The Will to Power and the Left-Hand Path

by Thomas LeRoy

“This world is the Will to Power—and nothing else! And you yourselves too are this Will to Power—and nothing else!” — Friedrich Nietzsche

No one is born on the left-hand path. None of you, you good Satanists, nor your lovely offspring. Not even the children of Anton LaVey. No one has self-determination (the essence of the left-hand path) as a small child. All are subject to “other-determination”, thus all are born on the right-hand path. It is on the RHP that one learns one’s cultural collective ways to deal with others and society in general. But even if you self-identify as a Satanist, you still must choose to take the left-hand path. And what is the fundamental reason for this choice?

Personal empowerment.

You choose to step on the LHP because you have a drive to further your power — to become more than you are. You are not one who is simply searching for spiritual enlightenment; it is much more than that. If it were only about reaching calm in your soul you’d join a church, or a Wiccan coven, or sit around with some hippies in the lotus position chanting some gibberish you think is Sanskrit, but has more in common with Pig-Latin. No, it’s more. You have a drive, a will, that compels you to do that which most fear. This “will” pushes you to gaze down into the abyss and not divert your eyes. You are not one who shrinks from the horrors of reality, nor do you struggle blindly, but live deliberately with a fervor for existence. Friedrich Nietzsche called this sense of joy and vitality accompanying the imposition of values on a otherwise meaningless world “tragic optimism”. It belies the “reality” that your world is not Will to Existence, but Will to Power.

The will to power is a natural force, one that propels all life. It is not the need to conquer one’s neighbors in a bloody raid, but to conquer one’s fears, phobias or short-comings. It is about the experience of joy felt when one “over-comes”. And the left-hand path is the individual’s path to “self-overcoming”. It is a truly life-affirming philosophy that brings forth a healthier you through individual development based upon personal needs and efforts.

On a deeper level, the will to power, though, explains the fundamental changing aspects of reality. Everything is in flux. Matter is always moving and changing, as are ideas, knowledge, and even truth. The will to power is the fundamental engine of this change. And on the left-hand path, one does not fear change, for it is change the individual seeks.

Change in one’s self