Fans pick 100 books like Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming

By Catherine Shainberg,

Here are 100 books that Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming fans have personally recommended if you like Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Trauma and Dreams

Linda Yael Schiller Author Of PTSDreams: Transform Your Nightmares from Trauma through Healing Dreamwork

From my list on understanding your nightmares and dreams.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've always been fascinated by non-linear ways of knowing. I moved to Boston in the ’80s and became a part of a dance community, and a friend invited me to join a dream circle. My immediate response was “Yes!”, followed by, “What’s a dream circle?” I said yes even before I knew what it was, and that decision formed one of my major life paths personally and professionally. (FYI, a dream circle is a group of people who get together regularly to understand their dreams.) Add this to my years as a trauma therapist, and you have the template for Modern Dreamwork and PTSDreams. My next book focuses on healing ancestorial legacy through dreamwork. 

Linda's book list on understanding your nightmares and dreams

Linda Yael Schiller Why did Linda love this book?

Deidre is both a colleague and fellow member of IASD – the International Association for the Study of Dreams.

She was gracious enough to write a recommendation for my own book, and her book is one of the first to make the connection between nightmares and trauma. As a professor at Harvard University, she shares her research in this book.

By Deirdre Barrett (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Trauma and Dreams as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

According to the poet Elias Canetti, "All the things one has forgotten / scream for help in dreams." To the ancient Egyptians they were prophecies, and in world folklore they have often marked visitations from the dead. For Freud they were expressions of "wish fulfillment," and for Jung, symbolic representations of mythical archetypes. Although there is still much disagreement about the significance and function of dreams, they seem to serve as a barometer of current mind and body states.

In this volume, Deirdre Barrett brings together the study of dreams and the psychology of trauma. She has called on a…


Book cover of Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill: Using Dreams to Tap the Wisdom of the Unconscious

Linda Yael Schiller Author Of PTSDreams: Transform Your Nightmares from Trauma through Healing Dreamwork

From my list on understanding your nightmares and dreams.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've always been fascinated by non-linear ways of knowing. I moved to Boston in the ’80s and became a part of a dance community, and a friend invited me to join a dream circle. My immediate response was “Yes!”, followed by, “What’s a dream circle?” I said yes even before I knew what it was, and that decision formed one of my major life paths personally and professionally. (FYI, a dream circle is a group of people who get together regularly to understand their dreams.) Add this to my years as a trauma therapist, and you have the template for Modern Dreamwork and PTSDreams. My next book focuses on healing ancestorial legacy through dreamwork. 

Linda's book list on understanding your nightmares and dreams

Linda Yael Schiller Why did Linda love this book?

Jeremy Taylor was one of my very first dream teachers, and this title may be my most favorite title ever! 

As a minister, Jeremy brings a psycho-spiritual approach to the work, as I do, and he taught us the respectful style of honoring the dreamer who had the dream by responding to it with, "If it were my dream…”, allowing us to associate yet keeping the dreamer as the. Ultimate authority of their dream.

By Jeremy Taylor,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Based on intensive study and thousands of case histories, this remarkable guide opens up the world of dreams by showing readers how to remember and interpret dreams, establish a dream group, learn the universal symbolism of dreaming, and change their lives using their dreams.


Book cover of Dream Medicine: The Intersection of Wellness and Consciousness

Linda Yael Schiller Author Of PTSDreams: Transform Your Nightmares from Trauma through Healing Dreamwork

From my list on understanding your nightmares and dreams.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've always been fascinated by non-linear ways of knowing. I moved to Boston in the ’80s and became a part of a dance community, and a friend invited me to join a dream circle. My immediate response was “Yes!”, followed by, “What’s a dream circle?” I said yes even before I knew what it was, and that decision formed one of my major life paths personally and professionally. (FYI, a dream circle is a group of people who get together regularly to understand their dreams.) Add this to my years as a trauma therapist, and you have the template for Modern Dreamwork and PTSDreams. My next book focuses on healing ancestorial legacy through dreamwork. 

Linda's book list on understanding your nightmares and dreams

Linda Yael Schiller Why did Linda love this book?

Kim is another colleague from IASD, and her work on dream medicine attends to altered states of consciousness, focusing on dreaming, and points out our potential to access healing from many realms. It looks at a wide variety of cultural and spiritual perspectives.

Mascaro walks us through shamanic and indigenous ways of knowing and healing as well as incorporating western styles of dreamwork. Her attention to detail allows the reader to easily try many of her suggestions that honor and include alter-making, plant and animal medicine, and nightmare healing that incudes soul recovery.

By Kimberly R. Mascaro,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dream Medicine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book surveys both the scientific and the spiritual terrain of altered states of consciousness, highlighting how extrasensory encounters can be soul-healing balm. It explores a wide range of cultural interpretations of out-of-body experiences, from shamanistic practices to the importance of dreams in ancient world cultures. A dozen or more interviews with health-related professionals present unique, holistic glimpses of our inner lives.

Dreaming takes center stage, with the author presenting her most profound and insidious dreams. Part reference work and part guidebook, this book tells readers how to make the most of their dream experiences through a variety of techniques…


Book cover of Dream Tending: Awakening to the Healing Power of Dreams

Linda Yael Schiller Author Of PTSDreams: Transform Your Nightmares from Trauma through Healing Dreamwork

From my list on understanding your nightmares and dreams.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've always been fascinated by non-linear ways of knowing. I moved to Boston in the ’80s and became a part of a dance community, and a friend invited me to join a dream circle. My immediate response was “Yes!”, followed by, “What’s a dream circle?” I said yes even before I knew what it was, and that decision formed one of my major life paths personally and professionally. (FYI, a dream circle is a group of people who get together regularly to understand their dreams.) Add this to my years as a trauma therapist, and you have the template for Modern Dreamwork and PTSDreams. My next book focuses on healing ancestorial legacy through dreamwork. 

Linda's book list on understanding your nightmares and dreams

Linda Yael Schiller Why did Linda love this book?

This is one of the best books I know for attending to the images in the dream.

Aisenstadt has developed a whole school around working with dream images, and this book is a delight to read. Much of my own work with images is informed by him. He brings the dream images to life.

By Stephen Aizenstat,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dream Tending as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

You had the most amazing dream last night. It spoke to your highest aspiration-your most secret wish-and presented a vision of a future that was right for you. But now, in the cold light of day, that inspiring dream is gone forever-or is it? According to Dr. Stephen Aizenstat, a psychotherapist, university professor, and dream specialist, dreams are not just phantoms that pass in the night, but a present living reality that you can engage with and learn from in your daily life. In Dream Tending, Dr. Aizenstat shows how to access the power of your dreams to transform nightmare…


Book cover of Essential Papers on Kabbalah

Daniel C. Matt Author Of God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony Between Science and Spirituality

From my list on Jewish spirituality.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a scholar of Kabbalah. My father was a rabbi and I grew up studying Torah with him. He was deeply spiritual, and that drew me to exploring the mystical Judaism. After completing my Ph.D. in Jewish studies, I traveled to India, meditated in the Himalayas, and discovered how mystical teachings East and West are remarkably similar. I taught Jewish spirituality for 20 years at a graduate school in Berkeley. Then a wealthy family approached me and commissioned me to translate the Zohar, the masterpiece of Kabbalah. This took me 18 years and the translation was published in 9 volumes by Stanford University. Now I teach Zohar online.

Daniel's book list on Jewish spirituality

Daniel C. Matt Why did Daniel love this book?

This is a great collection of essays by some of the leading scholars of Jewish mysticism.

Each chapter is authoritative yet very readable and stimulating. Among the topics are: the nature of the Zohar, the meaning of Torah in Kabbalah, transmigration of souls, the figure of the Tsaddiq (the righteous hero), mystical prayer, a mystical approach to the Sabbath, mystical techniques, and the concept of “nothingness” in Jewish mysticism.

By Lawrence Fine (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Essential Papers on Kabbalah as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An essential volume of 12th to 17th century papers on the Jewish mysticism of Kabbalah
As recently as 1915, when the legendary scholar of Jewish mysticism Gershom Scholem sought to find someone-anyone-to teach him Kabbalah, the study of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah was largely neglected and treated with disdain. Today, this field has ripened to the point that it occupies a central place in the agenda of contemporary Judaic studies.
While there are many definitions of Kabbalah, this volume focuses on the discrete body of literature which developed between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. The basis for most of this…


Book cover of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition

Daniel C. Matt Author Of God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony Between Science and Spirituality

From my list on Jewish spirituality.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a scholar of Kabbalah. My father was a rabbi and I grew up studying Torah with him. He was deeply spiritual, and that drew me to exploring the mystical Judaism. After completing my Ph.D. in Jewish studies, I traveled to India, meditated in the Himalayas, and discovered how mystical teachings East and West are remarkably similar. I taught Jewish spirituality for 20 years at a graduate school in Berkeley. Then a wealthy family approached me and commissioned me to translate the Zohar, the masterpiece of Kabbalah. This took me 18 years and the translation was published in 9 volumes by Stanford University. Now I teach Zohar online.

Daniel's book list on Jewish spirituality

Daniel C. Matt Why did Daniel love this book?

The Zohar is the masterpiece of Kabbalah, a vast mystical commentary on the Bible, composed in 13th-century Spain.

Over the course of 18 years, I translated this dense, cryptic Aramaic text into English, adding an extensive commentary to explain the mystical symbolism. For the Zohar, God is equally male and female, and it is up to us humans to unite the divine couple by living ethically and spiritually. God needs us, in order to be actualized in the world.

This is the first English edition of the Zohar to be based on the original manuscripts. It has been hailed as “a monumental contribution to the history of Jewish thought.”

By Daniel C. Matt,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Zohar as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first two volumes of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, translated with commentary by Daniel C. Matt, cover more than half of the Zohar's commentary on the Book of Genesis (through Genesis 32:3). This is the first translation ever made from a critical Aramaic text of the Zohar, which has been established by Professor Matt based on a wide range of original manuscripts. The extensive commentary, appearing at the bottom of each page, clarifies the kabbalistic symbolism and terminology, and cites sources and parallels from biblical, rabbinic, and kabbalistic texts. The translator's introduction is accompanied by a second introduction written by…


Book cover of Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation

Dovid Krafchow Author Of Zohar: Beyond the BlackWhole

From my list on the Zohar and uncovering the secrets of creation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been studying Zohar in the original ancient language for fifty years and have written a number of books about how Zohar informs the future of the Earth. For my whole life, I have pursued Truth. Zohar has been my guide through the darkness of life riddled with lies. The words of Zohar promise to become relevant at the End of Days, before the six thousand year calendar runs out in 220 years with the advent of the Thousand Years of Woman and Peace. After fifty years of study, I have deciphered the past and written a book for the ages.

Dovid's book list on the Zohar and uncovering the secrets of creation

Dovid Krafchow Why did Dovid love this book?

Though the Zohar is ancient having been written two thousand years ago, the Sefer Yetizra/Book of Form was written four thousand years ago presenting the fundamental aspects to the Tree of Life known also and the Ten Luminaries. The original Patriarch Avraham is commonly accepted as the author of Sefer Yetizra. Having this primal knowledge of the Cabala will allow entrance into later texts and subsequent cabalistic ideas. Aryeh Kaplan is a trusted authority.

By Aryeh Kaplan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sefer Yetzirah as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Sefer Yetzirah is perhaps the oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts. In this landmark work of mystical studies, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan brings the text’s theoretical, meditative, and magical implications to light.

The book explores the dynamics of the spiritual domain, the worlds of the sefirot, souls and angels. Rabbi Kaplan explains that when properly understood the Sefer Yetzirah becomes an instruction manual for a very special type of meditation meant to strengthen concentration and to aid in the development of telekinetic and telepathic powers. Through the use of various signs, incantations, and divine names, initiates could also…


Book cover of The Sacred Zohar

Dovid Krafchow Author Of Zohar: Beyond the BlackWhole

From my list on the Zohar and uncovering the secrets of creation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been studying Zohar in the original ancient language for fifty years and have written a number of books about how Zohar informs the future of the Earth. For my whole life, I have pursued Truth. Zohar has been my guide through the darkness of life riddled with lies. The words of Zohar promise to become relevant at the End of Days, before the six thousand year calendar runs out in 220 years with the advent of the Thousand Years of Woman and Peace. After fifty years of study, I have deciphered the past and written a book for the ages.

Dovid's book list on the Zohar and uncovering the secrets of creation

Dovid Krafchow Why did Dovid love this book?

There are 1835 pages in the book. If you read five pages a day or even just look at these holy words, you will finish the Zohar in a year. Just to have this beautiful sacred book in your library can only bring blessings into a person’s life. Each word in the Zohar is a window to Heaven; each letter is holy—indeed, each word is a Name of God. Treat this book with respect, put no other book above this book, and your actions will be noted in Heaven.

By Rabbi Simon Bar Yochai,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Sacred Zohar as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Sacred Zohar is considered by many to be a Book of Healing & Protection

This book is traditionally known as the world’s most esoteric sources of spiritual knowledge, of Holy Bible and shows the spiritual narrative and wisdom available to people of all faiths so that we may use its principles to live each day. It is the central work in the literature of the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, by the greatest authority on Jewish mysticism, offers a sampling of its unique vision of the esoteric wonders of creation.

Please note: the first 30 pages introduction are in…


Book cover of The Thirteen Petalled Rose: A Discourse on the Essence of Jewish Existence and Belief

Dovid Krafchow Author Of Zohar: Beyond the BlackWhole

From my list on the Zohar and uncovering the secrets of creation.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been studying Zohar in the original ancient language for fifty years and have written a number of books about how Zohar informs the future of the Earth. For my whole life, I have pursued Truth. Zohar has been my guide through the darkness of life riddled with lies. The words of Zohar promise to become relevant at the End of Days, before the six thousand year calendar runs out in 220 years with the advent of the Thousand Years of Woman and Peace. After fifty years of study, I have deciphered the past and written a book for the ages.

Dovid's book list on the Zohar and uncovering the secrets of creation

Dovid Krafchow Why did Dovid love this book?

Adin Steinsaltz is another author who can be absolutely trusted in his ability to transmit ancient secrets with clarity, simplicity utilizing a complete concordance of knowledge meant to educate the reader. The first form of creation, as related in the preface to the Zohar, is the thirteen petal rose. Thirteen is the gematria of Echud/One, from here arises the seed to the Tree of Life.

By Adin Steinsaltz,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Thirteen Petalled Rose as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Madonna's music videos to the glossy pages of celebrity magazines and back to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Jewish mysticism has stepped into the modern consciousness like never before. In this classic work, world-renowned scholar Adin Steinsaltz answers the major questions asked by modern Jews about the nature of existence in God's universe. The title The Thirteen Petalled Rose is taken from the opening of the classic Jewish text on mysticism, the Zohar, and refers to the "collective souls of the Jewish people," which scholars have likened to the fullness of a rose and its thirteen petals. Along…


Book cover of The Kabbalah of Envy: Transforming Hatred, Anger and Other Negative Emotions

Barry J. Robinson Author Of A Seagull Named Papa

From my list on thinking differently about yourself and the world.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have a passion for becoming a better human being and helping others to do the same. I spent 28 years in parish ministry attempting to remind people of the call of Jesus and the needs of the human heart. I left ministry and operated a private practice as a registered psychotherapist for almost 20 years. I am now retired and an author of three books. I'm still working at the task of becoming a better human being and helping others to do the same. The books I have recommended in my book list are all examples of people with similar mindsets.

Barry's book list on thinking differently about yourself and the world

Barry J. Robinson Why did Barry love this book?

A profound, innovative, and fascinating study of the meaning of envy and the various negative emotions that flow from it.

This compelling work by one who is steeped in the rabbinic tradition of Israel demonstrates how we must all work at removing the destructive power of envy from our lives. It will keep you reading and re-reading it.

By Nilton Bonder,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Kabbalah of Envy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Negative emotions have much to teach us about ourselves and our relationships with others and the world at large. Rabbi Bonder draws on the wisdom of the Talmud, Hasidic tales, and Jewish mystical lore in presenting insights into the effects of envy, jealousy, hatred, and anger. He shows that whether we are on the giving or the receiving end of these unpleasant emotions, we can learn to transform them and live peacefully in the spirit of the biblical commandment "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Among the topics discussed are: The consequences of malicious gossip, slander, and insults Cultivating humility as…


Book cover of Trauma and Dreams
Book cover of Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill: Using Dreams to Tap the Wisdom of the Unconscious
Book cover of Dream Medicine: The Intersection of Wellness and Consciousness

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5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the Kabbalah, dreams, and Western esotericism?

The Kabbalah 26 books
Dreams 57 books