutes up to 10-15 minutes (no more!). You can use this pass to incorporate other basic facts that you want to commit to memory and understand in context, e.g., the "Consciousness" mode from The 32 Paths of Wisdom, etc.
-
@gmugmble said
"
@Jim Eshelman said
"Write anything you discover or observe or feel in your diary."Do you recommend writing observations as they occur to you during the meditation, or waiting till the end and then writing everything down?"
Whatever works. Perhaps the best way is to jot notes sufficient to remember the details later.
-
@Jim Eshelman said
"Yes, learn the Hebrew alphabet and its Tarot associations as a start. - Except you might want to do that over about three months while doing the following exercise.
Start at the bottom of the Tree of Life with Tav, and go through the Hebrew letters in reverse order. Do the following practice three days per Hebrew letter (and rest one day per week). At that pace you will cover the POaths in 11 weeks.
The basic practice is: Prepare yourself for meditation (posture, relaxation, rhythmic breathering, centering - whatever your regimen). Place the corresponding Thoth deck Tarot card in front of you (e.g., The Universe for Tav). Visualize yourself in an egg of light the King Scale color of the Path you are working (e.g., indigo for Tav). Stop and reflect that you are opening from one sephirah to another (e.g., for Tav, you are in the Sphere of Malkuth, the Sphere of the Elements, and opening to Yesod). You may find it most useful to think of this primarily in terms of the psychological meaning of each sephirah, and secondarily in terms of its planetary and other primary attributes; e..g., for Tav, you are opening from the field of the physical senses to the field of subconsciousness etc.
Having established this basic idea, just look at the card and let your eyes be drawn to examine its parts as you witness what ideas and thoughts arise. If you wander too far, bring your attention back to the basics (Tav, means "cross," Saturn, opening from Malkuth to Yesod, opening from the world as it impacts my physical senses to my subconscious mind, moving inward, etc.).
Do this for about 5 minutes and definitely no more than 10 minutes. Write anything you discover or observe or feel in your diary.
While you are spending three days on one letter, you can easily learn to write the Hebrew letter, learn its basic astrological association, learn where it is on the Tree of Life and its King Scale color, and of course its Tarot attribution. You will be able to do all of this with almost no effort, because of how you are doing the meditation.
After the 11 weeks, take a week or two off, and then go back and spend one week on each Path, repeating the process - but stretching your meditation from 5-10 minutes up to 10-15 minutes (no more!). You can use this pass to incorporate other basic facts that you want to commit to memory and understand in context, e.g., the "Consciousness" mode from The 32 Paths of Wisdom, etc."
Thanks for the great advice Jim. I'm putting it into practice. I'm also practicing drawing a tree chart with all the correspondences , including the Hebrew letters, in colored pencils.
-
@Mahanta70 said
"Thanks for the great advice Jim. I'm putting it into practice. I'm also practicing drawing a tree chart with all the correspondences , including the Hebrew letters, in colored pencils."
Not only do I agree with you (that it's great advice and that I will be practicing it at some point), but now I officially have a legitimate reason to buy colored pencils.
This has never happened to me before.