Gautama Buddha as an avatar of Lucifer?

[Angolmois]

I have been thinking for years of Gautama Buddha as an avatar of Lucifer, and it seems to me that I cannot erase this thought from my mind. Buddha as a Master of the "science of mind" appears to me as a figure of a luciferian initiate par excellence and Nirvana as a sort of a liberation of the luciferic principle. There is also a correspondence of him being a royal figure and a member of the ancient Kshatriya caste, and it was for example René Guénon who made correspondences between the royal caste and Lucifer / luciferianism; the "revolt of the Kshatriyas" in ancient times being a sort of luciferian rebellion against the spiritual authority of the Brahmins.

I would love to hear your thoughts about this matter. Do you think it has any basis in reality?

[Nefastos]

Very interesting question.

Personally, I have to put effort to re-calibrate my brain to see these entities as the same; it is not an intuitive answer, since the two figures have so different connotations in our cultural context. Also for me the turning to Lucifer was much to turn away from the severity that I saw in the Right Hand Path doctrines of, for example, Buddha, so these aspects are in my life differing on a practical level that is most meaningful to psyche.

That said, the similarities are strong between Gautama Buddha and Lucifer understood as the White aspect patron in his positive interpretation. Naturally all the spiritual masters share some traits, but there are also many attribute emphases that match. The royal origin which you mentioned shares Lucifer's familiarity with worldly accomplishment and pleasure. Then there is the challenge of cold detachment and its twofold antidote in contemplative moderation and serving others (even from behind the veil). Usual methods of practice involving pacifism and vegetarianism, the stress on "harmlessness" as Bailey put it. Buddha's enlightenment at the moment of the rising of the morning star (Lucifer-Eosphoros).

Yet some of the similarities spring, or are intensified, by the fact that my personal interpretation of the both entities are, precisely, my own. So where the figures seem to come together, in this case I notice also much of my own temperamental colouring going to both of them. In the other words, there's some "astral glamour" in the similarity. In this play of archetypes and archetype aspects that the universe is, I think there are no entities which are exactly the same, but everything comes to us through several stained glass windows. And thus I tend to think that the "stars" of Lucifer & Gautama Buddha are yet separable and different, even though those stars are easy to see as aligned from some Western points of inspection.

This also reminds me of the theosophist idea that the names of the planets Mercury (corresponding to Budhi, the patron of the Buddhas) and Venus (Lucifer morning star) have somehow gotten confused and intertwined.

[Angolmois]

Thank you for your answer frater Nefastos! I was kind of hoping this would cause more conversation 'til now but it seems that the forum is experiencing a time of low activity nowadays. I'll get back to your excellent points if I have some meaningful to answer to them.

[obnoxion]

Personally, I have to put effort to re-calibrate my brain to see these entities as the same; it is not an intuitive answer, since the two figures have so different connotations in our cultural context.

Same here. When I first read Dhammapada, it really didn't speak to me at all. The first form of Buddhism that resonated with me was Tantric Buddhism, and particularily its early Indian forms, though less so in its later monastic forms. After that I found the Mahayana Budddhism, especially the Lotus Sutra and some forms of Zen. And only after that I came to appreciate the Dhammapada as a whole. But I struggle to see in the Gautama of Dhammapada more than a hint of Lucifer. But has there ever really been a teacher without a hint of Lucifer...?

Buddhism's great story of the fall must be the superb myth of Rudra, and how his misunderstanding of what I understand to be essential LHP teachings led to a career of horror that lasted for a few oriental eternities. And finally, there was a tantric redemption.

My positive view of Western Lucifer is closest to the views of the so-called faery-faith. And I cannot find a neat parallel to it from any form of Buddhist myth I know, least of all its stern "theraveda" forms. I mean, if Gautama was clearly luciferian, then why not Mahavira of Jainism?