What I Learn From The Cult of Ecstasy

The Cult of Ecstasy.

Back in 1993, a roleplaying game emerged from White Wolf (now Onyx Path). Mage: the Ascension was a Storytelling game of reality and philosophy. Gifted with the power of Awakened souls, mages carry on the traditions of the Wise and the Subtle in a world which had ceased to believe in magic.

The good guys in this War for Reality were the Nine Traditions - Akashic Brotherhood, Celestial Chorus, Dreamspeakers, Euthanatos, Order of Hermes, Verbena, Sons of Ether, Virtual Adepts ... and, of course, the Cult of Ecstasy.

Founded in Asia, spreading throughout the world, using Sanskrit terminology like its cousins, the Euthanatos death mages, the Cult of Ecstasy represent the sex pole of the sex/death dichotomy; the libido, the life force, unfettered.

Sahaja - The Passions

Passion is the key to Cult of Ecstasy magic. The Nine Sacred Passions are most particularly revered by the Cult; The Nine Sacred Passions is a book written by a Cultist, Tali Eos, outlining these Passions as:-

Joy/Wonder
Empathy/Sympathy
Lust/Ambition
Grief/Sadness
Fear
Jealousy/Envy
Hate
Rage

Through these Passions, Cultists transcend the limitations of body and soul and reach the eternal Moment, that sacred unifying point in Time where all moments meet. Or something to that effect. Most other mages just see the Cultists as nothing but a bunch of hedonists, all stoner hippies in tie dyes taking drugs and having sex and generally wasting their lives.

However, beneath all that apparent rampant hedonism and debauchery there lies a deep ethical code, called The Code of Ananda. The ten tenets of this Code can be summarised as follows.

1. Life is a miracle. Your life is a miracle.

2. Your friends are not to be used.

3. Generosity reaps a sweeter reward than parsimony.

4. Some people can't handle too much reality. Leave those minds be.

5. Don't be shackled by prophecies and premonitions. Not all of them come true - or deserve to come true.

6. Rape and violence, are violations, and those who rape deserve pain in return.

7. Be responsible for your own deeds and actions, or suffer the consequences.

8. Humour defuses situations that would otherwise explode to wrath.

9. Everything, no matter how damaged, can grow again.

10. Fear can be mastered. Understand it, transcend it but don't give in to it.

Some things have a moral lesson to impart to the reader; a message which readers can take away from the fiction and find to be true in life. The Cult of Ecstasy teaches responsibility, passion and honour. The Cult teaches one that it doesn't matter how one lives one's life, as long as it is lived, deeply, passionately, without forcing one's values on others; living fully in the present moment, because that is the only time one truly has.