My Left-Hand Path

By Mistress-Babylon Consort

If you have ever thought the Left-Hand Path would be easy, think again. The ever changing winds of acquired knowledge require a life time of nurturing new found ideas as well as continuing introspection. Why? Because once the slave mentality of ‘faith and worship’ is cast aside, so is the disabling doubt in your ability to seek the answers for yourself. Curiosity becomes insatiable. It’s an honest approach to living that smashes unmercifully the delusions of grandeur that lay under the guise of piety. It requires responsible and moral behavior first to the self. There is no God. There is no Dark Lord. The Goddess is a lovely myth.

But what is the Left-Hand Path? The answer depends on who you ask and is secular to none. Among them are Atheists, Agnostics, Satanists, Deists, Setians, Luciferians, and Pagans to name but a few. I personally define it as reclaiming the mind of your birth, a mind that has been obscured by faith. It’s a brutal self-honesty, and an ‘eyes wide open’ view of the world and your place in it. It’s a world without worship, but one that can encompass spirituality. It holds tight the hand of lust and carnality, acknowledging and reveling in pleasures of the flesh. It is a path we walk alone in the company of fellow-travelers, and is a comfort in the dark-side of human nature which is driven by the light of life that resides in all of us.

But how did we end up on this ‘god forsaken’ path? Whether by chance, blunder or upbringing, something fostered the dark flame and trying to deny it is like trying to change your skin color. The strength of our skeptical and questioning nature leaves little room for self-deceit. Many people I have spoken with, when asked about their first cognizant memory of walking a LHP, generally recall the moment from childhood. I believe what they mean is that through their eyes now as adults, there is recognition of the feelings, differences and attitude that separated them from the rest.

Childhood is often the idyllic days in the innocence of curiosity, but natural maturation within the Left-Hand Path has its own version of teenage angst, like anything else. The seed and germination of the LHP can inspire a frenzy of high-spirited lust that is initially motivated by passion rather than rational thought: anger at ‘god’, a sense of elevated entitlement, dark ‘posturing’ and soap-box pontificating. As general as this may sound, it’s a common introductory war cry, so to speak, and certainly necessary as much as it is annoying, in the propelling of new and fresh ideas forward. We’ve all been there, but most move on. What’s most unfortunate, though, are those who chose to stay in the age of angst, rehashing and reiterating the same rhetoric, standing old among a new crowd, forever a follower. To stay is a death sentence.

I find the most significant and singular motivating fact that defines life on the LHP, is the engaging aspect of self-responsibility. In many ways it comes as a relief. As droll as it may sound, it is the prized pinnacle of self-awareness and is all encompassing into even the minutest detail of life and decision making. Cause and effect. It is the motivation behind learning, the brick and mortar of critical thinking. It separates pity from empathy, and spares the innocent. There are simply no more excuses consisting of ‘what if’ or ‘if only’. It allows my own decision making, which at one time were carelessly left for the ‘gods to handle’. The long past days of watching, waiting and grasping at thin air for answers that were little more than the ebb and flow of life, with or without me, are over.

I like that.