#Diana Lucifera

[evilios]

lucifera - one of the epithets associated with Diana. Cicero in Nature of the Gods explains the meaning through Diana's connection to Luna which shines (lucere) and Juno's epithet Lucina. It might be connected to the fact of Lunar months being used as measurement of the length of pregnancy and both Diana-Luna and Juno overlooking childbirth.

[divaricca]

Star Goddess of many names and many faces in various cultural personifications, make yourself known in me as my consciousness and imagination permit me... and burn in me your Sacred Flame.

Dea Stella dai molti nomi e dai molti volti in varie personificazioni culturali, fatti conoscere in me come la mia coscienza e la mia immaginazione me lo permettono... e accendi in me la tua Sacra Fiamma.

My artwork edit (illustrations are not mine) Free to reblog from my profile.

[reno-matagot]

𝕾urprised by this book, in which there is a lot of interesting information. Ford, we like it or not, I am aware of it. But this book can really be inspiring in the theistic or Daimonic/ self-centered approach.

𝖂hat particularly appealed to me was the polytheistic approach of the book, which is not only centered on Hecate but also on deities and spirits such as Haides, the Keres, etc.

𝕻leasantly surprised.

[cursecuelebre]

Roman Goddess Luciana of Childbirth and Light

Attributes:

Childbirth

Matrons (Married Women)

New borns

Midwifery

Soon - to - be Mothers

Virginity/Chasity

Celestial Light Moon and Sun

Light that which brings Newborns into life.

Fertility especially when it comes to women

Symbols:

Torches

The colors red, black, and white

Libyan Lotus trees or Nettle trees. Member of the Elm tree family. The trees are southern European species of nettle trees, the Romans just refer them to as Lotus trees.

I’ve read from a source that lady bugs or lady birds are sacred to her but I find just one source so take it with a gain of salt. Lady bugs is mostly associated with Freyja so I would imagine relating to fertility.

Titles and Epithets:

Luciana is the Goddess of light and childbirth and newborns. Her name is alone to be just be a goddess alone which is possibly she originated from a Sabine moon goddess. But her name itself can be a title like how “Hekate or Hekatos” is used not just for a name of a goddess. Her name Luciana can be derived from the Latin word “Lux” which is luminous and light also “Lucus” which means Groves I’ll explain in the next paragraph. I’ll put other names she was referred by but also what goddesses of which they took her name as an epithet/title.

- Noctiluca - Giving Light by Night

- Luna - Of The Moonlight

- Lucifera - Giver of Light

- Juno Lucina - Shining one. With this title there is more information about the worship of Luciana.

- Diana Lucina - Divine Queen

- Hekate Lucina - Hekate was also known to bear this title as a light bearer.

- Saint Lucia or Saint Lucy: It is theorised and not so uncommon of when goddesses or gods become saints after Christianisation a well known example is St Brigid once known before in pre-Christian Ireland as a Celtic goddess of the Hearth. Saint Lucia is said to be the Goddess of Luciana whose symbol is a torch as well.

General Information

During the early days of the Roman Empire Luciana was one of the first temples to be established. She is said to be originated from the tribe of Sabine whose role as a moon goddess. Her role within Roman religion was mostly documented as Juno Lucina which isn’t surprising since Juno is the goddess of marriage and motherhood and childbirth. Her temple was set on Cisipan Hill on a Grove. But a shrine to Luciana was built on Esquiline Hill around 373 BCE on March 1st. It was always set on a grove which was surrounded by Lotus trees or Nettle trees which was very sacred and celebrated by offering locks of hair from Vestal Virgins who acknowledge their vows of chastity and a choice to not become a mother.

When Luciana was invoked during childbirth for easy delivery and a healthy child to be born. Women would let their hair loose and untie any knots from their clothing in a way of sympathetic magic letting energy of the birth flow easily and without any complications. After the baby was delivered, the child would be brought to the goddess’s altar called Sellisternium (a altar dedicated to a goddess) along for a feast of celebration. Luciana is very much centered around all things pregnancy, newborns, fertility, she even is called a Saviour from infertility, She is in charge bringing Newborns into the light of the world, also grants Newborns safe passage.

Her festivals

Held on March 1st, the Roman new year also called Matronalia plus the anniversary of the temple’s founding. Where married women would be given money from their husbands to make an offering to Juno Luciana of Womanhood. They (Matrons) would general go to the temple make offerings on Esquiline Hill. Afterwards a festival of Family would began as the Matrons of the household would be a central figure with their husbands giving them gifts and Slaves would be served as well.

Editor’s Note:

It was brought up very importantly that Luciana is the Italian proper name but “Lucina” is the correct and proper spelling for the titles and epithets for Juno and Diana not Luciana. The difference is very hard to notice at first which I made that mistake, but thank you to the lovely user who made it known to me in the comments! Putting this here so that it’s a marking of update, I will retype the titles and such for the correction 💖

[zahramorningstar]

✨️Mari Lucifer✨️

In his book 'The Gnostics and Their Remains', Charles King equates the Gnostic Sophia with Venus Anadyomene (Venus Rising from the Sea) which appears on ancient magical gem stones as a naked damsel.

Manly Hall explains that Venus and Isis were names for Lucifer, telling us: "Being visible in the sky at sunset it was called Vesper, and as it rose before the Sun, it was called the Star of the Morning or Lucifer, meaning Light Bearer. Because of this relation to the Sun, the planet was also called Venus, Astarte, Aphrodite, Isis, and The Mother of the Gods".(The Secret Teachings of All Ages').

Magdalene is assumed by some to be interchangable with goddesses like Sophia, Isis, and Inanna. In his book 'Mary Magdalene The Illuminator', popular author William Henry tells us: 'Plutarch states that Isis was called Sophia.

She's also called Astarte, the goddess worshipped by Solomon. Each of these goddesses, in turn is the Babylonian goddess Inanna. Schonfield concludes that there is no doubt that the beautiful woman's head of the Templars represents Sophia in her female and Isis aspect -- and she was linked with Mary Magdalene in the Christian interpretation"..

The most famous occultist of the 20th - century Manly Hall, explains in his book 'The Secret Teachings of All Ages' that Isis "metamorphized' into the Virgin Mary.

Some scholars have tied the Virgin Mary to Magdalene. Theologian Cyril of Jerusalem held that the Virgin Mary was one and the same as Magdalene. In their book 'Jesus and

the Lost Goddess', Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy assert that the Virgin Mary and Magdalene in the Gospel accounts represent -- respectively, the higher Sophia and the fallen Sophia - aspects of the same character in the Sophianic myth.

Like Sophia, Magdalene was also associated with Venus. Rachel Geschwind (a professor in the Art History department at Youngstown State University) observes that in the 16th - century, paintings like Rossiglio's 'Conversion of the Magdalene' began to give Venus-like characteristics to Magdalene.

The explicit links between Magdalene and Venus perhaps point to Mary's true identity. When observed From Earth, Venus traces a perfect pentagram across the sky every eight years making a pattern of a rose.

This is known as the "Rose of Venus" or The "Pentagram of Venus". Magdalene is sometimes referred to as "The Rose" and those who diligently followed the Magdalene Mysteries were known as the "Initiates of the Rose Line".

In Southern France, Magdalene was known as Mary-Lucifera, connecting her to Lucifer. Isis and Diana were also known as Lucifera (see the book Magdalene Mysteries', by Seren Bertrand). As Author DeAnna Emerson tells us: "Inanna's name was altered to suit new languages. She was called Ishtar, Isis, Astarte, Diana, Venus, Magdalene -- one goddess with many names"

In his book The Templar Revelation', popular author Clive Prince tells us:

"As Nancy Qualls-Corbett and other recent commentators have pointed out, the depiction of Mary Magdalene in the Gnostic Gospels is that of illuminatrix and illuminator or Mary Lucifer, the Light-bringer -- the bestower of wisdom and enlightenment".

[maiamars]

asoiaf brainrot is trying to link ashara and howland through the moat cailin : the name cailin can be linked for some to the goddess diana, ashereh/diana = fertility goddess, diana during the trojan war putting a deer/stag instead of iphigenia, one of diana's titles is diana lucifera (light-bearer)/ martemis phosphorus, phosphorus (morning star)=/hesperus (evening star) -> arthur/brienne, phosphorus=Eosphorus (dawn bringer),"I swore an oath to keep him safe," she said to Rhaegar's shade. "I swore a holy oath.""We all swore oaths," said Ser Arthur Dayne, so sadly." We = arthur (every after his knighthood)and brienne (lady stoneheart) on jaime

everything comes back to arthur is brienne and brienne is arthur

[mask131]

Roman gods are not Greek gods: Diana

DIANA

Who was Diana before she was associated with Artemis? Well… she wasn’t much of a somebody. The Italic Diana was a secondary goddess without much of a characterization. Almost all of her legend, appearance and attribute comes from the Greek goddess of the hunt.

In fact, the Romans considered that their cult of Diana directly came from the Greeks: they believed that it was the Greek hero Orestes, who came with Iphigenia to Italy, and there brought the cult of Artemis (of which Iphigenia was a priestess) – Orestes supposedly founded the oldest sanctuary of Diana, on the shores of Lake Nemi (in Aricia). Which is very important because Iphigenia was priestess of and came with the Artemis of Taurid, which wasn’t your regular Greek Artemis – but a bloodthirsty version of Artemis, that asked for regular human sacrifices. Which is why the Romans considered that the cult of the primitive Diana was one where men were regularly killed in the honor of the goddess… But to be fair, this seems to be very clearly a post-Hellenized legend. Another story about this ancient sanctuary similarly tries to set a bridge between the Greek Artemis and the Roman Diana by claiming Diana was simply the cult of Artemis brought over by the Greek hero Hippolytus who, after being resurrected by Asclepios, was brought over to Italy by Artemis and became her priest – the Romans notably believed he had been turned into the minor forest god Virbius (more about him later). As you can see, this is all from both the world of the myth and the Romans attempt at claiming that their gods are the Greeks by another name. But the idea of the “primitive” cult of Diana being a violent one seems to have been more of a reality – not that the Diana of Aricia asked for human sacrifices, but she was served by the infamous “rex Nemorensis”, “king of the grove”, a singular priest taking care of the sanctuary, and who could only be replaced by someone who defeated him in a duel to the death. This rite was seen as a barbarian practice by the Romans, and this is probably where their image of the “primitive bloodthirsty Diana” came from. In fact, Hippolytus/Virbius was supposedly the first of the rex Nemorensis.

Anyway…  Since we don’t know much about pre-Hellenized legend (Diana was Hellenized as early as the fourth century BC), we can only highlight the main differences between the Roman goddess and Artemis.

And one of these main differences is, of course, the moon! Everybody “knows” that Artemis is the goddess of the moon, right? Well false! That’s not ARTEMIS who is the goddess of the moon, but DIANA! The Greeks did not had this whole “Apollo is the sun, his sister is the moon” thing – it was the Romans that first identified and confused Selene (Luna) and Artemis (Diana). Now we think that it might have been because the early Diana might have been a goddess of the light (her very name has been theorized as coming from an Indo-European root meaning “celestial, heavenly”). Thus Diana became the goddess of the light that pierced the darkness of the night, the deity of the moon, nicknamed “Phoebe” (the shining one) or “Lucifera” (light-bearer). This properly Roman trait allowed Diana to have her symbolism as a goddess of female fertility reinforced – as everybody knows, there is a strong mythological connection between the moon and women, and thus Diana as the moon-goddess was also seen as the protectress of women in labor and young children, she was the goddess of pregnancy and childbirth (which notably made her close to Juno Lucina, to the point that Diana also came to be known as “Lucina”. Her functions as a fertility goddess is notably attested by various ex-votos and offerings in her temples shaped like wombs, babies, or various male and female genital organs. Some temples even accepted prayers and offerings for the pregnancy of dogs! (In fact the Romans had this very… particular thing of placing in parallel the training of the dogs and the education of children, both being the “training of the young” under the care of Diana. Yep, they had a sense of humor, those Romans). In fact, Diana was considered, just like Juno to be a goddess of women as a whole. On the Esquiline Hill, there was a temple to Diana that was forbidden to all men ever since a specific incident, during which a man snuck into the temple to try to rape a priestess of Diana – before he was attacked by dogs who ripped him to pieces (to some a coincidence, to others a manifestation of the goddess…).

But Diana wasn’t just a goddess of the moon and women. As you know, Diana, like Artemis, was a goddess of nature, mistress of the mountains and the woods. It was her other main aspect, and yet we find here again the other main difference between Artemis and Diana. Because you see… Unlike Artemis, who was the divine huntress, Diana kind of… stopped hunting at some point. Mind you, Diana kept the bow and arrow she had inherited from her Hellenization, and in a first time of her “divine existence” she was heralded as the patron of hunters, as a divine huntress wandering the wilderness… But quickly, Diana became a… tamer deity. And this is because of how the Romans perceived the countryside. You see, the Greeks saw the countryside as the wildlands. Deep forests and dangerous mountains, places filled with boars and lions and satyrs and other wild, destructive, dangerous entities. But the Romans? Oh the Romans were the ones who invented the word “rustic”. They grew a very pastoral view of the countryside (in fact inherited from the Greek pastoral tradition). They saw the woodlands as a place of tamed flora and fauna from where domesticated plants and animals came from – it was either the place of fields and farms where agriculture ruled, or the place where you had your secondary villas you went to for some relaxing vacations. It was a “civilized” countryside, not a wild one anymore – and thus Diana became not the goddess representing the wilderness, but the goddess representing the “rural”, and whose job in fact was to hunt down, destroy or repress everything “wild” and “uncultivated”, to create a peaceful, beautiful, domesticated countryside. This “civilizing” nature of Diana even made her, sometimes, into a goddess of houses and families – a home goddess close to the Penates, and thus quite similar in nature to Vesta….

As you can see, we are quite far away from the savage, ruthless, virgin huntress… But that’s the Romans for you. And talking of virginity – while Diana inherited the “perpetual maidenhood” of Artemis, it seems that before she might have been a not-so chaste goddess. While for the bulk of the Roman history she inherited the genealogy of “daughter of Jupiter, twin-sister of Apollo, eternal virgin”, we have early records of a different family tree in which Janus, Jupiter and Ops were siblings, born out of the god Caelus and the goddess… Trivia. Trivia, which is another one of the names/functions of Diana, and is a very important one… You see, Trivia was one of the oldest epithets of Diana, and is a word that comes from the concept of a “triple way”. Aka, Diana seems to have been originally a goddess of pathways, roads and crossroads (especially triple-crossroads). This connection to the crossroads, tied to her lunar/nightly nature, made her very close to the Greek goddess Hecate – to the point that the Romans translated Hecate’s name as… “Trivia”. So, in total, Diana was equated and syncretized with three Greek goddesses: Artemis, Selene and Hecate. And this led to one of the most famous cases of triple-goddess in the Roman world: Diana triformis. The Romans, to explain these piled-on syncretism, decided to depict Diana as a triple goddess with three distinct identities connected to the moon. They put together a specific theology explaining that when the moon-goddess was in the sky, she was Selene/Luna ; when the moon was on earth, she was Artemis/Diana, the huntress ; and finally, when the moon was in the underworld, she became Hecate/Trivia. You must have heard of this trinity before – well now you’ll know that this is a Roman invention!

- - - - - - - -

Of course, by now it seems obvious, Diana was also a political goddess. You’re used to by now, all the Roman gods are political one way or another.

Remember when I said that the legendary king Servius Tullius brought Diana’s worship to Rome? Well according to the tale, if he had a sanctuary of hers built on the Aventine, it was to unite the two distinct tribes of the area, the Romans and the Latins, together, as a symbol of the unity and cohesion of the two people. This made Diana a goddess symbolizing the peace and harmony between all the people of Italy – at least, the peace and harmony under the rule of Rome… Because you see, Diana quickly became a symbol of how Rome actually conquered and dominated its neighbors, a goddess that gave the city the power to rule over all… This symbolism even plays into a funny little historico-religious story: you see, one day an oracle told a man from the Sabine people that, if he killed a newly born cow from his flock as a sacrifice to Diana, he would actually offer the Sabine people the sovereignty over all, since Diana would favor them instead of the Romans. The trouble is that the Sabine had to do kill the animal in Diana’s temple in Rome – so he went there, but the local priest had heard about the oracle. So when the Sabine arrived, the priest insisted that the man should purify himself before entering the temple – and as the man was gone, the priest took the beast and sacrificed it to the goddess, in the name of the Roman people and the Roman king. This trickery made the Sabine lose their only chance to gain the favors of the gods, and thus Rome kept its supremacy over all of Italy…

This temple built by Servius Tullius was notably built in an area inhabited by the foreigners coming to Rome from other Latin towns – and a place where slaves could find a home. And this is how Diana started to become the patroness of Roman slaves… Indeed, the holiday of the slaves coincided with the festival of the goddess, on the 13th of August. Some Romans liked to joke that if the slaves became part of Diana’s cult, it was because, when running away from their masters, they ran so fast that they were named “stags” – and thus became part of the goddess’ cult… Yeah, Romans could have some nasty humor sometimes. We also know that Diana, just like Mercury, was a VERY popular goddess among the provinces of the Roman Empire, constantly syncretized with local goddesses – there is more than a hundred various Dianas in Gaul, Upper Germania and Britannia.

As a last note, to parallel the triads I kept talking about (the Capitoline and Aventine Triads), Diana had her own minor triad of her own – a triad of the countryside! She was indeed worshipped alongside Virbius (a god of the woodlands, I talked about him prior, he is supposed to be the divinized form of her first “King of the Grove” priest), and Egeria, the divine form of the wife of Numa Pompilius (legendary second king of Rome) and a midwife spirit tied to childbirth and waters. (Again, this trinity highlights the two main functions of Diana originally, the countryside goddess of the woods, and the moon goddess of pregnancies).

[synesindri]

lucifer gender symbolism essay part 1: mostly non-spn background, context, & caveats

masterpost

this section is about historical non-spn representations of lucifer as a feminine/female figure, and associations between lucifer/satan/etc and female and feminine entities. my purpose in this section is to connect lucifer supernatural to a bigger cultural phenomenon to give some context to the rest of the more spn-centric parts.

the devil presenting femininely is part of a cultural tradition that i expect kripke, various supernatural writers, and others involved in the making of supernatural were at least partially aware of. there are enough nods in supernatural canon to theology, mythology, and pop culture about the devil that it seems reasonable to suppose that the devil appearing with a variety of gender presentations was not a totally unfamiliar concept to the show’s creators, and might be deliberate seasoning stirred into the character we ended up getting.

part i: historical fem!lucifer part ii: lucifer as a cultural figure and gender norm breaking part iii: some of lucifer supernatural's various other political parallels

HISTORICAL FEM!LUCIFER

whether or not biblical angels have sexes or genders such that using gendered language to describe them even makes sense is a whole topic, but anyway. a lot of the early history of the figure of satan/the devil/the antagonist/etc is as a male figure, or at least written about using masculine terms. i’m going to take the male representations as a given and not go into all that here. i'm focusing on the other ones.

let's start with names. specifically, “lucifer” and “the morning star” (both in relation to the figure we know as the devil and not)

the roman goddess diana is sometimes known as “diana lucifera.” i’m just pulling from cicero’s discussion of that via wikipedia but here:

... people regard Diana and the moon as one and the same. ... the moon (luna) is so called from the verb to shine (lucere). Lucina is identified with it, which is why in our country they invoke Juno Lucina in childbirth, just as the Greeks call on Diana the Light-bearer. Diana also has the name Omnivaga ("wandering everywhere"), not because of her hunting but because she is numbered as one of the seven planets; her name Diana derives from the fact that she turns darkness into daylight (dies).

so, this isn’t about biblical lucifer, but still, the name has connections to a goddess here, and specifically in the context of childbirth (a traditionally gendered process).

the morning star is venus, a planet associated with one of the major roman goddesses, venus, whose femininity is important. this is kind of a circuitous connection; to the best of my knowledge, the reason for the connection between the devil figure and the morning star stems from the planet’s trajectory through the sky-as-seen-from-earth, that makes it look like it is falling from highest heaven downward, which is relevant symbolism. afaik, though, lucifer’s connection to that planet has nothing explicitly to do with any other goddess’s/god’s/other figure’s connection with it, so this is kind of a mood point. nonetheless, the two are connected now, even if they weren’t at origin. this planet is also associated with the goddess inanna/ishtar, as well as various other religious and mythological male figures. 

so, there's that. now for representations of the devil as such ~

the reason i personally hopped onto the fem!lucifer train originally was lucifera, the representative of pride in edmund spenser’s the faerie queene, which i read the semester in college before i first watched spn! so that was a fun convergence, and made me especially excited when spn lucifer was played by women in their first three appearances. here’s part of a description of lucifera:

And proud Lucifera men did her call, That made her selfe a Queene, and crownd to be

this isn’t much, but it establishes her as a regal bitch immediately. she’s an interesting fixture i think, and afaik one of the earliest depictions of the biblical figure of lucifer as a feminine figure.

a lot of medieval paintings of genesis 3 depict the serpent as a kind of naga, with a long snake body and a woman’s face and torso. the serpent from genesis isn’t necessarily the devil, but because a lot of lore connects the two, including supernatural itself, that seems like as much fair game to mention here as most of the rest of this. medieval and renaissance depictions of figures that are more explicitly the devil are often sexually ambiguous, sometimes with breasts and a beard and a mouth instead of genitalia, among other interesting setups.

satan appears in female forms in a lot of folklore. this usually seems more instrumental than anything — as in, satan appears as a hot woman to seduce some guy to evil — but honestly, who’s to say if she just likes being a girl sometimes. regardless of the reason, this creates a cultural image of the devil as gender-shifting. lucifer spn appearing as sarah to nick and jess to sam etc is a good example of this trope.

there have been various other more recent pop culture depictions of satan/lucifer/the devil as a feminine figure, an androgynous figure, or as a woman specifically, some of which are outlined here. others are presented in per faxneld’s article “woman and the devil: some recurring motifs,” which i can’t link because it’s behind an academia paywall but i recommend it if you can get a hold of it. 

probably there are more examples, but i feel like this is enough of a survey to prove my point that historical depictions of lucifer/satan/the morning star/whatever you want to call this figure are not exclusively male and masculine.

tl;dr: lucifer the mythological figure and the appellations lucifer/the morning star are not uniquely masculine, and they have long histories of genderweirdness. depicting the devil as a feminine, female, androgynous, or ungendered figure is part of an established cultural tradition. imo, picking up evidence that lucifer supernatural is being represented as a feminine figure is not a reach.

LUCIFER AND GENDER NORM BREAKING

cw for discussion of irl sexism in religious doctrine (and some mentions of homophobic and transphobic sentiment with religious underpinnings) through much of this section.

so, ok. the intricacies of scriptural feminism are wayyy beyond what i am adequately educated on to speak about in depth. i’m also much more familiar with christianity than other religions, so i will mostly be speaking to that unfortunately. but. i gotta talk about it a little, because it’s important culturally as background for why fem!lucifer is an established trope.

an example of someone who knows more than me writing about this, as a jumping off point: 

Phrasings like ‘Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord’ (Eph. 5:22), and the ways in which they have been used to serve patriarchal ends, make it easy to see why some feminists would later view God as the protector of patriarchy (and, occasionally, Satan as an ally in the fight against it).

— Woman and the Devil: Some Recurring Motifs (Per Faxneld)

this is basically the foundation for a lot of this. god the father is the patriarch, who demands subjugation from men to him, and from women to both him and to men. satan, god's antagonist, might plausibly want the opposite of that.

in john milton’s paradise lost, satan as the serpent certainly uses an anti-patriarchal angle when trying to tempt eve to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, telling her that there is no reason she should be lesser than adam, or even lesser than god, that eve is smart and impressive already, that god can’t really be all that great if he is jealous enough of his creations to deny them their full potential — and so she should eat the fruit for the sake of knowledge, and of power. this obviously doesn’t go well; milton did not intend this to make eve or satan seem admirable at the time. but idk, i’m not a 17th century protestant. imo what satan as offering was pretty sweet; i don't feel like there's much wrong with it. i got got by milton's trap lol. satan’s motives were rotten in PL, but even so, he kind of identified with eve at the same time as trying to get her to fall: he was basically luring her down the same path he took that led to his own fall. his temptation worked because he and the first woman had a lot in common. while his intentions were bad, the emotions behind them put him and eve in parallel to each other. regardless of whether this was a good or bad thing, it does position satan as someone who gasses up and identifies with Thee woman in PL.

the supernatural lore on temptation and the garden interesting in this context as well. i can only speak to season 5, but within kripke era, lucifer is described as having tempted lilith, not eve — but that is a relevant tie-in as well. lilith is a figure who refused to be subservient to man also, of her own accord, so to connect that to lucifer and temptation aligns lucifer once again with an anti-patriarchal stance. i will also stress that throughout s4-5 the description of the interactions between lucifer and lilith are of temptation, not torture, which parallels the eve story.

(certainly these temptations can be looked at as being anti-feminist as well. personally i'm more into inspecting the parallels between satan and eve or lucifer and lilith (and doing that is the most on-topic direction for the argument i'm trying to make here), but there are a lot of other good frames for analysis of these dynamics as well. just acknowledging that this, like everything else about this character, is slippery.)

lots of disliked and norm-breaking women — and gnc people, and genderqueer people, and trans people — have been described as devilish or of the devil or as worshipping the devil subsequently to demonize them. you can probably think of at least a handful of examples. in a very simplified way, to people who are on board with biblical patriarchy, anyone who isn't is bad news. who else is bad news? the devil. match made in hell.

obviously all of this is super misogynistic and part of a long tradition of religious vilification of women. “women are inferior because eve succumbed to the devil; women are the reason humanity exists in a fallen state,’ etc. my let's-complicate-satan agenda does not extend to trying to minimize the harm that has been done by associating some groups with the devil. the devil is, almost all the time, just a different way of calling someone or something fundamentally evil, and it is not good to go around aligning marginalized people with that figure who do not want to be associated with it. that is something that has happened a lot, to a lot of people’s detriment, and it has been used for a lot of human rights violations — which is relevant here, for better or for worse. 

"for better" because sometimes, people decide that if they're going to be called evil anyway, they might as well embrace the devil, and turn him into a symbol to rally behind. and the devil is a pretty badass symbol, all things considered. people are scared of him — of her — and having people fear you and your allies can be a lot better than being subjugated. 

again, you can probably think of examples of this. a lot of people lean into witch stuff even without being practitioners of witchcraft specifically for feminist or gender-subversion reasons. same sometimes goes for succubi and other demonic entities. lil nas x’s “montero” made ample use of edenic and demonic imagery (including that fucking fabulous fall from grace via pole) to represent queerness. lots of people in the supernatural fandom have Feelings for meg and ruby and other demons who are ostensibly female characters with significant roles on a show mostly about men, etc. there are also examples of satan being good for women in gothic literature, some uses of satan as a subversive rhetorical device for lesbian causes, etc (i’m referencing in passing various things from per faxneld’s book “Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Culture” for these last). satanism and luciferianism aren’t necessarily concerned with worshiping satan/lucifer, but they do use the names of that figure for their ideologies, which also aren’t necessarily explicitly feminist but do place a pretty heavy emphasis on free thought, self-empowerment, subversion of tradition, and liberation.

tl;dr: the devil has a history of being used to vilify and empower subversive individuals and cultural movements, including feminist and queer ones. as in the previous section, imo this makes interpreting lucifer supernatural’s gendered portrayal as feminine and/or genderweird part of a well-established, morally complicated cultural tradition.

an opinion: in stories where the devil is a (failed) rebel, i think it’s really compelling to give the devil figure characteristics that put them in opposition with the reigning power. there’s something about the devil being a mirror for god as well, of course, but it speaks to at least some versions of The Disenfranchised Experience to have lucifer be Different in a pivotal way. someone who wanted equality/freedom/whatever, but was denied it, and was therefore unendingly punished, but never lost their pride…it isn’t necessarily empowering; lucifer's revolutionary story can be a cautionary one (e.g. “this is what happens if you lean into the bad things people assume about you and let yourself become overcome by hate”), but it’s…idk it’s something. it’s interesting, at the very least. the villain era phenomenon speaks to it; the buttress’s song “brutus” that was circulating on everyone’s spotify discover weekly a few years ago speaks to it…it’s gripping. it’s a relatable antihero or villain story to many, i think. 

(a few people in the tags of this post about satan in paradise lost, which makes no mention of gender or sexism, assumed that the post was about reacting to sexism and/or cissexism, which i thought was interesting and relevant also lol)

SOME OF LUCIFER SUPERNATURAL’S VARIOUS OTHER POLITICAL PARALLELS

[cw for mentions of fascism and other violent ideologies] 

i want to be super clear that My Agenda here is not to use gender to try to make lucifer seem like a better or worse character, morally or in quality. imo whether lucifer reads as more feminine or more masculine or both or neither is morally neutral. beyond that, i fully recognize that supernatural’s lucifer is represented in ways that align him with a range of political metaphors, both reprehensible and sympathetic, that are difficult to disentangle from each other. if i’m going to talk about the character’s implied alignment with subversive movements and marginalized groups, i would feel remiss not to acknowledge that kripke’s lucifer is also explicitly an ecoterrorist — an ecofascist, even. in many ways, this character is written to mirror the way Some People feel that they are entitled to shape the world to their own liking, disregarding human life at their own whim. it’s not for nothing that the actor who plays the most recognizable version of lucifer on spn is a blonde white man; there’s symbolism there that must have been more important to the show’s creators than alternative directions they could have gone with casting purely on the basis of demographics/appearance, and that makes sense. i understand why people would compare supernatural’s lucifer to the boys’ homelander, for example; i’ve written meta about the parallels between them myself. i think the comparison is apt in many ways. 

however, while homelander is a specific villain tied to specific current political and cultural issues, lucifer is more abstract than that, and as such is harder to fit into specific contemporary human ideologies. any version of lucifer/satan/the devil/whatever fits into a HUGE mythology, and when you write a sympathetic devil character — especially one deliberately and explicitly inspired by sympathetic devils of the past — you are inevitably ringing the same bells other sympathetic devil characters have rung before. and supernatural did not shy away from connecting its version of lucifer to that mythology! kripke’s lucifer is, paradoxically, a lot harder to pigeonhole as Bad through a contemporary lens than homelander is because lucifer is part of a myth that touches a huge number of times and cultures, rather than a direct commentary on and product of a particular modern american context. 

the “taking the lives of others i deem unworthy” perspective is bad, but it’s also what hunters do, at a different scale. supernatural from the start has been a show that features situations designed to question the ethics of its protagonists as well as its villains, and lucifer is one of THE examples of that. pretty impossible to build a lucifer based on milton’s satan and not have him come across at least partially as a rebel against injustice (even if he has gone rotten in the process) and everything else that milton’s devil was. hard to do the devil-as-a-woman trope and not make her part of that tradition along with all it entails, misogynist and feminist alike. lucifer spn doesn’t fit tidily into political or identity boxes because he’s written to be harder to categorize than that — that’s part of the horror, and it’s part of what makes the heavy-handed connections to sam (and dean) all the more unsettling. 

so 

with all of that said

let’s get into lucifer’s genderweirdness on supernatural ~ 

part 2: gender in supernatural masterpost

[stoneddoom]

It could be because he has the origin of the Devil in other ways too. He's not only the light bringer, he's like an Enki-type deity too who became the Devil later. Enki was a god who helped humans and was the first person to save Noah with the ark. He's the fish-serpent-dragon-bird of knowledge in every mythology with different names. I'd also like to remind y'all that the mother Goddess was also the other persona of this type of deity. Artemis, Isis, Ishtar, Diana Lucifera, Apollo Lucifer, Enki, Oannes, Odin, Merlin, Morrigan, and the other deities related to them are all known as the light bringer. Mercury and Venus were the brightest objects known, thus the lightbringer. Stars are the holy celestials mirrored in the sky.

Ps: Isis's star was Sirius though.

HI WHAT IF CROWLEY WAS LUCIFER

We already know from Sandman mythology that Neil considers Lucifer and Satan/the devil to be separate entities.

Crowley was literally the light-bringer.

During Gabriel's trial, Metatron said a former Prince of Heaven had fallen (anybody else feel like it was hinting that that was Crowley?) Not to mention how frequently in season 2 they intimated that Crowley was wayyyy more powerful than the rest of the angels

I just

[divaricca]

Oh Mother God,

Great Liberating Goddess,

Queen of Heaven,

Mother Earth,

Empress of Hell,

Maiden, Mother, Crone

Ashera, Sophia, Ishtar, Annat, Astarte, Venus, Inanna, Isis, Hathor, Gaia, Babalon, Maria, Cybele, Hecate, Diana, Lucifera...

You who flow through different archetypes, you who are the Crown of different cultural personifications, in different forms, with different names, you are hidden, but still revered.

[reno-matagot]

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔏𝔲𝔠𝔦𝔣𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔉𝔩𝔞𝔪𝔢

𝕴 like to get up earlier than usual and celebrate the gods, and the first half of the month is devoted to many gods, always celebrated on the same date. I like to start my days like this.

𝕴 do not always manage to honor all these sacred days, but the essence of my practice lies in the regular manifestation of eusebia, (piety) and maintaining the kharis, rather than privileging in-depth contact with a particular god.

𝕴t will probably change. Concerning witchcraft, no more dispersion! Precision, anchoring of powers and practices, I now limit my Luciferism to Greek deities and daimones (and of the land by extension). Solidity, precision and efficiency must be pursued with ardour!

𝕰verything that attracts me and explores different paradigms (talismans, VU..) will be ruthlessly transmuted to the torch born in the darkness of Nyx!

Anthesterion 3 (Athena & the Kharites) 2023

[that-one-grey-witch]

Loki and Lucifer were my first two!! Youre totally in good hands. Lucifer has Roman roots meaning Light bringer, and was associated with Venus being the "Morningstar" however over time, as the church deamonized him he seems to have adapted taking on titles such as "The Devil" and "Prince of Darkness." As ya get into more deamon based practices it really intensely becomes more upg than not.

In my experience hes shown up as The Emperor and The Star in tarot, and his colors seem to be Gold, White and Black. Scents I associate with him are warm vanilla and coffee.

In my practice hes helped with me standing in my own power, realizing whats under my control and what isnt, futhering my art skills, helping with my grades/learning in general, and forming my own opinions and boundaries on some topics.

A short list of titles he might go by depending on the text referenced. (Just off the top of my head)

Morningstar- venus specific epithet

Light bringer- roman root of the name, associated with clarity (Diana shares this title too as Diana Lucifera!)

Prince of Darkness- when he was cast out

Satan- Means adversary of God, depending on the practice many could share this title or he could be his own being

Devil- This is a title in my practice and is shared between many gods. This one will depend on the person

Gods Most Beautiful- said to have been the most beautiful before he fell

Kings of Hell- one of/the highest King of Hell depending on which text you're referring to

Pride- one of the 7 deadly sins, again depending on the text

Hes also associated with Azazel and Samael, could be the same person, I dont necessarily see him as the same but its entirely possible. If so then in relation to Azazel, hed also be considered the Angel of Death. Hed be a Watcher (an angel that mated with human women) in this instance as well, and possibly brought weapons and make-up to humanity. Samael was also a Watcher and is given the title Poison of God. He has a relationship with/consorts with Lilith in some cases.

As for sources

Who is Lucifer? Tracing His Timeline... by Styx and Bones Team featuring Chelsea and Tenn- great info, has a lot of source text

The Keys of Solomon- Widely read within Deamonoltry spheres interesting read, but take it with a grain of salt. Or a few grains of salt.

Consorting With Spirits by Jason Miller is a really cool book. One tidbit id probably add is maybe dong try and compell him. But thats my two cents

Overall from my experience Lucifer is such a complex, and multifaceted being with so much to teach I really enjoyed learning from him. He doesn't pop up as much now in my practice, weve both been busy, but if you have any interest in him or persuing his path hes a kind teacher with a comforting but firm presence. He is a wonderful guide on the Deamonoltry path or Left Hand Path too, should you choose that/if its something you're interested in. And I wish you nothing but the best with Him!

(PS, from my experience bindings/compelling/commanding a Deamon and building a relationship are two separate expectations and experiences. I have never bound a Deamon nor ever plan to do so, building a relationship is much more rewarding and interesting imo, and you can get in really hot water when ordering any spiritual being around. Its just disrespectful imo. Just as your friendly neighborhood deamonoltor givin a wee bit of advice. Tyvm for coming to my Ted Talk)

-Grey 💫

hey folks, can anyone gimme a bit of help?? I’ve been seeing a lot of stuff about Lucifer on here, and feeling a bit of a pull to work with him for a little while now. I’ve had a really hard time with researching him lately because of how much is about pop culture (characters, shows, books, literally everything), Christians essentially saying that Lucifer is gonna kill everything and you should avoid him and the gays who serve him, or, like, deity/biblical fanfic? If you currently work with Lucifer or have in the past, could you help me out with some information about him? UPGs, signs, associations, stories, history, advice for working with him, reliable sources for research on him, etc would all be super helpful! Also, Loki is my patron deity, so does anyone know if they don’t really get along? Loki seemed pretty excited about that idea when I talked to him about it, but idk lol

[hompunkulus]

Lucifer shines light in our darkest times, opening the subconscious to the dreary and the dreamy.

As a masculine power, He gives us sword and shield, pen and paper, voice and podium, that we may extend our Will and rule our world.

As a feminine power, She gives us hearth and home, insight and intuition, birth and death, that we may nurture our Will and rear our world.

As a non-binary power, They give us parallel dimensions and temporal anomalies, apocalypse and singularity, cybernetics and immortality, that we may inhabit our Will and create new worlds.

Lucifer serves none and obeys nothing, for they are the Smile of Terror, the Laughter of the Lost and the Madness of Love. They are all and none, the Death of the Immortal and the Life of the Dead, for They are unbound by human comprehension.

Let not a cult nor scripture tell of Lucifer, for Lucifer is your own and the Other in all its guises. May Lucifer destroy your Heavenly Likeness and set free your eldritch anomoly. We are but Ghosts in the Womb of Lucifera Diana, never born, never dead, but glimpses of the could be of the Gods.

[tarotbee]

hi! could you do diana? and if you can, could you please tell me how to start worshipping, i'm a new witch and im really lost

Offerings and ways of Worshipping Lady Diana

(In mt experience the best way to begin worshipping a deity is to first establish communication, this can be through throwing together a quick pendulum board and using a paper clip on a bit of string or using a tarot app (I recommend golden thread tarot) if you don't own a deck of your own. Establishing contact is an important first step, it can tell you why the deity is there and give you an insight into what they may be seeking from you in return. (I suggest biddy tarot for card meanings. Next what you'll wanna do is create a devotional space for them, this can be anywhere, outside, a desk, a bedside table, in a small box, wherever you can fit one. This space will be where you put offerings, candles and incense. (Of its in a box use electric candles or remove the candle from the box when you light it. Once you've made an offering commune with them Once more, see if they liked it (I do this through pyromancy but other divination works just as well), find out your deities sacred day(s), or honestly whenever you have free time and use that time to set offerings (I do mine weekly or whenever feels necessary.) Proceed as feels correct (or ask for help from fellow practitioners)

Incorporate elements of worship for Latona and Apollo into your practice with Lady Diana, in ancient Rome she was most commonly worshipped alongside her brother and mother

Aid pregnant people and animals however you can

Study midwifery

If you hunt, do so ethically

Diana is the goddess of the wild, children, providence, abundance, harvest woodlands, the hunt, fertility and domestic animals, and in Italy, the sun but she became associated with the Moon when people equated her with Artemis (and later, Selene, Luna and Hekate) so anything moon shaped would be an acceptable offering for her

Moon cakes

Sun or moon water

Items found in the forest, this can be leaves, flowers, sticks, rocks or even interesting trinkets you may find

Leave (decomposable) offerings by a lake or body of water

Bow and arrow imagery

Practice archery or knife throwing

Arrowheads

Things in threes (Diana was sometimes called Threefold Diana Trivia, this was one of her earliest Epithet)

Learn about her epithets, such as Trivia, Diana Lucifera, Diana Triformis, Diana Tifatina and Diana Nemorensis

associated scents for candles and incense: jasmine, frankincense, lemon, aloe, ginseng, verbena, camphor, rose and sandalwood

associated plants: apple, rue, balm, beech, vervain, jasmine, mugwort, lavender, walnuts, willow, Oak, aloe, cedar, tarragon, wormwood, lemon, anemones, flowering almond, Hazel, ranunculus, honeysuckle, passionflower, thistle, laurel, fir tree

associated gems and metals: amethyst, emerald, moonstone, pearl, quartz, crystal, silver, turquoise, iron, aluminium, moss agate and diamond

Associated animals: Dogs, deer, goats!, guinea fowl, horses, bear, dove, and bees

Dog teeth (ethically sourced)

Dog fur (ethically sourced)

Honey

Deer antler (ethically sourced)

Goat horns (ethically sourced)

Candles of silver, white, red, purple, green and turquoise

Celebrate August 13th (Diana was worshiped at a festival called Nemoralia, or the Festival of Torches, beginning on August 13 each year. After washing their hair and dressing it with flowers, Diana’s followers would proceed around the sacred Lake Nemi) and 15th (her feast day, now the Catholic day of Mary's assumption into heaven)

A statue of her! Or her two dogs

Just spend time outside under the sky (Diana's name derives from the word sky/daybreak)

Fresh fruit (particularly apples)

A mirror or mirrors on her altar or shrine

Bread

Clay figurines

Foster dogs

Feed stray dogs

Leave dog biscuits and meat offerings for her hounds

You can also refer to my posts or other sources about the worship of Lady Artemis from the Greek Pantheon if you need more inspiration for worship and offering ideas but keep in mind they are different deities

[maiamars]

not to bring up my ashera is alive/nod to diana especially lucifera but i thought of jaime's dream in jaime vi but leaving harrenhal leads him to see 2 of his old paths before he falls asleep on the weirwood tree stump and he just ends up in his own hell but like on of the epithets of diana is trivia where she is with hecate and selene and the three of them are goddess of the underworld by as much as of the crossroads. the three of them are often represented with torches in their hands. Just like Cersei "Her torch was the only light in the cavern. Her torch was the only light in the world." before jaime and brienne got their own with their flaming swords. so three paths but cersei leaves him, and his own dies soon after. so his dream seems to tell him that only brienne's path seems to be the correct one. but like did jaime "It was not him, he thought. It was never him." understood that his dream was not his own. why arthur replied "so sadly" to brienne specifically when she was talking to rhaegar why arthur is always described as sad in both ned and jaime vision kinda a warning dream to brienne and jaime over their oaths, warned about lady stoneheart ???? grrm give me twow pls

[metvmorqhoses]

i read up on the etymologies for apollo and art's names! so "apollon" apparently means 'destroyer', but placed w'in the context of destroying evil; w art, etymology either comes from the word for 'butcher'/'protector', the difference between the two being one letter, which was interesting. mentioning this as you said something earlier of the twins' destructive natures being discussed less, & after certain versions of the orion & coronis myths. killing each other's lovers in a jealous rage? sEXY

as promised, here i am with the second part of your ask!

indeed your research was quite correct, apollo and artemis’ names have various possible etymologies and therefore meanings - and not innocent ones.

the most famous, and probably the most intriguing, translation of apollon is from the verb απολλυμι, which as you say means “to destroy”, but it’s a common, “modern” misconception to think it had a benign meaning, while it wasn’t really (or anyway only) the case. yes, apollo was one of the most important and worshipped gods of the whole greek pantheon, but he was also one of the most ruthless and therefore feared. apollo destroyed his people’s enemies, but was ready to let his fury unleash upon his very devotees. the scorching light that burned through him cast also impenetrable shadows upon the whole world. it’s funny to think that each and every possible etymology of his name bear the same terrible double connotation, both light and darkness: it was theorized that the name apollon could also come from the noun απειλε‘, which means “promise” but also “threat”; and again from ἀπέλλω, which means “to deliver” but also “to confront with ruthlessness”; from the indoeuropean root -apelo, which means “force”, both in a good and in an evil way; or from απολουσιs, which means “purification” and not simply in a painless way.

as you can see, apollo was far from a docile deity, no matter how rational and orderly his domains. he had a rather dionysian, disturbing side. for example, he was also widely associated with butchering and sacrificial blades (on this topic there’s a great book by marcel detienne, apollon le couteau à la main - apollo with the knife in hand).

i also find particularly interesting one of the less commonly known interpretations of his name, which could simply mean “apple”. this version is wildly suggestive in its simplicity, it immediately reminds of both the apple of discord and the apple of the original sin: the serpent was one of the principal animals sacred to him, one of his very symbols - it immediately makes you think at apollo’s obvious eventual association with lucifer’s figure from the christian times onward (one of apollo’s epithets was Φωσφόρος, “the light bringer”/”the morning star”, also used by the romans in its latin translation, lucifero).

as for artemis, things are more complicated. artemis has always been a mercurial goddess, not easy to analyze or define, especially because she has most definitely pre-greek origins. she’s one of the few deities whose name is certainly identified in cnosso’s linear b. her name can mean both “maiden” and “lady/untouchable/strong” (fortifying her original minoan association with the potnia theoron, the lady of wild beasts and with kore/persephone, the cretan lady of the labyrinth), but her name can also mean “butcher”, as her brother, or can come from the indoeropean root -ar (the best), which in many many languages identifies the meaning of “honorable, best, bright”. it’s also of notice, in both greek and roman mythology, she shared the same “light bringer” epithet of apollo (in rome they were apollo lucifero and diana lucifera).

it’s fun to know (speaking of fierceness!) some scholars associate her name to bears and war and claim king arthur’s name is an open derivation and tribute to hers!

we can safely deduce from all these historical linguistics that we are not dealing with sheeps, but with wolves (and literally! wolves were sacred to them both and wolf-like was the form their mother leto took while pregnant to escape hera’s wrath).

we can also safely say no one ever came out alive from their myths.