ASCLEPIUS: THE PERFECT DISCOURSE OF HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. Ed. Clement Salaman Duckworth, London, 2007. Paperback, 104 pages, £12.99. ISBN 0 7156 3564 3

That every Freemason believe in God, the Supreme Being, is no empty formality. Insight into why this is so is located in the ancient text, Asclepius.
     Attributed to the supposed antediluvian Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus, the ‘Thrice Greatest’, but most likely composed during the second or third centuries AD, the ‘perfect discourse’ has for at least 1600 years been regarded as the literary jewel in the Hermetic crown.
     Within its relatively few but nonetheless potent pages, we find profound insights into the dual nature of man, the centrality of God to the changing life of the cosmos, and the significance of the natural world. A little book, but most powerful.
     Such must it seem to Freemasons, who in the late middle ages were encouraged to see Hermes as their patron. Before the Italian Neoplatonists kick-started the second European Renaissance after 1460, Asclepius had already served as a luminous window into the Holy of Holies of pristine, divine philosophy.
     Concordance with Christian theology enabled the wisdom of Hermes to thoroughly embed itself in medieval philosophy.
     Thought to have been preserved on two pillars reverenced in Freemasons’ oral histories, Hermetic science, a synthesis of divine and natural knowledge, lent itself to Master Masons driven to extend their imaginations and technical expertise to the highest. Perhaps the Masters also saw the famous ‘idol-making’ passage in Asclepius as significant: the making of statues that could focus divine energies and cosmic rays.
     Clement Salaman’s elegant new translation of the Asclepius from the Latin comes in a handy pocket size and should fit comfortably into the thinking mason’s jacket. A clear and thoughtful introduction should encourage readers on to further Hermetic explorations, such as Brian Copenhaver’s translation of the bulk of the remaining Hermetic dialogues. As Salaman writes in his introduction: ‘There are passages in Hermes that may be read in a few seconds and yet contemplated for a lifetime. The best way to evaluate Hermes is to reflect upon what he says.’

Tobias Churton