Rational Theistic Luciferianism: Magick, Morality and Addressing the Spiritual
This is an article in a series on Rational Theistic Luciferianism, for the other articles see:
- The Occult Mind, Neural Nets and the Call of the Gods
- Practical Thelema
- Rational Theistic Luciferianism: Philosophical Foundations
- A Practise and the Cults, Black Magick, Lucifer and Moloch
- Luciferianism, Demonolatory and the Black Flame
- A Satanic Manifesto: My Personal Satanism
A culture and morality from "do as thou wilt".
Rational Theistic Luciferianism upholds the precepts of Thelema, of which this is one:
Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
This is the injunction to find your true will. All of moral law, natural law, boils down to finding and exercising your true will. So what does this tell us about the right culture and morality to strive for individually and in our corporate endeavours?
As the precept addresses the law (*) it is a moral question, how should we live and act in order that "do as you wilt" might be "the whole of the law"? It is a call to be free, and indeed Thelema proclaims that "the word of sin is restriction". Crowley explains further in "The Law is for All", saying that this “is a general statement or definition of Sin or Error. Anything soever that binds the will, hinders it, or diverts it, is Sin.”
Clearly the actions of one person may impinge on the actions of another, the freedom of one person may curtail the freedom of another. It is well understood that "do as thou wilt" is not the same as "do as you want". We all have complex desires and wants, shallow and deep, long term and short term. We're used to putting off temporary gratification towards getting something we really want, putting aside our whims and fleeting desires in pursuit of our true will.
Your brother may make you angry, and you may want to inflict violence upon them. But you know your anger will fade, and you do not wish to face the consequences of violence. Although you want to wreak destruction upon your brother, you know it is not your true will.
An atmosphere or culture where people just do what they want, follow whims and shallow desires, is not one where "do as thou wilt" can flourish. The freedoms of one, to be cruel or arrogant, will inhibit the freedoms of others to learn and grow. The value of the law is that the best atmosphere for a group to learn and grow may be built on the best approach to life for every individual.
Although it is reasonable to say that the right atmosphere is one that minimises restriction on all why should any individual participate in that to their disadvantage, what is the right morality for the individual to flourish? Pursuing self knowledge, the occult path, requires that we submit to self examination of our actions and motives. To have motives that make sense and to have your actions spring from those motives is what it means to have character and what it means to have ethics. This is why a code of honour is so important, for you to be able to make sense of yourself and to have depths.
In essence it means having the same standard for yourself and other people, the same standard for your friends and for strangers. If you apply the same standards everywhere then you are able to make sense, you are able to understand your motives and your feelings become more reliable as an ethical indicator. You tune yourself to understand and respond to the same qualities wherever you find them, not partial. You are a single minded person, set on your task and goal, not a double minded person who is unstable in all their ways and easily blown off course.
This is a commitment to truth, so that we may see deeply. Facing the truth about ourselves and facing the truth about life. This means two things:
- Being willing to admit we're wrong and change our minds based on new information or a new perspective.
- Being willing to stand up for the truth even if we're the only one. This includes standing up for yourself.
Without the second we're not a person of integrity, instead of ethics we would have imaginary ethics. You can't know yourself without facing yourself honestly and our own propensity to deceive ourself is strong and must be actively fought against to overcome. Standing up for what you think to be true, even in the face of opposition, is part of what it means to be true to yourself. Staying true to your core convictions, who you really are, is one of the ways to cultivate self respect and find happiness. This is why the pursuit of your true will is so important, it's the path of real happiness even through pain and loss.
For everyone to "do as thou wilt" they must have equal opportunity to shine. Opportunities to grow and opportunities to do. They must not be judged on race, or gender, or sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression. Restriction, prejudice, bias, whether conscious or unconscious, robs people of the opportunity to do their will. Judging people unfairly, making them prove themselves before you accept them, robs them of the opportunity to do as they will.
To be one whole person, a person of integrity able to be constant in all situations, we must treat others as we treat ourselves. Our morality then permits us to do as we will and also permits others to do as they will, except where this places unreasonable restriction on others. This is the Aslan rule, the moral law, of My Personal Satan:
What I do is Narnia business. What other people do is Narnia business too.
We all perform at our best when we're allowed to shine, trusted and accepted. We don't tolerate prejudice, we are intolerant of it, because it is an impediment to "do as thou wilt". However we give everyone a chance, an opportunity to find their place. Where there are issues we deal with behaviour, what people do, not with who they are as that is resolutely their business.
The right culture for "do as thou wilt", a culture where everyone has the same opportunity to be the best that they can be, is Radical Inclusion. A culture where everyone is proactively accepted and welcomed, avoiding cliques, and the best is brought out of them. Everyone has an opportunity to shine. Every person is a star.
This is the culture that avoids cliques forming and doesn't have a pecking order. It's a culture where you can be free to be and express who you really are without fear of rejection. No need for masks or bravado, judgement has been cast far aside.
Coincidentally Radical Inclusion is the culture and morality you get when you take "love is the law" seriously. But it's "love under will", you have to choose to do it.
Note: a commitment to truth will affect the way we see politics. The only way to play politics with integrity is to not play at all. A commitment to us doing as we will at a social level will affect how we see voting systems, for real representation. See: Politics and Voting Systems.
The picture in the image is from a series called Goetia Kids by Harrison Arouca.
The image depicts a Demon, Marax or Morax, the twenty-first spirit of Goetia. He is a Count and Grand President and appears in the form of a buffalo with a human head. But don't be alarmed, he has good family and can teach astrology and the magical use of herbs and stones.
The book of Goetia is one of the Grimoires, an ancient and arcane text of magick and spells. It is part of The Lesser Key of Solomon, a grimoire of demonology compiled in the mid-17th century mostly from materials a couple of centuries older. Each of the 72 chiefs of hell that it describes are the commander of legions of demons.
The Lesser Key of Solomon is divided into five books—the Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria. Theurgy is white magick, as practised by the early neoplatonists. The book we're concerned with here, and the most famous, is Ars Goetia which is concerned with black magic. Ars Goetia is a spellbook about the demons and on the conjuration of demons. There are many translations available including one commissioned and edited by Crowley.
Ars Goetia seems to be based primarily on Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum in his De praestigiis daemonum (1577) which contains a list of demons and the hours and rituals to summon them.
As the Grimoires are usually written from a Christian perspective, the dominant mythos, the rituals are evocations rather than invocations. The aim being to redeem or converse with the Djinn / Demon rather than to take on their attributes and nature.
The work is called The Lesser Key of Solomon and the legend, of pure fantasy, is that this is the forbidden knowledge of Solomon the son of King David and also a King of Israel. The term grimoire is often associated with the demonology and lore of Solomon, although they come centuries after his time.
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, writes:
"Now the parts of ceremonial magic are goetia and theurgia. Goetia is unfortunate, by the commerces of unclean spirits made up of the rites of wicked curiosities, unawful charms, and deprecations, and is abandoned and execrated by all laws."
Literally forbidden knowledge throughout most of its history, this and almost all the grimoires and lore and arcane knowledge of humanity are available to read on the internet. The internet has truly democratised the occult and the learning and discussion of the occult. A golden age.
The book featured in Aleister Crowley's demonology, he commissioned and edited "The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King" and added invocations, along with essays describing the rituals as psychological exploration. He claimed to have summoned Paimon, the ninth demon of Goetia, to visible appearance.
The Lesser Key of Solomon is far from the only grimoire known to modern occultists. The sigil of Lucifer originates in The Grimorium Verum (Latin for True Grimoire) which is an 18th-century grimoire attributed to one "Alibeck the Egyptian" of Memphis. Like many grimoires, it claims a tradition originating with King Solomon.
The Testament of Solomon, which is dated anything from 1CE to medieval times, describes how Solomon was enabled to build his temple by commanding demons by means of a magical ring that was entrusted to him by the archangel Michael.
This dark magick has been hidden from sight and only accessible to the most ardent of seekers but is now open to all. The dark gods flung from the cursed sepulchre and out of the collective unconsciousness into the view of the unveiled and unblinking eye.
Magick is a well to dig into. A stream flowing strong underground. Press your ear to the ground and hear that distant rumble of powerful waters.
Magick is a fantasy, a dream half forgotten, a tale that you can't remember who told you or where it came from, it dwells in the realms of imagination. Magick lives in your memories, alive in your childhood. Magick is colourful life, intelligent beauty, the life giving waters.
Magick is elusive, and illusive. It hides and plays and dances. It can't be pinned down and won't be defined. Magick is dark and mysterious and comes from the earth.
Magick is ancient it lives in the past. Magick was here before we were and will remain after we are gone. Magick longs to be free but fears to be used and kept as a slave and made to do dark deeds. Magick is where the monsters hide and dreams come true. Magick speaks the language of symbols, magick speaks the forgotten tongues. Magick knows the names of the old gods. Magick is power and power corrupts. Magick can heal and bind, it can move through the walls of the mind, magick draws and calls and you can feel it in the echoes in your soul.
Magick moves in the deeps. Magick is in the power of the unseen. Magick bleeds from history. Magick yearns and aches and stirs to your yearning and aching. Magick is creative and won't be denied. Magick is on the move.
Magick is a rising tide. Magick is a powerful current. Magick is dangerous. Magick can change you. Magick creates worlds, magick simplifies. Magick finds a way, magick makes a difference. Magick whispers promises and lies. Magick tells the deep truths and magick will win.
Magick is all around.
Image by Damien Echols. Clockwise from top left: “Talisman of Tzaphkiel (Archangel of Binah),” “Talisman of Raziel (Archangel of Chokmah),” “Talisman of Sandalphon (Archangel of Malkuth)” and “Talisman of Raphael (Archangel of Tiphareth)".
Addressing the spiritual requires addressing the whole person. This is what it means to be spiritual. This includes dealing with the past with honour, dealing with the sexual, addressing vocation and finances, addressing emotions and trauma, dealing with the physical. Whatever it takes to be whole and released in your life, your body and your situation. As much as you are able, and one step at a time.
The social and psychological systems of the world will try to ensnare you and hold you down. This is just the way of the world. Real freedom means upsetting the norms, saying the things that everyone conspires not to say to not upset the apple cart, it means standing on your principles so that you know you are a real person even when you're the only one. Freedom requires determination and persistence and courage and intelligence. The most important of these is courage, with courage all the other human capacities and qualities may grow. It only takes a little courage as courage itself grows as you exercise it.
In RTL (Rational Theistic Luciferianism) A Practise the first two foundational planks address the physical:
- Krav Maga or Ju Jitsu to master and control aggression and to build self confidence and challenge fear.
- Yoga or Tai Chi, for the spirituality of the physical. For Yoga I recommend Hatha, for Tai Chi Yang style. Qi Qong is a useful companion to either.
RTL offers a choice of practises for several of the foundational planks. Here for the self-defence plank the suggested choices are Ju Jitsu or Krav Mage. For the spiritual in the physical the suggested choices are Yoga or Tai Chi.
There are three reasons for offering a choice in this way:
- Availability of good teachers. Finding the right teacher for practical skills is massively important to how able to learn we are. Learning bad Yoga or Tai Chi will do you very little good. Having a choice makes this easier.
- The goal of RTL is the release of the individual, using all their capacities and skills and knowledge, to become a whole individual. Individuation is the task of a lifetime and the more of your existing skills and knowledge you can bring to bear on this the faster you will go.
- Different practises, and the philosophy and world view that comes with them, appeal to different personality types. With a choice you have greater freedom to work with practises that suit your preferences and personality.
RTL is "plug and play", able to encompass a range of spiritual practises and belief systems. In this way RTL is a kind of meta-religion, a set of ways of thinking about and approaching life and spirituality that can work with many different configurations of beliefs and experiences. This is explicitly true for working with the deities, with RTL you pick your own gods! Across a range of different pantheons!
Each of the gods exemplify, personify, represent, embody as discarnate intelligence, different aspects of the divine. Each of us are called and drawn in different ways to different aspects of the divine just as we ourselves embody and personify different aspects of the divine. Every Pantheon comes from and with a world view and ways of seeing and understanding life. Often self-contradictory and definitely contradictory with other belief systems. But with an approach to understanding the spiritual reality of a belief system we can find correspondences between them and relate them to each other, understanding that ultimate truth is in and woven through all of them as is deception and delusion, for they are all imperfect visions of the divine filtered through human understanding and guile.
Picking gods from a range of pantheons, with any depth and substance, requires us to go through this process. To integrate ancient wisdom and understanding in a modern expression of joy at the search and the battle. That joy of the battle is what draws me to the Norse pantheon, for example, and within it particularly I find that Loki resonates. Loki the trickster, the madman who is not mad. From the Hindu pantheon a member of the trinity which is the supreme godhead, Shiva the joyful destroyer who is bliss and friend of the poor. And from within the Abrahamic Pantheon I find myself drawn to Michael, who is war and leader of the armies of heaven. From the Egyptian Pantheon I revere Isis, divine and terrible beauty, who is all women and who is my idealised form of the goddess.
Then of course there is Lucifer, light bearer and bright morning star. Son of the morning and daughter of the evening. Lucifer is the Roman name for a deity from the Christian Pantheon. Venus, known to the Greeks as Eosphorous and worshipped in her evening aspect as the goddess Ishtar, also known as Inanna, Ashtoreth, and Asherah to different peoples at different times.
Being drawn to these different lights and living principles requires a unified understanding of spirituality, a spiritual cosmology, and some rational approach to finding meaning in the role of the deities in both consciousness and life. We want to access whatever spiritual reality is found from disparate understandings of what spiritual reality means. This is a challenge, and also the work of a lifetime, and the topic for further writing. At all times the emphasis is on practise and practical utility within our life and minds, we put the gods to work.
Plug and play spirituality like this, bringing to life and using everything you are and all your experiences, is integral to RTL. In a metaphor that will only be understood by computer programmers who use Python, if the religion of Thelema is the web application programming framework Django then RTL is Flask+WSGI. My apologies to everyone else as that will make no sense whatsoever.
Crowley achieves some of this kind of thinking by forging new gods, who he called literary devices on at least one occasion, from the Egyptian and Christian Pantheons; Heru-ra-ha, Nuit and Hadit and Babalon. To work with these deities you work with ancient mythology in a new way, with new understanding, and through them and in them we may apprehend the divine nature. In Hadit and Nuit I see the duality of fundamental reality just as in the supreme godhead of the Hindus we find a trinity. This follows in the tradition of the god Hermes Trismegistus of the Hermetic Corpus which is the foundation of Hermeticism. Hermes Trismegistus is a syncretism of the Greek god Hermes (the Herald) and the Egyptian god Thoth (wisdom and magick). This is found within Egyptian mythology too. On the Stele of Revealing, dated 680-70BC, is a depiction of the falcon-headed god Re-Harakhty ("Re-Horus of the Two Horizons"), a syncretic form of the gods Ra and Horus. That the gods may appear like this, and that the same god may have many names and many forms and be shared between cultures and that new gods arise and old gods are forgotten, forces a spiritual cosmology that must be continuous with an understanding of human psychology.
The Marvel universe has to do something similar too, kinda, in the crossover and Avengers Assemble movies.
But why self defence in this list, and why the choices of Krav Maga and Ju Jitsu? Self defence is an inherently physical activity, it's useful for exercise and for being in touch with the body, being present in the body, and body confidence and awareness. There's discipline in learning and practising, which is useful for the mind. But this is true of any exercise and could be met by Tai Chi or Yoga which are the next foundational practise.
We are addressing the spiritual, and in particular two areas that need developing in most people (not all people). Self confidence and being able to handle anger and aggression.
One of the hardest things to deal with as an adult is strong emotions, we spend our life avoiding them in general. Conflict is horrible, trauma is horrible, anger is socially frowned on and can be horrible. If we want to live a life worth living then many of the best experiences are found in intensity, passion and joy and enjoyment.
All of us have been brutalised and traumatised by life, marked by life, in some way. Everyone hurts. The sacred duty is to resolve your own trauma lest you inflict it on those around you. Childhood trauma is laid down in strong emotions, and experiences we don't want to revisit. The mental fortitude to face and overcome this, your challenges and the treasures of the darkness, requires determination and the capacity to face those strong emotions. The capacity to face yourself.
Anger and sexuality are both strong emotions that out of control can do a great deal of harm. Both are emotions that are repressed and disapproved of by society. We spend our life, most of us, trying to avoid conflict and find ways of dealing with things without anger.
The psychological system of the patriarchy is in the pecking order, its name is authoritarianism and it is evil. The pecking order rules by fear and the implicit threat of aggression. Know your place and respect those above you! Those who are more aggressive and more ready to put others in their place. The rule of force; hidden aggression manipulating fear.
The only way to learn to handle anger, and to deal with anger and to not be afraid of anger and not to be afraid of yourself, is to practise. Being a whole person requires that you feel anger when it is right to feel anger, that you express anger when it is right to express anger, and that you do that without transgressing our commitment to the truth. When you're angry do you only say things you mean or do you say whatever you can to hurt? Arguments and anger can be an opportunity to say things that you would say at no other time, to deal with things and bring things out into the light. Or they're an opportunity to tear down and create new things that have to be dealt with.
I was bullied as a child, genuine terror and fear for my life and such shame at my own cowardice that I didn't tell anyone about it, and it was a shadow over my life for many years. I'm a decent size, but I'd always tried to live in peace and hated fighting so I'd never learned to do it and was in fear of those willing to fight or be aggressive to get their own way.
I recommend Krav Maga and Ju Jitsu because they're genuine self defence, real skills useful on the streets and not for performance. Within them you can develop practical skills and have confidence in any confidence they bring you.
I chose Krav Maga, corresponding with my Jewish heritage. I'm naturally a physical klutz and find learning physical skills hard, over the time I practised Krav Maga the most substantial take away I learned was that I can punch hard and fast, repeatedly for a long time. I can now go into fairly dicey situations and not be afraid, look people in the eye. That alone means that I'm unlikely to get into any fights. I now walk with a self confidence I didn't have before.
We learned Krav Maga by practising the moves sparring with a partner or partners and pulling the punches, not actually hitting or hurting the person but putting the same amount of aggression into the move as we would in real life. The philosophy of Krav Maga is interesting and appropriate to street fighting:
- The best way to win a fight is not to fight at all. Avoid or deescalate conflict if possible.
- If you have to fight the best way to defend yourself is to put the other person down as quickly as possible and in such a way that they're not getting up in a hurry.
The controlled release of explosive aggression. Except when everyone starts they can't do it. We're conditioned to contain aggression, to repress it. Trusting ourselves to deliberately release aggression without hurting someone is a learned and practised skill. But it comes quickly, and the forbidden emotion is quite a heady drug. I did find it making me more aggressive, more on that shortly. But what I learned over the time I was practising Krav Maga was how to release a great deal of aggression in a controlled way, and then stop. This was transformative. I no longer felt the subconscious impulse to repress anger and aggression, until it burst out in an uncontrolled way. I was no longer afraid of my own capacity for anger and aggression, so I didn't hold onto it or push it down and so it ruled me a lot less. I was also more confident in expressing anger, and then letting go of it and no longer being angry. Practising handling the powerful emotion of aggression made me less afraid of it and more skilful at using it.
Not being afraid of anger and aggression meant I closed my eyes to it in others less readily, recognising the manipulation and coercion of aggression hidden behind a smile and a judgement more readily.
I did find that regular Krav Maga made me more aggressive after a while as my confidence grew and my aggression was less repressed, as I walked around town I would almost hope someone would start something with me so I could try out my new skills. I don't want to hurt people physically, that's not what my life is about. I felt the Krav Maga had served its purpose and I switched to Tai Chi, which is the moving meditation, silent worship, and the ultimate self defence.
I acknowledge the privilege in these practises. I'm male identifying and presenting and physically healthy with a large frame. Despite my adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) causing me to live below my capacity for most of my life, the path for me finding freedom in this way was easier for me than it will be for many people. All we can do is what we're able to do and we all start from where we actually are and not where we wish we were. There are many ways to address fears and every fear faced and overcome does a positive work in the psyche. Cultivate a habit of facing your fears, of doing things you're afraid of.
If Krav Maga is the controlled use of aggression and violence then Tai Chi is violence without aggression, moving without intent and responding in the moment. Tai Chi is much harder to master than Krav Maga, but it is a beautiful practise that is often paired with Qi Gong. Qi Gong is a powerful Eastern practise for cultivating Qi energy whilst Tai Chi is working with and flowing with Qi.
For connecting the physical and the spiritual I have found great joy in Yang style Tai Chi. I've also worked with Iyengar Yoga and have great respect for the spirituality of this practise. Hatha is truer to the mystic origins of Yoga. Both are effective ways to practise thinking with the body and flowing with the body and listening to the body. You are a body and you are a mind and your mind is one with your body.
Both Yoga and Tai Chi, in their various expressions, have spiritual teachings and associations. Yoga brings with it Pranayama as a meditation technique. The contemplative style of Tai Chi pairs naturally with mindfulness meditation. Tai Chi is in the current of Taoism, whilst various religions and philosophies incorporate Yoga. Both have teachings about the relationship of the body to spirituality and associations and correspondences with the mythological and other spiritual systems. One or other may resonate more, may have easier and deeper personal correspondences and significance, may enflame your mind and passions more readily, and be more easily integrated into your journey and search. One may be a more natural expression of you, although sometimes it is good to choose the harder and less familiar path. Integration into one whole person of integrity, mind, body and spirit, is another way of expressing the goal of the spiritual journey. To become one living flame.
Average Yoga is better than average Tai Chi, but there is nothing in the world so fine as good Tai Chi. In my experience it is easier to find a good Yoga teacher than it is to find a good Tai Chi instructor, especially with the massive popularity of Yoga in the West. Partly the work of Crowley and evidence of genuine spirituality eking into culture.
Inside every person resides a great beast. Repress it and forever live in fear of yourself, or master it and rule.
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| King Paimon, the ninth demon of Goetia |
How honest is society in its dealings with us and what do we owe society? Should we treat society as society has treated us, is that not right and just? We the outcasts, the lost boys, the damned.
"For the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law.
The spirit is the spirit of love, both the essence and the substance of love."
Let us look at the last in that list, self-control. Spiritual mastery is control of the mind. The master thinks what she wants to think and does not think what she does not want to think.
It is the mind that moves the body and it is the mind that feels and acts and speaks, out of the overflow of the heart the mind speaks. Control of the mind is self control, control of your behaviour and tongue.
But constantly controlling yourself is exhausting. What if you could trust yourself and be really free, let your passions rage, and still be you and be at peace with yourself. This is what it is to be reconciled to yourself, no longer in conflict with yourself. The shadow is integrated.
Behaviour comes out of character and in turns influences the kind of person we become. A character is made up of habits. The old trusim is true.
Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.
Almost all our behaviour comes from unconscious habits. This is why we're only aware of a tiny fraction of who we are. Anything we do repeatedly we become so good at that the mind is able to continue without conscious. Anything we do habitually becomes effortless.
We can see this at work in a child learning to walk. The conscious effort of balancing and moving is extraordinary. Only a few months later all that precarious balancing becomes habit and merits barely a second thought. Learning any new skill, like learning to drive, is the same. Once the skill is in your muscle memory you can leave it to your autopilot. Better hope your habits include continuous watching of the road and defensive driving or your autopilot might just kill you. Train your autopilot well by making constant awareness your habit.
This is karma, how what we do shapes who we become, which shapes our attitude to the world and how we perceive and respond to everything that happens to us. Destiny calls everyone, but only the ready even notice.
To learn something deeply, to get it right inside, do it rigorously. Do it religiously. Apply it to your life with fervent dedication.
How easy is it for you to change? How easy can you drop something you no longer want to do, or acquire a new habit like using different pronouns for a friend who is non-binary or a new name for a trans friend? This is the test of your self control, how easily can you change?
Vital to being able to change, to being able to craft a character by cultivating good habits like the habit of doing things now, is ruthlessly facing the truth about yourself. If your habit is to deceive yourself and let yourself off the hook then how can you even notice whether or not you are growing and changing. We must all make sober and honest assessments of ourself.
The only constant is change and everything changes, even the past. As you grow in wisdom and understanding reevaluate yourself as part of your ongoing journey of self knowledge and exploration.If you want to know the mind of the gods and to steal fire from the gods you need a mind and a soul that can bear it. That means change and change is just a habit.
"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exist."
— Hannah Arendt
Rudolf Steiner on Lucifer, comparing Christ and Lucifer and Shiva and Lucifer:
“We find the Sun still as a planet among the seven planets, we find Venus with Lucifer as her ruler [Christ is the ruler of Sun]; and these two, the Sun Spirit and the Venus Spirit – in other words Christ and Lucifer – appear at first sight like brothers. Only by straining to the utmost our powers of perception are we to mark out the difference between them.
……..
Lucifer“Lucifer, the ruler of Venus, appears in a form that is extraordinarily full of light … spiritual light. We have the feeling that all the glow and brilliance we can ever experience on Earth…is weak and dim in comparison to the majesty of Lucifer in the old Sun time. But then we notice, when we begin to perceive his intentions…that Lucifer is a being endowed in his very nature with infinite pride.
……….
“Lucifer’s proud greatness, Lucifer’s pride in his majestic figure of light …”Unmanifest light,” light that does not shine outwardly, but has immense strong power in itself – that Lucifer has in full measure … The Christ figure in the time of old Sun – the Lord and ruler of the Sun planet – is a picture of utmost devotion, entire devotion to all that is around Him in the world. Whereas Lucifer looks as one who thinks only of himself – we are obliged to cloth it all in human words, notwithstanding the fact that they are quite inadequate – Christ appears as wholly given up, in devotion, to all that is around Him in the great world.”
……..
These [the starsigns of the Zodiac] were not then externally visible; but instead, twelve great Forms, twelve Beings were present who let their words ring forth from the depths of the darkness, … they were words that told of primeval times, of times that even then were in a remote and ancient past.
The twelve were twelve World-Initiators [Logoi]. Today we behold standing in the directions of these twelve World-Initiators the twelve Signs of the Zodiac, but from them resounds, for the soul that is open to the whole world, the original being of the Unspoken Word of Worlds, that could take form in the twelve Voices.
And whilst Lucifer alone — I must now begin to speak more in pictures; human words do not in the least suffice — whilst Lucifer had the impulse to let stream out upon all things the light that was present in him and therewith come to a knowledge of all things, the Christ on the other hand, gave Himself up to the Impression of this Word of the Worlds, received It in its fulness and entirety into Himself, so that this Christ Soul was now the Being that united in Himself all the great Secrets of the World that sounded into Him through the inexpressible Word.
Such is the contrast that presents itself, — the Christ Who receives the Word of the Worlds [AdamKadmon], and the proud Lucifer, the Spirit of Venus, who rejects the Word of the Worlds and wants to found and establish everything with his own light [outside Adam Kadmon].
.........
Every religion has to be referred back to a founder who through this religion made known to a group of people, in a manner suited to their capacity, some experience belonging to a particular stage of initiation.
You have for instance the religion which is not able to rise to the Christ, the Spirit of the Sun, but is peculiarly adapted to rise to the great and far-reaching soul that lived in the being who was many times incarnated as a Bodhisattva — a religion that looks up in worship to him who is the great Initiator, the great Inspirer, of the Buddha [Shiva, Lucifer].
This religion is not able to ascend to a vision of how the Christ is the Sun Spirit and has descended to Earth.
It sees only as far as to the one who is sent as a messenger; it gathers together, as it were, for its content that which goes forth from the Sun and becomes a planetary spirit.
And we can well understand that Buddha is regarded as a planetary spirit.
Such a religion, that lifts men’s thoughts to the Spirit who guides the evolution of the Buddha, could only grasp a figure like the figure of Vishnu in the Indian Trimurti.
Moreover, since a religion of this kind has not yet come through to the knowledge of the universal victory of Christ over Lucifer, neither is it able to place the figure of Lucifer in such relation to the Christ as we can today.
To the followers of such a religion Lucifer seems to be standing beside the Christ as an independent figure, — His equal, unsubdued. We have seen how Lucifer is given the place of a kind of brother. This is what you have when Shiva confronts Vishnu [Christ]. Look into the religion of Shiva, study it carefully; and you will follow me when I say that the Shiva religion of India can be understood when one has knowledge of the Lucifer Being. For Shiva is in reality Lucifer in the form in which he is not yet overcome.
-- “Man in the Light of Theosophy, Philosophy, and Occultism”, Rudolf Steiner Press, 1964, lectures 8, 10
The name Melchizedek has come up a few times in the occult circles I inhabit recently. It's a name resonating from my Christian past and my Jewish heritage. Melchizedek is an interesting name.
The Christ, of the tribe of Judah to fulfill the prophesy of a lion emerging from Judah, was not of the priestly tribe of the Levites. Instead he was a priest of the order of Melchizedek.
My maternal grandfather was of the tribe of Benjamin, the name of my son. My maternal grandmother had papers showing her lineage from Aaron the brother of Moses of the tribe of Levites and Aaron was her maiden name. Those papers were lost in the holocaust.
Genesis 14:17-20
After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying,“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,Creator of heaven and earth.And praise be to God Most High,who delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Hebrews 11:7-8 says that a new priesthood requires a change in the law. Now love is the law.
If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also.
Then verse 17, of the Christ.
For it is declared:“You are a priest forever,in the order of Melchizedek"
Righteousness does not come from following the law, because you can't. Instead love has perfected and fulfilled the law and now love is the law. And by grace we can love. When we love righteousness is made complete in us, for love is perfect and without blemish.
"People judge by outward appearance. The divine nature looks at the heart."
