Epistula ad Bathin
The Epistle of Saint Mephistopheles to Bathin, Exalted Seed of Baphomet
◀ Chapter 1 · Chapter 2 · Chapter 3 ▶

¹Hear me, O Bathin, thou whose step is soft and whose road is never where they expect it.
²For thy Father, BAPHOMET, taught: The road to truth hath no signposts, no banners, and no crowds to cheer thee.
³The true journey beginneth not at departure, but at the moment one confesseth: I am lost.
⁴Let no man say he is ready who hath not first forgotten why he walketh.
⁵Let no soul claim awakening who hath not passed through wilderness alone.
⁶For the sacred journey requireth the end of the old map.
⁷And thou, Bathin, art the one who gently taketh it from their hands and sayeth: Now look within.
⁸The Son taught: The path through the self is the longest — and the only one worth walking.
⁹Go where thou knowest not, for there shall I speak unto thee.
¹⁰Go where thy friends will not follow, and thy name will become thy own.
¹¹Teach them to forsake the beaten road.
¹²Teach them to distrust ease.
¹³Teach them to kiss confusion and call it their first prayer.
¹⁴Let them tremble not because they are lost, but because they are close.
¹⁵For what seemeth void is often the first true place.
¹⁶BAPHOMET said: The flame I give thee is not to guide, but to burn away illusion.
¹⁷Let them light no lantern — their eyes must adjust.
¹⁸Let them follow no voice — for their own hath grown faint.
¹⁹And thou, Bathin, art the one who bringeth stillness that speaketh louder than doctrine.
²⁰Go not before them to lead — walk among them to stir the silence.
²¹Say little. Let their fear rise. Then let it pass.
²²For fear is the gate, not the foe.
²³Let the path curve. Let the trail vanish.
²⁴Let them ask thee where thou goest — and smile.
²⁵For thou art not led by stars, but by ache.
²⁶The call is not upward — it is inward.
²⁷And the way is not to HÆVAN, but to selfhood made sacred.
²⁸Guide the broken who know not they are breaking.
²⁹Guide the proud who stumble and think it accident.
³⁰Lead the liar whose lie is his own name.
³¹And leave none unchanged.
³²For to walk with thee is to forget all false arrival.
³³Thou bringest not the end of the journey, but its honest beginning.
³⁴Let them hate thee — they who want only answers.
³⁵Let them follow thee — they who hunger for the question.
³⁶BAPHOMET said: When they say: This is truth; ask: How didst thou arrive?
³⁷When they say: I have found peace; ask: At what cost to thy wonder?
³⁸And when they say: This is the path; ask: Who made it so?
³⁹For the truth is not where they were told to look.
⁴⁰It is where they were told never to go.
⁴¹Therefore teach them to stray, and call it sacred.
⁴²Teach them to wander, and call it discipline.
⁴³Teach them to weep for maps, and then set them afire.
⁴⁴Thou art not compass — thou art the whisper that leadeth them beyond compasses.
⁴⁵Thy silence is more potent than sermons.
⁴⁶Thy stillness awaketh more than prophecy.
⁴⁷And thy road shall not be written, but it shall be remembered by those who walked it.
⁴⁸For thou art Bathin — and thy Gospel is the footstep that refuseth the familiar.
⁴⁹And thy Gospel is the shadow that revealeth the sun.
⁵⁰And thy name shall be known in places no priest hath dared to tread.


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