The Thirty-Two Keys
A Working Vocabulary for Contemplative Mysticism
Second Edition
by David Chaim Smith
(Volume 3 of the Lightning Flash of Alef series)
The Thirty-Two Keys is a group of symbolic images that provide a diagrammatic overview of the non-emanationist interpretation of the Kabbalah based on sources that span eight centuries. This is a proper introduction to the system that also provides an opportunity for the training of contemplative skills. An array of diagrams is presented as a set of 32 contemplation cards accompanying the book, and each image is analysed in a separate chapter. The images support a set of contemplative exercises configured for a 288-day period and serve as an introduction to the greater path of mysticism in all its forms. Beyond its introductory role, The Thirty-Two Keys is a powerful tool for contemplation at any point on the path and is unique in the literature of the Western Esoteric Tradition.
About the Second Edition
Originally written in 2019 and entirely re-written in 2022, this second edition has profoundly refined the original material and extensively reworked both the text and the images to make the content clearer and more accessible than ever. The second edition of The Thirty-Two Keys is presented in an 8x10 format to match most other volumes in the series. The contemplation cards have also been enhanced to improve the visual impact.
About the Lightning Flash of Alef series
The Lightning Flash of Alef series is the expression of the esoteric work of David Chaim Smith. Although the series is published as a set of numbered volumes, the books are non-sequential and do not have to be read in any particular order. Each volume functions as a unique and viable window into the path, and each is sufficient as a starting point for the study of the work.
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Table of Contents
Preface
Daily Practice
Key One
Key Two
Key Three
Key Four
Key Five
Key Six
Key Seven
Key Eight
Key Nine
Key Ten
Key Eleven
Key Twelve
Key Thirteen
Key Fourteen
Key Fifteen
Key Sixteen
Key Seventeen
Key Eighteen
Key Nineteen
Key Twenty
Key Twenty-One
Key Twenty-Two
Key Twenty-Three
Key Twenty-Four
Key Twenty-Five
Key Twenty-Six
Key Twenty-Seven
Key Twenty-Eight
Key Twenty-Nine
Key Thirty
Key Thirty-One
Key Thirty-Two
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40 illustrations by David Chaim Smith
Hardcover Edition
BOOK: 212 pages. Clothbound hardcover with silver foil blocking to front cover and spine. Smyth-sewn, with French-fold velvet finish matte dust jacket. Printed on high-quality paper, with custom endpapers.
DECK: 32 full-colour contemplation cards (3.16" X 7.10"), printed on velvet finish matte card stock, in a custom tuck-box.
ISBN: 979-8-218-00609-9
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Press, reviews, endorsements
Interview with David Chaim Smith in The Occult Library - read it here
Interview with David Chaim Smith on the Arcanvm podcast - watch on YouTube here
Interview with David Chaim Smith on the Glitch Bottle podcast - watch on YouTube here
Interview with David Chaim Smith on the This Is Darkness podcast - watch on YouTube here
Interview with David Chaim Smith in Arthur Mag - read it here
Interview with David Chaim Smith on the Thelema Now! podcast - listen here
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About the Author
David Chaim Smith is an artist, author, and practitioner of contemplative mysticism. He was born in 1964 in New York and worked as a visual artist throughout the 1980s. In 1990, he became immersed in various esoteric mystical traditions, and over the next seven years he studied the Golden Dawn system and worked within several Lodges. In 1997 he set aside both this structured approach and all activities with his visual art to take residence in a gnostic Hermitage in the American midwest. In his studies there he found new methodologies, most notably those for approaching a non-dual perspective via a Gnostic-tantra praxis.
David returned to New York in 1998 and immersed himself in Chassidic mysticism and traditional Hebrew Kabbalah. This he embraced through the devotional approach of Breslov, and it was here he made a profound inner connection through the meditative praxis of ‘Hitbodedut.’ In 1999 David encountered The Fountain of Wisdom, a text that has survived as a 13th century manuscript in the Vatican Library. He worked with the text for many years, drawing from his experiences as an ecstatic visionary artist. In 2004 he made a breakthrough in interpretation with the development of esoteric cartography (spiritual or occult map-making), and within a few years had reached a degree of fluency that allowed him to transfer their syntax and visual vocabulary to works of art. Since this return to visual art, David has been prolific in his practice and his work as a writer and artist whose creative engine is fuelled by a devotional approach to ecstatic visionary mysticism, a unique dimension of David’s work stems from aspects of ideational contemplation considered as a mystical path.
David currently lives in the suburbs of New York City with his wife, Rachel.
