I’ve followed this thread with interest, and an angle I hadn’t read it in it yet seems to be related to the difference between a “tradition” or a “system” and what one does. -in the same way that a method (or path) that has developed over many yrs (perhaps hundreds of years) not only of trial and error of an interlocked group, but of intense and masterful embodiers of the knowledge; and as they further Become it, from there they can see more clearly how to improve it.
This is how I see a system (like a distinct Lineage of TaiChiChuan, which may or may not have strong NeiGung components, vs a distinct Lineage of Penchak Silat and the Tenaga-Dragon Power Possessions)- which is different than how one follows it.
-once one has mastered (at an intermed lvl, vs needing to be a Master, but more than a few yrs of partial exploration), then one shifts from structure to the freeflow, mixing and improv… vs starting out improvising (before having any of that structure to utilize and elaborate off of)…
Also the idea is at that pt one not only has strs, but has developed by that system Awakened and Activated skills and dormant Capacities.
In short- 3 “paths” could be Following LHP (whatever that might mean), or Following RHP (whatever that might mean), or Following some mixture… but those 3 are Following paths… they are not the “Paths” being followed. (systems, if such they are) In that sense LHP and RHP are still 2 separate methods even if someone chooses and selects from each- that doesn’t combine and mix the Paths themselves.
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I’d thus contrast what is terms the Western-net version of LHP which is a concept of subculture based upon another system (like saying I’ll take a few bits of Tantra-Layakriya, a bit of Ha-Tha Energy-Yoga… and combine from Goetic: sure, but that’s doesn’t mean one is mixing. In the same way that Vamachara is reinterpreted, as Shamanism is reinterpreted.
I think at root as we don’t really have traditions that “work” (Thus the great work that EA is promoting finding a Working System… vs his comments about the systems of the Loa, as there is a method and groups in place. How demonstratable are the skills of different hodge-podge groups? -we are reconstructing something, trying to create a Working System… and often read of Magic-Forums talk about how in “olden times” that was metaphor, we can’t do the Workings of Power they wrote about, so is it possible? (and yet without the step by step system of how to progressively open up and activate. Not too soon, but ready as soon as, in the right seq and clusters. -perhaps if it was so easy one could make up any system to make it work, more would?)
Just to give another angle. (I do agree with some remarks above, but the key I think is the 2 "paths" aren't the same I don't think as concretely identified systems.)
(( Edit: after posting this, I was re-reading from WoD, and a couple of pages into the Introduction I see the line: "…the line between Black and White is drawn quite clearly.
These are the Works of Darkness. Any that would claim that there is no Black and there is no White must therefore be standing in Limbo, and would do well to take this tome and discover for himself where heaven and hell part."
Which brought to mind how LHP/RHP is often tied to Black-Dark vs White-Beneficient, although they could be seen as diff ))
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