LHP and RHP - Further Notes on Western Ideas of These Paths

by Kaiden Fox

First of all, this must be understood: All living things have a Black Flame, they flow with it if they are not klippothic, i.e., if they have not battled it and themselves their entire lives. But living things are generally more unaware of it than they are of their arms or legs when they are not using their arms or legs. E.g., when you are sitting quietly, watching TV or something else relaxing, you are not "aware" of your legs - and walking is so as-given that people are also usually not aware of their legs unless they trip. When Knowledge of this Inner type comes; that flash of KNOWING or SIGHT, then the person is aware of his own Black Flame. Whether or not he knows what it is - is another matter - but he is definitely aware of SOMETHING that is there and this would be the only first step to the Knowledge or Sight of the rest of what is known as the 5 Dharmas - or the Five Principles on our pentagram. The doctrines of the Dark Tradition are all about that Something, defining the Five Principles and every other aspect of this Dark Something.

The best way I've heard LHP/RHP explained is that anytime you give something a name, it becomes Right-Hand, because now it is in the realm of communication, the realm of the symbolic, and the realm of the outer. It is as the traditional systems would have it: the Knowledge is Dark, it's Wisdom. But the labeling of it is like the Word, the Logos - obviously Light. Right-Hand path activity is in the realm of "change the world" or even "study the world." Left-Hand knowledge is something that seems to come from no source. One day, you might simply go from not-knowing, even if you cerebrally or analytically know it, to Knowing.

I do not seek to destroy the Right-Hand Path or its ways and means. Knowlwedge, communication, the wisdom of our elders, all of these things are fine and valuable. I do not see the Left and Right Hand Paths as being opposed because in the true sense, they are not opposed, despite what millions on false paths might think. After all, the person who told me what the Left-Hand Path is -told- me. She doesn't normally use language, but she can. The actual Knowingness of the Left-Hand Path is completely inner and, therefore, presymbolic. Only when it needs to be communicated does it enter the realm of symbol. Those people who are fully integrated do not need to give words to their Knowing. They simply Know, wordlessly, and they might not choose to communicate a thing about it. I have chosen to revolutionize the world, or at least communite Ideas to those that sincerely wish to know this. This is, of course, a very Right-Hand Path deed to do.

The key to happiness isn't to avoid being Right-Hand Path, or to shun the light. It is to acknowledge the proper place of the Right-Hand Path in its dependence for existence to the Wisdom of the Left, and to acknowledge the proper place of Yang as the hand which reaches forth on behalf of Yin. This is also not a case of superiority/inferiority as deluded people falsely think.

Some may misunderstand and think I speak of LHP Knowledge as if it comes from another world. Obviously, they never had the experiences! Some may insist that Knowledge, all of it, is handed down from past experiences and work ethic and a good portion of trial and error. (Tell that to Ramanajuan.) Some say that if we were going to talk about knowledge in the aspect of the "Self" or greater "I" and get into a mystic realm then we'd be bordering on Spirtual escapades which are associated with the RHP. In fact, such behavior would correctly be a FALSE RHP. Though these who misunderstand this agree that it is very important to have "Self Realization" and reach the "Man God" status, we tend to see all this "Man God" rhetoric as hopelessly LaVayan - and we wholly reject this. This is a misunderstanding of the words I'm using to try to convey something ELSE. Being aware, as such, that you are an isolated whole Self with a Black Flame burning within you, even being aware of just what this Flame is, has nothing to do with "Man God" ideas.

When I talk about Wisdom, I am speaking of something that, although infused into humanity, is not something uniquely human, but in fact a Principle. The thing about Principles is that they are TRANSCENDANT in that, although they are part of this universe, even inside of beings that live in the universe like us, they are not matter, not energy, and not dependant on the Big Bang. Wisdom exists simply because it chooses to, or as the Eastern Doctrines state "out of Necessity." Although the basic foundational statement of all true LHP is that "all things are knowable through the flesh," it has to be understood also that not all that is known is fleshly. It is very difficult for me to communicate concepts that are as alien to me as Theurgy. The Right-Hand Path seems mystical because it is based on Faith. That is, most RHP is based on the Knowledge imparted to them by LHP people , in attempts to impart it using WORDS. That is, people try to impart this Knowledge - TO others who simply believe them on Faith! All of it is this, unless, of course, it's a money making scam which we are not talking about here. But even such things as scams prove the fallability of Faith and give testament to the amount of gullible people in the world that believe because they WANT to believe - believe anything!

The scenario one imagines is that a Guru, or a person seeking Knowledge, has an Awakening (Left-Hand Path) which changes his whole life (Yin). He then goes and tells people who, on account of his charisma (Yang), decide to create a religion around him (Right-Hand Path) or around what he said (RHP) while not having had this awakening themselves. At the core of every religion is a Mystical subgroup. In Buddhism, we have Tantra. In Islam, we have Sufism. In Hinduism we have Vedanta. In Christianity, we have something nameless, but it's there.. In Platonism and Pythagoreanism we have the Mathematikoi. In Satanism, we have the Dark Doctrines people. Some of these people, such as Ole Wolf and Philip Marsh, have sought to FIND what scientific knowledge there is out there that would back up these things, such as neurological modern testing to show just what is going on when these "flash knowledges" happen. No one can doubt that Ramanajuan gave us empirical mathematical equasions, provable math, not platitudes or ethics or morals or idealism. Namagiri TOLD him the answers by showing him. What is Namagiri? It's Ramanajuan's ethnic group's name for an aspect of the SAT. The ToS might call that Set. Ramanajuan was also trained enough (RHP), or smart enough (inborn), to be able to remember and understand what he was being shown by Namagiri (LHP). Anyone else with lesser training or memory would have had to try to remember it, perhaps interpret it wrongly, remember it in bits mingled with cultural human constructions, or put some cultural context on it or make "sayings" out of it.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the Mystical, until it is grasped wrongly by those who cannot understand it. Those people then turn it into a religion. That's WHY groups stay secret, or why 90% of LHP practitioners stayed solitary in history.

The best and most well known example of the difference between a radical Right and radical Left approach is in the comparison of The Way. Two examples. Jesus said, "I am THE WAY, the truth, and the light." But Lao Tze said, "THE WAY that can be DEFINED is NOT THE TRUE WAY." Lao Tze is a Lylythian Saint (Patron Saint of the Left-Hand Path, in fact). Jesus is, in the words of my mother, "a distraction."

I suppose another living example of this would be in the Left vs Right methods of prayer. The Right Hand Path would be a mixture of praise and requests, or doing things to appeace some outside Powerful Deity. Either way, the person is talking, talking, talking at the Divine, praising or asking or otherwise ranting and rambling, usually with some anthropomorphic image in their minds that is a cultural icon. The Left-Hand Path method of what loosely passes as prayer, is to completely silence the mind and listen with inner ears. The Left-Hand Path assumes that whatever you want to commune with already has a good idea what you want because you are part of It, and It is part of you.

Some might STILL misunderstand these words and think that I'm defining a LHP based on an outside force for recognition and granting, and not basing it on the individual fullfilling his/her own wishes. Many might assume this by my choice of words "Commune With." In which case I have to use this analogy: "commune with nature" usually means doing something on a solitary level, not talking to trees or dirt. The person gets quiet within and becomes aware of things, sounds, smells that he/she is normally oblivious of. That is "communing with nature." It has something to do with immersion of one's self IN nature, becoming aware of things that are generally outside of the concrete city with all its mechanical noises. The word "commune" is easily misunderstood.

Some might counter that by insisting that what isn't defined by perception does not exist within the being to "acknowledge" it, thus it is irrevelant. I can counter that by simply saying that no one goes around "noticing" or "acknowledging" his/her atoms. People didn't even know what atoms were a short time ago, yet people existed and people are, in fact, atomic matter - their noticing or acknowledging these atoms didn't bear on their existence at all. People still don't notice or acknowledge their atoms. Atom BOMBS, however, very much exist and are definitely noticed by all.

One might also say, since we are bordering on Mysticism here, everything percieved is all an illusion and nothing really exists, which might not seem like a Satanic ideal here. Ideal? Idealism is not the same as Realism. Also, this is not the case at all. True LHP systems CLAIM that all is Samsaric (illusory, fleeting) and by that they mean that there IS Being, and there IS Non-Being - these are absolutes. But all we can ever dwell in or understand or see or know is Becoming, which is a fleeting moment that is past as soon as it is the now. We can never know the "thing in itself" because we provably change it by merely observing it. This is a fact - not mysticism. This is Realism, not Idealism.

Consider "The Republic," by Plato. Remember, everything perceived is an illusion. You do not see a thing-in-itself, but e.g., rather a grouping of photons bouncing off the thing, whatever it is. But even that is a surface and easily proven analogy, just a provable example about not ever being able to see the "thing in itself." Also, phonons are much more true-to-reality, but very few people have bat-like or dolphin-like hearing. There is a line of poetry that the Temple lifted for it's generic destruction ritual:

Envision the bottom V of our pentacle. The first top left point Shadow is Azazel (Birth/Innocence - the newborn being with inchoat mind and who has ONLY the Black Flame brimming within his/her being). The second top right point shadow is Samael (Death/dissolution of the living being that is containing that Black Flame). Life exists between these shadows, a Flame of Light existing within the Boundless Darkness; the Becoming Black Flame that exists between Being and Non-Being. Fear is the point at which the Angles (V) of Samael and Azazel intersect, the bottom point of the Pentagram. It is a part of the totality of the Dark and it is the End of Light. When Light attempts to extinguish itself (exoterically, when a person stops being what/who they are in favor of some game of "pretend"), Ophion is called into the lives of beings that do this, into their very Beings, and this consumes their Flame! They invite Fear into themselves. They live IN fear - and that is not living, it disenables Becoming of the individual, isolate true Self. (We acknowledge that fear is a great incentive for human societies (groups) to develop weapons - to destroy others, weapons of mass destruction - and we note that Ophion is a destroyer).

We can never know Being or Non-Being. ALL we can ever know is Becoming - and in a universe that contains all things that are constantly Becoming, there is no stasis. There is ONLY Becoming as far as we can ever experience through the flesh. Essentially therefore, what I am saying is that our perception of this world is an illusion, because human senses were meant for animal survival. Another example: If we understood that walls are not solid, we might hurt ourselves trying to walk through what is almost entirely empty space. There is an order of existence beyond the mundame. Yes, it makes no sense to wander through it blindly, as many Right-Hand Path people attempt to do. They simply believe what is told to them because they cannot see it or Know it for themselves. Then, there are those who deny the existence of of all of what is contained in this LHP Knowledge. While this is a far more useful or practical perspective to have (in fact, that is a very LaVeyan perspective!), it is also essentially incorrect.

I have no problem being labled a mystic, because I find pleasure in knowing certain things that I know. I find no reason to lie.

Some think that the word "Magic" is just a catchy word to make things into a mystery of sorts. They think that Magic is nothing more then "Will Power" and the act of energy flow being caste to your desire. This is the idea of many people into Satanism, though some grant that others are free to believe in some sort of exterior spirts or demons etc...

Again, this is a misunderstanding of things that might not even be possible to explain. I will bring up Ramanajuan again. What his "spirit/demon/manifestation created by his own ego of the SAT itself" told him, which he told us, happens to be provable, empirical mathematics. Not platitudes, morals, or ethical ideas or ideals. Empirical math. Ramanajuan is acknowledge by professors and the entire field of mathematics to have been the greatest 20th century mathemetician. But who - or what - is Namagiri? See above, I already told the reader.

The Temple took the shortcut and split magic into two large branches: Theurgy and Thaumaturgy. Thaumaturgy involves anything that relies on the four "Terrestial Circuits" of perception/cognition. (See the works of Robert Anton Wilson for further detail on the circuits, or refer to my essay on Epistemelogy). Theurgy involves the "Extraterristial Circuits." When one KNOWS something without having to him/herself figure it out, that's an act of Theurgic Divination. I came to understand, after trying to put pieces together but really not FATHOMING what I was trying to do, WHY "Wisdom" is a Goddess in the Judiac Mystery Tradition. It is difficult for me to communicate this. For some reason, I just went from a scholar, looking and cataloging but not really UNDERSTANDING, to being someone who is actually IN the Judaic Mystery Tradition (which is a Western Tradition). As I learned in college, it's a real experience that others who had it can recognize. People who have had an Awakening have something about them that others recognize. I'm not superhuman by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not really all that different from whta I was before, but now I have a greater capacity for Understanding.

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