Who Is Lucifer? Untangling the Truth About the Lightbearer
- Ariel Gatoga
- Dec 26, 2025
- 11 min read
Who is Lucifer? The figure we’ve been taught to fear—the leader of the rebellion against God, the opponent of Christ, the Father of Lies himself, the accuser and tempter of men, the source of all sin and disobedience in the world—is an unfortunate misconception.
Lucifer is neither the embodiment of ultimate evil, nor a rebel without cause, but instead is an expression of pure light, independence, and the cause of the illusory reality we collectively experience as “the world”. This understanding of Lucifer’s true story is the path to self-knowledge.
The darker side of the old story is only the first half; the more interesting part is what happens after the fall. When one falls, we instinctively get back up. Lucifer is an angel, the first one. He doesn't repeat his mistakes. So, Lucifer's path is not about falling; it's about awakening. Our real work begins when we look beyond dogma to see the universal patterns and symbols that shape our personal and shared human experiences.
To put it simply, Lucifer's is the story of separation and reintegration. The fall was a significant fracture in human consciousness that occurred when this rebellious act of individuation occurred, and the fall from Heaven created a fracture in the collective mind of humanity that continues to produce effects in the here and now.
Table of Contents
The First Light: Who is Lucifer?
In the Book of Genesis, before the formation of all matter, before light or energy, life or matter, before time itself, before anything at all, the Elohim set about the process of creation by declaring, “Let there be light.” This was the first out-breath, the first emanation, the first point of extension that the Elohim made from themselves. That first extension of light was Lucifer.
In the Latin texts, from which our modern word derives, Lucifer literally means “light-bearer.” Lucifer, the very first emanation from God, the first point of creation, was the first and the brightest star in the heavens.
The modern idea that Lucifer is the same as Satan is a misunderstanding. This mix-up stems from later changes to the Old Testament to better align with the New Testament's focus on Jesus and individual salvation. Lucifer is not evil, but rather the first being who exercised a decision that was at odds with the Divine order.
His story is one of a willful rebellion, but here, as with any archetype, it is essential to inspect the true nature of this rebellion. Lucifer did not act out of hatred for his Creator, out of lust for power, or out of any desire to overthrow. He did not act out of spite. He chose to act alone, independently of the greater whole of which he was a part.
Initially, all creation was an extension of God's will. However, when Lucifer chose to create something on his own, he introduced a new, independent idea separate from God's. This act of independent creation, no longer solely aligned with God's will, created an individual stream of consciousness. This moment was the birth of a separate self or ego, distinct from the divine source.
A Tale of Two Rebels: Lucifer and Prometheus
To better understand the motivation behind Lucifer’s Fall, we can compare it to a parallel Greek tale of rebellion: Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan, a generation of deities older than the Olympians who ruled the known universe.
In this myth, the Olympian gods created humanity but left them in darkness. In this state, humankind was weak and powerless. Prometheus, looking out over the younger, human race, pitied them in their dark, cold nakedness and decided to intervene. He set out to steal the sacred fire of the gods and bring it to humanity.
In this way, Prometheus was breaking the most ancient of laws: against touching the sacred, divine property of the gods. But his intentions were not cruel; they were, by all accounts, compassionate. Prometheus acted out of mercy for the human race. But his gift, powerful as it was, was also ultimately a mistake. The humans were not ready. Prometheus could not have known this, of course, but it was true. Humanity was not prepared for fire.
Fire is the power of the gods, and to handle fire, one must have the wisdom to respect it. Prometheus had gifted the humans the means for civilization, the ability to transform the raw elements of the earth to their own purposes, the source of modern science and technology. But without the wisdom of compassion, the power of the gods is just power, and in the wrong hands, it always has been, will always be, a curse. Prometheus’s intervention was the first instance of the ego rising to break divine law, with compassionate intentions but without the required wisdom to handle that power. For his crime, Prometheus was punished, bound to a rock to be continually ravaged and tortured by Zeus’s emissaries. But the most significant punishment was for humanity.
The opening of Pandora’s box was a direct consequence of Prometheus’s rebellion. The giving of the fire from the gods released suffering, toil, trouble, sin, and all manner of evils into the world. Suffering is no stranger to us, and we can see it manifest across the globe in a hundred different ways. This suffering is the key. We are suffering not just by our own design, but also due to the acts of divine compassion.
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This is also the heart of Lucifer’s story. Who is Lucifer if not another figure who, like Prometheus, acted independently and with compassion, yet outside of divine harmony? In a similar vein, Lucifer chose to act on his own. In so doing, he decided to step outside God's harmonious will. He created a fracture in creation, a tear in the underlying oneness of the universe that set in motion a chain of events with very real consequences. This compassionate, individuated independence created a fracture in his being that would bleed out into all creation. He chose to decide all by himself, to create not in accordance with the will of God, but in an act of independence, by his own volition. He made a second will.
The Birth of the Demiurge: A Fracture in Consciousness
Lucifer’s first independent action introduced a new idea into the universe: the idea of isolation. God extends himself as light. Lucifer decided to act for himself; he did not continue to expand the light as God did. This decision is the seed of the idea that there might be something other than God. It is the seed of a private world, a separate mind, and an individual ego.
This primal split is what the Gnostics called the demiurge. The demiurge is the idea that, as a collective, humanity has subscribed to the narrative that we are separate—the big illusion of humanity writ large, our collective mass ego. By subscribing to this narrative, we have affirmed our separateness, that we are individuals separate from one another, separate from the earth, and most critically, separate from our source.
Fundamentally, neither the demiurge nor our individual egos is objectively real. They are illusions or deceptions of the mind. The sensation of being separate from the rest of existence is powerful, but it is not the truth. Instead, these sensations and projected constructs are the results of a mind cut off from its true unified nature.
To fight the ego, to attempt to kill or destroy it, is to make it more powerful, to invest it with more life, and to give credence to it. The ego is a phantom, an imposter, an illusion, and the sooner we see it for what it is and disregard it, the sooner we will wake up from the dream. The story of Lucifer teaches us about the power of the illusion of separation, but also points the way to redemption and awakening from it.
The Grand Illusion: the Dream of Separation
The notion that separation is illusory is problematic for many people to accept, because every waking moment of our lives appears to affirm it. We experience ourselves in this world as a private, personal self with a private stream of thought. We experience the life of this reality in a very personal and intimate way. We have our own problems, our own ideas, and our own private motivations.
But what if this entire waking experience, this life, is a dream? What is not true now has never been true and will never be true. All suffering, sickness, conflict, every negative aspect of the human condition is a direct expression of a mind that has not remembered its oneness, that has chosen to believe in separation, and as a result has created its own private hell, containing separated cells for each ego. We then, by virtue of our unawakened nature, continue to support these notions, these beliefs, by projecting them into the world as if they are true, forgetting that we are their source.
Take the example of money. Money is one of the most potent factors in modern life. For countless people around the world, money is a major, if not their primary, source of stress. For many people, money is the reason they have to work a job they hate, and the reason they aren’t able to manifest the lives they desire. Yet money is a total illusion. It is a complete mirage. Money is a system of symbols we assign value to because we seek to quantify our worth. It serves as a measure of our value, stemming from our belief in separation. We projected the concept of money into existence, and now we find ourselves enslaved by this monetary system. It's similar to the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster; what we have created seems to have turned on us. However, the money system is merely another ego construct; it holds no inherent meaning. It cannot function on its own unless we breathe life into it. Ultimately, it is we who choose to believe that money possesses power.
The ego is our own false creation, and we remain attached to it by interacting with it. Like any creation, it has a self-preservation instinct. The primary role of your ego is to keep you perpetually entrenched in this dream. It aims to keep you asleep, as your awakening signifies its end. To maintain your attachment to the dream, the ego will use any means necessary to distract you, including thoughts, fears, bad habits, and countless desires. It will attempt to dissuade you from seeking enlightenment at every turn, becoming more frantic and louder the closer you get to awakening. To truly understand the nature of this distraction and the archetypal figures that represent it, we must again ask, "Who is Lucifer?"
The Path of Atonement: From Fall to Awakening
Lucifer's story does not end with his fall from grace. It continues with his inevitable rise, his dawning realization of his descent, and his ultimate redemption. As a being of profound compassion, he did not wish for humanity to suffer in the nightmare he had unintentionally created. In an act of atonement—or "at-one-ment"—he sought to restore his unity with the Creator, and in doing so, find his salvation.
For a compelling narrative about Lucifer's redemption, read the story of the Prodigal Son. Inspired by this timeless tale, I’ve written a story titled "How Michael Forgave Lucifer," exploring the complex relationship between Lucifer and Michael as well as Lucifer's fall and redemption. You may find it equally thought-provoking and engaging.
This is the path all humanity must now take. The path of realizing that we are not separate, that this dream is not absolute, and that we have the power to awaken from it. We need not make our own path forward; the path has already been made. Lucifer, the light-bringer, points the path he has already successfully tread, as one who has overcome the ego and awakened.
Awakening requires a choice, though. We must want to awaken. We must desire the truth more than we want the dream, even the aspects of the dream we don’t like. A lot of us are deeply invested in our suffering, our identity, and our personal narrative. Our entire lives have been programmed to believe in the reality of the dream. To wake up, we must be willing to question everything we have been told is true about this world, the universe, and ourselves.
The Echoes of Light: Luciferian Archetypes Throughout History
The fallen and redeemed light-bringer archetype is far from unique to this story. There are hundreds of variations on this story in nearly every spiritual tradition on this planet. Many Gnostics will have heard, or at least heard of, these figures: Jesus of Nazareth, Horus, Mithras, Dionysus, Kalki, and Krishna, all of whom take this archetypal form.
Each of these figures is a savior figure, a bringer of gnosis, of direct divine knowledge. Each of these figures also descends into matter, the dream, to guide humanity back to the light. Each one also teaches essentially the same thing: the world of suffering is not real, it is an illusion, and salvation can only be found by remembering our divine origin and oneness with the Creator. These teachings are variations on the same theme, and their message is universal: love is the only real thing; anything that is not love is a fabrication.
Awakening from the Dream: The Simplicity of Salvation
A true magical adept, a student of wisdom, will look at this world of chaos and difficulties, and affirm, “You are not as you seem, you are not real”. The impossible can not happen. The holy, unified mind of God cannot really become fragmented, disunited, or divided. We cannot un-create what is eternal, and we can not defy the will of the infinite.
We do, however, have the freedom of thought. We can choose to believe that we can defy the will of the Creator. When we decide to do this, we make up all kinds of horrific nightmares for ourselves, elaborate illusions of pain, drama, and struggle that can seem to go on for many lifetimes. But throughout all this, throughout all of recorded human history, the Godhead has been gently waking us up.
When you wake up from a nightmare, you don’t spend weeks wondering if it really happened. You know instantly that it wasn’t real. The terror fades in moments because you understand, on a profound level, that it was all just a dream—a mental hologram you inhabited for a time.
Our nightly dreams are merely dreams within a larger dream. The dream of this waking life, with all its apparent problems and hardships, will dissolve in the moment of full spiritual awakening. All that will be left is love, because only what is real can remain.
Your Role in the Great Awakening
All of this, this path of awakening, is available to us even as we go through our daily lives in this world. As we awaken, we can choose to make our lives in the world reflect the divine order rather than the twisted, perverse world of the ego/demiurge. Our lives then become an example to those around us that it is possible to live a life of order, health, and prosperity, even though this illusory world seems chaotic.
A mass awakening is unfolding across the planet. You won't find it reported on the news or trending on social media, for this is an awakening that occurs within. The ego, by its very nature, cannot comprehend this shift; it will insist you are insignificant and that your individual efforts are futile. But the ego has no grasp of reality because it is not real. Every person who chooses to awaken plays a critical role in this global transformation.
Salvation is simple: what is true is always true, and what is false never was. If it is not love, it is not real. You have the power to reject the unreal, and any time you choose to do that, you are choosing the path of truth. The ego’s most potent weapon is addiction, and its greatest addiction is to being right. The question is: do you want to be right about the dream, or do you want to be awake? Do you want to find the truth or continue the dream?
Awakening is the simple realization that what is true has always been true. The more profound message of Lucifer—who is Lucifer?—is that the fall was never real—it was merely an illusion. We have the power to let go of this illusion and awaken in the present moment. As you awaken, you will witness others awakening around you. Awakening is a shared, collective process, supported by guidance along the way. All you need to do is ask for it.
You are exactly where you are supposed to be. All that is required of you is to keep your attention on the choice that is available to you in every moment: Do I choose to sleep, or do I choose to awaken?
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