ILLUMINATION - see ENLIGHTEN, CONSCIOUSNESS, INFINITE, KNOWLEDGE
Antonyms: MYSTERY, SECRET, HIDDEN
The 5 stages of mystic conscioussness are: 1. awakening or conversion, 2. self-knowledge or purgation, 3. illumination (or enlightenment, presence, transcendence, reality) 4. surrender (or dark night), 5. union (p203) Such a lifting of consciousness from a self-centered to a God-centered world, is of the essence of illumination. (p281) Exalted states of mystic consciouss in which the sense of I-hood persists, although loving and joyous, are illumination. Inspiration and "glimpses of truth" are activities of the illuminated mind. The intellectual vision gives moments of transcendence in which his masterpieces were conceived. Acute perception is the prize of which purgation is the price. (p282-3) The self which still exists as a separate entity in the Presence of God is like a "betrothal" rather than the "marriage" of the soul. (p288-9) (Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill)