Left and right paths

[misterqar]

I recently discovered that the distinction between left and right paths have very old roots and stayed in our culture all this time. The first text on demonology ever written, the Treatise on the Left Emanation, states that evil spirits came from the left side of God (they're the left emanation), while the righteous spirits originated from the right side (they're the right emanation). In the Christian Bible, it is stated that the goats are to the left of God, while the sheep are to his right.

This spatial metaphor endured in our culture for centuries, to the extent that it even evolved into the division of political ideologies into left-wing (liberal) and right-wing (conservative). During the French Revolution, the Baron de Gauville said: "We began to recognize each other: those who were loyal to religion and the king took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp".

 

[Ziran]

I recently discovered that the distinction between left and right paths have very old roots and stayed in our culture all this time. The first text on demonology ever written, the Treatise on the Left Emanation, states that evil spirits came from the left side of God (they're the left emanation), while the righteous spirits originated from the right side (they're the right emanation). In the Christian Bible, it is stated that the goats are to the left of God, while the sheep are to his right.

It's a common thread, among others, which crosses cultural and geographic boundries tracing back thousands of years.

Here's the best example I know of from my faith tradition:

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Ezekiel 1:10​

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ודמות פניהם פני אדם ופני אריה אל־הימין לארבעתם ופני־שור מהשמאול לארבעתן ופני־נשר לארבעתן׃​

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As for the likeness of their faces, the four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side; and the four had the face of an ox on the left side; the four also had the face of an eagle.​

... evil spirits came from the left side of God (they're the left emanation) ...

... from the side of the Ox, cultivating retraint-and-retribution, "punitive" forces

... while the righteous spirits originated from the right side (they're the right emanation) ...

... from the side of the Lion, cultivating everflowing-vitality, "nourishing, salvation" forces

In the Christian Bible, it is stated that the goats are to the left of God, while the sheep are to his right.

I don't know the Christian bible very well. Is the left<<>>right dichotomy above consistent with the narrative? Are the goats being punished? Are the sheep being saved?

 

[Suayakoat]

Could I butt in the thread with an opinion?

Actually not merely an opinion but a fact I have seen in my own spiritual practices that may shed a little light on that entire left/right thing. The souls trying to adhere to the right path (I say try to adhere since there is no such thing as a perfect path through either-they are simply too mixed up in the real world) are trying to reconnect to the Source (or God, if you prefer the "official" terminology) while the souls trying to adhere to the left path are trying to develop themselves into new Sources (yes, that means that the left ones are trying to become Gods within separate creations of this one). That is the ultimate difference between right and left souls. I know, I know people have told you the left ones are evil spirits, Satan's spawn, whatever, but the cosmic reality has a lot to do with karma and its intentions and carrying it out rather than with Good and Evil.

If you are a right walker the goal is to minimize your karmic imprint to zero and live as far away of physical pleasures as possible. But then the Universe rewards you with a lot of spiritual pleasures and you also start serving as a beacon of such experiences to the ones next to you. This is why they also call it the righteous path-you abstain from more "simple" pleasures in order to get into richer spiritual experiences which you could share with others. You also make space for this light to touch everyone near you and ascend them when you go down that path. But the reunion with the Source and the full abstention of the physical come at a price-you surrender your capacity to shine as a Source yourself. Yes, I believe that is achievable, too. Yes, you can become a God, if you wish for it. And that is the left path. That is its essence.

Contrary to what the propaganda of the rightists says if you concentrate your spiritual development on the physical and want to know and when knowing-to permeate the physical-with your own Soul you could (which too comes at a great price for your Soul) gain such an attachment to it that your karma will go on a path towards infinity, instead of zero. But that process must be well regulated and extremely well observed. You are too prone to mistakes along that route. It's also much more steep, dangerous and requires the full potential of your Soul. But....in exchange you could pick a plan of another Universe, another creation and become its Source (yes, its God). That is what that path ultimately leads to. Yes, it is much grandiose than the right path but as you could see far more difficult and demanding. The real question is:

What do you want to choose for yourself?

And that is the crux of this form of existence, of this Universe, of this Creation-the chief reason free will exists is to make it possible for all Souls to understand the price of living-either abstain from suffering and the eternal karmic relationships it brings with it and go on to merge with your Creator, or.....become one yourself and understand to accept suffering forever-as long as you exist no matter what form your Soul takes but enjoy creation altogether and continue supporting it ad infinitum.

Did the question about the difference between the two paths became clearer now?

 

[kubrickfan67]

I always found it strange how 9/10 humans have a natural disposition to be right-handed, but some wind up left handed. In the past, people would just be forced to use their right hand, and as a matter of fact in some places of the world people still are forced to learn right-handed. Only in the past century have people eased up on the idea that being left-handed, but this superstition of left "straying from god" or being unclean or what have you has universally been a thing in cultures all over the world.

 

[Suayakoat]

In addition I would only want to say I believe the spiritual forces controlling this world (yes, I believe there are spirits controlling every aspect of our lives that we cannot see, hear, taste or sense in any way-at least, the ordinary people can't) have manipulated this entire civilization throughout its entire history as to erase the true representatives of the left path and replace them with lies about its essence and practices in order to promote the right path. I believe (my personal information through communion with spirits) the reason is the fact there were left civilizations before that in the history of this planet that caused major disasters to themselves and others and after a particularly violent right leaning cult (what essentially became the foundation for all Abrahamic religions) took off in the Middle East some millennia ago it started to wipe out and twist all left traditions for the sake of misrepresenting humanity as a right leaning only species and this process continues to this day. But people need to learn the truth about the left and be able to choose their paths for themselves!

P.S. And this is why I'm here on this forum.

 

[BBBB]

Judeo-Christian "culture" is not that old. I am unaware of such distinction in other cultures (yes, even in Indian sources it's different). Doesn't know about such in Greek or Romans, not mentioning older ones. And "left-right" political thing made me laugh. Do you realize it's not only completely artificial, but it also has left and right mixed up. Sorry, it's something occult masters of England back in the days did to confuse people. The principle is to manufacture two lies and present them as alternatives in order to conceal the truth. Next, my own occult and non-occult practice shows definitely that left hand - right hand polarity is BS. Even as a belief you can adopt in chaos magic, I don't recommend it - no benefits to adopting it. Also if you understand intelligence, you may know that binary logic, while very old indeed, is not suited for real world navigation. It is used to programm primitive minds with polarities that are easy to leverage, works the same in occult, religion, politics. And occult is more political than you may think.

 

[Yusuf al-Ghurabi Bey]

The conflation of the tantric left-hand/right-hand practice with the moral God/Satan, sephiroth/qlippoth, union with the divine/individualized apotheosis concept is at most a century and a half old. It's a reflection of crude Victorian misunderstandings of fairly subtle Indic philosophical concepts getting mashed together with completely unrelated and philosophically opposed concepts from the monotheist/neo-platonist Mediterranean traditions. I've never found it a particularly useful set of concepts.

 

[Firetree]

Also one can look up the etymology of 'sinister' and 'dexterous ' for further insights

To make it simple ; say you are an ancient Roman and want to do a divination ; you 'cast a circle' ( 'templum' ) on the earth or in the sky , you decide which way is 'front ' (usually east ) and then you watch for omens ... say a bird flies past on your left ... Oh-O !

 

[Ohana]

Yeah I can see why they would mix them up. The Left and Right path kind of make sense to me in way because I think in movements. With spatial awareness. But I look at the goals of both and I think huh. I don't want to serve and I don't want to be a source. I just want to move. So thinking in left and right paths work me for some weird reason despite not really agreeing with either.

Also I think thats still done today. The left and right handed thing. The reason being I can write with both my left and right hand. I didn't know I could write with my left hand until recently. I just never tried and assumed I was like everyone else thar I just had one dominant hand.

Turns out I could write with both so maybe its subtle but because its subtle affects people that can write with are amdexterious. But I got lefts and rights confused all the time when I was kid. I later learned how to tell them apart and thats by the game Minecraft. You destroy blocks by left clicking the mouse and then build by right clicking the mouse and then never got them confused again.

The fear of people that were left handed in culture/religion might have started out because they might have had an edge in physical confrontations.

In boxing people with southpaws or those who are left handed have an advantage due to their stance being different. Right handed people are just not used to it so people that are left handed have an advantage. Winning a lot of physical confrontations might have made people more likely to be afraid of southpaws thus the shunning. Atleast thats my hypothesis.