Left-Hand Path and

Right-Hand Path
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The terms LeftHand Path and

Right-Hand
Path are a
dichotomy
between two
opposing
philosophies
found in the
Western
Esoteric
Tradition,
which itself
covers various
groups involved
in the occult
and ceremonial
magic. In some
definitions, the
Left-Hand Path
is equated with

The Baphomet, from Eliphas Levi's

"Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie",
1854, adopted symbol of some "LeftHand Path" belief systems.

malicious Black
Magic and the Right-Hand Path with beneficial White
Magic.[1] Other occultists have criticised this
definition, believing that the Left-Right dichotomy
refers merely to different kinds of working, and does
not necessarily connote good or bad magical actions.[2]
In more recent definitions, which base themselves on
the terms' origins amongst Indian Tantra, the RightHand Path, or RHP, is seen as a definition for those
magical groups which follow specific ethical codes
and adopt social convention, while the Left-Hand Path
adopts the opposite attitude, espousing the breaking of
taboo and the abandoning of set morality. Some
contemporary occultists have stressed that both paths
can be followed by a magical practitioner, as
essentially they have the same goals.

Contents
1 Terminology
1.1 The Right-Hand Path
1.2 The Left-Hand Path
1.3 Criticism
2 History of the terms

2.1 Vamachara
2.2 Tantra and Madame
Blavatsky
2.3 Adoption into the western
esoteric tradition
2.4 Later 20th and 21st
centuries
3 Usage in Tantra
3.1 Left-Hand Path relation to
Tantra in Hinduism
3.2 Left-Hand Path relation to
Tantra in Buddhism
4 See also
5 References
6 Bibliography
7 External links

Terminology
There is no set accepted definition of what comprises
the Left-Hand Path and what comprises the Right.
Early proponents of the terms, such as Madame
Blavatsky, believed that they were essentially
conflatable with Black Magic and White, although this
has been criticised by later occultists as being overly

simplistic.

The Right-Hand Path

The Right-Hand Path is commonly thought to refer to
magical or religious groups which adhere to a certain
set of characteristics:
They adhere to social conventions and avoid
taboos.
They divide the concepts of mind, body and
spirit into three separate, albeit interrelated
entities.[3]
They adhere to a specific moral code and a
belief in some form of judgement, such as
karma or the Threefold Law.[3]
Esoteric groups that could be considered to be RHP
include Theosophy, as well as various Neopagan
religions such as Druidry, Wicca, Kemetism, Celtic
Neopaganism, Slavic Neopaganism, Germanic
Neopaganism, Nova Roma, Hellenic Neopaganism, the
Rada cult of Haitian Vodou, most of Thelema, and
certain traditions of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, or
the Gnostic Catholic Church. Right-Hand Path Tantra
(Sanskrit: Dakshinachara) is also included. The
occultists Dion Fortune[4] and William G. Gray[5]

consider non-magical Abrahamic religions to be RHP,

although the term is rarely used outside of magical
societies such as Fraternity of the Inner Light and Ordo
Templi Orientis. Other RHP traditions include most of
Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto, and all other
Dharmic religions.

The Left-Hand Path

The historian Dave Evans studied self-professed
followers of the Left-Hand Path in the early 21st
century, making several observations about their
practices:
They often reject societal convention and the
status quo, which some suggest is in a search
for spiritual freedom. As a part of this, LHP
followers embrace magical techniques that
would traditionally be viewed as taboo, for
instance using sex magic or embracing
Satanic imagery.[6] As Mogg Morgan wrote,
the "breaking of taboos makes magick more
potent and can lead to reintegration and
liberation, [for example] the eating of meat
in a vegetarian community can have the
same liberating effect as anal intercourse in a
sexually inhibited straight society."[7]

They often question religious or moral

dogma, instead adhering to forms of
personal anarchism.[8]
They often embrace sexuality and
incorporate it into magical ritual.[9]
Under these definitions, various esoteric groups, often
with widely differing beliefs, could be considered to be
followers of the LHP. These include various forms of
Satanism, such as LaVeyan Satanism as well as
Theistic Satanism. Other Western LHP philosophies
include Setianism, the Typhonian Order,
Luciferianism, many beliefs of the New Age
movement, Chaos Magic, Feri, magicians involved
with demonology, as well as groups like the Dragon
Rouge and the Order of Nine Angles. The Petwo cult
of Haitian Vodou reflects the LHP ethos. Several
eastern philosophies could also be viewed as adhering
to the LHP including forms of Taoism, forms of
Hinduism such as Aghoris and Vamachara, forms of
Buddhism like the Drukpa Lineage and Bn.

Criticism
Criticism of both terms has come from various
occultists. The Magistar of the Cultus Sabbati, Andrew
Chumbley, stated that they were simply "theoretical

constructs" that were "without definitive objectivity",

and that nonetheless, both forms could be employed by
the magician - he used the analogy of a person having
two hands, a right and a left, both of which served the
same master.[10] Similar sentiments were expressed by
the Wiccan High Priest John Belham-Payne, who
stated that "For me, magic is magic."[11]

History of the terms

Vamachara
Main article: Vamachara
V!m!c!ra (pronounced: v!m!ch!ra) is a Sanskrit term
meaning "left-handed attainment" and is synonymous
with "Left-Hand Path" or "Left-path" (Sanskrit:
V!mam!rga).[12][13][14] It is used to describe a
particular mode of worship or 'spiritual practice'
(Sanskrit: sadhana) that are not only 'heterodox'
(Sanskrit: N!stika) to standard Vedic injunction, but
extreme in comparison to the status quo. These
practices are often generally considered to be Tantric
in orientation. The converse term to Vamacara is
Dakshinachara (Sanskrit) (glossed 'Right-Hand Path')
which is used to refer not only to 'orthodox' (Sanskrit:

!stika) sects but to modes of spirituality that engage in

spiritual practices that not only accord with Vedic
injunction but are generally agreeable to the status
quo. That said, left-handed and right-handed modes of
practice may be evident in both orthodox and
heterodox schools of Dharmic Traditions such as
Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism and is a
matter of taste, culture, proclivity, initiation, sadhana
and Dharmic 'lineage' (Sanskrit: parampara).

Tantra and Madame Blavatsky

The occidental use of the terms Left-Hand Path and
Right Hand-Path originated with Madame Blavatsky, a
19th century occultist who founded Theosophy. She
had travelled across parts of southern Asia and claimed
to have met with many mystics and magical
practitioners in India and Tibet. She developed the
term Left-Hand Path as a translation of the term Vamamarga, an Indian Tantric practice that emphasised the
breaking of Hindu societal taboos by having sexual
intercourse in ritual, drinking alcohol, eating meat and
assembling in graveyards, as a part of the spiritual
practice. The term Vama-marga literally meant "the
left-hand way" in Sanskrit, and it was from this that
Blavatsky first coined the term.[15]

Returning to Europe, Blavatsky began using the term.

It was relatively easy for her to associate left with evil
in many European countries, where it already had an
association with many negative things; as the historian
Dave Evans noted, homosexuals were referred to as
"left-handed" whilst in Protestant nations, Roman
Catholics were called "left-footers".[16] This
association with negative aspects of society can be
traced back to the Bible, in which it states:
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

Adoption into the western esoteric tradition

In New York Madame Blavatsky founded the
Theosophical Society with several other people in
1875. She set about writing several books, including
Isis Unveiled (1877) in which she introduced the terms
Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path, firmly stating
that she herself followed the RHP, and that followers
of the LHP were practitioners of Black Magic who
were a threat to society. Soon, certain other occultists
soon picked up on her newly introduced duality,

which, according to historian Dave Evans, "had not

been known before" in the Western Esoteric
Tradition.[17] For instance, Dion Fortune, the founder
of the esoteric magical group, the Society of the Inner
Light also took the side of the RHP, making the claim
that "black magicians", or followers of the LHP, were
homosexuals and that Indian servants might use
malicious magical rites devoted to the goddess Kali
against their European masters.[18]
Aleister Crowley further altered and popularized the
term in certain occult circles, referring to a "Brother of
the Left-Hand Path," or a "Black Brother," as one who
failed to attain the grade of Magister Templi in
Crowley's system of ceremonial magic.[19] Crowley
also referred to the Left-Hand Path when describing
the point at which the Adeptus Exemptus (such as his
old Christian mentor, Macgregor Mathers) chooses to
cross the Abyss, which is the location of Choronzon
and the illusory eleventh Sephira, which is Da'ath or
Knowledge. In this example, the adept must surrender
all, including the guidance of his Holy Guardian
Angel, and leap into the Abyss. If his accumulated
Karma is sufficient, and if he has been utterly thorough
in his own self-destruction, he becomes a "babe of the
abyss," arising as a Star in the Crowleyan system. On
the other hand, if he retains some fragment of ego, or if

he fears to cross, he then becomes encysted. The layers

of his self, which he could have shed in the Abyss,
ossify around him. He is then titled a "Brother of the
Left-Hand Path," who will eventually be broken up and
disintegrated against his will, since he failed to choose
voluntary disintegration.[19] Crowley associated all this
with "Mary, a blasphemy against BABALON," and
with the celibacy of Christian clergy.[19]
Another of those figures that Fortune considered to be
a follower of the LHP was Arthur Edward Waite, who
did not recognise these terms, and acknowledged that
they were newly introduced and that in any case he
believed the terms LHP and RHP to be distinct from
Black and White Magic.[20] However, despite Waite's
attempts to distinguish the two, the equation of the
LHP with Black Magic was propagated more widely in
the fiction of Dennis Wheatley, Wheatley also
conflated the two with Satanism and also the political
ideology of communism, which he viewed as a threat
to traditional British society.[21] In one of his novels,
Strange Conflict (1941), he stated that:
The Order of the Left-Hand Path...
has its adepts... the Way of Darkness
is perpetuated in the horrible Voodoo

cult which had its origins in

Madagascar and has held Africa, the
Dark Continent, in its grip for
centuries.[22]

Later 20th and 21st centuries

In the latter half of the 20th century various groups
arose that self-professedly described themselves as
LHP, but did not consider themselves as following
Black Magic. In 1975, Cults of the Shadow was
published, in which the books' author, Kenneth Grant,
a student of Aleister Crowley's, explained how he and
his group, the Typhonian Order, practiced the LHP.
Grant took the term back to its roots amongst eastern
Tantra, stating that it was about challenging taboos, but
that it should be used in conjunction with the RHP to
achieve balance.[23]
When Anton Szandor LaVey was developing his form
of LaVeyan Satanism during the 1960s, he emphasised
the rejection of traditional Christian morality and as
such labelled his new philosophy to be a form of the
Left-Hand Path. In his The Satanic Bible, he wrote that
"Satanism is not a white light religion; it is a religion of
the flesh, the mundane, the carnal - all of which are

ruled by Satan, the personification of the Left Hand

Path".[24]

Usage in Tantra
Tantra is a set of esoteric Indian traditions with roots in
Hinduism and later Buddhism (an outgrowth Dharmic
tradition). Tantra is often divided by its practitioners
into two different paths: dakshinachara and
vamachara, translated as Right-Hand Path and LeftHand Path respectively. Dakshinachara consists of
traditional Hindu practices such as asceticism and
meditation, while vamachara also includes ritual
practices that conflict with mainstream Hinduism, such
as sexual rituals, consumption of alcohol and other
intoxicants, animal sacrifice, and flesh-eating. The two
paths are viewed by Tantrists as equally valid
approaches to enlightenment. Vamachara, however, is
considered to be the faster and more dangerous of the
two paths, and is not suitable for all practitioners. The
usage of the terms Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand
Path is still current in modern Indian and Buddhist
Tantra.

Left-Hand Path relation to Tantra in

Hinduism

The difference between the right hand path and the left
hand path is eloquently explained by Julius Evola in
the book The Yoga of Power:
"There is a significant difference between
the two Tantric paths, that of the right
hand and that of the left hand (which both
are under Shiva's aegis). In the former, the
adept always experiences 'someone above
him', even at the highest level of
realization. In the latter, 'he becomes the
ultimate Sovereign' (chakravartin =
worldruler)." [25]

Left-Hand Path relation to Tantra in

Buddhism
Robert Ber's Encyclopedia of Tibetan symbols and
motifs clarifies widespread taboos and deprecation
which associate the left hand as dark, female, inferior
and 'not right':
"In Buddhist tantra, the right hand
symbolises the male aspect of compassion
or skilful means, and the left hand
represents the female aspect of wisdom or
emptiness. Ritual hand-held attributes,

such as the vajra and bell, vajra and lotus,

damaru and bell, damaru and khatvanga,
arrow and bow, curved knife and skullcup, sword and shield, hook and rope
snare, etc., placed in the right and left
hands respectively, symbolise the union of
the active male aspect of skilful means
with the contemplative female aspect of
wisdom.
In both Hinduism and Buddhism the
goddess is always placed on the left side of
the male deity, where she 'sits on his left
thigh, while her lord places his left arm
over her left shoulder and dallies with her
left breast'.
In representations of the Buddha image,
the right hand often makes an active
mudra of skilful means - the earthtouching, protection, fearlessness, wishgranting or teaching mudra; whilst the left
hand often remains in the passive mudra of
meditative equipoise, resting in the lap and
symbolising meditation on emptiness or
wisdom." [26]
Ber's preceding explanations correspond to Yab-Yum

(father-mother) symbolism and contemplation on or

practice of sexual rituals associated with Vajrayogini
and Anuttarayoga Tantra. Yab-yum is generally
understood to represent the primordial (or mystical)
union of wisdom and compassion. The metaphorical
union of bliss and emptiness is commonly represented
within Thangka paintings of the Cakrasa!vara Tantra
depicting the sexual union of the deity Sa!vara and
his consort Dorje Pakmo.

See also
Aghori
Charnel ground
Kapalika
Kaula

References
1. ^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Page 152.
2. ^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Page 176.
3. ^ a b Hine, Phil, quoted in Evans, Dave (2007). The
History of British Magick after Crowley. Hidden
Publishing. Page 204.
4. ^ Fortune, Dion; "The Mystical Qabalah", Aquarian

5.

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

11.

12.
13.

14.

15.

Press, 1987, ISBN 0-85030-335-4

^ Gray, William; "Exorcising The Tree of Evil: How
To Use The Symbolism Of The Qabalistic Tree of
Life To Recognise And Reverse Negative Energy",
[Helios/Weisers/Kima Global], 1974/1984/2002,
(originally The Tree of Evil)
^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Page 197.
^ Shual. Sexual Magick. Page 31.
^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Page 198.
^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Page 205.
^ Chumbley, Andrew, quoted in Evans, Dave (2007).
The History of British Magick after Crowley. Hidden
Publishing. Page 212-213.
^ Chumbley, Andrew, quoted in Evans, Dave (2007).
The History of British Magick after Crowley. Hidden
Publishing. Page 214.
^ Bhattacharya, N. N. History of the Tantric Religion
pp. 81, 447. (1999) ISBN 81-7304-025-7
^ Kaal Ugranand Saraswati differentiating
traditional Vamamarga from conceptions of the
word vamamarga
(http://www.kapalika.com/qanda.html#4)
^ Tantra, Vamamarga (The Left Handed Path:
(http://www.ecstaticawareness.com/id13.html) Kaula
sadhana)
^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick

16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.

after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Page 178.

^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Page 177.
^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Page 181-182.
^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Pages 183184.
^ a b c Magick Without Tears
(http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/mwt/mwt_12.html)
^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Pages 182183.
^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Pages 189190.
^ Wheatley, Dennis (1941). Strange Conflict.
^ Evans, Dave (2007). The History of British Magick
after Crowley. Hidden Publishing. Page 193.
^ LaVey, Anton Szandor. The Satanic Bible. The
Book of Lucifer 3: paragraph 30.
^ Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola. The Yoga of
Power: Tantra, Shakti, and the Secret Way (1949)
^ Ber, Robert; "The encyclopedia of Tibetan symbols
and motifs", Serindia Publications, Inc., 2004

Bibliography
Crowley, Aleister (1991). Magick Without
Tears. New Falcon Publications. ISBN 156184-018-1.

Flowers, Stephen (1997). Lords of the Left

Hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent.
Runa Raven Press. ISBN 1-885972-08-3.
Sutcliffe, Richard J. (1996). "Left-Hand Path
Ritual Magick: An Historical and
Philosophical Overview," in G. Harvey & C.
Hardman (eds.), Paganism Today, pp. 109
37. London: Thorsons/HarperCollins.
ISBN 0-7225-3233-4.
Svoboda, Robert E. (1986). AGHORA, At the
Left Hand of God. Brotherhood of Life.
ISBN 0-914732-21-8.
Webb, Don; Stephen E. Flowers (1999).
Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left
Hand Path. Runa Raven Pr.
ISBN 1885972105.
Evola, Julius (1993). The Yoga of Power:
Tantra, Shakti, and the Secret Way. Inner
Traditions. ISBN 0892813687.

External links
A discussion of the origins of the terms: Left
Hand Path
(http://www.dpjs.co.uk/lefthandpath.html)
Aleister Crowley: Magick Without Tears
Chapter XII: The Left-Hand Path "The

Black Brothers"
(http://hermetic.com/crowley/magickwithout-tears/mwt_12.html)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeftHand_Path_and_Right-Hand_Path"
Categories: Left-Hand Path | Satanism | Dichotomies
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