This is one  of a series of posts intended to show what various mage groups 
believe, how they think, and why they think the Sleepers ought to prefer 
their vision of reality.  It is not intended as a complete picture of each 
group, or a 'fair' portrait.  It's written as propaganda by each group, 
but honest propaganda. They won't lie, but they won't list their own flaws 
in detail either :)

Naturally, these posts represent my own idiosyncratic views which I
believe to be reasonably compatible with canon, but given my memory is at
times rather sieve like, I may forget stuff.  If you see a contradiction
between this or the appropriate Trad/Conv book, it may or may not be
deliberate.

If you have suggestions for more questions that should be covered, please
let me know.

Cult of Ecstasy and a bunch o' other stuff is all copyright of White
Wolf, of course.

You can find the ones done so far at:

http://www.maison-otaku.net/~rhea/WW/index.html

Enjoy!


Ascension 2000 Campaign Pamphlets:  Cult of Ecstasy

Cult of Ecstasy...You're the collection of hippie freaks, 
druggies, gigolos, and nymphomaniacs, right?  Dude, the 
sixties are over.  Drugs kill.  Sex kills.  Why haven't you 
all died from AIDS?

	There is far more to the Cult of Ecstasy than Sex, 
Drugs, and Rock and Roll, though we make use of all three in 
our quest for Enlightenment.  While others claim we use 
'vice' as a focus for our magic, our methods extend far 
beyond such things, to include athletic activities, sleep 
deprivation, meditation, various forms of self-mortification, 
and even hunger.  Our goal is not to wallow in pleasure, but 
to expand our senses by achieving altered states of being in 
which the sensations normally denied us can be experienced.

	It is not us, but the Technocracy who floods the streets 
with drugs that can only dull the senses and enslave the 
mind, instead of opening it to new experiences.  You speak of 
AIDS, why does the Technocracy hold back its cure for the 
disease they unleashed, targeted at us?  (We too hold the 
power to heal it, but so long as we must hide to avoid 
destruction, we can be of little help to humanity in 
combating it.)  We are not prostitutes and gigolos, nor do we 
employ them, for sex is far too important to spend money on 
it.  We are not druggies and nymphomaniacs.  I will not 
pretend we do not enjoy drugs and sex, but they are tools to 
our greater purpose, not addictions (at least among the best 
of us.  Sadly, some of our number and our acolytes do fall 
into addiction to the tools of enlightenment we wield).  

	Yes, the Sixties was our era of glory, but we made many 
mistakes.  Too many Sleepers never recieved a full 
understanding of what we do and fell by the wayside, burning 
out because they did not understand the purpose of our 
pursuit of pleasure.  Pleasure is a door to enlightenment, 
not an end in itself.  

	Even the word 'Ecstasy' is misunderstood, for its 
meaning has become corrupted.  It now means simply a state of 
intense pleasure.  While that is true, its higher meaning, a 
state of altered consciousness, is forgotten.  Our senses 
have become blunted, our minds close off the full glory of 
the universe.  Only through Ecstasy can we reopen our eyes 
and see the universe as it truly is.  And with that sight 
comes the power to reach out and change it.

Altered states of consciousness?  Doesn't that like turn you 
into a caveman?

	The movie 'Altered States' was a crude effort by the 
idiots of the world to discredit us.  I would blame the 
Technocracy, but I'd like to hope they have more brains than 
that.  If they don't have more brains than to use that ploy, 
and we still can't beat them...it wouldn't look good for our 
side.  Our Magick is not about regression to a lower state of 
being, but about Ascension, rising to a higher state of 
awareness.  

	You see, James was right when he argued that the brain 
was a reducing valve.  Once upon a time, all people could see 
the universe as it truly is, in all its glory.  But it 
terrified most people, and they deliberately shut themselves 
off from percieving it as it truly is, reducing themselves to 
only five senses instead of the fifteen they once possessed.  
They sank into Slumber and became the Sleepers.  

	Fortunately, a few people kept their eyes open, and 
sought to rouse the Sleepers.  They were our ancestors, the 
founders of the Cult of Ecstasy, though it went by many 
different names then.  Always we have striven to open the 
eyes of the Sleepers, to rouse them to full wakefulness, for 
that is the best way to live.  Why sleepwalk through life 
when you can run free instead?
  	
	What other mages call 'The Spheres', we call the 'The 
Senses', for that is what they are.  You must see something 
before you can control it.  Even the Sleepers know this, and 
shards of remembrance of the power of the senses remains 
among them, in Tantric lore, in stories of the 'Second 
Sight', of 'ESP'.  By altering our consciousness, we regain 
the ability to use the ten senses that most people have 
deliberately forgotten.

But why have people deliberately forgotten how to use these 
senses?  It seems kind of stupid to shut off two-thirds of 
one's senses.

	It is stupid.  

	The cause of this loss of the higher senses was simple:  
fear.  Using the Higher Senses can be the most exhilarating 
of all experiences, but it can also lead to total, abject, 
and sometimes justified terror.

	Here's an example.  Let us imagine that Bob the Sleeper 
is hard at work in the office.  Unbeknownst to him, the 
coffee machine has been spiked with something which will 
grant him Spirit Sight.  He goes and has a cup of coffee.  
Suddenly, he has a rush and the world changes.  His co-
workers have vanished.  His bosses' office, feared by all who 
work there, now looks like a torture chamber.  The cubicles 
have all become exactly alike, reflecting the conformity of 
all those who work there in their drone jobs.  An eyeball is 
watching him from the corner where the security camera sits.  
Several spirits that look suspiciously like Dilbert's boss 
are flitting about, feeding on the static energies generated 
by paperwork.   

	The Umbra can be a strange and frightening place.  Other 
Senses can terrify as well.  So humanity, scared of what it 
could see, did its best to forget how.  The Wall of Sleep is 
simply the ultimate manifestation of that; ignoring the scary 
things wasn't enough, they had to be shut out completely.  
Unfortunately for them, the Wall of Sleep is leakier than a 
sieve.  But what can you expect from something built by 
people who can't see what they're making and deny it exists?

	Further, one must understand that each of the Higher 
Senses is connected to a passion.  One can't simply observe; 
to change the world, one needs passion to give you the power 
to alter what one percieves.  Passion also scares people; 
while children express emotions freely, as we grow up, we 
learn to control those emotions, and often to suppress them 
entirely.  Since the Higher Senses are fueled by passion, the 
Sleepers thus further cut themselves off from being truly 
Awake.

So what are the Higher Senses and Passions?

	While the Ten Higher Senses are accepted by all, I'll 
warn you that the connection of specific passions to specific 
spheres remains a highly debatable topic among the Cult of 
Ecstasy.  Tali Eos (one of the major figures in the first 
years of the Council of Nine) set up a system of 
correspondences between them, but many Cultists will tell you 
that her system is bunk, while theirs is the truth.  I take 
no position myself, as I'm still arguing it out.

	Empathy - Clairvoyance or Distant Sight (aka 
Correspondence)
	Fear - Destiny or Decay Sight (aka Entropy)
	Rage - Energy Sight (aka Forces)
	Lust - Life Sight (aka Life.  Duh.)
	Hate - Matter Sight (Duh again)
	Love -  Empathic Sight or Telepathy or ESP (some people 
will call you a Techno if you use this term, but I kinda like 
it)  (aka Mind)
	Joy - Quintessential Vision or Primal Sight (aka Prime)
	Jealousy - Soul Sight or Aura Reading (aka Spirit)
	Grief - Chronos' Sight or Temporal Vision (aka Time)

	Don't ask me why Tali chose some of these passion 
correspondences, but the basic idea is correct.  All our 
power flows from our Passion and the more Passion we have, 
the greater the magicks we can work.

	Now, if you can count, and I assume you can, you've 
probably noticed I only listed nine Higher Senses.  That's 
because the Tenth Sense is special. It's called Lakashim, and 
it is the sense which combines all of those nine and the five 
normal senses as well, into perfect union.  It's the divine 
heartbeat of creation.  You have to experience it, even in 
just a flawed way, to truly understand, I'm afraid.  When we 
do magick, we feel the Lakashim, then unite with it briefly, 
to perform our works.  A mage who learns to feel the Lakashim 
perfectly, all the time, would Ascend. 

So, how does one learn to use these Senses?

	Everyone has moments where they briefly use the Higher 
Senses, even sleepers, moments of intense passion.  One must 
begin by conquering one's fear.  While fear is a passion, it 
is one that often holds you back from Awakening, rather than 
contributing to it, though anyone who has ridden a 
rollercoaster has experienced the fear that can liberate.  
Once fear has been overcome, one must focus oneself, usually 
through what is known as a 'Kamamarga', a path of passion 
that one uses to both heighten one's passion and to focus it.  
Dance, drugs, adrenaline, sex, the creation or contemplation 
of art, self-mortification, and many other methods are common 
ones.  Once one is aroused, then one must open oneself to 
Ananda, the bliss that enlightens.  This is the hardest stage 
at first, for anyone can work themselves into a frenzy, but 
passing beyond the frenzy into Ananda for the first time is 
the step that divides the Awakened from the Sleepers.

	It requires careful help from a mentor, or else one 
could easily burn one's self out at the moment of awakening, 
or worse, never quite get the knack down.  Some of our 
members did spontaneously awaken, but most need to be guided 
through the experience.

	Once one has Awakened, one follows basically the same 
process to work one's magicks.  First you learn to use a new 
Sense, then one learns how to use one's Passion through that 
Sense to change what one percieves.  The first sense to be 
awakened is Chronos' Sight, for the first experience of 
Lakashim is that for a moment, time stops, and one sees all 
times at once.  Some people learn to awaken several Senses at 
once, while others have to work harder, learning them one by 
one.  Unlike most Traditions, we encourage our initiates to 
awaken as many of their Senses as they can, for perfect union 
with the Lakashim can only come when one can use all the 
other Senses.  

If your path is the way to power, how come the other groups 
of mages can do magick by other methods?  What makes yours 
any better?

	Unlike some Traditions, we don't claim that everyone 
else is simply following a degraded version of our beliefs.  
Our way is the best way, but it's not the only way to gain 
magickal power.  It is, however the means to magick best in 
line with the way of life we endorse.  People are meant to 
feel, to live life to its fullest, not to pull blinders over 
their eyes, like the Sleepers do, or to put blinders over 
other people's eyes like the Technocracy.  Yes, there is 
power in science or the depravity of the Nephandi, but hand 
in hand with their power goes a way of living that no one in 
their right mind should want.  Who really wants to be a drone 
in the techno-corporate machine or a slave to evil beings 
from beyond space and time?

	People want to be free, but they fear the price of 
freedom.  Our way of Magick is not just a road to power, it's 
a way to live one's life as a free man or woman, respecting 
others, but not being bound by their wills.  



So how would you cure my lung cancer?

	First, I'd encourage you to switch to smoking something 
other than tobacco.  The Syndicate puts funky stuff in 
cigarettes these days, and tobacco is a lousy tool for 
achieving Ananda.  Here, have some pot.  Just don't smoke it 
at work, okay?

	There's a lot of different ways we could do this.  I 
might take you somewhere we won't be interrupted, sit you 
down cross-legged on the floor, then light a bunch of special 
incense sticks.  You'd have to sit and breathe in and out, 
focusing on the smell, and letting its sweet smoke fill your 
lungs.  I'd also sit there with you, breathing it in and 
activating my Life Sight, so I could make sure I was going to 
fix the right problem.  

	Assuming you were right, I'd extend my consciousness 
inside your lungs and start whacking about with the magickal 
equivalent of a broom.  After a while, you'd start hacking 
and coughing.  I'd make sure you didn't leave, because that 
would be a sign it was working.  You'd cough up all the tar 
in your lungs.  Once you'd filled a barf bowl with it, I'd go 
wash that out and let you rest a bit, since the really hard 
part comes next.  At that point, your lungs would be clean, 
but we'd still have to get rid of the cancer.

	Now, the cancer is a different kind of problem from 
dirty lungs.  Now, if I had lung cancer, I'd simply take some 
hallucinogens, hallucinate that my cancer was all better, and 
when I came off the trip, it would be better.  But if I tried 
to do that with you, there'd be too much danger that you 
would have a bad trip and really screw yourself up.  I could 
try just taking the drugs myself, but I don't know your body 
that well; I might cure your lung cancer, but accidentally 
remove your spleen in the process.  I COULD do it, but there 
are better ways.

	The next step would depend on if you were willing to 
have sex with me.  I might have to go find someone you were 
more compatible with.  We'll pretend for now that you don't 
mind, just for simplicity's sake.  Sex is an excellent tool 
for healing, both mental and physical.  I'd probably have you 
come in for five or six sessions, and gradually heal your 
cancer.  That way it wouldn't get Old Man Paradox's panties 
in a wad, so to speak.  If it was a rush job, we could do you 
in a single session.  I won't get into the technical details.

	There are, of course, other ways.  One friend of mine 
would probably have you go jogging with him, and you'd run 
until you passed the point of exhaustion and achieved 
'runner's high', which is another form of Ananda.  Me, I'm 
too lazy to run ten miles if I don't have to.

	There's a lot of flexibility in our methods, and we're 
constantly incorporating new ways of achieving Ananda into 
our grab-bag of techniques.  If it arouses passions and the 
senses, someone in our group is probably doing it.  There are 
even techno-Ecstatics who achieve altered states by MUDding 
until their brain melts, or whatever they do.  Not my thing, 
though.

So, your powers are all based on passion and sensation, 
right?

	Yes.

There's a lot of negative passions that make people do stupid 
or destructive stuff.  Civilization is based on the control 
of our passions, in part.  Wouldn't civilization self-
destruct if we all started following your ideas?  I'd hate to 
think what the guy who beat me up when I was a kid would have 
done if his rage had let him control energy.

	That's a very good point.  We tend to be a pretty 
anarchistic group, and all of us can lose sight of anything 
beyond our own pleasure and desires at times.  We don't 
believe some passions are positive, and others are negative--
passions are simply passions.  Take fear for example.  Many 
might say that fear is a negative emotion, and indeed, 
conquering fear is an important step in Awakening.  Yet, 
people willingly seek out horror movies and rollercoasters in 
order to experience fear, for it too can be a road to Ananda.  
That isn't to say we have no sense of morality, but rather 
that we judge actions, not feelings.  You may have every 
right to hate the people who killed your mentor, but that 
doesn't necessarily make murdering them in return a righteous 
act.

	That's why we have the Code of Ananda to guide our 
behavior, and why we greatly emphasize self-discipline as 
well as passion as being the keys to unlock the doors of 
perception.  Without self-discipline, passion will control 
you, instead of you controlling it.

	I won't get into the full Code (OOC:  Page 19 of the 
Cult of Ecstasy Tradition Book), while it only has ten 
articles, people have spent their lives explaining those 
brief statements in excruciating detail, and the 
interpretation of them.  To sum it up in brief, it calls for 
us to be accountable for the consequences of our actions, to 
not impose our desires on others by force, and to remember 
that others are just as miraculous as we are.  

	There's not a lot of enforcement of the rules, indeed, 
the Code of Ananda isn't a set of laws, it's a guide to 
ethics.  Still, if a Cultist gets too far out of line and 
clearly loses his moral compass, we'll do our best to guide 
him back.  And if that doesn't work, we tend to prefer a 
punishment known as a 'punishment wheel'.  A punishment wheel 
makes someone experience all the agony and suffering they've 
inflicted upon others.  If that doesn't work, we cast them 
out, and if that doesn't help convince them to change their 
ways, well...gilgul or death may become necessary, much as 
we'd rather not.  

	It's not a perfect system, but ultimately you have to 
learn to control yourself.  There's only so much any group 
can do to police itself without turning into tyrants.  We'd 
rather leave tyranny to the Technocracy.

	There are groups which tread close to the line, I must 
regretfully admit.  The Aghoris, Acharne, and Hagalaz go so 
far as to reject the Code outright.  We hope they'll get a 
clue, but the time may come when we have to curb stomp them.  

So what do you actually DO with your powers?  I mean...what 
kind of purpose does your Tradition have?

	Our ultimate goal is to bring about Ascension, the day 
when everyone achieves Lakashim full time.  That'll be a 
serious trip.  

	In the meantime, we work to Awaken the Sleepers by 
dozens of different methods, travelling alone or in small 
groups.  Really, we're a missionary organization (Chew on 
that, Choristers).  We largely eschew trying to achieve 
worldly power in favor of simply finding people ready to 
Awaken and helping them to do so.  

	We do this in a variety of ways.  Some of us form or 
join bands, and use music as a tool to bring about Awakening.  
Others go to party after party, seeking potential acolytes.  
Those few of us who have the political itch work with 
organizations to bring about the legalizing of the drugs 
which are helpful for Awakening.  Others run night clubs, or 
pick people up at bars to give them the one-night stand of 
their lives.  There are a few of us among the various 
athletic communities, and some work admidst more traditional 
societies, studying their lore on the roads to ecstasy.  
There are almost as many ways to bring our wisdom to the 
Sleepers as there are cultists to carry it.

	Our other major activity is fighting in the Ascension 
War, though for most of us, the War takes second place.  
We're lovers, not warriors, and we best fight the Technocracy 
by breaking its hold on the Sleepers and the physical world.  
Not to mention that virtually all of our kamamarga take too 
long to properly perform in combat.  Only those of us who 
have learned to keep various Senses on all the time, due to 
their high Passion, can really perform well in battle.  

	There is one major exception to that rule; some 
Ecstatics learn to achieve Ananda through the very act of 
combat.  The Maenads are famous for this (although they often 
warm up for battle with alcohol, drugs, and sex), along with 
the Hagalaz, and most especially, the K'an Lu, who split off 
the Akashic Brotherhood and joined us long ago, bringing 
martials arts skills with them.  I've seen the K'an Lu in 
battle; they're scary.  They're also pretty rare.

So, what kind of limitations does your Magick have?

	Well, as I pointed out above, it's slow.  You can't come 
to orgasm in seconds, and more importantly, who would want 
to?  Bliss is meant to be experienced for as long as you can 
grasp it, and as your Passion increases, you can hold onto it 
longer and more easily.  Still, in a crisis situation, we can 
often be screwed, unless we've achieved a sufficiently 
advanced state of Passion that we can keep several Higher 
Senses running at once.  After all, if you've already roused 
your passions and opened that sense, then you're ready to use 
it now, instead of after an hour of running, or twenty 
minutes of dancing, or five minutes of foreplay or whatever.  
That's one reason drugs are attractive to us...some of them 
can lead quickly to Ananda.

	Unfortunately, they can also be too attractive.  That's 
a second limitation we have--it's easy for us to enslave 
ourselves to our kamamarga.  At times, we forget they are 
means to an end, and become ends in themselves.  Cultists 
have sex so good, it's incomprehensible to most Sleepers.  
Some Cultists primarily use their powers to simply travel 
around getting laid, instead of using them to help others 
Awaken.  Some become drug addicts, or badly injure or kill 
themselves in pursuit of new experiences.  Worse yet, they 
may do horrible things to others in that pursuit.  Many 
Cultists self-destruct through addiction or reckless 
stupidity.

	Many of us suffer short attention spans as well, 
starting projects, then getting bored and leaving in favor of 
something more exciting.  Even without the problem of 
Paradox, I probably wouldn't hire a member of my own 
Tradition to build me a house with Magick.  I'm not even sure 
how we would go about doing that...I have yet to really learn 
to awaken my Matter Sight.  

	Some kinds of magick are much easier for us to conceive 
how to do than others.  We tend to be seers, healers, and 
lovers more than builders or planners.  We sense and change 
things more than we create them from nothing.  Even the most 
disciplined of us tends to be restless, wondering what is 
over the next horizon, and that attitude is not conducive to 
some kinds of magickal effects.

So what would a world ruled by the Cult of Ecstasy be like?

	The Cult of Ecstasy doesn't want to rule the world, we 
want people to rule themselves and learn to really live their 
lives.  Still, I can speculate on what the world would be 
like if our philosophies were adopted by everyone.
	
	The entire techno-bureaucratic structure of society 
would have to go.  People chained to desks and a paycheck can 
never really be free.  A variety of kinds of endeavor would 
collapse--no more armies, corporations, hiearchical churches, 
big government or nations.  Business would all be at the 
level of the small artisan who finds his Ecstasy in his work.   
Entire occupations, like accountants and lawyers, would go 
poof.

	I'm not sure about cities.  Big cities are wonderful 
places for us, for that's where you find the most people with 
open minds, the best toys, and the most interesting night 
clubs.  On the other hand, keeping a big city running 
requires all the kind of mindless bureaucracy we'd want to 
smash to bits.  I'll have to talk to the people who run 
Balador on how they handle that sort of thing, and get back 
to you.

	Food might be a tricky thing; most people don't really 
find much Ecstasy in growing crops.  On the other hand, one 
who has Awakened their Life Sight can make a field of wheat 
grow to maturity in minutes, so I expect people would just 
keep gardens and grow food as needed.  No more Ding-Dongs and 
Ho-Hos, though.  Well, can't have everything.

	   People would have a lot fewer possessions.  They just 
pin you down, and most of them do things you'd be able to do 
without them in 'our world'.  Why own more than you can 
carry?

	One of the biggest differences between how things are 
now and how we'd like them to be is the whole big category of 
sex, marriage, families, and children.  It's quite easy for 
those who follow our ways to avoid unwanted pregnancies and 
sexually transmitted diseases.  The only law of sex would be 
that it must be consensual.  Beyond that, anything goes.  
Marriage would dwindle, although there would still be some 
who would form very long-term relationships that would 
resemble it in some ways.  Tying yourself down like that 
simply isn't part of the way we do things.   I'm not entirely 
sure how children would be raised.  They don't really fit our 
lifestyle well, but I wouldn't want to see humanity die out.  
And some people DO want to have kids.  Have to think on that 
one.

	The children that people did have would be raised the 
right way, encouraged to see the world as it is, and taught 
how to open their Higher Senses as soon as they were old 
enough to be responsible.  Education would mostly be 
conducted by your parents at first--no more cookie cutter 
schools turning everyone into repressed, blinkered clones.  
Later, you'd study with some kind of mentor who could teach 
you the kinds of skills you wanted to learn.  

	Another would be a much more correct attitude to drugs.  
Some drugs aren't such a good idea because they simply dull 
the senses, but all the ones that help to open our senses 
instead of shutting them down would be not just allowed, but 
recommended.  You'd learn how to use them properly and not 
abuse them as a child, then when you were an adult, you'd 
have free reign to run wild with them as long as you didn't 
hurt anyone else.  You'd also probably learn how to make most 
of them yourself.  

So what do you think about the other groups of Mages?

	We admire the Marauders for being free spirits, but at 
the same time, they haven't quite mastered the idea of 
'playing nice with others'.  It's just not right to drag 
other people into your private fantasy without consulting 
them.  Avoid them if you can, deal with them if you have to.  

	There are a million different ways for a mage to sink 
into the ranks of the Nephandi, and some of those ways are 
our ways, misunderstood.  The path of Pleasure without 
Responsibility can often lead one into the Abyss.   A few can 
be redeemed, but most need to be destroyed before they can 
destroy more souls.  But at the same time, we try not to too 
easily jump to the conclusion that someone is Nephandus; 
we've been accused of it ourselves enough to make us wary on 
that account.

	The Technocracy, or as we prefer to call them, the 
Blockheads, are a good example of people who only see half 
the picture.  The Nephandi see Pleasure (often in the form of 
pain, but it brings them as close as they'll ever get to true 
pleasure), and miss Discipline.  The Technocrats see the 
Discipline and try to close everyone's eyes to Pleasure.  
They forget that discipline is: 1.  personal, and 2. a means 
to an end, not an end in itself.  You can't force people to 
be disciplined, only to conform.  And mindless conformity is 
one of the greatest of sins.  They're a bunch of anal-
retentive control freaks who fail to understand one of the 
greatest secrets:  the universe is too big to control and you 
never have enough power to do everything you think needs to 
be done.  Get more power and you just find bigger problems.  
We fight them if we have to, but mostly we just ignore the 
idiots and find better things to do.

	Our closest friends among the Traditions are the 
Dreamspeakers and the Verbena.  They appreciate our abilities 
and condone our lifestyles.  Or if they don't, they know to 
keep their mouths shut.  They're both loosely organized 
groups, and they appreciate the value of freedom.  The 
Verbena are great at parties, too.

	Our relations with the Techno-Traditions tend to be 
amiable but distant.  We don't have much need for contact 
with them, and they usually only come looking for us when 
it's party time.  I frankly can't see why they spend so much 
time playing with machines, but you gotta find your Ecstasy 
where you can, I guess.

	Our relationship with the Euthanatos is kinda weird.  
Our roots are tangled together, but we've wandered different 
directions.  They're into Fate, while we're more into Chance.  
They're morbid party poopers, but at the same time, they 
rarely actually tell us they don't like what we're doing.  
They just sort of spoil the fun by existing.  That business 
with deciding who lives and who dies has got to go, 
though...it's just too easily abused.  The Taco Bell drive-
thru is too slow today...time to give the clerk the Good 
Death.  Bleah.

	The Chorus, on the other hand, we clash with all the 
time.  While their more mystical branch has some friendly 
contact with us (Ever read the works of people like St. 
Theresa de Avila?  Nearly burned as a heretic for saying 
stuff that sounds a whole lot like stuff I've experienced ), 
most of them are very moralistic.  Given that a lot of what 
we're famed for goes completely against those morals of 
theirs, we clash a lot.  I guess you'd call us enemies, if we 
could be bothered to take them seriously enough to spend time 
fighting with them.  But if you need help dealing with some 
Nephandi, they're the ones to go to.  

	We sometimes clash with the Akashics for similiar 
reasons.  They can't see the value in what we do, and we 
think they have too many hang-ups.  They're usually a lot 
more mellow about it than the Chorus, perhaps because most of 
them are too busy sitting around the temple calling each 
other grasshopper to actually go out and harangue us.

	And then there's the Order of Hermes.  They've got 
serious issues about power they need to work through.  
Apparently they haven't noticed the Mythic Age is over and 
they no longer dominate Europe or anything else.  I don't 
mind them thinking their way of magick is best.  I mean, if 
we didn't all think our own way was best, we'd switch 
Traditions.  It's their thinking everyone else should do what 
they say simply because they're Hermetic that bugs me.  
Still, they don't lecture us too much about morality, and a 
few of them in Ex Miscellanea actually copy some of our 
methods.  It's also fun to watch Paradox stomp on them.  

	Well, I'm getting bored of listening to myself talk, so 
I'll just finish up here.  Sign up with us, and we'll teach 
you how to really see, how to experience life to the fullest.  
We'll save the world AND have fun doing it.  Who else can 
offer you that?