LUCIFER

This morning I watched Lucifer rise.

An hour before sunrise, she climbed majestically into the eastern sky,
harbinger of the morning.  Light bringer.

Lucifer is the name we give to Venus in her role as the morning star.
"Lucifer" means "bearer of light" and applies to her role as escort of the
morning sun.

In the last century "lucifer" was a name for matches, also because they
"brought the light"!

The Church gave the name of Lucifer to its mythological Prince of Darkness, the
Devil.

Does it not seem strange that the arch-fiend of Christianity should be called
the "bringer of light"?

Prometheus was also a "Lucifer" or light-bringer, for Greek stories told that
he gave the gift of fire to humanity -- along with literacy and learning.  His
punishment -- by the patriarchal Zeus -- was eternal torment.

Classic religions do not think highly of enlightenment.  The major villains to
these religions are those who bring knowledge.  Remember:  the serpent who
tempted Adam and Eve only brought to them the "knowledge of good and evil."

It's fitting, however, that the morning star, Venus, should be called Lucifer,
for she is also the Goddess of Love, and enlightenment without love is not
truth at all -- only a poor copy of truth.

In this "enlightened" age, we value knowledge without feeling. Unemotional
science is the prime deity of our time.

But truth without love is hardly enlightenment.

The Bill Buckleys and other conservative commentators love to dazzle their
readers with cold logic and hard facts.  But they so often miss the truth.

That without the human element, dollar signs are meaningless. And without human
emotions, cause-and-effect is unimportant.

Venus as the morning star, as "Lucifer" the bringer of light, is a constant
heavenly reminder to temper truth with love -- to reject all logic stripped of
beauty.

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