The fallen: The lowdown on Lucifer and fallen angels
Lucifer is the most famous angel to have fallen from grace – but he’s not the only one
Whatever our faith, we think of angels as creatures of pure light and goodness, the beings that stand between humanity and the divine – but the truth is, that’s not always the case. Some angels are actually rather nasty! Fallen angels crop up in religions and mythologies all over the world, from ancient texts right through to the present day. Found in Jewish, Christian and Muslim lore, the term ‘fallen angel’ is used to describe angels who have been cast out of Heaven, or angels who have sinned.
Many people claim fallen angels and demons are one and the same, and that fallen angels roam the earth, hellbent on spreading evil. Some even believe they live among us, tempting us to commit sinful acts.
Do YOU know a fallen angel..?
Pride before a fall
According to Christian tradition, Lucifer was the most beautiful and intelligent angel created by God. But Lucifer was corrupted by the sin of pride, and decided to stage a coup against Heaven. A third of the angels rebelled against God and joined Lucifer’s army.
The last book of The New Testament, The Book of Revelation, tells how the rebel angels waged a war in Heaven against angels loyal to God led by Archangel Michael. Needless to say, Michael’s angelic army was victorious, and Lucifer and his followers were punished by being expelled from Heaven and sent down to Hell.
Lucifer – meaning ‘light-bringer’ – became known as Satan, from the Hebrew word for ‘adversary’, or the Devil, from the Greek ‘diabolos’ meaning ‘slanderer’.
Monster mash-up
Ademon called Asmodeus occurs in both early Jewish mythology as a spirit called a shedim, and in Islamic lore as a supernatural creature known as a jinn.
In demonology, Asmodeus is a
Prince of Hell and the demon of lust. Once one of the seraphim, he’s been depicted with three fire-breathing heads – a sheep’s, cow’s and man’s.
These heads are attached to an equally weird body – Asmodeus has the chest of a human, the feathery legs of a rooster and the tail of a snake.
Asmodeus is said to be the husband of Lilith, an evil child-snatching female demon. He’s also able to tempt people to gamble and helps in the plotting of plans for revenge against enemies. That’s some skillset to have on your CV!
Beast of the deep
As fallen angels go, some of the most terrible are the seven princes of Hell. According to demonology there is a prince of Hell responsible for spreading each of the seven deadly sins.
The roll-call of evil includes Leviathan, who was once one of the seraphim, the highest of the nine classes of angels in Christian lore. A terrifying sea monster originating in
Jewish belief,
Leviathan is the demon of envy, and eats alive anyone in its path.
Leviathan is said to have been one of the first three angels to fall after the rebellion in Heaven, along with Beelzebub and Lucifer himself.
The word ‘leviathan’ is now used to describe any large whale or sea creature.
Satanic statue
One of the world’s few public monuments to Lucifer, The Fallen Angel by sculptor Ricardo Bellver, stands in Buen Retiro Park in Madrid, Spain. The statue, which shows Lucifer falling from Heaven, was created in 1877, and caused controversy at the time for depicting him as a fallen angel.
The statue sits above a fountain of creepy gargoyles spouting water from their mouths.
Not surprisingly, there are lots of spooky rumours about the statue of the Devil – including that it is
666 metres above sea level!
Allegedly, devil worshippers steal into the park at night and carry out their dark rituals beneath the statue. There have been reports that agonised screams have been heard, and blood found at the foot of the statue the following morning.
Did you know?
US TV series Lucifer is a hit supernatural comedy drama starring Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar, the Devil who is bored of Hell so goes to live in Los Angeles, where he owns a nightclub as well as working as a consultant for the LAPD. The series, which is based on a DC comic character, first aired in 2015.
Insect plague
During the apocalypse described in The Book of Revelation, a wicked demon called Abaddon appears from a bottomless abyss.
Abbadon, whose name derives from the Hebrew for ‘angel of death’, is one of the destroying angels of the apocalypse and the leader of an army of locusts with scorpions’ tails.
Many have interpreted The Book of Revelation to mean that the locusts are actually fallen angels who have taken on the form of the creepy-crawlies. The locusts are allowed to torture their victims, but not kill them – little consolation if you come across a swarm of evil mutant locusts!
Sex maniacs
When God sent two hundred angels to Earth, they were unable to resist the pleasures of the flesh. The Book of Genesis, the first book of The Old Testament, tells how the angels had sex with beautiful human women. The angels were ousted from
Heaven and, according to some sources, became known as the Nephilim, which means ‘fallen’ in Hebrew.
Other sources say that this was the name of the offspring of the angel fathers and human mothers, said by some to be a race of giants.
Sex-mad demons appear in mythologies all over the world. One of the earliest mentions of an incubus, a male demon who has sex with sleeping women, is in a text from Mesopotamia dating back to 2400BC.
It is said that repeated sexual activity with an incubus, or the female equivalent known as a succubus, can eventually lead to illness or even death. Halfhuman offspring called cambions can result from sex between a human and a demon. These look like stunningly beautiful humans, but they don’t breathe or have a pulse! Merlin, the magician of Arthurian legend, was said to be a cambion.