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.
*They adhere to a specific moral code and a belief in some form of judgement, such as karma or the Threefold Law.
Esoteric groups that could be considered to be RHP include Hermeticism, Theosophy, the New Age movement as well as various Neopagan religions such as Druidry, Wicca, Kemetism, Celtic Neopaganism, Slavic Neopaganism, Germanic Neopaganism, and certain traditions of Thelema such as the Ordo Templi Orientis and the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, or the Gnostic Catholic Church. Right-Hand Path Tantra (Sanskrit: Dakshinachara) is also included. Some esotericistsalso consider the non-magical Abrahamic religions such as Christianity and Islam to be RHP, although the terms are rarely used outside of magical groups.
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 homosexual sex magic or embracing Satanic imagery. 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."
*They often question religious or moral dogma, instead adhering to forms of personal anarchism.
*They often embrace sexuality and incorporate it into magical ritual.
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 (which is organised through both the Church of Satan and the rival First Satanic Church) as well as Theistic Satanism. Other Western LHP philosophies include Luciferianism, Setianism, the Typhonian Order, Chaos Magic, Feri, and magicians who deal in demonology, as well as groups like the Dragon Rouge and the Order of Nine Angles. Several eastern philosophies could also be viewed as adhering to the LHP, including Taoism forms of Hinduism such as Aghoris and Vamachara, forms of Buddhism like Dugpas and Pantheism.
Criticism
Criticism of both terms has come from various different 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. Similar sentiments were expressed by the Wiccan High Priest John Belham-Payne, who stated that "For me, magic is magic."Adapted from the Wikipedia article Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
