THE PATH OF THE ASCENSIONIST
A hidden path beneath The Ascensionist & Babel
Beneath the surface of The Ascensionist and Babel, another story was unfolding quietly, slowly, and out of view. A path revealed only to the few who chose to follow it.
This hidden narrative traces the classic arc of the Hero’s Journey, with The Ascensionist as its central figure. Told across ten cassette releases, each limited to just 33 copies, the series charted the stages of transformation through sound, symbol, and puzzle.
Unlike the The Canonical albums, these works leaned toward the ambient and the experimental. Structure dissolved. Rhythm faded. What remained were landscapes of atmosphere. Music meant not to be consumed, but to be discovered.
These cassettes were never intended for wide release. They served as markers along a deeper initiation and the early foundation of what would later become known as The Cultus.
Each cassette arrived with an Æterno coin, redeemable through The Gods of the Marketplace, but only by solving the puzzle embedded within the physical design. The puzzles themselves evolved alongside the series. Early releases required a planchette style decoding process, while later editions introduced cipher disc mechanics that revealed hidden passwords. In every case, the entire package, artwork, layout, inserts, and design, formed part of the solution.
The artwork for each cassette corresponded to a specific stage of the Hero’s Journey, and each stage reflected a movement unfolding within the larger albums it supported.
These were not companion pieces.
They were the architecture beneath.
What follows is the full map of the path.
OVERVIEW
Form follows symbol.
The exterior artwork for each cassette in the series was designed to function as part of a larger whole. When all ten The Path of The Ascensionist cassettes were aligned, their spines revealed a single contiguous image, an unbroken visual running the full length of the collection.
Though unified in tone, each release bore distinct markings. A set of unique symbols identified its place in the sequence, most notably the position of the Sephirot within the octagram, a map of initiation woven into the design.
The Æterno coins were created as a RANGES specific currency, intended to be passed hand to hand, often through the postal service. Each coin arrived in a sealed envelope marked with the official Æterno insignia, fastened in black wax using a custom RANGES signet.
These were not products.
They were artifacts.
Each one was part of the path.
Cassette I: The Call to Adventure
Release Date: 03.30.2018 | Inceptus
The yearning begins. The step is taken.
The Ascensionist hears the call, leaving behind the familiar.
What was once comfortable is no longer enough. The world that was known cannot satisfy what has awakened.
The artwork reflects this shift. A vast wilderness is overlaid with the checkerboard floor, a symbol of base consciousness, unrefined man suspended in polarity. Black and white. Good and evil. Known and unknown. The Hero begins here, caught between opposites, but drawn forward by the promise of something greater.
The tracklist mirrors this movement, from the elemental AB SA RO KA to the celestial reach of Solar Mansions. The ascent has not yet begun, but the decision has been made.
The journey is no longer optional.
Cassette II: Crossing the Threshold
Release Date: 06.30.2018 | Aurora
The veil is drawn back. The self is left behind.
The Hero has wandered long enough. Now he stands before the gate, the temple that marks the boundary between the world he knew and the one he cannot yet comprehend.
This is the threshold.
The veil between realms. A point of no return.
The artwork evokes the sacred. Arched corridors, royal columns, and an altar upon which one’s former life must be sacrificed. To proceed, the Hero must choose to become a Novitiate. He must step forward between the grand pillars of duality not as one or the other, but as the third. The Middle Way.
The tracklist signals the Nigredo, the alchemical blackening. The putrefaction of the dross. The dissolving of what was in preparation for what may become.
Not to speak is to speak.
Not to act is to act.
The passage has been made.
The work has begun.
Cassette III: The Road of Trials
Release Date: 09.30.2018 | Nona
The climb begins. The path narrows.
The Hero sets foot on the winding stair, the true ascent. No longer theory. No longer threshold. This is the beginning of the work.
Each step brings greater resistance. Each level presents a new trial.
The artwork centers on the mountain, the defining symbol of The Ascensionist. No longer a distant vision, it now looms overhead, challenging the Hero to rise or fall with every step.
The tracklist evokes the illusions, distractions, and temptations that lie along the path, each one an opportunity to veer, to falter, or to descend. As the Hero climbs, the light of day gives way to night. Direction blurs. Certainty dissolves.
Confusion reigns.
But the way is forward.
Cassette IV: Apotheosis
Release Date: 12.30.2018 | Crepusculum
The summit is reached. The self is transformed.
The final cassette in The Ascensionist arc marks the Hero’s arrival at apotheosis, the moment of realization where separation dissolves and a greater understanding is attained.
The climb is complete. But the mystery only now begins.
The artwork unites two sacred symbols, the Tree of Life and the Ouroboros, the eternal serpent consuming its own tail. Together they speak to transcendence beyond perception, to wholeness beyond time. The tempting serpent is not slain, but usurped. The crown returns to gods and kings alike.
The tracklist contains only two songs. Holy Grail, representing the ultimate boon, what was sought and finally found. And the first appearance of Babylon the Great (Part II), a signal that the journey is not over, only changing form. The world must be returned to.
The Hero must descend.
The Ascensionist ends here.
Babel waits below.
Cassette V: Refusal of the Return
Release Date: 12.30.2019 | Crepusculum
The summit is bliss. But the world still waits.
The Hero has ascended. He has seen beyond. But now he is called to return.
And he resists.
Why leave the realm of clarity and light to descend once more into confusion? Why surrender the crown to walk again among the fallen?
But the cycle is not complete. The boon must be brought back. What was gained at the summit must be carried into Babylon.
This cassette marks the first of four that align with the structure of Babel, drawing from the archetypes depicted in the 2XLP vinyl layout. Here, the artwork invokes the Scarlet Woman of Revelation and the Lust card from Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, the figure known as Mystery Babylon the Great, Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the World.
She does not seduce the Hero. She draws him downward. Not as punishment, but as pattern.
This is the moment the Hero reenters the world. Not unchanged, but marked.
Cassette VI: The Magic Flight
Release Date: 03.30.2020 | Inceptus
The descent is no less dangerous than the climb.
The Hero begins his return, but the road home is no easier than the path up.
In myth, this stage is often aided by unseen forces. Those who once guided the ascent now commission the Hero to re-emerge, tasked with delivering the elixir, the wisdom meant to heal the world.
But the world resists healing.
The Hero finds himself deep within Babylon. Not a place, but a system. The monetary engine, with all its labyrinthine extensions, presents itself as reality. Yet it is a religion cloaked in economy.
To return is not to escape it, but to see it, to name it, and to begin to break its spell.
The flight is not from danger, but through it.
Cassette VII: Rescue from Without
Release Date: 06.30.2020 | Aurora
The world does not like to be left behind.
Sometimes the Hero does not return willingly. Sometimes the world must come and get him.
This is not rescue in the gentle sense, but intervention. Correction. A jealous society knocking at the door, insisting that no one may remain beyond the veil for too long.
The artwork reflects this rising pressure. The State, grotesque and bloated, devours individuality in its lust for control. What was once the benevolent king has become the tyrannical demagogue. What was once order is now enforcement.
The Hero must not be allowed to remain apart, for to remain apart is to remain free.
The system demands return.
But not all returns are submission.
Cassette VIII: Crossing the Return Threshold
Release Date: 09.30.2020 | Nona
To return is not enough. One must remain whole.
The Hero returns, but the final test is not escape or survival. It is integration.
To carry what was learned in the other world and hold it steady amidst the noise of the world. To bring wisdom back into human life without losing it to distortion.
The artwork turns its gaze toward Religion, not as faith, but as function. In the matrix of Babylon, religious institutions take the Holy Grail and, instead of offering it, ornament it, transforming modest power into opulence. A goblet of gold, designed not to illuminate, but to transfix.
Here the object becomes the idol. Worship is redirected away from what is represented and toward what is seen.
The Light is not extinguished.
It is buried beneath its shadow.
Cassette IX: Master of the Two Worlds
Release Date: 12.30.2020 | Crepusculum
The Ascensionist has reached the end of the journey. Not by choosing one world over another, but by learning to move between them.
He no longer seeks to reconcile duality by force, but through comprehension. He understands that paradox is not error. It is essence. The principles of light and shadow, ascent and descent, can coexist without corruption.
He becomes the living embodiment of The Middle Way, the one who balances the seen and unseen, the sacred and the profane.
Echoing this theme of equilibration, the music in this release was composed to synchronize with the original The Ascensionist album, offering a parallel auditory experience. Not replacement, but reflection.
The artwork reveals the Hero’s final form. The Fool, Il Matto, as he appears in the gatefold of The Confusion of Tongues. But this is not ignorance. It is freedom.
The cycle is complete.
The mountain has been climbed.
And descended.
Cassette X: Freedom to Live
Release Date: 12.30.2020 | Crepusculum
When death no longer binds, life becomes whole.
With mastery comes release. The fear of death dissolves. And in its absence, the Hero discovers the final gift, the freedom to live.
This stage is not about escape or conquest. It is the quiet transcendence that comes after striving has ceased. The journey does not end, but the compulsion does.
As with Cassette IX, the audio on this release was designed to synchronize with the expanded album Babel: Confusion of Tongues, forming a layered experience for those who already know the structure. Familiar themes are refracted, remixed, and reborn.
What was once noise becomes language.
What was once burden becomes breath.
This is the final step.
The Hero has returned.
And now he lives.
