Agnosticism

I feel a need to pull myself back a little, and cultivate some skepticism. 

I’ve been leaning very heavily on the “belief” side of my agnosticism lately and I feel like I need to chill. Personally, I maintain agnosticism for spiritual reasons and I will lose those benefits if I go full theist. 

I definitely like the feeling of belief. It makes me feel like I am never alone. It’s comfortable.

But I don’t think Lucifer, if he exists, wants me all that comfortable, and if I don’t exercise my skepticism I’m pretty damn sure he will pull away from me until I have to. 

So: Lucifer. Not even sure he’s really a thing. His very name is the result of a mistranslation. The passage it appears in (Isiah 14:12) might be about a human king anyway. He bears striking resemblance to various pre-Christian deities and mythological figures, and the name I call him by previously belonged to the Roman god of the morning star. 

In fact, the more you study, the harder he gets to pin down. Connections have been drawn between Lucifer and: Prometheus, Icarus, Dionysus, Apollo, Pan, the goddess Lucina/Saint Lucy, even Christ himself– and pretty much all of that just in The Luminous Stone. Some think he’s but one aspect of a single being named Satan. 

Some think him a sun god, others the god of the planet venus. Steiner says he lives on the Moon. Maybe that’s no more ridiculous than any other claim that involves Lucifer’s literal existence. 

Most of what I feel to be true about him is influenced by works of literature, not by scripture– which may be nothing more than fiction itself, anyway. 

I have had experiences, but they could easily have all come from my own imagination, or from coincidence. 

Maybe Lucifer is just a name I chose to invoke when I learn hard lessons the hard way, or when realization hits me like a stroke of lightning. 

Maybe Lucifer is just a fantasy figure, an archetype that I like.

If so, that’s fine. So be it, be it so. 

Lucifer, if you are there and you are real, this, too, is an offering to you. I give you my doubt and my critical thinking. 

Notes on the Temptation of Christ

luciformspiral:

brightestandbest:

I re-read the accounts of Matthew and Luke of the Temptation of Christ recently, and several things struck me. Matthew and Luke’s versions of this event are nearly identical, so I am using Luke here for no particular reason. (Translation is King James, because it’s pretty, and in this case doesn’t disagree too significantly from versions often considered more accurate.)

This is just a quick sketch of my impressions and initial thoughts. 

Keep reading

This is long but absolutely worth the read. It’s extremely helpful for someone like me who has trouble sitting down for hours to read the bible and pull it apart on my own because of illness.

If you ever feel inspired to make more of these types of posts, please do.

Thank you! I absolutely plan to do more posts like these in the future.

Quote

Perhaps everybody has a garden of Eden, I don’t know; but they have scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword. Then, perhaps, life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it. Either, or: it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare.

James Baldwin, from Giovanni’s Room (Vintage, 2013; first published 1956)  (via kuanios)

Simple Offering to Lucifer: Eat Some Fucking Fruit!

So, I can’t believe this never occurred to my dumb ass before. 

A few minutes ago I was ardently praying to Lucifer, expressing how much I love him and want to feel him close, and asking him to let me know if we wants an offering or anything from me.

And it came into my head quite clearly:

Just eat some fruit. 

I mean… duh. What better way to honor the Serpent of Eden? 

An apple is traditional, but we don’t know exactly what the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was. Some say a pomegranate. Enoch compared them to large grapes. I’m guessing “nothing that actually grows in this world” would be the most accurate answer.

I figured I would go with something vaguely round or oblong that grows on a tree. Apricots were what I had on hand– possibly my favorite fruit!

To make it an offering, I simply focused on savoring the fruit more completely than I normally would. I tried to be mindful of the taste, the texture, how the velvety skin felt against my tongue, the juices running down my hand. I chewed slowly and was mindful of the fruit sliding down my throat as I swallowed. 

Offering complete. 

(It occurs to me that with stone fruits there are probably a lot of things you would do with the pits. Plant them, use them in a ritual, etc. I composted them but may try other options when I do this again.)

I think Lucifer is a particularly good deity for offerings that also benefit you. He really seems to resist offerings that don’t benefit me, in fact. (Your mileage may vary of course, depending on your particular relationship to him.) So enjoying something healthy, delicious and deeply symbolic was perfect. 

I think I need to keep more fruit around. 

In the wake of that I also received a nudge to make more offerings to my Inner God/Higher Self. I need to ruminate on that idea, and will write on it more later when I have given it some thought.