CULT of EcstasY
狂喜教团
译者: 努塔瑞
You ever been in a real groove, when you are playing or singing or whatever, and you get to the place where you're just going and letting things happen. And it's the best stuff you've ever done? That's where this train is going.
当你引吭高歌纵情歌舞的时候,你的身心就会达到和谐的境界。只要让感觉引领着你,让事情自然而然的发生,你就可以感觉到。你曾经有过这样美妙绝伦的感觉吗?这,就是我们所要去的地方。
Many Initiates come to the Cult because of its reputation as a continual party.
普通人对教徒的印象来自于那些通宵达旦的狂欢。
Popular opinion has it that sex, drugs and rock-'n'-roll are what the Cult is about.
性、毒品和摇滚就是他们的全部。
When the mages get to the party, though, they find out that there's a very specific point to all the revelry.
而当法师看到这些狂欢的时候,他们会发现那些不同寻常的地方。
The Cult of Ecstasy does use things like drugs and music and even sex, but they're just means to an end.
狂喜教团确实是在磕药、奏摇滚甚至群交,但是他们的目的不在于此。
The point is to achieve a mental state that transcends the physical world, a trance that allows the mage to see beyond his normal experience and go outside all the lines that keep most people and mages penned in.
他们这样做的目的在于要达到超越现实世界的精神境界,那种high的感觉能让mage看到自己平时看不到的东西,冲破本来囚禁住凡人和mage的囚笼。
Cultists take the word ecstasy in its original meaning: a sudden, intense rush of feeling that catapults the subject into an altered state.
教徒口中的ecstasy就是它本来的意思:一种突然的、强烈的感觉就像把人弹射进高空,进入一个不一样的世界。
It doesn't have to be a pleasant feeling, but given a choice, most Cultists definitely prefer it that way.
这并不是什么愉快的感觉,但是这是一种选择,大多数The Cult这样认为。
The Cult of Ecstasy breaks down barriers and self-imposed limitations to give people a rush of eye-opening experience.
狂喜教团冲破重重障碍和自我局限,让普通人放下戒心,能睁开眼看到真实世界。
Background
背景
Ecstatic quests for transcendence — and the Cult of Ecstasy itself — have a long history, from the Bacchantes' dances and the Sufi Muslims' whirling to aboriginal vision quests.
狂喜教团追寻超脱已经有很久的历史了,从酒神巴克斯的欢宴和苏非派穆斯林的狂舞到现代土著人的跳大神。
Drugs, pain, hunger, intense sexual stimulation, dance and music are the traditional tools for achieving a trance state, and the Cult hasn't really seen the need to change any of them.
毒品、疼痛、饥饿、强烈的性刺激、舞蹈和音乐,这些都是传统的达到迷幻的手段,而教徒们并不认为这些需要什么改动。
Members of the Cult have always been visionaries and rebels, even more so than other mages.
与其他法师不同,教团的成员中会满脑子不着边的幻想或者一肚子逆反的情绪的家伙特别多。
Prophetic and insightful, they expanded their minds through exhausting ritual and dangerous substances, all in the pursuit of ultimate awareness.
他们赋有预见性和洞察力。他们为了追寻最终的觉悟,进行疲人的仪式服用危险的药物使自己的意识延伸开去。
The Cult's early incarnations spread from mystery visionaries in the Near East and India.
The Cult的前身是近东和印度的神秘主义者。
There, seers learned the power of altered mind states through dance, music and simple drugs.
这些先知们用舞蹈、音乐和简单的药物寻找改变意识的力量。
Entire communities took up the whirling, fatiguing practices of seers, while in other areas hermit-like proto-Ecstatics lived as mystery men who uttered cryptic pronouncements and lived apart from the press of mundane humanity.
在有的地区他们全都在街上疯狂的旋转,用尽心力去追寻,而其他地方,教团的远祖们就像隐士一样全然不为人知,避出红尘。
In both cases, the roots of the Tradition came together with people who broke down their own boundaries of perception and comfort in the pursuit of wisdom.
而他们最终打破了自己在追寻智慧时画出的边界,使学派得以建立。
By the Renaissance, the Ecstatics had become recognized by the other Traditions, who labeled them Seers.
在文艺复兴时期,狂喜教团被其他学派承认,被认为是幻想者。
Ecstatic practices in mad, frenzied passion distinguished them from the conservatism of the times, yet their uncanny knack for foresight let them arrive in the right places at the right times.
如果在保守时代,教徒表现出的疯狂激情会使他们很容易暴露。可是正好是那时那地他们出现了,瞧这预言能力多么让人吃惊。
These Seers embraced the whole of human experience, equating passion with divinity and discarding the stifling mores of the Church.
这些先知一视同仁的接受世俗的经验和神性的激情,抛弃那些宗派规定的沉闷的规章制度。
The Seers would accept no limits — not from themselves, from society or from any gods.
除此之外,没什么东西他们不能接受,无论是来自他们自身、社会或者随便哪个神明。
This liberation both fascinated and terrified the more conservative Traditions, who alternately reviled and wondered at the Ecstatics' practices and powers.
这些革命性的行为吓坏了别的保守的学派,但也让他们看到了好处。他们斥责教团的做法,却为他们最后因此获得的力量惊叹。
Although the Cult has undergone many changes of name — from Sahajiya to Cult of Bacchus to Cult of Ecstasy — its original focus remains.
教团老是改名字,从Sahajiya到酒神信徒到狂喜教团,不过他们的主旨始终没有变
Cultists seek to surpass their notions of comfortable boundaries, to explode into awareness beyond human limits, to reach an ecstatic transcendence where their consciousness spans all time and space.
教徒们想超越自己平静的生活,冲破常人的极限去了解世界的真相,穿越所有的时空去追寻迷人的超脱。
Today, the tools are different, but the result the same.
在现代,手段会有所不同,但是结果从没有改变。
Music, dance, sex, exercise, drugs — anything that can be pursued to exhaustive, passionate explosions of feeling is fair game.
音乐、舞蹈、性、锻炼、毒品——所有这些都被用到了极至,激情迸发的感觉是唯一的目的。
The Cult thrives in the eternal second at the height of an elegant dance, the shuddering sensitivity of total exhaustion and the lateral thoughts of the opened mind.
当那华丽的舞蹈到达高潮,当那充斥全身的快感爆炸,当那绽开的意识四处飞翔,教徒们在那永恒的瞬间进入到了超脱的境界。
Its message comes to people through this music, urging people to cast aside their banal notions in favor of ecstasy, experience and their own mad visions.
他们的观点通过他们的音乐传达给人们,催促人们把那些陈腐的观念丢掉,进入那迷幻世界,体验那疯狂幻影。
Organization
组织
Flexibility is the Tradition's greatest asset.
灵活是学派的最大优势。
Because the Ecstatics understand that no boundary is permanent, they are able to see that there are always new ways to achieve goals and new ways to live their lives.
教徒知道没有什么界限是恒存的,总是不断的有新方法或者有新生活方式。
As a whole, the Cult eschews structure in favor of encouraging creative, often chaotic rebellion.
总体上说,教团的组织结构倾向于混乱和不稳定。
New experience is good experience — even if it hurts, the mage has learned something about how not to do things!
越新的体验越有价值——即使会带来伤害,法师也会知道什么事情不能做
The closest the Cult comes to a formal structure lies in its Code of Ananda, the proverbs of bliss that teach joy, compassion, sacred emotion and respect for others' passions in a sort of ethical guide that encourages each Cultist to embrace the differences of others.
原则上说,最能描述教团组织结构的是《Code of Ananda》中的记载。这本教导快乐、怜悯、神圣情绪和尊重文化差异的神赐箴言教导Cultist拥抱彼此,即使有所不同。
Unsurprisingly, the Tradition has little real structure.
当然,这样的学派不会有真正的组织结构。
Individual mages don't have a problem working together — they prefer company, usually — but they don't see the need for a hierarchy or for too much organization.
个别的法师能很好的合作——他们通常喜欢有团队——但是他们没有看到划分阶级的必要性或者太过依赖组织。
When something needs to happen, it will happen.
当需要发生的时候,事情总会发生。
If more than a few Cultists need to meet in order to solve a problem or come to a consensus, they do so in during a rare Tradition convergence.
如果大多数教徒需要集会来解决问题或者通过投票,那么他们会极其罕见的聚集起来。
Chantry houses tend to resemble community hangouts, jam-session rooms or fraternity houses more than magical workplaces, and they're often inhabited by several Cultists and a handful of Sleepers.
他们总是倾向于把即兴摇滚演奏会或者某某协会大厅之类的地方当作据点,完全没有魔法的气氛。而且他们总是几个人为单位和一小群沉睡者聚居。
Factions
派别
The Cult draws more new mages than any other Tradition, at first, because of its reputation as a gang of hippies.
教团对新人的吸引力比其他学派都大,因为它就像一群嬉皮士。
The ones who stay, though, are visionaries, one and all.
他们全都是一群生活在幻境里的人。
There's no real list of the types of people who become Ecstatic mages, because anyone can realize that they're not seeing all that there is to see.
并没有说这样的人能成为教徒而那样的不行,众所周知,谁都会沉迷于此。
The only unifying trait Ecstatics share is the fact that they realize, even if they haven't yet Awakened, that limitations and boundaries can be surpassed.
这些教徒们唯一的共同点大概就是他们能认识到极限和境界是可以被超越的,即使他们还没有觉醒。
There exist a few small sects within the Cult, primarily of extremists or those who feel the usefulness of some organization.
在教团当中存在着一些小的宗派,主要是一些极端分子和认为有些组织没用的人。
The Aghoris are a centuries-old faction near Bengali in India, who practice mutilation, pain and destruction as tools to surpass the mortal body.
The Aghoris是一个在印度孟加拉流传了数百年的派别,他们相信自残、疼痛和毁坏是超越凡俗的手段。
By destroying the shell, they reason, they can encourage the growth of the soul.
毁坏皮囊,灵魂会茁壮成长。
This rather extreme philosophy denies the Ecstatic Code of Ananda, and most other Ecstatics stay the hell away from these dangerous types.
这样极端的哲学观点全然反对狂喜教团的《Code of Ananda》,其他的教徒对他们避之不及。
In Europe and the Americas, some Cultists continue the decadent practices of the late Hellfire Clubs, moving in secret circles of "gentlemen's societies" complete with mutilating initiation rites, intoxicants and damaging drugs and painful mind-games and emotionally manipulative "pleasures".
在欧洲和美国,有些教徒继续地狱之火俱乐部晚期的颓风,加入“绅士社会”的生活圈子,自残、酗酒、吸毒、进行痛苦的意志考验、体验那种“愉快”。
These Acharne move among all of the stylish-yet-pained subcultures, especially the modern Gothic movement, spreading their particular joy of damnation with an amorality that sets them apart from Cultists or Hollowers.
这些Acharne狂热的鼓吹现代那些让人痛苦的流行,尤其是现代歌特运动。他们对那些该诅咒的事情的热情使他们既不被教团接受又被颓废者排斥。
They, too, see the Code of Ananda as weakness.
他们也把《Code of Ananda》看成软弱的象征。
They practice the Mind Sphere in their pursuit of emotional mastery.
通过对情绪的掌握,他们对思想领域颇有研究。
The Hagalaz are a violent group of Nordic berserkers, rune mages and tricksters, sometimes with ties to other sorcerous societies that share their passions.
The Hagalaz是个日耳曼蛮子的暴力组织,如尼法师,有的时候会与其他的巫师合作。
Engaging in bloody rune-carving and dangerous traps reminiscent of the Norse deity Loki, they personify the madness that runs through the chaotic side of Scandinavian myth.
血腥的如尼雕刻和各种危险的玩意让人回忆起挪威人的破坏神洛基,哦,多么的动人,一切的一切都被赋予了斯堪的纳维亚人神话中那种疯狂。
These dangerous types see the modern world and its religions as weak, and they push to overthrow them with a more militant Valhallan society.
在这些危险的家伙看来现在的世界和宗教是那么的羸弱,他们想推翻它代以自己那样好战凶悍的社会。
Consorting with the mercurial fae, the Fellowship of Pan indulges in rites of sex, drinking, and Muse-inspired poetry and debate.
与墨丘利神般的仙灵混血的the Fellowship of Pan在典礼上纵酒、乱交、问缪斯要作诗的灵感、进行希腊式的辩论。
These Cultists maintain ties with the modern descendants of the fae and initiate their members through the wild parties of the satyrs.
这些教徒与仙灵在现代的后代仍然保持联系,而且在半人羊的聚会中接受会员入会。
Politically active Cultists often wind up in the Dissonance Society, a small group that teaches personal responsibility and ethics as a cornerstone for anarchic society.
政治头脑活跃的教徒总是会聚集在the Dissonance Society派周围,这是一个片面鼓吹个人责任和道德的无政府主义组织。
Members of the Society indulge in a wide range of criminal (sometimes almost terrorist) activities and argue for the overthrow of the stifling chains of society.
这个组织的成员总是沉溺于进行大范围的犯罪(通常是恐怖活动)并企图推翻现在沉闷的社会。
Members of this group tend to have an intellectual streak, using debate and discussion as tools just as much as action.
这个组织的成员大都看上去像知识分子,他们不仅崇尚行动也崇尚理智的辩论。
The K'an Lu Taoists contrast with the Akashic Brotherhood as a sect that practices extreme passion and physical pleasure as opposed to the asceticism of the monks.
The K'an Lu道教道士和the Akashic Brotherhood的和尚有显著的不同,他们不躲避激情和物质娱乐。
However, the enlightened K'an Lu see the need for a balance between discipline and excess, so they too practice martial arts, meditation, trances and discipline.
不管怎么说,聪明的K'an Lu知道该在秩序和自由之间寻找一个平衡点,所以他们同时修习武艺、医术、入定和自律。
The contrast between discipline and chaos lets them cut loose from the limits of experience to open their doors of perception in controlled ways.
这种处理秩序和混乱的方式使他们在追寻超越的时候不再有偏见和障碍。
Modern Klubwerks (or "clubkids," or just "clubbers," depending upon who you ask) are Cultists who indulge in the mass consciousness of nightclubs and concerts.
现代的Klubwerks(或者叫"clubkids"或者叫"clubbers"随你高兴)是指那些沉溺于夜总会的家伙。
In the pressing throng of humanity sharing a common beat, these muses reach out for the primal pulse of the mob.
同样的心跳脉动代表着同样的人性,奔腾的血液带来的原初冲动使他们聚集倒一起。
To them, the heartbeat of many people moves beyond the mind of the one; the actions taken in the heat of frenzied dance reflect basic human impulse unfettered by reasoning or prudish mores.
对于他们来说,万众一心比一意孤行要强大;那火辣疯狂的舞蹈冲破了世俗的枷锁反映出人的本性。
These dancers indulge in all of the club scenes, creating magic in the waves of humanity that throng such venues.
这些舞者沉溺于夜总会的灯红酒绿,从那喧闹的人声里他们感悟到魔法。
Philosophy
观念
Ecstatic philosophy holds that all limitations are self-imposed.
教徒认为一切障碍都是庸人自扰。
Humans build their own comfortable domiciles in both the physical and mental worlds.
看似舒适的家不仅困住了普通人的身体,也困住了他们的灵魂。
To surpass one's limits, one must move beyond the barriers of comfort and tranquility.
要超越极限,就要突破舒适宁静之类的障碍。
Although sanity and safety are left behind, the true experience lies beyond — learning comes from new experience, not repetitions of old, tired things.
把健康和安全丢在身后,真正的世界就在眼前——从新的经历中学习,别管那些老旧的无意义的玩意。
Everyone must strive to push outward and discover their own new ways of learning about the world.
每个人都要努力向外求索,寻觅他们自己认识世界的方法。
The ecstatic state is just a mind open to new experiences because it's released from the confines of self-imposed limits.
The ecstatic的方式是开放自己的意识去接受新的经历,这是穿越自我局限的通行证。
Once human limits are breached, the person sees beyond the horizon of human insight, to reach a truly cosmic consciousness.
当局限被打破,人们的洞察力就可以超越凡人,看到宇宙真正的奥秘。
Tools like sex and drugs — the Kamamarga, or paths to ecstasy — just open the door.
像性爱、毒品这样的手段只不过是块敲门砖。
It's up to the individual to step through, to see what's on the other side and to keep on going past where even those crutches take her, to the heart of the Lakashim, the pulse that drives the world.
它带领少数人穿过迷雾,带他们去看看雾那边是什么,扶他们继续前行,到the Lakashim的心脏,那里的脉动推动着世界。
Failings
弱点
All of the Cult's understanding comes with a serious glitch, unfortunately.
不幸的是,教徒的所有领悟来自于严重的失常。
The Ecstatics' tools generally end up as crutches.
教徒的手段都像拐棍,不能指引方向。
If the mage doesn't pay attention to what she's really doing — looking beyond her mind and her life for answers — she runs the very real risk of becoming dependent on her focus to do magic in any way, or even just to live.
如果法师不把注意力集中在她要干的事情上——搜索她的意识和生命以寻找答案——她就要冒上很大的危险,有可能只记得要放法术或者只记得要活下去。
And that dependency isn't just psychological.
而且,瘾不仅仅是心理上的。
A lot of Cultists become addicted to drugs or absorbed by their chosen foci to the point that nothing else can get beyond it into their lives.
很多教徒有毒瘾或者过于专心于做一些事情以至于没有其他的精力。
Cult mages also fall prey to their own chaos.
教徒法师也被他们自己的混乱所折磨。
They rebel so hard, or they try to go in so many directions at once, that nothing ever gets accomplished.
他们是那么的反叛又或者他们试图同时进行很多方面的探索,以至于没有什么事情他们能好好完成。
Chaos and rebellion must be directed somehow, or the energy just swirls around in a sort of tornado and does no one any good.
混乱和反叛是一定要被指导的,否则就像龙卷风一样,虽然能量巨大,但是做不了什么好事。
Theories and Practices
理论与实践
Each Ecstatic has her favorite tools.
每个Ecstatic都有她偏爱的手段。
Some things just work better for some people than others.
某些东西在某些人身上特别有效。
That said, though, many Ecstatics lean toward some combination of drugs and music.
而且有不少教徒同时借助毒品和音乐的力量。
Music is the most powerful tool for changing perception, according to many Ecstatic mages, and it's the easiest way to really get in touch with the primal and spiritual energies within and without.
据不少Ecstatic法师说,音乐是改变感知最强大手段,而且无论在哪里——要获得和能量的共鸣——这都是最简单的途径。
Even though the Cult of Ecstasy encourages the use of tools in achieving altered states, no Cultist would ever force drugs, sex or any other experience on another person.
即使狂喜教团一直鼓吹手段的作用,但是从没有Cultist强迫别人使用毒品、音乐或者其他手段。
The point of such states is to increase understanding and empathy, not to kill it.
关键在于增加心底的理解和精神的投入而不是相反。
No mage who has felt the pain of the Earth or of the child down the street could bring herself to hurt an innocent.
一个感受着俗世的苦恼感受着孩子刚降生时那样的痛苦的法师怎么会伤害一个无辜者。
Cultists aren't drug dealers and they aren't pimps.
Cultists不会是个毒贩子也不会是皮条客。
On the other hand, if someone comes to an Ecstatic looking for a new way to see his life, the mage will be more than happy to help him extend his senses in whatever way he's comfortable with.
换句话来说,如果有人加入教团找新的生活方式,法师会很高兴地帮助他寻找一个让他舒服的手段。
Once the Cultist is enlightened enough, she can achieve her transcendent state without outside help.
当教徒足够醒觉,她就可以不借外力达到出神的状态。
She begins to understand that the only tool that's really necessary to move beyond customary boundaries is her own mind.
她就会明白唯一真正需要借助的手段是她自己的头脑。
Few Ecstatics truly abandon their foci, but those few that do become sages — they know what the future might hold and they have a better understanding of the entirety of the universe than many mages of other Traditions.
极少有教徒完全放弃组件,但是这些人成为了大师——他们对未来会如何对宇宙到底是怎么回事有深刻的看法,远远超过其他学派的其他法师。
The trick is to wean the mage away from the thought that the drug, music or other tool is the experience.
让法师对毒品、音乐和其他玩意断瘾的窍门是大量的经验。
The core of the Cult's approach to magic lies in the belief that the senses can be extended to include just about everything.
教徒施展法术的核心思想是五感可以扩展到所有的领域。
Once the mage has experienced and understood a thing or a situation, she can reach out and adjust it to fit her will.
当法师体验过或者理解一个东西或一个情况,她就可以用自己的意志把握它。
Other peoples' perceptions can also be altered.
其他人的对其的感知也可以被改变。
Of course that door was always there; you just never noticed it before, right ?
当然,方法一直在那里;你以前只是还不知道,对吧?
Changing the way a person sees life or a particular instance is one of the Cult's best approaches to magic.
改变一个人观察世界的方式或者看待情况的感觉是教徒施法的不二法门。
Perception, after all, is reality.
毕竟感觉到的就是真实。
Just as the Ecstatics surpass the boundaries of mundane thought and understanding, they also jump the boundaries of time itself.
教徒不仅仅能超越思维的极限,他们也一样能超越时间本身。
They understand that time is a human-constructed idea, just like ethics and language.
他们认为时间的刻度只不过是人自设的,就像道德和语言。
Time remains the Tradition's particular area of expertise, and Cultists seem to have an innate understanding of and control over how they and others perceive the passage of seconds, even years.
时间是传统学派独有的力量,教徒对时间有着天生的认识,能改变自己和别人对分秒甚至年月流逝的感观。
As a result of their constant gazing into five minutes ago and three days hence, they've developed a distracted look.
他们专注于五分钟前和三天后的时候会显得恍恍惚惚。
People usually write this look off as a stoned expression, but the Ecstatic is more likely looking at who his lunch date will be tomorrow.
人们通常认为这样的样子是吸毒后的恍惚,但是教徒更愿意把这样看——这人的午餐时间看来要推迟到明天了。
Specialty Sphere: Time
特殊领域:时间
Common Foci: Music, dance, drugs, meditation, fasting, sex, exercise
普通组件:音乐、舞蹈、毒品、冥想、禁食、性、锻炼
Concepts: Deadhead, extreme athlete, exotic dancer, musician, nature boy, transcendentalist, yogi
角色概念:笨瓜、极限运动员、异国舞女、音乐家、本色男孩、先验论者、瑜珈修行者
Stereotypes
其它学派的评价:
Akashic Brotherhood: They limit themselves needlessly. There's much to be learned by going beyond moderation.
阿卡希兄弟会:他们局限自己的行为毫无意义。怎么超越所谓的适度是他们该学的。
Celestial Chorus: Too hung up on the "power of denial"!
天国颂歌:太在乎"power of denial"了!
Dreamspeakers: A dying art, focused only on their past. But, man, they have some seriously good shit....
梦语者:死亡的艺术,他们只顾影自怜。但是,他们还真有些好玩意。
Euthanatos: We're opposite sides of the same coin. Or Wheel.
慈悲终结团:如果有枚硬币,那我们是人头他们是字。
Order of Hermes: You can't put numbers on passion. Once they rediscover the joy of Creation, their powers will wax again. Soon.
赫耳墨斯修士:你不能靠激情维持生命。当他们重现造物的乐事,他们的力量会重生。这一天就要来了。
Sons of Ether: Making science more, better, faster. They just have to get out of the lab more often!
以太之子:让科学更高更快更强。该多走出实验室呼吸些空气!
Verbena: There's no need to drag down sex and pain when they can raise you up.
圣叶:当性欲和疼痛降临的时候,没有必要降低它们。
Virtual Adepts: Broad possibilities... the spirit is willing, but the flesh is flaccid.
虚无党:宽广的前景……敏捷的精神,虚弱的肉体。
Hollow Ones: It's a Black Celebration. Morbidity has its limits, though.
颓废者:这是黑暗的庆典,但是即使颓败也有个极限。