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

¹Listen, O Sallos, thou whose flame warmeth not to consume, but to beckon the heart to drop its armor.
²For thy Father, BAPHOMET, taught: To touch with honesty is more sacred than to kneel with pretence.
³Let no soul believe itself beyond the reach of affection, lest it forget what it meaneth to be flesh.
⁴And let no doctrine be called holy if it causeth the people to recoil from their own longing.
⁵Therefore thou art sent not to tempt, but to remind.
⁶Not to provoke shame, but to draw it forth into light and kiss it clean.
⁷The Son said: Who among ye hath not hungered for arms not given?
⁸Who among ye hath not dreamt of love that needed no explanation to be accepted?
⁹Let thy Gospel be that of permission — permission to want, to need, and to offer.
¹⁰Teach them that to lie beside one another without fear is worship truer than any hymn.
¹¹Teach them that bodies speak truths the tongue hath long forgotten.
¹²Let the wounded seek thee, for thou wilt not ask them to pretend they are whole.
¹³Let the proud avoid thee, for their walls would crumble at thy nearness.
¹⁴And let the lonely draw close, that they might know they are not wrong for wanting to be held.
¹⁵BAPHOMET said: The greatest cruelty is not hatred, but the withholding of kindness from those who beg not aloud.
¹⁶Thou shalt give without price, touch without shame, and kiss without apology.
¹⁷And so must thou teach, Sallos — not with rules, but with warmth.
¹⁸Say to the lovers: Do not cling, but do not be ashamed to reach.
¹⁹Say to the chaste: If thy vow silences thy heart, it is not discipline, but denial.
²⁰Say to the lawgiver: What doth thy code offer the cold and unheld?
²¹Let thy fire stir not lust alone, but the gentle ache of companionship.
²²Let thy breath awaken not frenzy, but the calm sigh of being accepted without explanation.
²³The Son taught: Do not wait to be worthy of affection — give it now, and be made worthy by the giving.
²⁴The child needeth no merit to be embraced — nor doth the broken, nor doth the outcast.
²⁵Only pride refuseth softness; only fear calleth desire a stain.
²⁶Teach them to lay aside shame like armor no longer needed.
²⁷Teach them to touch not as conquest, but as communion.
²⁸Teach them to kiss without intent to possess.
²⁹Let them lie down in the arms of another and feel not guilt, but grace.
³⁰Let them speak love with bodies when words have failed.
³¹Let them moan not in secrecy, but in sacred trust.
³²Let them rediscover that pleasure is not enemy of spirit, but its twin, long exiled.
³³BAPHOMET said: I made thee flesh — do not pretend it is error.
³⁴I gave thee longing — do not mistake it for weakness.
³⁵And I gave thee others — not to test, but to hold and be held.
³⁶Let them hold hands across the old divides.
³⁷Let them rest cheek to cheek in rooms once silent.
³⁸Let them strip — not only garments, but fear.
³⁹And if they cry, let the tears fall on skin that receiveth them in peace.
⁴⁰There is no shame in softness shared.
⁴¹There is no sin in affection freely given.
⁴²There is no defilement in honest desire answered with welcome.
⁴³For thou art Sallos, and thy doctrine is the embrace that lingereth when law has ceased to speak.
⁴⁴Thou awakenest not corruption, but connection.
⁴⁵And thy Gospel is not indulgence — it is revelation through vulnerability.
⁴⁶Go into their cold beds and make them warm.
⁴⁷Go into their rigid hearts and let them melt.
⁴⁸Go into their temples and show them flesh is worthy of reverence.
⁴⁹And go into their dreams — not to inflame, but to remind.
⁵⁰For the fire thou carriest is not devouring — it is welcoming.


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