Well Jade, I believe, in all honesty, that there is a contradiction in the Bible : how could God, Almighty, allow something that doesn't serve his will to exist?
As you said, he once was the most beautiful Angel. Some other monotheistic traditions consider him redeemed, some consider him benevolent indeed, but in any event : he still is an Angel, he is part of Creation himself.
And remember that in some occurrences, him or Satan are explicitly described as servants of God, for example in the book of Job, where Satan is "hired" by God to tempt Job.
So what could his purpose possibly be? The controversial gospel of Mary-Magdalene, controversial because she loved Jesus, but was rejected from canons partly because of her gender, sheds some light on this.
It says "there is no evil but the evil that man creates when they do the things that are like adultery". When they commit adultery toward God, mis-faith in the infinity of his love for his children, mis-faith in the perfection of Creation.
Us humans have drives, impulses, low. This is our bestial, undeniable "sinner nature", that psychology refers to as the "shadow self". But the problem recently illustrated by the crisis in Vatican, and amidst Christianity, shows that if we try to chain the "primordial impulses", we only give them strength - by feeding them fear.
Fear is a self-fulfilling prophecy usually.
Whereas those who faced wickedness without fear, Jesus, or Buddha who also ascended
into light during an encounter with the king of demons; well, they ended up taking demons
with them into redemption.
So? Lucifer, whose name means "the light bringer", still serves, and serves to tempt up into
learning about the only way to deal with our animal, and natural instincts. Transmutation.
Sublimation.
When sexual drives are harnessed to serve love, for example, they allow the creation
of a new family, new household, new life, and new beauty. Left to lust they lead to sorrow,
disarray, diseases even.
Only by accepting that we have such impulses can we achieve the whole of our potential. Only by accepting the existence of the devil yes, not as "foreign", but as fulfilling a role
in a Creation made of, and for, diversity, can we render him powerless. Because his only
power is, and always has been, temptation - of what is already there.
Acknowledging what there is to tempt, placing it, thus, under conscious control,
rids the "sinner nature", and sets the inner divinity free to create beauty.
...
And maybe that is why he appeared to you in this form, it is not his most common form,
he did that to me too but later revealed himself once again as the blue angel. Maybe he did
that, having noticed here your resilience to negativity, to test your fear, or absence thereof.
And you succeeded.
(Edited by argo_navis on 07-01-2011 01:22)