Episode 226: The History of Lucifer

SHOW LINKS

• ChurchOfLuciferUSA.org
• From Astronomica, Hyginus, 1st Century CE: It remains for us to speak of the five stars which many have called “wandering,” and which the Greeks called planets. One of them is the star of Phaenon, a youth whom Prometheus made excelling all others in beauty, when he was making man, as Heraclides says. When he intended to keep him back, without presenting him to Jove as he did the others, Cupid reported this to Jove, whereupon Mercury was sent and persuaded this man to come to Jove and become immortal. Therefore he is placed among the stars. The fourth star is that of Venus, Lucifer by name. In many tales it is recorded that it is Hesperus, too. It seems to be the largest of all stars. Some have said it represents the son of Aurora and Cephalus, who surpassed many in beauty, so that he even vied with Venus, and for this reason it is called the star of Venus. It is visible both at dawn and sunset, and so properly has been called both Lucifer and Hesperus.
  • • From Metamorphes, Ovid, 8 CE: The stars disappear, Lucifer gathers and moves the last from his station in the heavens. Mercury, falling in love with Herse, endeavors to gain access to her. Herse’s sister refuses to assist him, unless he promises to present her with a large sum of gold. Hence, the bearer of the caduceus raised himself upon his wings,  and as he flew, he looked down upon the fields and the land pleasing to Minerva and the well-plainted groves. On that day, by chance, the chaste virgins were, in their purity, carrying the sacred offerings in baskets crowned with flowers, upon their heads to the joyful citadel of Pallas. The winged god beholds them returning and he does not shape his course directly forward, but wheels round in the same circle. As much as Lucifer shines more brightly than the other stars, and as much as the golden Phœbe shines more brightly than Lucifer, so much superior was Herse to all these other virgins, and she was the ornament of the solemnity, and the son of Jupiter was astonished at her beauty as he hung in the air.
      • The grandson of Hippotas had shut up the winds in their eternal prison; and Lucifer, who reminds men of their work, was risen in the lofty sky in all his splendor. Resuming his wings, Perseus binds his feet with them on either side, and is girt with his crooked weapon, and cleaves the liquid air with his winged ankles. Nations innumerable being left behind, around and below, he beholds the people of the Æthiopians and the lands of Cepheus. There the unjust Ammon had ordered the innocent Andromeda to suffer the punishment for her mother’s tongue.
    • From Isaiah 14, KJV: The lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath and ruled the nations in anger is persecuted. The whole earth is at rest, and the fir trees rejoice, and the cedars of Lebanon. Hell is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead, and it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations, and they say,, Art thou also become weak as we? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave,. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer*, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, who didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of god: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell. They that look upon thee see, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms? All the kings of the nations lie in glory in his own house, but thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, saith the lord, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the lord.
      • *Original: hêlêl ben šāḥar in Hebrew–roughly “shining one,” “bright star.” Jerome translates as “Lucifer” in the Latin Vulgate. Later translations: “morning star,” “day star,” “shining star,” “shining one,” “light bringer,” “brilliant star.”
    • From First Principles, Origen, 230 CE: We are taught as follows by the prophet Isaiah regarding Lucifer, who used to arise in the morning, now fallen. Most evidently by these words is he shown to have fallen from heaven the one who formerly was Lucifer, and who used to arise in the morning. Even the Saviour Himself teaches us, saying of the devil, Behold, I see Satan fallen from heaven like lightning. Moreover our lord compared the power of his own glorious advent to lightning. And notwithstanding He compares the devil to lightning, and says that he fell from heaven, that he might show by this that the devil had been at one time in heaven and had had a place among the saints, and had enjoyed a share in that light in which all the saints participate, by which they are made angels of light, and by which the apostles are termed by the lord the light of the world. In this manner, then, did that being once exist as light before he went astray, and fell to this place, and had his glory turned into dust, which is the mark of the wicked, as the prophet also says. He was called the prince of this world for he exercised power over those who were obedient to his wickedness, since the whole of this world lies in the wicked one. Now it is certain that the dragon is  the devil himself. If then they are called opposing powers, and are said to have been once without stain and with spotless purity, the consequence of this is that it lies within ourselves and in our own actions to possess either happiness or holiness, or by sloth and negligence to fall from happiness into wickedness and ruin, to such a degree that, through too great proficiency in wickedness we may descend even to that state in which we will be changed into what is called an opposing power.
    • From the Jewish Encyclopedia, Kaufmann Kohler, 1906: Lucifer is the translation of “Helel ben Shaḥar.” “the brilliant one,” “son of the morning” name of the daystar or Morningstar, to whose mythical fate the King of Babylon is compared in the prophetic vision of Isaiah. It is obvious that the prophet in attributing to the Babylonian king boastful pride followed by a fall, borrowed the idea from a popular legend connected with the morningstar; and it undoubtedly represents a Babylonian or Hebrew star myth similar to the Greek legend of Phaethon. The brilliancy of the morning star, which eclipses all other stars but is not seen during the night, may easily have given rise to a myth such as was told of Ethana and Zu: he was led by his pride to strive for the highest seat among the gods but was hurled down by the supreme ruler of the Babylonian pantheon. Stars were regarded throughout antiquity as living celestial beings: The familiarity of the people of Palestine with such a myth is shown by the legend of the fall of the watchers under the leadership of Samyaza the heaven-seizer and Azazel. Another legend represents Samyaza, because he repented of his sin, as being suspended between heaven and earth like a star instead of being hurled down to Sheol. In The Life of Adam & Eve, because Satan contrived “to make his throne higher than the clouds over the earth and resemble power on high,” he was hurled down, with his hosts of angels, and since then he has been flying in the air continually above the abyss, Accordingly Tertullian, Origen, and others identify Lucifer with Satan.
    • From Satan, Jeffrey Burton Russell, 1981: Church fathers understood that the sin of the Devil and of the angels who followed him occurred before the creation of the material world. In fact, they believed god created the material universe in order to compensate for the loss of goodness resulting from their sin. Since the angels’ fall preceded the creation of Adam and Eve, they could scarcely have fallen out of lust for or envy of humanity. Rather, their motive was pride, a willingness to substitute their own will for that of god. Later, Augustine would argue that the Devil’s envy arose from his pride, but he believed that the Devil envied god, not humans. Origen’s argument was convincing, and from his time onward it was believed that the devil had sinned through pride and that his fall had taken place before the creation of Adam and Eve. This ordering of events allowed Origen to make a new connection between Satan and Lucifer. Bringing together a number of diverse Old Testament traditions from Job, Ezechiel, and Isaiah, he argued that Lucifer, the Prince of Tyre, and the Dragon were all identical with the Devil. He used the scriptural texts to underline Satan’s pride and his headlong fall from heaven. Thus, Lucifer is Satan; The Prince of Tyre is Satan: the Dragon is Satan; Leviathan is Satan, etc. These passages established the tradition that the Devil had been among the greatest of the angels, beautiful and perfect, that his pride had at the beginning of the world led him to rebel against god, and that he had been expelled from heaven and awaited punishment. A great deal of the vivid elaboration of legend and literature on the Devil’s nature arises from Origen using these texts.
    • From Summary of Theology, Thomas Aquinas, 13th Century: Lucifer who became Satan, leader of the fallen angels, wished to be as god. This prideful desire was not a wish to be equal to god, for Satan knew by his natural knowledge that equality of creature with creator is utterly impossible. The angelic intellect, with its clear knowledge, makes such self-deception impossible. What he wanted was to be as god; he wished to be like god in a way not suited to his nature, such as to create things by his own power, or to achieve final beatitude without god’s help, or to have command over others in a way proper to god alone. The devil was not created in wickedness. He, like all the angels, was created in the state of sanctifying grace.But the devil, with his companions, sinned immediately after creation. He rejected the grace in which he was created, Lucifer, chief of the sinning angels, was probably the highest of all the angels. But there are some who think that Lucifer was highest only among the rebel angels. The sin of the highest angel was a bad example which attracted the other rebel angels, and, to this extent, was the cause of their sin.
    • From Fall of the Name Lucifer, Catholicism Coffee, 2022: Saint Lucifer of Cagliari might not be anyone’s favourite saint, but he was an important figure in our history. He was the bishop of Sardinia in the 4th century, and attended the Synod of Milan of 355 to defend the bishop of Alexandria, who had been condemned for opposing Arianism. The condemnation of this bishop was ratified by the Arian bishops, who were a majority, and St. Lucifer was exiled by Emperor Constantius II. Upon the accession of Emperor Julian he was able to return to his seat, where he continued serving as bishop until he received his reward in AD 370. The following year, St. Jerome wrote “The Altercation of Luciferi”, in which he challenges the extreme anti-Arian views of St. Lucifer’s posthumous followers, and though he calls them Luciferians. St. Lucifer of Cagliari isn’t the only saint named Lucifer, as there is also a martyred priest called St. Lucifer, and a female martyr called St. Lucifera, and in the 4th century, there was Bishop Lucifer of Siena. This leads me to think that Lucifer was a common Christian name, at least in the regions of Sardinia and Tuscany, and Christians didn’t think of it as alluding to Satan. The Lucifer problem has bothered me for a while now, not because I would like the name to become popular again, but because in the liturgy, the term lúcifer is used primarily for Jesus, who is the light of the world. Most people these days won’t be familiar with this problem and won’t be bothered by it, but it is obvious to those of us who pray the Liturgy of the Hours in Latin, where we encounter this usage in a few hymns: “Through him, the awakened light-bearer (Lucifer) Frees the sky of darkness; Through him, the whole throng of night-prowlers abandons the paths of evil.. Thou art the world’s true Morning Star (Lucifer), Not that which dimly in the night Is herald of the dawn to come and shines with only meager light. In these hymns, Lucifer refers to Christ, and it doesn’t seem that the hymnographers are aware that people would associate it with the devil.
    • From Lucifer, Vondel, 1654: Now swear I by my crown to venture all, to raise my seat amid the firmament, the spheres, and the splendor of the stars above. The Heaven of Heavens shall then my palace be, the rainbow be my throne, the starry vast, my court, while, down beneath, the Earth shall be my footstool and support. I shall, then swiftly drawn through air and light, High-seated on a chariot of clouds, With lightning stroke and thunder grind to dust whatever above, around, or below, doth oppose us, were it God’s Marshal himself. Yea, e’er we yield, these empyrean vaults, proud in their towering masonry, shall burst with all their airy arches and dissolve before our eyes and this huge and joint-racked Earth, Like a misshapen monster, lifeless lie, a this wondrous universe into chaos fall, and to its primal desolation change. Who dares defy Lucifer? It is not just for Dominations grave, Powers well-disposed in state, thus to give up So loosely their established rights; and since The Supreme Power is by His laws most bound, to change becomes Him least. My place I shall maintain and to no usurper bow, Not even this Arch-usurper. Let all yield Who will, but not one foot shall I e’er retreat. Here is my homeland. Nor hardships nor disasters nor anathemas Shall me intimidate or tame. This is my destiny. Doth fate decree That I must fall, of rank and honors shorn? Then let me fall, but fall with this my crown Upon my brow, this sceptre in my grasp, my own retinue of faithful troops, and with these many thousands on my side. Thus to fall brings honor and shall shed unfading glory on my name: besides, To be the first prince in some lower court Is better than within the Blessed Light To be the second, or even less. ‘Tis thus I weigh the stroke. But here comes Heaven’s Interpreter And Herald, with god’s own book Of mysteries committed to his care. Most opportune for us his coming, For I would question him, and from my chariot descend.
    • From Satanic Feminism, Per Faxneld, 2014: In the next chapter, we will look at the Theosophical journal named Lucifer published between 1887 and 1897, and the use of this figure by Blavatsky and other Theosophists. A plausible source of inspiration could have been Lucifer the Light-bearer, an individualist-anarchist weekly newspaper based in Kansas (later in Chicago), starting in 1883. In the two early Lucifer issues published in Sweden, the theme of Satan as a liberator is expressed in a series of poems and polemical texts by Wermelin, the Byron-worshipping son of a priest in the Church of Sweden. Unlike most poets of the worker’s movement, Wermelin was well-educated and had studied at University. He played something of a key part in early Swedish socialism and was the one who introduced the economic theories of Marxism in Sweden. Eventually he became marginalized, and from time to time he was even homeless. In the premier issue of Lucifer, Wermelin proclaimed the ‘Ten Commandments of Lucifer’. The tenth commandment lays down that ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, unless she covets only you, but his ox and ass and all the capital that belongs to him thou shalt take from him and make the property of thine brothers’, and the first of them in his version states: ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me, the Lightbringer.” This type of parody or inversion of passages from the Bible was a common feature in anticlerical or atheist writings during this period. In the second Lucifer issue, Wermelin published a distinctly Byronic poem describing how the light bringer lies bound to a rock and is being pecked by a vulture, but yet cries out ‘In Satan’s guise, in Prometheus’ guise / I remain indomitable’. The 1891 issue opens with the poem ‘Lucifer’ by the signature ‘Spartacus.’ ‘This would also be an appropriate label for the special brand of revolutionary socialism propounded by those with sympathies for the Devil: a strain of political poetics strongly coloured by Romanticism, especially its English branch, but in some cases probably also by texts like ‘Prometheus’ by Goethe.