Talking Tree

by William G. Gray

In The Talking Tree W.G. Gray presents an encyclopaedic and systematic analysis of the 22 Paths of the Qabalistic Tree of Life and the archetypal principles underlying them in each of the 'four worlds'. This unique work by a leading Qabalist of his generation includes a detailed and comprehensive study of the symbolism of the Tarot, in which he offers an alternative method of allocating the Major Arcana to the Paths in place of the commonly used Golden Dawn system. He also explains how the Western alphabet can be applied to the Tree of Life as a viable alternative to Hebrew letters. This book is a priceless reference work for the serious Qabalah student who has already studied the ten Sephiroth and is looking to move on to the Paths. As well as explaining the function of God-names, archangels, angelic orders and mundane archetypes for each Path, Gray seeks to demonstrate that the Tree of Life is in a continual state of growth and evolution, and that those who study and work with the Qabalah should not be afraid to apply new correspondences to it and rethink some of the traditional assumptions.

Genres: Magic

Paperback

First published May 1, 1980

About the author

English ceremonial magician (1913-1992)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...

William G. Gray, better known to many as Bill Gray, was an English ceremonial magician, Hermetic Qabalist and writer, who published widely on the subject of western esotericism and the occult. Gray founded a magical order known as the Sangreal Sodality.

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[ThymeOperator · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really interested in the stuff about angelic orders, etc. But the commentary on the tarot trumps and the Tree of Life as a whole was generally fantastic. I particularly loved the chapter on The Tower.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of my ongoing daily work involves working through The Talking Tree by William G. Gray, which is the companion book to the Ladder of Lights. In the The Talking Tree, Gray focuses on working with the paths in between the Sephiroth and showing how those paths connect the energies of the respective Sephiroth together. Each day, in the midst of my daily meditations, I've been reading a section of the book and then working with the respective forces described in that section by meditating those forces. This is similar to the work I did with the Ladder of Lights, and in fact builds off the work done in the Ladder of Lights, since you've already established contact with the respective forces you are working with.

Just as with the Ladder of Lights mediations, I used the spirit to mediate the force. I read a section and then do a meditation where I connect with the particular forces in order to mediate them into my life and through my spiritual work. Gray associates these paths with the Tarot and that makes for some useful imagery to work with, along with the correspondences he provides. For me the work has been mostly focused on internalizing each path in order to then manifest it in my life and I've found that with each path I've had relevant events come up that have allowed me to integrate the work I'm doing in a meaningful way with the experiences I'm having.

What's been most interesting about this work is the focus on the paths between the Sephiroth. The majority of books on the Tree of life have typically not covered these paths or if the material was covered, it was only lightly touched on. That makes this book invaluable for anyone who is serious about working with the tree of life and Quabala in general.

My only complaint about the book is that the sections aren't clearly laid out, like it was for the Ladder of Lights. That said I have an older version of the book and the newer version might be laid out in a way that's easier to access the different layers of each path.