by Joshua E. Creighton
If you look at the Bible, there are only a few actual references to Satan/Lucifer and his celestial fall from grace. Among these are 1 Timothy 3:6:“He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.”, Jesus telling his disciples in Luke 10:18: “And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” and Ezekiel’s lament concerning the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:12-18.
And then there’s the passage in Isaiah 14:12-14:
12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
Telling, indeed. However, if you look at the Book of Isaiah and use this passage as a reference point, it becomes apparent that Isaiah was comparing the King of Babylon and the Babylonian captivity of the Children of Israel to the Fall of Lucifer.
As they say, pride goeth before the Fall.
The most prominent besides Isaiah is a vision described by John of Patmos in Revelation 12, often referred to as “The War in Heaven”:
12 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Mythopoetically, Lucifer, Satan, or the “Morning Star” is cast as an exalted spoiled child who is handed everything on a silver platter; but desperately wants more. He was said to be the most beloved of God’s angels, an Angel of Light blessed with the gifts of persuasion and creating the most captivating music in the heavenly spheres. Spare the rod, spoil the child.
An unrestricted ego was Lucifer’s sin, just like it is ours today. Gaia provides us plenty, yet we continue to debase the land and pollute to our heart’s content; we throw potentially valuable things away instead of recycling or giving it to charity; we use people for sex, drugs, and money ~ anything that will fulfill us in the moment, without considering the consequences of what we’re doing to ourselves and others. We exist in a literal Garden of Eden, but have turned it into a mock version of Sheol.
There is a great schism here. The schism exists between the eternal and all-loving God-consciousness that interpenetrates all of Nature (including man), and the destructive, limited ego-mind of man that wishes to rule and dominate over all Creation. The schism, essentially, is between adulthood and childhood. Between the Shadow and Light. In order to make things right, in order to achieve Wholeness again, God must become the “adult in the room” and bridge the gap, forgiving His most beloved for every awful transgression committed and integrating the Shadow into His Light. And we must too. To make the two worlds One again, to combine the Inner and Outer, we must bring down the Higher Self into the lower, and raise up the lower into the Higher.
As above, so below. As within, so without.
In the Tarot, Trump XV of the Major Arcana is known as “The Devil”. This card generally implies self-imposed limitations or bonds, the chains of which must be broken if we are to ascend to a higher state of awareness of ourselves, our relations to one another, and our environment.
This may sound like blasphemy to most believers, but I ask thee: If God is all-loving, all-merciful, and all-powerful…is it not possible for Him to forgive the one transgressor who tried to usurp his heavenly Throne? Would this not be the ultimate act of forgiveness and Divine Love imaginable?
In order to forgive Satan and his machinations, we must first forgive ourselves. We are human and make mistakes, but as we grow into adulthood as individuals and as a species, we can begin to see our childish mistakes for what they are and learn from them. This is Wisdom. Our egos no longer need to “attain to the Throne” because we’re already sitting there. We only believe we are fallen, which is not actually the case. It is an illusion, a veil, that has been draped over our eyes by the social, religious, and political establishments that wish to see us subservient and enslaved ~ blinding us from fully knowing our true selves and our divine birthright as Children of God.
Josh is a freelance writer, web designer, Internet Marketer, and intuitive healer. With no formal education, he established PsychoShamanix Inc. in the summer of 2012 to facilitate and promote a more spiritual/holistic path toward mental health. He seeks to bridge the schism between science and spirituality through his various multimedia efforts. You can visit his website here: http://www.psychoshamanix.com
Josh,
Nice post.
A couple of connections I made: Jung’s model of the Self also includes the shadow, which he sometimes refers to as the anti-Christ, and which he doesn’t blame for evil but includes as a necessary send natural element of existence, despite being a Christian (though certainly an unorthodox one). The last few pages of Aion explain it best.
Also, there’s a Stuart Davis song with the refrain “Even the devil is God” I thought of after reading your claim that God should be able to forgive the Devil. It might be an awkward moment for Him, but I agree.