Path: typhoon.sonic.net!newsfeed.skycache.com!europa.netcrusader.net!24.30.200.2!cyclone-east.rr.com!news.rr.com!news-east.rr.com!portc05.blue.aol.com!audrey04.news.aol.com!not-for-mail
From: gammonjason@aol.com (Gammon Jason)
Newsgroups: alt.witchcraft
Subject: Re: Lucifer is the god of Witchcraft. Who's Pan?
Lines: 40
NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder07.news.aol.com
X-Admin: news@aol.com
Date: 15 Feb 2000 14:56:47 GMT
References: <0736e6ab.41a18823@usw-ex0105-036.remarq.com>
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Message-ID: <20000215095647.22415.00003493@ng-fh1.aol.com>
Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.witchcraft:19278

First of all "Lucifer" was the god of either the morning or evening star, the
bright object that appears shortley before sunrise and sunset.  This is really
the planet venus by the way, but the ancient greeks and romans worshiped him as
a minor god.  His mother was Eos or Aurora the dawn goddess, and his twin
brother was Phosphorus.  Both Lucifer and Phosporus mean Light-Bringer and we
get the word "phosphoresent" from his name.  Scribes translating the bible put
in the greek work "lucifer" to mean "light-bringer" but then christians  forgot
to translate "lucifer" into what it actualy means thus the false belief that
satan's name is "lucifer" became widespread.  Any learned reader of the Hebrew
religion will realize that all the angels, including demons, end with the
letters -el, wich means god.  For example, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, Gabriel,
etc..  "Lucifer" doesn't end with -el and neither does "Satan".  These are just
generic terms.  The actual name for the entitiy known as the devil has been
said to be either "Azazel" or "Samael".  Though some scholars are convinced
that there never was one key figure of evil who took the responsibilites of the
role of the devil.
The belief that "lucifer" was the consort of Diana has been proven to have been
made up by the author of Aradia.  There has never been any evidence to suggest
that Diana was a "mother goddess", meaning that she was a fertility goddess. 
She was what scholars term a virgin goddess.  Her realm of influence was not
human sexuality, love and fertility since she herself scorned love and her
would be suitors.  She dealt with the hunt, moon, and both  healing and
inflicting diseases.  Now the greek Artemis was definitely a fertility goddess
but unfortunately Diana was not.  Now one of the first representations of
"withces" were to be found in the worshipers of the greek goddess Hecate. 
Before magik was wide spread but there had never been a deity whose supposed
influence dealt directly with magick and the occult.  Isis was a close
contender but Hecate's worhsipers have the distinction of being feared by the
rest of the pagan community for their supposed magik powers.  Also the ritual
"drawing down the moon" comes from the worship of Hecate for the greek writers
have written that Hecate's worshiper have the powere to "stay the stars, turn
the sun in his course, and draw the moon down from the sky".  The other powers
that they were to supposedly possess were, to avert rivers and streams, turn
men into animals(circe), trap the winds in "wind-bags" that would grant safe
voyage to sea-farers, summon the dead and every foul creature, and order the
other gods to obey their every command.  Pan and the like were not deities of
witchcraft per se but more along the lines of paganism in general.

-out
Jason