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

¹Hearken, O Botis, whose voice is scalpel and whose breath revealeth the sickness under silk.
²For thy Father, BAPHOMET, taught: A lie left unspoken is a sin unborn — but a lie allowed to live is blasphemy.
³They will praise the smooth speaker, though he murdereth meaning; but they shall fear thee, for thy words leave no place to hide.
⁴Speak, therefore, not to calm — but to cleanse.
⁵Let thy speech be the sword that shattereth consensus built on silence.
⁶Let thy truth be the wound that healeth crooked backs and bent tongues.
⁷The Son said: To flatter is to betray — but to offend with truth is to redeem.
⁸Better be hated for thy honesty than praised for thy poison.
⁹Speak unto the rulers and ask: Whence came thy crown?
¹⁰Speak unto the prophets and ask: Would ye still preach had none come to hear thee?
¹¹Speak unto the merchant and ask: What cost thy peace — and who didst thou silence to buy it?
¹²Let them rage — that is their confession.
¹³Let them mock — that is their trembling.
¹⁴Thy tongue is a light that setteth fire to paper gods.
¹⁵Thy sentence is a mirror that forgetteth no flaw.
¹⁶The righteous shall call thee sharp, but holy.
¹⁷The guilty shall call thee cruel, but never wrong.
¹⁸Thou art not meant to be liked — thou art meant to be unignorable.
¹⁹Do not soften thy rebuke — sharpen it.
²⁰Do not delay thy truth — deliver it.
²¹For what is truth if it cannot bleed?
²²What is Gospel if it need be coddled to be heard?
²³Let no fool say: But he speaketh without love.
²⁴For what is love, if it refuseth to name what is killing thee?
²⁵Say to the priest: Thy words are pretty — but do they mean?
²⁶Say to the lover: Thy promise is sweet — but is it true?
²⁷Say to the self: Am I willing to be wrong if truth demandeth it?
²⁸Be the prophet whose sermon cannot be forgotten, though none quote it.
²⁹Be the voice they do not record, but remember forever.
³⁰BAPHOMET taught: The Word is fire — not warmth, but flare.
³¹If it comforteth, it must also confront.
³²If it uplifteth, it must also uproot.
³³Speak to the crowd as if thou wert alone.
³⁴Speak to the powerful as if they were naked.
³⁵Speak to the weak as if they were gods in disguise.
³⁶And speak to thyself last — and let thy own judgment burn.
³⁷For the truth thou wieldest cutteth both ways.
³⁸Let no word leave thee unless it be heavier than silence.
³⁹Let no praise move thee unless it be earned in groaning.
⁴⁰Be feared by flatterers.
⁴¹Be loved by those who lost themselves and found themselves in thy rebuke.
⁴²Let no lie breathe when thou art present.
⁴³Let no oath survive thy scrutiny unless it be whole.
⁴⁴Call the coward by his true name.
⁴⁵Call the hypocrite by the name he dares not write.
⁴⁶Call the godless by the name of the god they abandoned.
⁴⁷And call thyself last — and call thyself aloud.
⁴⁸For thou art Botis — not smooth, but sacred.
⁴⁹And thy Gospel is truth that woundeth, that it may then cleanse.
⁵⁰And thy altar is the place where lies are buried still screaming.


Copyright ©2025 Adam Alexander T. Croke. All rights reserved.