Asclepius The Lament is a story about one man’s quest to save humanity from its own destruction. As the last descendant of the god Apollo, he has been charged with saving humankind from a deadly plague that ravages civilization. His journey begins in ancient Greece, but it will take him across time and space as he struggles against not just disease, but also his own demons–both real and imagined. Along the way, he will encounter both allies and enemies on all sides of this conflict: gods and mortals; friends and foes; lovers and rivals; aliens and humans. The only question that remains is: Will he be able to save humanity? And if so, at what cost?
The Lament of Hermes – Prophecy of Hermes
Trismegistus:
“Do you not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven, or, to speak more exactly,
in Egypt all the operations of the powers which rule and work in heaven have been
transferred to earth below?Nay, it should rather be said that the whole Kosmos dwells in this our land as in its
sanctuary. And yet, since it is fitting that wise men should have knowledge of all events
before they come to pass, you must not be left in ignorance of this: there will come a time
when it will be seen that in vain have the Egyptians honored the deity with heartfelt piety
and assiduous service; and all our holy worship will be found bootless and ineffectual. For
the gods will return from earth to heaven.Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left
desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities.This land and region will be filled with foreigners; not only will men neglect the service of
the gods, but …; and Egypt will be occupied by Scythians or Indians or by some such
race from the barbarian countries thereabout. In that day will our most holy land, this land
of shrines and temples, be filled with funerals and corpses. To thee, most holy Nile, I cry,
to thee I foretell that which shall be; swollen with torrents of blood, thou wilt rise to the
level of thy banks, and thy sacred waves will be not only stained but utterly fouled with
gore.Do you weep at this, Asclepius? There is worse to come; Egypt herself will have yet more
to suffer; she will fall into a far more piteous plight, and will be infected with yet more,
grievous plagues; and this land, which once was holy, a land which loved the gods, and
wherein alone, in reward for her devotion, the gods deigned to sojourn upon the earth, a land
which was the teacher of mankind in holiness and piety, this land will go beyond all in
cruel deeds. The dead will far outnumber the living, and the survivors will be known for
Egyptians by their tongue alone, but in their actions, they will seem to be men of another
race.O Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale, which thine own
children in time to come will not believe; nothing will be left but graven words, and only the
stones will tell of thy piety. And in that day men will be weary of life, and they will cease to
think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and of worship. And so religion, the greatest
of all blessings, for there is nothing, nor has been, nor ever shall be, that can be deemed a
greater boon will be threatened with destruction; men will think it a burden and will come
to scorn it. They will no longer love this world around us, this incomparable work of God,
this glorious structure which he has built, this sum of good made up of things of many
diverse forms, this instrument whereby the will of God operates in that which be has
made, ungrudgingly favoring man’s welfare, this combination and accumulation of all the
manifold things that can call forth the veneration, praise, and love of the beholder.Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no
one will raise his eyes to heaven; the pious will be deemed insane, and the impious wise;
the madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good. As to
the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to attain to immortality,
as I have taught you, all this they will mock at, and will even persuade themselves that it is
false. No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven and of the gods of
heaven, will be heard or believed.And so the gods will depart from mankind, a grievous thing!, and only evil angels will
remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor wretches by main force into all
manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies, and frauds, and all things hostile to
the nature of the soul. Then will the earth no longer stand unshaken, and the sea will bear
no ships; heaven will not support the stars in their orbits, nor will the stars pursue their
constant course in heaven; all voices of the gods will of necessity be silenced and dumb;
the fruits of the earth will rot; the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken in sullen
stagnation. After this manner will old age come upon the world. Religion will be no more;
all things will be disordered and awry; all good will disappear.But when all this has befallen, Asclepius, then the Master and Father, God, the first before
all, the maker of that god who first came into being, will look on that which has come to
pass, and will stay the disorder by the counterworking of his will, which is good. He will
call back to the right path those who have gone astray; he will cleanse the world from evil,
now washing it away with water-floods, now burning it out with the fiercest fire, or again
expelling it by war and pestilence. And thus he will bring back his world to its former
aspect, so that the Kosmos will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering
reverence, and God, the maker, and restorer of the mighty fabric, will be adored by the
men of that day with unceasing hymns of praise and blessing.Such is the new birth of the Kosmos; it is a making again of all things good, a holy and
Salaman, Clement, et al. Asclepius: The Perfect Discourse of Hermes Trismegistus. Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.
awe-striking restoration of all nature; and it is wrought in the process of time by the eternal
will of God. For God’s will has no beginning; it is ever the same, and as it now is, even so, it
has ever been, without beginning. For it is the very being of God to purpose good.”
Asclepius is one of the most important texts in Western esotericism and it’s a perfect discourse of Hermes Trismegistus. It was written by an unknown author, likely between the first and third centuries CE. The text contains a dialogue between Hermes Trismegistus and Asclepius on various topics including cosmology, theology, psychology, medicine, alchemy, and philosophy. This book is not only about spiritual healing but also about physical health which means it has been considered as one of the earliest books dealing with what we now refer to as holistic health care.