Illuminism

A current of philosophical and religious thought which, indebted to the gnostic tradition, Neoplatonism, Swedenborgianism, and more recently discovered Eastern religions, enjoyed considerable popularity in the late 18th c. and the Romantic age. The major writers associated with it include Saint-Martin, Fabre d'Olivet, and Dupont de Nemours. Illuminism was influential on such varied writers as Joseph de Maistre, Ballanche, Nerval, Sand, Baudelaire, Hugo, and also such later figures as Teilhard de Chardin.

The doctrine varies from author to author, but generally conceives of creation as an emanation from God through the Sophia (Wisdom), then the Word, with matter resulting from the Fall because of disobedience; but the divine Word remains present in all creation. Man alone, at the centre of the great chain of being, is free and is charged with the redemption of matter and the restoration of the lost harmony and unity of the universe. For many, this restoration involves a form of metempsychosis where, by continued reincarnation and expiatory suffering, souls move gradually toward the reintegration of the divine. All created being is symbolic of the divine, whence a series of ‘correspondences’ or harmonies among the various levels of the chain of being. Knowledge of the truth is acquired by introspection and by a process of initiation which includes a descent into hell, dying to be born again.

Many Illuminists were religious syncretists, proposing that all religious systems express, in varying symbolic modes, the same truth; they vary in their attitude towards Christianity, for some a perversion, for others (if properly understood) the best expression of the truth. Nor was Illuminism without its interplay with certain aspects of scientific thought, be it magnetism (Mesmer, Puységur), physiognomony (Lavater), or theories of evolution (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire). The tradition continues to this day, and later in the 19th c. was popularized by such authors as Eliphas Lévi (A.-L. Constant) and Joséphin Péladan.

[Frank Paul Bowman]

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Illuminism is a belief system whereby a believer makes a claim that he has been illuminated or experienced enlightenment of a spiritual nature.

It is an archaic term deriving from the French illuminer. The term has been used in modern times primarily with respect to and by secret societies, for the most part, orders that have modeled their practices after the mystery cults of the Hellenic world, which flourished around the Mediterranean coast and Near East at the period when the Roman Empire dominated the region and its cultures.

The word Illuminism, when used as a proper noun, refers specifically to the form of enlightenment or illumination that is a part of advancement in the ranks of various secret societies that claim a common origin with the Illuminati. As such it is an important concept within Discordianism as well.^{[citation needed]}

References

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