Hi, my name is David and I'm an alcoholic. I made that statement almost 365 days a year for six years. I, initially, got sober through AA. I worked the 12 steps with an Atheist sponsor and sponsored new people as well. I was practicing Wicca at that time, belonged to a Wiccan 'church', and acted as High Priest on occasion.

Once I moved from Philadelphia to a small town and stopped going to meetings.....I relapsed. I believed it was because I stopped going to meetings.....which is and isn't true. What is true is that I dropped my only connection to recovering folks.......which I believe, even still, is crucial to maintaining my sobriety.

I found a Pagan online recovery group to join......and got sober again. During that period I was feeling that I had outgrown Wicca and started searching for something new. Eventually, I picked up a copy of The Satanic Bible by LaVey......which began my exploration of the Left Hand Path. I soon 'converted' to Satanism.....which I found invigorating and it strengthened my recovery even more.

In a lot of ways...recovery is recovery, but I do approach recovery (and many aspects of my life) differently, in some ways, since adopting a Left Hand Path perspective. The greatest examples that come to mind are ideas about selfishness and ego. Selfishness is viewed as detrimental to recovery according to the 12 step philosophy....I view it as necessary. If you don't take care your self and your true needs........you can't be of any use to anyone else. Ego is thought of as 'evil' and needs to be destroyed according to AA. I truly believe that having a strong healthy ego is not only wise, but also necessary for survival.