I just wanted to ask if Ahriman was the same as lucifer? It seems to me that what I am learning from my delving into the occult is that their are dark forces that are stronger than lucifer and are almost equal in power to jehovah. Ahriman sounds like he is basically a god on a similar level to jehovah, I’m not sure if this is true but it’s how it’s described.
Ahriman could be described as the Persian Satan, rather than Lucifer. He is the “Big Bad” in Zoroastrianism, fighting against Ahura Mazda, the creator god of that particular mythos.
In modern times, works like Kurtis Joseph’s Black Magick of Ahriman, have portrayed him as a sort of Promethean figure, trying to bring mankind out of the “false light” of Ahura Mazda. In that sense, he could be equated to Lucifer in that he seeks to bring knowledge to mankind, but he is not a “Light Bringer” in this conceptualisation, because Light is seen as bad, and the Darkness is seen as good (historically, Light has always been used as a synonym for knowledge, such as in the statement “He has seen the light,” and Darkness as a synonym for ignorance, but the Path of Smoke reverses this).
Note: this is my understanding of the current based on what I’ve read. i make no claims as to whether it is correct or not.
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Ask Azi Dahaka. He has been very helpful, if not friendly.
Hey thanks for the info that’s cleared it up, so Ahriman is basically just Satan in the long run?
No, he’s not Satan, but he plays a role in Zoroastrianism similar to the role Satan plays in Christianity.
Ah I see so I don’t get why people keep saying he’s a subordinate of lucifer, is he just a fallen angel then?
I mean I know you said he was a Persian devil/demon but isn’t he still an angel as all occult gods are effectively fallen
Um…no.
I don’t personally buy into the idea of fallen angels. In my experience, an angel is an angel, a demon is a demon, and a god is a god. An angel cannot become a demon, and a demon cannot become an angel. They are similar species, but they are not the same. However, there are plenty of people who do buy into that particular idea on this forum so… 
I have never heard of Ahriman being a subordinate to Lucifer. They’re not even in the same mythology so that idea seems highly unlikely. That’s like saying Odin is a subordinate of Zeus. The idea probably comes from the Christian notion that Lucifer is the Emperor of Hell and thus every demon from every mythology, even mythologies that don’t even have a hell, are under his aegis.
Like I said, the closest equivalent in the Christian mythology is probably Satan, though, unlike Satan, Ahriman was never an angel, and is more akin to a creator god himself. Ahriman has legions of other demons/devils called Divs, which seem very similar to the legions of other beings like Lucifer, Azazel, and Satan. They are very powerful in their own right but choose to serve under Ahriman.
Ahura Mazda is the equivalent to Yahweh, and has legions of beings under his command which are similar to angels, though I don’t know if they really fit that species or if that is just the closest known equivalent. I’m not familiar enough with the Ahriman current to say for certain.
If you are familiar with Greek mythology, it might help to think of Ahriman as more like the Titans, than fallen angels. He is a god of Chaos and Counter-Creation and opposes the “false light,” or Order, imposed by Ahura Mazda upon the universe.
Religious people tend to put their own personal gods as the head of the universal hierarchy. Religious minded Satanists, for example, put Satan in the place of God/Yahweh and make the claim that Satan is the real creator of this universe and even the angels are under him. Some people do the same thing with Lucifer. That’s the only reason I can think of for someone to claim Ahriman is Lucifer’s subordinate.
Note: This is my opinion and I do not state it is the truth of how things are. It is simply my understanding. Anyone is welcome to disagree. I personally do not hold Lucifer, Satan or Ahriman up as anything even approaching a superior being, but I understand some people do.
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Ah I see that makes a lot of sense. Personally I feel like Ahriman and the Zoroastrian religion feels more authentic than the Judeo-Christian religions as it seems to be more in line with what I’ve seen on the astral plane such m as the qlippothic worlds which seem to be ruled by a being of pure chaos. I’ve always found the notion of lucifer and Satan to make no sense as they are described as angels, the power ascribed to these two enemies seems very terrestrial and not very powerful on a cosmic scale to jehovah where as the Ahriman seems to be a truly transcendent adversary more like what I would have imagined the ruler of the reverse tree to be like.
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Well, it is much older, and could be considered a precursor to the Judeo-Christian religions. One of the earliest Christian sects, Gnosticism, took some of its precepts directly from Zoroastrianism, if I remember correctly.
There are angels of vast cosmic power, compared to which even the archangels pale. They are responsible for keeping the universe together, and holding back the entropy that would devour all things. Their scale is so immense that they don’t really interact with mortal beings, or even other angels and demons for that matter. Our consciousness is unable to fully comprehend them, so you cannot say Satan or Lucifer aren’t powerful just because they were/are angels. They are simply, as you said, more terrestrial in scope.
I wouldn’t say Ahriman is any more transcendent than Tiamat or the Titans though. He is a primordial force of Chaos, similar in breadth and power to others of various pantheons.
Yes I agree, I think there is much confusion in modern religions generally, it seems to me the further back you go to the oldest religions the more accurate the descriptions of cosmic entities are. It seems to me that Christianity has a lot of truth in it but it leaves out all of the bulky bits such as the demiurge archons, astral planes, god level entities etc
Within the scope of this Pantheon, Lucifer would be more likened to Melek Taus, The Peacock Angel who was created by Angra Mainyu (aka Ahriman) from the tears of Spenta Mainyu (Ahura Mazda). I say this because just like Lucifer, Melek Taus rebelled against the command of this god of limitation and aligned himself with the Ahrimanic Current. He also has knowledge of both the heavens and infernal realms, making him a balanced being like Lucifer. Melek Taus was created because Ahriman wanted to show he could create something beautiful but chose not to, making him a symbol of free-will and independent thought.