Extricating Satanism from Evil and Selfishness

In my last post, I discussed how I had conflicted feelings about being a Jewish devil worshipper due to the antiJewish history of associating Jews with the Devil. The fun, unfortunately, does not stop there for Jews and other marginalized people because modern occultism is plagued by a certain type of person who often associates with devils and demons. If you want to have a terrible time, for instance, try looking up spiritual traditions or simply good books on Lucifer and take a shot for every time there's a fascist symbol on the cover or the author was part of a hate group*.

Before we can properly understand what the loud Nazi association with Satanism is all about, we may want to start with another concept that's often associated with Lucifer in contemporary occult spaces, which is "the left hand path." If you have surface level exposure to magical or even witchcraft communities, you may understand that the "left hand path" is part of yet another pointless binary with the "right hand path." Generally, the left hand path is said to represent self-serving magic while the right hand path represents selfless or community-aimed magic. Although these are just broad concepts and not organized traditions, some people who consider themselves as following "left hand paths" highly identify by it, presumably because they find empowerment by doing so.

If your conception of Lucifer/Satan is of pure individualism—rather than inclusive of successful rebellion, which always involves collectivism, come on read your John Milton—then it's easy to see how other people may draw the connection between him and LHP. However, by the definitions provided above, I can tell you that I have practiced both left and right hand-like magic, and every reasonable human being I have ever met who follows a vaguely similar spiritual path has done so as well. Lucifer's dreams for me also seem to involve both my own self-empowerment and an increased ability for me to help other people. When I conjure demons under his guidance, I ask them to help me improve the world, assigning beings that are normally considered "left hand" entities to "right hand" tasks.

That complexity is beyond the current mainstream societal attitudes that there is only "good" and "bad," originating from our unholy inheritance of Zoroastrianism via the nightmare that is Christian colonialism. Now that I have outlined why common understanding of "left hand path" and "right hand path" fall into that same oversimplification, consider that these phrases are originally translations of sorts from vāmācāra and dakṣiṇācāra in tantra. As I am not a tantric initiate (yet... I have been feeling drawn to it and have had some promising conversations about potentially seeking a teacher recently), I can't explain the native meanings and contents of those terms. However, I can point out to where they were picked up by the West with an inevitably colonialist lens.

This isn't to villainize The Theosophical Society founder Madame Helena Blavatsky. It just happens to be true that almost everything broadly understood from the 20th century occult movement was written about by her, then got transmitted by Aleister Crowley, and that leaves us in the modern day to survive oversimplified Eastern religious concepts and unexamined problematic assertions from the era that also brought us race science. Phil Hine—who is an actual tantric initiate and the well known occultist who wrote classics such as Condensed Chaos—is better equipped to explain in his own blog how Blavatsky is merely the first large scale messenger of these concepts. He has also outlined her widely disseminated views on what constituted "the left hand path."

As Hine notes, the writings of Blavatsky and her heirs to the Theosophical Society specifically used phrases such as "Brothers of the left" and "Left Hand Adepts." This is because these individuals conceived of "the left hand" as a specific group. Apparently this group were something like spiritual saboteurs of Theosophy's mission. As far as we can tell with hindsight, the "Left Hand Adepts" were bogeyman that led to paranoia and strife within the Theosophical Society between fellows. That much of the behavior and interests that Blavatsky deemed as "left hand" are highly similar to that of today's pagans, many of whom have wittingly or unwittingly absorbed Theosophical ideas that permeate western esotericism spaces, is... well. A lesson on how you can't pick your legacy.

Very much to that point, the next phase of the "left hand path"'s meaning came 75 years after Blavatsky's death by one of her many readers. 1966 was when the much more provocative character Anton LaVey established his—and I want to emphasize, atheist—Church of Satan. It is through the tenets of LaVey's Church that the Left Hand Path became something to strive toward in some occult circles and therefore entwined with modern occult scenes' perceptions of The Devil.

Below I have copied over from the Church of Satan's website their Nine Satanic Statements, which are fairly aligned with current conception of the LHP:

A conscious person will notice a lot of black-and-white thinking from a cognitive distortion standpoint in these statements ("love wasted on ingrates") as well as a lot of victim-blaming or inability to comprehend systems of power that oppress both large groups of people and individuals within them ("represents responsibility to the responsible"). To be more direct: this is a philosophy for emotionally immature people.

And perhaps it is emotional immaturity that's the real mother of fascist philosophies. As researched and outlined by Queer Satanic—who is perhaps the most prominent survivor of the other well known antiJewish Satanic organization's years of legal harassment—LaVey was pro-fascist and white supremacist. His activity through the latter half of the 20th century made him into the lynchpin for the marriage between Satanic groups and Nazi ideologies. Thus, the modern conception of the left hand path was born in the 1990s as a twin to the idea of pro-fascist Satanism, which now really spoils the mood when you're a Luciferian or Satanist with a bare minimum sense of ethics doing an internet search.

As a Jew born in the 1990s, I did the above research while writing this blog post as a point of frustration with the association of Luciferianism or Satanism as inherently left hand path. I had a bitter laugh when I realized these associations are only literally as old as I am. What makes it all the more exasperating is the legitimizing of LaVey's euphemism of hate in occult bookstores and by individual occultists with platforms alike. It also, frankly, explained a lot about the type of person—attention-seeking, not very ethical, and often unintelligent—that I often found in purported "left hand path" spaces.

There was a period, though it was extremely brief, where I hesitated to call myself a Luciferian because of my running into all of the above. But I'm a pious theist who is driven to do good with my life and none of us should allow a bunch of dumb, godless Nazis to stop us from doing anything if our hearts call to it. So a Restorative Luciferian, or demonologer, I am.

What that has looked like in my relationship with Lucifer/Satan himself is that as an individualist he has advocated for me to do what's right for myself, normally setting up situations and providing support so that I fall into good choices. As an entity of rebellion, he has fueled my anger against others in order to get me to stand up for myself. In relation to other deities, one of his most significant messages is "do not allow any god, including me, to tell you your truth." He is fully aware of most of humanity's fear and hatred of him and so is incredibly passionate in his love for his followers, commonly insisting that we should feel the full breadth of our high value and exercise it in our daily lives.

But just as often as he tells me to prioritize myself, he also articulates his expectations for my having good conduct. There are few things that I have witnessed irritate him more than human beings judging other human beings harshly. Among the removal of judgment from my bad habits, I have also been reprimanded and given spiritual taboos against fighting people on the internet (ugh :( ) and becoming reactionary toward the types of people I aim to serve in scenarios where I am triggered interpersonally. I have also given up self-centered dreams upon Lucifer very explicitly telling me that I am to refocus on my longtime goals that help people more directly. All very "right hand" features, notably.

Something that cheers me past the enabling of the wretched association of The Devil with Naziism is that I think it's genuinely a minority among people's view of Lucifer. In my secular, admittedly urban part of the world, most people I come across think the Devil is pretty fun. They like him in schlocky horror movies, name their restaurants after him to invoke the tempting and indulgent parts of his nature, or see his rebellious side as potential representation for the marginalized. He makes a wonderful subject of epic literature, evocative presence at goth clubs and metal shows, and occasionally charming protagonist or two-dimensional villain for television programs. Lucifer's revelatory and liberatory aptitudes is inspiring whether you perceive of him as a psychological/literary archetype or autonomous self-owned entity. 30-plus years of his image being used by groups of scumbags can't limit him in the minds of the masses.

But regarding things we can limit, can we please stop using the phrase "left hand path" in association with Lucifer, or preferably at all? What do we get as a group of spiritual people using the terminology of LaVey, a now irrelevant culture troll who didn't believe in anything but his own instant gratification? Truly, as impoverished as the west is spiritually, is there any benefit to promoting a so-called philosophy that only further promotes navel-gazing, short term gains, and a nuance-lacking relationship framework between the self and the other?

Call me a snob, but I believe that legitimacy of spiritual practice is directly connected to the maturity and therefore intentionality levels of the people involved. As in, it is admirable and actually makes life easier if you try to take accountability for your actions instead of determinedly living by your most base urges (although there are certainly times and places for their role as well). A true spiritual path takes a holistic view of the world, instead of the myopic of the individual, and pursues to better the current conditions while allowing balance for self-care.

If you've got two hands, use both.

*The latter includes Michael Ford, whose innocuous-appearing books fill every Page 1 of Luciferian book searches. The author was, in fact, part of the white supremacist group Order of 9 Angles