The Kabbalah is the occult or secret tradition within Judaism. Waite's comprehensive and annotated guide to this tradition of mysticism is enthusiastic in tone and grounded in scholarship. The author presents and interprets the fundamental ideas within this tradition. He also discusses Kabbalah's foremost interpreters, its impact on Christian scholars, and its reputation as "the secret tradition." Waite's thought-provoking analysis includes a rejection of proposals by earlier occultists that many esoteric practices - alchemy, astrology, and Freemasonry, for instance - are founded on or are integral to Kabbalah