The Church of Lucifer was founded by Reverend Robert Stills, the 22nd American Generation of our tradition, who ran the Church of Lucifer under the names of Order of the Archon, Temple of Shaitan, and many others. It was then when Reverend Frederick Nagash was studying under Reverend Stills.
Later, Reverend Stills died of cancer, and had made Reverend Frederick Nagash, ordained 28th American Generation the High Priest of the Church of Lucifer. A few years later (1996), the Church of Lucifer was introduced to the internet. Reverend Frederick Nagash was ordained only a short time before he took over the Church of Lucifer.
Reverend Frederick Nagash, trained by Reverend Robert Stills, has studied and mastered all forms of magick. These include, but are not limited to, Enochian Magick, Luciferic Magick, Goetia, Hermetic, Necromantic, Chaos, Kabbalah, and many other forms, too numerous to name here.
Over the decades, the Church of Lucifer has had a storied history, with many bumps, triumphs, individuals, and issues that have played a definitive role in it. The history of the Church of Lucifer is the history of Luciferianism over much of the world, so allow me to first speak of the C.O.L. in the historical context,
Reverend Robert Stills was a serious individual in all he was, did, and studied, but that was quite possibly due to his military carrier and the brutality of war he’d been subjected to. While stationed in two places, Rev. Stills had extraordinary opportunities presented to him, firstly in Greece and second in Iraq. While stationed in Iraq, he was placed in command of a unit that worked closely with the Kurdish people, to protect and keep the military of Sadam Hussein from killing the native Yezidi Kurds.
Reverend. Stills befriended dozens of Kurds he’d assisted and was taught and raised up as a tribesman by the Sheikh’s. He was soon given the charge to lead a sect/tribe of Yezidism in the United States and to preserve the teachings thereof. Rev. Stills was also given a special gift, a peacock idol known as a Sanjak, of which there are only three ever made.
This particular Sanjak was special moreso to Rev. Stills, as it was partially destroyed in a firefight with Sadam’s forces.
After his tour in Iraq, Reverend Stills was stationed in a much less turbulent place, Greece. During his station in Greece, Reverend Stills befriended an old family who practiced traditional Hellenic Luciferianism.
There was an exchange of traditions under mutual friendship and soon Reverend Stills was ordained in Luciferianism, as well as helping to establish a small tribe of Yezidi in Greece.
Upon his retirement from military life, he’d formed a local coven here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The order of Shaitan was born and soon enough, Reverend Stills had a fairly infamous presence in the tri-state region.
A few years later… my story joined the fray…
I was born Frederick William Cook, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a hippy mother and a father who was absent. I was always interested in the mystery schools of the ancient people, from Mesopotamia to Egypt to Greece and Rome, I studied them all. I was fascinated by the beliefs and practices of the ancient world and still am today. As a small child (and still today), I watched documentaries, read books, and subscribed to anthropology and archaeology magazines, I guess I’ve always been a bit of a nerd.
Studying the ancient world was my escape from the hell I’d endured at home and growing up in a violent inner city (not in a “nice,” area or suburb), came with its own challenges and torments.
I’d taken it upon myself to actually read the bible, and I formulated questions, doubt, and even resentment towards organized religion. I saw that regardless of how horrible a person was, as long as they go to church on Sunday, they were absolved and welcomed into the church, which for my family, has proved true to this day. I was around ten years of age at that time…
I became disillusioned with mainstream religion by the age of eleven, having been involved in various sects of Christianity (from Catholicism to Presbyterianism) and having read up on Judaism and Islam at a young age. I was already online by this time when the internet was merely bulletin boards. I’d read everything I could on organized religion from the Septuagint, the KJV Bible to the Torah, Talmud, and Tanakh, to the Koran.
I’d begun reading the works of Aristotle, Plato, Nietzsche, and countless other philosophers and studying them with an obsession. I soon came across the Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey and was highly intrigued by some of the philosophies of Satanism. I soon wore a Baphomet medallion around my neck and proclaimed to the world, “Hail Satan!”
I had met many Satanists who’d later hold prominence in the Church of Satan, mostly during multiple visits to New York, namely Hell’s Kitchen and Greenwich village. One day, while walking down a popular strip in Philadelphia called “South Street,” a man stopped me and asked to talk to me about my Baphomet medallion. I was twelve at the time and honestly had a bit of a devil-may-care attitude, so I stopped and talked to him.
He told me a bit about Luciferianism and asked if I’d like to meet other Luciferians in his coven to talk further, I agreed. I met several others and came to find out the man was Reverend Robert Stills, a locally well-known individual in the occult. After some time (several weeks) talking and meeting, ritualizing and listening to each coven member’s brief, but informative lectures. I was formally initiated into the Luciferian sect as Frederick Nagash.
I was zealously obsessive in my studies and practice and I quickly become his personal apprentice. In three short years, I was ordained and named the heir of the order after Rev. Stills passed on, and later that year he in fact passed on. Reverend Stills died in 1994 of lung cancer and was survived by his six children, myself, and those in the order he founded and called his brothers and sisters.
When Reverend Still passed away, he left his small occult order to me with instructions to continue the tradition and help the order grow. I was already familiar with computers and the internet and so following his mentor’s orders, he took the group online under the name of the "Church of Lucifer." Within several years the organization went from thirty to forty members in Philadelphia, to an international Luciferian institution with over ten thousand members.
I essentially brought Luciferianism to the masses, bringing it out from the veil of obscurity and familial practices to millions.
The COL grew quickly at a time when the internet was still a very new thing. From newsgroups to a complete website, the organization sprung up and began absorbing numerous smaller groups from around the world under our umbrella. At the time, the only other left-hand path group online with a website presence that was serious, was the Temple of Set, and I talked to the TOS founder Michael Aquino through email often.
I continued to make allies in various organizations and soon after, saw pretenders arise under the guise of Luciferianism, who merely espoused Satanism under a different name. I grew irritated at the individuals using the name Luciferian to elevate them from their mundane peasantry to something they couldn’t truly fathom being, and so I took the C.O.L. underground for a year, bringing many of the online members into reality.
During this period underground, I trained my then-wife Rev. Satrinah and when the Church of Lucifer was brought back online, she sat as its online representative. We’d ignored the role-playing gamers pushing faux Luciferian teachings and focused on our organization. After a while, the C.O.L. grew beyond the care of two individuals and for the first time, we’d added a third and had it run under a tribunal of three.
When I turned 26 years of age, I semi-retired from running the C.O.L. allowing Satrinah to run it and it went well for a time. I still sat on the tribunal and had the final word on what happened, but she’d taken over a lot of the work, as I’d sacrificed my childhood and most of my 20s to see it to fruition.
This worked well for a time, but after a while, Satrinah began neglecting applications and duties and instead made it more about “friendship,” and “fun.” This continued for some time until I convened a small meeting of the tribunal and several priests of the church, asking to dissolve it. I was thirty-one years old at that time and Satrinah and I separated.
I soon moved from Arizona (Satrinah’s hometown) to North Carolina to be with my new love interest, Samantha (Whom I am still with and have four children). Over the years since dissolving the Church of Lucifer, I swore that I was done with organizations, but formed small collectives with other occultists to explore new avenues and techniques in the occult.
I’d for Laevus Manus Luciferi, Draconian Vampyrism and finally the Ordo Astrum Draconis (which was similar to a collective, but more of a permanent think tank).
For a time I’d hidden who and what I was online, while a slew of imposters ran forward proclaiming to be Rev. Frederick Nagash. For four years, I practiced without mentioning a word to anyone on any social media, but I felt like an actor like I was wearing a mask of deceit. I came out from the shadows and a great many occultists who’d remembered the C.O.L. and my works came forward as well.
Fast-forward to 2018…
Throughout my journey since the C.O.L. I took up the mantle of Demonolater, having been one of the east coast's predominant demonologists for over 20 years, it was a simple transition. I founded the Ambrogio tradition of Demonolatry, destroying my previous occult name of Nagash (meaning lord of the dead) and adopting the Italian name Ambrogio (Masculine meaning Immortal). I continued to secretly peruse the occult groups professing to be Luciferian in nature.
Of all of the supposed Luciferians I’d met and all of the groups appropriating the name, one individual stood out, one out of many (e’ pluribus unum)…Patrick Gaffiero!
I was asked by several people who to turn to, who encompassed Luciferianism like the Church of Lucifer taught and so I made a public post telling people to talk with Patrick. Most others who proclaimed to be Luciferian were either shallow and devoid of substance or were trying to make money (or a name) from the religion. Patrick was simply Luciferian, helping others awaken to the spiritual side of it, and was one of the very few I respect.
Patrick soon messaged me and we’d gotten to talking about the possibility of reviving the Church of Lucifer from the ashes of its past. I hadn’t considered it previously, Those who were once leaders in the C.O.L. saw to its dissolving, they let it die after I’d given everything of myself to it...so I am the only one who holds a legitimate claim to the organization, under the direct lineage of Reverend Stills.
I mulled it over and thought to myself, “It’s time and Patrick is the perfect individual to entrust to breathing life back into Luciferianism and the C.O.L.!” Thus, as a phoenix burns to ash only to arise anew, work began on resurrecting the Church of Lucifer!
Patrick Gaffiero is now the ordained 34th Generation High Priest of the Church of Lucifer.
Reverend Frederick Ambrogio/Cook/Nagash/Lord N
Thursday, September 13th, 2018