A. Introduction
The primary texts that are largely the source for the core ideas, meditation
practices, and all the various forms of the Tree of Life in the Mystical
Qabalah are listed below. Primary texts include those revealed through messiahs,
prophets, and great masters. Secondary texts are commentaries upon primary
texts. During and since the Middle Ages, European Jewish Kabbalists, especially
in Spain, Lithuania, and Poland, wrote a considerable body of secondary
qabalistic literature. For the purposes of this book, however, we will limit
our attention to earlier primary works, with the notable exception of the
Etz HaChayyim (Tree of Life) of Rabbi Yitza'aq Luria. The
Lurianic material has wide regard among contemporary religious students
of the Jewish Kabbalah, and yields some unique forms of the Tree of Life
not found in the earlier primary texts.
The Work of the Chariot study group focused upon the following primary texts:
The primary texts of the Mystical Qabalah are books of power not intended for superficial consumption. Such books are alive, full of light, with hidden gates and abundant treasures. The life, light, and secrets of any book of power must grow like seeds in the mind. With proper cultivation under suitable conditions, those seeds bear fruit over time. With repeated recitation and perhaps the scribing of a text, one can feel the patterns and identify the key phrases, power names, imagery, and diagrams upon which the book is built. When you properly intone and scribe the key power names and phrases, and visualize the principal imagery and diagrams, you activate deep archetypes in the mind. These archetypes expand in one's consciousness and trigger associations and flashes of perception.
