Greer's book is really excellent at explaining the Cabala used in Western Esotericism， though I would recommend reading his blog posts on Schopenhauer as I serendipitously did a couple of months ago。 （http://thearchdruidreport。blogspot。co。。。 Seriously， start here and keep going。） Keeping those posts in mind helped put the Cabala in context， because there has always been this strong tendency of literalizing it in Esotericism。This book does an excellent job at illustrating that the Cabala is a met Greer's book is really excellent at explaining the Cabala used in Western Esotericism， though I would recommend reading his blog posts on Schopenhauer as I serendipitously did a couple of months ago。 （http://thearchdruidreport。blogspot。co。。。 Seriously， start here and keep going。） Keeping those posts in mind helped put the Cabala in context， because there has always been this strong tendency of literalizing it in Esotericism。This book does an excellent job at illustrating that the Cabala is a metaphor for the world， for reality， a map， and not "A 100% Accurate Description of Things In and of Themselves。" The Four Worlds are four ways of describing the world， not four actual Sci-Fi Planes of Reality in and of themselves。 The Sephiroth are organizing metaphors of the forces at work in the world and not objective forces in and of themselves。 The Cabala is a tool one can use， but so are the maps provided in Tibetan Buddhism， the Egyptian Book of the Dead， etc。 You can learn to appreciate it that way and use it when it's appropriate， rather than having the hammer and seeing everything as a nail。 。。。more