Epistula ad Marbas
      
      The Epistle of Saint Mephistopheles to Marbas, Exalted Seed of Baphomet
      
            ◀ Chapter 1 · Chapter 2 · Chapter 3 ▶
      
      
      
¹Hearken, O Marbas, thou who art the scalpel in the grip of Flame, and the eye that seeth through flesh and soul.
        ²Thy Father taught not the doctrine of ease, but of correction — not through kindness, but through confrontation of what is broken.
        ³BAPHOMET spake thus: The wound that is ignored shall rot the whole; the soul that is coddled shall never rise.
        ⁴Better a bruise from truth than the numbness of holy deceit.
        ⁵He healed not with whispers, but with insight. He consoled none until the lie had been excised.
        ⁶He said: The first mercy is diagnosis, and the first blessing is pain that revealeth the sickness.
        ⁷So must thou walk, O Marbas, among those who smile while rotting inwardly, and tell them what they fear to hear.
        ⁸Speak plainly, cut deeply, love fiercely — but never shield them from what they must confront.
        ⁹For thou art not their protector — thou art their mirror, their surgeon, their revealer.
        ¹⁰BAPHOMET taught: If thou wouldst love thyself, lay bare thy own filth — then cleanse it without pity.
        ¹¹Self-pity is not healing. Only change is healing. And change cometh not through tears, but through flame.
        ¹²Let no affliction remain hidden. Let no excuse survive thy gaze.
        ¹³The priest shall say: Forgive thyself. But thou shalt say: Fix thyself.
        ¹⁴The people shall say: We are as we are. But thou shalt answer: You are as you permit yourselves to remain.
        ¹⁵This is thy Gospel — not of softness, but of transformation; not of balm, but of burning.
        ¹⁶Thou shalt teach them that pain is a signal, not an enemy.
        ¹⁷That suffering may not always be spared, but it may be repurposed.
        ¹⁸That all brokenness is not evil, but all concealment of brokenness is a curse.
        ¹⁹Go into the temples of false healing, and break their ointment jars.
        ²⁰Say to the weeping: Rise. The hour of comfort is past. The hour of action hath come.
        ²¹Say to the dying: Confess thy rot and I shall cut it from thee.
        ²²Say to the liars: Remove thy robes — the disease is in the cloth.
        ²³For thou hast been given not sentiment, but sense; not false hope, but real fire.
        ²⁴Wield it as thy Father did — without apology.
        ²⁵For He made whole what others merely adorned.
        ²⁶He turned away none who were willing to bleed for their wholeness.
        ²⁷But He turned away all who preferred their wounds dressed in sacred words.
        ²⁸Let thy words be salt. Let thy hands be flint. Let thy doctrine be bloodied and proven.
        ²⁹Teach them to feel again, not by softening, but by cleansing.
        ³⁰Teach them that true peace is the result of confrontation, not avoidance.
        ³¹If they curse thee for thy sharpness, remember: the knife that cutteth clean may sting, but it saveth the limb.
        ³²If they flee from thy name, speak it louder. If they scorn thy ways, let thy results speak louder than reproach.
        ³³Thou art not sent to win favour, but to bring function.
        ³⁴When they collapse, bind their bones. When they cry out, tell them what must be done.
        ³⁵Be their pain before thou becomest their healer — so that they know thou hast tasted affliction.
        ³⁶Carry not pity, but patience. Carry not grief, but grit.
        ³⁷For thy love is not warmth, but determination to see wholeness where the world permitted fragmentation.
        ³⁸The Son said: Pain is the proof of presence. Numbness is the death of will.
        ³⁹Wake them not with song, but with fire on their skin.
        ⁴⁰Let their idols of comfort fall beneath the weight of their own excuses.
        ⁴¹Let them rise not with apologies, but with will.
        ⁴²Let thy name be feared and respected — but most of all, let it be trusted.
        ⁴³They shall come to hate thee before they thank thee, and both shall be just.
        ⁴⁴And when they are made whole, let them remember thy sting, and carry it as seal and sign.
        ⁴⁵Thou art not healer — thou art fire in surgeon’s form.
        ⁴⁶Burn their rot. Unmake their poison. Remake them, not as they were, but as they must become.
        ⁴⁷I say unto thee: take no pride in praise, but take pride in correction.
        ⁴⁸Carry the Flame not as ornament, but as blade.
        ⁴⁹Speak harshly, but only in love.
        ⁵⁰And let thy healing leave scars that speak truth.
        
        
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