I'm a Satanist, looking to dive deeper into the origins of Lucifer (as in "the fallen angel", not Satan Himself), Ishtar/Astaroth and every other "instance" of what I believe could be one entity described in many ways. All of it came from the cult of Venus, across different religions we see the same Goddess of love, war and fertility, called a light-bringer and saviour of humans. Examples are Innana, Ishtar, Freya, Isis, even Aphrodite. Then, christians (possibly in the Roman Empire) transformed the story into the story of Lucifer - a fallen angel. In an attempt to destroy the cult of Venus and it's non-christian practices, they called the light-bringer a liar, bringer of false light, a serpent. Either way, all of these names originate from the the cult of Venus and all share the same characteristics, the light-bringer, the morning star, etc. That's just scratching the surface to set the topic. Now, I'm curious to see what opinion or research you might have on this. No matter what belief you have. It all also sparked a dillema about the very nature of Satan. In Satanism, Satan is vastly different from Lucifer the light-bringer and it could be that Lucifer is actually nothing more than another instance of the cult of Venus, while Satan in truth would remain the ultimate essence of Evil, as in genuine Satanic texts, but not Lucifer the light-bringer, as Ishtar in that case would be closest to His original image. Or perhaps there's something I'm missing?