Zephyros
A shame that the books haven't been translated. I wonder if there's a way to do a rudimentary translation with scanning techniques available today.
The Kircher pattern of paths is one of two described by Moses Cordovero in his 'Garden of Pomegranates' (the attribution of letters to paths however may be different). It is called the Tree of Emanation. The other described by Cordovero is that associated with Luria, and called the Tree of Return.
Kircher quoted several sections from the Garden of Pomegranates, albeit without stating his sources (we know he had a copy as there is a manuscript in the Vatican with Kircher's handwritten notes and annotations on it). However, his diagram, and the various trees and other diagrams, is adapted from that published in 1625 by Philippe d'Aquin.
Note though that Philippe d'Aquin's Tree misses out of a couple of paths that Kircher did include (and which are described in Cordovero's Garden of Pomegranates). For example d'Aquin misses out the diagonal paths between Netzach-Yesod and Hod-Yesod.
There are a good deal more than a thousand decks, Aeclectic alone lists "only" about 1200, and there are many it doesn't have. Most modern decks follow the Golden Dawn structure even if they aren't strictly Kabbalistic decks.
However, although the Golden Dawn developed and expanded their Tree, it wasn't their invention. It was actually the Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher who developed the Hermetic Tree in use today. I remember looking for texts of his, explanations for his Tree, but couldn't find any, although I admit I didn't look very hard. Does anyone know if he wrote some notes on his system?
Note though that Philippe d'Aquin's Tree misses out of a couple of paths that Kircher did include (and which are described in Cordovero's Garden of Pomegranates). For example d'Aquin misses out the diagonal paths between Netzach-Yesod and Hod-Yesod.
According to Moses Cordovero, Aleph is the source of all the other letters, the remaining 21 then form three septenaries under the rule of:
Love = beth - cheth
Grace = teth - samech
Judgement = ayin to tau
This is great Kwaw . thank you. I even just found it on line: https://books.google.fr/books?id=MQ...dovero in his 'Garden of Pomegranates&f=false
Kircher quoted several sections from the Garden of Pomegranates, albeit without stating his sources (we know he had a copy as there is a manuscript in the Vatican with Kircher's handwritten notes and annotations on it). However, his diagram, and the various trees and other diagrams, is adapted from that published in 1625 by Philippe d'Aquin.
Do you know what the earliest image of the "modern" tree is?
I have been working a lot with 3d projections of the Kaballah inspired by the Sepher Yetzirah instruction to see the Tree in 2-3 and 5th dimensional space. Here's an informative article with cool renditions of trees:
http://www.workofthechariot.com/TextFiles/Graphics/double-piramid.gif