A little play with semantics & the "occult"

The Latin word for "left" is "sinister." ("Dexter" is "right.")  Somewhere along the way this became synonymous with "evil," possibly because righties tend to outnumber lefties, which may have made them seem unusual to some. 
Such seeming "abnormalities" have been known to cause all sorts of superstitions: people who hate garlic, albinos, people with lupus, the mentally ill, etc.
Thanks to the evolution of the words left & right, the "left hand path" is associated with the "darker arts;" while the "right hand path" is associated with "white magick."

Here are a few more interesting developments, some of which you may be familiar with:

"Villain" was derived from "villeans," which originally meant "village-dweller."

"Pagan" (or "paganus") meant a "country dweller;" and a "heathen" was someone who lived on the heaths (outskirts of town).

"Witch" and "wizard" meant a wise person.  ("Wize-ard.")

"Occult" simply means "hidden" or "unknown."  If there is one commonality to be found in most superstition, is fear of the unknown.

Fear of the unknown & unusual has often prompted people to attribute negative qualities to the objects of their fear, often resulting in anger, hatred, prejudice, and violence.  At some points in human history such fears have been intentionally created or skewed in hopes of doing away with the "undesirables." 
Evidence of this lies in the saying, "the gods of the old become the devils of the new," as many cultures & religions have been guilty of attempting to "demonize" the gods of opposing religions/cultures as a means of legitimising their crusades for dominance.

This is not to say that the desire for spirituality is bad or wrong, but to show how perceptions rooted firmly in ego clash.  After all, too often do people seem to want to fight when their perceptions are challenged?

If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.


Written by Priest Lord Eldorath

©Copyright Mother Goddess Gnostic Society 2005