Vasilisa Jade
Formerly Saint Tigeress
These are two differnt posts from the Left Hand Path forums, which is a very specialized forum only for serious LHP practitioners and others. It is private due to the nature of what is discussed, but they are sweet and do welcome new people. I can't steal too much, but I got permission from ViaSinistra to post these two here. I thought it was amazing and I hope it gives some insight into the difference between Right and Left in the eyes of Left Hand Path practitioners.
In regards to the Right:
"Let me be of some assistance concerning the RHP...The Right Hand Path is based on the word 'submission.' The guide for happiness, doing the good, knowing the value of things comes from finding a system external from the Self, and remodeling the Self to fit. This system may take the form of obedience to an idolized being such as the Christian god, obedience to perceived historical and economical forces (e.g., Marxism), obedience to a gender group (e.g., feminism), obedience to a racial, national, or ethical group.
In each instances the Other is perceived of as larger and better than the Self, and that only in service to this external principle can the Good be obtained.
The practitioners of the Right Hand Path can be noble, good men and women who chose their principles wisely (e.g., Martin Luther King or Winston Churchill) or they may be destructive and stupid folk who chose their principles badly (e.g., Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin).
The Right Hand Path is much easier to understand and explain, because it values rules over consciousness. You can find a simple text that tells you what to do.
It's concept of the divine is to see the divine as omnipotent and omnipresent. Man is but a worm in comparison, and the purpose of life is to realize how small, frail, and ultimately illusory we are.
God is seen as static, and the salvation comes from achieving a similar static state, whether it is the constant adoration of the Christian heaven, or the selfless contemplation of the Buddhist Nirvana.
Many of the magical and spiritual techniques that are used by Left Hand Path Initiates are used by their Right Hand Path brothers. There are many similarities in the Paths--each would stress that surface appearances in the world are misleading, each would stress that most people in the world are profoundly asleep and spend most of their energy making sure that no one wakes up, each would stress that the battle to change the Self is an everyday battle.
There are many religions that fall outside of the Left Hand Path/ Right Hand Path dichotomy. Most Folk religions are not interested in transforming the Self, they are only interested in the maintenance of society. Other modes of thought such as Taoism, or Thelema as Aliester Crowley understood it, either ask different sorts of questions on how the Good is to be obtained, or offer mixtures between the paths.
There is no hatred of the Right Hand Path groups or practices by the mature Left Hand Path Initiate. The Initiate will have had to go through a break with that path, but sees the Right Hand Path as necessary for maintaining social controls. The Initiate has to accept the hatred and mindless loathing of the less developed Right Hand Path practitioners, with a constant truth before him or her, "If i fall back asleep, I will be the same!" This allows even the ugly face of the RHP to be a spur to maintaining one's Awareness."
-ViaSinistra
Regarding the Left Hand Path:
"The Left Hand Path is the way of the hero- the Path of those who dare breech the gates of eternity, to eat off the tree of life eternally having understood their own individual divinities. To stand against the inertia and ignorance of the whole of the universe- to strive against that which would thwart all intelligence and life and prevail against it, is the aim of the Path Sinister.
The Left Hand Path is simply the way of non union, of individuation, of independence. The Right Hand Path is the way of union, of collectivization, of dependence. What the Left Hand Path is not is "Evil." In fact, those who follow the Left Hand Path (by any name) today most closely approximate the ancient ideal of seeking the agathon-"the good." The Left Hand Path initiates seek to develop the Self to the point of divinity, this heightened sense of Self, once sufficiently developed, prevents any acts of true evil on the part of initiates because they have come to understand and know the Good.
The Path of the Sinner (the Via Sinistra) is the path of sovereigns. Those who would exercise sovereign power over themselves and their environments. Historical evidence for the presence of a true Left Hand Path is obvious in cultures originally shaped by Indo-European ideology (Egypt being the only possible exception). The extremely ancient sovereign values of eternal life and unlimited power of the Self are reflected in the philosophy of the Left Hand Path. There are two distinctive approaches to the Left Hand Path: the Transcendental Branch and the Immanent Branch. The transcendental Branch of the Left Hand Path (example: Temple of Set) makes use of an uncompromising subjective approach to the extant subjective universe, and thereby ultimately realizes the full reality and sovereignty of the Self. The Immanent Branch of the Left Hand Path (example: Church of Satan) takes an indirect route. Those who go this way focus on their independent carnal existence and travel through images in the objective universe to arrive at a mysterious, often indefinable state of being beyond the images. The branches terminate in a similar state, but their appearances are different.
The world needs to understand something of the Left Hand Path at this point in history as never before. This is because the world is now largely operating under a Left Hand Path paradigm. It is clear that the motivations for most (pre)-modern individuals revolve around the extension of life, independence, freedom, knowledge, power and pleasure. We live in a Faustian, or Mephistophelean Age. The sooner the true character of the Age is recognized, the sooner those who live in it will be able to move about with some self confidence. This Age has taken an Age to arrive, but if we look to the older age, and to those isolated individuals within the Age just passing, we will see examples of those who have mastered the Path.
A master of the Left Hand Path is one who has prevailed against the laws of the mechanical universe, the laws of stupidity, blind obedience to brute force, and eternal death of intelligence-- and created substance of the self by means of Will immortal identity which is in and of itself the greatest defiance against the universe. Such a one stands alone amidst the storms and stresses all about yet is not alone! For across the abysmal seas of the World of Horrors such a one will see and come to know other dark stars hovering over the waters. By knowing them the star of the singular Self is made to burn with brilliance of darkness unto the glory of desire.
Should there come a point in which all the individual intelligences scattered about the vastness beyond the borders of time and space are extinguished by force of Necessity it is their glory which will give the greatest brilliance to the whole which, even if for only a fleeting moment, come into being.
The only True enemy of the Left Hand Path is ignorance: the grinding human condition born of fear and expressed in the vehement of hatred. But this resistance too can be turned to strength by the power of the Will which belongs to the Left Hand Path to command. Where such ignorance is found, a Master of the Path will transform them into an illustration and illumination of the principles which distinguish his brilliance and intelligence from the obscurity and gloom which surrounds him. The Left Hand Path can break the bounds of time and reach back to discover moments which give shape and direction to his power. In this way he defies the compulsions and coercions of the past--thwarting beyond time his eternal enemies who have embodied ignorance-- and endow those moments with limitless possibilities for the future."
-ViaSinistra
In regards to the Right:
"Let me be of some assistance concerning the RHP...The Right Hand Path is based on the word 'submission.' The guide for happiness, doing the good, knowing the value of things comes from finding a system external from the Self, and remodeling the Self to fit. This system may take the form of obedience to an idolized being such as the Christian god, obedience to perceived historical and economical forces (e.g., Marxism), obedience to a gender group (e.g., feminism), obedience to a racial, national, or ethical group.
In each instances the Other is perceived of as larger and better than the Self, and that only in service to this external principle can the Good be obtained.
The practitioners of the Right Hand Path can be noble, good men and women who chose their principles wisely (e.g., Martin Luther King or Winston Churchill) or they may be destructive and stupid folk who chose their principles badly (e.g., Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin).
The Right Hand Path is much easier to understand and explain, because it values rules over consciousness. You can find a simple text that tells you what to do.
It's concept of the divine is to see the divine as omnipotent and omnipresent. Man is but a worm in comparison, and the purpose of life is to realize how small, frail, and ultimately illusory we are.
God is seen as static, and the salvation comes from achieving a similar static state, whether it is the constant adoration of the Christian heaven, or the selfless contemplation of the Buddhist Nirvana.
Many of the magical and spiritual techniques that are used by Left Hand Path Initiates are used by their Right Hand Path brothers. There are many similarities in the Paths--each would stress that surface appearances in the world are misleading, each would stress that most people in the world are profoundly asleep and spend most of their energy making sure that no one wakes up, each would stress that the battle to change the Self is an everyday battle.
There are many religions that fall outside of the Left Hand Path/ Right Hand Path dichotomy. Most Folk religions are not interested in transforming the Self, they are only interested in the maintenance of society. Other modes of thought such as Taoism, or Thelema as Aliester Crowley understood it, either ask different sorts of questions on how the Good is to be obtained, or offer mixtures between the paths.
There is no hatred of the Right Hand Path groups or practices by the mature Left Hand Path Initiate. The Initiate will have had to go through a break with that path, but sees the Right Hand Path as necessary for maintaining social controls. The Initiate has to accept the hatred and mindless loathing of the less developed Right Hand Path practitioners, with a constant truth before him or her, "If i fall back asleep, I will be the same!" This allows even the ugly face of the RHP to be a spur to maintaining one's Awareness."
-ViaSinistra
Regarding the Left Hand Path:
"The Left Hand Path is the way of the hero- the Path of those who dare breech the gates of eternity, to eat off the tree of life eternally having understood their own individual divinities. To stand against the inertia and ignorance of the whole of the universe- to strive against that which would thwart all intelligence and life and prevail against it, is the aim of the Path Sinister.
The Left Hand Path is simply the way of non union, of individuation, of independence. The Right Hand Path is the way of union, of collectivization, of dependence. What the Left Hand Path is not is "Evil." In fact, those who follow the Left Hand Path (by any name) today most closely approximate the ancient ideal of seeking the agathon-"the good." The Left Hand Path initiates seek to develop the Self to the point of divinity, this heightened sense of Self, once sufficiently developed, prevents any acts of true evil on the part of initiates because they have come to understand and know the Good.
The Path of the Sinner (the Via Sinistra) is the path of sovereigns. Those who would exercise sovereign power over themselves and their environments. Historical evidence for the presence of a true Left Hand Path is obvious in cultures originally shaped by Indo-European ideology (Egypt being the only possible exception). The extremely ancient sovereign values of eternal life and unlimited power of the Self are reflected in the philosophy of the Left Hand Path. There are two distinctive approaches to the Left Hand Path: the Transcendental Branch and the Immanent Branch. The transcendental Branch of the Left Hand Path (example: Temple of Set) makes use of an uncompromising subjective approach to the extant subjective universe, and thereby ultimately realizes the full reality and sovereignty of the Self. The Immanent Branch of the Left Hand Path (example: Church of Satan) takes an indirect route. Those who go this way focus on their independent carnal existence and travel through images in the objective universe to arrive at a mysterious, often indefinable state of being beyond the images. The branches terminate in a similar state, but their appearances are different.
The world needs to understand something of the Left Hand Path at this point in history as never before. This is because the world is now largely operating under a Left Hand Path paradigm. It is clear that the motivations for most (pre)-modern individuals revolve around the extension of life, independence, freedom, knowledge, power and pleasure. We live in a Faustian, or Mephistophelean Age. The sooner the true character of the Age is recognized, the sooner those who live in it will be able to move about with some self confidence. This Age has taken an Age to arrive, but if we look to the older age, and to those isolated individuals within the Age just passing, we will see examples of those who have mastered the Path.
A master of the Left Hand Path is one who has prevailed against the laws of the mechanical universe, the laws of stupidity, blind obedience to brute force, and eternal death of intelligence-- and created substance of the self by means of Will immortal identity which is in and of itself the greatest defiance against the universe. Such a one stands alone amidst the storms and stresses all about yet is not alone! For across the abysmal seas of the World of Horrors such a one will see and come to know other dark stars hovering over the waters. By knowing them the star of the singular Self is made to burn with brilliance of darkness unto the glory of desire.
Should there come a point in which all the individual intelligences scattered about the vastness beyond the borders of time and space are extinguished by force of Necessity it is their glory which will give the greatest brilliance to the whole which, even if for only a fleeting moment, come into being.
The only True enemy of the Left Hand Path is ignorance: the grinding human condition born of fear and expressed in the vehement of hatred. But this resistance too can be turned to strength by the power of the Will which belongs to the Left Hand Path to command. Where such ignorance is found, a Master of the Path will transform them into an illustration and illumination of the principles which distinguish his brilliance and intelligence from the obscurity and gloom which surrounds him. The Left Hand Path can break the bounds of time and reach back to discover moments which give shape and direction to his power. In this way he defies the compulsions and coercions of the past--thwarting beyond time his eternal enemies who have embodied ignorance-- and endow those moments with limitless possibilities for the future."
-ViaSinistra
