Luciferianism reveres Lucifer not as the fearsome devil, but as a liberator, a guardian angel or spirit guide, or even the true God. This thought system came from the Gnostics, an underground Judeo-Christian spiritual movement.

People of the modern age probably don’t know enough about Lucifer, the fallen angel, sometimes considered the devil, to worship him. You might argue that modern materialism and its ceaseless emphasis on acquisition and retention, is a form of devil worship, however. Or you might say that we no longer seek the punitive image of Jehovah to be our guiding principle. That we are on a path of destruction based on false values and poor choices.

But that has nothing to do with worshiping Lucifer. Anyway, Lucifer, according to the New and Old Testaments, was created by God. He was the highest ranking angel of all. But he wasn’t content to worship and serve his Creator. He was prideful, he rebelled, leading a third of the angels to come with him. But he was unable to match the Almighty God. God threw Lucifer out of heave to the earth where he has operated as the devil ever since.

God did not create Lucifer as evil but allowed the potential for sin. While God cannot commit sin, He doesn’t take the choice away from those who want to sin. When Lucifer chose to rebel, he instantly became the author of sin. Evil is the result of a free-will choice by Lucifer in not obeying and worshipping the God who made him.
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So from the point of view of free choice, it is an explanation of why there is sin and evil in this world. Where this fits into modern day spiritualism, is that we no longer worship an Almighty God to dictate our behavior. We depend more on our own desires, sense of right and wrong, and what is on trend right now to motivate our behaviors. This is not worshipping the devil, but some may say it comes close.

When someone does a terrible wrong to us it isn’t easy to forgive as soon as possible. Sometimes it takes a while to work through the issue. I don’t want to put anyone under time pressure to forgive as soon as possible. I would rather say, “Forgive and let it go for your own freedom and happiness, when you can do it.”

How long it takes for us to forgive depends on how much we want to forgive. Sometimes, holding on to a grievance feels right to us, even though it impacts our health and happiness in negative ways. This is because we are “right.” They did bad stuff to us that we didn’t deserve. But, unfortunately, being right in this case doesn’t lead to health and happiness. it keeps us stuck in the painful event.

Forgiving doesn’t mean we thought what they did was OK. It just means that you are releasing it and letting it go so it won’t further plague you. You already suffered enough. Why keep going over it?
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Letting a grievance go instantly may not be possible but it is desirable. And this is not because it impacts our Soul. Nothing can hurt our Soul. This is a principle many people who survived torture, false imprisonment, and unspeakable humiliation have grasped. “They can do all kinds of things to my body, but nothing can touch my Soul.” The Soul is inviolate. But the mind must free itself of grievances if we want to experience a happy life on Earth.

It is true that as babies we absorb whatever cultural cues we are taught and pick up on. This ensures that we will be loved and nurtured and be thought of as good and not be rejected and punished by our tribe. But the operative words in your question are “as individuals.”

When we start to distinguish ourselves as individuals, we no longer just go along with whatever we were taught. We start to think for ourselves. We see that many of our sacred values are merely the result of conditioning and training. Mommy and Daddy think that all people of a certain race are bad. You think for yourself, find out for yourself, and arrive at your own conclusions.

So, as individuals, we are never the puppets of our environment. We clearly navigate our way through it based on our own experiences and reflections on them. This is what individuality means. It doesn’t mean being a sheep, a marionette, or a ventriloquist’s dummy. Many people do not exercise their individuality and prefer to drift along without ever examining what is declared as true.
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But if you are truly an individual, you stand on your own feet and are not swept away by the tide that pulls most people into its whirlpool. You can swim away.

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We can describe three basic levels of conscious as levels of self-awareness:

• Waking —We feel pain and pleasure, pursue goals, suffer and enjoy
• Deep Sleep—We are minimally aware, pain goes away but we know enough to get up and go to the bathroom if needed
• Dreaming—We see mental pictures and pursue fantasies, and may lose our sense of who we are.
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But more levels of consciousness exist when we look at ourselves as spiritual beings who happen to inhabit bodies. Then we have the:

• Physical—We are constantly aware of our bodies, discomfort, illness, pleasure, and relaxation. This level, along with the Mental and Emotional can cause extreme distress.
• Mental—A problematic level of consciousness in which our thoughts create endless chatter, mostly based on fear. But it is also the level of consciousness through which we communicate through language.
• Emotional—A problematic level of consciousness that responds our Mental level and reacts in up and down rollercoasters of feelings. Some are happy, others devastating.
• Etheric—Now we are out of the “problem” area and into a level of consciousness where we integrate how the Mental and Emotional levels effect the Physical. We see, in this level, how the chakras are impacted and what they say about our overall health.
• Astral—This is also a problem-free area of consciousness in which many secrets of our past lives are revealed.
• Causal—A problem free zone of consciousness in which we tap into the creative forces of the Universe and become aligned with them.
• Spiritual—The unproblematic area of consciousness in which we see that all beings are united in one immense unified Soul, expressing itself in many unique ways.
• Cosmic—The glorious level of consciousness in which we are one with the Universe itself. It is in us. We are united with it and understand its eternity.

Buddha was very clear about “believing” anything. His dying words were:

"Behold, O monks, this is my advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation."

He does not use the words, “Believe in me, believe in my doctrine, or believe in the No-self.” He says “work hard,” not “believe.” He does not support anyone believing in him. Instead he says,

“Be a light unto yourself; betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth. Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves.”

He is telling us: Work hard to gain your own salvation. Be a light unto yourself. If you believe in something, you are taking “external refuge.” You are directed to go within. Not to believe something that someone told you. Verify it for yourself by contemplating what is real and eternal and what is unreal and fleeting.
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So, no, I do not “believe” in what the Buddha says about non-self. But I take it gratefully as a pointer. He is showing the way but I must do the internal work. Merely believing in something is taking the easy way out.

Certain memories stay with us lifetime after lifetime. They are part of the aggregate that comprises our Soul. We come into this life remembering some things from past lives. Sometimes we don’t consciously remember these things but they play themselves out in our lives anyway.

Mozart was 5 years old when he created whole symphonies with no mistakes. He credited this miracle to past lives in which he was already an accomplished musician. He was tapping into memories to bring forth this amazingly complex material, even if he didn’t know precisely how this phenomenon operated. He was humble enough to acknowledge this.
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It doesn’t work for us to remember every event of every past life. We are meant to be in the present moment and not continually dwelling in the past. We don’t even remember much about this life on a detailed level. But the overall pattern of our Soul and its unique expression is for all time in our Akashic Records. Whether we access them or not, they are still there.

Spiritually enlightened people are human too and therefore enjoy loving and being loved by others. The difficulty lies in hanging out with people who are not on the spiritual path. People who are totally dedicated to acquiring things as their main purpose and bolstering their egos with status symbols are not compatible with us. It is not easy to spend a lot of time with people who are on that level of consciousness if they exclude the world of the Spirit.

It is not easy to be around people who try to drag us into their limited, fearful view of life. And if we examine the conversation of many people, complaining makes up a large part of it. We don’t like to be the dumping ground for everyones’ upsets but welcome you to confide your problems in us when you are seeking a spiritual solution.

When we see into the core of their being, all people have beautiful characteristics and things to admire and appreciate. But this does not mean we are available for cheap, empty chatter. Concerns such as acquisition and maintenance, escape and momentary thrills do not interest us. Therefore it is easier for us to spend large blocks of time alone. Going to parties where the sum total of conversation ends up being of no spiritual value, would not be our favorite activity.
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This doesn’t me we aren’t fun-loving, adventurous, happy, cheerful, and passionately engaged in life. It’s just that we value our time on this planet. Spending a great amount of time with people who have not woken up does not yield joy or satisfaction for us. But if they show a glimmer of interest in the inner life of the Soul, we are there for them.

Being aware of our true nature is the basis of enlightenment. This is when we experience that we are eternal souls. We see that we are more than our bodies or our minds and we tap into a dimension of ourselves that is beyond time.

When we have reached that state, the idea of progress might not apply. We can go on to ever expanding awareness of the beauty and grandeur of Life but I would not necessarily call it progress. It’s more like, once you see it, you cannot lose it. It underlies all of our consciousness. We do not have to strive to get from here to there. We are already here and we are already there.

We can go in and out of this state according to how much we allow our ego minds to run the show. But I don’t want to depict the process as being a linear path to being a more and more spiritual person. We can watch the play of the mind and its impact on our emotions, fall for it or not, in an game of hide and seek. It can become cyclical but it is not a straight line.
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Self awareness is not a deception. In one way you could say that it is impossible, like your eye trying to see itself. But in another way, self awareness means we are in tune with larger, underlying forces of the Universe. Knowing ourselves on that level is not bogus. It is the only level that counts, as any other aspect of ourselves can be destroyed and is not eternal.

Sometimes people who pursue an explicitly spiritual path box themselves into a mold of the ideal peacemaker. They want to be non-violent and live a karmically clean life. They walk away from any form of conflict and would rather live in tranquility. This makes sense if we want to live a tranquil life.

The unfortunate part of this is that they are human and are equipped with emotions for a reason. And if all our emotions aren’t given their proper outlets, our spiritual path may be stunted.

Some of these emotions are unpleasant, such as fear and anger, but they are also part of our well-put-together systems. When I was growing up I was taught that Jesus was the Lamb of God: Meek and mild, blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers. But I also had several example of Jesus’s anger.

He tossed over the tables of the money changers and threw them out of the temple. He rebuked the barren fig tree. He rebuked his disciples for deserting him and turning on him. He was not meek and mild at all. But notice that he wasn’t standing up for his personal self. He was standing up for his mission.
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If he had stood up for his personal self, he would have fought the Roman soldiers who crucified him. He would have protested. But no. It wasn’t about his personal survival. He was on a mission that was bigger than that. All truly spiritual people are not interested in their own physical survival but they can be very fierce when it comes to the world of the spirit.

The important word in your question is “perceive.”
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What we perceive, see, hear, taste, and feel as humans is different from other animals. Bees have compound eyes and can see ultraviolet light ranges that are invisible to the human eye. Birds and dogs can hear high pitched sounds that our ears are incapable of perceiving. Vultures don’t have a sense of taste so they can indulge in decaying flesh without recoiling in disgust.

We can all agree as humans that a traffic light is red and therefore we must stop. If we all learned from childhood that green meant “stop” then it would be common sense for us to stop at a green light. The blind person, of course, does not see the light at all and must rely on other cues that make up their “objective reality.” Yet the blind person will feel pain if he or she walks into a lamp post.
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We can conclude then matter is an intelligently arranged system of atoms, with which we interact. How we perceive it is different, according to our sensory apparatus. The shape, color, and any other attribute depends on what or who is doing the perceiving. But it is still there. You cannot ignore the light post when you smash your head into it. Maybe you didn’t perceive that it was there, but it was there!