In the kaballistic tradition, there are two pillars or paths, the left hand path and the right hand path. The left hand path is, to oversimplify, the path of the senses and the unconscious, and the right hand path is the path of consciousness and ratonality. In this tradition the path of the devil or satan is the left hand path.

There are many traditions that spring out of this. Left handedness was considered very bad in many cultures. Even in our own culture children, up to thirty or forty years ago, were forcibly made to use their right hands to write, etc.

Left still has connotation of evil, and this is exploited subtly by equating "left-leaning" politicans with evil and etc.

Isn't culture a marvelous thing. When you start to pick at one little thread in the tapestry of a culture, soon the whole thing begins to come apart, exposing the warp and the woof of our beliefs and traditions.

the Coyote