My orignal article on Lucifer. I plan to rewrite it one of these days!
Lucifer - The Morning Star
I have found no myth's that pertain strictly to Lucifer. He has some mention of being a bringer of knowledge and wisdom to mankind, a protector of humans and manifestation of divine ecstasy. He is mentioned as being a Roman God, Lucifer meaning Son of the Dawn, The "bearer of light" and God of the Morning and Evening Star. He was know as Phospheros to the Greeks, with his most common areas of worship being Italy and Western Europe. Lucifer's main reference is as the Brother of Diana and the Father of Aradia. He was the Light to Diana's Darkness, her other half and soul mate. She is his Mother, Sister, and Lover.
"Diana was the first created before all creation; in her were all things; out of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself; into darkness and light she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half, was the light.
And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful, the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer, she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire. This desire was the Dawn.
But Lucifer, the light, fled from her, and would not yield to her wishes; he was the light which files into the most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies before the cat.
Then Diana went to the fathers of the Beginning, to the mothers, the spirits who were before the first spirit, and lamented unto them that she could not prevail with Lucifer. And they praised her for her courage, they told her that to rise she must fall; to become the chief of goddesses she must become a mortal.
And in the ages, in the course of time, when the world was made, Diana went on earth, as did Lucifer, who had fallen, and Diana taught magic and sorcery, whence came witches and fairies and goblins--all that is like man, yet not mortal.
And it came thus that Diana took the form of a cat. Her brother had a cat whom he loved beyond all creatures, and it slept every night on his bed, a cat beautiful beyond all other creatures, a fairy: he did not know it.
Diana prevailed with the cat to change forms with her, so she lay with her brother, and in the darkness assumed her own form, and so by Lucifer became the mother of Aradia. But when in the morning he found that he lay by his sister, and that light had been conquered by darkness, Lucifer was extremely angry; but Diana sang to him a spell, a song of power, and he was silent, the song of the night which soothes to sleep; he could say nothing. So Diana with her wiles of witchcraft so charmed him that he yielded to her love. This was the first fascination, she hummed the song, it was as the buzzing of bees (or a top spinning round), a spinning-wheel spinning life. She spun the lives of all men; all things were spun from the wheel of Diana. Lucifer turned the wheel."
- Aradia or The Gospel of the Witches by Charles G. Leland
I also found this piece written by Eliphas Levi. I was quite intrigued by it. It does in a roundabout sort of way connect Lucifer with his Christian incarnation but I believe his words embody the sense of this God very well. It may not fit in exactly with the common perception of Lucifer as the Brother of Diana or of him as the Devil of The Bible, but I think it incorporates the theme and idea of both those archetypes very well.
"Lucifer, the Astral Light . . . . is an intermediate force existing in all creation, it serves to create and to destroy, and the Fall of Adam was an erotic intoxication which has rendered his generation a slave to this fatal light . . . every sexual passion that overpowers our senses is a whirlwind of that light which seeks to drag us towards the abyss of death, Folly. Hallucinations, visions, ecstasies are all forms of a very dangerous excitation due to this interior phosphorus (?). Thus light, finally, is of the nature of fire, the intelligent use of which warms and vivifies, and the excess of which, on the contrary, dissolves and annihilates. Thus man is called upon to assume a sovereign empire over that (astral) light and conquer thereby his immortality, and is threatened at the same time with being intoxicated, absorbed, and eternally destroyed by it. This light, therefore, inasmuch as it is devouring, revengeful, and fatal, would thus really be hell-fire, the serpent of the legend; the tormented errors of which it is full, the tears and the gnashing of teeth of the abortive beings it devours, the phantom of life that escapes them, and seems to mock and insult their agony, all this would be the devil or Satan indeed." (Histoire de la Magie, p. 197).......But in antiquity and reality, Lucifer, or Luciferus, is the name of the angelic Entity presiding over the light of truth as over the light of the day. In the great Valentinian gospel Pistis Sophia (§ 361) it is taught that of the three Powers emanating from the Holy names of the Three [[Tridunameis]], that of Sophia (the Holy Ghost according to these gnostics -- the most cultured of all), resides in the planet Venus or Lucifer.....There is no devil or the utterly depraved, as there are no Angels absolutely perfect, though there may be spirits of Light and of Darkness; thus LUCIFER -- the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought -- is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sandbanks of Life, for Lucifer is the LOGOS in his highest, and the "Adversary" in his lowest aspect -- both of which are reflected in our Ego. Lactantius, speaking of the Nature of Christ, makes the LOGOS, the Word, the first-born brother of Satan, the "first of all creatures." (Inst. div. Book II., c. viii., "Qabbalah," 116.)"
- Eliphas Levi( 1.)
Through recent studies I have found many links and insinuations that point at Lucifer being a demonized Goddess not a Fallen Angel, Angel, God, or otherwise. Quite a fascinating trail of facts and myths. There seems to be a lot of associations with the Goddess Diana Lucifera, which in turn leads to Hekate, Artemis, Luna, Selene, and Heket, as well as a few strictly magical associations.
I believe the following excerpt is more a selling tool for the book than anything else it still presents some fascinating ideas about Lucifer. Please read the COPYRIGHT! Everything from here down to the end belongs to this lovely lady!
All content © Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince 2006" (3.)
"The Secret History of Lucifer
‘Picknett's depth and range of knowledge is impressive... readers will encounter a thick, interesting and alternative view of an intriguing topic.’ Publishers Weekly
The sequel to Mary Magdalene: Christianity's Hidden Goddess, The Secret History of Lucifer (2005) traces the literal demonisation of the Great Goddess, once the consort of none other than Yahweh in one of her manifestations. As the patriarchal religions took hold, the ancient goddesses became hated and feared as demons that sucked the life from men, embodiments of all that is hellish.
Myths about the fall of Lucifer - once so intimately associated with the Morning/Evening Star, or Venus - permeated the thinking of medieval churchmen who were fanatically, even insanely, determined to root out what they perceived as female evil in the witchcraft hysteria.
A misogynist rout, the witch hunts also undermined the whole of society, for the ruthless undermining of the Feminine also impinges on society as a whole. And if there were few genuine witches at the beginning of the massacres, by the end there must have been many more - for even Hell and Satan himself could be no worse than the depredations of the Church.
Yet also underlying the Lucifer myth is the implicit psychopathy of Yahweh, a god so jealous and incapable of self control, so lacking in maturity that he could accept no challenge, and wreaked havoc on those who stood up to him. Is Lucifer the evil one - or Yahweh?
Lucifer, the 'Light-Bearer', the bright Morning Star - and not the hateful embodiment of evil, Satan - represents the eternally questing, challenging and evolving mind of humanity, the spirit of progress and equality. Gradually, as the Church began to lose its grip in the aptly named Age of Enlightenment, came the rise of science and esoteric groups such as the Freemasons (in the 18th century the two were inextricably entwined).
Freedom brings its own challenges, and a darker side emerged with the many quasi-satanic groups who enjoyed the thrills of black masses behind the lace curtains of suburbia. However, the 20th-century founder of the Church of Satan, Anton laVey, viewed the Christian Church in a markedly Luciferan way - although his practices were too strong for many tastes and his showmanship too brash.
Altogether more profound was occultist Aleister Crowley - also an exhibitionist given to outrageous acts - whose philosophy of 'Every man and Woman is a Star' arguably provides would-be Luciferans with the rules.
But as we enter a new millennium, the hard-won freedoms are being eroded in the west, and the bright light of Lucifer is being eclipsed...
LONG LIVE LUCIFER - BUT TO HELL WITH SATAN!
All content © Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince 2006" (3.)
Sources:
1.Sacred Texts
2.God Checker
3.The Secret History of Lucifer Review
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