Lucifer is a name that – even to the modern, unchurched ear – can chill the blood. Most of us know the story of the fallen angel who became Satan, the enemy of God. A lot of people (particularly Americans) believe Satan is locked in combat with God for the souls of human beings… and that this war will culminate with a battle between Heaven and Hell, between the Christ and the Antichrist, at the End of Days. And to some, Lucifer represents the human desire for freedom.

This Men’s Monday, I’m going to take a shot at rehabilitating the image of Old Scratch, and see what role he might play in my quest to define Guyness for this post-postmodern day and age. I’m not trying to insult anyone’s religious beliefs, just seeking after some truths through the mythology of our culture.

The name Lucifer comes from the old Latin word for Venus, the Morning Star. In Isaiah 14, Lucifer is referred to as “son of the morning” (Venus), describing one that is “fallen from heaven.” The story, as it’s commonly told, has Lucifer being thrown out of Heaven for the sin of Pride. Some versions have him challenging God directly for control over the Cosmos; in others, it’s his refusal to bow before Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Satan/Lucifer also appears in the Islamic tradition as Iblis, who is the one angel that refuses when God orders them to bow before His creation: Adam. Joseph Campbell tells a fascinating version of this tale in Persian culture, depicting “Satan as the most loyal lover of God:”

You will have heard the old legend of how, when God created the angels, he commanded them to pay worship to no one but himself; but then, creating man, he commanded them to bow in reverence to this most noble of his works, and Lucifer refused – because, we are told, of his pride. However, according to this Muslim reading of his case, it was rather because he loved and adored God so deeply and intensely that he could not bring himself to bow before anything else [...] And it was for that that he was flung into Hell, condemned to exist there forever, apart from his love.

A thread that seems to run through all these stories in the image of Lucifer as one who stands apart, conscious of his own place. In Sufi tradition, he represents the nafs, the egoic self, and in modern Kabbalism, the instruction is to fight “the Satan” (pronounced properly in Hebrew with the accent on the second syllable), which is represented as “the desire to receive for the self only.”

Those of use who were born and raised in the heart of 20th century American culture are pretty strongly conditioned to see the world in black and white terms. Even many of us who separated ourselves firmly from the church just kind of internalized that duality: religion became synonymous with evil, darkness, ignorance. Lately, I’ve been wondering about what a more nuanced perspective on the war between God and Satan might look like. The constant battle between the heavenly hosts and Satan’s minions could also be framed as an interplay between faith and reason, between trusting in fate and acting through free will… between the Self and the self.

Christian eschatology holds that Lucifer will be thrown into the lake of fire on Judgment Day, and Islam also tells of the eventual defeat of Iblis. To me, though, the idea that evil will ever be finally defeated seems ludicrous… even in the interpretation where Satan represents the ego. The ego can never be totally eliminated: it’s a part of the human psyche. So, too, is our capacity for reason as much a part of what makes us human as our ability to reflect on things of the Spirit.

It seems a much healthier way to perceive the Universe and our roles within it. Rather than being caught in a constant battle between two adversaries, we as humans can see ourselves as navigating a course between two extremes. Too far to one side, and we lose ourselves in frenzied abandon to the Ultimate, with people who murder abortion doctors and jihadists seeking eternity in Paradise with 72 virgins (which sort of sounds terrible, if you ask me). Too far to the other side, and we have the cold rationality of “the end justifies the means,” the commodification of the natural world, and the comsummation of the Ego in the person of the Dictator, the Commander in Chief.

Neither extreme is human. Nor can we be fully human without making peace between these two extremes. What if the son of the morning could be reconciled with God the Father? In a mature relationship, the Father doesn’t dominate (“my way or the highway”), and the son no longer sees the need to rebel… instead, each allows the other to operate in his own sphere. Less metaphorically, what I’m groping around with is a proper appreciation of the role of the ego and the intellect (Lucifer, the Light-Bringer) in our day to day, and the role of the enlightened Mind (the Holy Ghost) in matters of the Spirit.

What if we, as men, stopped both fearing and giving into our own inner Lucifers… and stopped cowering to and rebelling from our Jehovahs?

Wouldn’t that be the path of integrity?