Jeremy Crow is a Luciferian/Left-Hand Path Occultist based in Toronto, Canada. He’s also part of the electro/drum ‘n bass group, Pleasure the Priestess. I’ve also interviewed him on the Youtube show, Aeon Arcanum with my co-host Karl James Smith (I’m the guy with the glasses). Recently, I asked him to take part of a Q & A session because of his Light-bringing intelligentsia and fiery Promethean Gnostic spirit that fits very well with the general theme of this blog. This is the result of our dialogue. Enjoy the interview!
1. How do you think Left-Hand Path Luciferianism and ancient, Nag-Hammadi styled Gnosticism are alike and do they differ in any specific differences, including perhaps encratic/asceticism in contrast with antinomian libertinism?
I think modern Luciferianism differs from historical Gnosticism in a number of ways. For instance, Gnosticism tended not to deviate very far from the Judeo-Christian mythos. They certainly had their own way of looking at it compared to the mainstream Christian traditions that developed and they definitely were influenced by other cultures, however it was not nearly as syncretic as modern Luciferianism. Luciferians of today borrow heavily from a very wide range of mythologies and spiritual systems both ancient and modern. For a few examples, Prometheus is almost universally considered by Luciferians as a “Lucifer” (literally “Light Bringer”) as well as characters such as the serpent from the biblical Eden story, the Norse god Odin and the Sumerian god Enki. Many even consider the Gnostic Christ to be a Lucifer.
There is a basic story arc that these various Light Bringers typically follow: The providing of forbidden knowledge to an oppressed people, punishment of the emancipator from the established authorities and finally the redemption of the light bringer. The actual practices are also wildly divergent, even among modern Luciferians. You often see more extreme forms of practice in historical forms of Gnosticism when compared with modern practitioners. Take for example the Cathar practice of avoiding reproduction in order to avoid providing physical bodies so as not to enable the Archons to imprison souls in the flesh. That is a form of extreme fundamentalist dualism that I think would be very difficult to find among modern Luciferians.
2. Do you equate Lucifer with Satan or do you consider them two distinct entities?
My thoughts on this have evolved over time. Really, “Lucifer” and “Satan” are just words that are used to convey ideas. Are those two ideas the same? To some people, they certainly are. To start with, I think it’s important to know that Lucifer is a Latin word that means “Bringer of Light” or “Bearer of Light” and that Satan is a Hebrew word that means “Adversary.” When I was first getting into Gnosticism I used the word “Lucifer” to personify the liberating truth and “Satan” to personify the demiurgic force that tries to maintain control through suppressing the truth. It was a very Manichean or dualistic way of looking at things. Now I see Lucifer and Satan more as the two primary ways of relating to the aspects of reality that we find disturbing and have a hard time accepting or integrating. For someone who is not ready to accept these difficult truths, it is more of an adversarial relationship – Satan guarding the gates of Hell from the intrusions of the unwary for their own protection. When we become mature enough and brave enough to effectively integrate the shadow, it becomes Lucifer initiating you into the forbidden knowledge. The lens has changed.
3. H.P. Blavatsky and Aleister Crowley have both exerted an enormous influence on modern Luciferian thought. Do you think its possible that John Milton’s Paradise Lost could be the origination of the celebration or deification of Lucifer?
That’s an interesting question. Technically, Milton’s Paradise Lost doesn’t mention Lucifer at all. It’s a story about Satan. Milton apparently didn’t intend Satan to be the protagonist although that is how it turned out. Certainly it has inspired some to sympathize with Satan and his plight. It has also been one of the major pieces of literature that led to the identification of Satan with the serpent in Eden as well as with the word Lucifer as found in the KJV version of the bible. For a very long time, the word Lucifer was not associated with Satan. Not until the KJV came out did people start thinking of Lucifer as equivalent to Satan. To this day, the Catholic Church does not see the word Lucifer as equivalent to Satan or even as something bad at all. There was even a Bishop who took on the ecclesiastical name Lucifer and was later canonized.
I would also like to mention that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was essentially an updated retelling of Paradise Lost, where the monster becomes the anti-hero style protagonist and Dr. Frankenstein is the uncaring and cold hearted creator. In the book, the monster actually reads Paradise Lost and sympathizes with Satan. Mary’s husband Percy Bysshe Shelley also wrote a lyrical drama called Prometheus Unbound, which he prefaces with a note stating that Prometheus is essentially the Satan character but in a different cultural context in which he is actually appreciated by the people he helped emancipate. Paradise Lost has been and remains an important and influential piece of literature, especially for those on a Left Hand Path.
4. How does the dual symbols of Lucifer and Satan tie into the concept of the HGA (The Holy Guardian Angel)? Could this dichotomy be compared to Carl Jung’s thought on the Shadow Self?
I alluded to this above and will elaborate here. The way I see it can be easily described with reference to Jung’s concept of the Shadow. Before I get into that, I want to make it clear that I think the modern concept of the Holy Guardian Angel as something you need to spend years trying to gain knowledge of and conversation with in order to determine your True Will is a load of crap. This kind of thinking amounts to a lot of busy-work, doing the same basic rituals over and over for years and rarely yielding any greater insight into your life’s purpose or progress toward achieving it. It is my suggestion that you likely already know what inspires you. Pick a goal in line with that and work at it as hard as you can. It will evolve or even dramatically change as you go along and that’s how it should be. If you genuinely don’t know what inspires you, explore as much as you can until you find your muse! If nothing else, you will develop your personality in the process.
The original concept of the personal guardian angel was a usually undetectable influence that subtly keeps you from harm. The Shadow, as a repository of all that you have rejected about yourself and the suppressed memories of traumatic events is frightening for the very reason that this material is potentially damaging. It was knowledge that was so disturbing or incomprehensible that your mind segregated it from consciousness so that you would not go insane. Personified, it is Satan or Hades, making sure that the damned souls and demonic entities do not escape the underworld to molest the living. Satan is the guardian angel. What many modern occultists sometimes refer to as “shadow work” is an attempt to explore the contents of this rejected personal truth (aka “forbidden knowledge”) and to heal and integrate it into the conscious mind. This work seeks to overcome the natural feelings of fear and revulsion and look upon the Shadow not as an adversarial guardian but as an initiator – the devil is transformed into an angel of light, so to speak. Eventually we should grow beyond the need for these functions to become mature and courageous enough to process difficult truths through a consciously directed process. This is why you hear that once we leap into the Abyss, we leave the HGA behind. At least that is my personal take on the HGA.
5. What are your thoughts on Chaos Magick and creative visualizations associated with ideas such as the Law of Attraction? Does the deific or daemonic (the Platonic daemon) self-identification “I am” formula in the Greek Magical Papyri and the Egyptian Pyramid texts have anything to do with these concepts and ritual practices?
I think that most Luciferians are Chaos Magickians in the sense that they develop their own personal system based on what works for them. They may not call themselves Chaos Magickians, but the basic concept is there. Modern Luciferianism is very personal and tends to be quite syncretic. As far as Creative Visualization, The Secret, the Law of Attraction, or whatever else you want to call it, I do see a lot of validity in that technique. It is important but not sufficient and therein lies the problem. Too many people reduce this to “if I have the right mental attitude and can visualize it strongly enough, it will manifest in my life” and then they spend all their free time in fantasy, never accomplishing anything. If you want something bad enough, you need to work on it from both sides. Continue to do your visualizations but you also need to put in the grunt work on the ground to create ways for it to manifest in your life. If you’re trying to get a certain type of job, wishing and praying for it usually won’t work unless you are also sending out resumes. Too many aspiring occultists spend countless hours trying to develop magickal powers without any idea of what they hope to accomplish with these powers. Usually, those hours would be better spent working toward achieving the same thing using more mundane techniques. I like to think of Creative Visualization and/or Sigil Magick as a method of enhancing the likelihood of succeeding in my conventional efforts. It’s to get that extra edge.
6 On various social media websites (including Facebook and Youtube), you’ve spearheaded an Occupy the Temple movement. Could you elaborate more about this?
Occupy The Temple is an initiative to challenge the status quo of occult organizations and Esoteric Orders. There are many ways of going about doing things that may have been necessary in the past but could be discarded or improved upon for the modern era. Many times, the only reasons these methods persist is because of the reverence for tradition and (more often) because they allow the leaders of these groups to hold and maintain more power over their membership. Occupy The Temple seeks to educate people about these specific issues and to encourage [and where possible, to also provide] alternative ways of doing things. Ideally these changes will be possible to enact within the existing establishments but where it cannot, we encourage individuals to take it upon themselves to defiantly do things the way they feel is right without asking for permission from someone who has taken on a position of authority in their group. Occupy The Temple is a leaderless movement in a manner similar to the hacker collective Anonymous, in that anyone can take up the Occupy The Temple mantle and take direct action without asking permission from anyone. These individuals take both credit and responsibility for their own actions. For examples of issues, I encourage anyone curious to look us up.
7. Are there any upcoming musical or book projects to expect, down the pipeline for 2014?
Yes, I have a few things in the works. Pleasure The Priestess is working on a new album which we plan to release on vinyl, cassette tape and digital download sometime in 2014. The new songs are going to be closer to our Industrial roots compared to the more dance music oriented stuff we released in 2013. We’re going to experiment with crowd-funding to help finance the project. We also intend to continue putting out music videos on our YouTube channel. I hope people will check out our channel and if they like what they see, they can show their support by subscribing on YouTube.
As far as books, you can expect to see at least two publications in 2014. One of these is a compilation of articles written by members of the Luciferian Research Society (LRS) mostly on topics of practical occultism. It is therefore a “Book of Shadows” for our community and we intend to publish a series of these over time. If it pays for itself it will be a worthy project, as it will publish the work of aspiring authors and help them get noticed. If it actually generates some income, these funds will be used to support the expenses of the LRS and its official projects. For more info on the LRS, please visit: http://luciferianresearch.org/
I also have a personal project to publish a book containing four original rituals that I have written for use by Left Hand Path occultists. The first three of these are solo rites. The final ceremony is a full lodge initiation which requires five people to perform: Four officers and one candidate for initiation. This group ritual will form the basis of a sort of Open Source Order, as anyone can perform it without asking permission or paying dues to any governing body. No governing body such as a Grand Lodge or Sovereign Sanctuary will even exist in the first place and if someone should try to set one up, it could not be enforced as there will be no oath of secrecy attached to the initiation ceremony. A digital copy of this rite will be freely available to encourage sharing and I will also be publishing and selling physical copies of the book.
