The Snake’s Trail, The Left Hand Path & the First Rebellions
On the contrary to what one might have heard, Satanism is not a phenomenon of our era, a social or ideological problem. It has a long history, has its own representatives, and a fixed philosophy that is recognized by the American government as a regular religion. Real Satanism, is not usually known as most media avoid broadcasting anything about its properties. Satanism is distinguished between schools and factions. As a religion, it flourishes abroad, but it is also established in our country too (Greece). It is more like a way of living. Above all though, it is a reality.
Satanists do not believe in the Devil!
To begin with, is Satanism a devilish movement as outlined by the medieval Inquisition? Not exactly, below one might read that most Satanists these days do not believe in the ontological existence of Satan! Everybody agrees though that it is formed as a magical-philosophical subpath of the Left Hand Path. What is the Left Hand Path though?
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What is the Left Hand Path?
From time to time, different definitions have been given for the specific subject, but in short, one can say that is a Hindu-Tantric ascetic path of magical introversion and empowerment of the Ego, which results in the harmonization of the external or objective world with the will of the subjective universe of the wizard. To put it simply: the transformation of the individual into an immortal uniqueness or God! Vamachara differs both in ideology and technique from the Right Hand Path (dakshinachara) of Tandra. The secondary is theocentric and aims at the union of the human soul (atman) and the cosmology of God. Why did these two techniques were named like that? They are related to the Hindu belief that cosmic energy passes through the human body from left to right, or geographically speaking from north to south. Therefore, when an eremite turns their attention to the east, they are in harmony with the cosmic flow if the left arms stretches to face north, while the right is turned south. If the person now turns their body differently, they oppose the momentum (antinomy) and they are isolated from the usual paths. There is nothing wrong with this position! According to Mahakala Tantra, when the 2 hands are in balance, the person experiences samsara (the repetitive circle of birth and death), while when the right hand prevails, freedom can be found. It should be pointed that a simple body position cannot turn someone into a god! Hindus were not mindless. All of the above is an introductory description of meditation and non-meditation practices, which concern the flow of Kundalini, the energy path of the serpent, that is, the human body. They are, in simple words, ways of mystical life. But how did all this relate to Satanism?
Satanism is Left Hand Path
The Left Hand Path though is not Satanism!
The Left Hand Path, as it was taught in India, instructed the way for the solitary pursuit of knowledge in the spiritual darkness (within the soul), in symbolic death, in the reconstruction of mental perceptions and aversion to norms. Thus, the characteristics of the Left Hand Path, such as the color black, the magic night (NOX), goddess Kali and more generally the correlation of individual liberation/exploration through techniques of sexual magic, made many westerns limit the worship of the devil into the narrow confines of the Left Hand Path. In the same way that Eusphorous opposed to the will of God and sought to ascend to his throne – just as the Serpent of Eden urged Adam and Eve to seek knowledge -the mystic of the Left Hand Path seeks for revelation and raising towards his perfection. The methods and ways of the Left Hand Path will be adopted by the contemporary satanic sects, that seek to enrich their cosmology with ancient and respectful systems, to spread the belief that the Land Hand Path is identified with Satanism. In reality, though, those two schools have many common parts, although, they form their separate paths. That is said because these days there are well-organized battalions like Dragon Rouge, the Temple of Set, and many more, which even if they represent the spiritual culture of the Left Hand Path, do not form satanic fraternities! These properties belong exclusively to a small group whose real story begins in the 1960s!
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The Early History of Satanism
Satanism, as it is known today, is a religion, which was formed during the 20th century. Unlike most initiation orders (Freemasonry, Wicca, Otto, etc), contemporary Satanism is not the result of an unbroken chain of mystics. In other words, it is not a direct continuation of an ancient fraternity. Each era and place had its own Satanists who acted behind the scenes and anarchically, at least until a few decades ago. Satanism (that is, the worship of the opposite), for example, manifested itself differently in Islam, where the Yezidi tribe, worshipped the peacock, Melek Taus, as a symbol of the fallen angel. Their satanic worship – which is based on the holy books Kitab al-jilwah and Mashaf rash, which had been recited by Satan himself differ from the devil worship, which was performed by some witches during the Middle Ages. Practices that were more of an indefinite and often spontaneous mixing of pagan doctrines with local customs. There was no anti-Christian movement during the European Middle Ages. The first groups of an anti-church movement of the Enlightenment were formed at the end of the 17th century. In London, for example, the demon-worshiping Sons of the Midnight showed up, while aristocrats like Sir Francis Dashwood, established pseudo-sabbath orgy rallies in the infamous club to this day Medmenham Club (also known as Hellfire Club). Most of those gatherings, however, were limited to hedonistic discharges, driven by an anti-Catholic ethic. There was no complete occult theory as a background, and often, like the dark sect described by Joris Karl Huysmans in his autobiographical novel La-Bas (1891), are cheap caricatures that mostly refer to scenes from the movie Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – which is worth noting, that the story is an accurate metaphor of Arthur Schnitzler’s novel Traumnovelle, which was written in 1926!! – rather than in organized schools of magic or religious orders. There were a few exceptions of course. For example, the Ophite Cultus Satanas, which was founded by Herbert Arthur Sloane in 1948 at the State of Ohio in the United States of America. In 1907 Herbert Arthur Sloane saw the devil in a vision, whom he later worshipped deeply and was influenced by the Ophite Gnostics of Nachasians. In fact, in his correspondence with Gerald Gardner, he wrote that Satan does not significantly differ from the horned god of Wicca! Nonetheless, all of the above are individual events of a signified path that was depicted during the night of the spring Equinox of the 31st of April 1966 ( I Anno Satanas in the Satan calendar) somewhere in the San Francisco area…