"Insert your own fucking quotes."
-The White Mouse
Can you trust the founders of Discordianism? Why would you want to when you could trust yourself? Researching the two of them, we find two former acid heads. One who lost his mind to the US military. The other lost his mind to literature it seems. Neither of them thought that Eris was real in the beginning, though their opinions changed later on. Neither of them could be shown to be telling the truth at any time. They gave us the first modern Erisian Revelation along with some other collated abnormail that they made into the PD and then went off howling like loons into the proverbial night. In case you were noticing, a lot has happened with the damned Irreligion since those ancient days way back in the sixties. True to its original Eristic intentions, every individual or group of individuals having anything to do with the Discordian Society has taken the Irreligion off into new directions. For some of us, it is an Irreligion that mirrors (and parodies) much of what is going on with the family of rather new religious outlooks that are now known as "Neo-Pagan" by both adherents and researchers. For some of us it is its own thing without any recourse to any assumed similarity or differences with the religions, spirituality and philosophies of the present day. For some of us, it has nothing at all to do with any spirituality. For some of us it is merely a means of blowing off steam. For some of us, it is a chance to parody and have fun with the various pompous occult traditions that seem to want to dominate the "alternative" market. For some of us, it is mainly about Eris and what She does and what we can do with Her. For some of us it is about breaking shit, but perhaps with some intelligent justification for doing so. And there are countless other aspects and types of outlooks and practices. [Insert yours here.] Is it even possible or desirable to come to some common understanding of Discordianism?
Yes. It is desirable and possible to come to some common understanding. People like the Good Reverend Roger have come up with certain categories of actual Discordians (and for that he was denounced as a heretic, which is actually a label to take pride in, for "defining" Discordians), so I won't spend any time with categories themselves beyond saying that unlike what many assume, there really is no meaningful difference between Erisians and Discordians. Those of you who think there is a difference have, to put it mildly, been had. The assumption that Discordian comes from "discord" and that Erisian comes from Eris is a false etymology. Both terms are bastardized combinations that come from the Greek suffix "-ian" and the Latin and Greek versions of the name of the old Goddess Discordia or Eris. (Both names do equate to "strife," however. And today we have words like eristic or discordant as adjectives.) But regardless of the etymology, the words Erisian and Discordian have always been used interchangeably. Some of you may disagree with that usage, but at least know where it is coming from.
As to the common understanding of Discordianism, there are some traits to point out. The fact that some of you refuse to accept that even this could be possible make us sound like the fluff-bunny Wiccans of today who are always spouting their spurious crap lies like "There is no one definition of Wicca" in an effort to excuse their pernicious misunderstandings and blatant disregard for other people's religion by bringing it down to the lowest commercial denominator. (For more info on the Wiccan fight against the usual useless idiots who call themselves Wiccan and whom you may see from time to time, contact me and I will inundate you with links and info.) There may not be any "one definition" of Discordianism, but there are some things or "ideals," if you will, that I think makes us distinct from, say, the Baptists, or the Buddhists, or the Unitarians.
This is what I have come to learn are some common understandings of Discordianism. Feel free to make your own addenda to this. Discordianism is about Eris, whether that means literal belief in Her existence or toying with the idea of a Goddess of Chaos, Confusion and Disorder (as an archetype or something else). It is at heart, an irreligion, which would be best described as a "religion of parody and play." It is about seeking the freedom that a balanced perception of disorder and order can give rise to. That comes with seeing that disorder and order are balanced and part of the same damned chaos, regardless of which one you prefer. It is about the practice and exploration of creative aspects of disorder and order, though because that idea was formed during the birth of the Neo-Pagan movement, many may assume that means some weird trippy hippie ideal of all-is-light-and-peace-man creativity. This assumption is false. In both modern Neo-Pagan conceptions and in earlier pre-Christian Pagan societies, creativity encompassed a lot more than just making art and getting high. There is destruction in creation and vice versa, and no, this isn't some hard to understand Zen-like riddle. It is simply an observation that anyone can see directly in front of themselves. (You need to "destroy" the blank page to create a letter or poem. Forests sometimes need to burn, in order for new plants to grow. I could go on with a list of examples, but you can pretty much figure this one out.) Creation can be quite severe and sometimes outright "destruction" is the means for new directions or new insights or something else to arise.
Discordianism, is also, to the chagrin of some of you, about disrupting the very processes and practices that are limiting and enslaving to individuals. I say "to the chagrin" because some of you feel the some of the rest of you go too far in your projects of disruption. But it is just a matter of degree. And we Discordians, though it looks like the opposite sometimes, do spend more time disrupting the schemas of the "rest of the world" than we do with each other. (If Discordians stopped fighting amongst themselves and stopped trying to out-disrupt each other and turned that energy onto the world at large...well, never mind. Just pointing out something to think about.) Along with that is the idea that we should learn as much as we can about the ways in which we humans perceive "reality" and seek as many different ways as possible. The Chaos Magic current calls this "paradigm piracy." The Robert Anton Wilson "brigade" (him, Tim Leary and those that like what they both say) calls it "metaprogramming." Discordians usually just call it an excuse to have fun with other people's beliefs and rituals, but the point is not missed by any of us, whether we admit it or not. One way we do this is to hold to contradiction and complexity of thought. Sometimes this makes us look stupid, since intelligence is mainly measured by how much one can parrot the correct linear factoids in the correct way, but we shouldn't reject linear thinking out of hand, since it is supposed to be so much easier for us. You can learn a lot from the systems of knowledge that are out there and remaining ignorant of them merely reflects on yourself. Whatever you choose to learn, don't let Discordianism be an excuse for your stupidity or your intelligence.
It goes without saying that Discordians, believing in freedom as we do, usually cherish the freedom of others as much as our own. This leads to all sorts of interesting ethical ideas, and I am sure many of you have some thoughts on that. What do you think it means and how does this play out in your life and your relations with others?
By now, some of you are ready to burn me at the stake because I have managed to actually give a straightforward explanation of a few Discordian ideas. But spilling the beans and revealing the mysteries is part and parcel of Discordianism. We need no mysteries that take years of esoteric training to master. Not because we are lazy, though there is some truth to that, but because we see the fools practicing for years to master the mysteries and find that they have been duped. If you can't explain your favorite mystery in a pithy phrase or two, what the hell is the point? Look at all the fun some of the Zen practitioners have. Why should we ignore a potent source of fun? We can have our cake and eat it too. Discordoxy is sort of like heterodoxy, except that coining new words is an ancient tradition which we feel should be continued.
As some of you know, I have been at this Discordian game for some time now, whether that makes me more experienced or just more mentally ill than the rest, I can't say I care much. You can say that because I am Discordian, I am sad and pathetic and all those other smokescreens you may raise, but that doesn't mean a damned thing, since all you really know is your own take on the world. Prejudice is simply another form of belief anyway and one day some of us may help you out of your dank dark hole...or we might just pull up some chairs and gather some beer and watch you scurry around down there too afraid of the sky to climb out. Just remember that when you are old and infirm, the way you treated other people and the way you chose to see the world is what you will be stuck with in memories. So you may wish to make those memories things you don't have to deny or repress. And as there is no guarantee of life after death, there is no guarantee of oblivion after death either. There are, in fact, no guarantees, no matter how reasonably certain you may delude yourself into being. This is chaos. This is life. You can remain asleep at the wheel, or you can wake up and actually get to where you wish to go. Discordianism, if it is working, can probably help you to do so. If not, it may still give you some laughs and good times and lighten the load, or ease the soreness, a little bit. If not more.
-Irreverend Hugh, KSC
(Under the influence of nicotine withdrawal. But I am not bitching.)
September 7th, 2005
Rant 132
Rants Vol. 2 Index