By Anders Sandberg (2 March 1995)
The Apostles are an ancient and mixed group of mages and sleepers, and have existed as organised groups only for brief periods of time. They trace their beginnings to the Hellenic era in the West, where they opposed the Gnostic enlightenment, and to ancient Indian sects which sought to show people the glories of living and reincarnating. They incited many heretical Christian sects, were influential in the formation of modern Satanism, and have successfully corrupted more mages of the Traditions and Technocracy than all other Nephandi together. At least that is their boast.
The basic tenet of their philosophy is the supremacy of matter, division and pleasure. They argue that the One created the world and split apart into the Pure Ones in order to experience it, to learn and revel in being physical and alive. Those denying the flesh and the world, trying to transcend it and join with the Highest are just trying to leave the party before its over. If they really understood the wishes of the Highest, they would instead use their powers to take pleasure in the world, to continue the great fall from Spirit into Matter. There is no need to strive for higher goals; soon enough the Highest may decide to call all of the shards of Creation home again, but before that, it is their duty to undergo all the transformations, pains and pleasures of living.
In the West, the Apostles have had great success perverting and seducing many young Cultists of Ecstasy who didn't truly understand their tradition's teachings. Instead of using pleasure and experience as a tool to break through all illusions and joyfully transcend them, they mire themselves down in physical pleasures with no higher goal than mere gratification. More experienced Cultists do their best to counter the cancer spread by the Apostles, with mixed success. Often the Apostles mix with the wandering and idiosyncratic cultists, appearing to be normal members. This causes painful internal schisms, especially since many apprentices and disciples think their mentors are just spoil-sports who have lost the spark of enjoyment.
However, the greatest triumph of the Apostles is the corruption of the Technocracy. While they are not responsible for all Its atrocities, they have been very successful at poisoning the philosophy of the technomancers. Instead of boldly looking forward and upward, plotting a path towards Ascension of mankind, they are more interested in adding new technologies and sciences to the paradigm. They have become petty demiurges themselves. The Syndicate is most infected, and has devoted itself to making sure the Masses turn from spiritualism to materialism. Many Syndicate mages have also been blinded by greed and ambition, losing their concern for Ascension in the pursuit of power. The members of the other conventions are not as infected, but the entire technomancer movement (including the Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts) has been somewhat influenced and blindly moves in the direction of the Apostles. And through the Technocracy, the Apostles has influenced billions of people.
The Apostles are, of course, regarded as enemies of Ascension by almost all traditions. The Akashic Brothers and Euthanatos often join forces in combating their spread of materialism in Asia. Influential members of the Cult of Ecstasy do their best to rid their tradition of the disease. The Celestial Chorus zealously guards the spiritual purity of itself and its associates (which often is mistaken for fanatism and inquisition). However, the Sons of Ether and Virtual Adepts regard most of the fear of the Apostles as outdated, since technology now gives mankind a way out from the world of matter by reshaping it; the world of spirit can be built.
The Apostles have a complex relation with the Nephandi. Although the Traditions regard them as Nephandi who strive to tempt everyone from the path of Ascension, the Apostles do not serve any other powers than themselves. This sometimes puts them in conflict with the "real" Nephandi, who serve dark, outside powers, something the Apostles find just as silly as serving the high ideals of the Traditions. In fact, the Apostles have seduced many Nephandi away from their path to Descension. This has made many powerful Nephandi declare the Apostles to be their enemies. However, there are other groups of Apostles and Nephandi who get along quite well, seeing each other as necessary parts of reality.
The Technocracy does not regard the Apostles as very important at all. The New World Order has simply classified them as mages seeking personal gain instead of changing reality, and therefore not the kind of direct threat as the Traditions, Marauders or Nephandi. Since most Apostles prefer to work in a rather low-key way and mainly use coincidental magick, they are no big threat to static reality. In fact, the Syndicate has found many promising recruits among them.
The Apostles are more a philosophy than a real tradition; their ideology has independently been rediscovered many times. In fact, most groups of the Apostles have never been in contact with each other. They don't need to, since they all agree on the course: show the world that pleasure and materialism is good and rewarding, while spirituality at its best is fruitless. Most members are complete hedonists, doing their best to experience all kinds of new and exciting vices. They also use their magick to gain more wealth and power, finding new ways to acquire them without getting caught by Paradox, society, other mages or their own conscience. However, pleasure can take many forms and does not necessarily have to involve the conventional vices. Many Apostles are very keen on travelling and exploring, seeking out beautiful and exotic places. They argue, "If they weren't intended to be enjoyed, why would they be there?" Other Apostles enjoy more intellectual pursuits, like literature and science. Although they might appear to seek higher levels, they are really just enjoying the works of Man and nature. This faction has been the most successful at infiltrating the Order of Hermes and Technocracy.
The Apostles have many allies and unwitting pawns. Among the spirits, they get along very well with the Hestilcs, which they often summon to interact with. They also have some contact with the Toreadors, especially the Poseurs. But it is among sleepers they have their real influence. Many of the Apostles have groupies, followers and admirers who they freely manipulate. They often gather economical influence, and some Apostles are extremely rich. And since they like to move in the jet-set, they tend to know a lot of interesting and important people.
What makes the Apostles so insidious is the seductiveness and simplicity of their message. They are masters of making mages stray from the Path and turn to comfortable and joyous stagnation. The worst thing is that even if individual Apostles aren't that interested in tempting others, they tend to do it anyway just by existing. When young mages ask their mentors why the Apostles seem to do so well, and get no satisfactory answer, they start to wonder if they really have to put up with all the restrictions and formalism of their traditions. And when the seed has been planted, it grows...
They mainly see the spheres as tools to use for their continued enjoyment of the world, and usually don't try to understand or master them for their own sakes. This, combined with the fact that they usually aren't interested in higher matters like Ascension, tends to stagnate their magickal development. Many Apostles who have left their traditions never develop further. Sometimes energetic members make an effort to advance, usually to gain more ability to control the Illusion around them, but it is uncommon.
Correspondence: Since everything is essentially one, space is really just a temporary result of the division of the One. But we are thankful for it. This sphere is good for getting around, spying on your enemies and finding new exciting destinations.
Entropy: We are still moving from pure spirit to base matter, and Entropy is the obvious result. Everything that is high and ordered will sooner or later break down into even lower levels. Since the world is filled with randomness and decay, this is one of the most potent spheres. Make your own luck, and dispatch your enemies or other spoil-sports with decay.
Forces: Forces are the brilliant and loud arpeggios of the symphony of the world. Fun, but a bit too flashy.
Life: There is no doubt that life is the greatest creation of the Demiurge. Such an ability to feel, to live, to exist! And we can reshape it to new forms, with new abilities to experience the world. The Sphere of life is about all the pleasures of the flesh.
Matter: Pieces of matter are the building blocks of the world, the bars of our golden cage. Enjoy their beauty, gather them into wealth and reshape those parts of the world which are not to your liking.
Mind: Mind is the spark of consciousness the One let descend into the world, in order to experience it and remember it. Since all minds once were one, what one mind thinks or feels, another mind can also think and feel. Our minds give us the ability to influence others, to play with emotions and thoughts like the toys they are.
Prime: Quintessence is the essence of the One, which It shaped into the world. Since we fulfill the wishes of the Highest, we are also able to reshape the world, to grant existence or remove it from things just like the Demiurge we seek to mirror.
Spirit: There are a manifold levels of existence, forming a complex interlacing web witnessing of the ingenuity of the creator. We can travel these other levels and interact with their denizens. It might even be possible to use this sphere to return to the primordial unity, but that would be rather stupid.
Time: Time is the great curse and boon the Demiurge gave us. It makes everything transitory, which ends the pleasure but also forces us to seek out new pleasures and experiences. It hides what will come and has been to avoid spoiling the fun (although this sphere allows us to peek anyway).
Dreamspeakers: They are too serious, too worried about the environment, the spirits and their responsibility. If they only could understand that there is a whole world waiting outside the holy sweating lodge!
Celestial Chorus: They are the kind of people who constantly look at their watches during a great party, eagerly awaiting the right moment to say their good byes and go home, just because they are too inhibited to really participate. The world isn't that bad!
Cult of Ecstasy: They are moving closer to us all the time. Of all the traditions, they show the most promise.
Euthanatos: These serious, dedicated killers seek to remove everyone who has too much fun for their limited taste. Avoid them, stop them and reveal who they really are to the other Traditions.
Hollow Ones: Promising!
Order of Hermes: The pursuit of knowledge doesn't necessarily lead to enlightenment. In fact, the entire Order has slowly been moving in our direction the last thousand years.
Sons of Ether: These mages have really understood the joy of the Demiurge when he created the world. Everyone of them is inventing their own new world.
Verbena: So close, so far away.
Virtual Adepts: They have been seduced by the Gnostic vision, and try to create a perfect world of information instead of spirit or matter. Fortunately, most of them are conscious of the rest of the world, if a little bit too inhibited.
This is often used by the Apostles to enhance their experiences. They go into an altered state of consciousness where they experience everything as different kinds of pleasure; sounds, touch, pain, thought, sorrow and sight, all are exciting sensations. The mage will still be aware of the outside world, although the pleasure may cloud his judgement (after all, in this state a car accident is orgasmic).
Animal Attraction (Correspondence 2 Mind 2 Life 2)
This fills the mage and a victim with intense sexual attraction to each other, both on the mental and physical level. They are linked together by a bond of passion, which can only be released when they have enjoyed each other. The Apostles find this rote very useful, since many of their victims latter rationalise their behaviour and think they really wanted to give themselves to the mage.
O Fortuna, Imperatrix Mundi (Entropy 2 Time 2 Mind 2)
By linking their subconscious with the flow of randomness and time, the Apostles gain an inordinate amount of luck and opportunity. They just follow their impulses, and they often turn out to be both right and enjoyable.
For the duration of the effect, as long as the influenced person just follows his or her whims, he or she will be able to avoid accidents and irritations, while having good luck and stumbling over opportunities.
Prison of Beauty (Mind 3)
This defensive rote was apparently inspired by the weakness of the Toreadors. The Apostle simply floods the mind of the victim with the beauty of something, be it a flower, a person or just a shadow. The victim becomes entranced and forgets everything he or she was doing.
Haven't I seen you before? (Mind 3 Time 2)
This is a trick the Apostles often use to gain the friendship of influential people. By subtly manipulating memories, emotions and sense of time, they can make other people think they recognise the mage as a friend, although they don't remember when they have met. The mage uses Mind and Time to dredge up plausible bits of information, which are used to "remind" victims ("Don't you remember me James? At Lord Winthorphe's dinner, across the table?"). Although they still won't be able to remember meeting the mage, most people quickly rationalise away this and believe he really is an old, if forgotten, friend.
Enter the World (Correspondence 3 Spirit 2 Mind 1)
Some of the more mystical Apostles seek greater union with the world than just enjoying it. This rote is the first step: they expand their awareness more and more to all levels of existence, seeking to encompass them. Such mages may spend days or even weeks in blissful trance as they experience a multitude of sensations.
Join the World (Correspondence 5 Spirit 5 Mind 5 Prime 4)
Some of the most powerful Apostles actually become the world. By spreading their consciousnesses into every part of it, to every level, and then dissolving the physical boundaries of their bodies, they become an integral part of everything. They can experience all pleasure, all pain, everything that happens everywhere. Forever. This is the closest thing the Apostles have to Ascension.