Left Hand Path practitioners include Luciferians, Satanists, people practicing Setian philosophy, etc... The question I'd like to explore in this article is whether these individuals are evil or not. Before we can tackle that we need to understand what it means to actually be evil.
What Does It Mean to be Evil?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word evil means:
a : morally reprehensible : sinful, wicked an evil impulse
b : arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct a person of evil reputation
I think it's clear that you cannot define evil without having some sort of moral standard to judge a behaviour against. In other words, whether something is evil or not is context specific and dependent on the eye of the beholder. What is evil to one society or individual may be perfectly acceptable to another. If you travel to another part of the world, you may accidentally do something that is considered unacceptable, disturbing or even illegal whereas that exact same behaviour is considered perfectly acceptable and commonplace in your home territory. Even in the same physical area, what is considered acceptable or not can change dramatically over time. Different clubs, groups or cliques within the same general area will often have their own set of standards that differ from those held by other groups.
With that in mind, whether certain behaviours are evil or not is determined collectively. You can be a kind hearted and compassionate individual but still be considered evil if your personal code of behaviour clashes with the culture of the people you are interacting with. To create a really easy example, let's say you find yourself in a place where slavery is accepted as normal and even protected by law. If you were to go and free someone's slave, you could be considered evil for theft of the slave owner's property and all the consequences that result from that (perhaps the slave owner was relying on the labour of that slave to harvest food crops, which then rot on the vine.) Your actions are noble when judged against your own personal code of standards, but the greater society you are interacting with will consider it an evil act.
So Are Luciferians and Satanists Evil or Not?
The short answer is Yes!
Let me explain that. To be on the Left Hand Path means you are seeking to define yourself as an individual as opposed to being a member of a collective. The work of a LHP practitioner will therefore include research, soul searching and experimentation to determine which values you agree with and which ones you are at odds with. You will progressively forge your own set of personal standards. This personal code of conduct will evolve over time as you gain greater experience, encounter new information and as you develop greater wisdom. Inevitably you will discover that you disagree with certain values common in the society you find yourself surrounded by. In fact you may find certain elements of the larger society downright repugnant! As you exercise your growing independence, you are sure to evoke similar feelings in others who observe you disregarding their deeply held opinions of what is right and wrong. Your rebellion against the social norms of society, you will be branded as an evil person.
The very act of exerting your individuality is transgressive and therefore will be viewed as evil by the common man.
That being said, there are definitely going to be several common values you happen to strongly agree with. The idea here isn't simply to be a rebel without a cause. Many of your personal values will be shared by the vast majority of people, especially those from the culture you were raised in, however you will hold these values because you have investigated them thoroughly and found them to be valuable. Contrast this to the common man who will have simply adopted their values through repeated exposure or indoctrination and once a point has been accepted as Truth, it is never challenged by that individual again.
What do you think? Is Evil a necessary part of the Left Hand Path? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
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