Lupelius - The School for Gods

Through the fragments I had been able to gather of the lost works of Lupelius, and backedup by the words of Father S., I recognised the Dreamer’s inspiration ever more clearly andcould hear His voice. It was louder and more ancient than that of Lupelius. I thought of himwith gratitude.Father S. was now reading some phrases to me from a little book which he handled withreverence and which he evidently always carried with him. His voice trembled with emotion.His impassioned tone gradually became more intense as some of the more scandalous ofLupelius’ beliefs came to light from this treatise, truths which were unacceptable to anyrational mind or canon law. As I listened and wrote these down in my notebook, I felt theimpact of their unsustainable difference and their striking contrast with the most deeplyrooted,universally accepted beliefs.“Old age, sickness and death are insults to human dignity, the pillars which for thousandsof years have supported an illusory description of the world”.Evil is at the service of good. Always!...Everything comes to heal us…even physical death isactually healing. The last chance!”This statement, Lupelius’ unbearable paradox, set off a secret mechanism. My mindreturned to the words pronounced by Socrates as the hemlock was about to reach his heartand stop it beating forever. Their meaning exploded within me with an intolerable brilliance.It lasted only the blink of an eye and then disappeared but it was enough for me to grasp. Forover two and a half thousand years the meaning of Socrates’ last wish had been anunfathomable mystery. Surrounded by his closest acolytes, Socrates swallowed the hemlockand the paralysing effect of the poison was proceeding from his legs rapidly towards hisheart. He had only a few seconds left to live. In that supreme moment he uttered thefollowing words: “We are debtors owing a cock to Asclepius: give one to him and don’tforget.”How could Socrates ask his friend Criton to offer a rooster to the god of healing when hislife was slipping through his fingers and death was by then inevitable?For twenty‐five centuries these words have represented a riddle for generations of sages,learned men and exegetes.Lupelius’ philosophical statements had ripped open an impenetrable curtain and now,from the depths of time, the meaning of that message and its enormity was finally emerging.Like a castaway putting his message in a bottle to save it and pass it on, Socrates hadentrusted his understanding to the ocean of time so that it would eventually reach us. Sealedin his last words is the fruit of his tireless search: even death is healing…it is the ultimatemedicine! It comes when all else fails.As a consequence of the extraordinary circumstances of his death, Socrates reaches a stateof inner unity never previously achieved, a height of integrity that allowed him access to thegreatest of all secrets: why mankind still has to die and how one day this would no longer benecessary. Behind Socrates’ last words towers the dream of a future mankind which would behealed and made whole and would never again need that extreme act of purification.16