The Antagonist: Lucifer

A well-written story the heroine confronts an evil archenemy. In our eternal fairy tale, we each fight against Lucifer and his followers in their different forms and strikes of deceit.

Satan and his minions are also referred to as the “adversary.” They attack the essence of the heroine’s weakness. Lucifer is jealous of our ability to experience life with a body and will do everything to try to destroy us. Contrastingly, Christ will do everything to save us.

From the beginning, “Satan became the devil by seeking glory, power, and dominion by force.” He was against our Father’s plan of happiness that includes the gift of agency. “With this sublime gift, we can grow, improve, progress, and seek perfection. Without agency, none of us could grow and develop by learning from our mistakes and errors and those of others.”

In sly and taunting ways the adversary tries to thwart our pathway f divinity. His plan seeks to defeat the gospel plan and “destroy the souls of men.”

In action of his rebellion, Lucifer was cast out. In a vision to Moses, the Lord said:

“Because … Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;

“And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto [the Lord’s] voice.”

Nephi describes types of his craftiness as “everlasting chains,” “stirred up in anger,” “pacify and lull into carnal security,” “cheateth their souls,” “leadeth them away carefully down to hell,” and “flattereth away.” Each slowly “grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance.”

The great Christian writer C. S. Lewis defines Lucifer craftiness as:

“Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one – one gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

Satan slowly binds his prey with small “flaxen cords” gradually, building strength over time. A flaxen cord is a fine, light-colored fiber made with flax. The thin, soft strands can be easily broken. However, combined together in a cord, it is strong and unyielding. Lucifer’s plan is to “pacify” God’s children and “lull them away into carnal security” so that he can lead them “carefully” away from the truth, happiness & God’s eternal love.

Like many addictions, my eating disorder progressively caught me Lucifer’s grasp. With subtle wraps of His soft flaxen cords, Satan bound me his dark deceits that I was worthless, unlovable and broken. His silent transformation made if easy for me to ignore the darkness blinding my perception.

Looking back, I perceive the small “flaxen cords” wrapping around me in slight movements. Lucifer’s lies tricked me to believe that by striving to control different aspects of my life, I would mend all that was “broken,” including me. However, in my effort to take control, I did not see, hear, and understand the truth of the spirit of my Heavenly Father.

Nephi explains that Satan is “the founder of . . . works darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.”

Lucifer’s whispers changed my perception of myself. I found it hard to recognize my strengths and accomplishments. He deceived my soul to keep my emotions hidden. Dreams and goals became distant and unreachable. My mind, body, and spirit were bound in His dreary prison. I was desperate to be freed from his captivity, which could only come through my Savior and Redeemer.

My friend Mary once wrote me a note that describes Lucifer’s purpose of eating disorders and other mental illness in distracting us from our divine potential along the story map of our eternal fairy tale:

“As I’ve been here at the Center, I’ve come to believe that this disease is one of Satan’s acute tools to target powerful, strong women who can and will do marvelous and great works while here on earth. He strikes at our very souls- literally, our minds, spirits, and bodies. I’ve come to believe that I can and will cast him and this disease out of my life so that I can say, as Moses said to Satan – Rent and rave all you’d like, frighten me with the horrific power of the depths of hell; but when you are done- please step out of my way. For I am a child of God and I have a work to do, and I will do it.”