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Right hand/Left Hand Paths?

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
What does it mean when someone is a follower of a right hand or left hand path? What are similarities and differences between the two?
Good question.
I don't know the answer, but I'll hazard a guess just to see how far off I am.
I'd say the right hand path is divinity and the left hand path is materialism.
 

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
What does it mean when someone is a follower of a right hand or left hand path? What are similarities and differences between the two?

Right Hand Path means you strive for the heavens, even if metaphorically so. You strive for something higher in a more conventional way. This could mean things like meditation as a form of becoming more calm, as well as becoming more an empath (in some cases).

Left Hand Path can sometimes be about harnessing your carnal, sometimes even animal or worldly, side, with the idea that in my own words, the twilight can provide enlightenment in much the same way as the light. As far as Left Hand Path people go, some are more intense about their ideas than others, while some you would hardly know they're Left Hand Path - just in my opinion. Some also still have some really, really good moral ideas, showing that morality comes from within rather than through the Right Hand path.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
What does it mean when someone is a follower of a right hand or left hand path? What are similarities and differences between the two?
The below link was a 2016 debate between left-hand pather's about what Western Left Hand path was. It actually was important to them, since it was likely to affect who would be allowed to post what in the Left Hand Dir:

The Western Left Hand Defined <-----

There is also a left hand path group in the Dharmic section. I think they are a type of Hindus, but I don't remember what their group is named.
 

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
The article Secret Chief posted is alright, but I'd also say that it isn't limited to magic - that some faiths and people can be Left Hand Path based on mere ideology and how they live their lives and spiritual walk.

However, there's something you should know. In my own faith, Hinduism, I can call myself Left Hand Path. However some faiths, it's kind of bad social etiquette to call yourself even Right Hand Path. For example, calling yourself Right Hand Path, even if you subscribe to every idea, within Christianity can get you scrutiny from your Christian peers. I feel that in Christianity, if a person seems Right Hand Path, they might not really be Right Hand Path unless they wish to break the mold and really do wish to identify with it. In Christianity, people aren't Right Hand Path, they just are.
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
In my faith tradition rhp appeals to God's mercy and accepts the yoke heaven. Lhp is the path of strict justice where the yoke of heaven is deemed by some to be unneeded while others see it as harmful.
 

viole

Ontological Naturalist
Premium Member
What does it mean when someone is a follower of a right hand or left hand path? What are similarities and differences between the two?
They must rely on an orientation of the spiritual realm. But if the spiritual realm is a Möbius strip, then both paths are equivalent.

Ciao

- viole
 

Psalm23

Well-Known Member
The article Secret Chief posted is alright, but I'd also say that it isn't limited to magic - that some faiths and people can be Left Hand Path based on mere ideology and how they live their lives and spiritual walk.

However, there's something you should know. In my own faith, Hinduism, I can call myself Left Hand Path. However some faiths, it's kind of bad social etiquette to call yourself even Right Hand Path. For example, calling yourself Right Hand Path, even if you subscribe to every idea, within Christianity can get you scrutiny from your Christian peers. I feel that in Christianity, if a person seems Right Hand Path, they might not really be Right Hand Path unless they wish to break the mold and really do wish to identify with it. In Christianity, people aren't Right Hand Path, they just are.

Does both right and left hand paths involve magic on some level? I saw a article that gave one difference between these paths as a dark vs light magic. Does both these paths seek to connect to a Supreme Beings?
 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
Does both right and left hand paths involve magic on some level? I saw a article that gave one difference between these paths as a dark vs light magic. Does both these paths seek to connect to a Supreme Beings?
Both paths can employ magick. Either path can be theistic or non-theistic. Worship is generally right hand path, as that is how they gather and store up their energy. Right hand path is generally collective/congregational, whereas left hand path is more individual. Right hand path can employ both dark magick--such as the prayers in psalms to curse Israel's enemies, or light magick--healings. Left hand path can similarly employ both, but the way it gathers its energy is different from right hand path.
 

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
Does both right and left hand paths involve magic on some level? I saw a article that gave one difference between these paths as a dark vs light magic.

That's a debate I'll have to have with my Left Hand Path peers elsewhere. I say it doesn't have to.

Does both these paths seek to connect to a Supreme Beings?

I'm not sure if that as a statement is the best way of saying it. It can. But I'd prefer a more nuanced statement/generalization.
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
It can be employed as a component of magick.
My confusion is from the Abrahamic perspective, magick is always taboo; which would make it always left (trying to use your def). Someone from a different background might see it differently.
 

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
My confusion is from the Abrahamic perspective, magick is always taboo; which would make it always left (trying to use your def). Someone from a different background might see it differently.

Yep. Which is one of the reasons why I said Left Hand Path and Right Hand Path have trouble existing in Christianity. There's just nothing there for such beliefs to really latch onto and snap together or connect.
 

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
Affecting change according to will.

So simple yes or no question - if I worship Shiva and I use my spiritual senses (ESP and mind), to tell Shiva to increase the vibrations in the room, so that I can feel more of an earthquake in my soul than just worshipping him alone - would that be an example of magick?
 
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