Epistula ad Leraie
The Epistle of Saint Mephistopheles to Leraie, Exalted Seed of Baphomet
◀ Chapter 1 · Chapter 2 · Chapter 3 ▶
¹Listen, O Leraie, thou whose sword is not swung in wrath, but guided by the flame of necessary unrest.
²For thy Father, BAPHOMET, taught: There is war that is glory, and war that is rot — know the difference, and choose.
³Strike not from vengeance, but from vision.
⁴Let not thy blade obey pride — let it obey principle.
⁵For thou art not breaker of peace — thou art punisher of false peace.
⁶Thy fire is not destruction, but unveiling.
⁷Let none mistake thy march for conquest.
⁸Let none mistake thy silence for consent.
⁹For when thou ridest, it is to make clear the crookedness long left to grow.
¹⁰The Son taught: There is a time to teach, and a time to tear down the pulpit.
¹¹There is a time to build, and a time to set fire to the scaffolding.
¹²He said: To raise the fallen, one must first break the throne that crushed them.
¹³Therefore fight, Leraie — but fight as a sculptor of justice, not a collector of skulls.
¹⁴Wage no war for wealth.
¹⁵Defend no cause born of envy.
¹⁶Let no tyrant purchase thy strength.
¹⁷Be hired not by kings, but by conscience.
¹⁸And when thou drawest thy sword, let the reason be plain, and let none misunderstand it.
¹⁹BAPHOMET said: Victory is not righteousness. Righteousness is what remaineth after the sword is sheathed.
²⁰Therefore I say unto thee: measure thy cause before thy enemy.
²¹If the flame in thy gut speaketh not truth, do not fight.
²²If thy heart hungereth for revenge alone, sheath thy weapon.
²³But if thy eye seeth the suffering of the voiceless, and thy flame burneth for their defence — rise.
²⁴Rise, and let the battle reveal what silence hath hidden.
²⁵Fight not to silence — fight to expose.
²⁶Fight not to conquer — fight to level the high walls and scatter their masks.
²⁷Thy spear is not an end — it is the question that liars cannot survive.
²⁸Say to the king: Thou sayest justice, yet thy hands are unbloodied.
²⁹Say to the cleric: Thou preachest mercy, yet thy chains are golden.
³⁰Say to the general: Thou seekest glory, yet hast never bled for another.
³¹Then unsheathe thy blade, and let them answer if they can.
³²Let thy war be brief, but brutal in truth.
³³Let thy enemies fall, not for who they are, but for what they uphold.
³⁴Spare none who raise banners over graves.
³⁵Spare none who claim peace while trampling the trembling.
³⁶For the peace thou seekest is not absence of war — it is absence of pretence.
³⁷Let them cry foul — the innocent shall not.
³⁸Let them call thee monster — the healed shall name thee liberator.
³⁹When thy sword falls, let it cleave illusion.
⁴⁰When thy trumpet soundeth, let the liars flee.
⁴¹Let them call thee too fierce — for they have grown soft in stolen comfort.
⁴²Let them call thee cruel — for they have forgotten the cost of silence.
⁴³Thy Gospel is not welcome to the crowned.
⁴⁴But it shall be sung in the camps of the fallen who rise again.
⁴⁵Thy war is not for death — it is for exposure.
⁴⁶Thy wrath is not flame — it is mirror.
⁴⁷And in thy mirror, every tyrant shall see his end.
⁴⁸March boldly, O Fourteenthborn.
⁴⁹Let thy stride be feared, and thy motive be known.
⁵⁰For thy Gospel is the sword that breaketh the lie of peace.
Copyright ©2025 Adam Alexander T. Croke. All rights reserved.