Why Cultivate Wisdom in Luciferianism?

Wisdom is a concept or quality associated with Lucifer and demons via King Solomon, a significant figure in the Hebrew Bible who later lent his name to "Solomonic magic." This is because 17th-century compiled magical texts such as The Lesser Keys of Solomon bear his name. In the Jewish texts, King Solomon is the third king of ancient Israel and is specifically known for his grand wisdom. The most infamous story about him in the Torah (I Kings) involves two women fighting over a baby being brought to him. He suggests they cut the baby in half to share, knowing the real mother will desperately try to intervene and thus prove her parentage.

In the Talmud, King Solomon features in other stories, including those that involve the demon king Ashmedai (often currently called Asmodeus). Ashmedai himself is probably a figure descended from the Zoroastrian daeva* Aēšma, viewed through an ancient Jewish lens. In the first such story, King Solomon wishes to build a special temple and, after torturing a couple of demons for information about it, all he yields is that he should ask Ashmedai. Ultimately, King Solomon tricks Ashmedai out of his heavenly and earthly studies by getting him drunk on wine, which Ashmedai drinks only out of desperate thirst, in order to to compel him to build the temple against the latter's will. From a modern perspective, it's an interesting albeit ethically terrible story. However, we do see Ashmedai laughing, crying, and feeling sorrowful for humans throughout the course of the narrative, demonstrating a wide intellectual and emotional range. It accidentally reveals that demons are also people in the course of this.

I may have a different view of King Solomon than many others based on my modern (as well as demon-sympathetic) readings of the Jewish texts. However, it is fairly indisputable that the emphasis on Solomon's quality of "wisdom"—as questionably as its depicted in some of the ancient narratives—meant that the ancient Jewish individuals who put together and preserved the stories about him saw that that concept was worth aspiring toward. Judaism, of course, is not the only organized religion that teaches and encourages wisdom. Prajñā, for instance, is a Buddhist term often translated to English as "wisdom" or "insight." It is one of the 10 perfections—or pāramī in Pali—that Buddhists strive to attain. Both Buddhism and Hinduism also emphasize sadhana, which is the name for exercises wherein practitioners are invited to go inward and achieve wisdom or insight. From a secular perspective, there are even tropes in entertainment that point to the valuing of wisdom. In all these frameworks, it is inferred if not outright stated that we need wisdom to get to the right or better place for ourselves.

In Luciferianism, I have personally experienced needing to cultivate wisdom for a few different reasons. The fact of the matter is, Lucifer himself is a trickster spirit. While contrary to the claims of Medieval Judaism and throughout all Christianity he is often benevolent, he is not every moment reliable due to his fundamental nature. This shifts the weight in our relationship to my needing to have a stable foundation within myself in order to navigate both spiritual and material circumstances that spring from our dealings. Aiming for wisdom—my personal preference being Buddhist-framed wisdom with the recognition that all feelings and experiences are temporary—allows me to keep my eyes on my long term goals even as I don't always understand what Lucifer is providing in the present moment.

As part of this, I have to remember that Lucifer is not an embodied mortal, but a deity. Depending on your framework, what even makes a deity differs. However, across cultures and traditions, they're generally believed to be much older and more powerful than biological humans. This grants them inherent vision, perspective, and therefore wisdom that humans must work much harder in shorter amounts of time to try to obtain. This is where our human-deity partnerships matter because a human or human society's ability to rely on a deity's generosity to survive nature's difficult terrains (yes even now where corporations are trying to take over nature's role) is fairly essential. That does not mean that generosity on the deity's part is going to feel pleasant on the humans' parts. I practice wisdom because when my life or paradigm is thrown into turmoil thanks to Lucifer, I can keep perspective and try to understand that he is employing a form of "skillful means" (or upaya, a Buddhist term for trying unusual choices or ways to reach enlightenment) that I am unable to recognize from my smaller vantage point. Wisdom in this way acts as a filter to provide me more peace and acceptance.

In addition—and this is a tough one to embrace as someone whose deepest wish is safety, stability, and gentleness for all beings in this realm—it does seem to be the case that every individual is born with their own fortune, good, bad, and both. We can see it in natal charts and palm lines, but even my very atheistic ex-husband experienced deeply misfortunate and abrupt event patterns he couldn't be anything but aware of. This is where I become skeptical of the Solomonic grimoires and others like them, which is to say yes, I have experienced demons and other spirits granting me things along the promises of wealth, status, and love discussed within the texts, BUT! Seemingly only within my personal fortune or pathway. To elevate one's fortunate or pathway can only be achieved through wisdom because it helps you to understand what your values are, what your goals are, and how to behave in alignment with all of that so that you achieve what you desire or at least come to acceptance with what you can't.

It has also been suggested to me that when one achieves wisdom, they work for others as well as themselves. When that becomes the case, spirits can and will do better efforts for you because their power uplifts multitude not just the one. This, in essence, is what love is; acts of sharing care and prosperity. Even demonized spirits want to experience and share love. This, along with strict guidance from Lucifer on who I am permitted to contact and when, is apparently a factor of why I have yet to experience any issues with a demonized spirit. Through wisdom, I don't truly enter into a conjuration or relationship expecting conflict and in the case where they may be conflict, I believe I have the ability to handle it either restoratively or with appropriate boundaries. Because of this, it is through wisdom in which we can find our true power as individual living beings.

*Of note, the Zoroastrian sacred texts called the Avesta consider daēvas to be malefic while another type of spirits called ahuras are divine, benefic beings. Those familiar with Hinduism will notice that in the Vedic traditions, this is swapped—daevas are benefic while asuras are malefic. I suspect that this is less a situation of inconsistent human taxonomy and more of a mark of multiple ancient polytheist groups in the region fighting each other on spiritual grounds, as we can see in another part of I Kings with Elijah/YHWH going up against Queen Jezebel/Ba'al.