I was a bit shocked when I finished Peter Grey’s Lucifer: Princeps as I really wasn’t expecting it to end so suddenly. It’s obvious that this book is meant to lead directly into the forthcoming Lucifer:Praxis and as a result this feels like a really extended prologue. It feels like half of a conversation.
There is very little Lucifer in this book. It is almost like he is a character on the fringe of the stage trying his best to get a word in but being talked over every time. Finally just when you think you will hear him talk, the book ends.
That isn’t to say that the book isn’t good. It is good, it is just a completely different book than I had anticipated. As you would expect from a book about Lucifer, it is extremely Bible centric but it does look at other writings too; mostly that which influenced or was influenced by the bible though. Grey looks at all the places where you would expect the story of Lucifer to have its origin but he manages to prove quite extensively why this isn’t the case. From Isaiah 14:12, Azazel, Book of Enoch through to Revelation it’s all covered, but no mention of the Yazidi’s Melex Taus for instance or any non-Judeo-Christian version of Luicifer save for casual mentions of Prometheus. He makes it clear from the start that he doesn’t equate Lucifer with Christ, or Satan and examines Lucifer purely from the Occult based perspective of a separate entity.
But, Lucifer never arrives in the book. His story is never delivered. He is distinctly absent from the narrative. In the end you are left with the feeling that Lucifer is nothing more than a name that became known because of a mistranslation. I was expecting to come away knowing more about the Light-bearer but instead the light got a good deal dimmer.
But really, what else was I expecting? Although Lucifer has been adopted wholeheartedly by the LHP, I was fooling myself into thinking that he would have a huge and rich history outside of Christian thought. Save for recent moves in Luciferianism, Grey notes that as a historical movement Luciferianism just doesn’t seem to have existed. In fact, reading this book, it becomes quite clear that Lucifer never really existed, not even in the minds of the people who wrote the passages that ostensibly speak of him.
So, from a Chaos point of view, where we look to mythos such as these for sources of inspiration and basis for beliefs, this book kills off Lucifer to a large extend. We shall have to go else where to find our Light-Bringer. Perhaps that is the point. When Lucifer:Praxis arrives maybe the light will shine again for Lucifer and he will finally be allowed to talk.
LUCIFER:PRINCEPS By Peter Grey