book_of_eris misstree okay, this was written as an email to explain discordianism in a nutshell, and in the end it touches on the illumatus_trilogy by robert_anton_wilson... anyone who disagrees with part of this rant can either kindly f*ck off or explain why--i'd rather ye explain. apologies for typos. deal. Heh... i've had to explain this a number of times, but it's still kinda difficult, and i tend to devolve into more and more metaphorical rambling after a bit... i'm slepy, though, so we'll see... basically, it's a religion that was founded in a bowling alley in the early 70's. it is characterized by irreverence, pranksterism, chaos, dischord, and general weirdness. if you see someone wearing bunny ears in a bar, they're likely to be a discordian. there's one main goddess involved, Eris, who was obscure and greek... the most well-known story about her involves her rolling a golden apple with "kallisti" (for the prettiest one) into a divine tea party and starting the trojan war. i can expound on that later if you want. basically, she represents the forces of discord, while her sister, Aneris, represents the forces of order. Now, even us silly discordians know you've got to have a balance of order and disorder in the world; the problem with the world, though, is it's got too much of one and not enough bunny ears. those who lack the playfulness and mental flexibility to have eristic energy are called greyfaces, and they are all around. discordians aim to wake up the greyfaces and keep the world from being such a damn bad trip. To do this, we commonly agree on a term called Operation Mindfuck. Wearing bunny ears to a bar breaks expectations, snaps people out of their daily mental rut a little and spreads the disorder a little. Another example of spreading eristic vibes is yelling out an open car window every time cafe kopi is passed "I'm not wearing any pants!" Many people will ignore such things, preferring to not have to look the weird in the eye. That's fine, they can stay on the other side of the room. But others laugh, get curious, get playful, and then wake up a little. Eristic vibes are propogated. There's a lot that i'm not going into, like the willing suspension of disbelief, why discordians eat hot dogs without buns every friday, and who is john galt (oops, that's rand... other end of the charts ;) , but that's about the framework of it. Okay, so the illuminatus trilogy. Robert Anton Wilson wrote in, i think the late 70's, a book about the worldwide conspiracy to control all the money, power, and people, run by the illuminati, variously tied to the masonic order and just about every conspiracy you can think of, from jfk to the pyramids. countering the illuminati are a group of discordians, including the exceedingly wealthy and devilishly eccentric hagbard celine, a dolphin, an embodiment of eris (we are all embodiments of eris), and a convicted murderer. the book is bizarre and the plot twists brain cramping (both in mostly good ways), but what really makes it worth it and makes it a cult classic is that its main purpose is as a vehicle for a mode of thought, mostly a blend of discordianism with some of the early threads of chaos magic. these two being what they are, only a truly twisted tale could carry their weight. wilson had previously been a close acquaintance with Dr Leary, and shares some of the consciousness/reality expansion ideas with him, as well as a very keen and logical mind... but that mostly comes out in his books on chaos magic, and right now my hands are cramping so i save that for another time. whew. 030821 ... oldephebe so many streams.. 030821 ... misstree lots of nuts in a shell of this size. *grin* 030821 ... misstree found it! aha! http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Pantheon/5294/ excpect more parables soon, possibly not as discordian as you or i might like, but dammit, this one's mine and i'll damn well do what i like with it. :P 030823 ... misstree go look at temple_of_string while i do some venting and sewing. it was entertaining, especially if you step back and take it as valid foma. 030825 ... misstree oops, that should be the_temple_of_string. 030825 ... misstree okay, next part will be mostly excerpts from http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia /neopagan_discordia.html (again, remove the space, i hate messed up spacing...). it's a wonderfully hyperlinked site (the map is at /hyperdiscordia_map.html suffix replacing the other). The actual author is Ian Bear, and it originally appeared in "The Green Egg" "Neopagan Discordianism as we know it was started in a bowling alley around 1958 by two white guys having a mystical vision. They went on to publish Principia Discordia, which became an underground cult favorite and remains in print today. Its central point is that chaos can be creative as well as destructive, and that chaos and humor are necessary to combat the destructive order rampant in the world today. "Being European guys, they saw Eris from the Greek tradition, famous for Her golden apples of discord. However, the honoring of chaos as a universal force has roots going back through the mists of time and through many cultures around the Earth. The use of humor and the presence of trickster deities to enlighten dull souls, and keep religions from becoming too pompous and stuffy has been a multicultural phenomenon throughout the ages. Modern Discordianism has lost little time adopting and honoring these diverse forms of sacred chaos." ... "Divine irreverence is an important part of the Discordian tradition, and has been an important part of CAW. Irreverence allows all ideas to be called into question, and prevents them from hardening into rigid dogmas. Any religion is capable of falling into institutional rigidity and dogmatism, even the Taoists, and if we're not careful, the Discordians. However, sometimes it is better to let the dogma harden a little before dealing with it. It's easier to scoop up that way. "The trickster is able to bring up in a humorous way issues that may still be too controversial to begin serious debates over. Willingness to parody ourselves protects us from becoming truly ridiculous, and renders parodies of us by our enemies utterly useless. If the New Agers were more willing to parody themselves, their culture might have filtered out some of its more absurd notions, and spared itself much vicious lampooning from without. It is the job of the Discordian to disrupt unhealthy patterns, including one's own. It should be noted that making pointless wisecracks just as the energy is peaking in a ritual is not a positive use of irreverence. "On a larger scale the chaos magician is able to work vast changes unattainable through ordinary, orderly means. Where chaotic systems exist, it is now well known that in the right place, a small flutter can transform the entire system. This is known in chaos science as the butterfly effect. In these fast changing times, at this crossroads of history, in this time of crisis and opportunity, our entire society is a chaotic system. By observing society keenly, and choosing the appropriate moment for the golden apple to be launched, the chaos magician can work great changes in society through the social butterfly effect." ... keen observations. now on to some suggestions for calling the elements, if you're into that kind of thing. "The five Discordian elements mentioned in Principia Discordia are Sweet, Orange, Pungent, Prickle, and Boom." sweet orange pungent prickle boom 030921 ... oldephebe anti-confluential interesting a riot against rigidity there are definately some worth while stratagems to be sculpted out of this always in flux mode of mind..the late and even mid and early fifties were not as placid and plastic as the celluloid reams would have us believe..thankgod for the Beats and other anti-confluential movements that help shape the fire-seed of the tumultuous 60's keep sharing mtree ... 030921 ... misstree marmaduke_the_early_years vote_marmaduke the_death_of_marmaduke seems appropriate. 030925 ... misstree fnord 030925 ... phil sorry I though this said blood_of_enis 030926 ... misstree laws_of_corn law_of_fives 030928 ... misstree so, this will only matter for 8 days or so, but i think it's proof that discordians are, at times, capable of minor amounts of organization... and if you're reading this page, then you've already been poked with an apple stem... but check out http://discordians.meetup.com/ if you're interested in group poking... 030928 ... oldEphebe i'd like an apple slathered in caramel..bring on the diabetes..at least it bouyed my aching spirit momentarily..caramel apples ... 030929 ... misstree an excellent, simple cleansing ritual at broadcast_relaxation. so it doesn't taste like discord, precisely. tough. this is a compendium of stuff i think eris and her puppies (myself included) would like and benefit from. 031001 ... misstree In the Cards Yahweh peered at Eris over His cards. "Why do You suppose," He asked meaningfully, "that I always seem to attract so many ladies? See and raise five." "The same reason so many men are drawn to Me," She replied absently. "No one wants to think that their sex is responsible for reality. See Your five and call." "It has been said that there are many rooms in My mansion," Yahweh boomed confidently, "But Lo! My house is full. Queens over Jacks, m'Dear." "Four fives..." Eris began, then paused. "Oh, no," She corrected Herself. "Oh, that's much better." Eris hurriedly switched Her cards around, a smile spreading across Her face. "What is the difference," She asked excitedly, "between two Fools and a King?" "Er," Yahweh responded, a bit flustered, "A crown?" "Not quite, but that's the guess I would expect from You," Eris replied, laying down Her hand, "As you can see, there is no difference. Kings over fives, by the way. A winning hand and a new twist on an old puzzle. Oh, I am hot tonight. You've gotten around to the whole night/day thing, right? Oh, You must have or You wouldn't be resting, I suppose." Yahweh looked down at Her hand, astonished and even more confused. "But there weren't any Jokers in the deck!" He managed. "Oh, Hon," Eris said, smiling a bit sadly as She gathered Her winnings from the center of the table, "There are always Jokers in the deck." from http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/ in_the_cards.html see also: ineffable 031003 ... Lemon_Soda Order is Chaos calcified. All things spring from chaos. Order cements them so unique experiences may be experienced again or by different people than the first. The concepts of Good and Evil have no place in Chaos, but to Order, they are invaluable. Where as Order tells you yes or no, Chaos teases you with maybe. 031003 ... quotree it is an ill wind that blows no minds. 031003 ... oldEphebe i am so loving these exchanges 031003 ... misstree golden_apple 031003 ... once again "Order is merely the prevailing form of Chaos." 031003 ... misstree just a friendly poke, additions, rants, insights, links, etc. are welcomed here if you think it would contribute to what i'm trying to create... each discordian has a different flavor, and some of the best insights come from brains very foreign to the official dogma, but very often with quite active pineal_gland s. 031003 ... misstree blames her wrist for verbal ineptitude in other words, more stuff like what people have been saying above. :P 031003 ... red hot poker hey! tree! get off your butt and write about hostess_of_the_apocalypse, operation_mindfuck, pineal_gland s, and, um... spiritual_mutts, and... oh, stop whining! you've got the whole weekend. 031003 ... misstree yeah. about that. i'm right on top of that, rose. tomorrow, maybe. or sunday. maybe. 031003 ... misstree consensual_reality 031006 ... book of eris greyface 031009 ... Death of a Rose This will be my weekend project. To read every last post on this page and form a consensus about it. That said, I'm going to shut up now, but I will be back. and please no shwartzenegger comebacks. 031009 ... stork daddy so uh...does that mean that tom green is like some god to you people? 031009 ... lc Trying to make a blanket statement on any subject involving the followers of Eris is a wasted effort. Having said that, I don't know any discordian that thinks Mr. Green is anything more than juvenile pabulum, enjoyed mostly by those stuck in a field of gray looking for a taste of the yummy chaos that’s just outside of their reach. 031010 ... stork daddy sounding pretty systematically chaotic. now andy's okay though right? i mean andy's a god right? 031010 ... misstree test_face 031014 ... misstree i see nothing systematic about it, except that those who realize that they are discordians often have similar tastes in one thing or another, and lc specified those that he'd met. who knows, maybe he's only met five, and those five were all the same person in a different disguise, and that person really really hated tom green? (ok, i admit, it wasn't me.) i would say that there's probably a similar proportions of discordians who hate rush limbaugh as well, but he really can be good for a