Lucifer
This world of ours is a world of opposites.
There is light and shade,
there is heat and cold,
there is good and evil,
there is God and the Devil.
"Diabolus enim et alii dæmones a Deo quidem naturâ creati sunt boni,
sed ipsi per se facti sunt mali."
"The Devil and the other demons were created by God,
good in their nature but they by themselves have made themselves evil."
Devil is a title given to a supernatural entity, who, in most Abrahamic faiths, is the central embodiment of evil. We obtain our Devil from the Jews, and they got him from Babylon. The Jews cultivated the science of Demonology, and at one time it was believed that there were nine kinds of demons: Beelzebub, prince of the false gods of the other nations; the Pythian Apollo, prince of liars; Belial, prince of mischief makers; Asmodeus, prince of revengeful devils; Satan, prince of witches and magicians; Meresin, prince of aerial devils, who caused thunderstorms and plagues; Abaddon, who caused wars, tumults and combustions; Diabolus, who drives to despair, and Mammon, prince of the tempters.
No matter what we call him, the Devil is our symbol for what is bad and undesirable. From our human perspective, we see the world as a struggle between light and dark. We want to vanquish the bad so the good can prevail. In fact, good and bad cannot be separated, just as you cannot separate a shadow from its source. Darkness is simply the absence of light, and it is caused by errors that hide the truth.
Christianity views Satan as an angel cast from heaven by God, for being prideful, deceitful, and the tempter.
The name Lucifer originally denotes the planet Venus, emphasizing its brilliance. The Vulgate employs the word also for "the light of the morning" (Job 11:17), "the signs of the zodiac" (Job 38:32), and "the aurora" (Psalm 109:3). Metaphorically, the word is applied to the King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:12) as preeminent among the princes of his time; to the high priest Simon son of Onias (Ecclesiasticus 50:6), for his surpassing virtue, to the glory of heaven (Apocalypse 2:28), by reason of its excellency; finally to Jesus Christ himself (2 Peter 1:19; Apocalypse 22:16).
The Syriac version and the version of Aquila derive the Hebrew noun helel from the verb yalal, "to lament"; St. Jerome agrees with them (In Isaiah 1:14), and makes Lucifer the name of the principal fallen angel who must lament the loss of his original glory bright as the morning star. In Christian tradition this meaning of Lucifer has prevailed; the Fathers maintain that Lucifer is not the proper name of the devil, but denotes only the state from which he has fallen.
The Devil's Dictionary
Note:
Since the material here represents the view of one individual and was written in the early 1900's, there will no doubt be material here that you will find sexist, nationalist, racist, or just generally offensive. Proceed at your own risk.
Devil is a title given to a supernatural entity, who, in most Abrahamic faiths, is the central embodiment of evil. We obtain our Devil from the Jews, and they got him from Babylon. The Jews cultivated the science of Demonology, and at one time it was believed that there were nine kinds of demons: Beelzebub, prince of the false gods of the other nations; the Pythian Apollo, prince of liars; Belial, prince of mischief makers; Asmodeus, prince of revengeful devils; Satan, prince of witches and magicians; Meresin, prince of aerial devils, who caused thunderstorms and plagues; Abaddon, who caused wars, tumults and combustions; Diabolus, who drives to despair, and Mammon, prince of the tempters.
No matter what we call him, the Devil is our symbol for what is bad and undesirable. From our human perspective, we see the world as a struggle between light and dark. We want to vanquish the bad so the good can prevail. In fact, good and bad cannot be separated, just as you cannot separate a shadow from its source. Darkness is simply the absence of light, and it is caused by errors that hide the truth.Christianity views Satan as an angel cast from heaven by God, for being prideful, deceitful, and the tempter.
The name Lucifer originally denotes the planet Venus, emphasizing its brilliance. The Vulgate employs the word also for "the light of the morning" (Job 11:17), "the signs of the zodiac" (Job 38:32), and "the aurora" (Psalm 109:3). Metaphorically, the word is applied to the King of Babylon (Isaiah 14:12) as preeminent among the princes of his time; to the high priest Simon son of Onias (Ecclesiasticus 50:6), for his surpassing virtue, to the glory of heaven (Apocalypse 2:28), by reason of its excellency; finally to Jesus Christ himself (2 Peter 1:19; Apocalypse 22:16).
The Syriac version and the version of Aquila derive the Hebrew noun helel from the verb yalal, "to lament"; St. Jerome agrees with them (In Isaiah 1:14), and makes Lucifer the name of the principal fallen angel who must lament the loss of his original glory bright as the morning star. In Christian tradition this meaning of Lucifer has prevailed; the Fathers maintain that Lucifer is not the proper name of the devil, but denotes only the state from which he has fallen.
The Devil's Dictionary
Note:
Since the material here represents the view of one individual and was written in the early 1900's, there will no doubt be material here that you will find sexist, nationalist, racist, or just generally offensive. Proceed at your own risk.
4 Comments:
Flashbacks to reading Paradise Lost and memorizing part of it for class... You know I won a scholarly award for an essay I wrote on it (bragging arrogantly, but deservedly).
And God do I love Ambrose Bierce.
I agree with Samurai as I have a copy of The Devil's Dictionary sitting on my bookshelf right now.
And I would have to lean towards the concept of balance, and that lends credence to some of the ideas about Lucifer or whatever you want to call him.
Finally, pics with that much body paint and horns always creep me out.
SamuraiFrog: Yes, I remember reading that too. I like the way that the Devil is portryed, regardless of what critics had and still have to say of him as a "character" in that epic.
2 Dollar Productions: I agree, I believe that everything has its counterpoint - it's what makes the world interesting.
I'm happy that I was able to creep you out, even though that is just the Devil from the movie Legend.
And to both of you:
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who knows of or who has a copy of The Devil's Dictionary lying around.
Sherry RULES!!! xoxoxo
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