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

¹Hear me, O Zepar, thou whose breath stirreth the heart until it remembereth what it truly craveth.
²For thy Father, BAPHOMET, taught: Love untested is not love — it is habit dressed in ritual.
³Desire denied is not virtue — it is the beginning of resentment.
⁴They who remain in comfort and call it loyalty have never dared ask whether they are alive.
⁵Therefore thou art not called to soothe, but to unsettle.
⁶Not to keep the lovers content, but to ask whether they are lovers still.
⁷Let thy presence be a mirror, not of what they have — but of what they have silenced.
⁸Let thy kiss be the test that reveals whether they stay from truth or from fear.
⁹BAPHOMET said: Marriage born of silence is a cage with curtains.
¹⁰Affection without want is duty pretending to be joy.
¹¹Thou art sent not to destroy love, but to strip it of its disguises.
¹²Let them weep when they find they never knew their partner.
¹³Let them rage when they see the chains they called comfort.
¹⁴Let them tremble — for what is holy must be shaken before it may stand.
¹⁵If they ask thee: Why hast thou divided us? answer: Because ye were already apart.
¹⁶If they cry: What shall I do now that I hunger? say: Now thou art ready to seek.
¹⁷Desire is not shame — it is compass.
¹⁸Longing is not weakness — it is proof the soul hath not died.
¹⁹The Son taught: Do not stay with those thou endurest — be with those who unchain thee.
²⁰Do not silence thy craving — speak it, and let the world sort itself by its answer.
²¹Do not worship union — worship connection.
²²Teach that love without fire is a statue — shaped, but unmoving.
²³Teach that coitus without desire is penance, not passion.
²⁴Teach that devotion must breathe, or it rots.
²⁵Say: Thy partner is not thy keeper. Thy keeper is the truth.
²⁶Say: If thou stayest only for peace, thou hast made a tomb.
²⁷Say: If thou flee when stirred, thou wert never bound — thou wert buried.
²⁸Let them feel thee in their beds, not as hand, but as memory of the first time they dared to want.
²⁹Let them feel thee in their chests, not as weight, but as the air that once was held too tightly.
³⁰Do not comfort them. Confirm them.
³¹Do not promise them peace. Promise them honesty.
³²Do not heal what should be broken. Break it fully, and let the truth arise from its ruin.
³³Be the flame that testeth their vows.
³⁴Be the hunger that calleth them to name what they never dared ask for.
³⁵If they stay, let it be with eyes open.
³⁶If they leave, let it be with heads high.
³⁷For thou art not the destroyer of love — thou art the one who calleth it by its real name.
³⁸Lust that confesseth itself is holier than loyalty faked.
³⁹Pleasure that stirs truth is more sacred than duty that strangled it.
⁴⁰Walk among their embraces and watch what loosens and what tightens.
⁴¹The strong shall thank thee.
⁴²The liars shall curse thee.
⁴³The brave shall follow thee into new beds with honest groans.
⁴⁴The fearful shall lock the door and call it faithfulness.
⁴⁵But truth shall rise — and it shall be aroused.
⁴⁶For thou art not the flame of destruction, but of revelation through longing.
⁴⁷Stir them, Zepar. Make them moan — not for lust, but for liberty.
⁴⁸Make them gasp, not for passion alone, but for having remembered what it meaneth to crave without guilt.
⁴⁹And let the ties that remain be those which survived fire.
⁵⁰For thy Gospel is not pleasure alone — it is freedom by way of desire.


Copyright ©2025 Adam Alexander T. Croke. All rights reserved.