Learning to Love - The Fall and Rise of Lucifer Morningstar.

Welcome to Hell!

This week, fate has offered our team something unusual. Not one, but two cards have emerged from the deck to guide us into the fiery depths of the underworld. They tell a story of love and temptation, of discovery and redemption.

In this post, join Irfan Khan as he explores the interesting dynamics in Lucifer through the eyes of tarot, examining the powerful symbolism of The Devil and The Star!

Lucifer Morningstar and Chloe Decker

Where do I begin? I do not watch many television shows, as I would consider myself more of a bookworm compared to the rest of our team. Yet there is something about Lucifer that manages to pull in viewers such as myself with its witty humour and surprising moments of tragedy. If I were to recommend a show, it would definitely be Lucifer.

Released in 2016, Lucifer blends several genres at once with its comedy and drama, mixed with elements of the supernatural and police procedural. The series stars Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar, the Devil himself who abandons his throne in Hell to retire in Los Angeles.

SEASON ONE

Season One begins by introducing the audience to the Devil. While some might have expected a red-skinned, goat-horned monster, Lucifer is instead depicted as a charismatic, witty British man enjoying his retirement by indulging in earthly pleasures. However, that all changed when he witnessed the death of his close friend, Delilah, a famous singer who had fallen victim to a fatal shooting, her death becoming the catalyst for the entire series.

Angered by what he witnessed, Lucifer developed an obsession with bringing criminals to justice, beginning with his search for those who killed Delilah. This pursuit ultimately leads him to meeting with Chloe Decker, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department who he is partnered with in his unusual role as a civilian consultant.

(Hmm... a man witnesses someone close to him get gunned down, which launches him on a personal crusade against crime. Why does that sound familiar?)

SEASON ONE - ANALYSIS

Of course, I am skipping over an entire season of content, filled with other characters who have their own struggles and stories. However, only so much can be filled into this post, so let's get straight into the analysis of Season One.

Since being cast down from Heaven, Lucifer has always believed he was being unfairly blamed for the sins of humanity. Ultimately accepting the self-fulfilling prophecy, he embraces the role of a tempter and manipulator, offering favors for those willing to accept the consequences of their deal. Unwilling to accept his own involvement in these sins, Lucifer insisted that humanity was responsible for their own damnation.

Lucifer in Season One represents the most pure expression of the Devil archetype, revelling in acts of temptation and indulgence. In tarot, the Devil represents being chained down by one's own desires, something which is repeatedly shown to the audience. While not everything he does is a sin, Lucifer is a slave to his many vices, from consuming alcohol and playing the piano to waking up in the beds of random men and women. For the latter, Lucifer would often provide sexual favors in exchange for therapy sessions with Dr. Linda Martin, a licensed therapist who would become one of his closest friends.

However, Season One also serves to introduce the audience to a personal tragedy, an attempt to humanise Lucifer by revealing how his resentment toward God traps him in an identity crisis: "I am the Devil, therefore I must be evil."

But since the Pilot, the audience knows that Lucifer, for all his faults, is not a malicious person. Looking back at Delilah, her career as a musician became successful because she made that deal with the Devil, unaware that the consequences of fame in Los Angeles often meant sexual exploitation and drug abuse. Even though she owed him a significant favour in return for this success, when Delilah came to confess about how her life was falling apart, Lucifer called in that favour to tell her one thing: "Pull yourself together."

He could have done or asked for anything, but the decision to show empathy destroyed our preconceived notions of the Devil, hinting toward how humanity, deprived as it was, was beginning to influence Lucifer. That makes Delilah's death that more tragic, as Lucifer would continue to believe it was his own actions, his mere existence as sin incarnate, which caused others to be hurt even when he tried to help them.

Lucifer is afraid of love. While perhaps not romantically involved with Delilah, Lucifer showed clear affection for the woman, regarding her as a close friend instead of another desperate person in search of the easy route.

He is vulnerable around those he loved, in the sense that his actions were what caused others to pursue a fatal path, and that is why he avoids it by refusing to create attachments. He drinks to forget, he sings to forget, he sleeps around to forget that humans were beginning to influence him. So, when it's HIM who gets hurt when around Chloe Decker, bleeding for the first time in his existence, it becomes a question without an answer that Lucifer is obsessed with solving. Why is he vulnerable with this woman? What about her makes him so weak?

That, my friends, is further explored in Season Two. Unfortunately, we cannot continue as we have run out of time for this post. But join The Tarot next week for an in-depth analysis on Season Two of Lucifer!