Anyone who seriously thinks about their life realizes, pretty soon, that there are two paths that are open to them: a path that takes you to where you want to be faster and a slower path.
In occult terms, the path that takes you to your goals faster is known as the left-hand path, whereas the slower path is known as the right-hand path. The left-hand path is often characterized as an “evil” path, whereas the right-hand path is seen as more “righteous”.
While calling one path evil and the other righteous is an easy shorthand way of thinking of the differences between the two choices, like all easy ways there is a lot that is missed by thinking in such black-and-white terms.
The right-hand path is the one most people are familiar with: it’s the path that religion has trod well. This path is focused on ethics, morality, and community. Religions and other right-hand practices, like standard yoga, have a list of dos and dont’s (the yamas, the niyamas, the Ten Commandments, the Noble Eightfold Path, etc.). People who follow this path can tend to be overly pious and concerned with what other people are doing — or not doing — to get into Heaven (or whatever analogous concept the path holds).
However, the left-hand path is concerned more with achieving personal power and goals in this world rather than doing something to benefit any afterlife. Some practitioners of this path are less concerned with any absolute morality and are often willing to do things that go strongly against the taboos of the culture in which we live (Blood sacrifice, anyone? How about a pact with Satan?).
Those who practice the left-hand path often like to make it seem very dark and mysterious. Don’t get me wrong: the left-hand path can be both of those things, but the majority of practitioners play up the “evil” aspects. Partially this is because they want to look cool, but there’s another reason. There is power in the left-hand path, and many practitioners don’t want anyone to know how much power is there.
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