AmounrA, with regards to the Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom, each, in the text, is not associated with any of the Sephiroth. It would make sense, however, to consider, as you suggest, the seventh type of consciousness or intelligence with the seventh Sefirah.
With regards to Wirth, he was one of the people involved in the Continental order which arose around the same time as the Golden Dawn did in England: the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose Cross. Unlike the GD, they followed the Hebrew lettering suggested by Levi (Alef, meaning 1, with the Magician, etc). Wirth also designed two Tarot decks, the second one of which is still in print and generally simply called the Oswald Wirth deck. The deck was originally used, from memory, to illustrate Papus's (G. Encausse) book on the Tarot.
stevepolsz, I like your style of carefully considering the gematriac correlation between various words in English, and your 'sword = words' and 'serpent = repents', with regards to considerations of movement on the Tree certainly add a qualitative value to other meditations one may make.
You also make a wonderful point about the nature of a crown, in that it sits upon, and yet is not part of the person. When thinking of the whole Tree as Adam Kadmon (sometimes translated as 'Archetypal Man'), the Crown certainly leads to considering that the source is beyond any emanation, irrespective as to how supernal these may already be. I find that even reflecting on the role the Crown plays in transforming the king or queen from 'mere' secular power of a person to spiritual power manifesting through the wearer also sheds light on the various connotations of the word used to name this Sefirah.
This aspect is also succinctly expressed, in a different way, by Jewel. On our path of return, this stage is wonderfully illustrated with the illumination and gnosis to Buddhahood. The converse can also happen, however, and the descent of grace can crown one.
With regards to the question posted by Jewel in the placement of the minors, the traditions which place the Majors within the Sefirot do not necessarily place the minors upon the 'paths' - it is also worth remembering that not all representations of the Tree of Life have 22 connecting 'paths'.
There is no reason why the minors may not be placed in descending order, representing the four worlds, whilst the Majors may be placed in ascending order, representing our path of return. This is, of course, only one suggestion.