Can you become a God? Is shifting belief systems at will a set of beliefs in itself? Let’s find out more about the Left-Hand Path.

Hello everyone! I am Angela and welcome back to my channel, your online resource for the academic study of magic and magic practising traditions.

Today we will talk about the left-hand path, what it is, and what defines it. This video will serve as well as a future reference as I will be making videos on specific traditions which fall under the umbrella of the left-hand path.

First off, it is important to say that the adoption of this label dates back to the 19th century when Western reinterpretations of Indian traditions, especially Tantra began to spread. Although in Tantric texts, depending on the tradition, we find seven or even more paths listed. The idea of splitting the esoteric path in two eventually emerged. The two labels referring to the left-hand path and the right-hand path come from Sanskrit where we find Vāmācāra or Vāmāmārga which means left-hand attainment or left path as opposed to Dakshinācāra or Dakshināmārga which means right-hand attainment or right path. Such a dichotomy may have taken root among occult communities thanks to the already-existing dualism between black and white magic. Also, notions of left and right were already part of the occult theoretical framework – possibly based on biblical tradition.

Helena Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society popularized their association with Indian and Tantric traditions.

But what are the traits of the traditions which followed the left-hand path? As highlighted in the reference academic literature, four principles are found across the various left-hand traditions.

The first one is the ideology of individualism. The individual here becomes the centre of his or her existential universe. The occult practitioner of the left-hand path is mostly concerned with personal magical and spiritual development; even when practising in groups, self-realisation remains the practice’s driving aim.

The second principle is the goal of self-deification. For someone who follows a left-hand path, the main goal is to become a God – be the creator of their own universe; this is an element found across Tantric traditions and endorsed by left-hand occultists in the West as well. In this sense, even when a practitioner works with a deity, a demon, or a spirit – is not worship in a monotheistic sense but a relationship established with the aim of a progressive self-ascension in some cases to embody the very nature of the deity. It’s also important to stress that how self-deification is intended may vary, even significantly, depending on the individual and the left-hand tradition followed.

The third principle is the appraisal of life in the here-and-now left-hand paths tend to focus on the corporeal existence in the present rather than in an afterlife. All aspects of life are valued, including the destructive ones and various degrees of hedonism i.e. the pursuit of pleasure is advocated.

The fourth and last principle is antinomianism which means the rejection of social and cultural norms. As Granholm highlights, collective religious and cultural norms as well as personal taboos are questioned and defied in the pursuit of individualised ethics and spiritual evolution. In these traditions, there are often intellectual and ritual exercises to break the rules and boundaries created by the dominant culture or religion. The main idea here is to demolish all rules, taboos, and ethical norms created by the outside world in order to develop new ones, which are personally individualized and most importantly, founded on conscious reflection rather than passive compliance.

And there you have it. These are the four core features, traits, or principles as reported in the literature on left-hand path traditions. In future videos, we will be covering traditions falling under this umbrella in more detail.

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REFERENCES

Granholm, K. (2014) Dark Enlightenment: The Historical, Sociological, and Discursive Contexts of Contemporary Esoteric Magic, BRILL.

Petersen, J. A. (2016) Contemporary Religious Satanism: A Critical Anthology, Routledge.

Woodman, J. (2003) ‘Modernity, selfhood, and the demonic : anthropological perspectives on “Chaos magick” in the United Kingdom’, Ph.D., Goldsmiths, University of London [Online]. DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.00028683 (Accessed 23 June 2020).

Sutcliffe, R. 1996. ‘Left Hand Path Ritual Magic’, in C. Hardman and G. Harvey (Eds.), Pagan Pathways, pp. 109-37