Kabbalah book recommendations

[anagogy]

So I know a lot of you here have studied the Kabbalah extensively.

I wonder if there are specific books on it the wanderer or b4ther might find more relevant than others.

Thanks very much
In advance

What got you interested in Kabbalah?

And to answer your question, I hate them all. Just kidding.

If you are just starting out, almost any book is just fine, but once you get past the beginning knowledge, you are going to start feeling like you're treading through a nightmare of confusion and ill thought out metaphysical speculation. In time, that will pass. I would say out of astrology, the tarot, and kabbalah, kabbalah is probably the most complicated one to understand the archetypal mind with, but also one of the most rewarding. Part of that is it almost requires you to understand the other two to make sense of it.

And once you can begin to see the connections between all three, now you're cook'n!

If you are looking for actual Kabbalah, I prefer straight up Judaic sources (unfortunately I don't have a particular book/website/video I would recommend). I'm partial to Lurianic Kabbalah, but no source is the end all be all. You have to go beyond it all. Like Ra says, seek the touchstone. I would start with studying the sephira. There are a wealth of websites out there, and free books to find.

Every group has their distortions (and insights), whether it is Judaic Kabbalah, Hermetic Qabala, or Christian Cabala.

I was originally mad that the Ra group went with Tarot over the Tree of Life, but nowadays I'm happy about it, because the pathways (the 22 relationships) were far more mysterious than the sephira ever were (though that is not to say they are easy to understand either). I just had to figure out where they went.

I have made quite a bit of progress with the Tree of Life (but there are infinite nuances), enough to see that there is a ton of misinformation and superstition out there. I can't stress enough the importance of using your emotions to feel the concepts that are, shall we say, "out of tune". That sense is incredibly powerful to develop. It is literally the ability to sense spiritual light. I have really come to appreciate what a resource the Ra material has been. Seriously, people privy to this material were given so many undistorted keys to the archetypal mind that if the knowledge was really applied you have the potential to go beyond what almost any of the modern day pop occultists have divined about the tree of life.