Arkatism

        Glad to know that at least one person out there is thinking alone similar lines to me.

>>I like the idea that the Arkat cult has secret higher degrees of
>>initiation, and so on, like the Masons.
>
>Considering the Arkati have been at each others throats for several
>centuries now, they can't have a very elaborate cultic structure like
>the masons.

        I have no problem with their being several cultic structures that can't stand each other. As suggested, perhaps a better analogy might be the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its offshoots, all of which generally preserver the masonic form (including the progressive revelation of secrets), and which generally loath and deride the others, but that is a rather more obscure analogy.

>IMO their basic structure is several/many students learning from a
>Master or Archon or something like that. Some Masters will group
>themselves into a larger order to control a city or somesuch. I
>don't have much hope for the long-term viability of such orders.

        Its the progressive revelation of secrets that I think most crucial - - there may be a basic structure of a master and students, but I don't think the master teaches the same thing to all the students, in particular the 'illumination' knowledge is denied to the less advanced students. In some cases, there will be 'organised' orders of Arkati, with multiple 'masters', in other cases it will be individual masters and their secretive groups of students. It depends on lots of factors, including how underground the cult is, and how prevalent. And different offshoots will not differ in organisation as well as teachings.

>>The existence of Arkati
>>'illumination' is a higher secret of the cult, that it is essentially the
>>same as Nysalorian 'illumination' is an even higher secret.
>
>So high that it has been denied by Greg.

        Didn't I just say that the highest masters deny knowledge of the secrets to the general populace :-)?

        Actually, my answer would be simply that I am wary of simple yes or no answers to complex philosophical questions, even when they come from Greg. In some senses, Nysalorian Illumination and Arkatism are the same, and in other senses they are different. I am attempting to explicate the differences.

Peter again
>We are talking about
>something that has survived almost 900 years (from the conquest and
>destruction of the Dark Empire down to modern times). I do not know
>of a RW secret society that has lasted that long!

        Surely you are not doubting the Masons claims to have existed since the building of the Temple of Solomon :-)

        To quote Ambrose Bierce
>FREEMASONS, n. An order with secret rites, grotesque ceremonies and
>fantastic costumes, which, originating in the reign of Charles II, among
>working artisans of London, has been joined successively by the dead of
>past centuries in unbroken retrogression until now it embraces all the
>generations of man on the hither side of Adam and is drumming up
>distinguished recruits among the pre-Creational inhabitants of Chaos and
>Formless Void. The order was founded at different times by Charlemagne,
>Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Solomon, Zoroaster, Confucious, Thothmes, and
>Buddha. Its emblems and symbols have been found in the Catacombs of Paris
>and Rome, on the stones of the Parthenon and the Chinese Great Wall, among
>the temples of Karnak and Palmyra and in the Egyptian Pyramids -- always
>by a Freemason.

        Actually, I imagine the Arkati have splintered many times. Arkatism is a line of magical practice and a spiritual path, that lingers beneath the surface of many modern Gloranthan societies, rather than a world wide conspiracy. All the various off-shoots believe they have the one great truth of it, including the one that believes Arkat was a dwarf in a rubber suit.

Someone else
>The Arkati rivalry and infighting suddenly
>reminded me of the fighting between such people as Crowley and Yeats,
>each convinced they were on the best path to the truth.

        For anyone who is interested in the infighting within the Golden Dawn (OK, a pretty small number of people I presume) may I recommend 'The Golden Dawn Scrapbook' as an interesting little volume, which particularly concentrates on the founding of the order on allegedly fraudulent documents and its subsequent splintering when the fraud was revealed.

	Cheers
		David

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