Luciferianism is a belief system that has often been misunderstood and misrepresented, primarily due to its association with the figure of Lucifer, traditionally depicted in Christian theology as a symbol of evil and rebellion against God. However, Luciferianism does not involve the worship of evil or the promotion of harm. Instead, it is a complex philosophy that emphasizes personal empowerment, the pursuit of knowledge, and the rejection of dogmatic norms. Adherents, known as Luciferians, view themselves as the architects of their own destiny, embracing the concept of being their own source of light and truth.[1]
Luciferianism does not have a single point of origin but rather is a convergence of various historical, religious, and philosophical traditions. The name "Lucifer" is derived from the Latin word lucifer, meaning "light-bringer" or "morning star," and was originally used to describe the planet Venus.[2] In Christian texts, particularly in a passage from the Book of Isaiah, this term was used metaphorically to describe the fall of a Babylonian king, a passage that early Christian writers later interpreted as referring to the fall of Satan.[3] This interpretation led to the conflation of Lucifer with the Devil, a concept that was not originally present in the biblical texts.
Luciferianism also draws heavily from Gnostic traditions, which emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) over the orthodox teachings of institutionalized religions.[4] Many Gnostic sects viewed the material world as a flawed creation and sought to transcend it through the acquisition of hidden knowledge. In this context, the figure of Lucifer can be seen as a Promethean figure, a bringer of knowledge and enlightenment who defies oppressive forces.
During the Enlightenment, the figure of Lucifer was further reinterpreted by thinkers who saw in him a symbol of intellectual freedom, rebellion against tyranny, and the pursuit of truth. Writers such as John Milton, in his epic poem Paradise Lost, depicted Lucifer as a tragic hero who, despite his fall, embodies the human spirit's quest for autonomy and understanding.[5] This reinterpretation contributed to the foundation of modern Luciferian thought, positioning Lucifer not as an object of worship, but as a symbol of the individual's potential to challenge authority, seek knowledge, and create their own moral and spiritual path.
Luciferianism as a distinct philosophy began to take shape in the 20th century, particularly through the work of esoteric and occult thinkers. These individuals sought to reclaim the figure of Lucifer as a positive archetype, emphasizing self-deification, the idea that each person has the potential to become their own god through the cultivation of wisdom, power, and personal sovereignty.[6] Unlike Satanism, which often seeks to invert Christian symbols and values, Luciferianism focuses on personal enlightenment and the pursuit of knowledge as the highest goals.
The core principles of Luciferianism revolve around three main ideas: self-empowerment, the pursuit of knowledge, and the rejection of dogmatic norms. These principles form the foundation of Luciferian thought and guide the actions and beliefs of its adherents.
Self-empowerment is central to Luciferianism, where individuals are encouraged to become their own source of light and truth. This involves taking responsibility for one's life, making decisions based on personal understanding and values, and rejecting external authorities that dictate beliefs or actions. Luciferians believe in cultivating inner strength, autonomy, and self-reliance, and are committed to personal growth and the development of their intellectual and spiritual potential.
The pursuit of knowledge is another fundamental tenet of Luciferianism. Knowledge is seen as a powerful tool for personal and spiritual development, and Luciferians seek to understand the world through study, reflection, and experience. They value wisdom over ignorance and believe that true enlightenment comes from questioning established norms, exploring new ideas, and continually seeking to expand one's understanding of the world.
Luciferians reject dogmatic religious and societal norms, encouraging individuals to question established beliefs and develop their own understanding of truth and morality. This rejection of dogma is not an endorsement of chaos or moral relativism but rather a call for personal responsibility in forming one's beliefs and values. Luciferians value flexibility in thought, allowing for the possibility of growth and change as new knowledge is acquired.
In Luciferianism, Lucifer is not worshiped as a deity but is regarded as a powerful symbol. Lucifer represents the "light-bringer," the one who defies oppressive structures to bring knowledge and enlightenment to humanity. This symbolism is rooted in various mythologies and religious traditions where figures who bring knowledge or defy the gods often play pivotal roles.
Lucifer also embodies the idea of rebellion against unjust authority. In Christian tradition, Lucifer’s rebellion against God is often depicted as the ultimate sin of pride. However, Luciferians interpret this rebellion differently, seeing it as a courageous act of defiance against tyranny and an assertion of individual freedom. Lucifer’s fall is not viewed as a defeat but as a necessary step in the quest for autonomy and enlightenment.
In modern interpretations, Lucifer is seen as an archetype of intellectual and spiritual freedom. He represents the pursuit of knowledge, even when it comes at a great personal cost. This symbolism resonates with those who feel constrained by traditional religious or societal expectations and seek to carve out their own path in life.
Luciferianism is often misunderstood and mischaracterized as a form of devil worship or as inherently evil, largely due to the conflation of Lucifer with Satan in Christian theology. However, Luciferianism does not involve the worship of any external deity, and it does not promote immoral or antisocial behavior. Instead, it emphasizes ethical behavior consistent with the values of autonomy, knowledge, and self-improvement.
Another common misconception is that Luciferianism is inherently anti-Christian or anti-religious. While Luciferianism does reject many aspects of Christian doctrine, it is not necessarily opposed to all forms of spirituality or religion. Instead, it encourages individuals to explore different belief systems and develop their own spiritual path based on personal experience and understanding.
Individualism is a core value in Luciferianism, emphasizing the importance of personal autonomy and the development of one's beliefs and practices. This focus on the individual contrasts with more collectivist or dogmatic religious systems, which often prioritize communal beliefs and behaviors over personal exploration and growth.
In Luciferianism, individualism is about the pursuit of self-actualization, with each person believed to have the potential to become their own higher power. This involves a deep commitment to personal growth, including intellectual, spiritual, and moral development. Luciferians also respect the individual’s right to choose their path, advocating for religious freedom and tolerance, and believe that everyone should have the right to explore different beliefs.[7]
See main article: article and Lucifer. The word Lucifer is taken from the Latin Vulgate,[8] which translates הֵילֵל as lucifer.[9] [10] The Biblical Hebrew word הֵילֵל, which occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible, has been transliterated as hêlêl,[11] or heylel. The Septuagint renders הֵילֵל in Greek as ἑωσφόρος[12] [13] [14] (heōsphoros),[15] [16] [17] a name, literally "bringer of dawn", for the morning star.[18]
According to both Christian[19] and Jewish exegesis, in Chapter 14 of the Book of Isaiah, the King of Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar II), conqueror of Jerusalem, is condemned in a prophetic vision by the prophet Isaiah and is called the "Morning Star" (planet Venus).[20] [21] The Hebrew text in this chapter says, Hebrew: הֵילֵל בֶּן-שָׁחַר (Helel ben [[Shahar (god)|Shachar]], "shining one, son of dawn").[21] Helel ben Shahar may refer to the Morning Star, but the text in Isaiah 14 gives no indication that Helel was a star or planet.[22] [23]
Later Christian tradition came to use the Latin word for "morning star", lucifer, as a proper name ("Lucifer") for the Devil; as he was before his fall.[24] As a result, Lucifer has become a by-word for Satan or the Devil in the church and in popular literature",[8] as in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, Joost van den Vondel's Lucifer and John Milton's Paradise Lost.[17] However, the Latin word never came to be used almost exclusively, as in English, in this way, and was applied to others also, including Jesus.[25] The image of a morning star fallen from the sky is generally believed among scholars to have a parallel in Canaanite mythology.[26]
The Luciferian label—in the sense of Lucifer-worshipper—was first used in the Gesta Treverorum in 1231 for a religious circle led by a woman named Lucardis (Luckhardis). It was said that in private she lamented the fall of Lucifer (Satan) and yearned for his restoration to heavenly rule. The sect was exposed by the Papal Inquisition. In 1234, Pope Gregory IX issued the bull Vox in Rama calling for a crusade against the Stedinger, who were accused of Luciferianism. The bull contains a detailed description of supposed rites and beliefs. This description was repeated and occasionally expanded in the following centuries, but "modern historiography agrees on their entirely fictitious nature".[27] The actual identity of the heretics accused of Luciferianism is often difficult to ascertain.[27] Those of the 13th-century Rhineland appear to have been Cathars (Alexander Patschovsky)[28] or a distinct off-shoot of the Cathars (Piotr Czarnecki).[29]
In the 14th century, the term Luciferians was applied to what appear to have been Waldensians.[27] They were persecuted under the Luciferian label in Schweidnitz in 1315 and in Angermünde in 1336. In 1392–1394, when some four hundred Luciferians from Brandenburg and Pomerania were brought before the inquisitor Peter Zwicker, he exonerated them of devil-worship and correctly identified them as Waldensians. At the same time, the inquisitor Antonio di Settimo in Piedmont believed the local Waldensians to be Luciferians.[30]
Lucifer the Lightbearer was an individualist anarchist journal published in the United States by Moses Harman in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has been reported that "the title was selected, stated Harman, because it expressed the paper's mission. Lucifer, the name given to the morning star by the people of the ancient world, served as the symbol of the publication and represented the ushering in of a new day. He declared that freethinkers had sought to redeem and glorify the name Lucifer while theologians cursed him as the prince of the fallen angels. Harman suggested that Lucifer would take on the role of an educator. 'The God of the Bible doomed mankind to perpetual ignorance,' wrote Harman, 'and [people] would never have known Good from Evil if Lucifer had not told them how to become as wise as the gods themselves.[31]
Lucifer was a publication edited by the influential occultist Helena Blavatsky. The journal was first published by Blavatsky. From 1889 until Blavatsky's death in May 1891, Annie Besant was a co-editor. Rudolf Steiner's writings, which formed the basis for anthroposophy, characterised Lucifer as a spiritual opposite to Ahriman, with Christ between the two forces, mediating a balanced path for humanity. Lucifer represents an intellectual, imaginative and otherworldly force which might be associated with visions, subjectivity, psychosis and fantasy. He associated Lucifer with the religious and philosophical cultures of Egypt, Rome, and Greece. Steiner believed that Lucifer, as a supersensible Being, had incarnated in China about 3000 years before the birth of Christ.
Léo Taxil (1854–1907) claimed that Freemasonry is associated with worshipping Lucifer. In what is known as the Taxil hoax, he alleged that leading Freemason Albert Pike had addressed "[t]he 23 Supreme Confederated Councils of the world" (an invention of Taxil), instructing them that Lucifer was God, and was in opposition to the evil god Adonai. Supporters of Freemasonry contend that, when Albert Pike and other Masonic scholars spoke about the "Luciferian path" or the "energies of Lucifer", they were referring to the Morning Star, the light bearer,[32] the search for light, the very antithesis of dark, Satanic evil. Taxil promoted a book by Diana Vaughan (actually written by himself, as he later confessed publicly)[33] that purported to reveal a highly secret ruling body called the Palladium, which controlled the organization and had a Satanic agenda. As described by Freemasonry Disclosed in 1897:
Taxil's work and Pike's address continue to be quoted by anti-Masonic groups.[34]
In Devil-Worship in France, Arthur Edward Waite compared Taxil's work to what today would be called a tabloid story, replete with logical and factual inconsistencies.
Madeline Montalban was an English astrologer and witch. She co-founded the esoteric organisation known as the Order of the Morning Star (OMS), through which she propagated her own form of Luciferianism. In 1952, she met Nicholas Heron, with whom she entered into a relationship. An engraver, photographer, and former journalist for the Brighton Argus, he shared her interest in the occult and together they developed a magical system based upon Luciferianism, the veneration of the deity Lucifer, or Lumiel, whom they considered to be a benevolent angelic deity. In 1956, they founded the Order of the Morning Star, or Ordo Stella Matutina (OSM), propagating it through a correspondence course. The couple sent out lessons to those who paid the necessary fees over a series of weeks, eventually leading to the twelfth lesson, which contained The Book of Lumiel, a short work written by Montalban that documented her understanding of Lumiel, or Lucifer, and his involvement with humankind. The couple initially lived together in Torrington Place, London, from where they ran the course; but in 1961 moved to the coastal town of Southsea in Hampshire, where there was greater room for Heron's engraving equipment.
In Anton LaVey's The Satanic Bible, Lucifer is one of the four crown princes of hell, particularly that of the East, the "lord of the air", and is described as the bringer of light, the morning star, intellectualism, and enlightenment.[35] The title "lord of the air" is based upon Ephesians 2:2, which uses the phrase "prince of the power of the air'" to refer to Satan.
In Rules for Radicals (his final work, published in 1971 one year before his death), the prominent American community organizer and writer Saul Alinsky wrote at the end of his personal acknowledgements:
Author Michael W. Ford has written on Lucifer as a "mask" of the adversary, a motivator and illuminating force of the mind and subconscious.[36]
See main article: Fraternitas Saturni. Stephen Flowers, in his book on the German magical order Fraternitas Saturni (FS), says that "the FS is (or was) the most unabashedly Luciferian organization in the modern Western occult revival".[37]
As of early 2024, a one page website with the name, luciferchurch.org mentioned several churches with Lucifer or Luciferian in the name: The Luciferian Church in Denmark, the National Church of Lucifer, The Scandinavian Church of Lucifer, Church of Lucifer, Greater Church of Lucifer, Neo-Luciferian Church, (none of which have websites specifically under their name).
It included a seal of "the Church of Lucifer, Denmark", stated that "The Great Church of Lucifer based in Anholt island Denmark", but also
It stated that the Neo-Luciferian Church incorporates "elements from Thelema, Gnosticism, Voodoo, traditional occultism, and witchcraft" in its practices, and denounces its rivals at the Church of Satan and The Satanic Temple as partaking in "Cosplaying for Tax Evasion".[38] It lists as its "Danish Luciferian Background: The Neo-Luciferian Church was started in 2005 by Danish occultist Bjarne Sally Pedersen." and that it is a "reawakening and modern interpretation of the Luciferian Gnosticism advocated by Danish occultist and member of the Ordo Templi Orientis Carl William Hansen", aka Ben Kadosh "in the early 1900s".[38]
The Neo-Luciferian Church website is no longer in existence, but the original can be seen on archive.org.[39]
The one known brick and mortar church having some connection to Lucifer, "The Greater Church of Lucifer", located in Old Town Spring, Texas, opened 30 October 2015 and closed less than one year later.[40] In 2014, Luciferians founded a worldwide organization for Luciferians from Houston, Texas, known as the Greater Church of Lucifer (GCoL) under the leadership of church founder Jacob McKelvy, co-presidents Michael W. Ford and Jeremy Crow, founder of the Luciferian Research Society. In 2017 McKelvy converted to Christianity.[41] Michael W. Ford and his wife have described their religion as "Luciferian witchcraft".[42]
In 2015, the GCoL opened a house of worship in Old Town Spring, Texas, with several dozen members. (They had previously contacted online.) Over a hundred local residents, mainly Catholic, protested the opening of the church.[43]
The town of Old Town Spring suffered from a boycott in response to the church, The church itself had windows smashed and its roof damaged after someone sawed off the branch of a 200-year-old pecan tree hanging over the church in the middle of the night.[44] [45] [46] [47] Ford stated that The Greater Church of Lucifer was forced to shut down one year later because their landlord refused to renew their lease after receiving death threats.[48]
As of 2024 a website called the Assembly of Light Bearers stated that it is "the successor guild" for the Greater Church of Lucifer, following the church's "(at least temporarily)" closing, and that "the ALB is drastically different in structure and purpose from the GCOL".[49]