The Ariman, Lucifer, Satan and Watiko
Lucifer, Ahriman, Satan, and Wetiko.
An esoteric psychology of splitting.
Across traditions, these are not “evil beings” in a simplistic sense, but principles of consciousness that arise when awareness fractures from its source. Lucifer, the light that separates. In esoteric Christianity and Theosophy, Lucifer represents light without humility, illumination that forgets its source. It is the brilliance of mind, intellect, vision, beauty, and spiritual aspiration, with a subtle distortion where “I see” becomes “I know”. Luciferic consciousness tends toward spiritual inflation, idealism without embodiment, escaping the body, the earth, and the messy human, and a premature claim to transcendence. In Buddhist language, this resembles subtle grasping at clarity, bliss, luminosity, or insight, mistaking nyam, meditative experiences, for realisation.
Ahriman, the hardening of matter and mind. From Rudolf Steiner and Zoroastrian streams, Ahriman is not temptation upward, but compression downward. It is mechanisation, materialism, rigidity, and deadening, consciousness becoming overly concrete, literal, technological, and controlling, spirit trapped in form. Ahrimanic consciousness tends toward reductionism, control systems, fear of chaos, severance from mystery, and denial of soul, subtlety, or living presence. In Buddhist terms, this is reification, taking phenomena as solid, fixed, and ultimately real. Satan, adversarial consciousness Satan literally means the adversary. It is the principle of opposition and accusation, mind dividing reality into right and wrong, pure and impure, saved and damned, consciousness defined against something. In Buddhism, this corresponds closely to dualistic mind and ego clinging that needs an “other” to exist.
Wetiko, the psychic virus. From indigenous and Jungian interpretations, Wetiko is not a being but a contagious pattern, cannibalistic consciousness, consuming life, resources, others, even the sacred, to fill an inner lack. This aligns closely with taṇhā, craving, the preta realm, and unconscious shadow possession. Wetiko is what happens when emptiness is not recognized and the void is filled with endless consumption.
2. The unifying thread - misrecognition of emptiness
All four expressions arise from the same root error, not recognizing the nature of mind as empty, luminous, and self liberating.
Lucifer grasps luminosity
Ahriman grasps form
Satan grasps polarity
Wetiko grasps at filling emptiness
In Buddhist terms, these are expressions of avidyā, not ontological enemies.
3. Mahāmudrā and Highest Tantra - The great undoing
An esoteric psychology of splitting.
In Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen, nothing is rejected.
Thought is not the enemy
Emotion is not the enemy
Shadow is not the enemy
Even distortion is self liberating when seen.
Whatever arises is the display of mind.
From the view of Dharmakāya, there is no Lucifer to overcome, no Ahriman to destroy, no Satan to defeat, no Wetiko to exorcise.
They are empty appearances within awareness.
4. Highest Tantra - Poison as medicine
In Anuttarayoga Tantra, desire is not abandoned, it is transmuted.
Anger is not suppressed, it becomes mirror like wisdom.
Pride becomes equanimity.
Ignorance becomes Dharmadhātu wisdom.
The very energies that appear “dark” are the fuel of awakening when recognised. What Christianity calls fallen, Tantra calls unrecognized energy.
5. A radical reframing
From the Dharmakāya perspective:
Lucifer is luminosity without emptiness
Ahriman is emptiness without luminosity
Satan is awareness forgetting itself
Wetiko is emptiness mistaken for lack
Mahāmudrā unifies all four by resting in empty clarity inseparable from compassion.
6. Why this matters now
This is felt because we are in a time where:
Luciferic patterns appear as spiritual bypassing, false light, inflated teachers. Ahrimanic patterns appear as technocracy, soulless systems, mechanisation. Adversarial patterns appear as culture wars and moral absolutism
Wetiko appears as extractive capitalism and ecological devastation
The antidote is not moral crusade.
It is non dual realization embodied in form.
7. Mahāmudrā in lived transmission
This is not engaged intellectually.
The work sits here, bringing Dharmakāya into relationship, preventing luciferic escape through embodiment, softening ahrimanic density through etheric sensitivity, dissolving wetiko through sacred union and sufficiency, transcending adversarial polarity through tenderness.
This is Tantric compassion, not spiritual warfare.
8. Essence teaching - Piercing fear without bypass
Fear does not arise because something dark is attacking us.
Fear arises when awareness contracts and forgets its own nature. Nothing that arises is other. Nothing needs to be fought. Nothing needs to be bypassed. What we resist solidifies. What we fear gains power. What we meet with awareness reveals its emptiness. Discernment without demonisation. Non duality does not mean denial. It means seeing clearly without hatred Distortion is real, but it is not ultimate.
Luciferic pattern, inflation and false light. Medicine, humility and embodiment. Ahrimanic pattern, control and rigidity, medicine, wonder and trust in mystery. Adversarial pattern, polarisation, medicine, curiosity and shared humanity. Wetiko pattern, insatiability, medicine, sufficiency and devotion. Fear is a sensation, not a truth, fear lives in the body, not in reality.
Do not suppress it.
Do not analyse it.
Do not spiritualise it away.
Feel where it lives.
Rest awareness around it.
Let breath widen the space.
Fear cannot survive being fully felt.
Mantra as remembrance. Mantra is not used to block darkness, but to stabilise awareness.
OM, original wholeness
OM MANI PADME HUM, compassion within density
OM AH HUM, body speech mind unified
SO HAM, dissolving separation
Let mantra vibrate fear, not escape it. Compassion as the final seal, the deepest protection is an open heart. Compassion does not mean agreement. It means not closing. Awareness does not fight darkness., awareness reveals that darkness was never separate from light.