THE LUMINOUS STONE Lucifer in Western Esotericism Edited by Michael Howard and Daniel Schulke

The Arcanum of the ‘fallen angel’ Lucifer evokes such concepts as heresy, rebellion, pride, liberation from the bonds of demiurgic oppression, and impetus for human evolution. Meaning ‘light bearer’, Lucifer has, from his earliest origins, been hailed by religious and artistic countercultures as a patron saint of enlightenment —the essential quality embodying overthrow of ignorance and the inspired process of revelation. Allied to ancient Gnostic cosmological conceptions, the fallen angel has also found dominion within occult traditions and philosophy. Lucifer has also, in many mystical traditions, assumed a female form in the guise of Lucina, Lucia and Diana Lucifera. In his guise as the Serpent of Eden, he bestowed a magical philosophy of the Luciferian Woman, she who was not born of the clay, and was therefore especially receptive to the forbidden powers which would render one ‘as God.’ Yet, outside most occult contexts, Lucifer is commonly conflated with the Christian figure of Sat