InWestern esotericism,left-hand path andright-hand path are two opposing approaches tomagic. Various groups engaged with theoccult andceremonial magic use the terminology to establish a dichotomy, broadly simplified as (malicious)black magic on the left and (benevolent)white magic on the right.[1] Others approach the left/right paths as different kinds of workings, without connotations ofgood or evil magical actions.[2] Still others treat the paths as fundamental schemes, connected with external divinities on the right, contrasted withself-deification on the left.
The terms have their origins intantra: the right-hand path (RHP, ordakṣiṇācāra) applied to magical or spiritual groups that follow specific ethical codes and adoptsocial convention, while the left-hand path (LHP, orvāmācāra) adopts the opposite attitude, breakingtaboos and abandoning setmorality in order to practice and embraceheterodox practices.
The right-hand path is commonly thought to refer to magical or religious groups which adhere to a certain set of characteristics:
The occultistDion Fortune consideredAbrahamic religions to be RHP.[4]
Historian Dave Evans studied self-professed followers of the left-hand path in the early 21st century, making several observations about their practices:
Vāmācāra is aSanskrit term meaning "left-handed attainment". The converse term isdakshinachara.[9] TheWestern use of the termsleft-hand path andright-hand path originated withMadame Blavatsky, a 19th-century occultist who founded theTheosophical Society. She had travelled across parts ofsouthern Asia and gave accounts of having met with many mystics and magical practitioners inIndia andTibet. She developed the termleft-hand path as a translation of the termvamachara, an IndianTantric practice that emphasised the breaking of Hindu societal taboos by havingsexual intercourse in ritual, drinkingalcohol, eatingmeat and assembling in graveyards, as a part of the spiritual practice. The termvamachara literally meant "the left-hand way" inSanskrit, and it was from this that Blavatsky first coined the term.[10]
Returning to Europe, Blavatsky began using the term. It was relatively easy for her to associateleft withevil in many European countries, where it already has had an association with evil and bad luck since the Classical Latin era. As the historian Dave Evans noted,homosexuals were referred to as "left-handed", while inProtestant nationsRoman Catholics were called "left-footers".[11]
In New York, Madame Blavatsky founded theTheosophical Society with several other people in 1875. She set about writing several books, includingIsis Unveiled (1877), in which she introduced the termsleft-hand path andright-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. The occult community soon picked up on her newly introduced duality, which, according to historian Dave Evans, "had not been known before" in the Western Esoteric Tradition.[12] For instance,Dion Fortune, founder of the magical group theSociety of the Inner Light, also took the side of the RHP, making the claim that followers of the LHP werehomosexuals and that Indian servants might use malicious magical rites devoted to the goddessKali against their European masters.[13]
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 ofMagister Templi in Crowley's system of ceremonial magic.[14] Crowley also referred to the left-hand path when describing the point at which theAdeptus Exemptus chooses to cross the Abyss, which is the location ofChoronzon and the illusory eleventhSephira, which isDa'ath or Knowledge. In this example, the adept must surrender all, including the guidance of hisHoly Guardian Angel, and leap into the Abyss. If his accumulatedkarma 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.[14] Crowley associated all this with "Mary, a blasphemy againstBabalon", and with the celibacy of Christian clergy.[14]
A figure Fortune considered to be a follower of the LHP wasArthur 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.[15] However, despite Waite's attempts to distinguish the two, the equation of the LHP with black magic was propagated more widely in the fiction ofDennis Wheatley; Wheatley also conflated the two withSatanism and also the political ideology ofcommunism, which he viewed as a threat to traditional British society.[16]
In the latter half of the 20th century various groups arose that self-professedly described themselves as LHP but did not consider themselves as practicing black magic. In 1975,Kenneth Grant, a student of Aleister Crowley, explained inCults of the Shadow that he and his group, theTyphonian Order, practiced the LHP. Grant's usage takes meaning from its roots in eastern Tantra; Grant states that it is about challenging taboos, but that it should be used in conjunction with the RHP to achieve balance.[17]
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