Samaelism: the overcoming of LHPs
Abstract
Thinking about new spiritualities, or religions in general, it is normal to see them as divided into two dichotomous worlds, the LHPs (i.e. left-hand paths) and the RHPs (i.e. right-hand paths). With this article our aim is to show how Samaelism has managed to overcome this division, creating a new and unique approach to spirituality.
The original dichotomy
The universe of spiritualities is often perceived as highly polarized, divided between the influences of two great theoretical systems: the right-hand paths and the left-hand paths.
These definitions come from a famous publication by the french anthropologist R. Hertz on the Année Sociologique in 1909 named “The pre-eminence of the right hand: A study in religious polarity” in which the author overcame the neurophysiological explanation of the predominance of the right hand in the human cultures, promoting the theory of a cultural and social reason behind this phenomenon. This bipolar distinction of the Universe was inspired to the author by the studies of Durkheim focused on the distinction between sacred and profane. These two dimensions, being part of all the spiritual aspects of the life of the human beings, lead our cultures to categorize all the things in the universe into two different and opposite worlds: the right and the left.
Following the general features of these two archetypes, analyzed in the following section of this article, it is quite obvious that the right-hand path and the left-hand path are two dichotomous elements of a bigger system usually called “spirituality”. In this system, the RHPs are synonymous with traditional and dominants religions, especially monotheisms (i.e. christianity, judaism and islam) while the LHPs are usually synonymous with alternative spiritualities and new religions. However, this distinction is not enough to understand the depths of this division. These two universes are not only representatives of two different gazes towards the world, but are manifestations of a more profound spiritual difference. Where the RHPs are usually linked to the celestial forces and, therefore, to the cosmic order, the LHPs are linked to the idea of opposition, aversion and fight against this same cosmic order, thus representing the antinomic forces of chaos.
Epistemology of the right and the left
The bipolar distinction between right and left is highlighted on a linguistic level, within the indo-european languages, by the evidence that all the words for “right” come from the Sanskrit root “deks” (right, destra, droit, derecha et similia), while the words for “left” don’t have anything in common. This ambiguity, in Hertz’s opinion, is the reflection of the “feelings of concern and aversion that the community feels towards the left side”. The revolutionary intuition of R. Hertz is that the archetype of “left” is linked, within our imaginary, to the ideas of confusion, illusion, lack of definition, treason and many more. The demonstration of this can be found also in our current languages where the word “right” (i.e. the Sanskrit root “deks”) derives many other ideas as the ones of “dexterity”, moral and intellectual rigor, good sense, beauty, while the word “left” is linked to the idea of mystery, chaos, something sinister (notice that, in italian “left” is said “sinistro”). Thus, the idea archetype of “left” is the embodiment of what lacks of definition, of what, in short, the human beings are not able to perceive clearly, to shape and to reason about.
Naturally, the idea of the left-side as something linked to the chthonic forces is not something invented by LHPs. On the other hand, this idea is very old.
In greek mythology and symbolism, for example, we meet a peculiar representation of some deities, heroes and even warriors, known as monosandalism. These figures are represented with only one shoe on, on the right foot, while their left foot was left* naked directly on the ground. Although the symbology behind these representations is more complex that one might think, it is evident that here the focal point is the belief that the left foot was linked to the chthonic forces/deities, thus placed directly in contact with the place where these forces resided, while the right foot (and therefore the right side of the body) was linked with the celestial forces, thus enveloped with the sandal.
The Left Hand Paths
The left-hand paths are nowadays associated with Satanism, mainly because of its popularity starting from the 80s and because of the work of organizations such as the Church of Satan. Organizations like this have managed to link the word “Satanism” with ideas as equality, civil rights, freedom, self-determination and more, often proposing an atheistic view of Satanism and therefore gaining the affection of the younger generations.
But things are not that easy. Following the publication of Massimo Introvige’s work on Satanism, we can look, on some extent, to all the LHPs as antinomic philosophies, whose essence is basically the opposition against a ruling religion/spirituality. Without this opposition, the LHPs wouldn’t have any structure or purpose. After all, if the figure of Satan can be used as a symbol by the Church of Satan or if a satanist can evoke a demon is only because all these figures have been invented and theorized by the dominant religious pattern, then passing towards the “other side”. Although some currents have tried to gain some theoretical autonomy from the dominant religious patterns (mainly christianity in the West), all of them have failed simply because their imaginary, their symbology, their epistemology and their philosophy are linked and, in some cases, depend on that same dominant religion to which they are opposed.
Samaelism
In this scenario, Samaelism was undoubtedly born as a spirituality belonging to the LHP universe. But, being aware of this impossible dependence from the dominant religious axiom, it has evolved in what some scholars have defined as post-satanism. Nowdays Samaelism is, in fact, the only LHP movement that has managed to overcome its belonging to the LHP philosophy, developing a doctrine that doesn’t belong to the RHP nor to the LHP. This passing, this revolutionary idea, therefore symbolizes the necessity to go beyond this atavistic distinction between “right” and “left”, between “right” and “wrong”, between “defined” and “undefined”, between “good” and “evil”. For this very reason, Samaelism is, using F. Nietzsche’s words, “beyond good and evil”, the “extra-moral truth”, the only possible way towards the comprehension of the mysteries of the Universe. Precisely because the opposition in Samaelism, is not anymore an element of conflict with another religious patter, but a theoretical and doctrinal archetype (i.e. Polemos). This “re-semantification” of the conflict, is the reason why Samaelism has succeeded where all the other LHPs philosophies have failed before.
*notice here that the word “left” here is manifested as the past participle of the verb “leaving” thus underlining the ideas of unknown, mystery, something lost in the past.