>I'm sure I once understood Illumination as being a transference from
>localised thinking (i.e. your morals, religious beliefs, and so on), to
>global thinking (i.e. seeing how everyone's beliefs all fit into a bigger
>picture). Seeing your view of the world as being one of many possible valid
>ones is going to turn your world upside down if you're not mentally prepared
>for it.
I don't think that the Illuminate would see how everyone's beliefs all fit into a bigger picture (that would be what Greg calls a Manifest Mystic). The Illuminate would know that "everybody else is Wrong" and be able to exploit this. But he will be tormented by the realization that he himself is Wrong and struggle with the loss of his certainty. Often illuminates might fall into madness or evil acts in trying to repair their loss.
True mystics (whether manifest, divine, orthodox, Mairnali etc.) avoid this pitfall because they have the knowledge of how to find the Truth that the Illuminates lack. Although liberating, this is at the same time constraining because his path to truth requires him to avoid certain actions whereas the Illuminate is not so constrained.
Illuminates _are_ capable of discovering into the Truth and reconciling it with what has gone before. Yelm and the Red Goddess are the most important examples.
Why the Lunars like being called Illuminates If It's So Bad is a tricky question. The answer probably lies in the inclusiveness of the Lunar Way, namely its way to Truth requires them to accept that "We are all Us", the standard lunar citizenship oath. Lunars cannot deny anything as being not Us or else horrible things happen to their world view.
Illuminates, because of their untrammeled freedom to act in whatever manner they see fit, are the most obvious examples of the Freedom that the Goddess brings. To teach that illumination is a Bad Thing is something the Lunars cannot do given that the Goddess was undeniably illuminated in her own quest.
At best, all that the Lunars can say is that the Goddess is the Truth that the Illuminates seek. They can control to some extent who can teach Nysaloran Riddles and steer would-be illuminates in the general direction of the Goddess. But they cannot philosophically and practically forbid the dissemination of Nysaloran paradoxes to all listeners.
>(I suppose a RW equivalent would be finding out if there really is a god and
>what the meaning of life actually is).
Or finding that God is Azathoth and Life has no Meaning.
--Peter Metcalfe
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