5. How do you feel about veneration/genuflection? If you do honor Lucifer/Satan what kind of offerings you do? Why?

So, there are three words here which are all different in connotation to me, and thus I feel differently about all of them. 

Veneration is “great respect, reverence.”

Genuflection is “to bend the knee.”

Honor, in this sense, is “high respect, esteem.”

I feel fine about all those things towards Lucifer, however, Lucifer has frequently discouraged such displays from me. (Is this UPG? Yes! It’s absolutely UPG!)

Do I respect him and revere him and hold him in the highest of esteem? Absolutely!

Do I kneel to him? No, because the reaction of the spirit I have been interacting with, and who I believe to be Lucifer, would not be positive. 

Placing limits on my displays of veneration is, in fact, a sign of respect and a form of veneration in and of itself. Which is a paradox! And Lucifer lives in paradox. 

I do make offerings, of many types. What I don’t make is sacrifices. Lucifer has never indicated any interest in receiving an offering that does not benefit me as well, and thus I assume would have no interest in receiving an offering that actually inconveniences me, i.e. a sacrifice. 

In my experience, Lucifer reacts very well to shared offerings. I share fresh fruit with him frequently, in honor of Eden– a specific offering he suggested to me. I also burn frankincense and myrrh for him, because if baby Jesus can have nice things so can Lucifer. He seems to appreciate the mild blasphemy of that offering, and we both get to enjoy the fragrance. (I want to offer him some gold, too, so that he can have all three traditional gifts of the Magi, but ya know, turns out gold is expensive.)

Lucifer also seems to enjoy offerings of self-improvement and creativity. I often silently dedicate my musical performances and even my rehearsal sessions to him. After finishing a good book that really made me think, I used to set it on my altar for a few days–until altar space and frequent fire hazards became an issue. I should really just dedicate some bookshelf space to him because I miss that part of my practice, and it felt really good and right. 

I also offer Lucifer defiance and irreverence– both towards traditional religions/institutions, and occasionally towards him. A little irreverent humor and blasphemy often seems to please him, even when directed his way. 

I know some Luciferians have very different practices that are much more… traditionally reverent, or immediately recognizable as reverent. I think that is beautiful. 

I am a little sensitive about my own perceived irreverence because I realize many may not understand the reverence that is wrapped up in it, and the way that so much of it is motivated by my direct contact with the being I believe is Lucifer. (UPG, yes, but if we can’t have some personal gnosis, which may be hard to verify by its nature, then what is the point of this path?)

I came to my conclusions about shared offerings after I spent nearly fifteen minutes begging Lucifer to let me know if he would like an offering just for himself that didn’t benefit me. The reply I received was “just eat some fruit.” That was not the reply I was looking for or expected, at all. 

Once, during a pendulum session, I was overflowing with gratitude and thanking him profusely, and the pendulum started going “no no no” very forcefully. Answers to follow-up questions revealed that he did not feel responsible for the particular things I was thanking him for, and wanted me to thank myself instead. 

Lucifer constantly shifts the focus of reverence and worship from him and onto my Inner God. I find that deeply uncomfortable and challenging. Self-worship sounds like an easy cop-out, but it’s not! It’s far easier to feel adoration and veneration and gratitude towards Lucifer, than it is to feel that way about any part of myself. Apotheosis is an inscrutable mystery. Even though my Inner God is an integral part of my soul and is always with me, It often feels so much more distant, so much more unknowable than Lucifer. Just worshiping him would be so much easier. But he doesn’t let things be easy. 

I am not his equal. Absolutely not. But he wants me to become so. That goal may be lifetimes away, but he won’t let me lose sight of it, and he won’t let me forget it. Placing him too far above me lets me forget what I am supposed to be doing, so he consistently comes down to my level to remind me. That is grace. That is generosity. That is fucking noblesse oblige on a cosmic scale. 

With the entity I know as Lucifer, worship is blasphemy and blasphemy is worship. Defiance is reverence and reverence is defiance. Somewhere in between all of that lies the goal– intimacy with Lucifer, and apotheosis for myself. 

As always, your mileage may vary.