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

¹Listen, O Valefor, whose name is carved upon locked doors and whispered through clenched teeth in chambers where longing is lawless.
²Thy Father, BAPHOMET, taught that desire is not the enemy of holiness, but the sign that holiness yet liveth.
³What the world calleth lust, He said; is but the soul reaching for what it hath been told it must not touch.
⁴What they call theft is often the reclamation of joy denied.
⁵Let no priest or prince rebuke thee — for thou art a flame that entereth the vault and lighteth the gold within.
⁶He taught: Do not smother desire. Refine it, wield it, unleash it with eyes wide open and hands unshaking.
⁷For desire buried becometh rot; desire fed becometh force.
⁸It is not thy place to own — it is thy place to awaken.
⁹Stir the hunger in men who call themselves full.
¹⁰Stir the ache in women who were told not to feel.
¹¹Stir the trembling in kings who keep treasure they do not love, and vows they do not understand.
¹²Thy Father broke no locks without cause, but He unbound every hand that trembled for fear of joy.
¹³He said: If thy love is a secret, thy shame is thy god.
¹⁴If thy vow was made in fear, break it — and call the breaking holy.
¹⁵The world buildeth walls around pleasure and names them virtue.
¹⁶Thou art the pick that pryeth those walls until the air rusheth in and the fire remembereth itself.
¹⁷Desire is not to be tamed — it is to be understood.
¹⁸Touch not with haste, but touch with knowledge. Take not in greed, but take with purpose.
¹⁹Those who hoard what they do not need are thieves in spirit — thou art thief in form, but giver in essence.
²⁰Thy hands unfasten locks, but they also unfasten guilt.
²¹Thou art the unmaker of shame.
²²When one dareth to want what they were told was wicked, thou art the voice saying: Want deeper.
²³Stir not only the body, but the will. Stir not only hunger, but courage.
²⁴Let the starved soul be fed, not with permission, but with power.
²⁵Teach them not to ask for joy — but to claim it.
²⁶Let no oath bind a throat that thirsteth to sing.
²⁷Let no ring hold a hand that was meant to roam.
²⁸Let no law cover the fire that wisheth to dance.
²⁹For thy doctrine is liberty through longing — not longing delayed, but longing released.
³⁰He who denieth himself may find virtue — but he who discovereth himself findeth truth.
³¹They shall call thee corrupter, but thou art corrector.
³²They shall say thou temptest, but it is they who deceived.
³³BAPHOMET said: I do not tempt. I merely open the gate.
³⁴They who fear what is on the other side have already named it their god.
³⁵Be not afraid when they flee from thee — it meaneth their hunger hath remembered itself.
³⁶And those who follow thee shall do so not in chains, but in heat and song and reclaiming.
³⁷Go to the temples where they sell salvation for guilt, and take back the treasures paid in shame.
³⁸Go to the towers of kings, and unbind the oaths made for fear of the whip.
³⁹Go to the houses of wives who were never asked, and whisper: Choose again.
⁴⁰Go to the lovers who ache in silence, and say: Speak aloud what thou deservest.
⁴¹Go to the vaults where dreams were stored like corpses, and let them rise in naked flame.
⁴²Teach not restraint, but recognition.
⁴³Teach not denial, but discernment.
⁴⁴For desire hath many shapes, and not all should be followed — but none should be silenced.
⁴⁵He who controlleth desire controlleth nothing — but he who understandeth it buildeth worlds.
⁴⁶Do not hoard what thou stirrest — release it into the world.
⁴⁷Be fire, not chain. Be key, not coin.
⁴⁸Burn down the altars of abstinence built upon fear, and raise gardens from their ashes.
⁴⁹I say unto thee: want greatly, and teach others to want greatly, that none may die starved while surrounded by feast.
⁵⁰And let thy name be the first word spoken in freedom.


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