What Is Lhp Options

Well . . . lets start this new forum off with an obvious.
What do people consider to be Left Hand Path?

Of course, this question isn't intending or expecting everyone (or anyone) to agree on a definition . . . or even to be a thread building to a consensus.
Only as a way of describing the varieties of the concept - LHP

I'm personally not so fond of the Blavaskian use of LHP as describing a state of immorality (spiritually), nor do I find Crowley's idea that is the failed adept acceptable.

For me, in a very general . . . its the process of developing the self (spiritually and materially) rather then sacrificing or dissolving the self.
Being fully and singly responsible for oneself and ones actions.
Being entitled to everything one can be (materially and spiritually)
And that the world around each of us (phenomonally and spiritually) is designed for personal integration and application.
Many aspects of the above are best presented and developed through acts of Love, alturism and compassion. As well, all require self-confidence, a distinct level of self-worth, and a strongly developing self-knowledge.

anyway . . . others thoughts . . ?

This post has been edited by palindroem: Jan 25 2007, 04:37 PM

This is a question I've have turning over in my own head recently. I knew about another particular school of thought a few years ago that made two distinctions, STO (Service to Others) and STS (Service to Self) although it was observed at the time that distinctions between the two could get very murky and difficult.

A scenario I thought of to illustrate this...someone goes into a service station, holds the attendant at gunpoint, and demands all of his money. From the point of view of the attendant, yes, the person holding up the place is completely LHP/STS, morally speaking...the attendant isn't getting anything positive out of it at all. If the only purpose of the robber is in getting money for drugs, then it could be superficially argued that it is therefore *completely* LHP/STS morally...cut and dried.

However, let's look at another possible scenario for a moment...rather than being a drug addict, let's say that the person holding up the service station is semi-homeless, and has a girlfriend/wife and a baby in a hotel room somewhere. He's desperate for money because the baby needs feeding every four hours, and he actually had to get some friends to help with a birth in the hotel room because it happened very suddenly and there wasn't time to get his girlfriend to a maternity ward. (It does happen) Hence, she is very weak and may even die if he isn't able to continue to feed her. He can't get a job because he barely has a ninth grade education, and couldn't at the moment even if he was educated, because he needs to be at home for the time being to look after his girlfriend and the child.

This is a very different scenario. It might still appear to be STS/LHP morally from the perspective of the attendant, because he's still definitely not winning here, but from the perspective of the robber, it could arguably be considered STO from the point of view that he is willing to put his own legal wellbeing (and possibly his life, if the attendant is armed) at risk in order to preserve the wellbeing of other people he loves.

Also, even if we go with the first scenario and say that the robber is merely a drug addict in need of money to pay for a fix, one of the consequences of that act will still be STO (if only inadvertently) in that the dealer will benefit from the money in exchange for the drugs that the robber receives. My point here is that we exist within such a deeply entrenched web of interdependency that no matter how purely STS/LHP someone tries to be, it's inevitable that at some point in their lives, in order to maintain their own existence, they will at least inadvertently end up performing some act that benefits somebody else, even if that wasn't their intent.

Another example from my own experience...one that took place on an ongoing basis within the game World of Warcraft. My character in that game was a member of the Horde, which is generally considered to be the "evil," faction within the game. The Alliance, traditionally considered the "good" faction, tended to use pre-existing expectations about their morality as an excuse to attack us in an extremely aggressive and cowardly manner. The Horde were considered hell-spawned monsters, and Alliance players thus felt that in game terms, they had license to slaughter us on that basis. Yet also, culturally speaking, the Horde's ethnic groups were those which were modelled on shamanic, indigenous societies...the environment and the elements were held in high regard, as being the very things which kept said societies alive. Although the Horde's ethnic groups generally admittedly *were* highly warlike and aggressive, they were also a lot more principled than was generally believed. Geurilla tactics and cowardice in particular were not engaged in, unlike with the Alliance. If an Orc had a problem with you, you'd know about it very openly.

A third example I could offer here is Kali herself. Look at an image of her. She usually has jet black or blue skin. She has four arms, the hands of which are covered in blood. She wears a garland of human heads, and a belt of human arms...death related imagery of the most grotesque kind is everywhere you look. Yet nearly everywhere that she is worshipped, from what I have seen, she is viewed not only as a bloodthirsty monster, but also as a divine mother...one of her titles is the Treasure House of Compassion. Yes, there's darkness, chaos, terror, and an insatiable craving for blood, there...I've been accused of not seeing her dark side, and it is not true...I do see it. However, there is also love, compassion, a willingness to protect, and a desire to be emotionally intimate with her followers.

I'm not going to argue that this is the same in every case...everything I've read about Pazuzu on here in particular leads me to believe that his depiction in The Exorcist was actually dead on the money...there genuinely are entities in existence who are just plain bad, as others have said...they get off on it. Belial is apparently another example I could use there, in terms of the Goetics. However, the point is to be extremely careful when you're going to make a negative judgement about anyone, because situations where someone is purely evil in a cut and dried sense are generally actually a tiny exception, rather than the overall rule. I feel that if Kali in particular has anything to teach anyone, it's not to judge a book by its' cover. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/book.gif)

As an additional observation, I'll also say that I've found that some of the most interesting/informative people to talk to on here have been those who I've also tended to consider were the most likely to be LHP, or who would be considered such. That doesn't mean that I have an interest in being LHP myself, or at least not exclusively...but it does mean that I feel that everyone should respect them...and also that them potentially having less restraint in the persuit of their studies could also well mean that they have more experience for the rest of us to draw from...so again, they end up inadvertently benefiting the whole possibly entirely without meaning to. ;-)

This post has been edited by Petrus: Nov 30 2007, 08:54 AM