The American National Bureau of Standards was looking for a standard encryption system in the mid 70s. Lucifer, was an encryption system released by IBM developed by: On a side note: Horst Feistel frequently found himself in trouble with the NSA as he tried to perform research and development in Cryptography largely because he was a German immigrant, but also because the NSA didn't like other people working on cryptology period. At IBM's Thomas J. Watson Laboratory he was able to conduct his research for several years without problem.

Lucifer works on binary information, encrypting blocks of 64 bits at a time. Each block is encrypted seperately, being split in two, and then fed through through 16 'rounds'. A 'round' is described as:

    L0 (the first half block) and R0 (the second half block). R0 is mangled. The mangled 32-bit block is added to L0 creating R1. The original R0 becomes L1.
L1 and R1 are the inputs to the second round creating L2 and R2 and so on until 16 rounds have been completed. The result of the 16 the round is the encrypted Lucifer block.

Source The Code Book and delta's writeup on DES. Check delta's writeup to see what happened to Lucifer once the NSA got ahold of it.

Demonology name. Great Dispencer of Justice in Hell, Lucifer is a demon which was often pictured as a beautiful child with a face full of anger.

Source : Histoire de la Magie et de l'Occultisme - Volume III by Danielle Hemmert and Alex Roudene.
From Arthur C. Clarke's books 2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey. Near the end of 2010, when Discovery is still in orbit around Jupiter, Heywood Floyd is warned by the "ghost" of Dave Bowman to move a way from Jupiter. This they duly do. As they do, the monolith - TMA-2, aka Big Brother - starts duplicating itself, using the raw materials of Jupiter as construction material. Each duplicate duplicates itself until millions, if not billions, of monoliths are created. This has the effect of compressing the matter of Jupiter into a much smaller space. This implosion turns the gas giant into a mini-sun - Lucifer.

A note: The mini-sun is named Lucifer because Lucifer means "bringer of light". However true this may be, what are the chances that the demonic connotations of the name would be dispersed enough to make it a suitable name in only 60 years ?

Before HAL 9000 was destroyed, he sent out one last message: "All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there." The logic behind this soon becomes clear: Lucifer changes the Jovian system (Luciferian system?) of moons into a mini-solar system. The warming effect of Lucifer melts the ice on Ganymede and, more importantly, Europa. When the ice melts, the creatures who previously lived in the sub-ice ocean begin to evolve for surface life. Obviously this is another monolith project that wants no human interruptions.

The Lucifer/Jupiter implosion also hurled out the diamond core of Jupiter, about the size of Earth, in pieces. Some of this landed on Europa, with the rest in orbit around Lucifer. At the end of 2061, a vision of the future where the vast quantities of diamond had been recovered and used to build a space elevator for Earth was shown. However, 3001 branches away from that idea (Earth in 3001 does have a number of space elevators, but no reference to Jovian diamond construction is made).

Being a True History of the Light-Bringer and the Name of the Adversary

I've been prompted to explain how the title 'Lucifer', meaning 'light-bearer' in Latin, came to refer to the Tempter/Enemy form of Satan. I shall attempt to do so, setting out my sources as I go.

According to a fascinating article rebutting accusations of Satanism levelled at Freemasons, found at, the name Lucifer was used by the Romans as an epithet for the morning star - specifically, what we now know as the planet Venus. The name was associated with a personification of the planet, not as a goddess, but as a demi-god or titan, 'a son of Astraeus and Aurora or Eos, of Cephalus and Aurora, or of Atlas'. This Lucifer is also 'called the father of Ceyx, Daedalion, and of the Hesperides'. The name Lucifer is also applied as a surname to the goddesses Artemis and Aurora, who are beneficial in aspect, and Hecate, who is considered somewhat sinister, though not the Queen of Witches portrayed by an unknown editor of Macbeth. The Masonic page cites Sir William Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary as its source for this information.

So what do these Roman figures have to do with the Jewish and Christian idea of Satan? Is this another insidious attempt - as with the timing of Christmas and Saturnalia - to subvert inoffensive pagan practice to the service of the church machine? Not exactly. It may have been portrayed this way with hindsight by writers like John Milton, who inconsistently uses 'Jove' as an epithet of his own God in some poems, while depicting pagan idols tumbling down 'On the Morning of Christ's Nativity'. In fact, no such subversion took place, although the name Lucifer certainly was mis-applied in a fascinating variety of contexts.

The connexion of a 'light bringer' or 'morning star' with Satan derives from Isaiah 14:12, which (in the Authorized Version reads 'How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!' This is generally taken to be an allegorical reference to the arrogance of King Tiglath-Pileser III of Babylon. (Verse 4 of the same chapter prefaces the denunciation with 'thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon...') This image is the opposite of that of a 'meteoric rise' - Tiglath-Pileser is seen as plunging to earth like a shooting star. The original Hebrew (according to the Masonic site, quoting E. Theodore Mullen, Jr., The Assembly of the Gods: The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature) is (in modern characters) 'HeYLeL BeN-ShaCHaR'. Note the 'ben-' in there, typically indicating 'son of'. In the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, this is rendered as 'Phosphoros' - 'light-bearer' again - and thus into the Latin of the Vulgate as 'Lucifer'. No deliberate allusion is being made here either to Satan or to the Roman Lucifers.

As a falling star was used as the image of the evil spirit known as Wormwood in Revelation, later scholars such as Origen and St Augustine of Canterbury conflated the two allusions and took Lucifer to mean Satan - Satan in the sense of the Devil, the enemy of God and Man, rather than the angel depicted in Job. This image itself is from the second temple period, rather than earlier Jewish thought. Further confusion dervies from the name of Lucifer Calaritanus (d. c.370), bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia, who was an opponent of Arius, and founded the ultra-orthodox Luciferian sect, which was condemned by St Jerome for various technical reasons. References to this Lucifer and these Luciferians without context served further to complicate the issue of the use of this name.

It was with poets such as Milton that the synthesis was complete, and the name of the light-bringer came to be associated fairly indelibly with the idea of a personal devil, the 'first born angel' who opposed God.

Although I've used the aforementioned Masonic site as my principal reference, I feel I should back that up by saying that Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and my own (brief) theological training back up what is asserted here.

Lucifer was a monthly comic book, published by Vertigo, and written by Mike Carey. Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly have been the artists for the majority of the title's run. Lucifer is a spin-off from Neil Gaiman's Sandman - Gaiman himself, in the introduction to the first trade paperback collection of Lucifer, claims to have recommended Lucifer as a potential spin-off character to any writer who asked.

Note - the rest of this writeup contains spoilers, if you haven't read Sandman before...

Gaiman laid the foundations for Lucifer in several storylines of his Sandman series. Lucifer first appeared in Sandman #4, when Dream travels to hell to retrieve his helmet. He is successful, and leaves hell unharmed; but he causes Lucifer to lose face on the plains of hell. Lucifer swears that one day he will have his revenge.

Lucifer's next appearance is in the Season Of Mists story arc, when Dream returns to hell in order to free a soul he had condemned to hell many millenia ago. Being a monarch in his own right, Dream sends an envoy to hell to announce his visit; on hearing the news, Lucifer is stung into action. Dream arrives at the gates of hell only to find the place quiet. Eventually, he meets Lucifer, and joins him as he clears the last few tormented souls and demons out - hell is being closed down, and Lucifer is resigning from his position as king of hell. Once hell is empty, he asks Dream to cut off his wings - which Dream does - and then presents him with the key to hell. Lucifer then goes to Earth, where he is next seen living as a beach bum in Australia.

Lucifer appears again in The Kindly Ones; now, he has opened a piano bar in Los Angeles called Lux, which he runs with the assistance of Mazikeen of the Lillim - who is Lucifer's consort. This is Lucifer's situation where Gaiman leaves off and Mike Carey picks up the story.

Carey's first storyline came as a three-issue title - The Sandman Presents: Lucifer. The "Sandman Presents" title has been used for several other brief Sandman spin-offs, using characters such as Lucien and Merv Pumpkinhead from the Dreaming, and Thessaly, the witch from A Game Of You. Lucifer the comic book started during 2000, and finished with issue 75 in July 2006; and to date has been collected in ten trade paperback (with an eleventh, and final, collection probably available before the end of 2006):

Major characters to have featured in the series include:

  • Lucifer Morningstar - Originally known as Samael. The Fallen One.
  • Michael Demiurgos - The Archangel Michael, Lucifer's brother.
  • Lillith - first wife of Adam, who was banished from Eden for refusing to submit to her husband. Spawned the Lillim - all her children, fathered by various demons (and an angel) that took Lillith's fancy after her expulsion from Eden.
  • Mazikeen - Made her first appearance in Season Of Mists - a female demon (although she's actually of the Lillim), half of whose face is missing. She is one of Lucifer's lieutenants, and later becomes his lover, and manager of Lux. When Lux is destroyed by fire, Mazikeen's body is also destroyed, but is restored afterwards by Jill Presto, who also restores Mazikeen's face - for which Mazikeen harbours a serious grudge.
  • Elaine Belloc - Daughter of Michael, half-human, half angel.
  • Mona Doyle - Elaine's best friend, who likes hedgehogs.
  • Gaudium - A fallen cherub.
  • The Basanos - A living deck of Tarot cards, created by the angel Meleos.
  • Jill Presto - a lounge singer, whose success came thanks to the Basanos.
  • Susano-O-No-Mikoto - A Japanese god of thunder, who made his first appearance in Season Of Mists, as a representative of the Japanese pantheon, to persuade Morpheus to grant them the right's to Hell.

Lucifer is a pretty epic comic book, on a similar scale to Sandman. It's not as groundbreaking as Gaiman's series, but it is still a very good read. Carey's style isn't as literary as Gaiman's, nor does it try to be. Lucifer does contain similar elements - the use of deities from different mythological pantheons, as well as members of the Endless - to Sandman, and Carey has estimated that the entire run of Lucifer will be of similar length - around 75 issues. The artwork on Lucifer is of high quality, and remarkably consistent - despite the many guest artists who appear from time to time.


    A companion site to Matt Peckham's not-yet-published unofficial companion to the Lucifer series.
    The Vertigo website

Please feel free to /msg me with any comments, additions, or complaints. Thanks for reading!

Lu"ci*fer (?), n. [L., bringing light, n., the morning star, fr. lux, lucis, light + ferre to bring.]



How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations ! Is. xiv. 12.

Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan; in consequence of which the name Lucifer has since been applied to, Satan. Kitto.


Hence, Satan.

How wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors! . . . When he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again. Shak.


A match made of a sliver of wood tipped with a combustible substance, and ignited by friction; -- called also lucifer match, and locofoco. See Locofoco.

4. Zool.

A genus of free-swimming macruran Crustacea, having a slender body and long appendages.


© Webster 1913.

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