Speaker 1: So, by the way, spoiler right, that is why you
can sometimes hear in liturgy when they are singing that
verse in the Catholic Church, there's a moment when they
sing that verse it is referring to Jesus actually, and
so when you hear the pope praising Lucifer, he is
of course not praising Satan. He is praising Jesus as Lucifer.
And so you'd say, well, how is it possible that
we use the word Lucifer.
Speaker 2: To talk about the devil?
Speaker 1: But in the New Testament, Lucifer, the morning star, the
bright morning star, is referring to Jesus. This is Jonathan Peshel,
Welcome to the Symbolic world. Hello everyone, Today we are
going to talk about the symbolism of Lucifer. And this
video is prompted by something I saw a while ago
where I saw certain Christians, certain type of Christians, freaking
out because they found a video of the Pope of
Rome praising Lucifer. And so they were freaking out because
here this proves, you know, that the Catholic Church is
a Satanic thing. And so I thought it was pretty funny,
and so it seemed like it could be an excuse
to explain the symbolism of Lucifer because it is a
good example of one of the aspects of symbolism that
I talk about all the time, which is that symbolism
is structural, it is positional, and it is not necessarily
moral in itself. That is, the terms of symbolism occupy
certain places in a hierarchy of being, and therefore they
can be used in multiple ways. So symbolism is polysemic.
That's a complicated word, but what it means is that
symbolism can mean many things, but ultimately those meanings will
nonetheless come together in a positional way once you understand
it that way that they refer to certain places in
the structure of being, you could say. So that's what
we're going to look at and look a little bit
about at the origin of the notion of Lucifer and
symbolism in the Christian tradition in the Bible.
Speaker 2: And see what it is that we come up with.
Speaker 1: So before we start, I just want to remind you
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And so having said all that, here we go with
the symbolism of Lucifer. So in scripture, there is a
there's a text. First of all, the term Lucifer comes
from the appellation of the planet Venus in the sky
as it appears in the morning, and so often not
always during the year, the planet Venus will appear in
the sky before the sunrise and will be very very
bright because the sun is shining on it before the
sun comes, and so it's the dawn star, the morning star,
the bringer of light. In Greek, it has several names,
Phosphorus which means the light bringer, or Heros for us,
which means the dawn bringer. And this is of course
what Lucifer means. Lucifer means the one who brings the light,
the light bringer, the light carrier, and all of that,
because it refers to Venus in the morning, right, and
so this has brought about a whole slew of symbolism
in scripture, but then also in the Falling tradition, and
so of course many times, especially in the modern world,
when we use the word Lucifer, what we're referring to
is the evil one, right, the Satan, the opposer, the opponent,
the challenger. And there are reasons why that's the case.
We'll look at those reasons as well. But Lucifer is
also a designation for Christ themselves. In fact, the only
place in the New Testament where there is a reference
to the morning Star, the bright morning Star. That is,
in talking about Christ in Revelation twenty two, Christ says,
I am the root of the authoring of David and
the bright morning Star. So, by the way, spoiler right,
that is why you can sometimes hear in liturgy when
they are singing that song singing that verse in the
Catholic Church, there is a moment when they sing that
verse it is referring to Jesus.
Speaker 2: Actually, and so when.
Speaker 1: You hear the pope praising Lucifer, he is of course
not praising Satan. He is praising He is praising Jesus
as Lucifer. And so you'd say, well, how is it
possible that we use the word Lucifer.
Speaker 2: To talk about the devil?
Speaker 1: But in the New Testament, Lucifer the morning Star, the
bright morning Star is referring to Jesus. And so this
of course comes from a text in the Book of
Isaiah Isaiah fourteen, where Isaiah is talking about a king
of Babylon and is describing this haughty king of Babylon
who will fall.
Speaker 2: And so we'll read from.
Speaker 1: It Isaiah fourteen, how you are falling from heaven, Oh,
Lucifer's son of the morning, how you are cut down
to the ground, you who weaken the nations. For you
have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven.
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation,
on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend
above the heights of the clouds. I will be like
the most high. Yet you shall be brought down to shale,
to death, to the lowest depth of the pit.
Speaker 2: Ah.
Speaker 1: So now you can see where this imagery comes from.
And of course this text is talking about a king
of Babylon, but you can understand how it's a structural text.
And you know because of the text in Revelation which
describes the drake dragon that brought that with its tail
gathered all these stars from heaven and then you know,
made them fall down to earth, and that rebelled against
God by taking these stars. And when we talk about stars,
of course you understand the symbolic world that the stars
are of course the stars and the heaven, but there
are also images of the angels or the gods or
the bright beings that are in the heavens that you
know that rule over the world. And so in the
Book of Revelation, when he talks about the dragon that
gathers these stars and makes them fall into the earth,
you can understand how the Church fathers, you know, very
early Tertullian origin, you know, some of the very early fathers,
and then later Augustine, and you know, it just became
basic tradition to understand that this text in the Book
of Isaiah referring in collaboration with the book the text
and the Book of Revelation is referring to Satan or
the evil one as well. So it's referring of course
to the King of Babylon, but it also is an
image of the Satanic the Satanic trope, right, where a
being that is important and has authority will rise try
to take the authority for himself, you know. And so
this is what is being described in the text and Isaiah.
So you can understand. Now, let's say an aspect of
the morning star, a negative aspect of the morning star,
which is the star comes up in the morning and
it appears very very bright in the sky. And so
it is it is something that announces the sun, right,
it is a messenger for the sun because when you
see the morning star up in the sky. You know
that the sun is coming. So it's a smaller light,
which is a vessel or a vehicle or a messenger
for a larger light. You could say that all authority
is meant to play that role, right, And so any
authority in the world, at every single level, is always
there shining brightly, right, because they are a messenger. They
are derivative of a higher light that is above them.
You know, that is giving them their light. And so
without the general right, the corporal has nothing. But the
corporal does shine with a certain amount of light and
has a certain amount of authority and power. But that
authority and power is derived from the higher power. So
you can understand that this description of lucifer is structural.
But now it can happen that someone who has authority,
someone who has power, will try to take that power
for themselves, and not only take the power for themselves,
but will try to cause a revolution in the heavens,
will cause a revolution in the hierarchy, where they will
try to supplant the power from which they get their authority,
supplant the authority from which they get their This is
of course the revolutionary trope it's imaged in so many
ways in mythology, you know, where there is the idea
of Saturn castor his father heaven ornos kronosk castrating his father.
But it is also this image of the dragon of
course that opposes heaven and now tries to take the
principalities for them. So you can imagine how the morning
star becoming arrogant and thinking that the light that it
has is only its light, and that it has all
the light you know, and is stronger than the sun.
But then it's a form of hubris because of course,
once the sun appears, Venus disappears. Right, once the sun
appears in the heaven, the morning star vanishes. You can't
see it anymore because the sun is too bright. And
so you can understand how this is also an image
of how you know, without how can I say this
that if a secondary authority, if any being, tries to
take the authority they have or the power they have
for themselves, then ultimately they are eclipsed by the thing
that causes them, right, And so that is of course
the negative aspect of the morning star. But you know,
there is of course a very positive aspect to the
symbolism of Lucifer and of the morning star, which is
this idea of a hierarchy and a kind of fractal participation.
Speaker 2: In the light.
Speaker 1: And so the sun gives its light to the star,
and now the star shines forth in the name of
that light. So you can imagine when Christ says something like,
I do not do my own will, but I do
the will of the Father. This is an example of
the proper manifestation of Lucifer. There is all the light
that the Sun has. He receives from the Father, that
the divinity is received from the Father, and then is
not taken for something in which to raise himself up,
but is ultimately given out right and is given up
to God, and is is seen as, let's say, not
something that belongs to him. But because of that then
he is raised up right. And so this is of
course again now the image of Lucifer in a positive way,
because Lucifer, because the star that comes before the dawn,
if it gives its authority back to the Sun, if
it understands that it is derivative of the Sun, then
what will happen is that it has all its might,
it has all its glory, it's beautiful because here's this bright,
bright star in the morning that announces the sun.
Speaker 2: And so this is of.
Speaker 1: Course why Jesus is described as Lucifer in the Bible,
because he plays that role because he is he doesn't
take his authority for himself on the earth. He receives
it from the Father and is willing to give it
up in order to serve him. And so you can
see now that the symbolism of Lucifer is structural, where
the star appears in the sky is very bright and
you can see it as you know, let's say a
derived authority. But that derived authority can be good or bad.
You know, I've talked about this before. Where a good
example of this is of course Aaron in Scripture, where
God chooses Moses and then Moses says, I need someone
to represent me, like I need someone who is in
some ways derivative of me, who's going to help me
manifest myself in the world. So God gives Moses Aaron,
and Aaron is a good example of Lucifer, which is
that he has the light to some extent because he's
the mouthpiece of Arin. In scripture, it even says God says,
I will be your God, Moses, and you will be
Aaron's God, you know, like this hierarchy of authority. And
so now Aaron is able to speak. But the problem
with that is that, you know, when he is separated
from Moses, he's in danger of thinking that he has
access to that authority himself. And then that is as
a it's a beautiful symbolism when Aaron makes a golden calf,
because on the one hand, he seems to forget that
he is, you know, derivative of Moses, that he receives
his authority from Moses and then through through Moses by
from God. And so he kind of revolts against Moses
in some ways and tries to take the authority for himself.
But then simultaneously what he does is he creates an idol,
which is a cosmic version of what he's doing himself
in regards to Moses. And so this is of course
the reality of Lucifer, the reality of the morning Star,
which is that anything that tries to capture authority for itself,
anything that tries to have an existence on its own
that's not derivative of a higher participation, is in danger
of becoming an idol, is in danger of.
Speaker 2: Becoming an opponent.
Speaker 1: And so now the derivative authority, the person that is,
you know, a derivative of a higher power, now turns
its arrogance against the power from which it comes and
then becomes an opponent. And in that case, in the
case of Erin, when he makes the golden calf, this
is what happens to him. He becomes an opponent. And
so the symbolism is structural. And you can understand that
the symbolism is structural so much that if you notice,
if you know a little bit about orthodox hymnography, for example,
you will see that now that we understand the structural thing,
then we can apply the symbolism of Lucifer to different beings.
So we can apply the symbolism of Lucifer, of course,
to the opponent, to the fallen one, because that this
is now the case of the arrogant, you know messenger,
the one who takes it for himself. But you can
apply to other people as being the positive messenger, the
ones who who step forth and shine brightly but pointing
to the light. And so that is why, for example,
we use the term morning star to talk about Saint
John the Baptist and so Saint John, the Baptist who
comes before Christ, who announces the coming of the Messiah,
who announces the coming Christ, is called in his akathis.
For example, we say, Rejoice, Star illuminating the path that
leadeth too Christ. Rejoice, Morning Star of the never setting sun. Rejoice,
worthy lamp of the never waning light. Rejoice Thou who preparest.
Speaker 2: The way for the approaching Christ.
Speaker 1: Rejoice Thou who appearst as both angel and man. Rejoice,
Great John, prophet, formwarner and Baptist of the Lord. And
so you can see, right the multiple ways that the
images use is to help us understand. Because Saint John
walked out in front of Christ, you know, paved the
way for him, opened up the so that Christ could walk,
you know, could be recognized in the world, and is
pointing to Christ. Therefore he is lucifer. He is lucifer
in the right way. He is a lucifer in a
way that is not subversive at all, but is actually
a normal derivation of participation. But it's not, of course,
only Saint John that we've called lucifer, but the Mother
of Christ herself, the Theotokas, is also called lucifer.
Speaker 2: Again in her Akathist.
Speaker 1: We say to the Mother of God, we say, rejoice,
for you carry him who carries all. Rejoice, morning star
who brings forth the sun. Rejoice, womb of the divine incarnation.
So here again, because she is the one who, let's say,
causes the dawn in a not in a divine way,
but in a material way. She's the one who appears
before the dawn and has the sun coming up behind
her right and coming through her, you know, like kind
of the idea of a rooster that announces the sunrise,
you know. And so now she's also called Lucifer because
she is the one who points to Christ. And so
this is a you know, used very well in an
image called the diosis, where you see Christ on the
throne in the center, and then to his right you
see Mary, you see the theotokis to his left you
see St. John the Baptist and John the Foreigner, and
both of them are pointing to Christ. So this is
their role, both of them playing the role of Lucifer,
playing the role of a light that points to the
true light. And so this is of course something that
we can use to understand everything about the world, everything
about reality, which is first of all, that in symbolism,
things are structural, and so we always have to be
careful when someone tells you, when someone tells you things like,
you know, the pentagram is evil or the hexagram is evil,
or you know, an upside down cross is evil. And
the truth is that these symbols have multiple manifestations, and
if you understand them in the right context, then they
are positive, and then sometimes they are negative. And I'm
not saying that the term Lucifer is not one which
refers to the opponent or the fallen one. Of course
it is, and and you know, and in common parlance,
because it has become how can I say this usual
to refer to him in that term. I think it
would be dangerous to just casually, you know, refer to
Christ or to the Mother of God or to Saint
John as Lucifer, because it would cause confusion. That's not necessary.
But when we look at it deeper, we need to
understand how structural symbolism works and and and how we need.
Speaker 2: To always have the right uh, you know, we have.
Speaker 1: To be able to discern things properly in order to
not be confused and to not be mixed up, and
also to not say silly, stupid things like the Pope
is worshiping the devil because here he is, you know,
singing him to lucifer.
Speaker 2: And so in the.
Speaker 1: Same way this can help us, of course, understand that
everything in the world can be lucifer. Right, Everything that
you encounter in the world can be a small light
which points you to a higher light, either a higher
light that's not even God itself, God himself right away,
which is just a higher good that you participate in,
something that you know makes that thing shine.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this before, right. A steering wheel, for example,
is a little lucifer of a car, and so a
steering wheel on its own is just a ridiculous object.
But if it's integrated and it's pointing to the higher
light that it's participating in, then it can be a
small lucifer for a car, and the same thing for
the car. So a car in itself, you know, what
is it unless it serves a higher good. If it
helps you bring your child to the hospital, if it
helps carry you to work, carried to church, or help
you see your friends, then it can be us a
lucifer for a higher good, a higher participation and so
this is of course, you know, a good way to
understand how symbolism works. But then also even how the
symbolism of the morning star and the bride star, which
points to or precedes the higher light or the bigger light,
is actually an image of symbolism itself. And as we
move forward, we can of course can help us to
not be naive and to not say silly things when
we talk about symbolism. And so I hope this has
been useful, and just to help you see, one of
the biggest lucifers, let's say, in scripture in the New Testament,
and one which is related to the double symbolism of
board the messenger or the one who's derivative of a
higher power but then can also become an opponent, is
of course the symbolism of Saint Peter. And then we'll
look at that the double symbolism of Saint Peter in
my next interpretation of symbolism. There's also another mystery about
this whole image of the morning star or lucifer of
Venus rising up in the sky, and this is related
to the fact that in fact Venus is sometimes during
the year the morning star, but then sometimes during the
year is the evening star. And there is also a
movement of Venus in the heavens in which it retrogrades, right,
which is that it moves in a certain direction, you know,
and then at some point during the year it starts
to move in the opposite direction. And you know, this
is related to the symbolism of Lucifer very much. So
you can understand that when Venus is the evening star,
it shines brightly after the sunset, and so you see
it appearing shining brightly after the sunset, and when Venus
is the morning star, you see it shining brightly before
the sunset.
Speaker 2: So this is of course or.
Speaker 1: A good example of understanding the relationship between Venus and
the sun and also the relationship of different authorities. And
so this I take from someone named Tom Brie, which
you can look up if you're interested. He is someone
who's quite good at architectural symbolism and cosmic symbolism as well.
But he gave me this insight, which is that so
you can understand the Venus the morning star and evening
star as both one that comes up before the sun
or one that comes down, you know, in the evening
comes down after the sun. And so these two aspects
of Venus and going up and going down, right, so
you can understand it, for example, as rising up into
heaven or then falling down into the underworld.
Speaker 2: Right, So these would be the two.
Speaker 1: Aspects of this star, where on the one hand it
rises up and on the other hand it goes down.
And you know his insight, which was wonderful, is that
when you think of the opponent or the evil one,
and you think of Christ, what you see are are
the same symbolism, but in the opposite direction, that is,
or flipped. One flips the symbolism of the other, which
is that Christ is the one that is willing to
descend into hell, descend into death, willfully right give up
in that way. And because he's willing to do that,
then he is actually raised up and made the highest
right and becomes the highest thing. And that's how it's
described in Gospel and in Saint Paul, right that because
he gave up and because he was able willing to
empty himself, therefore it's it's fine that he is now
raised up because he's not in danger of becoming a
becoming a kind of loose an opponent character. Right, he
is the son of the father in every way and
does the will of his father. But the devil, right,
the opponent, the satan, the evil one, you know, he
does the opposite move, which is that he raises himself
up up, And because he raises himself up, he's cast
down into.
Speaker 2: Hell and into hades.
Speaker 1: Right, if you look at the mythology of the devil, right,
he's thrown down into hades. And so it's really interesting
because you can apply that, of course again to any
form of authority. You know. That is that if you
are humble, and you you play your role in the
best way you can, and you you give up, you know,
the authority, to the to the reason why you're there
in the first place, then you will be raised up.
Speaker 2: But if you raise yourself up, then you'll be cast down.
Speaker 1: Christ says that all the time, right, he says, when
you go somewhere, sit in the back, you know, and
then if you're willing to sit in the back, then
you'll be recognized if you're if you're good, like, if
if you're someone who's actually shining, then you'll be recognized
by the people and you'll be asked to come to
the front. But if you come and you boast, and
you and you, you try to take it all on yourself,
then you are in constant danger of falling and of
being thrown back to the back. And so that's another
example of how the symbolism of the morning Star and
the symbolism of Venus is very complex and subtle. So
thank you everybody for your time, thank you for your support,
and talk to you very soon.