Lucifer, Therapy, and the Hell Loops We Choose
What a Netflix series can teach us about free will, redemption, and the places we hide from ourselves.
I didn’t expect to be moved to tears or soul reflections by a series where the Devil drives a sports car, and runs a nightclub in LA, but Lucifer on Netflix surprised me.
Beneath the dramatic plot lines and tongue-in-cheek humour, Lucifer is layered with something far more interesting - a mirror for the human psyche and a meditation on free will, guilt, and redemption. A reflection of the very human (and very spiritual) journey of waking up.
It’s light entertainment. Campy at times. Definitely not designed as a deep spiritual text. But that’s what I love about it. Sometimes the most unexpected places hold the richest metaphors - when we’re not looking too hard, our soul sneaks in through the side door.
(Spoilers below, however the show ended in 2021 so not new information!)
The Key points that struck me most -
1. Redemption is always available
Lucifer Morningstar is the classic scapegoat - cast out, misunderstood, painted as evil. And yet, what unfolds is a story of choice. A man (or angel, or archetype) who chooses to change. Not for someone else. Not for glory. But because he’s ready to stop running from himself.
It’s a quiet reminder that redemption doesn’t arrive all at once. It begins with self-awareness. With the decision to look at what we’ve buried.
2. Free will and fate live side by side
This thread runs all the way through the show. Lucifer constantly claims he doesn’t make anyone do anything. People choose. But do they? Or are we always choosing from the same set of patterns? Is fate just the habit of repeating ourselves until we get conscious enough to stop?
3. Hell as repetition, not punishment
In Lucifer, hell isn’t fire and demons - it’s a loop. People relive their most painful moment over and over again. Not because they’re sentenced to it, but because they’re stuck in it. They can leave… but only once they face the truth.
That hit something deep for me. How often do we do that in this life? Stay stuck in loops of shame, guilt, or regret - not because someone’s punishing us, but because we haven’t faced the thing underneath?
4. Maze and the possibility of change
One of the most surprising storylines is Maze - Lucifer’s demon companion, a literal torturer, who slowly develops a soul. She learns to love. To long. To soften.
Her journey is a reminder that we’re never too far gone. That even the most hardened parts of us can remember how to feel.
5. Therapists as angels in disguise
There’s something strangely beautiful about Lucifer becoming a therapist in hell. Not to punish people, but to help them understand why they’re stuck.
It made me think: maybe that’s what therapists do here, too. Maybe they are our real-life angels - the ones who walk with us into our loops and gently hold up a mirror until we’re ready to see. Not because they are ‘better’ than us - because they ARE us. But we must choose to see them.
6. The sacredness of small moments
I loved the storyline of Amenadiel becoming a father. Watching an angel fall in love with the everyday beauty of human life - the weight of a sleeping baby, a shared look, the sacred mess of it all. It’s a quiet teaching: that meaning isn’t found in the big, dramatic scenes, but in the ordinary ones we often overlook.
7. Love and worthiness
Lucifer’s love for Chloe is one of the most human things about him. Around her, he becomes physically vulnerable - his powers fade, his guard drops. At first, he doesn’t understand it. But it’s not weakness. It’s that something in him knows he’s safe.
And yet, he struggles to believe he’s worthy of her. That he could be loved as he is.
Her presence doesn’t change him. It reveals him. His journey isn’t about earning love - it’s about believing he deserves it.
Rewriting Heaven and Hell
Our modern ideas of heaven and hell - rewards and punishments, light and dark, right and wrong - weren’t always so black and white.
The word heaven comes from the Old English heofon, which originally meant simply “the sky” or “celestial realm.” It wasn’t a prize, it was a place beyond. A mystery.
Hell comes from the Old English hel - meaning “the hidden place.” Not fire. Not punishment. Just… what is unseen. What is buried.
And Lucifer? From the Latin lux (light) and ferre (to carry). The light-bringer. A name for the morning star, Venus. It wasn’t originally evil - it was illuminating. Only later was it reframed as darkness.
Somewhere along the way, religion and power structures narrowed these meanings. By the 4th century, as Christianity spread, heaven and hell became tools for control. Around this time, morality was mapped onto these places: good people go up, bad people go down. (Oh hi Patriarchy…)
Medieval art and texts like Dante’s Inferno gave us the images we now hold - hell as torment, heaven as reward. But if we look beyond doctrine, we find something older and much more nuanced.
In Gnostic texts, suffering comes not from sin but from forgetting who we are. In Eastern traditions, karma isn’t punishment - it’s learning. Ancient Egyptian beliefs focused not on heaven and hell, but on balance. On truth.
The deeper message?
We aren’t sent anywhere.
We create the realms we live in - through choice, through guilt, through courage.
Heaven and hell aren’t destinations.
They’re states of being.
Lucifer as a mirror
For me, Lucifer became more than just entertainment. It became a way of looking at the loops we live in. (Hello 7 year Saturn Cycle and 9 Year Numerology Cycles!) The parts of ourselves we hide. The ways we seek meaning.
Perhaps I over-analyse, but I always chose to watch shows where there are deeper meanings and metaphors aplenty.
And that’s the beauty of stories and myths. They help us translate the complexities of life and death. They give shape to things we can’t quite fully grasp…
Maybe heaven isn’t a golden palace.
Maybe hell isn’t a pit. Maybe it’s energy. Pattern. Colour. A thousand shimmering layers of consciousness we don’t yet have words for.
But we can feel them.
And we can choose, moment by moment, to move differently through them.
Want to Identify Your Own ‘Hell Loops’?! (not what I normally call them!!)
I have a free guide to the 7 year cycle here where you can start to tap into this bigger pattern and how it might be showing up in your life:
https://lauren-jane.myflodesk.com/7-year-cycle
I loved that series as well. It was definitely an interesting depiction of hell as a place we put ourselves and he was the gatekeeper, he was the caretaker of hell.