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 the 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 honoured 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 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 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 stones will tell of thy piety. And in that day 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 there been, nor shall there 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 he has made, ungrudgingly favouring
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 or
reverence or piety, no utterance worth 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 the good. He will
cleanse the world from evil, now washing it away with waterfloods, now
burning it out with 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 hole and awe-striking restoration of
all nature; and it is wrought in the process of time by the eternal will of
God.
Asclepius III 24-25
Hermetica
Tr.
Walter Scott