About the Book
Examines the left-hand path and reveals the masters of the tradition
• Explores the practices and beliefs of many left-hand path groups, including the Cult of Set, the Hell-Fire Club, and heretical Sufi, Zoroastrian, Christian, and Muslim sects
• Investigates many infamous occult personalities, including Helena Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, the Marquis de Sade, and Anton LaVey
• Explains the true difference between the right-hand path and the left-hand path--union with and dependence on God versus individual freedom and self-empowerment
From black magic and Satanism to Gnostic sects and Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way, the left-hand path has been linked to many practices, cults, and individuals across the ages. Stephen Flowers, Ph.D., examines the methods, teachings, and historical role of the left-hand path, from its origins in Indian tantric philosophy to its underlying influence in current world affairs, and reveals which philosophers, magicians, and occult figures throughout history can truly be called “Lords of the Left-Hand Path.”
Flowers explains that while the right-hand path seeks union with and thus dependence on God, the left-hand path seeks a “higher law” based on knowledge and power. It is the way of self-empowerment and true freedom. Beginning with ancient Hindu and Buddhist sects and moving Westward, he examines many alleged left-hand path groups, including the Cult of Set, the Yezidi Devil Worshippers, the Assassins, the Neoplatonists, the Hell-Fire Club, the Bolsheviks, the occult Nazis, and several heretical Sufi, Zoroastrian, Christian, and Muslim sects. Following a carefully crafted definition of a true adherent of the left-hand path based on two main principles--self-deification and challenge to the conventions of “good” and “evil”--the author analyzes many famous and infamous personalities, including H. P. Blavatsky, Faust, the Marquis de Sade, Austin Osman Spare, Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardner, Anton LaVey, and Michael Aquino, and reveals which occult masters were Lords of the Left-Hand Path.
Flowers shows that the left-hand path is not inherently evil but part of our heritage and our deep-seated desire to be free, independent, and in control of our destinies.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Preface: Under the Lens of Reason
Introduction: An Untimely Meditation
1 The Left-Hand Path
2 The Eastern Traditions
3 The Roots of the Western Tradition
4 The First Millennium
5 The Path of Satan
6 Lucifer Unbound
7 An Interlude in the Absolute Elsewhere: Adolph Hitler and the Modern Mythologizing of Evil
8 The Occult Revival
9 Anton Szandor LaVey and the Church of Satan
10 Michael A. Aquino: The Temple of Set
Afterword: Terminus Viae
Appendix: The Urban Legend of Satanicism
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D., received his doctorate in Germanic languages and medieval studies from the University of Texas at Austin and studied the history of occultism at the University of Göttingen, Germany. The author of more than 24 books, including Hermetic Magic, he is the director of the Woodharrow Institute for Germanic and Runic Studies and lives near Austin, Texas.
Review :
“Left-hand-path philosophy finally receives an objective and extremely informative reading from Stephen Flowers, Ph.D. Highly recommended.”
“This book will surely be hailed as a classic in its field.”
“Lords of the Left-Hand Path is an important contribution to the literature of the contemporary magical revival. Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D. celebrates the ‘way of the hero’ and champions the courage of the individual who dares boldly to ‘breach the gates of eternity’. This book will surely be hailed as a classic in its field.”
“Lords of the Left-Hand Path by Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D., is perhaps the most influential work in the construct of the ‘left-hand path’ as a particular current of contemporary esotericism. Flowers draws on a wide range of sources, many of which are exceedingly difficult to find elsewhere, and argues convincingly for his conclusions. This book is essential for anyone who wants to understand ‘the left-hand-path’.”
“Thus then now as ever, I enter the Path of Darkness, if haply so I may attain the Light.” (Aleister Crowley, The Supreme Ritual) Anyone who is aware of the 1980s and its dastardly slanders of Satanic ritual child abuse—incited by a collusion between faux law enforcement, bogus psychology, and a hysterical media—will especially welcome this book. It presents a sober, scholarly, and revealing explication of the true nature of the left-hand path and its most prominent adepts through recorded history. The author makes an essential contribution to rational philosophic discourse while exploring the hidden byways of the Promethean archetype.”
“Lords of the Left-Hand Path examines the principle of isolate intelligence and the subjective universe throughout history from ancient India and Iran to Lucifer and the Faustian Age and beyond. It devotes much attention to the revival of the occult, cosmology and Satanic beliefs and practices, being very informative on these issues.”
“I am astounded by just how much information is in this book, there is no padding or extraneous discussion, it is filled to the brim with information, observation and insight; it will become a classic in its field.”
“Thank God for Stephan E. Flowers book Lords of the Left–Hand Path! It’s a vital and much–needed antidote to the hysteria and foolishness surrounding this area of ancient misunderstanding. The author’s thorough historical overview of this ‘path far less traveled’ brings into focus what the Western ‘Christian’ world has missed in its sentimental attachment to their image of Christianity. In fact, Lords of the Left-Hand Path allows the reader an unusually clear lens through which to understand the source of so many of contemporary society’s ills. This book is a serious exegesis of an important spiritual path; a noble path which is only obscure because it has become so maligned by aggressive monotheistic religions. The revival of interest in the occult and esoteric which has been gathering energy over the last century brings hope that the more open–minded and openhearted among us are exploring the spiritual realities for ourselves.”
“I recommend this book highly to those who wish to challenge and explore their choice of paths to divinity.”
“I am astounded by just how much information is in this book. There is no padding or extraneous discussion – it is filled to the brim with observation and insight, and destined to become a classic in its field.”
