3 Adoption by Western occultism

The prevalence of these terms within the New Age movement, particularly occultism and Satanism, is often attributed to the influence of Helena Blavatsky, who first used the term Left-Hand Path to describe "immoral" religions. This usage was popularized by Aleister Crowley, who maintained that his religion, Thelema, was, despite appearances, not of the Left-Hand Path. It is not known whether she borrowed these terms from Tantra or from a different source; some have suggested that she, or perhaps Crowley, borrowed the terms from the Kabbalah, which speaks of the Left Hand Pillar of Severity, the Middle Pillar of Balance, and the Right Hand Pillar of Mercy.

While this usage of the terms is still current in some occult circles, many occultists now see the Left-Hand Path as encompassing all modern occult practices, while the Right-Hand Path is considered to encompass traditional religions, such as Christianity, though most Christians would disagree with such a classification.

New religious movements which describe themselves as followers of the Left-Hand Path inverted much of the symbolism that they associate with the more "traditional" Right-Hand Path, such as the following Biblical passage:

And he shall separate them one from another,

as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

And he shall set the sheep on his right,

but the goats on his left.

— Matthew 25: 32-33

Taking a cue from this, modern followers of the Left-Hand Path in the West sometimes utilize the symbol of a goat or Baphomet, and sometimes refer to followers of Right-Hand Path religions as sheep, implying that they exhibit a " herd mentality".

4 Usage in modern occultism

Today, the terms Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path are almost exclusively used by self-proclaimed followers of the Left-Hand Path, who hold varying opinions of the Right-Hand Path; some see the two Paths as equally valid approaches to truth, whose relationship is akin to the balance between Yin and Yang, while others criticize the Right-Hand Path for being too restrictive. According to the latter view, the Right-Hand Path's imposition of formal dogmas and codes of behaviour upon an individual takes away one's ability to be truly responsible for one's own life, thereby destroying a part of one's identity. According to some, this is the main difference between the two Paths: the Left-Hand Path preserves individuality, while the Right-Hand Path destroys it. Conversely, some accuse Left-Hand Path religions of narcissism while praising the Right-Hand Path for its altruism.

Right-Hand Path religions are usually said to share the following properties:

• Belief in a higher power, such as a deity.
• Obedience to the will of the higher power.
• Esoteric belief in the existence of a supernatural mechanism, such as Karma, divine retribution, or Threefold Law, which causes the moral decisions that an individual makes to be reciprocated upon himself.
• The ultimate goal of having the individual consciousness be absorbed into a greater or cosmic whole.

Left-Hand Path religions are usually said to share the following properties:

• The belief that some people can, by attaining spiritual insight, themselves become akin to gods.
• An exoteric understanding of concepts such as karma, divine retribution, or Threefold Law, resulting in fluid, rather than strict, codes of morality.
• The belief that the individual self is preeminent, and that all decisions should be made with the goal of cultivating the self (though not the ego).
• The belief that each individual is responsible for his own happiness, and that no external force will provide salvation to reward actions which do not advance one's happiness in this life.
• The belief that the forces of the universe can be bent to one's personal will by magickal means, and that power gained in such a manner is an aid to enlightenment.
• An agnostic view of the existence of deities, or a Platonic view of deities as "first-forms."

Those who believe in the existence of this dichotomy usually classify most of the established religions of the western world, as well as such eastern traditions as Confucianism, as Right-Hand Path religions, while regarding such religions as Hinayana (and possibly some varieties of Vajrayana) Buddhism and " alchemical" (as opposed to philosophical) Taoism as members of the Left-Hand Path. Mahayana Buddhism is seen by some as a mixture of Left-Hand Path, since its ultimate goal is the attainment of enlightenment for the individual, and Right-Hand Path, since others hold its highest expression to be the enlightenment of all beings, enlightenment which is to be attained before that of the individual; the Bodhisattva vow. The virtue earned by good deeds is the means by which enlightenment may be attained. Others maintain that Mahayana is purely Right-Hand Path, at least in theory.

4.1 Left-hand path religions

---

Religions which value the spiritual advancement of the self over other goals

• Demonolatry
• Discordianism
• Dragon Rouge
• Satanism
  • Church of Satan
  • Order of Nine Angles
• Setianism also spelled Sethianism
  • Temple of Set
  • The Storm

5 Criticism

The existence of the dichotomy between the Left-Hand Path and the Right-Hand Path is not generally accepted by scholars of religion. Critics of the dichotomy argue that it is derived from a rather limited subset of the world's religions and that it fails to encompass the variety of religious beliefs and practices found throughout the world, and that the terms are too loosely defined to be of much use in formal study and too loaded with pejorative connatations to be useful in ordinary discourse between people holding different religious views. Defenders of the dichotomy reply that the terms may still be useful when it comes to examining the effect that different religions have upon their adherents.

6 External links

• An analysis of the terms by a person from the East living in the West: Left Hand Path and Right Hand Path: Defined
• A discussion of the origins of the terms: Left Hand Path
• Another, more elaborate discussion of the same: Left-hand Path?

---

Left Hand Path is also the debut album of the Swedish death metal band Entombed.

Religion

<Hide>