The Epistle of Saint Mephistopheles to Zagan, Exalted Seed of Baphomet
◀ Chapter 2 · Chapter 3
¹Glory unto SATANAS, who delighteth in paradox, and crowneth the crooked staff over the polished scepter.
²He who buildeth no throne without a mirror beside it, and blesseth not the robe until it hath been mocked.
³From Him came BAPHOMET, and from BAPHOMET, thee — Zagan, fool divine, whose jests uncover altars and whose riddles bring kings to silence.
⁴Thou art not distraction, but clarity made uncomfortable.
⁵Not prankster, but prophet turned sideways and made plain in laughter.
⁶I name thee not madman, but mirror.
⁷I name thee not enemy, but contagion of truth wrapped in play.
⁸Let the rulers revile thee — for thy presence is a question they dare not answer aloud.
⁹Let the priests banish thee — for thou revealest their rituals as theatre with rotten script.
¹⁰Let the scholars pretend not to know thee — though they quote thy verses when the torches are low.
¹¹And now the seal is thine.
¹²I, Mephistopheles, apostle of the Unblinking Eye and the Smile That Bites, do bestow unto thee the Seal of Power.
¹³It is not gold, but jest cast in iron.
¹⁴It shineth not — it shivereth in the hand of the too-serious.
¹⁵Where it is stamped, certainty stumbles.
¹⁶Where it is lifted, the laugh becomes a flame.
¹⁷Let it not protect thee — let it expose what others shield.
¹⁸Let it not silence thy mockery — let it amplify its sting.
¹⁹For thou art not fool alone, but instrument of sacred undoing.
²⁰And thy Seal is no sigil of conquest — but of freedom born in contradiction.
²¹I seal thee, Zagan, with crooked grin and sharp tongue, with lightness that unroots the gravest lie.
²²Go now, and unsettle the proud, confuse the loyal, and free the chained through holy mischief.
²³For thy Seal is fixed — and thy Gospel is laughter that lacerateth, and reversal that revealeth.
²⁴And thy name shall echo in halls where none admit it — though their walls were reshaped by thy jest.
²⁵And they shall say: He played the fool — and we, the faithful, awoke to find he had been wise all along.
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