I think about the spiritual meanings of certain ideas a lot.
There is the idea of the devil. You have two main personifications for the idea of the devil. And these two personifications are meant to be representative of the “rulers of the ‘material’ world”
The first is the idea of Satan. Satan is the idea of the hierarchy. The idea is that a man may feel, however foolish, that he or she is better than other men. This is represented in the bible as Satan temps Christ to give up his fast because he simply can when he wants to, to jump from the temple to prove he is protected more than others and to bow down to Satan to receive rulership of the kingdoms of the world. These are temptations of pride. These are temptations of feeling as though you are better than your neighbor based on fallible ideas of the world.
The second is the idea of Lucifer. Lucifer is the personification of luxury. The personification of finding value in ourselves by experiencing excess.
These names of Satan and Lucifer are given to us for a reason. These names are lessons in and of themselves on the behaviors and habits to avoid.
We learn that acclaim is a good thing. And that abundance is a good thing. Recognition is a good thing. Satisfaction is a good thing. But acclaim is dangerous as it gives you a false idea of yourself. And an emphasis on abundance can lead to greed. And so to learn is to unlearn. To learn what is good for you is to unlearn what we are told would be great for us.
