The RHP vs. LHP
The distinction between the RHP and the LHP is one of the most misunderstood dichotomies I have personally encountered. The pagan community misunderstands it, most contemporary Satanists misunderstand it, certainly mainstream religion hasn't got a clue. So, let me fill you in. The true distinction between the LHP and the RHP is one of intention: The LHP seeks a separation from God or nature for the purpose of self deification and the inherent personal responsibilities *that* implies. The RHP seeks to merge with God, to join the natural forces, to be with god and to allow the doctines of that god determine the degree and form of self responsibility and ethical behaviour.
The RHP vs. LHP is NOT good against evil in the classic socialized, religious, cultural sense. It is about the most important choice a conscious being can make during his/her life. The loss of personal individuality and egocentric consciousness to the gentleness, solicitude and peace of God OR fighting to maintain the individual Will, the sense of Self knowledge and Being that the LHP recognizes as a special "Gift" one that enables a true choice to be made, and of which carries a tremendous degree of personal responsibility in order to successfully manifest.
The LHP seeks to retain individuality of self, the RHP seeks "oneness" with God. The LHP understands oneness as a technology that promotes the dissolution of the individual self into a greater whole. The LHP is a Path of individuation and Willed activity. In other words, it does not come to you, you must go to it. This intrinsically makes the LHP a difficult one to follow. The RHP will come to you, it will embrace you with open arms, you have to open yourself and give yourself to it. On the other hand (literally), the LHP requires a willed alteration of the way you perceive the objective and subjective realities. An alteration that forms a personalized understanding of life and its meaning on all levels of human activity.
The Left Hand Path is a syncretism in the post modern era, one which takes liberally from several areas of philosophical and spiritual inquiry. Existentialism, relativism, antinomianism, hermeticism, all share ideas that are synthesized into the LHP conception. Tracing the roots of these ideas we find hints and glimpses contained in the extant thoughts of certain Gnostic sects, the Graeco/Roman Egyptian philosophies, and aspects of the ancient Egyptian religious cults. Particularly, we see this in the reflections of the ancient Setian Priesthoods of Egypt whose ideas have been integrated into other lines of philosophical thought. As previously stated, the differentiation between the LHP and the RHP is one of intent. For instance, in the Church of Rome (Catholic) ritual is utilized. All the elements - altar, bell, candles, incense etc., form the components of ritual. However, if you were to read Anton Szandor LaVey’s Satanic Bible, ritual is also utilized using those very same elements. The difference lies within the intention of the participants. Therefore, the technology itself does not distinguish one methodology from the other, rather the perceptions and cognitive structures of how these technologies may be utilized become the essential determining factors.
Whether a candle is white or black doesn't mean squat in and of itself. However, the manner in which the symbolism of the colored candle is perceived within consciousness, and then manifest as a psychological component within oneself and their environment, means everything.
Therefore, initiation itself is largely a psychological process.