An Introduction
By opening this booklet, you've already started to walk a path towards your new life, congratulations! Contained within the pages of this booklet are ten simple steps towards success, wealth, happiness, status, personal enrichment, and total fulfilment.This booklet is not a treasure map that'll lead you to the life you've always wanted, but it is an invitation to take your first few steps on the road to enlightenment. Like any long and difficult journey, it's best to have companions at your side, and an escort who knows the way. You're in luck, Culte de la Croix will offer you both.But what is Culte de la Croix?If you're like most who find themselves reading this booklet, it was passed along to you by a friend or family member. Someone who cares about you and only wants the best for you. So you must be asking yourself why we call ourselves a "cult". We did this because we knew that the term would be thrown at us, so we decided to reclaim the word and make it our own. We are not a religion, we are a movement. One set on self-improvement through fellowship between our followers, so that they might improve the places they call home, and eventually everywhere else.It's a lofty goal, but not an impossible one. We'd love you to join us and take your place at our side as we chart a course towards a new way of thinking, a new way of being.
Veneration Of The Self
You are special. You are unique. You are amazing.There are some of you who are already aware of this fact, perhaps you've been told this by your close ones, your peers, tutors, parents, and the like. But for most, these words may come as a shock.Most have been told the opposite, had it beaten into their heads from an early age, made to feel lesser, ordinary, regular. Just another nameless face in the crowd, another drone in the hive. Such things cause injury to the mind, the heart, and the spirit. Deep down you've felt that you were always extraordinary. You knew it, but lacked the ability to truly prove it. Lacked the resources, the connections, the community. Leaving you with self-doubt and sadness at the core of your being.It doesn't have to be this way, friend. There's a better way.It begins with a real self-examination. Finding the negative aspects of your life, the people suppressing your true potential, and removing these obstacles to self-realization from your life. It isn't an easy process, but nothing worth doing ever is. Once freed of obstacles, one can finally know and love the self. Because only when we love ourselves can we truly love others.Some might call such a focus on the self to be the height of selfishness. Yes. It's not only alright to be selfish, it's essential. People who always put others ahead of themselves end up in last place in the race of life. It's about time you were the winner you've always known you could be.Warning: Going through this process without help will lead you towards loneliness, pain, and failure. None of us can do this alone. Culte de la Croix can guide you through this most difficult of steps, the first one. You won't have to do it alone, you'll be among others who are either going through the same process as yourself, or have already done it. With us, you'll finally have the support and reassurance that you've always deserved.
Abolition Of Morality
For your entire life someone else has told you what was right and wrong. Now it's time for you to decide for yourself how to live your life.When we speak of abolishing morality, we mean the moral code forced upon society by those long dead. Those who would be lost in this modern world. Those who couldn't possibly have foreseen how events played out. And those who hold so tightly to tradition for tradition's sake, and no other reason. These are the rules of the past for people who either chose to, or our forced to, live in the past. It's time to move on.The members of our order are adults, capable of making their own life choices. We trust in their judgement to do right by themselves and the fellowship. We actively support these choices and believe in every member's personal freedom to make them as they see fit, for their own lives.Is this "anarchy"?No. As you'll discover later on in this booklet, we believe in devotions to the order. Not just our order, but order in general. Living shamelessly does not mean living in a constant state of chaos.What does it mean?It means allowing yourself the ability to enjoy your life on your own terms. To not concern yourself with the perceptions and judgements of others. To allow others to do the same without judging them for it.Does letting go of tradition mean abandoning my faith?No. Not at all. Infact we actively encourage you to continue practicing it, if you desire. Culte de la Croix is not a religion, nor does it mean to replace a religion. You may feel free to worship The Twelve, The Elementals, The Kami, or whatever your higher power may be. Though we would suggest a focus on Nald'thal and Menphina, as both closely align with our own teachings in many ways.Why is abolishing morality important?While we could not possibly fill this small booklet with the details of all our rites and practices, living shamelessly is a key aspect to many of them. Shame is the product of the moral code, a way to discourage people from acting outside of societal norms which none of us ever had a say in. It has been programmed into us over eras by those who wish only for ordinary people to exist. You are not ordinary. You are special. These rules do not apply to you.We will help you let go of your shame.
Consolidation Of Power
There are many types of power in this world. In isolation, power can improve the life of the one who wields it. When that power is shared, added to, improved, and grown for the benefit of all, each individual becomes even more powerful for the sharing.When we speak of sharing power, we mean the consolidation of power among our order. Its members come from different walks of life, have different skillsets, different levels of influence and authority in the communities they live in. Some are wealthier, some are better connected, some are more learned, some are masters of their trades, some hold sway with the governments of the various city-states, and some hold sway over the commonfolk. Each form of power is as important as it is impressive. When united in common purpose, minds can be changed at every level of society.Power isn't something freely given away. One must pay a toll to have access to the accumulated power of our fellowship. Either in skill, duty, influence, knowledge, or coin. Some cost must be extracted for you to become enlightened fully.But in the grand scheme, it really is a small cost for what is given in return. Such tiny sacrifices, when combined together become something far greater.Each level of our process comes with different expectations and different degrees of access. The most loyal and devoted benefit the most from the exchange. But even at the start, you will find benefit, friend. Culte de la Croix takes care of the enitre fellowship.You'll learn more about how this works once joining our order and becoming a full member of our fellowship. We look forward to that day.
Pleasure Above All
Just as there are many types of power, there are even more types of pleasure. It is the sweet fruit which grows from the trees our order is planting. The ultimate reward for all the difficult work we must carry out. In every form it takes, pleasure is to be shared and enjoyed among the fellowship.When we spoke earlier about living shamelessly, it was so that we might put pleasure above all. Of the flesh, the blood, the mind, the senses, the soul. A full life demands we experience and share the full gamut of personal satisfaction.Many have lived lives burdened by shame or sheltered from experience. For these people, simply changing one's mindset is difficult at best and traumatic in the worst cases. The fellowship of Culte de la Croix is well-aware of this simple fact. It is not in our best interest to damage the members of our order. Which is why take care to guide new members through the process, with support, reassurance, and understanding. Consent in these matters is always vital.What are the types of pleasured shared and enjoyed?Of the Flesh: These are physical pleasures, sensual, sexual. Without shame or inhibition, lust, desire, affection, and physical comfort can be given and received between the fellowship, during the service or privately. Without expectation or moral obligation. Without resentment or jealousy. Without shame or regret.Of the Blood: These are the raw and visceral pleasures, primal, ritualistic, and preternatural. When one sates their urges in a safe and judgement-free environment, among their brothers and sisters in fellowship, such dark impulse might be better contained or put to good use.Of the Mind: These are the mental and intellectual pleasures, the academic, the philosophical, the chemical. Free to expand one's mind however they see fit, the members of our order may achieve the intense pleasure of personal experimentation, discovery, and enlightenment.Of the Senses: These the sensory pleasures, where body and mind mesh. The joy of hearing music, of eating and drinking to excess, feeling a delightful texture against your skin, of viewing thought provoking art, or any pleasure that might fill the senses and flood the mind.Of the Soul: These are perhaps the most profound pleasures of all. The spiritual, the aetherial, of the gods and realities beyond our knowledge or comprehension, the divine and the terrible, of life and death and everything beyond and in between. Pleasures which require ritual and magic, sacrifice and ecstatic fervor. To feel them is sublime and rare. Once felt, one would be willing to do almost anything to recapture the experience. We can guide you there again.All of these and more! And you deserve no less than your total satisfaction. Let us share them with you.
Devotion To The Order
What does devotion mean to our order?As you'll soon learn, it means quite a few things. The further you progress through the process of self-enlightenment, the more you will discover that the order's guiding hand was as essential to your journey as your own dedication and open-mindedness. While we are a movement dedicated to the individual, none of us can do it all by ourselves. And it takes than just a change of perspective or following our tenets.True devotion is a willingness to do whatever is necessary to support your brothers and sisters of the order, and Culte de la Croix as an organization. This does not stop, even after you've reached a state of true enlightenment and self-realization. It never stops. Those who have benefit from the process are expected to offer their guiding hands to the newest members of the order. They're expected to defend the order against slander and defamation. They're expected to uphold our image in public and live by our tenets in private.To do these things, even after reaching your own personal goals, takes real devotion. But it's not the sort of thing a person develops overnight. Trust must be earned in both directions you must accept the members of this order as family and be accepted by them in kind. It takes time, patience, perseverance, and dedication to the process.You will reach this point, friend. Of that, there is no doubt. And once you do, a world will open up to you that you were unaware existed. And you will be the master of your own fate, with an army of loyal brothers and sisters at your side, all prepared to use their combined power to accomplish any goals you all decide are worthy of completing. The truly devoted will have limitless knowledge, power, pleasure, and full control over their destiny. Among the special, none are more so than the orders most devoted.
Advanced Knowledge
Everything you've just read will be covered in the first stages of your journey to self-enlightenment. This can typically take from one to three turns, depending on your ability to retain the many lessons and form true comradery with your brothers and sisters in the order, along with making contributions to the consolidation of power as discussed in section 2 of this booklet.Once you reached that level of devotion to Culte de la Croix, you will continue with the following Advanced Knowldge on your path to total fulfillment. Learning this knowledge will answer many of the question you will still have about the order, its origins, its connections to the past and its full plan for the future. These lessons will require you to refocus your efforts and prove your devotion fully to Culte de la Croix and its Guiding Hand.
Worship Of The Flesh
Learning how and why we worship the flesh will allow you to fully unlock your Pleasure Potential. Your ability to enjoy and share pleasure will become fully unlocked and the mystery of why the order puts Pleasure Above All will be solved for you. This deep level of self-realization and enlightenment will profoundly change your life in ways you will only be allowed to discover during Advanced Service Group and through your coursework and testing.
Reverence Of The Blood
Blood is life, blood is legacy, blood is living record, our mark on this plane. Blood is anger, blood is death, blood is rage, our most primal impulses made manifest. It is everything we are, have ever been, and will ever be. Passed from generation to generation, the very vessel of our aether. To know the blood is to know the truth of live and death, to see past the physical into the spiritual, and even the cosmic. The Guiding Hand will instruct you and your peers, teaching you the lessons and testing your retention. It is an honor only the most devoted receive.