Re: Enlightenment

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_interzone.ucc.ie>
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 21:47:28 +0100 (BST)


Andrew Joelson talks about Illumination, vs. the Draconic Path:
> Is this not what Kralorelans mystics hope to attain, and refer to as
> Enlightenment?

That's not entirely clear, unsurprisingly. As dragons are deliberately alien and incomprehensible, trying to get an understanding of Enlightenment in terms of Draconic Consciousness may be somewhat tricky. While the Kralori are wont to explain everything in terms of dragon this or dragon that, their Enlightening figure, Metsyla, isn't explicitly draconic.

Not that I'm by no means saying "Illumination, Enlightenment -- same thing". Indeed, I think the Dorastor article is poor in this respect, referring to them interchangably. However, they're clearly similar in respect of being "mystical states achieved by indirect and exotic means leading to a different consciousness and understanding of the universe". Certainly neither works anything like a cultic ability, spell, skill or piece of lore. They're somewhat similar in their "observable effects", though the methods they may be reached by differ, and indeed, each may itself by reached by several different methods. As to whether they're ultimately the same "state of consciousness" -- I think that's almost necessarily unanswerable, dealing with something that's not merely a subjective, internal experience, but one dealing with things that are transcendental. One could say the same sorts of thing about "Illumination" vs. "Arkatism" -- and Greg, for one, indeed has.

Slainte,
Alex.


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