[Glorantha] Re: Chaotic Illuminates

[Simon Hibbs]

Peter Metcalfe:

>Classical illumination (as presented in Runequest) is not
>realization of the Great Self but the understanding that Reality
>is a False Friend.   As such it is only part of the process of
>Great Self discovery.  Hence Chaotics can be classical
>illuminates.

That makes more sense.

>Lunar Illumination (to be revealed in ILH-2) is something
>different and I don't know the details.  However the Lunar
>Way has as part of its core message that "We are All
>Us".  That includes chaotics and to deny that Chaos has
>a place is the error that sent the Mad Sultan insane.
>So chaotics can be Lunar Illuminates in the same way
>that blind people can.

There seem to be two things going on here with Chaos. On the one hand
it's the loss of the Great Self, but on the other hand it's the
dissolution of the material form/world. Or is Rufelza's (the physical
red moon) chaoticness a result of the fact that it lacks a Great Self
because the godess transcended and left it behind? It's like the dead
skin shed by a snake, with the form of a living thing but empty and
devoid of life.

It's a ticky area because there are limits to my ability to apply
real-world ideas and analysis to Glorantha. According to the Buddha he
could see the Great Self in everything, even inanimate objects, but in
Glorantha it appears that even people can lack a Great Self so the
arguments and analysis that work for Buddhism fail for the Lunar
religion. Hence my mixing in of a bit of Nitzche earlier. Every time I
think I'm getting it and making strides to understand more, it opens
new questions - not that I'm complaining.

Simon Hibbs