Best kabbalah & mysticism books according to redditors
We found 79 Reddit comments discussing the best kabbalah & mysticism books. We ranked the 31 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
13. DMT and the Soul of Prophecy: A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible
1 mention
The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross: A study of the nature and origins of Christianity within the fertility cults of the ancient Near East https://www.amazon.com/dp/0982556276/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_-z4EDbWFEQT1P
The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620555026/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_SA4EDb1CJH5WS
Astrotheology & Shamanism: Christianity's Pagan Roots. A Revolutionary Reinterpretation of the Evidence (Black & White Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439222428/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_bB4EDbW0ZGGTT
Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences https://www.amazon.com/dp/0231174063/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_rC4EDbZ2RWDBS
DMT and the Soul of Prophecy: A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594773424/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_9C4EDb46EFXG4
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I'm not sure about essential to every occult library (and I realize some of these aren't necessarily considered primarily 'occult' texts), but here are a few I've found useful:
Chicken Qabalah by Lon Milo DuQuette is supposed to be pretty good, never read it though: http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Qabalah-Rabbi-Lamed-Clifford/dp/1578632153
Anyone have an ebook to share?
For books on the Qabalah, the two best books to have been written on the subject are The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune and The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford by Lon Milo Duquette. I'd also pick up a copy of 777 And Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley, which is a book of qabalistic correspondences.
The best book on the Golden Dawn would be The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magick, which covers (almost) everything someone would wish to know about the original Golden Dawn and was written by one of the most famous initiates of the Golden Dawn.
There is not many books on Rosicruciaism, and many books that are out there on it are fraudulent and are not an accurate representation of the Rosicrucians. The only book that I would say is worth a read is Zanoni, which is a fictional story written by a Rosicrucian. It is based on Rosicrucian philosophies and symbolism.
As for Tarot, I myself prefer the Crowley/Thelemic system of tarot over that of the Golden Dawn, so I can only really recommend books on that system, which are The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley and Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo Duquette.
For the goetic demons, the best text would simply be The Goetia
Also, some beginner books I usually recommend are:
Circles of Power: An Introduction to Hermetic Magic by John Michael Greer, which is a beginners guide to ceremonial magick.
Book 4 by Aleister Crowley, which is the most comprehensive treatise on the practice of magick to ever be written, in my own personal opinion.
Enochian Magic in Theory by Frater Yechidah with Enochian Magic in Practice by Frater Yechidah, which are guides to the Enochian system of magick, a very popular and powerful system of magick, developed by the famous magician and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I John Dee, and used and improved upon by many occult orders, most notably the Golden Dawn.
And finally, The Corpus hermeticum by Hermes Trismegistus, which is the foundational text of all hermetic and occult philosophy.
Chicken Qabala is a pretty entertaining and informative intro.
>...one man called the borchu while the rest of us were leaving. I get that he was probably davening at a different pace than the rest of us but I don't really know the how/why.)
It is a fairly common practice for someone who came late and missed borchu to do it at the end of davening.
>How do people decide to be Breslover? What would be the things that would be special/distinct about Breslover life, versus my experiences with MO and Chabad?
A lot of people find Breslov attractive for a variety of reasons. In particular, Breslov takes a very realistic attitude towards personal growth, emphasizing that failure - repeated failure - is an integral part of the growth process and the main thing that matters is never giving up.
I personally am not Breslov, so I'm obviously not the most qualified to tell you how to learn about their approach, but I can say that there are a number of good books on the subject available in English that can give you a decent introduction:
http://www.amazon.com/Kabbalistic-Handbook-For-Practicing-Magician/dp/193515088X
In this book he will go over a preferred reading list as well. Your choice of magic is up to you I prefer the Enochian only because I saw this sigil https://38.media.tumblr.com/97c9f4c2e15a3c651e177fae7e8e3920/tumblr_mypz74HWFw1sgmuomo1_500.gif during a very intense mushroom trip/ meditation. I experienced this sigil in 3rd and 4th dimensions, I had NEVER seen this before or knew anything about magic. When I saw that sigil my mouth dropped I had ONLY experienced it that one time. A demon did end up on the side of my house afterwards it lifted an industrial size trash lid and smelled like death and rot. My intent was this "Whether gods or demons show up I demand to know the truth behind human history." I then started meditating on gaining universal knowledge of human origin. I then saw this thing with my eyes closed and it was a real polygonal shaped thing spinning in multiple directions, impossible motions (4d). It left 3 toed imprints in front of my garbage can. Cat was freaking the fuck out at the 2nd story window where this thing came from. He has not in 1.5 years done that before or since.
SO yeah magic is real.
Breslov Chasidus deals with this subject extensively. Check out the excellent translation of Meshivas Nefesh Restore My Soul as a point of entry.
Read this: https://www.amazon.com/DMT-Soul-Prophecy-Spiritual-Revelation/dp/1594773424
Read some stuff from Rebbe Nachman of Breslov:
His writing is intended for someone in your position!
Much better specific question. :) Tarot and Kabbalah can each stand alone without the other. They also can be potent tools for deepening understanding of each other. The major arcana are said to exemplify the paths between the sephiroth on the tree of life. Understanding how the sephiroth on each end of a path relate can shed light on the cards, and vice versa. It's kinda like a two way street. That said, the scale between the two is like a bike and a car. Both can take you places. Kabbalah can go 'further' faster, but is much more complex and takes more fuel (will) to get there. Neither is 'better'. Just different.
A good intro level book on Kabbalah is ["Qabalah: A Magical Primer"] (http://amzn.com/1578632110).
Also, ["The Tarot And The Tree Of Life"] (http://amzn.com/1161499156).
> In case some don't know, Religious-traditional Jew or not a Jew is still a Jew forever, that's what the covenant is about,
I recognize this point of view, though I do not necessarily subscribe to it myself. I say "necessarily", because I'm not intrinsically opposed to the idea either, but I suspect I use these terms quite differently from you.
>but I understand you got the impression i a speaking from a religious point of view because many Christians see Christianity as a faith in Jesus and religion, these seals mix some gospel stuff too which does not work with Judaism, nit even messianic texts.
Again, it's a lot more helpful to describe my outlook on faith as pragmatheism than anything else. I believe in what works. From this point of view, there's no difficulty in syncretizing various traditions even though their original adherents wouldn't be able to make it work like that for themselves. To each his own.
> It may upset some rabbis and provoke curiosity if they see anyone sharing what iam with other nations who may be seeking to use the light from the Jewish nation to bond, communicate and pack with unseen beings hashem banished during creation billions of years ago,
I'm very happy that you're willing to have this conversation, and I hope the downvotes won't put you off. Our perspectives may vary, but we've got plenty to learn from each other, and I wish I could be more helpful in answering your questions.
> Th g-d of Israel is one and everyone's g-d and creator, those who use hashems names to conjure or invoke unseen beings who where banished are using the names in vain, especially if they are Christian and no way around during solomons time, it would mean a pagan is trying to trick hashem or the spirit into a service., and it was the Arabs who wrote stories about Solomon and his ring blending it all with Arabian nights, the gienie in the bottle etc, Arabs believe these spirits get burned for coming near a living person (especially ones thousand of years old) and so they will only do so as long as that person proves them they lower the grace of hashem, his angels and names to their level, some times even mocking, sacrificing something or sharing their own blood to pack or connect with them.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm taking the Holy Names in vain through my practices, but I'm not worried about it. My approach to these names and the Hebrew alphabet is quite Hermetic (or Chicken-ish, if you will), and they work just fine without the dogmatic framework of Judaism. This video gives a good intro to the perspectives I'm describing, please forgive the blatant heresy.
> But since they are banished it's called praying using hashems name in vain.
> But if your a Jew you talk to hashem and ask permission which is how it should be done, that's the point of the names of hashem, but I guess depending on what someone is asking it's gonna be hard to go that route,
>
> Anyway, so the Latin text and other esoteric writing on Solomon's seals was contributed by who?
I wish I could answer your final question. I believe the texts are traced back to the 1500s, but I'm in no way sure. There are people frequenting this subreddit that are way better versed in the Solomonic tradition than I am, Here's hoping some of them will chime in.
^^Paging ^^dr. ^^/u/Lucifereus!
This was my first book on the subject and was extremely enlightening. I still reference it often.
http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Pomegranates-Skrying-Tree-Life/dp/1567181414
Magick is for all, I would recommend working on the kabbalah for a start, or reading the liber 4, not necessarily in that order, maybe try liber 4 and then A Garden of Pomegranates by Israel Rgardie and Mystical Kabbalah by Dion Fortune. The Hardcover edition of Liber 4 is a great edition. I have it and it is amazing, and not as complex as most of his writings. This book has a lot of appendixes too, that helps. Having the Thoth Tarot deck and the Book of Thoth and studying its correspondencies with the tree of life is very helpful too.
Fascinating readings anyway.
About what he is in relation to mankind, better judge yourself from his writings.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Thoth-Egyptians-Equinox/dp/0877282684/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z
http://www.amazon.com/Thoth-Tarot-Deck-Aleister-Crowley/dp/1572815108/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422560601&sr=1-1&keywords=thoth+tarot+deck
http://www.amazon.com/Magick-Liber-ABA-Book-4/dp/0877289190/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422560336&sr=1-2&keywords=magick
http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Pomegranates-Skrying-Tree-Life/dp/1567181414
http://www.amazon.com/Mystical-Qabalah-Dion-Fortune/dp/1578631505/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0TNF7RPG3Y67DX4G00QH
Well, not too Orthodox, but ones I have on my ereader which I liked...
Hey! I've been reading a bit about Rebbe Nachman. What is the general opinion on him? (sorry if this is ignorant)
Also, I want to pick up some books by him, they look really interesting!
https://www.amazon.com/Outpouring-Soul-Rabbi-Nachmans-Meditation/dp/0930213149
https://www.amazon.com/LIKUTEY-MOHARAN-Rebbe-Nachman-Breslov/dp/0930213920
Has anyone read either of these? (For context I'm a Modern Orthodox 19 yr old slowly becoming more observant again and I've been buying a decent amount of books, also feel free to recommend anything!) Thanks!!!
Edit: I absolutely love the fact that this subreddit exists. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to reply!
That would mean if you study talmud academically through its strata, you'd be nullified as a witness, even though you were orthodox.
if only because the sage's conception of theological concepts don't necessarily mesh well with rambams.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Sages-Their-Concepts-Beliefs-ebook/dp/B009G3NGD0
(fyi, the writer was orthodox before he died of natural causes)
The nominal belief differences between a liberal orthodox rabbi and a conservative conservative rabbi are few. The differences are mostly sociological and internal identity based. and the nominal beliefs that matter are not ones that would disbarr a male from witnessing. If they were, then most of the sages also could not witness as well. Which would in fact be a radical notion unto itself, since technically speaking rambam is trying to pretend he is not making new law, and that the possibly of new law has completely closed.
So yes, it is highly probably that many conservative conversions are in fact valid. Just because people go feh to the conservative movement, does not in fact mean that what they did is not viable.
This book by Israel Regardie (a disciple of Crowley) is the best introduction to the Hermetic Qabalah which includes astrology and other correspondences. The stuff by the Ciceros is very good as well.
It sounds like you are wanting some usable ritual work. Some books that do a good job of easing you into ceremonial magic are:
And to lesser extents
Crowley's book is not an easy starting point, more of a reference work. As usual, Lon Milo Duquette offers a much easier starting point.
But it is also worth keeping in mind that "the occult" isn't really a thing. There are plenty of hidden things out there, and there are plenty of techniques for making sense and nonsense of the clues that may or may not point there. But there isn't a grand hidden conspiracy of great knowledgable masters who communicate via arcane symbols and snatch aircraft out of the sky.
Or is there?
By far the best place to start is with Lon Milo DuQuette's book.
"It's all in your head. You just have no idea how big your head is!!!" - Lon Milo DuQuette
} from this awesome book y'all might wanna read:
https://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Qabalah-Rabbi-Lamed-Clifford/dp/1578632153
The Chicken Qalabah by Lon Milo Duquette. His humorous voice helps me understand fundamental concepts of ceremonial magick. After I read this, I started looking at the world differently, connecting things.
for an excellent treatment of this topic, check out rabbi aryeh kaplan's immortality, resurrection, and the age of the universe
Are you aware Rick Strassman's current take on DMT is that it's purpose is to bring people into monotheism (in accordance with the Biblical Old Testament)?
https://www.amazon.com/DMT-Soul-Prophecy-Spiritual-Revelation-ebook/dp/B00OBHCLJ6
The Mystical Kaballah by Dion Fortune is probably the best book on the subject, if you are looking to learn directly about the tree of life.
From there I recommend looking further into kaballah through the tarot (literally the tree of life sorted into cards), Liber 777 and Liber ABA (and really most of the thelemic works) by Crowley, and maybe some less "religious" sources, like The Chicken Kaballah..
Above all, I recommend trying to work with the model and apply it to yourself and your meditation. That is the most important thing; the tree can be applied to pretty much anything, and Liber 777 is a great starting point for correspondences for home-made sigils, seals, and rituals :)
The shem is the 72 names of god, its a 3 letter word based on hebrew. if you add EL or IAH after you get an Shemhamphorasch angel.
if you are interested in working in a simple way with this i recomend http://www.amazon.com/72-Sigils-Power-Insight-Wisdom-ebook/dp/B014VZNEJ8/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Not an uncommon story. The occult is so alluring because it hints at truth. I had a similar experience to find divinity. While I did play DnD a little bit, that's not what got me. I found a primer on magick and Qabbalah (not kabbalah, the real stuff. we pronounced it quaballah to differentiate.) Actually, after a little googling I found it. I had read Daniel C. Matt's Essential Kabbalah already, but my knowledge of Judaism was way too lacking at that point to get it. I dived head first into the occult and am still conversant in it. I read Aleister Crowley, collected Tarot cards, astral projection, some scary meditations, and even learned to read and cast runes. I have an Encyclopedia on all things Golden Dawn. I could still sit down and draw up a chart that had all the elements, planets, signs, and their associations from memory. The more I read, the more I critiqued. Everything in Western Occult can be boiled down the the tree of life. I found that you could cut through 5 layers of symbology as just symbols of symbols and, how I explained it, just getting lost and going in circles of symbols. If you cut through all the shit, there's a very very simple base. The more I studied the tree of life, the more I realized that the reasons for all those extra layers of symbols is to avoid having to deal directly with the tree of life, and I realized that I wasn't prepared at all to figure it out. I wasn't conversant enough in Judaism to understand the symbology. So I started studying Judaism and unlearning everything I learned in the Occult. I wasn't anywhere near approaching considering being practicing. This was all just intellectual exercises. But I learned something about Judaism. The deeper you go, the closer you get to getting somewhere. There's a truth at the bottom. With the occult, you learn the other way. You start with the tree of life, and learn it by building symbols on top of symbols and the deeper you go, the further away from the truth you go. It's all just wheel spinning.
Your intuition is correct. The purple, blue & yellow chakras are thought to be better represented as dualistic energies under this system, that's why they appear between two nodes. As for the origination of this stuff, I'd say the jury's still out on that one. Everyone claims something different... there's reason to think it originates in Egypt, but when you get into how it interfaces with Tarot and pathworking, I'm inclined to think it has a lot of influence from the native religions of the British Isles & surrounding European cultures. If you are interested in doing a little reading, I'd strongly suggest this book. It's pretty down-to-earth as far as this stuff goes.
Long shot, but could we be talking about this?
Check out this book
>https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Souls-**Nachman-Breslov**-Suffering/dp/0930213394
Username checks out.
(C) 1979 Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan.
>One, the very simplest, is that 6000 years ago,
HaShem created the universe with a history. There is a
certain logic to this, and one may even find a hint of it in
the Gemara. If HaShem created a tree, did the tree have
rings or not? If it had rings, then it had a history.
>This can be extrapolated to all of life. Every creature
has to have had a parent, so that we have a history going
way, way back. HaShem could have easily created the
universe to appear as if it were no more than 6000 years
old.
>The difficulty is that one could use a similar
argument to say that HaShem created the universe five
minutes ago. There is no question that an omnipotent God
certainly could have created us all with our memories, with
all the records, and with all our histories. It is very possible to say that the world was created five minuets ago. But this weakens the above argument. If it is possible that
HaShem created the world 6000 years ago, then everything
is possible.
>Of course, it is an irrefutable argument. Therefore, if
one feels comfortable with it, I would say all well and good. But I think that it has problems. It touches almost on
intellectual dishonesty and sophism. It presents us with
more problems than it answers. It seems to make all of
Judaism depend on a glib argument.
>But there is an even more serious problem. In no
place in Torah literature do we find that HaShem created
the universe so that it should appear to be billions of years old. If not for current scientific discoveries, no one would have ever made such a statement based on Torah sources
alone. Therefore, this approach is nothing more than
apologetics.
>There is another approach that I will mention in
passing. That is, that each of the “days” of creation was
really thousands of years long. This approach is hinted at
in Rabbeinu Bechayay, who mentions it only to refute it.
He says explicitly that the world was created in six days of
twelve hours each, for a total of 72 hours. Moreover, we
keep Shabbos because there were six days of creation,
where each day was just like one of our days.
>Moreover, there is no support in classic Torah
literature for saying that the days of creation were more
than 24 hours long. Besides this, there is the problem that
plant life was created before the sun, moon, and stars, and
this would not fit into any accepted scientific cosmology. I
will admit that the Zohar states that plant life was created
after the sun, moon, and stars, but this raises other
difficulties which go beyond the scope of our discussion.
More here or in Kaplan's book.
I bought this book while in Yerushalayim which addresses this question quite thoroughly.
https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Souls-Nachman-Breslov-Suffering/dp/0930213394
I don't know anything about Masonry but I am highly doubtful of the Naqshbandi/Syrian Rue connection. The Naqshbandis are the most conservative Sufis, very anti-drug etc. Almost any other Order would be more likely.
I do have some info on alleged connections between Sufism and Masonry though, but as I say, I don't know anything about Masons.
This book is interesting - from Strassman, the guy who did the DMT research of "Spirit Molecule" - he's arguing for a similar thing in prophecy.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594773424/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1
Tool released a band picture with Shipibo designs overlaid. There is no question that they are an ayahuasca/DMT band.
Now, Dr. Strassman's recently published book DMT and the Soul of Prophecy dissects the Old Testament in order to conclude that DMT could have and likely did inspire the prophets. More, Dr. Strassman concludes that the use of DMT should produce contemporary prophets, as Hebrew prophecy is our universal, innate potential. Dr. Strassman's scientific breakthroughs have inscribed into every soul the faculty of Hebrew prophecy.
Now, the most ambitious thing the band could attempt to top themselves after the smash hit AEnima is Hebrew prophecy. Compare “Jambi“ to John 1:51, itself quoting Jacob's Ladder: "[Y]ou will see 'heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on' a human being [the Son of Man]." Tool opened up heaven to crown a Son of God. It is unreasonable for me not to throw my hat into the ring, and I am the only one with a hat in the ring.
I just mentioned it in my big check-in post in the Lesson 2 topic, but thought I should give you a personal recommendation for Lon Milo duQuette's Chicken Qabalah. He's got a nicely tongue-in-cheek humor about the whole thing which really helped me feel more comfortable with it all.
Do you meditate regularly? If not then that is without a doubt what you should be practicing at, as those techniques can be used in all sorts of magics.
Kabbalah is confusing, yes. But nowhere near as confusing as Crowley. If you're practicing any sort of Western magic, you need to be familiar with Kabbalah and its spheres and its paths, because those spheres and paths relate specifically to Tarot. Try reading Lon Duqutte's "Chicken Kaballah" book. It's as simple as Kaballah gets, and it might be all the Kaballah you need. Hold off on Crowley until you have at least a rudimentary understanding of Kaballah.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007X6M4I0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Qabalah is great. But I recommend you read some work by Alan Watts first. He takes the greatest lessons the Qabalah has to offer and distills them into ideas so simple and self-evident, you'll be amazed that you never realized it before. His best works are "The Book" and "This Is It."
Then, if you still want to study Qabalah (you should), start here: http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Qabalah-Rabbi-Lamed-Clifford/dp/1578632153
"...for if ye take but one step in this Path, ye must arrive inevitably at the end thereof."
Kabbalah is basically Jewish mysticism, there's all sorts of source books and modern writings on it. I can recommend The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford: Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Need to Know to Become a Qabalist.
> Enoch is Jewish, not Gnostic. I assume this means the Epistle of Jude is also Gnostic propaganda.
The Book of Enoch is a gnostic expansion on Genesis, it is not canon in judaism, it IS canon in Eritrean, Ethiopian, and Coptic Christianity which follows the monastic traditions of the desert fathers, St. Anthony being one of them. There was a large influence on the desert fathers from Alexandria that led to the gnostic texts of the Nag Hammadi library. You can read more about gnostic and coptic canon in this book: https://www.amazon.com/Nag-Hammadi-Scriptures-Translation-Complete/dp/0061626007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520559631&sr=1-1&keywords=the+nag+hammadi+scriptures&dpID=51AWQnqkKKL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
> Alchemy is medieval, not Gnostic. Alchemy would require not being a Gnostic to perform since it's about matter and the whole thing about Gnosticism is escaping matter.
Alchemy is Egyptian in origin. The word Khem is an egyptian word that means "the fertile land of the Nile flood", the Arabs of the 7th century who developed the practice of alchemy that was brought back during the crusades added "Al" to the beginning of it which means "of the". So the word Alchemy specifically means "of the fertile land that the Nile floods", which is Egypt. Alchemy is an extremely ancient practice that taught us how to make beer in the fertile crescent and was developed spiritually through Egyptians. You can read more about it in this book: https://www.amazon.com/Kybalion-Hermetic-Philosophy-Ancient-Greece/dp/1603864784/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520559579&sr=1-1&keywords=the+kybalion&dpID=51iaHGQejVL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
> "Greek kabbalism" sounds like "dehydrated water." "Exclusively Jewish mysticism for goyim." This really gives your sheer ignorance away.
Greek kabbalism is the origin of Kabbalah, it specifically deals with the Pythagorean cults that developed during the origins of philosophy. The greek and hebrew alphabets developed from the pheonician alphabet, which was alphanumeric. The pythagoreans taught a system of writing that took into account the numeric values of each word to entrench writings in triadic symbolism. When rabinnic theologians discovered this in the late dark ages Kabbalism was born. You can read more about it in this book: https://www.amazon.com/Greek-Qabalah-Alphabetical-Mysticism-Numerology/dp/1578631106
I am not a gnostic though, and I'm not trying to upend Christianity. I don't know where you're getting that. I'm not saying anything terribly controversial. I'm presenting evidence and historical fact, you haven't presented anything other than attacks on my character.
/u/casabolg, generally the outlook toward other religions in Kabbala is the same as it is in most of Judaism. However, there is also a strain of Kabbalistic thought on this question, unique to it as a Jewish genre which is distinctly universalistic in its approach to other religions. If you're interested in it: check out the work of R. Elie Benamozegh, specifically his Israel and Humanity. In it, he puts forward an understanding of certain Kabbalistic ideas that leads to seeing all religions as having shared truths and that all are manifesting the same underlying reality in different ways.
In contemporary Jewish thought, R. Adin Steinsaltz has picked up on a lot of R. Benamozegh's ideas and integrated them into his own theological discussions, such as The Thirteen Petalled Rose
Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune was an excellent introduction for me.
This one:
https://www.amazon.com/Alchemy-Kabbalah-Tarot-Spiritual-Transformation/dp/1934206369
It seems very boring to a lot of mystic newbs but I've been evangelizing the shit out of Qabalah lately. If you want to see the connections between all things and the machinery that runs the universe, this is the place to start.
Begin with something breezy that'll let you ease into the concepts: Lon Milo DuQuette's Chicken Qabalah. It's like an exegesis of Douglas Adams's Life, The Universe, and Everything.
Then dive in deep.
Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabalah
Aleister Crowley's Book of Thoth
This shit will blow your mind wide open. You can see how the 10 Sephiroth directly correspond to the 10 dimensions of the universe, how the first 4 correspond to actual space and the 5th to time as we understand it.
It'll show you the operating schematic for literally everything and how we are all connected and sprang forth from the same no-thing. Every new page I read blows my mind.
There are three books by William Grey about the Tree of Life that you might find interesting.
A more complete explanation of this meditation is available here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003YUCR1S