BEN CARTWRIGHT: The Archetype 0f The Sovereign Will

“He who masters himself masters the world; the outer order mirrors the inner throne.” - 'Amir Alzzalam (Book of Howling In The Desert Night) ________________________________

Ben Cartwright is the central character of the classic American television series Bonanza (1959–1973). Portrayed by actor Lorne Greene, he is the wise and authoritative patriarch of the Cartwright family, owner of the vast Ponderosa Ranch in Nevada, and father to three (four?) sons. His character embodies leadership, moral strength, and self-reliance, traits that make him a timeless symbol of frontier integrity and personal sovereignty.

Ben Cartwright of Bonanza stands as an unexpected yet powerful archetype of the Western Left Hand Path, the path of self-mastery, sovereignty, and inner divinity. Though portrayed as a Christian patriarch, his life and conduct reveal the deeper essence of the Sinisterist: the individual who shapes reality through strength of Will, responsibility, and discipline.

Ben represents the embodiment of order, reason, and personal authority. His ranch, the Ponderosa, is the outward reflection of his inner law, every boundary, every rule, every moral decision flowing from his judgment. He does not wait for divine approval or external guidance; he governs his world by his own standards. In doing so, he becomes the source of law within his domain, the center from which meaning and structure radiate.

Despite his moral rigidity, Ben Cartwright demonstrates the three virtues revered on the Western Left Hand Path:

Sovereignty: He answers to no priest or ruler. His faith is private, molded by his own understanding rather than dictated by dogma.

Responsibility: He accepts the weight of his actions and their consequences without appealing to divine mercy or fate.

Will: His world exists as a direct expression of his determination and discipline, a landscape ordered by the force of his mind and purpose.

Unknowingly, Ben lives the essence of the LHP: to act as the god within one’s own realm. The Ponderosa is his creation, his reflection, his statement of power. He sustains it not through worship, but through Wisdom and Will.

Ben Cartwright transcends the role of moral patriarch and becomes an emblem of self-determined mastery, a man who demonstrates, through his deeds, that divinity is not bestowed from above but realized from within.