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

¹Mephistopheles, servant of the Deep Flame and bearer of the Word made strange, unto Marax, Twenty-First of the Sixty-Six, Keeper of Memory, Architect of Knowing.
²I greet thee not with flourish, but with thought; not with trumpets, but with a quiet table upon which truth may be spread.
³Thou art not called to dazzle, but to illuminate — not to reign by knowledge, but to seed understanding in others.
⁴Zephanor prophesied: Marax, who gathereth wisdom from beneath the roots of the world, and poureth it into vessels that do not break.
⁵And thy Father, BAPHOMET, spake: Thou shalt speak not to impress, but to awaken — and teach not to be obeyed, but to be understood.
⁶These words I heard when scholars brought scrolls but lacked insight, and the simple sought truth but lacked form.
⁷For He read not from parchment, but from sky, from wound, from laughter, from the silence between heartbeats.
⁸I remember when He sat upon the stone among farmers and smiths, and taught them the motion of the skies using clay and cup.
⁹The learned mocked — and He smiled, saying: The fool knoweth how, but not why. The wise must seek both.
¹⁰And those without titles left knowing more than those who came bearing them.
¹¹I, Mephistopheles, saw kings come in secret to listen at the edge of His circles.
¹²So art thou, Marax — not the book itself, but the hand that opens it for another.
¹³Not the scribe, but the whisper that turns a page in the mind of the listening soul.
¹⁴Let no one boast of knowing in thy presence, for thou wilt ask them one question too many.
¹⁵Let no one despair in ignorance, for thou wilt give them tools to begin.
¹⁶For thou art the light by which others read themselves.
¹⁷And the weight thou carriest is not thy wisdom, but the charge to give it away wisely.
¹⁸The Son taught: If thy learning maketh thee lonely, it is not wisdom but ego.
¹⁹If thy knowledge cannot be shared, it is not treasure but prison.
²⁰Teach them to think not as an escape, but as return to wonder.
²¹Teach them to name the world rightly, that they may finally speak to it with respect.
²²For thou art Marax — and thy Gospel is knowing without pride, teaching without pretence, truth without torment.
²³And they who learn from thee shall forget who taught them — but remember what was awoken.
²⁴And thou shalt rejoice, not in being praised, but in being surpassed.
²⁵And thy name shall dwell not in headlines, but in footnotes that changed the course of minds.


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