The Dysangelion Volume II
by Herald of the Black Dawn
Beyond Good and Evil
For common man, his experience locked entirely within the confines of the Material Realm, good and evil are primarily moral categories. Yet, this is not their real essence. For it means conflating the result with the primary cause. Good and Evil, along Law and Chaos, are in their most base essence just forces. The elementary forces of the universe, which along the elements of matter and energies of life and death, give the universe shape and set it in motion. It is true, that these forces come with certain properties, that cause being formed by them behave in specific patterns. Extrapolation of such patterns to behaviour of mortals is what gives us the common notions of good and evil for differentiation from the cosmic forces, lower case is used for these words in their moral sense. It needs to be noted however, that most mortal denizens of the Material Realm are not intrinsically aligned to any of those forces they're the domain of supernatural, seeping in from outer spheres. Why most humans are attached to these notions, then?
The answer is simple through cultural imprint and conditioning. Apart from certain races, whose blood is explicitly contaminated with outsider element, or who are affected by some other supernatural effect, any material being has equal potential for both. Yet, most human societies evolved towards the good side of the spectrum. Which creates a strong bias so strong that it is reflected in the language itself. The word good is used both in the moral sense and in the practical sense, meaning positive in terms of outcome.
This of course, leads to interesting paradoxes of speech an assassin, performing their task perfectly has done good in the practical sense. Yet in the sense of commonly understood morality, the act he committed was evil. And here is the first revelation. To obtain it one must stand aside, and see Good and Evil as what they actually are, unaffected by cultural conditioning into their reflections in material morality. From this perspective, it becomes clear, that as cosmic forces, they are opposing, yet equivalent. Neither is, in intrinsic sense, fundamentally better (for a lack of more appropriate word) than the another. This is the first step on the Threefold Path to Liberation.
The Left Hand PathIn the next step, we will use another linguistic analogy. One might have noticed that the word right is often associated with the good-end of the morality spectrum (and too some degree, also lawful). We do have terms like righteous, right-hearted, and so on, and so on. Its opposite is wrong but the word has a major weakness apart from describing morals, it can also describe the practical wrongness, i.e. being in error - logical or otherwise. But the world right has yet another meaning which is a relative direction. And it comes with yet another opposite, unmarred with such negative connotations - left. Henche left can be used as a short-hand for opposite of right in a moral sense, in a way that does not imply its inherent inferiority. That liberates us at least from the semantic layer of conditioning. And now it can be seen clearly that one has two paths in front of oneself the right hand path, associated with forces of Good and their reflective good morals, and the left hand path reflecting the same on the side of Evil.
As it was mentioned in previous step, they are at their basest level equivalent quantification of value simply does not make any sense at the most fundamental level of existence. Yet, beyond the nonexistent intrinsic valuing, there is another way of their assessment one rooted in practicality. Where does right hand path lead? Towards submission of oneself to others, towards constraints and bounds, towards slavery to ideals and rejection of self-interest in favour of interest of others. The left hand path, conversely, leads to putting uttermost value on the self and its own, on refusal of being a slave to others. There is only valid reason for its follower to bend - to avoid destruction by another, more powerful force, a force that more likely than not also follows the left hand path, yet have mastered it to a higher degree. Thus the left hand path is the liberatory one, the one that leads to the fullest self-realization, and the more it is mastered, the more liberated is its followers existence. Choosing to walk the left hand path is thus the second step on the Threefold Path to Liberation.
On the Breaking of ChainsMere choice of the left hand path is never enough, though. While many righteous preachers will claim that the way of evil is the easy one they could not be further from reality. It may be an easy one if one was fortunate enough to be born among culture unmarred with the goodward conditioning, but, at least amongst humans, not one truly is. Especially not here, in the West, where I write down these words. But even among so called evil races while the influence might be minor, it is always there. Orcs, for example, in all their ruthlessness and rejection of mercy are still bound by their notions of honour and forthrightness. To go from this imperfect state, tarred by conditioning induced qualms and doubts, to state of full liberation, where chains of conscience, remorse, guilt, compassion, attachment and rightfulness no longer exist, is no easy task.
It requires transvaluation of all values, rejection of imprints fed unto ones mind since ones very birth. Very few can achieve this on their own. A proper teacher is usually needed. A proper patron. And who would be a better patron in such endeavour than the one who mastered the left hand path to such degree that he elevated himself through it from mere mortal to the mightiest of the gods, the Dark Prince, the Dark Sun, mighty Cyric? Come unto him, and under guidance of his teachings and mysteries dispensed by his prophets, you will shed your chains one after another, and walk the left hand path forward at expedient speed. This is the third and final step on a Threefold Path to Liberation.
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