The Book of Formation. A brief
Kabalistic book that supposedly dates to the second century C.E. or earlier. Although not printed until the middle of the sixteenth century, it is mentioned in many earlier sources. It does not have many of the later concepts of the Kabalah. Instead, it is limited to the ten
Sephiroth (although not described as a tree), the powers of the
Hebrew alphabet (although not described as being paths that connect the Sephiroth) and how God controls the universe through the transposition of His four-letter name, the
Tetragrammaton, Yud-Heh-Vahv-Heh. Sometimes the title is incorrectly translated as
The Book of Creation. Occasionally has other works attached to it, including
The Fifty Gates of Intelligence and the better-known
Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom. The
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn uses the
Sepher Yetzira in its teachings.