Lucifer Rising

Posted By Ceyx on June 27, 2010

For the past couple of days I’ve been thinking about Lucifer and his connection with the elements. Part of this is because of the connection I’ve found between him and Astarte and the bible passage that talks about him ‘in the sides of the north’. See, in Astarte’s myth she persuades Baal (at least I think it’s Baal, I could be wrong) to let her build a house a mountain ‘on the side of the north’ and I immediately thought of Lucifer. Because, really, all roads lead to Lucifer. At least in my mind they do. LOL

Anyway, my mind was wondering ‘why the north’? Why not another direction? Does that mean that Lucifer has a special connection with the earth, or with the northern quadrant of the element system? Which would kind of suck for me because I have almost no affinity for earth… I’m more fire and water. Thinking about it though, I think that Lucifer ~doesn’t~ have any special ties to the North and that’s why he needed to make a mark there. He’s sometimes known as the Prince of the Powers of Air, his connection to stars is his link with fire, and as Eros he is the master of the heart… the seat of emotions. That connects him with water. Which has made me think that perhaps he also needs a house in the sides of the north to help balance him. Perhaps it is that natural imbalance in his nature is what made him seem so devilish that he had to be vilified by the Christians. Also, by the Christian mythos, Lucifer is ‘a son of fire’, so his connection to the stars, the astral, could be his connection to Spirit. I guess it depends on if you want to use a 4 or 5 element system. Either way, there is that natural imbalance with earth.

Which would also make sense as to why in the Christian tradition Lucifer proudly announces that he will never bow to a son of clay. If he doesn’t have any link to Earth, I can see how he would have a hard time bowing to it. I know that in the traditional myth he refuses to do so because God had ordered the angels to only bow to God, and man isn’t God. But in my mind, man is divine, so Lucifer would have a hard time bowing to Earth because that would be admitting that something that he doesn’t quite understand and doesn’t quite master is above him. Lucifer is nothing if not proud.

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Posted By Ceyx on August 22, 2009

I’ll admit that I’ve been lax with this blog and that I probably haven’t been lavishing attention on Lucifer the way he wants or deserves. I have been making a daily offering that includes all my patrons, but he’s been wanting to be a little special. In honor of him I burned his incense yesterday and the just after I put the incense on the charcoal, the burner cracked. I had to quick put out the charcoal and toss the whole thing.

Now that might worry some that he is displeased with me. I don’t think it’s that, I think what is going on is that he wants something specific from me and I’m not getting it. I’ve been having this feeling that he wants shells. But Lucifer has no connection to the ocean. So why sea shells?

Well, I wasn’t really thinking about a connection between him and the sea. Then I went looking on Google for the Greek word for dragon. I found a page that has nothing to with what I was searching, but in the description of the page I caught the word ‘Eros’. Knowing that Lucifer is linked with Eros, I clicked on the link and searched for his name. This is what I found: “I’ll repeat that the Kiev Hros were likely symbolized by Ares, the Thracian Horseman and Greek god of war. But to that I also suspect some connection to the Greek god, Eros, the son of Zeus but in some versions of Ares. The point is, Eros is the root of our “erotic,” while the Greek term was “erotos,” very much like “Erethlyn/Aereda/Hirota.” It’s interesting that the Slav entities, Lado and Lada, were made gods of love, suggesting a blood connection between Eros and Lada/Lado. “ (from: http://www.tribwatch.com/wheel.htm)

So I went looking for information on Lado.

And I found this: “Lado is the god of marriage, mirth, pleasure and general happiness. The divine husband of Lada whom together they represent marriage, pleasures and happiness. He seems synonymous with the Spring fertility god Jarilo (Yarilo, Jaro, Cyrillic ) is the Slavic god of spring fertility, represented as a young man dressed in white with a wheat wreath on his head, wheat ears in his right hand and a human head in his left hand. Christianity associates him with Saint Geo as Lada is with Jarila . Those soon to be married make sacrifices to him to ensure a satisfactory union. “

There were a few pages that I ran across that said that Lado/Lada weren’t ‘real’ Gods, but were reconstructions of old gods by modern pagans who were misinterpreting older songs and texts.  But everyone seems to agree that Jarilo was/is a God.

So I went looking for Jarilo.

And found: “Jarilo was a son of the supreme Slavic god of thunder, Perun, his lost, missing, tenth son, born on the last night of February, the festival of Velja No? (Great Night), the pagan Slavic celebration of the New Year. On the same night, however, Jarilo was stolen from his father and taken to the world of dead, where he was adopted and raised by Veles, Perun’s enemy, Slavic god of the underworld and cattle. The Slavs believed the underworld to be an ever-green world of eternal spring and wet, grassy plains, where Jarilo grew up guarding the cattle of his step-father. In the mythical geography of ancient Slavs, the land of dead was assumed to lie across the sea, where migrating birds would fly every winter.

With the advent of spring, Jarilo returned from the otherworld, that is, from across the sea, into the living world, bringing spring and fertility to the land.”

They also say that Jarilo was supposed to look like a centaur. Being that he had to cross the sea AND is deeply connected with horses, perhaps that’s why the sea shells? Or I’m waaaay off base. I dunno.

I’m also amused that he was born on the Great Night… perhaps another connection to Nyx?

Ironically, wikipedia says:  “The worship of this god, however, survived in Slavic folklore for a long time after Christianization. Up until the 19th century in Russia, Belarus and Serbia, folk festivals called Jarilo were celebrated in late spring or early summer. These festivities were completely non-Christian in character, and even early researchers of Slavic mythology easily recognised in them relics of pagan ceremonies in honor of an eponymous spring deity. In Northern Croatia and Southern Slovenia, similar spring festivals were called Jurjevo or Zeleni Juraj or Zeleni Jurij (Green George); nominally, this was a festivity day of Christian St. George, but almost all elements of the celebrations were of pagan origin, and fairly similar to Jarilo festivals of other Slavic nations.” Ironic because George was the slayer of dragons…

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Tags: associated gods

Posted By Ceyx on August 21, 2009

Inspiration struck and here is the result:

Lucifer, Shining Star,
You are the torch-bearer,
Bringing light out of the darkness.
You are the Lord of knowledge and desire,
It is your stellar light that penetrates
Deep into the heart of Night.
You shine with the light of truth,
Illuminating us with your gentle radiance.
Without you, we would truly be lost in
Darkness.

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Tags: poetry

Posted By Ceyx on May 29, 2009

OK, I found this myth online about how Nyx gives birth to Eros from an egg.  Along my travels, I have found that Eros is equated with Lucifer.  So, black winged Nyx gave birth to golden winged Lucifer.  Guess that kinda links them, huh?

Anyway, there’s this myth about how Lucifer sprang forth from the egg that Nyx had in the darkness and the first thing he did was fan his wings to dry them.  As his wings moved they made a sound, which echoed and bounced through the darkness of Khaos.  Faster and faster Lucifer flapped his wings, filling the void of Khaos with sound.  The noise woke bright pinpoints in the darkness and set them to dancing.  They whirled around in the darkness, sparkling and shining as they set their courses.

By the light of the new stars, Lucifer could see other things in the darkness.  He reached out and snagged a piece of clay, which was warm and soft, and began to shape it into a ball.  His fingers created a crevices and little mounds that he didn’t fully shape away, these became valleys and mountains.  Nyx wept tears of joy at seeing what Lucifer had created, and he took her tears and wrapped them around the ball, creating the seas to cradle his new Earth.

While Lucifer was busy creating the Earth, Nyx was birthing Hemera, the Day.  Together these goddesses raced around the Earth, giving day and night to the planet.  The sun was so bright, Lucifer couldn’t be seen and he worried that the Earth would forget him.  Pushing aside his fears, Lucifer scooped wet clay from the and created the moon, a silver crescent that was still filled with water from the new seas.  Water dripped from the moon’s horns, creating rain and as the moon waxed and waned the tides began to beat against the earth like a drum.

The earth was lovely to look at in the moonlight and Lucifer leaned down and kissed the Earth, where his lips touched forests grew and spread outward to cover the land.  The new forests reached upward toward Lucifer’s light waiting for the gentle rain of the moon.  So the trees would be able to grow, Lucifer pulled some of the heat of the sun to wrap around the center of the earth to warm them.  The heat was so intense, it burned his fingers and he dipped them in the cool water at the top and bottom of the globe and thought about cold and freezing.  Ice began to grow to soothe his painful fingers, it was a fair balance to the warmth of the equator.

The world was almost complete, but Lucifer knew that more was needed.  He blew across the face of the earth and as his breath swirled between the earth and the water of the moon, clouds were formed.  His breath continued to race around the globe, creating the four winds. Lucifer  named the gentle Western wind Zephyrus,  who rose with the setting of the sun.   From the frozen north came Boreas,  brining with it the chill to turn rain to snow.   The strong East wind was named Eurus, who brought warm rains to nourish new plants.  Finally there was the lush, playful wind from the South.  He was called Notus and brough with him fog and mist.  When all four blew together to the same point on Earth, they would argue over territory so feircely that Lucifer would use his voice of thunder to quiet them.

Now that the world was complete, Lucifer looked to the sparkling aethers in the sky.  He reached out and several danced into the palm of his hand.   As he looked into the dark cavern made by his hand, their dancing and flashing made him think of life.  He breathed over them and they began to change, growing wings and legs, fur and scales, fins and feathers.  Each evolving and continuing to evolve until the land, the seas, and the winds were full of living creatures.  In honor of Lucifer, they all made different sounds and noises to imitate the first music that Lucifer created with his golden wings.

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Tags: myths & legends

Posted By Ceyx on May 23, 2009

If you happen to know me, it becomes fairly obvious that I am madly in love with the TV show “Supernatural” and even more enamoured of Jensen Ackles.  No, really, this is totally going to relate to Lucifer.  Honest.  You can tell I’m (hur hur hur) supernaturally obsessed by the fact that I bought that gods-awful fugly bust of Dean and I own a little toy Metallicar to play with.  Oh yis.

This most recent season of Supernatural (which just ended) has been trying me.  See, the peoples who run it decided that it would be a grand idea to throw angels into the mix.  Which, ordinarily wouldn’t bother me too much.  But they also decided that Lucifer should play a part.  So, the recent season was the boys (two brothers) trying to avert the Apocalypse by not letting the demons break 66 seals and free Lucifer.

One would think that I would be overjoyed by this development.  Indeed, even I would assume that I would be beside myself with pleasure… especially since when they spoke about Lucifer they got their information right.  They talked about his beauty and about how he was unfairly dismissed.  I’m pretty OK with them talking about him in the abstract.

Well, the season ended with the boys failing and Lucifer being set free as a blinding glow of white light.  It had looked like the show was going to free him since the middle of the season and I had psyched myself up for one thing – for Lucifer to possess Dean Winchester.  One of the aforementioned brothers.  Now, I was OK with this for two reasons.  Dean is played by Jensen Ackles and (for me) that man can do no wrong.  And, secondly, Jensen Ackles is the only man who is pretty enough to be Lucifer.  I kid you not.  However, it looks like the PTB are going to have Dean be a vessel for Michael.

My other, more nebulous, problems with them introducing Lucifer is that he is clearly demonic.  Lucifer does not equal Satan.  The show even pretty much flat out said as much… but now they are equating the two.   I’m also a little miffed that it seems like someone writing the show read the ‘Lucifer’ comic from DC and thought ‘yeah… that’s a great idea!  We’ll make God absent, the angels doing things they probably shouldn’t, and Lucifer walks the earth!  Brilliant!  Wait, lets make Lucifer and Michael face off but they’ll end up being brothers and Lucifer will help Michael in a total role reversal!‘  Seriously, I already read the comic… could you please do something else?  Please?

I kind of feel like I’m being overly critical, I mean, shouldn’t I love the fact that Lucifer is being introduced to people even if they are getting some stuff wrong?  Isn’t it enough that this is a fictional show about fictional characters one of whom just happens to have the name and bear a resemblance to my patron?  I don’t know.  All I do know is that I almost feel offended by the character defamation going on.  It bugs me on a much deeper level than I can just dismiss.  It also didn’t help that Lucifer usually shows me signs through lightening… the night the last episode aired just as they were being rather abusive toward Lucifer is when it started to thunder and lightening outside my window.  I don’t think Lucifer was being displeased or pleased by my TV… but I do think he was all ‘hey, remember I’m hear!’

So, why can’t I just accept that two things that I love are dovetailing and will be in one place?  Maybe I did myself a disservice by wanting Jensen Ackles to play Lucifer.  Maybe I need to lighten up.  I don’t know.  All I do know is that my veiwing pleasure is severly upset by this turn of developments.  Perhaps this is what Lucifer needs for people to want to learn about him, not about the crappy PR the church has created about him.

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Tags: personal thoughts

Posted By Ceyx on May 22, 2009

I was thinking about making this post about one of the myths about Lucifer, but then I found this gem.  One of my friends also has Lucifer as a Patron and she said to me one day that she thought that Lucifer equated with the Sumerian/Canannite/Mesopotamian god Enlil.  I told her I wasn’t sure, but that could be.  Today, while searching for a specific myth that I wanted to relate I stumbled across this book – ‘Yahweh and the gods and goddesses of Canaan’ by John Day.

Anyway, the book talks about how Lucifer (Roman) was also Eosphorus (Greek) and that he was equated with the Morning Star.  However, since one of Lucifer’s titles is the ‘Shining One, Son of the Dawn’ some researchers have identified him with other heavenly luminaries rather than the planet Venus.   One of the ‘stars’ put forth for him was the planet Jupiter because it reaches the zenith which makes sense because it is representing a king.  The author then says that another author named W.R. Gallagher (oh, the irony *giggles*) stated that ‘the Shining One, son of the dawn is the Mesopotamian god Enlil (Akkadian ellil/illil) , who could be concieved astrally, for he was already supreme  and did not strive in vain for this position.’

Definite proof right there connecting them, huh?

There also seems to be some debate about the whole idea if the lines about Helel ben Shaher (“How hast thou fallen, Helel’s son Shaher! Thou didst say in thy heart, I will ascend to heaven, above the circumpolar stars, I will raise my throne, and I will dwell in the back of the north; I will mount on the back of a cloud, I will be unto like Elyon.”). Some say  Helel’s son is the morning/evening star or the new moon.  Some feel that Helel isn’t the correct translation, it should be ‘helal’.  Helal, meaning, the new moon.

Now there is probably the question, who is this Enlil character anyway? He is a Sumerian/Babylonian God of the wind, air, and storms.  He is also the chief God of that pantheon, although some say that he supplanted Anu.  In Enlil’s possession are the Tablets of Destiny, which gives him domain over the entire cosmos as well as the affairs of man.  He can be kind or cruel to humanity and occasionally punishes mankind with disasters like the great Flood.  Enlil is shown wearing a crown with horns on it as a symbol of his power.  His city was Nippur, which housed his largest temple.  Ninlil is listed as his consort, but some myths say that Enlil raped her was banished from his home for that.  However, Ninlil followed him and bore a total of 5 children with him.  All wind that blows was thought to be his breath.

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Tags: associated gods, research:books

Posted By Ceyx on May 20, 2009

Luciferus
I am born out of the eclipse’s fire
My time began in the heart of darkness
With wings of light I greet the dawn
The last, proud shining in the firmament
Before the obliterating light of the daystar
I teach wisdom in moderation -
all things in moderation -
or the brightness will be overwhelming.
Why are you uncomfortable with the thought
that I have not abandoned you?
How low have I sunk in your estimation?
To embrace me is to embrace yourself
and plumb your inner depths
that you keep carefully hidden.
I don’t mind.
I can wait for eternity,
eventually you will want to know
what light I bring.

Written by Ceyx in September 2003

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Tags: poetry