Medieval The Luciferian label—in the sense of Lucifer-worshipper—was first used in the
Gesta Treverorum in 1231 for a religious circle led by a woman named Lucardis (Luckhardis). It was said that in private she lamented the fall of Lucifer (Satan) and yearned for his restoration to heavenly rule. The sect was exposed by the
Papal Inquisition. In 1234,
Pope Gregory IX issued the
bull Vox in Rama calling for a
crusade against the Stedinger, who were accused of Luciferianism. The bull contains a detailed description of supposed rites and beliefs. This description was repeated and occasionally expanded in the following centuries, but "modern historiography agrees on their entirely fictitious nature". The actual identity of the heretics accused of Luciferianism is often difficult to ascertain. or a distinct off-shoot of the Cathars (Piotr Czarnecki). In the 14th century, the term Luciferians was applied to what appear to have been
Waldensians.
Early modern Moses Harman's
Lucifer The Light-Bearer was an
individualist anarchist journal published in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has been reported that "the title was selected, stated Harman, because it expressed the paper's mission. Lucifer, the name given to the morning star by the people of the ancient world, served as the symbol of the publication and represented the ushering in of a new day. He declared that freethinkers had sought to redeem and glorify the name Lucifer while theologians cursed him as the prince of the fallen angels. Harman suggested that Lucifer would take on the role of an educator. 'The God of the Bible doomed mankind to perpetual ignorance,' wrote Harman, 'and [people] would never have known Good from Evil if Lucifer had not told them how to become as wise as the gods themselves.
Lucifer was a publication edited by the influential occultist
Helena Blavatsky. The journal was first published by Blavatsky. From 1889 until Blavatsky's death in May 1891,
Annie Besant was a co-editor.
Rudolf Steiner's writings, which formed the basis for
anthroposophy, characterised Lucifer as a spiritual opposite to
Ahriman, with
Christ between the two forces, mediating a balanced path for humanity. Lucifer represents an intellectual, imaginative and otherworldly force which might be associated with visions, subjectivity, psychosis and fantasy. He associated Lucifer with the religious and philosophical cultures of Egypt, Rome, and Greece. Steiner believed that Lucifer, as a supersensible Being, had incarnated in China about 3000 years before the birth of Christ. In what is known as the
Taxil hoax,
Léo Taxil (1854–1907) claimed that
Freemasonry is associated with worshipping Lucifer. He alleged that leading Freemason
Albert Pike had addressed "[t]he 23 Supreme Confederated Councils of the world" (an invention of Taxil), instructing them that Lucifer was God, and was in opposition to the evil god
Adonai. Supporters of Freemasonry contend that, when Albert Pike and other Masonic scholars spoke about the "Luciferian path" or the "energies of Lucifer", they were referring to the Morning Star, the light bearer, the search for light, the very antithesis of dark, Satanic evil. Taxil promoted a book by Diana Vaughan (actually written by himself, as he later confessed publicly) that purported to reveal a highly secret ruling body called the
Palladium, which controlled the organization and had a Satanic agenda. As described by
Freemasonry Disclosed in 1897: Taxil's work and Pike's address continue to be quoted by anti-Masonic groups. In
Devil-Worship in France,
Arthur Edward Waite compared Taxil's work to what today would be called a
tabloid story, replete with logical and factual inconsistencies.
Madeline Montalban was an
English astrologer and
witch. She co-founded the
esoteric organisation known as the Order of the Morning Star (OMS), through which she propagated her own form of Luciferianism. In 1952, she met Nicholas Heron, with whom she entered into a relationship. An
engraver, photographer, and former journalist for the
Brighton Argus, he shared her interest in the occult and together they developed a magical system based upon Luciferianism, the veneration of the deity
Lucifer, or Lumiel, whom they considered to be a benevolent
angelic deity. In 1956, they founded the Order of the Morning Star, or
Ordo Stella Matutina (OSM), propagating it through a
correspondence course. The couple sent out lessons to those who paid the necessary fees over a series of weeks, eventually leading to the twelfth lesson, which contained
The Book of Lumiel, a short work written by Montalban that documented her understanding of Lumiel, or Lucifer, and his involvement with humankind. The couple initially lived together in
Torrington Place,
London, from where they ran the course; but in 1961 moved to the coastal town of
Southsea in
Hampshire, where there was greater room for Heron's engraving equipment.
Modern In
Anton LaVey's
The Satanic Bible, Lucifer is one of the four crown princes of hell, particularly that of the East, the "lord of the
air", and is described as the bringer of light, the morning star, intellectualism, and enlightenment. The title "lord of the air" is based upon
Ephesians 2:2, which uses the phrase "prince of the power of the air'" to refer to Satan. In
Rules for Radicals (his final work, published in 1971 one year before his death), the prominent American community organizer and writer
Saul Alinsky wrote at the end of his personal acknowledgements: Author
Michael W. Ford has written on Lucifer as a "mask" of the adversary, a motivator and illuminating force of the mind and subconscious. ==Notable organizations==