Product Description

Who is Lucifer? The orthodox Christian view tells us that he challenged God, fell from Heaven, tempted Eve and created death and suffering. Then he became Satan, horned king of Hell. Yet as Lynn Picknett explains, Devil was only a new incarnation of the old woodland deity Pan, while Lucifer was 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' - an honour extended to Mary Magdalene in her true role as goddess-worshipping priestess and Christ's successor. While thousands follow Lucifer in order to achieve earthly wealth and power, Picknett explains that such misguided behaviour is far from true Luciferan principles - the audacious pushing ever outwards of the limits of human knowledge, startlingly exemplified by the little-known heresies of Leonardo da Vinci. Ironically, controversial modern scientists, who see no proof of a God, much less of a Devil, may possess the key to the existence of the old archetypal adversaries. Urging a radical shift in both religious and scientific paradigms, Picknett draws together ancient heretical Christian and Egyptological texts, and the implications of abnormal psychology and the 'extreme possibilities' of certain barely-understood human attributes, to pose the extraordinary question: 'Have we humans actually created God and Lucifer, not merely as icons or metaphors, but in a terrifying way, literally?'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38404 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'A thought-provoking book that considers many issues, not least the role and image of women in Christianity.' --Good Book Guide

'Lynn Picknett... presents the Magdalene in a fresh and disconcerting way.' --Washington Post Book World

'Picknett's book... puts Mary Magdalene back on top of her pedestal.' --Nexus

About the Author
Lynn Picknett is a writer and speaker on Christian heresies, the occult and historical conspiracies.

Customer Reviews

On the Band Wagon
I have a few issues with this book, one being the disjointed and rambling nature of its discourse. The other is with the childlike and obvious bias related to the reader by the author. An example of this is the appearance and frequency of the word 'Unfortunately' in regard to anything to do with the Christian Church. (Used twice on the 4th page) poorly masking the anti Christian bias of the author.

I take the point that the author knows her market and writes in a style that would appeal. The problem for me is that her market is at the lowest common denominator.

Some areas are interesting and valid, but the style used by the author serves to undermine many of the assertions she makes. The writer appears as an excitable school child in a hurry to write down as many things as possible, repeatedly, resulting in a random 'hairball' of facts, fictions, opinions etc. The editor needs to re-assess.

Also, the title relating to clues within the 'real Da Vinci Code' is an obvious and needless marketing trick to plunder the rich pickings of the Dan Brown Zeitgeist.

The point of the title made early, that the author asserts that Lucifer is not Satan is fair enough. The rest is just churned out, regurgitated stuff we've seen before in a hundred other books, better written. The introduction makes the point; the rest of the book is fairly unrelated meanderings, some interesting, and some just dull or poorly explosive.

The book goes on to tempt (sic), the reader into believing that Jesus Christ was a murderer, a bisexual, never died on the cross and was a black magician. This may all be true, or not, however, the style and zeal the author employs in using every possible slander of Christ only served to turn me off. Was Christ really Satan? I dunno, and neither (despite herself) does the author.

Obvious, this book is a subjective rant. The author is seemingly incapable of drawing a reasoned and unbiased argument to woo the readers mind and believes that the blunt and subjective style is a better way to get her message across. There is a great sense of irony in that those she rails against the most; the Catholic Church and The Inquisition, used the same stylistic approach as the author of this book.

Summary:

The subjective and random style undermines the book and whilst there are some valid points made, the impact is lessened because the passionate/ teenager style of the author made me question whether any of the 'facts' are valid. This is another author on the Dan Brown bandwagon, just poorly written. Better reading is The Serpent Grail by Philip Gardiner.

Very interesting.
This book is a bit of an eye opener, don't even bother if you're a devout Christian or Jew as you won't like what you see, but it is very interesting. Only real detriment is how much the author self-references previous work.

Oh Mrs Lucifer!
Absolutely rivetting and brilliantly incitefull; this one really needs to be read; this had the same effect on me as the Lucifer wars by Stuart vowell; compelling stuff! Lets have some more!