Mark Booth

Lucifer is evil, but he is a necessary evil. Without Lucifer’s intervention, proto-humanity would not have evolved beyond a vegetative form of life. As a result of Lucifer’s intervention in history we are animated, both in the sense that we can move about the surface of the planet and also in the sense that we are moved by desire. An animal has conscious awareness of itself as a distinct entity that is denied to plants.

It might at first seem counter-intuitive to equate the goddess of Venus in Greece and Rome - Aphrodite to the Greeks - with Lucifer in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Venus/Aphrodite is female and seems more life-enhancing. But in reality there are key points of similarity. ... The apple is the fruit associated with both. Lucifer tempts Eve with an apple, whilst Paris hands Venus an apple in a gesture that precipitates the abduction of Helen and the Great War of the ancient world.

In all the ancient religions, the being who guides the human spirit through the underworld and helps negotiate the way past the guardian demons is the god of the planet Mercury. But the initiates of the Mystery schools kept an even stranger secret. Halfway on the journey through the spheres, there is a swap. The task of guiding the human spirit upwards is taken over by a great being whose identity may perhaps be a surprise. in the latter part of the spirit’s ascent through the heavenly spheres, the guide who lights the way is Lucifer.

In the spiritual ecology of the cosmos Lucifer is a necessary evil, both in this life - because with out Lucifer humans could feel no desire - and in the afterlife. Without Lucifer the spirit would be plunged into total darkness and fail to understand the ascent.