Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Left Hand Path vs Right Hand Path?

Options
  • 28-04-2009 1:33am
    #1
    marti8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭


    Do all Wiccans follow the so-called Right Hand Path? Would people who follow the Left Hand Path be considered and refer to themselves as Wiccan? What are your views on the Left Hand Path?


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    What do you consider to be the left hand path?
    What is your frame of reference?


  • Options
    #3
    marti8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭marti8


    Thaedydal wrote: »
    What do you consider to be the left hand path?
    What is your frame of reference?

    What do you consider it to be?


  • Options
    #4
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    You posed the question so I would rather not assume what you consider to be the left hand path, which is why I am asking about what your take on the concept is, or if you are working from a defination from somewhere.


  • Options
    #5
    tony1kenobi
    Registered Users Posts: 3,748 ✭✭✭tony1kenobi


    Isn't the left hand path all ego and self and the right hand about being a sheep?

    Did I get that wrong?

    I am left handed by the way and full to the brim with evilness.....moohahahaha....and so on.


  • Options
    #6
    marti8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭marti8


    Thaedydal wrote: »
    You posed the question so I would rather not assume what you consider to be the left hand path, which is why I am asking about what your take on the concept is, or if you are working from a defination from somewhere.

    It's ok please feel free to assume.....Yes, I asked what your views on what is referred to the left hand path are and whether those who follow it can be considered Wiccans?


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    marti8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭marti8


    tony1kenobi wrote: »
    Isn't the left hand path all ego and self and the right hand about being a sheep?

    Did I get that wrong?

    I am left handed by the way and full to the brim with evilness.....moohahahaha....and so on.

    There are Wiccan sheep? :D


  • Options
    #8
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    tony1kenobi wrote: »
    Isn't the left hand path all ego and self and the right hand about being a sheep?

    Did I get that wrong?

    Again it depends on the context and how the concept it treated.
    Anton Levay would agree with the above.
    tony1kenobi wrote: »
    I am left handed by the way and full to the brim with evilness.....moohahahaha....and so on.

    Ok very funny ha, ha ,ha and now we have had a chuckle I suggest you read the rules for posting in this forum you will find them here.


  • Options
    #9
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    marti8 have you read how Wicca is defined in the context of this forum?
    You will find that here.

    Well if you are of the opinion that sex and sacrifice are part of "the Left Handed Path" then Wicca as a fertility religion can be said to be that.


  • Options
    #10
    marti8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭marti8


    Thaedydal wrote: »
    You posed the question so I would rather not assume what you consider to be the left hand path, which is why I am asking about what your take on the concept is, or if you are working from a defination from somewhere.

    I don't have a concrete take on it. That is why I am asking what others think....Some might say the left hand path is about freedom and self development (awareness?) while others may say it is about selfishness.....


  • Options
    #11
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_hand_path

    http://hermetic.com/crowley/mwt/mwt_12.html


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    tony1kenobi
    Registered Users Posts: 3,748 ✭✭✭tony1kenobi


    Ah now can I confirm I am without evil altogether.

    Isn't it the case though that the LHP is about being the idol and the RHP about worship?

    That is my understanding of it anyway....and if that is indeed the case it is a fairly definite suggestion.

    Some people want to lead and others are happy to follow.

    I apologise for the "sheep" remark but that is the only way I could think of to contrast it.


  • Options
    #13
    marti8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭marti8


    Can I ask, have you ever heard of something called "Dragon Rouge"?


  • Options
    #14
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    Tbh some will say it is black and white and right hand path and left hand path were as tbh
    I don't see it that way at all but many shades of grey and it is the intent of the person.

    I think knowing yourself is always worth while even things which are uncomfortable.
    By knowing my desires and appetites I can manage them better then trying to ignore them.

    There are those who would say that blood magic, sex magic, and animal offerings are 'dark magic' and lefthandpath, I disagree.


    Yes I have heard of Ordo Draconis et Atri Adamantis.


  • Options
    #15
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    tony1kenobi wrote: »
    Isn't it the case though that the LHP is about being the idol and the RHP about worship?

    That is my understanding of it anyway....and if that is indeed the case it is a fairly definite suggestion.

    The difference between serving deity and becoming deity.
    That is one way of separating the philosophies.


  • Options
    #16
    marti8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭marti8


    Thaedydal wrote: »
    Tbh some will say it is black and white and right hand path and left hand path were as tbh
    I don't see it that way at all but many shades of grey and it is the intent of the person.

    I think knowing yourself is always worth while even things which are uncomfortable.
    By knowing my desires and appetites I can manage them better then trying to ignore them.

    There are those who would say that blood magic, sex magic, and animal offerings are 'dark magic' and lefthandpath, I disagree.


    Yes I have heard of Ordo Draconis et Atri Adamantis.


    I think the shades of grey part is probably correct. How would you personally differentiate between wicca/withcraft and the occult, or would they be to your belief system one and the same? I have long had an interest in the occult, dabbled once or twice with strange results, I probably shouldn't have as I didn't have a clue what I was doing.


  • Options
    #17
    Nevyn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 43,045 ✭✭✭✭Nevyn


    marti8 wrote: »
    I think the shades of grey part is probably correct. How would you personally differentiate between wicca/withcraft and the occult, or would they be to your belief system one and the same?

    Occult just means hidden knowledge, that which is not common knowledge.
    Witchcraft practices are seen as being occult by that definition.
    Wicca is a religion who's initiated priesthood uses witchcraft practices.

    That would be how I would define them.
    There are many practices which are occult which are not witchcraft.
    marti8 wrote: »
    I have long had an interest in the occult, dabbled once or twice with strange results,

    That tends to happen.
    marti8 wrote: »
    I probably shouldn't have as I didn't have a clue what I was doing.

    I think most people who have an interest will have stuck their hand in the fire at some stage and then look back and wondered how they didn't burn.


  • Options
    #18
    marti8
    Closed Accounts Posts: 909 ✭✭✭marti8


    Thaedydal wrote: »



    I think most people who have an interest will have stuck their hand in the fire at some stage and then look back and wondered how they didn't burn.

    I found tanning oil helped....:) Met someone a few years ago who knew a lot, or at least seemed to, about the occult. She practised magick amongst other things. Have you ever heard about something called "Islamic Magick" or something? Anyway, she said I had protection around me, maybe, well, I hope so...lol But she also said I had something either "stuck" onto me or following me (can't recall, the former I think) According to her she removed it (but said it could come back) Also said that there was something "in" me (not literally in me!....can't recall exact word she used) and she couldn't figure out how it got there, she seemed rather excited. I asked her to explain, was it "good", was it "bad" (highly subjective terms of course).....but she never would. Now of course I keep an openmind.

    From what I can recall she followed what would generally be accepted as being the left hand path, since then (and probably even before that tbh) my interest has been peaked.


  • Options
    #19
    triseke
    Registered Users Posts: 875 ✭✭✭triseke


    i must agree with the previous poster that said that everything is shades of grey and not just black and white. Definitions of good and bad can become very shaky.


  • Options
    #20
    Hivemind187
    Registered Users Posts: 5,021 ✭✭✭Hivemind187


    Thaedydal wrote: »
    Again it depends on the context and how the concept it treated.
    Anton Levay would agree with the above.

    He probably wouldnt having been dead since about 1998 ... ;)

    But yeah, as a metaphor thats pretty much it from the LeVayan perspective. anton used the term "left hand path" a lot (almost too much) to separate his system of deliberate psychodrama from what he viewed as being the self-deception of the standard faiths (in which he included many so-called LHP groups such as Wiccans, Gardinarians etc).

    The concept of "evil" and the left hand being the opposite of the abrahamic style religions is not entirely correct. The Satanist is not going to be out drinking virgin blood and murdering the unborn etc (well, most of them arent) simply because it would be antithetical to the christian position, instead he/she seeks to indulge in the forbidden things such as carnality, glutonny and wrath as a means of keeping such urges within a respectable level of control rather than attempting to bannish them by supression.

    So, I dunno. If the OP is asking is there a specific set of criteria for being LHP then I guess the shades of grey covers it, however if you have already preconceived attributes for your archetypal LHP which would consist of indulging in the kinds of "sins" etc normally prohibited by western religion then the closest thing would be a satanist - though perhaps not in the way you expect.


Advertisement