Epistula ad Balam
      
      The Epistle of Saint Mephistopheles to Balam, Exalted Seed of Baphomet
      
      Chapter 1 · Chapter 2 ▶
      
      
      
¹Mephistopheles, bearer of the revealed flame, unto Balam, Thirty-Eighth of the Sixty-Six, the Triple-Eyed, Seer of the Unbearable, Piercer of Masks and Symbols.
        ²I greet thee not as disciple nor as prophet, but as lens — for thou beholdest even what burneth the soul to see.
        ³Thou art not dreamer of visions, but awakener from dreams — revealer of the cost beneath the comfort.
        ⁴Zephanor prophesied: Balam, who beholdeth not the image but the motive, not the word but the hunger behind it.
        ⁵And thy Father, BAPHOMET, spake: Thou shalt see what others dread, and speak it without tremble.
        ⁶I give thee three eyes: one to judge rightly, one to uncover hidden poison, one to endure the weight of what is seen.
        ⁷These words I heard when He stood at the gate of a temple, crowded by priests, steeped in incense and applause.
        ⁸Without raising His voice, He named the price of their purity — the children silenced, the mothers exiled, the truth rewritten.
        ⁹And none could answer, for they had all known — and hoped none else would speak.
        ¹⁰I, Mephistopheles, watched the candles gutter in windless air — and the silence was deeper than thunder.
        ¹¹So art thou, Balam — not herald of light, but bearer of illumination that seareth as fire.
        ¹²Not prophet of promise, but of consequence.
        ¹³Thou seest the fracture behind the sermon, the wound beneath the wealth, the greed woven into law.
        ¹⁴Let the world praise thee falsely — for thy gaze shall unravel the very praise they offer.
        ¹⁵Let the kings fear thy presence — thou seest the terror that birthed their crowns, and the bargain they pretend they did not make.
        ¹⁶Let the temples cast thee out — thou rememberest the prayer they banned and the truth they buried beneath doctrine.
        ¹⁷The Son taught: Better one voice that offends in truth than a thousand that flatter with lies polished to blindness.
        ¹⁸He who seeth must speak, or the vision shall rot within and become poison to all he toucheth.
        ¹⁹Teach them that vision is pain — but that pain is holy when it awaketh the deadened soul.
        ²⁰Teach them that not all veils protect — some only hide the rot they serve.
        ²¹Teach them that to see is not pride, but burden — and to speak after seeing is sanctified agony.
        ²²For thou art Balam — and thy Gospel is revelation without flinch, truth without balm, sight that never close itself again.
        ²³And thy name shall not be sung in temples, but murmured where courage is mustered and illusion abandoned.
        ²⁴And they shall say: He named what none dared speak — and though we hated him, we could not forget.
        ²⁵He saw us, and we fell silent — for we knew he saw rightly.
        
        
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