Yesterday's entry announced a seventh text and eight pages describing the left-hand path beyond the Order. We said there that those pages were reference: an attempt to describe fairly the larger country in which the Order is one small house. In writing them we found that a fair description needed more room than eight pages, and that readers who have begun to practice would soon have questions those pages did not answer. Eighteen more pages are published today.
On the Wider Path
Six pages join the section on the left-hand path.
- The Devotional Current, on theistic Satanism as its practitioners live it, and on demonolatry.
- The Witch, from the old words and the cunning folk, through the trials, to the modern craft.
- Demons and Spirits, on where the names of the infernal court come from, and what to rule out before blaming one.
- Festivals of the Left-Hand Path, on the nights others keep, and why the Order keeps none.
- On Sacrifice, on the oldest accusation against the path, and the principle on which the Order's practice involves none.
- Death and the Dead, on four answers to what becomes of the self, and on grief.
On Practice
Twelve join the section on Practice.
- Designing a Working, The Altar, The Spoken Word, and Vows and Dedications, on how a working is planned, furnished, spoken, and promised.
- Sigils, Scrying, The Subtle Body, and Alchemy, on four techniques the Order's texts do not teach, described so that they can be tested.
- The Long Work, Making, Discretion, and Sobriety and Recovery, on the life that goes on around a practice for years.
What These Pages Are
As before, none of these pages is a Library text, and none adds to the Order's teaching. Several describe practices the Order does not keep: prayer, offering, spirit work, festivals, and others. They describe them because practitioners meet them, and they say where the Order stands, which is where it has always stood.
Many of the accounts on these pages are drawn from what practitioners of other currents have said and published in their own words. They are given without names, as everything on this site is, for the reasons set out in yesterday's entry. Some of what those practitioners said we have not repeated: curses, liturgies of contempt for other people, claims about health and history that do not survive examination, and political opinions of every kind. Where a practitioner's experience differs from the Order's practice, we have said so and given both. Where it agrees, and it agrees more often than either side might expect, we have said that too.
The pages on practice owe a particular debt to practitioners who have spoken publicly about addiction and recovery. We are grateful to them, and we hope that Sobriety and Recovery does their accounts justice.
Smaller Changes
- The pages The Left-Hand Path and Practice now group their reference pages by subject.
- Currents of the Left-Hand Path has a new section on the devotional current.
- Faces of the Adversary has a new section on two figures often confused with the adversary.
- The Glossary has been enlarged with terms from the new pages.
- The Frequently Asked Questions have new answers on theistic Satanism, witchcraft, sacrifice, curses, the techniques the Order does not teach, telling one's family, and addiction.
- The Philosophy, Statements of Position, The Serpent, On Magic, and Working With Others pages have small additions that point to the new pages. Working With Others also names two further signs that it is time to leave a group.
- Start Here lists the new pages, and has a short section of questions worth asking before beginning.
Nothing has been removed, and no existing address has changed. The site still sets no cookies, loads nothing from anywhere else, and asks for nothing.