Ranks of proficiency?

[lbeaumanior]

Greetings,

In Mage the Awakening, a mage can be ranked on their mastery of the Arcana (Spheres), so it goes from 1 to 5: Initiate, Apprentice, Disciple, Adept, Master. If you have several at the same level you get to mention as degree... So someone with five Arcana at Disciple level is a "Fifth Degree Disciple".

Are there any similar rankings in Ascension? Whether in the Technocracy, Traditions or others?

Thanks,

[Dataweaver]

Mage the Ascension uses a similar tracking system, with one to five dots and the fifth dot being Mastery. I think they may even use the same ladder of names; I'd have to check to be sure. As far as I know, though, no organization in Mage bothers with “how many Spheres do you know?” when deciding someone's status in the group: there's no “fourth degree apprentice”; there's just “apprentice”.

[Heavy Arms]

The Order of Hermes is the only Tradition the explicitly does this. The Traditions as a whole are somewhat familiar with the idea because of the foundational role the Hermetics had on defining the group's shared terminology. A lot of the former Hermetic groups used to do this, but tend to drop it to make themselves more distinct from the Order.