The True Essence of the Left-Hand Path
I titled this essay this way because although I do not believe that there is an absolute or total truth, I do firmly believe that there are elements that define a tradition as it is, and although it may have flexible or non-dogmatic elements when the essence it is disfigured by the horrors of ignorance, I feel that I must say what I think and explain some concepts, typical of the old school, that are necessary to be able to maintain a solid and coherent argument with what one does, after reading this, each one will have to draw their conclusions and do what they please.
To begin, I am going to take some concepts from other authors, eminences both in magic in general and in the Sinister Path in particular and at the end, I am going to leave a list with titles and authors, which in my opinion, any serious walker of this Path should read and re-read to be able to speak objectively and without superstitions or ignorance of what this initiatory path is.
As first, the Left-Hand Path is a magical-religious philosophy, (there is a religious component that I will talk about in the future), which allows us to define our playing field, both in magic and in spirituality. It is what allows us to explain, at least in a philosophical way, why and why we are here, who we are, what we want, where we are going, and all these kinds of questions, which are ultimately those that seek to explain any current of philosophical thought. In our case, we focus on spirituality and magic.
As the first essential definition, the Left-Hand Path is Psychocentric, unlike the Right-Hand Path, that is to say, that the focus is placed on the Individual, that is, on the Self. Without making it too complex, we can say that there are two types of I, one that refers to the personality, the essence of what makes us human beings, something that the Right-Hand Path seeks to eliminate, because it is the cause of suffering, pain, and evil, and there is the Higher Self, which is the future, perfect, idyllic, and deified image that every magician seeks to aspire to achieve. However, the Left-Hand Path, far believes that there is an element that we must eliminate, on the contrary, it embraces it as an essential part of the whole, that is, both parts are in harmony.
Continuing with this idea, for the Left-Hand Path, neither the earth nor the human being is a prison, we are not here to escape from anyone’s tyranny, we are here because it was our choice, we were the ones who decided as Conscious individuals who wanted to come and play our game to this reality. It was not the decision of a Tyrant God, or something similar.
So, for now, we can say that the Left-Hand Path embraces the totality of being in all its expressions, that it considers that the human being is a thinking and conscious being, so it is not a fallen being, nor made of clay, nor that he must pay with guilt or that he is incarcerated in any way.
So, the earth is not hell, there is no original sin, therefore we are here because we want to be, doing what we want to do. Ok, maybe many of you are thinking that no, that this is not so, that you are not where you want, or that you are not doing everything you want. Well, the secret of initiation lies at this point. We do an initiatory work to be able to grow as people and as magicians, to awaken consciousness (The Black Flame) the gift that the God of Consciousness gave us (Set, Lucifer, Satan, etc.) to be self-responsible for our acts, and actions, and at a certain stage to become Gods of ourselves. This means, full awareness of our acts and actions, that is, we will no longer be able to blame anyone else for what happens to us, be it divinity or man, and we will have the necessary tools to achieve changes in our reality, both internal and external. But to get to this point, there is a lot of work to do, it doesn’t come without effort.
So what about all these people who claim to be part of the Left-Hand Path and talk about the annihilation of the Ego, leaving the Wheel of Samsara, Karma, and Dharma, merging with the Primal Void when they die, and so on? Well, the answer is simple, They are not part of the Left-Hand Path, they are people who may be excellent with their magic, but who simply take the Technology of Black Magic (say as understood in the Temple of Set), but philosophically his path is that of the Right Hand. I know many people are going to be outraged by this comment, but things are as they are and must be said. This does not make these people bad, only that perhaps they do not have the necessary years on this path to understand how things work, and they are misinformed, which ends up creating more misinformation.
The choice to do this in its pure state or to pretend that you are part of something that you are not is a full decision by you and no one else. It is a choice, this is a path for very few, not for many. The Left Path does not need to use the myths or the knowledge of the Right Path to explain its work, let us not fall into explaining Satanism from Christianity, nor do we seek to worship the Gods/Devil as one who would worship a Saint, that is the problem, people change the figure but keep doing the same. Getting out of this error is your responsibility and yours alone.
If after almost 30 years traveling this beautiful philosophy I cannot stop myself from saying what I think, and fervently defend the legacy of greats such as Lavey or Aquino, because there is something I am doing wrong.
Here are some materials that in my opinion, you should read with fervor:
Lords of the Left Hand Path by Stephen Flowers.
Black Magic by Michael Aquino.
The Satanic Bible by Anton Lavey.
Everything and Nothing by Michael Kelly.
Daemon Barzai