There are four aspects that link each of these pieces together. First is that each was born when I was living a solitary, rustic life in the countryside of Northern California and in some way reflects the inspiration of my natural surroundings. Second is that each is an original creation — neither repetition of another’s work nor commentary upon another’s work — simply my own work, drawn from within my own Self. Third is that the intent of each piece is the empowerment of the reader, the setting out of technique capable of enabling and liberating the reader’s own direct personal experience. And fourth is the fact that I recorded audio versions of each piece.

I guess a fifth connection must be admitted as well — until the publication of this book, each existed only in digital format online, on CD and on personal computers. And while that’s lovely and makes them widely and freely available to those with access to computers and audio players, it is also a bit foolish — what happens when the electricity goes out??? What happens when the internet crashes and all those bits of data go poof??? So, this then is my bid for an existence beyond the inevitable cyber-collapse for my creations!

This present edition in paperback differs quite a bit from the 2005 digital edition. First of all, my understanding of the Tree of Life has deepened considerably since 2002 when I wrote the original "32 Paths of Wisdom", especially my understanding of how and why the planets are attributed to the Hebrew Letters. As a result, some of the planetary attributions have been corrected in this version. Secondly, I have removed 99% of the Hebrew words and substituted their English equivalents in an effort to make the Tree symbol much more accessible. Thirdly, I have re-presented the 231 Gates in full color instead of their former grayscale, rendering them much more evocative of their essential meaning. And fourth, I have eliminated the endless repetition of the Tarot images found throughout the original presentation of the 231 Gates, and have instead presented them just once in larger size (front and back of each “card” image) at the end of the book. This is the first full presentation of the revised 32 Paths of Wisdom Tarot and they are of a size comfortable for use in meditation and working the Gates.

By way of introduction, I begin with a brief overview of the structure of the Hebrew Tree, plus a bit about the structure of the Gates and close with a few pages describing the techniques for working the Gates.

This is followed by my (revised) article, “The 32 Paths of Wisdom” which describes each of the 32 standard components of the Hebrew Tree of Life (the 10 Sephirot or Numbers and the 22 Lettered “paths” that connect them). Next comes a very brief overview of the 16 un-Lettered “Hidden Paths” that flesh out the Hebrew Tree and enable the 231 Gates.

The major portion and heart of this book is taken up by a concise delineation of the 231 Gates of the Hebrew Tree presented in an ascending or initiatory sequence — the 231 Gates of Initiation. At the end of the Gates you will find an index of Gates sorted by Sephirot, planet, sign, etc., which has proven to be a very handy reference.

And, at the very, very end of this book you will find the (revised) 32 Paths of Wisdom Tarot, front and back of each “card” presented in full color.

I find it hard to believe that it’s been 14 years since I created the Eight Temples Meditation Project! It feels like just yesterday and at least two lifetimes ago, all at the same time . . .

Fourteen years ago (1997-98) was a time in my life when I was working extensively with the Western Hermetic Tree of Life, just before my attention was turned to the Hebrew Tree and the Gra Tree. The Eight Temples (or “8T” as it’s affectionately called) represents the full flowering of my time with the Western Hermetic Tree and even though over time I have forsaken the Western Tree for the Gra Tree, I still see the 8T as a valuable introduction to all versions of the Tree of Life.

The point of the 8T is that the Tree of Life is a living experience, not just an academic, intellectual pursuit. It’s value is lasting because it is an experiential introduction to the Sephirot. And no matter how you arrange the Sephirot or label the connections between them, these eight meditation rituals will still provide a practical introduction to the basic Sephirotic concepts and kabbalistic cosmology inherent to all versions of the Tree.

I dedicate this edition to all who make the journey to the Malkuth Temple. I greet each and every one of you personally with a smile and a nod in that endless present-moment spent within that ever-so-familiar space of infinite possibilities . . .

The ancient Kabbalists wrote of “permuting the Letters”, a process of combining pairs of Hebrew Letters with vowel sounds and uttering them to generate mystical and magical effects. Franz Bardon, in his book The Key to the True Quabbalah, wrote of combining the utterance of letter sounds with the creative imagination of color and feeling, also to generate mystical and magical effects.

In this book, I describe a different approach — permuting the Tree itself. This also combines the Letters but instead of speaking the Letters, the practitioner becomes the Letters and thus “utters” them with their whole being.

The traditional techniques of permuting the Letters require decades of study as a prerequisite and in Judaic Kabbalah they are the sole purview of men. On the other hand, the technique of Permuting the Tree that I present here is non-exclusive and does not require any foreknowledge of Kabbalistic terminology, philosophy, etc. The only thing required is your creative imagination.

I present to you in these colorful pages the Tree of Life stripped of all its jargon and transformed into a truly useable tool, a map of the structure of Being that will easily lead you along a journey into Self.

The message of the Tree of Life is that there is One Self and every thing that exists is an aspect of The One Self. Furthermore, the One Self exists equally within each of the infinite number of things that exist. It says that every thing is directly connected through the immanence of the One Self. It says that each thing can find the infinite by merely looking within its own self. And, it says that there is no need for an intermediary, no need to rely upon what someone else sees . . .