Get some people together, create a secret handshake, create some lore, get a building and have people meet at odd hours and talk in hushed tones - use the dues to fund the building and utilities and such, with leftover funds for my salary and perhaps do some charity work.
So help me create the perfect cult.
I am thinking:
Make it dark - tattoos and branding would be a good “secret sign”.
Make it sinful - lots of nudity and humiliation in initiation rites.
Make it exclusive - refuse every third applicant for no particular reason other than making it seem exclusive.
Make it debauched - lots of drinking, smoking, cussing and watching porn.
Make it seem like it is for the elite.
Unofficially exclude a minority (i.e. NO BOLIVIANS ALLOWED!)
Create a sacred icon (The Holy Muffin).
Design a uniform, with really cool hats.
Have a yearly retreat where you have to leave your family and job and go off in the woods (in really nice cabins) for a week or two.
Create several holidays and demand employers give you the day off.
There is some odd shaving involved.
I need a name for my cult.
And am I missing anything?
As leader of the cult, you need a really cool official title. Like : Revered Counsellor and Formidable Potentate of the Sacrosanct Muffin League - all tremble at his name!!!
Hmmm…I think part of the trick to running a good cult is using most of the “lower” members as economic cannon fodder, so the higher-ups can do all the really GOOD weird stuff. I mean, look at Scientology. (Or the Nazi party—how many brownshirt thugs do you need to support each SS occult wizard-guy in a spiffy uniform?)
I am not willing to be a member of the fold, but I will consider a high ranking position with profit sharing. I would be a fine choice as enforcer, though obviously a better title is needed.