Луциферианство: Верования и история

Belief system that venerates Lucifer

Luciferianism is a belief system that venerates the essential characteristics that are affixed to Lucifer, the name of various mythological and religious figures associated with the planet Venus. The tradition usually reveres Lucifer not as the Devil, but as a destroyer, a guardian, liberator, light bringer or guiding spirit to darkness, or even the true god.

The word Lucifer is taken from the Latin Vulgate, which translates הֵילֵל as lucifer, even though the Biblical Hebrew word הֵילֵל, which occurs only once in the Hebrew Bible, or heylel. The Septuagint renders הֵילֵל in Greek as ἑωσφόρος (heōsphoros), a name, literally "bringer of dawn", for the morning star.

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.

Stephen Flowers, in his book on the German magical order Fraternitas Saturni (FS), says that "the FS is (or was) the most unabashedly Luciferian organization in the modern Western occult revival".

The one known brick and mortar church having some connection to Lucifer, "The Greater Church of Lucifer", located in Old Town Spring, Texas, opened 30 October 2015 and closed less than one year later. In 2014, Luciferians founded a worldwide organization for Luciferians from Houston, Texas, known as the Greater Church of Lucifer (GCoL) under the leadership of church founder Jacob McKelvy, co presidents Michael W. Ford and Jeremy Crow, founder of the Luciferian Research Society. In 2017 McKelvy converted to Christianity. Michael W. Ford and his wife have described their religion as "Luciferian witchcraft". In 2015, the GCoL opened a house of worship in Old Town Spring, Texas, with several dozen members. (They had previously contacted online.) Over a hundred local residents, mainly Catholic, protested the opening of the church. The town of Old Town Spring suffered from a boycott in response to the church, The church itself had windows smashed and its roof damaged after someone sawed off the branch of a 200 year old pecan tree hanging over the church in the middle of the night. Ford stated that The Greater Church of Lucifer was forced to shut down one year later because their landlord refused to renew their lease after receiving death threats. As of 2024 a website called the Assembly of Light Bearers stated that it is "the successor guild" for the Greater Church of Lucifer, following the church's "(at least temporarily)" closing, and that "the ALB is drastically different in structure and purpose from the GCOL".