(Before I start this I just want to say that this and the Easter post are fairly good examples of my apophenia. It’s harnessed somewhat. I try very, very hard not to let it go ‘wacky’. I have [secretly] always been rather obsessed with finding ‘connections’ between things… everything. This post is just something that’s been taking up mental space and I really just need to download it.)

Eosphorus was the Greek ‘Star God’ of the Planet Venus. Eosphoros means ‘Light-Bringer’ and was god of the morning star. He was also known as Hesperus when he was the evening star. He was sometimes even known as Phosphoros.

He was a second generation Titan. His grandparents were Uranus and Gaia – the Heavens and the Earth (interestingly in some stories they are Venus’ parents as well…). His parents were Astraeus, the god of the stars, and Eos, the goddess of the dawn. He was the grandfather to children of Apollo (the god of prophecy, musical and artistic inspiration, of archers and of healing) and Hermes (the messenger of Zeus and the herald of the gods- the bringer of dreams, the prince of tricksters, the patron of travellers and the guide of intelligent speech). Eosphorus would have been a good guy to hang out with… young, good-looking (beautiful really), connected.

When the Bible was translated into Latin, Eosphorus/Hesperus’ name, ‘light-bringer’ was translated literally as ‘lucifer’ (from ‘lux’ [light] and ‘ferre’ [to bring or bear]) rather than into the Latin name for the Morning/Evening Star ie the planet Venus…

Isaiah 14:12 (KJV) “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”

Isaiah 14:12 (NIV) “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!”

That is the passage that has been responsible for making ‘us’ believe that Satan’s ‘other name’ is Lucifer… That is the one time the word ‘lucifer’ is mentioned in the whole English Bible… and then only in the King James Version… no other Bible mentions ‘Lucifer’.

Considering that Venus (a “wandering star”) is visible in the morning and evening for over two-thirds of the year and then ‘falls from heaven’ or at least no longer rises AND considering how important “wandering stars” are in astrology and how important astrology was to the ancient world, one might expect that the Bible writers were talking about star-chart type stuff… rather than about Satan. Hmm? Or is the astrology thing too… [ahem] rational an explanation?

And if, as was the case, the ancients were fearful of the power of Venus and worried that her leaving or returning or even merely her presence was somehow inauspicious and could ‘weaken the nations’, then we can perhaps understand why, in some ways, the planet wouldn’t have been a favourite of the ancients. But surely we’ve moved on far enough past the point where we believe that a planet could ‘control’ our fate? Surely we can look back at a more primitive culture and think, ‘They believed in all kinds of rubbish – the Earth was at the centre of the Universe, the Sun was driven across the sky in a chariot and Venus brought bad luck.’, can’t we? Well, I guess even if you still believe in astrology today, then at least you would believe that Venus is not a bringer of Misfortune, but the bringer of Love and still realise that they were ‘wrong’.

In the New International Version of the Bible the phrase ‘morning star’ is used instead of ‘Lucifer’… ‘Morning star’ is mentioned elsewhere… 2 Peter 1:19 (NIV) “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

The KJV version of 2 Peter 1:19 “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts”…

OK so Eosphorus/Hesperus was the Greek God of the Planet Venus – the Morning and Evening Star. Eosphorus means ‘Light-Bringer’ which translates into ‘lucifer’ in Latin. So if the word ‘light bringer’ really was translated directly and literally from the Greek Biblical texts then surely the word ‘lucifer’ should exist in both Isaiah and 2 Peter in the Latin Vulgate Bible. If it’s simply the name of the Fallen Angel then it should exist only once in Isaiah … Let’s see…

Isaiah 14:12 “quomodo cecidisti de caelo lucifer qui mane oriebaris
corruisti in terram qui vulnerabas gentes”

2 Peter 1:19 “et habemus firmiorem propheticum sermonem cui bene facitis
adtendentes quasi lucernae lucenti in caliginoso loco donec
dies inlucescat et lucifer oriatur in cordibus vestris”

Bingo.

So clearly ‘lucifer’, according to the Latin translation where the word first appeared, *doesn’t* refer to Satan, but is instead talking about the Planet Venus, named after Venus, the Goddess of Love, Beauty and Sexual Rapture…

There isn’t anything inherently Evil about ‘bringing’ something to someone. So is the issue with ‘Light’? Is “Light” ever, ever equated with Evil? Surely when we think of ‘Evil’ we think ‘Dark’, ‘Shadowy’, ‘Murky’… Why then would the church equate the “Light-Bringer” with “Evil”?

Hmmmm….??

Has the Light Bulb gone on yet? Has the answer Dawned on you? Is it Clear? Well… aren’t you Bright?…

We still use words related to the “Bringing of Light” to signify “Knowledge”. And obviously we all remember what Eve’s great sin was… wanting “Knowledge”.

According to the Church:

Knowledge=Evil
The Bringer of Knowledge=Evil
The Bringer of Knowledge=The Bringer of Light
The Bringer of Light=Venus
Venus=Love, Beauty and Sex
Love, Beauty and Sex=Evil

Knowledge, Love, Beauty and Sex the Great Evils of the Church… that’s sounds exactly right, doesn’t it?