I'm not sure I agree with this. I don't think all forms of Arkatism have explicit 'secrets' in this sort of way. In perhaps the majority of cases, the 'secret' is simply the knowledge of the Arkati Way that's 'encoded' into the practices of their cult. Arkat Kingtroll/Black Arkat would be examples of this, for example.
Certainly I don't think most regard themselves as being crypto-Gbaji-ite 'illuminants', rather they regard progression through their own religion as being a matter of 'all the better to find and kill Gbaji'.
I *do* think that this leads (often) to different Arkati deciding their "Arkati" rivals are crypto-Gbaji-ite, and (occassionally) to a sudden thunderbolt realisation on the part of an Arkati that his knowledge and that of his Nysalorean counterparts are oddly parallel, but I don't think that's at all the same sort of thing.
> And different offshoots will not differ in organisation as well as teachings.
One 'not' too many?
> 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.
Last thing I'd accuse Greg of is simple answers, on this or most other questions! What Greg has done, so far as I can see, is to 'Refute' the "simple yes" to the question (or worse, tacit assumption) that the Arkati Way is just Nysalorean Illumination, spelt funny.
I don't want to put words in Greg's mouth, but I _suspect_ he thinks the two are 'ultimately similar' in some sense -- but then again, Greg thinks (again, I suspect) that a awful lot of modes of religious thought and expression are 'ultimately similar in some sense', including ones that few people on this list would consider treating interchangably as many do with Arkatism/Illumination. What's clear and crucial is that even if the Arkati Way and Illumination reach similar Mystic States on the Other Side (and which may or may not also be similar to that reached by Eastern mystics), how they interpret and express that in the mundane realm, philosophically, magically and pragmaticly is different in key ways.
Slainte,
Alex.
Powered by hypermail