In this highly readable and well-researched account, Lynn Picknett explains that the horned Devil is merely a new incarnation of the old woodland deity Pan, while Lucifer was once 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." While thousands follow Lucifer in order to achieve earthly wealth and power, Picknett explains that such misguided behavior is far from true Luciferan principles. Picknett draws together ancient heretical Christian and Egyptological texts, the implications of abnormal psychology, and the "extreme possibilities" of certain barely understood human attributes to ask if humans actually created God and Lucifer, not merely as icons or metaphors but in a terrifying, literal way.