Lucifer
Basic knowledge-
Lucifer is a Latin word (from the words lucem ferre), literally meaning "light-bearer", which in that language is used as a
name for the dawn appearance of the planet Venus, heralding daylight. Use of the word in this sense is uncommon in
English, in which "Day Star" or "Morning Star" are more common expressions.
In English, "Lucifer" generally refers to the Devil, although the name is not applied to him in the New Testament. The use
of the name "Lucifer" in reference to a fallen angel stems from an interpretation of Isaiah 14:3–20, a passage that speaks
of a particular Babylonian King, to whom it gives the title of "Day Star", "Morning Star" (in Latin, lucifer), as fallen or
destined to fall from the heavens or sky. In 2 Peter 1:19 and elsewhere, the same Latin word lucifer is used to refer to the
Morning Star, with no relation to the devil. However, in post-New Testament times the Latin word Lucifer has often been
used as a name for the devil, both in religious writing and in fiction.
Satan as Lucifer-
The Lucifer story-
A myth of the fall of angels, associated with the Morning Star, was transferred to Satan, as seen in the Life of Adam and
Eve and the Second Book of Enoch, which the Jewish Encyclopedia attributes to the first pre-Christian century: in these
Satan-Sataniel (sometimes identified with Samael) is described as having been one of the archangels. Because he contrived
"to make his throne higher than the clouds over the earth and resemble 'My power' on high", Satan-Sataniel was hurled
down, with his hosts of angels, and since then he has been flying in the air continually above the abyss.
Early Christian writers continued this identification of "Lucifer" with Satan. Tertullian ("Contra Marcionem," v. 11, 17),
Origen ("Ezekiel Opera," iii. 356), and others, identify Lucifer with Satan, who also is represented as being "cast down from
heaven" (Revelation 12:7–10; cf. Luke 10:18).
However, some contemporary exorcists and theologians such as Father Jose Antonio Fortea and Father Amorth in their
experience and based on Biblical interpretations assert that Lucifer and Satan are different beings.[7]
In the New Testament the Adversary has many names, but "Lucifer" is not among them. He is called "Satan" (Matt. 4:10;
Mark 1:13, 4:15; Luke 10:18), "devil" (Matt. 4:1), "adversary" (1. Peter 5:8, ἀντίδικος; 1. Tim. 5:14, ἀντικείμενος), "enemy"
(Matt. 13:39), "accuser" (Rev. 12:10), "old serpent" (Rev. 20:2), "great dragon" (Rev. 12:9), Beelzebub (Matt. 10:25,
12:24), and Belial (comp. Samael). In Luke 10:18, John 12:31, 2. Cor. 6:16, and Rev. 12:9 the fall of Satan is mentioned.
The devil is regarded as the author of all evil (Luke 10:19; Acts 5:3; 2. Cor. 11:3; Ephes. 2:2), who beguiled Eve (2. Cor.
11:3; Rev. 12:9). Because of Satan, death came into this world, being ever the tempter (1. Cor. 7:5; 1. Thess. 3:5; 1.
Peter 5:8), even as he tempted Jesus (Matt. 4). The Christian demonology and belief in the devil dominated subsequent
periods. However, though the New Testament includes the conception that Satan fell from heaven "as lightning" (Luke
10:18; Rev. 12:7-10), it nowhere applies the name Lucifer to him.
The Jewish Encyclopedia states that in the apocalyptic literature, the conception of fallen angels is widespread.
Throughout antiquity stars were commonly regarded as living celestial beings (Job 38:7). Indications of this belief in fallen
angels, behind which probably lies the symbolizing of an astronomical phenomenon, the shooting stars, are found in Isaiah
14:12.
The Morning Star in Isaiah 14:12-
The Book of Isaiah has the following passage:
When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you
will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased! How his insolence has ceased! … How
you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of
assembly on the heights of Zaphon; I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High." But you
are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit. Those who see you will stare at you, and ponder over you: "Is this the
man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who
would not let his prisoners go home?
The passage refers to the king of Babylon, a man who seemed all-powerful, but who has been brought down to the abode of
the dead ("Sheol"). Isaiah promises that the Israelites will be freed and will then be able to use in a taunting song against
their oppressor the image of the Morning Star, which rises at dawn as the brightest of the stars, outshining Jupiter and
Saturn, but lasting only until the sun appears. This image was used in an old popular Canaanite story that the Morning Star
tried to rise high above the clouds and establish himself on the mountain where the gods assembled, in the far north, but
was cast down into the underworld.
The phrase "O Day Star, son of Dawn" in the New Revised Standard Version translation given above corresponds to the
Hebrew phrase "הילל בן־שׁחר" (Helel Ben-Shachar) in verse 12, meaning "morning star, son of dawn". As the Latin poets
personified the Morning Star and the Dawn (Aurora), as well as the Sun and the Moon and other heavenly bodies, so in
Canaanite mythology Morning Star and Dawn were pictured as two deities, the former being the son of the latter.
In the Latin Vulgate, Jerome translated "הילל בן־שׁחר" (morning star, son of dawn) as "lucifer qui mane oriebaris" (morning
star that used to rise early).[13] Already, as early as the Christian writers Tertullian and Origen,[11] the whole passage had
come to be applied to Satan. Satan began to be referred to as "Lucifer" (Morning Star), and finally the word "Lucifer" was
treated as a proper name. The use of the word "Lucifer" in the 1611 King James Version instead of a word such as "Daystar"
ensured its continued popularity among English speakers.
Most modern English versions (including the NIV, NRSV, NASB, NJB and ESV) render the Hebrew word as "day star", "morning
star" or something similar, and never as "Lucifer", a word that in English is now very rarely used in the sense of the original
word in Hebrew (Morning Star), though in Latin "Lucifer" was a literal translation.
A passage quite similar to that in Isaiah is found in Ezekiel 28:1–19, which is expressly directed against the king of Tyre, a
city on an island that had grown rich by trade, factors alluded to in the text. In Christian tradition, it too has been applied
to Lucifer, because of some of the expressions contained in it. But, since it does not contain the image of the Morning
Star, discussion of it belongs rather to the article on Satan than to that on Lucifer.
The same holds for the Christian depiction of Satan in other books of the Old Testament as, for instance, in the Book of
Job, where Satan, who has been wandering the Earth, has a discussion with God and makes a deal with him to test Job.
The Tyndale Bible Dictionary states that there are many who believe the expression "Lucifer" and the surrounding context
in Isaiah 14 refer to Satan: they believe the similarities among Isaiah 14:12, Luke 10:18, and Revelation 12:7–10 warrant
this conclusion. But it points out that the context of the Isaiah passage is about the accomplished defeat of the king of
Babylon, while the New Testament passages speak of Satan.
Islamic point of view-
According to the Qur'an, Iblis (the Arabic name used) disobeyed an order from Allah to bow to Adam and as a result was
forced out of heaven and given respite until the day of judgment from further punishment.
When Allah commanded all of the angels to bow down before Adam (the first Human), Iblis, full of hubris and jealousy,
refused to obey Allah's command (he could do so because, as a jinn, he had free will), seeing Adam as being inferior in
creation due to his being created from clay as compared to him (created of fire).
"It is We Who created you and gave you shape; then We bade the angels prostrate to Adam, and they prostrate; not so Iblis
(Lucifer); He refused to be of those who prostrate."
(Allah) said: "What prevented thee from prostrating when I commanded thee?" He said: "I am better than he: Thou didst
create me from fire, and him from clay."
Qur'an 7:11–12
It was after this that the title of "Shaitan" was given, which can be roughly translated as "Mischievous" or "Devil". Shaitan
then claims that if the punishment for his act of disobedience is to be delayed until the Day of Judgment, that he will
divert many of Adam's own descendants from the straight path during his period of respite. Allah accepts the claims of Iblis
and guarantees recompense to Iblis and his followers in the form of Hellfire. To test mankind and jinn alike, Allah allowed
Iblis to roam the Earth to attempt to convert others away from his path. He was sent to Earth along with Adam and Eve,
after eventually luring them into eating the fruit from the forbidden tree.
Other readings-
Joseph Campbell (1972: pp. 148–149) illustrates an unorthodox Islamic reading of Lucifer's fall from Heaven, which
champions Lucifer's eclipsing love for God:
One of the most amazing images of love that I know is in Persian – a mystical Persian representation as Satan as the most
loyal lover of God. You will have heard the old legend of how, when God created the angels, he commanded them to pay
worship to no one but himself; but then, creating man, he commanded them to bow in reverence to this most noble of his
works, and Lucifer refused – because, we are told, of his pride. However, according to this Muslim reading of his case, it
was rather because he loved and adored God so deeply and intensely that he could not bring himself to bow before
anything else, and because he refused to bow down to something inferior to him (since he was made of fire, and man from
clay). And it was for that that he was flung into Hell, condemned to exist there forever, apart from his love.
This interpretation of the satanic rebellion described in the Quran is seen by some Sufi teachers such as Mansur Al-Hallaj
(in his 'Tawasin') as a predestined scenario in which Iblis-Shaitan plays the role of tragic and jealous lover who, unable to
perceive the Divine Image in Adam and capable only of seeing the exterior, disobeyed the divine mandate to bow down. His
refusal (according to the Tawasin) was due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to
abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticized the staleness of Iblis' adoration. Excerpts from Sufi texts expounding this
interpretation have been included along with many other viewpoints on Shaitan (by no means all of them apologetic) in an
important anthology of Sufi texts edited by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, head of the Nimatullahi Sufi Order.
The Sufi teacher Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan taught that 'Luciferian Light' is Light that has become dislocated from the Divine
Source and is thus associated with the seductive false light of the lower ego, which lures humankind into self-centered
delusion. Here Lucifer represents what the Sufis term the 'Nafs', the ego.
[edit] Use of the word "lucifer" in the Bible
The Vulgate (Latin) version of the Christian Bible used the word "lucifer" (with lower-case initial) twice to refer to the
Morning Star: once in 2 Peter 1:19 to translate the Greek word Φωσφόρος, a word, from φῶς (light), that has exactly the
same meaning of Light-Bringer that the Latin word has, and once in Isaiah 14:12 to translate the Hebrew word הילל
(Hêlēl). In the latter passage the title of "Morning Star" is given to the tyrannous Babylonian king, who the prophet says is
destined to fall. This passage was later applied to the prince of the demons, and so the name "Lucifer" came to be used
outside the Bible for the devil, and was popularized in works such as Dante Alighieri's Inferno and John Milton's Paradise
Lost, but for English speakers the greatest influence has been its use in the King James Version of Isa 14:12 to translate the
Hebrew word הילל, which more modern English versions render as "Morning Star" or "Day Star". A similar passage in Ezekiel
28:11–19 regarding the "king of Tyre" was also applied to the devil, contributing to the traditional picture of the fallen
angel.
The Vulgate translation uses "lucifer" (Morning Star) twice to translate words in the Book of Job that meant something
different: once to represent the word "בקר"[23] (which instead means "morning") in Job 11:17, and once for the word
"מזרות" (usually taken to mean "the constellations") in Job 38:32. The same Latin word appears also in the Vulgate version
of Psalms 110:3, where the original has "שׁחר" (dawn, the same word as in Isaiah 14:12).
The Vulgate did not use the Latin word lucifer to represent the two references to the Morning Star in the Book of
Revelation . In both cases the original Greek text uses a circumlocution instead of the single word "φωσφόρος", and a
corresponding circumlocution is used in the Latin. Thus "stella matutina" is used for "ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ πρωϊνός" in Revelation
2:28, which promises the Morning Star to those who persevere, and for "ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ πρωϊνός" (or, according to some
manuscripts, "ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ ὀρθρινός") in Revelation 22:16, where Jesus calls himself "the bright morning star".
The English word "Lucifer" is used in none of these places (other than Isaiah 14:12), where the Latin translation uses the
Latin word "lucifer" (i.e., morning star).
Outside the Bible, the Roman Rite liturgy's Exultet chant in praise of the paschal candle refers to Christ as the Morning Star
(in Latin, lucifer, with lower-case initial):
May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son, who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Flammas eius lucifer matutinus inveniat:
ille, inquam, lucifer, qui nescit occasum,
Christus Filius tuus qui,
regressus ab inferis,
humano generi serenus illuxit,
et vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum.
Astronomical significance-
Because the planet Venus is an inferior planet, meaning that its orbit lies between the orbit of the Earth and the Sun, it
can never rise high in the sky at night as seen from Earth. It can be seen in the eastern morning sky for an hour or so before
the Sun rises, and in the western evening sky for an hour or so after the Sun sets, but never during the dark of midnight.
It is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. As bright and as brilliant as it is, ancient people did not
understand why they could not see it at midnight like the outer planets, or during midday, like the Sun and Moon. It
outshines the planets Saturn and Jupiter, which do last all night, but it soon disappears. Canaanite mythology has a story
of an unsuccessful attempt by Athtar, the Morning Star pictured as a god, to take over the throne of Baal.
A 2nd-century sculpture of the moon goddess Selene accompanied by Hesperus and Phosphorus: the corresponding Latin
names are Luna, Vesper and Lucifer. "Lucifer" as Latin name for the Morning Star
In Latin, the word "Lucifer", meaning "Light-Bringer" (from lux, lucis, "light", and ferre, "to bear, bring"), is a name used for
the Morning Star (the planet Venus in its dawn appearances). The word is used in its astronomical sense both in prose and
poetry, but most poets personify the star in a mythological context.
[edit] The Taxil Hoax: Lucifer's alleged connection with Freemasonry
Léo Taxil (1854–1907) claimed that Freemasonry is associated with worshipping Lucifer. In what is known as the Taxil
hoax, he claimed that supposedly leading Freemason Albert Pike had addressed "The 23 Supreme Confederated Councils of
the world" (an invention of Taxil), instructing them that Lucifer was God, and was in opposition to the evil god Adonai.
Apologists of Freemasonry contend that, when Albert Pike and other Masonic scholars spoke about the "Luciferian path," or
the "energies of Lucifer," they were referring to the Morning Star, the light bearer, the search for light; the very antithesis
of dark, satanic evil. Taxil promoted a book by Diana Vaughan (actually written by himself, as he later confessed publicly)
that purported to reveal a highly secret ruling body called the Palladium, which controlled the organization and had a
Satanic agenda. As described by Freemasonry Disclosed in 1897:
With frightening cynicism, the miserable person we shall not name here [Taxil] declared before an assembly especially
convened for him that for twelve years he had prepared and carried out to the end the most sacrilegious of hoaxes. We
have always been careful to publish special articles concerning Palladism and Diana Vaughan. We are now giving in this
issue a complete list of these articles, which can now be considered as not having existed.
Taxil's work and Pike's address continue to be quoted by anti-masonic groups.
In Devil-Worship in France, Arthur Edward Waite compared Taxil's work to what today we would call a tabloid story,
replete with logical and factual inconsistencies.
Occult beliefs-
The Sigil of Lucifer ("Seal of Satan") a magical sigil used occasionally as an emblem by SatanistsIn the modern occultism of
Dolores North (alias Madeline Montalban) (died 1982) Lucifer's identification as the Morning Star (Venus) equates him with
Lumiel, whom she regarded as the Archangel of Light, and among Satanists he is seen as the "Torch of Baphomet" and
Azazel.
In the Satanic Bible of 1969, Lucifer is acknowledged as one of the Four Crown Princes of Hell, particularly that of the
East. Lord of the Air, Lucifer has been named "Bringer of Light, the Morning Star, Intellectualism, Enlightenment."