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From Other Paths
Please note: Religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue have long been topics of discussion in Pagan circles. For many individuals, what they understand about other religions comes from their own background, experience or training. In this forum, articles will be offered by writers of other belief systems - some with similarities to Pagan thought, some with differences - in the hopes of increasing understanding and expanding the foundations of knowledge. In no way should it be construed that the content of these pieces reflect the personal beliefs of the staff of Goat and Candle; they are merely presented as educational tools.
A great deal of suspicion comes from the valorizing of Darkness as a symbol for the Western Left Hand Path (not unlike the dislike of the use of Red or Green in certain Eastern branches of the philosophy). We are, after all, culturally conditioned to think of pure white light as the goal to which our souls should aspire. Darkness is after all scary; it is a place beyond the camp fire filled with all the phantoms of the ghost story.
I would like to look at Light and Darkness as symbols for the soul's evolution, and the results that each can give. Now unlike my opposite numbers on the Right Hand Path, I don't condemn the path that is not mine. I feel that is the duty of any teacher to examine the Paths, and speak openly and honestly about their goals. It is the duty of the student, firstly to listen, then to think critically, then to try sincerely, and then to share what he or she has learned with his or her friends.
White Light is composed of all frequencies of light shining equally. It is a symbol of a self, which maintains its sense of wholeness by having no desires or leaning toward anything. Every pull that the world without or the world within could exert on such a Self has been negated through willful abstinence and purification. There is a great potential for individuation in Light, but this potential is withheld from the worlds. White Lighters are often full of energy, but it is energy that seldom goes anywhere. The white Light Self either knows no love, or maintains equilibrium by seeking to love all equally.
White is a great Symbol for the existing magical universe. All of the magical work done by man, and by the gods they have created, comes to a great neutrality. For every man that has worked for healing, another has worked for harm. For every woman that has blessed her people, another has cursed those same people. All frequencies shine more or less equally, so that the magical background of mankind remains static. There may be brief moments in history when the Light is disturbed and spectacular things happen. These can be good things -- such as the cultural revolution the Medici Academy wrought -- or bad things such as the atrocities of the Third Reich. But on the whole the mass of mankind remains connected with the shinning white Light of undifferentiated existence.
Religions which prize the Light, want their followers to reject both the pains and pleasures of existence. Anything that would lead them toward individuation is bad. Now some of these religions are routinely criticized by immature Left hand Path thinkers -- I have no quarrel with the reasonably powerless forms of the Right Hand Path such as Christianity. Heck, it gave us some great art and snazzy cathedrals. I do have quarrel with the Right Hand Path religious practices that now rule the world -- that exist either as advertising driven capitalism, or the forms of Marxism known as "political correctness." Each of these apparently nonreligious idea sets, is firmly based on white Light thinking.
For advertising, it is important to destroy individual ideas and wants by replacing them with mass ideas and wants. This is a simple extension of the mechanistic laws of the universe into the human psyche. It is easier to mass produce cars and computers -- so you must educate the consumers to love the same thing. All individual frequencies must be replaced with a common frequency that models life -- who you marry, how many kids you have, what you eat and what you read. Then it sells those things to you. Now it is true that this white Light may look multi-colored, but like the blue glow that the telly puts on the faces of Mr. and Mrs. Public every night, it blends into a single color. As it must in order for capitalism to survive. (Now I think that capitalism's survival is a good thing for the masses, I simply choose to think differently than they would have me think.)
In "politically correct" thinking there seems at first to be a healthy attitude toward diversity. Yet, if we look closely, we see that the diversity is shown in taking on the cultural styles and attitudes of disadvantaged groups. Now if this were done to collectively give new perceptions to mass culture, this would be a good thing. Mankind needs new ways of looking at the world. But we find that such experiments are intended as ways to hastening a historical dialectic. The PC thinker doesn't want diversity, he or she wants the world to be a giant America -- a "melting-pot" that all things loose their flavor in. (Now I think that disadvantaged groups getting a shot at not being disadvantaged is a good things for the masses, it may open new doors in mass culture -- but I simply choose to think differently.)
Darkness is a Symbol of what might yet be. It is what the profane call the future. It exists both within and beyond the Self. Within you, Darkness is experienced on those very rare occasions you have new insight. It wasn't there before, the light of your mind didn't focus on it. It came from the Darkness, where all Secrets are hidden. Outside of the Self, Darkness represents the unknown of the future. If you are walking down a street in the daylight, you see what is ahead of you, and can make rational plans. But if you are running through the moors at night, each step can bring surprises that make you both discover your real Self, and change that Self the moment decisions are made. Let us look at a moment of supreme Darkness that even non-magicians can understand. Let us say that you are going to ask someone to marry you, and you truly don't know what he or she will say. You ask the question, and Darkness descends. If he says "yes", you will know some things about yourself that you didn't know the moment before. Your life will be changed, in ways that you cannot in truth imagine. The future is determined by a single utterance. If she says "no," you will know some things about yourself that you never knew before. Your life will be changed, in ways that you cannot in truth imagine.
Such Darkness can only be brought into one's life -- a magician would say "invoked" -- by asking questions. Questions attack the Light, and in faiths which idolize the Light -- questions are frowned upon. Many such faiths actually provide answers to commonly asked questions in order to assure that everyone has exactly the same answer. When serious questions do arise in religions of the Light, they are answered by schism and holy war. Since the answering of the question has sundered the Light, the psychological basis of the religions must turn to hatred -- sometimes this is bewildering to an outside observer who can not see the difference between Sunni and Shiite or Protestant and Catholic.
In religions that prize the Darkness as Symbol, questions are encouraged. Now this does make such religions very appealing to young adults, who are in the process of shaping themselves. For most of them their flirtation with Darkness will be in trappings only, but these things do help them question. But as they grow into an established position in the world, they discover that the deeper questions of their life require both energy to ask and bravery to answer -- and they seek the Light they were brought up with. They like its restful quality. The great burden of the Darkness is the continued Strength to fight the good fight.
The religions of the Dark will always remain the way of the secret and the few. There will never be mass movements, people running to grab black banners of individualism. (There will also always be a pop culture that sells the "look and feel" of Darkness to eager young customers poised before really starting their lives -- each of these generations will think that Darkness is winning a place in the world -- and despise it when their children turn to it.) The religions of the Light will never fade away. It is only against their eternal proclamation of the status quo, that Questions can be asked. The artists, the revolutionaries, the thinkers and the dreamers all need the Light, so that they may ask the Question that brings the Darkness to the Earth. The Light exists to Feed the Dark!
- Don Webb, High Priest of Set
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Don Webb is the author of two occult books Seven Faces of Darkness: Practical Typhonian Magic and Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path and has lectured on Left Hand Path theology.
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