Lucifer: Princeps & Praxis

Contents

Princeps

A History of Error
Formulation of the Curse
The Dawn Breakers
The Shining One
Holy Mountain
Scorched Heavens, Burned Earth
A King in Search of a Crown
The Invisible God
A Goat for Azazel
The Serpent in the Garden
Fall and Flood
The Key
A Mass of Blood and Feathers
Children of Enoch
The Cloven Hoof

Appendix
The Principate of Fallen Angels

Praxis

Proem Thy Will Be Done

The Angelic Principate
The Prince of the Power of the Air
Hostile Forces
The Abominations of the Earth
Venite Lucifer!
The Hourglass
Black Star
Milton’s Teeth
An Archangel Ruined

Epilogue

Description

Lucifer: Princeps is a seminal study on the origins of the Lucifer mythos, the first in a two volume work. The fall of Lucifer, and that of the rebel angels who descended upon the daughters of men, comprise the foundation myth of the Western occult tradition. Princeps is a study of origins, a portrait of the first ancestor of witchcraft and magic. In tracing the genealogy of our patron and prince, the principles that underlie the ritual forms that have come down to us, through the grimoires and folk practices, are elucidated.

The study draws on the extensive literature of history, religion and archaeology, engaging with the vital discoveries and advances of recent scholarship. A concomitant exegesis of the core texts conjures the terrain and koiné of the Ancient Near East, the cradle cultures and language of his nascence. Of critical importance are the effaced cultures and cults that lie behind the Old Testament polemics, viz. those of Assyria, Ugarit and Canaan, as well as Sumeria, Egypt and Greece; they provide the context that give meaning to what would otherwise be an isolated brooding figure, one who makes no sense without being encountered in the landscape.

Intended to be the definitive text on the origins of Lucifer for practitioners of magic, Princeps spans wingtip to wingtip from the original flood myth and legends of divine teachers to the Church Fathers, notably Augustine, Origen and Tertullian. The tales of the Garden of Eden, the Nephilim, of the fall of Helel ben Sahar and the Prince of Tyre, the nature of Azazel, and the creation of the Satan are drawn beneath the shadow of these wings into a narrative that binds Genesis and Revelation via the Enochian tradition.

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Companion to Princeps, Lucifer: Praxis is a profound and original study of spiritual power in the western magical tradition, explored through the evolution of the figure of Lucifer – as the archetype of rebellion, liberation and, ultimately, transformation and renewal. The work continues the trajectory of Lucifer: Princeps.

In this volume, Grey traces the development of magic as praxis, through a critical engagement with the Christian vision of the spiritual world and its heritage of compulsion, binding and exorcism. Grey rejects the post-Christian materialist dismissal of spiritual encounters, and instead advocates for a counter-tradition of spiritual antinomianism and intercourse. Praxis presents magic as a dynamic pact with spirits, whilst recognising that authority requires the exercise of power.

Opening with ‘The Angelic Principate,’ Grey examines the twenty named angels of 1 Enoch, giving their genealogies and functions, and revealing them as tutelary spirits and teachers, elemental forces and sublunary epiphanies of wind and storm, immanent in starlight, stone, flora and fauna. Grey emphasises the power of storytelling, place and ritual to evoke and commune with these spirits, and gives oaths, initiations and protocols.

Subsequent chapters examine magical authority and practice through such figures as St Paul and Simon Magus, as the daimonic is actively demonised and exorcism becomes a tool of eschatology and conquest. Proposing a Luciferian praxis, Grey provides rituals for engaging with spirits at different time depths, patterned on the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri and the Solomonic grimoires. Particular attention is given to the Ars Goetia, the Livre des Esperitz and the Red Dragon, with revised conjurations for those who wish to operate outside the dominant Christian paradigm.

Lucifer enters the modern era through the line of prophecy as revolution shakes England, Europe and America. The archetype transforms from the rebel against God into the scourge of tyrants. William Blake’s visionary assault on John Milton’s sublime Paradise Lost gives permission to the Romantic poets to invoke Lucifer as illuminator and liberator.

Lucifer: Praxis is both a scholarly and poetic guide, offering a framework for magical practice that is rooted in historic precedent yet contemporary; an innovative fusion of Enochic lore, the line of prophecy, and contemporary ritual craft. Grey charts the emergence of a new Luciferianism which blooms from the ritual texts and revolutionary fire that have shaped our modern world.