How Leviathan Controls the 5-Layer Narcissism System (It's All Connected)

Apr 29, 2026

Every lie they told you was coordinated. Every silent treatment was strategic. Every cold, empathy-less stare was ordered. And it was all coming from the same throne.

When you're dealing with a narcissist, it can feel like you're fighting five different battles at the same time: the gaslighting, the control, the cruelty, the spiritual blindness, the god complex. And you're exhausted because you keep putting out one fire only for three more to start.

But what if I told you those aren't five separate problems? What if they are all being directed by one king?

The Bible actually identifies this king. His name is Leviathan. In the book of Job, God describes him as the most powerful, fearsome spiritual entity connected to pride, calling him "king over all the children of pride." And like any king, he doesn't rule alone. He runs an organized system, a spiritual fortress with layers of demonic spirits carrying out his orders.

Today, we are going to pull back the curtain on Leviathan’s entire organizational chart. We're going to look at exactly how Leviathan’s primary traits empower each specific layer of the 5-Layer Demonic Fortress. We’ll see how he directs the spirits of Rejection, Control, Jealousy, and Blindness to maintain his grip on every single part of their life, and yours.

(If you haven't read my previous posts on the Demonic Infrastructure of Narcissism or the first Leviathan teaching, I highly recommend you read those first. They will give you the context you need for this teaching.)

The Spiritual Hierarchy & Entrenchment

Before we map out the fortress, we need to understand the nature of the battle we are actually fighting.

There is a fascinating and tragic reality about Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It is the only disorder in the world where the person who has it almost never goes in for treatment. It is the people affected by the narcissist—the spouses, the children, the employees—who end up in counseling, trying to heal from the devastation.

Why is that? Because the narcissist is completely blinded to their own condition. And that level of blindness is not just psychological. It is spiritual.

The Apostle Paul explains exactly what we are dealing with in Ephesians 6:12:

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Notice that Paul doesn't just say "we wrestle against demons." He lists a specific hierarchy. He describes levels of demonic entities. Whether Paul is describing a strict military chain of command or overlapping categories of spiritual authority, the point is clear: we are dealing with organized, intelligent evil.

When you are dealing with a narcissist, you are not wrestling against flesh and blood. You are not just fighting a difficult personality. You are fighting an organized spiritual hierarchy.

And the Bible identifies the spirit at the very top of this hierarchy. In the book of Job, chapter 41, God Himself describes a fearsome, untamable spiritual entity called Leviathan. And in verse 34, He reveals its rank:

"He beholds every high thing; He is king over all the children of pride."

Leviathan is not just a spirit of pride. He is the king over all the children of pride. He operates at the level of a principality—a ruling authority whose nature, strategy, and pride are the operating system for the entire infrastructure.

But I want to be very clear about something before we go any further. A person does not get to the level of being influenced by Leviathan overnight. This is someone who has become deeply entrenched in their narcissism over years and decades. This is someone who has faced millions of micro-moments where they could have chosen humility, where they could have chosen to go the right way, but they chose the way of pride, lying, and deception over and over again. They chose it until it became entrenched in their very being, progressively empowering the darkness and opening the door to more and more demons.

Now, let's see how the king runs his kingdom.

FREE RESOURCE: Because we are mapping out a complex spiritual system today, I want you to have the visual in front of you. Download my free resource, The 5-Layer Fortress: A Visual Guide to Understanding Narcissistic Strongholds, so you can follow along as we go through each layer.

Mapping Leviathan to the Fortress

Layer 1 (Foundation): Leviathan’s Kingdom of Pride

Leviathan’s influence starts right at the beginning, in Layer 1. When that initial wound of rejection happens, the child faces a choice: humility or pride. Will they admit their pain and need for God, or will they build a false self to protect the wound?

Proverbs 16:18 tells us that "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Pride is the doorway. The moment they choose pride over humility, they are planting a flag for Leviathan’s kingdom. The Spirit of Pride that enters at this stage is an emissary of the king, laying the foundation for his entire government.

You know what this looks like. It's the moment someone is caught in a mistake, and instead of just saying "I'm sorry," they instantly deflect, blame, and rewrite the narrative to protect their image.

But here is the good news: once you understand that their pride is a spiritual defense mechanism, you can stop taking it personally. You can stop trying to fix a wound that only God can heal.

Layer 2 (Control): Leviathan’s Strategy of Twisting & Fleeing

As the fortress grows, Leviathan provides the core strategy for Layer 2: Control and Deception. Isaiah 27:1 reveals two names for Leviathan:

"In that day the LORD with His severe sword, great and strong, Shall punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan that twisted serpent..."

Let's talk about the "fleeing serpent" first. In the original Hebrew, the root word used here doesn't just mean to run away. It means "to bolt." And it carries a fascinating double meaning: it means to bolt away, like a sudden escape, but it also means to bolt a door shut, like a heavy crossbar locking a gate.

When you understand that, the narcissist's behavior in Layer 2 suddenly makes perfect sense. The "bolting" serpent does two things to you simultaneously.

First, it bolts away. The moment you bring evidence, the moment you try to hold them accountable, they bolt. They stonewall. They give you the silent treatment. They leave the room or hang up the phone.

But they aren't just avoiding an argument. They are abandoning you inside the conflict. They leave, but the conflict doesn't leave with them. You are still carrying the weight of the unresolved argument and the unanswered questions. They've exited the battlefield, but they've left you standing in the middle of it alone. And for many of you reading this, this is the cruelest weapon of all, because it reactivates your deepest wounds of abandonment. It triggers that primal fear that you are not worth staying for.

Second, it bolts the door shut behind it. The silent treatment isn't just absence; it's a locked gate. You can't get in. You can't reach them. You're left standing outside, knocking, begging, spiraling in anxiety, which is exactly where Leviathan wants you.

The narcissist isn't running away because they're weak. They're bolting the gate because it gives them all the power. You're the one left desperate to reconnect. You're the one who eventually apologizes for something you didn't do, just to get the door open again. That is control through abandonment.

And then there is the second name: the "twisted serpent." The twisting is the very essence of what Leviathan is. It twists words, twists reality, and twists memory.

Together, these two names describe a complete strategy: twist the truth, then bolt the door. Gaslight you, then abandon you. Rewrite history, then refuse to discuss it. That's not two random behaviors. That's a coordinated one-two punch from the same serpent.

And when you can finally name this strategy, twist and bolt, it begins to lose its power over you. You can step back from the locked gate and say, "I see what this is. I don't have to stand here knocking anymore."

Layer 3 (Relational Warfare): Leviathan’s Anti-Covenant Nature

This brings us to Layer 3, the layer of Relational Warfare. This is where the narcissist weaponizes relationships—using triangulation, jealousy, turning people against each other, and deploying flying monkeys.

To understand Leviathan's role here, we have to look at Job 41:4. God asks this question about Leviathan:

"Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever?"

The answer, of course, is no. Leviathan is fundamentally anti-covenant. He cannot be in genuine relationship. Covenant, by definition, means "I will stay." It means "I will be present even when it's hard, even when we disagree, even when it's painful."

Because Leviathan is anti-covenant, what you're seeing in Layer 3 is Leviathan's anti-covenant nature playing out through the narcissist's relationships. Every relationship becomes transactional, not covenantal. People are tools, not partners. The spirits of Jealousy and Envy in Layer 3 are expressions of Leviathan's nature because pride cannot celebrate anyone else's success. Pride cannot share the throne, and pride views every relationship as a competition to be won.

There's also a connection to the "twisted serpent" here. In Layer 3, it's not just words that get twisted; it's relationships. The narcissist twists the truth about you to other people, turning your own support system against you. That is the twisted serpent operating through relational channels.

You know what this looks like. It's when you find out they've been telling your family a completely different version of events. People you trusted start looking at you differently, and you can't figure out why until you realize the narcissist has been rewriting your story behind your back.

If you've experienced this, I want you to know: the isolation you felt was not your fault. It was engineered.

The good news is that once you see the anti-covenant nature of this spirit, you can stop blaming yourself for the broken relationships. It was never about you. It was about a spirit that is fundamentally incapable of staying.

Layer 4 (The Walls): Leviathan’s Impenetrable Armor

Now let's jump to Layer 4, the Walls of Self-Righteousness. This is where Leviathan's personal attributes are most visible.

God describes Leviathan's armor in Job 41:15-17:

"His rows of scales are his pride, Shut up tightly as with a seal; One is so near another That no air can come between them; They are joined one to another, They stick together and cannot be parted."

Notice what God says: his scales are his pride. The original Hebrew here is fascinating. It carries a dual meaning. It means the scales are what he boasts in, but it also means the scales represent pride itself. His pride IS his armor. His pride and his impenetrability are the exact same thing.

And then in verse 24, God describes his heart:

"His heart is as hard as stone, Even as hard as the lower millstone."

The lower millstone is the one that doesn't move. It is fixed, immovable, grinding everything that comes against it.

When you look at Layer 4 of the demonic fortress, you are looking directly at that armor and that heart. The impenetrable scales are the reason your evidence, your tears, and even Scripture itself just bounce off the narcissist. The hard heart is the reason you get that cold, dead stare when you are at your most vulnerable. The spirits of Self-Righteousness and Blindness in Layer 4 are operating under the direct authority of Leviathan.

I know how heavy this is to hear. If you are feeling overwhelmed right now, just take a breath. Acknowledging the reality of this hard heart is painful, but it is also the key to your freedom. Because once you realize you are dealing with a stone, you can finally stop bleeding yourself dry trying to squeeze water from it.

Layer 5 (The Throne): Leviathan’s Seat of Power

Finally, we come to the Throne Room. Layer 5 is where the narcissist fully deifies themselves, and it is the place where Leviathan sits as king.

What does this look like in real life? It looks like someone who believes they are the final authority on every decision. Their opinion is the only one that matters. They rewrite history and expect you to accept their version as gospel. When the narcissist declares, “I am the authority, I am the standard, I am god in my own life,” they are inviting the king of pride, Leviathan, to sit on the throne of their heart.

And this is why the anti-covenant nature we saw in Layer 3 becomes absolute in Layer 5. When someone sits on the throne of their own life as a god, they cannot enter into a covenant with anyone else because a god does not make covenants with subjects. A god only demands worship. You cannot negotiate with this spirit.

How to Fight Back

So when you see this entire system mapped out—a fortress built of pride, ruled by a principality, and defended by a hierarchy of demonic forces. The question is, how do you fight back?

The first thing you have to realize is that you are not arguing with a person anymore. You are arguing with a demonized system. And you cannot defeat a spiritual hierarchy with flesh-and-blood weapons.

If we go back to Ephesians 6, Paul tells us exactly what to do when facing this kind of spiritual hierarchy. In verse 14, he says:

"Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth..."

The very first piece of armor Paul lists is the Belt of Truth.

When you are dealing with the twisted serpent of Leviathan, your greatest weapon is not a better argument. It is the truth.

The belt is what holds everything else together. In the Roman armor, the belt is what the sword hung from. If your belt wasn't secure, you couldn't draw your weapon.

For you, putting on the Belt of Truth means three things:

Stop Believing the Twisted Narrative: You have to anchor yourself in reality. When the gaslighting starts, you do not have to agree with their version of events. You hold fast to the truth of what actually happened, and you refuse to let them rewrite history.
Stop Accepting the False Guilt: The spirits in this fortress will constantly try to make you responsible for the narcissist's behavior. The truth is, you are only responsible for your own actions. You must reject the false guilt they try to place on you.
Anchor Your Identity in Christ: Leviathan wants to define who you are. He wants to tell you that you are worthless, crazy, or unlovable. The Belt of Truth means you reject the king of pride's definition of you, and you accept only what the King of Kings says about you.

Your victory over this system begins when you recognize the hierarchy you are fighting, and you secure yourself in the truth. And remember what Psalm 74:14 says: "You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces." God has the ultimate victory over this spirit.

Click here to watch the video version of this article.

Downloadable Resources

Want more content like this?

Get encouraging and empowering content delivered straight to your inbox! Join my mailing list to receive weekly blogs and resources.

By filling this form, you agree to receive quality-filled communications from us. We will never spam you or share your information with a third party.