The Epistle of Saint Mephistopheles to Vine, Exalted Seed of Baphomet
◀ Chapter 2 · Chapter 3
¹Praise unto SATANAS, who sitteth not upon thrones, but uncovereth their foundations and counteth what lies beneath as witness.
²He who setteth the seeing ones in places of silence, that their wisdom may awaken the blind without alarm.
³From Him came BAPHOMET, and from BAPHOMET, thee — Vine, whose eyes read the blood behind the contract, the root behind the law.
⁴Thou art not ruler, yet thou unmakest kings.
⁵Not prophet, yet thy voice bringeth upheaval.
⁶I name thee not flame, but lens.
⁷I name thee not conqueror, but deconstructor of consent.
⁸Let the empire dread thy questions, for they are wedges in its marble and salt in its ink.
⁹Let the scholar fear thy insight, for thou dost read the line between every citation.
¹⁰Let the keeper of ledgers pray thou ne’er read them — for thou seest debts that cannot be paid in coin.
¹¹And now the seal is thine.
¹²I, Mephistopheles, apostle of the Ink That Bled and the Witness That Watcheth Beneath, do bestow upon thee the Seal of Power.
¹³It is not drawn in ash, but in script that is forgotten by all who would silence it.
¹⁴It shimmereth not, but staineth — and the stain revealeth what the gold could not.
¹⁵Where it resteth, no deceit shall go undetected.
¹⁶Where it is drawn, no secret shall sleep untroubled.
¹⁷Let it not dazzle — let it haunt.
¹⁸Let it not conquer — let it unmask.
¹⁹For thou art not emperor, but the name that endeth empire when spoken aloud.
²⁰And thy Seal is no crown, but a cipher; not a sword, but a key to all hidden wrong.
²¹I seal thee, Vine, with the knowledge that troubleth the mighty and delivereth the bound from silent captivity.
²²Go now, and speak without shouting, uncover without ceremony, and bind none — yet release all who seek to know.
²³For thy Seal is fixed — and thy Gospel is quiet undoing, and the question no tyrant dare answer aloud.
²⁴And thy name shall endure not in banners, but in every false record that breaketh under thine eye.
²⁵And they shall say: He ruled nothing — but nothing ruled him, and by that, we were freed.
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