1) To ground yourself and avoid becoming too spaced out.

2) I don't recommend it. That usually results in not paying enough attention to each path.

3) No, there is no such path. You can't get from Chesed directly to Binah. You have to return to Tiphareth and start from there.

4) If you take the imagery too literally, and forget that it's all symbolic, you can go off the deep end mentally to some extent. That's the only danger I know of.