Lynn Picknett: The Secret History of Lucifer: And the Meaning of the True Da Vinci Code

Who is Lucifer? For many of us Lucifer and Satan are alternative names for the embodiment of pure evil. The orthodox Christian view tells us that Prince Lucifer challenged God, fell from Heaven, tempted Eve, and created death and suffering. Then he became Satan, horned king of Hell, whose hatred for God's creation motivated his mission to drag the rest of us down with him. In this highly readable and well-researched account, Lynn Picknett explains that the horned Devil is merely a new incarnation of the old woodland deity Pan, while Lucifer was once a personification of the Morning Star, the planet Venus and its goddess. "He" was therefore originally "she," and a divine representation of love, beauty, and human warmth. Indeed, many ancient goddesses were known as Lucifera, or "Light-bringer." While thousands follow Lucifer in order to achieve earthly wealth and power, Picknett explains that such misguided behavior is far from true Luciferan principles. Picknett draws together ancient heretical Christian and Egyptological texts, the implications of abnormal psychology, and the "extreme possibilities" of certain barely understood human attributes to ask if humans actually created God and Lucifer, not merely as icons or metaphors but in a terrifying, literal way.