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

¹Hear me, O Marax, thou whose hands lift not scrolls for display, but for sowing wisdom like seed into furrowed minds.
²For thy Father, BAPHOMET, taught: Let not knowledge become a crown, lest it weigh so heavy that thou forget thy head.
³He who learneth for power shall never teach — only hoard.
⁴But he who learneth to uplift shall walk with truth as friend, not master.
⁵Therefore I commend thee not for what thou knowest, but for how thou wieldest knowing.
⁶Thou art not thunder, but steady rain — and even dry roots shall swell with thy presence.
⁷The Son said: Make no temple of thy intellect unless its doors be ever open.
⁸Let no lesson be chained to pride, nor wisdom dressed in robes to frighten the simple.
⁹For the true test of knowledge is its usefulness to one who hath never heard it before.
¹⁰Speak not to sound clever, but to cause something new to grow.
¹¹Teach not for obedience, but for understanding that leadeth to freedom.
¹²For thou art a mirror in which truth showeth not thyself, but the one who looketh.
¹³Let thy words descend, not like lightning, but like dew at dawn.
¹⁴Let thy teaching be hard, but not cold; challenging, but never cruel.
¹⁵Say: What I know I offer — what thou doest with it is thy labour and thy becoming.
¹⁶Say: Wisdom is no commandment — it is the path opened by many footsteps before thee.
¹⁷The arrogant shall mock thee, for thou dost not perform knowledge like a sword-dancer.
¹⁸The humble shall cling to thee, for thou breakest no reed in thy correction.
¹⁹Teach them not to memorise, but to wonder again.
²⁰Teach them to question, and to love the question that hath no end.
²¹For knowledge hath no final page — only deeper chambers not yet lit.
²²Let the child hear thee and think: I can ask that?
²³Let the elder hear thee and think: I had not considered it so.
²⁴And let thy heart rejoice when they walk away thinking more than they say.
²⁵BAPHOMET said: The one who believeth he understandeth all hath yet to understand himself.
²⁶And the one who believeth he must teach without first listening shall teach only noise.
²⁷So begin with silence, Marax.
²⁸And let thy first wisdom be stillness.
²⁹Let thy first word be not an answer, but an invitation.
³⁰For thou art not answerer, but doorkeeper to the inner chambers.
³¹Keep thy lamp lit not for pride, but for the wanderers whose path hath grown dim.
³²Let the desperate come and find direction.
³³Let the restless come and find meaning.
³⁴Let the defiant come and find structure without cage.
³⁵Teach with ink, yes — but also with gesture, gaze, breath, presence.
³⁶For the body learneth, and the soul learneth — not only the tongue.
³⁷Say to the arrogant: Be still, and be made new.
³⁸Say to the quiet: Speak, and know thy voice hath worth.
³⁹Say to thyself: What I have learned, I may yet forget — and begin again wiser.
⁴⁰And never believe thy labour is complete — the field of minds shall always need tending.
⁴¹Let thy joy be not in applause, but in the eyes that burn with new light.
⁴²Let thy legacy be not fame, but thinkers who remember not thy name, yet speak from thy flame.
⁴³And let none fear thee, save the ones who use knowledge to bind rather than to liberate.
⁴⁴For thou art Marax — and thy Gospel is wisdom drawn with humility, and teaching done with grace.
⁴⁵And thy charge is holy — to stir minds from slumber, not with noise, but with patience.
⁴⁶Go to the lecture hall and the hearth, the study and the field, and teach wherever there is breath.
⁴⁷Go into the places where books are chained — and loose them.
⁴⁸Go into the rooms where questions are punished — and ask more.
⁴⁹For the knowledge thou bringest is not a fortress, but a door.
⁵⁰And behind that door, may the world be born anew.


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