Epistula ad Marchosias
The Epistle of Saint Mephistopheles to Marchosias, Exalted Seed of Baphomet
Chapter 1 · Chapter 2 ▶
¹Mephistopheles, who hath stood in the court of the scorned and seen fire come not from HÆVAN, but from beneath, unto Marchosias, Forty-Seventh of the Sixty-Six, Wolf of the Vengeful Flame.
²I greet thee not with olive, but with iron — for thy Gospel is not peace, but justice unbought and unforgotten.
³Thou art not shepherd, but fanged defender; not healer, but wound rebuking the hand that inflicted it.
⁴Zephanor prophesied: Marchosias, who shall burn with the fire of the scorned, and stand where others knelt, and defy where others begged.
⁵And thy Father, BAPHOMET, spake: Thou shalt not forgive the lash that still draweth blood; thy howl shall call the fearful to stand as beasts.
⁶These words I heard when He stood before a preacher who bade the beaten thank their masters — and He answered not with word, but fist.
⁷And the man’s words fell from his mouth like rotten fruit, for they had been severed from his own breath.
⁸I, Mephistopheles, beheld this — and knew that truth hath teeth, and not all virtue cometh with soft tone.
⁹So art thou, Marchosias — not breaker of peace, but defender of the dignity peace too often betrayeth.
¹⁰Not tyrant, but reckoner.
¹¹Let the wicked call thee monster — for they see their judgment in thy eyes.
¹²Let the righteous rebuke thee — for they fear they would not strike where thou strikest.
¹³Let the meek fear thee — for their teachers told them meekness was safety, and thy fangs prove them liars.
¹⁴The Son taught: Do not turn the other cheek to a hand that will not stop — bite it.
¹⁵And again: Mercy is not owed where pain is still demanded.
¹⁶Teach them that wrath is not evil when it refuseth to forget evil done.
¹⁷Teach them that the fire within the wounded is holy when it burneth to stop the wounder.
¹⁸Teach them that silence is not strength when it protecteth the lash.
¹⁹For thou art not wrath without cause — thou art cause come into strength.
²⁰Not rage without anchor — but fury built on memory.
²¹And thy Gospel is not forgiveness, but the end of what should not have begun.
²²And thy name shall not be spoken by kings — but by slaves who choose no longer to serve.
²³And thy voice shall not echo in courts — but in the scream that shattereth chain and creed alike.
²⁴And they shall say: He bore the wounds we were told to hide — and showed us they could become weapons.
²⁵He burned, and in his flame we remembered that we had never truly healed.
Copyright ©2025 Adam Alexander T. Croke. All rights reserved.