Sep 10, Feast day of Asclepigenia

Feast day of Asclepigenia

Asclepigenia (flourished 430 - 485 CE), a priestess of the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries and philosopher of the Neo-Platonist school, is commemorated today.

Asclepigenia lived in 5^th-Century Athens, daughter of Plutarch the Younger who ran the neo-platonic school there till he died in 430, when she, her brother Hiero and a colleague inherited its management. The school's philosophy was Syncretic, merging Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies.

Asclepigenia's interests were in the esoteric principles of metaphysics that control the universe. She applied magic and theurgic principles to affect fate, applying her knowledge of Plato and Aristotle to the great religious and metaphysical questions raised by Christian ethical theory. She believed that there were five realms of reality, namely: the One, Intelligence, Matter, Soul, and Nature. We do not know her work from original sources but from references and influences in those of her pupils.

Believing that fates might be affected by the means of metaphysics, cosmology, magic, and theurgy, Asclepigenia tended more toward mysticism, magic, and contemplation of the mysteries of Platonic and Aristotelian metaphysics. Her most famous student was the philosopher, Proclus (February 8, 412 - April 17, 487).

According to Nigel Pennick (The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992), if the weather is good today it will continue for another 40 days.

Asclepius                                                          

Asclepigenia was named for Asclepius (Aesculapius; Asklepios; Asklepius), the son of Apollo by Coronis (or Arsinoe), the celebrated physician/deity who had been so successful at preventing mortal death that he was accused of encroaching on the preserve of Hades. As a consequence of his bad behaviour, Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt, and in revenge, Apollo killed the first generation of Cyclopes (the children of Uranus and Gaia) who had forged the thunderbolt. Zeus placed Asclepius in the sky as the constellation Ophiuchus ('serpent-bearer').(More on Asclepius.)