Evelynne Joffe
For over three decades, Evelynne Joffe has been one of Australia’s most respected teachers of Kabbalah and its intersection with the Tarot. Through her Institute of Esoteric Studies in Melbourne, she has guided students up the Tree of Life with warmth, scholarly rigour, and a gift for making ancient wisdom feel vividly alive.
Biography
A Life on the Tree
Evelynne Joffe is a Kabbalist, counsellor, dream therapist, and spiritual teacher whose work bridges Jewish mystical tradition, Jungian psychology, and the Tarot. As Director of the Institute of Esoteric Studies in Melbourne, Australia, she has spent more than thirty years teaching students to use the Tree of Life as a practical map for self-realization, not as abstract philosophy, but as a lived system for understanding the human experience.
Evelynne’s spiritual journey began in South Africa, where she grew up under apartheid before emigrating to Australia. That experience of leaving behind a world of enforced conformity became foundational to her teaching: the importance of thinking for yourself, questioning inherited beliefs, and finding your own truth. She began studying and teaching Kabbalah and Tarot in Melbourne in the early 1990s. In 1992, she co-founded the Tarot Guild of Australia, serving as its inaugural Vice President and later as President. She helped develop the Guild’s Code of Ethics and Practice, standards that continue to shape professional Tarot reading in Australia.
Throughout her career, Evelynne has lectured widely across Australia and internationally. She presented at the First World Tarot Conference in 1996 alongside Rachel Pollack, Mary K. Greer, and Caitlin Matthews. She has been a featured speaker at the C.G. Jung Society of Melbourne, presenting on topics including “Jung, Kabbalah and Tarot” and “The Heroine’s Journey through Tarot.” Her recorded talk “The Hebrew Goddess,” exploring how Judaism has retained the feminine face of God, is available through the Jung Society’s podcast archive. The Tarot Guild of Australia awarded her Honorary Membership in recognition of her major contributions to the field.
In 2009, Global Spiritual Studies founder Linda Marson enrolled in Evelynne’s year-long Kabbalah course in Melbourne, an experience Linda describes as having “long-term results I could never have imagined.” In 2011, they collaborated to bring that face-to-face course online as “Living the Tree of Life,” a 28-session journey through the Sephirot and Paths that remains the most comprehensive Kabbalistic education available on the platform. Evelynne’s five courses on Global Spiritual Studies represent the entirety of the site’s Kabbalah curriculum, making her the sole voice of this tradition in the GSS catalog.
Specializations
Areas of Expertise
- Kabbalistic Tree of Life
- The 10 Sephirot
- The 22 Paths
- Hebrew Letter Symbolism
- Gematria and Numerology
- Tarot and Kabbalah Integration
- The Sefer Yetzirah
- The Dark Nights of the Soul
- Jungian Psychology and Kabbalah
- Cross-Cultural Mythology
- Dream Interpretation
- Body-Centered Spiritual Diagnosis
- Shadow Work and Integration
- Kabbalistic Meditation
- The Zohar and Bahir Traditions
- Personal Development through Esoteric Study
Approach
Teaching Philosophy
Evelynne approaches Kabbalah not as religious instruction but as a practical path toward self-realization. Her teaching consistently emphasizes that the Tree of Life is a living map, one that reveals how cosmic energies manifest in the body, the psyche, and the rhythms of daily life. She draws freely from Judaism, Christianity, Greek mythology, Celtic legend, Jungian psychology, and Sufism, yet remains firmly rooted in the Kabbalistic tradition, using the Hebrew letters as the non-negotiable foundation of each Path.
Her classroom presence is warm, direct, and deliberately irreverent. She shares her own struggles openly, from leaving apartheid South Africa to confronting those who insist a Jewish woman should not teach Kabbalah. This confessional honesty creates an atmosphere where students feel safe exploring their own darkness. She has no patience for spiritual hierarchy: “There is never a guru except in yourself,” she tells her students, returning always to the principle that the most evolved seekers are often the quietest.
What distinguishes Evelynne’s pedagogy is her insistence on integration. Every Sephirah and every Path is mapped to the physical body, so that a pain in the shoulder or a recurring dream becomes a diagnostic tool pointing toward imbalance. She teaches her students to live the Tree, not merely study it, meeting the ancient wisdom where it matters most: in the texture of an ordinary day.
Affiliations
Professional Affiliations
Beyond her teaching at the Institute of Esoteric Studies, Evelynne has played a formative role in Australia’s Tarot community. She has presented at major conferences including the First World Tarot Conference (1996) and has been a featured speaker at the C.G. Jung Society of Melbourne, where her talk on “The Hebrew Goddess” is available as a podcast.
Founding Vice President · Past President, Tarot Guild of Australia
Evelynne was a founding member of the Tarot Guild of Australia in 1992, serving as its inaugural Vice President and later as President. She helped develop the Guild’s Code of Ethics and Practice, establishing professional standards for Tarot reading across Australia. In recognition of her sustained contributions, the Guild awarded her Honorary Membership, its highest distinction.
Director, Institute of Esoteric Studies
Melbourne, Australia
Evelynne founded and directs the Institute of Esoteric Studies in Melbourne, where she offers courses in Kabbalah, Tarot, and dream therapy. The Institute runs year-long Kabbalah programmes, beginner and advanced Tarot reading groups, and private consultations. It was through this Institute that the “Living the Tree of Life” course was originally developed before being adapted for Global Spiritual Studies.
Presenter, C.G. Jung Society of Melbourne
Workshops and Lectures
Evelynne has presented multiple times at the C.G. Jung Society of Melbourne, reflecting the deep Jungian dimension of her Kabbalistic teaching. Her presentations include “Jung, Kabbalah and Tarot” (2014 retreat workshop) and “The Heroine’s Journey through Tarot” (2018). Her recorded talk “The Hebrew Goddess,” exploring how Judaism has retained the feminine face of God, is available through the Society’s podcast archive.
Learn
Courses by Evelynne Joffe
Explore Evelynne’s five courses on Global Spiritual Studies, from single-session explorations of individual Tarot cards through the Kabbalistic lens to her monumental 28-session “Living the Tree of Life” series. Whether you are discovering Kabbalah for the first time or deepening an existing practice, her teachings offer a complete education in the Tree of Life tradition. Her Sephirot course states that it is based on the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Formation · you can read that text first in our free Sefer Yetzirah edition, a public-domain translation newly typeset.
Connect
Connect with Evelynne
Evelynne teaches regularly through her Institute of Esoteric Studies in Melbourne, offering in-person Kabbalah courses, Tarot reading groups, and private consultations. She continues to present at conferences and through the C.G. Jung Society of Melbourne.