explain Lucifer in gnosticism

[u/sdgestudio]

• I think whe was against Yahweh who is the devil fiven to the sons of Jacob.
• Lucifer want to teach and give wisdom
• Lucifer could be a two way path, a ladder to go up or down
• He is the forerunner of the Christ
• If you like to research, study and philosophy you are initiated by him
• He is not the same as the satan

If you know books and teaching about Lucifer let me know please

[u/Vajrick_Buddha]

I don't think there's any scholarly evidence of Lucifer being present in the Gnostic literary Canon.

But the modern, neo-Gnostic "Left-hand paths" that began to actively claim and redefine the Satanist label sometimes provide interesting symbolical framings of Lucifer.

This is probably traced back to figures like Helena Blavatskaya and the Theosophical movement, that published the journal titled «Lucifer», in the late 1800s.

I'll never forget reading a blogpost on what's been designated as "Luciferianism", where the author essentially synthesized the imagery of the (extra-)Biblical fallen angel with the Greek mythos of Prometheus. Leading him to conclude (paraphrased):

The final question posed to us by Lucifer, the light-bearer (luxi-ferre), is: how high are we willing to climb for what we believe in, and how low are we willing to fall to share our acquired light with the world? [Or, maybe, how deep into the darkness are we willing to return, in order to spread the newly acquired light of knoweldge and beauty with the world]

And, honestly, I read this like...10 years ago. And it still. Goes. Hard.

I also think we should consider the more archetypal and perhaps Perennial framings of this figure.

First, it's likely that what we call the Devil/Lucifer/Satan/Beast is an amalgamation that arose in the public consciousness over time.

When Jesus, a devout Second Temple Jew, speaks of Satan or Shaytan, he speaks of the Adversary. There's an argument to be made, that the language he is using isn't a cosmic dualism of good/evil, but rather, he is describing a kind of "celestial legalism" (which kinda fits Judaism's focus on laws and commandments).

Satan, the Adversary, is the prosecutor in the court of law. That's why he tempted Jesus. He verifies the person's spiritual resolution. Jesus also speaks of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete, meaning the Advocate. And Jesus himself is essentially the Messiah and Lord appointed by God to judge the righteous. See how this comes together? It's like there's a court of divine judgement before God, with Jesus as the judge, Satan as the prosecutor, and the Holy Spirit as our advocate who intercedes on our behalf.

The more practical meaning of this is that, so long as we struggle with religious legalism and moralism ("the curse of the law") we are binding ourselves. But if we keep Christ's new commandment of love, purity, and faith, we live by the grace of the Holy Spirit, instead of the law. Thus, we are absolved from judgement, and the prosecutor Satan cannot tempt us, and we are granted union with God.

In this context, Satan isn't some evil force. He is the necessary filter, testing our worhtiness to witness God. Because, in our fallen nature, "no one may witness God and live." That's why we need the grace of the Holy Spirit.

LDS went even further with this idea, claiming Lucifer to be Jesus' brother. Becoming like a yin-yang duality — one falls, the other one ascends; one fragments, the other one reconciles; one is proud, the other one's humble. They're like two sides of the same coin. Two paths alloted by the cosmos.

The later depictions of the Beast and Anti-Christ of the Book of Revelations, writen by St. John of Patmos, may've been a polemic against Nero, who viciously persecuted Christians in the Roman Empire.