Awaken in Light.

Everyone is so caught up on the idea of Faustian bargains being a tool of the devil’s trade, but it doesn’t work that way with the Lucifer I know.

Well, actually, if someone was offering me something like their firstborn in return for power I would fuck up their lives in order to teach them a lesson too, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

You want fame? Go learn a trade and earn it yourself. Wealth? He’s not going to kill your long-lost aunt who named you sole inheritor of her fortune, but he’ll probably flood your mailbox with job applications. Immortality? Uh, closest thing to it is a long life—he’d sooner give you a ban on junk food than mess with your genetics.

Seriously, remember how I said he was practical? I wasn’t kidding. Now, I’m not saying asking for divine help is a bad thing. It’s certainly understandable when the situation is entirely out of one’s own control. But if you want a deity who will coddle you and give you your heart’s desire in return for your devotion—Lu is definitely not the one to go to.

So I can’t help but laugh whenever I come across the idea of Lucifer leading people astray with his ‘false promises’. I don’t know about his interactions with anyone else, but he’s never ‘promised’ me anything. As a devotee of his who has been taught to forego attachments to material things, who has restrictions in place when it comes to ‘worldly’ pleasures, I can’t see what he could possibly have to offer others that is materialistically tempting, considering the fact that they would have to work for it themselves. The only false promises I see here are the ones that have been invented by others and imposed onto him.

From my experience, he seems to favor the idea of everything in moderation.

Shocker, right? Isn’t Lucifer supposed to encourage and glorify indulging in luxury and sin? There’s that reverse-Christianity mentality again. Do those who follow a Rokkatru path have to reject the nine noble virtues of Asatru and do the exact opposite? Of course not. Why should Luciferianism embrace sins as virtues? Maybe we don’t see them as being bad exactly, but it doesn’t mean we have to automatically believe overindulgence in them is ‘good’.

Especially if we consider the idea that Lucifer was once the highest ranked angel, second only to God himself. A role like that requires trust, it is something that is earned through one’s actions and deeds—so, he must have believed that they were doing something right, otherwise why not rebel from the moment of his creation? Why does his rebellion have to mean that he rejects everything and anything that Christianity deems good and virtuous?

Let’s say I have a job in a company I am very content with. I agree with a lot of their policies, and I believe in what the company stands for. I love my work, but I can’t stand my boss. Maybe I thought he was a cool guy in the beginning, but later on realized that I don’t agree with how he’s running things—the company I loved is slowly being corrupted into something else entirely, and the employees are not being treated as they should. I’m not the only one who thinks this way, either. So I go and tell my boss exactly what I think, and he fires me.

Well, screw that, maybe I’ll just go start my own company.

It doesn’t mean I hate the previous company. It doesn’t mean I hated my old job. It doesn’t mean I’m going to run my company on ideals that are completely opposite that of the previous one. But my ex-boss and his loyal employees might see things that way, especially if they feel threatened.

Their business has over a thousand employees, with a solid reputation amongst their customers and clients, while my own newly founded company has only a handful of employees and no reputation to speak of just yet.

So when the mudslinging begins as a consequence of feeling threatened, guess who people are going to flock to and believe?

And thus we get all these skewed concepts like the Faustian bargain, and vices as virtues, and double standards—oh goodness, the double standards are the worst, I think. Selfishness and pride are okay when it’s YHVH we’re talking about, but not Lucifer? Well fuck.

Here’s an idea—how about we focus on our own faiths instead of trying to demonize someone else’s?

tribalanarchy:

Question: 

I know that “pagan” means to follow a non-Abrahamic religious tradition. 

But can one receive YHVH as their patron deity as a pagan — despite him being [in one way or another] the God of the 3 Abrahamic faiths?

Perhaps — because worship of him is approached in a different manner than Judaism, Christianity, or Islam prescribe?

Essentially — I’m asking can one be called to follow YHVH, as a pagan [rather than as a Jew, Christian, or Muslim]?

I think anyone can be called by any god, regardless of their current faith. Whether or not you would be allowed to remain pagan if you choose to worship him is another issue altogether. Henotheism sounds like it might be a compromise, but it depends on what your patron demands of you. I have come across other self-labelled pagans who claimed to worship YHVH, but I don’t know the terms of their relationship.

Edit: I should probably mention that I see YHVH and Christ as being separate entities. Thus, I see christopagans and YHVH-worshipping pagans as distinct from one another, with different sets of restrictions and allowances in terms of their path.

I leave for a few hours and all of tumblr is up in arms about the Luciferian/Pagan/Christian post. 

1. Why are we even bothering arguing with someone who DOESN’T identify as pagan OR Luciferian, and still holds to the absurd idea that all pagans must be polytheistic? Not to mention the fact that getting a rise out of us is exactly what he is trying to do, to come off as an asshole as stated in his own bio.

2. Can we not stick words in each others’ mouths, or attempt to define what a person should or shouldn’t believe? Let’s embrace the goddamn diversity of the pagan community, NOT narrow it down into textbook definitions or personal ideals of what paganism should or should not include.

3. Personally, I don’t need anyone else’s validation or approval of what I choose to call my faith, so long as it holds true to what I believe that faith to be. On the same note, I would not dream of stripping away someone else’s identity ‘cause you know what? That’s none of my fucking business. ESPECIALLY if I am not a member of their faith. 

So, y’all can go on arguing as to why Luciferians aren’t welcome, or aren’t technically pagan, but the fact is that I’m pretty damn comfortable identifying as both a Luciferian and a pagan and I don’t plan on changing what I call my path any time soon for anyone. And since I and the other legit Luciferians of Tumblr are kind of at the center of this fucking debate, you can either settle down and attempt to have calm, rational discussions with us, maybe even learn WHY we choose to identify the way we do and face us directly instead of going to secondhand sources, or you can go on bickering amongst yourselves while we sit back and watch the community tear itself apart from the inside.

Now, that being said, my ask box is always open, and I am willing to answer any questions and engage in any respectful conversations concerning faith identification, but I also reserve the right to ignore anyone who appears to only be interested in starting up shit like before.

hellsmedic:

Or: on how Luciferianism is NOT Satanism, and please quit trying to fit our faith into your neat little box. 

http://omourningstar.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/disparaging-remarks/

Or: A more concise and straightforward explanation than my attempt at reasoning with trolls

;D