Principia Discordia
Principia Discordia
Principia Discordia
Well, here it is - the closest thing youre going to get to the real Principia Discordia
without actually going out and stealing a copy... and its totally free of charge (so just pre-
tend you stole it, we wont tell)!
We scanned every page of the Loompanics Edition of the Principia Discordia and
yanked out everything we could not reproduce with text in PageMaker. I swear, this file
couldnt be much smaller than it is right now and still cover the entire Principia.
We got into an argument among ourselves as to whether or not to include the Steve
Jackson Games editions pages at the end of this document, and after much biting and
spitting, we decided to. It makes the file bigger and were not exactly fans of Steve Jack-
son (who steals Discordian imagery, like any good Discordian would, but then turns around
and copyrights them), but we figured some of you might want to see those additional pages
enough to go out and purchase a copy, and wed rather give it to you. If you want us to
illegally reproduce anything else they do, let us know and we will attempt to procure and
reproduce.
Anyway, other than those pages, everything else has been yanked out of the
Loompanics edition of the Principia, and everything is as close to the original as we could
make it, spelling errors and all. When we couldnt find a font that was in the original, we
chose the next closest thing or used the image instead.
Its doggedly unneccessary for us to go into why we did it and so forth and so on. If
you went through the trouble of downloading this, you already know why - a labor of love and
all that shit. Prince Mu-Chao and Happy Fun Ball deserve all the credit; everyone else just
watched them and giggled, sometimes choking on the bong water. Especially when Prince Mu-
Chao realized that Happy Fun Ball had spent two hours scanning the pages that he had
already scanned. They reminded us of root beer. I dont remember why at this time, but Im
sure... anyway, I digress. Im running out of space.
Please excuse the shamefully blatent advertisements at the bottom of the page. We
promise, this is the only page well clutter with them, so our suggestion is to just throw this
page out entirely.
So, without further ado, just skip over the aforementioned shamefully blatent
advertisements at the bottom of this page and go on to Mr. Wilsons Introduction. Its much
more interesting than ours is, I assure you.
- Rev. MarshMellow Fluff
http://come.to/discordia/
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P.S. - If you wanna actually buy a printed copy of this (for some reason) buy it off of Loompanics, not
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INTRODUCTION
You hold in your hands one of the Great Books of our century fnord.
The legendry, the mystery, the cult grew very slowly. By the mid-1970’s,
thousands of people, some as far off as Hong Kong and Australia, were talk-
ing about the Principia, and since the original was out of print by then, xerox
copies were beginning to circulate here and there.
Why not? We felt that this book was a true Classic (literatus immortalis)
and, since the alleged intelligentsia had not yet discovered it, the best way to
keep its legend alive was to encourage the mythology and the controversy
about it. Increasingly, people wrote to ask me if Timothy Leary had written it,
and I almost always told them he had, except on Fridays when I am more
whimsical, in which case I told them it had been transmitted by a canine intel-
ligence – vast, cool and unsympathetic – from the Dog Star, Sirius.
For full benefit to the Head, this book should be read in conjunction with The
Illuminoids by Neal Wilgus (Sun Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico) and Zen
Without Zen Masters by Camden Benares (And/Or Press, Berkeley, Califor-
nia). “We are operating on many levels here”, as Ken Kesey used to say.
NO
TJ
UN
KM
AIL
PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA
OR
A jug of wine,
A leg of lamb
And thou
Beside me,
Whistling in
the darkness.
PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA
or
HOW I FOUND THE GODDESS & WHAT I DID TO HER
WHEN I FOUND HER
as Divinely Revealed to
My High Reverance MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER, KSC
Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold
and HIGH PRIEST of
THE PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD OF ERIS ESOTERIC (POEE)
POEE
is one manifestation of
THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY
about which
you will learn more
and understand
less
We
are a tribe
of philosophers, theologians,
magicians, scientists,
artists, clowns,
and similar maniacs
who are intrigued
with
ERIS
GODDESS OF CONFUSION
and with
Her
Doings
CIAL CIETY
OFFI SO
O R DIANRIS
DISC HAIL E
00001
37 Parable of The Bitter Tea
3 The Sacred Chao (illustration) 38 Sermon on Ethics & Love
4 Five Commandments (The Pentabarf) 39 Apostles of Eris
5 Zen Story 41 How Honest Book of Truth was Revealed
6 Telegram to Jehova 42 Curse of Greyface
7 Birth of The Erisian Movement 43 Mandala
11 Battle Hymn of The Eristocracy 44 Cosmology (Book of Uterus)
12 On Prayer 46 Orders of Discordia
13 Heaven is down... 47 Entropy (Norbert Wiener)
14 Norton’s Money 48 Zarathud’s Enlightenment
15 Eris - Greek Geneology 49 The Sacred Chao (text)
16 Law of Fives 52 Hodge/Podge Transformer
17 Myth of The Apple of Discord 53 Brunswick Shrine
19 Erisian Hyms 54 Starbuck’s Pebbles
20 POEE Chart 55 Eris during 3125 years (Brazil letter)
00002
POSIT ONLY
FOR DE 00005
TO: JEH
OVA YA H
CARE: WEH
CELESTI
PRESIDE AL HOTE
NTIAL T L (
IER, PAR SUITE #666)
ADISE
DEAR G
OD;
THIS IS
TO INFO
IS HERE RM YOU
WITH T E T H AT YO
YOUR C R M I N AT UR CURR
ED DUE ENT POS
A REFE
HECK WI
LL BE MA TO G RO I
RENCE ILED SS INCO TION AS DIET
Y
STOP MPETENC
E
PLEASE STO P
DO NOT
RESPECTF USE ME
M A L AC L ULLY FOR
YPSE TH ,
POEE HI E Y
GH PRIE O U N G E R / O M N I
ST B E N E VO
LENT P
OLY FAT H
ER
- THE BIRTH OF THE ERISIAN MOVEMENT -
10. The Earth quakes and the Heavens rattle; the beasts of
nature flock together and the nations of men flock apart;
volcanoes usher up heat while elsewhere water becomes ice
and melts; and then on other days it just rains.
THE REVELATION 11. Indeed do many things come to pass.
HBT; The Book of Predications, Chap. 19
The two were dazed and neither moved nor spoke for several minutes.
They looked around and saw that the bowlers were frozen like statues
in a variety of comic positions, and that a bowling ball was steadfastly
anchored to the floor only inches from the pins that it had been sent to
scatter. The two looked at each other, totally unable to account for the
phenomenon. The condition was one of suspension, and one noticed
that the clock had stopped.
00007
New Stor
New Storyy of Chaos
no girdle ever cured
-2- a pregnancy
I have come to tell you that you are free. Many ages ago, My con-
sciousness left man, that he might
00008
-3-
You have built for yourselves psychic suits of armor, and clad in
them, your vision is restricted, your movements are clumsy and pain-
ful, your skin is bruised, and your spirit is broiled in the sun.
With this in mind, they studied the strange yin-yang. During a medita-
tion one afternoon, a voice came to them:
The opposite
great truths.
trivial truths
plainly false.
-Neils Bohr
& there are
There are
also true.
of a trivial
of a great
truth is
truth is
00009
NO HURRY
-4-
And with these words, each looked at the other in absolute awe. Omar
began to giggle. Mal began to laugh. Omar began jumping up and down.
Mal was hooting and hollering to beat all hell. And amid squeals of mirth and
with tears on their cheeks, each appointed the other to be high priest of his
own madness, and together they declared themselves to be a society of
Discordia, for what ever that may turn out to be.
VERSE
Mine brain has meditated on the spinning of the Chao;
It is hovering o’er the table where the Chiefs
of Staff are now
Gathered in discussion of the dropping of the Bomb;
Her Apple Corps is strong!
CHORUS
VERSE
She was not invited to the party that they held
on Limbo Peak; *
So She threw a Golden Apple, ‘stead of turn’d
t’other cheek!
O it cracked the Holy Punchbowl and it made
the nectar leak;
Her Apple Corps is strong!
00011
The tide is turning
the enemy is suffering
terrible losses
- Gen. Geo.A.Custer
Persons in a Position to Know, Inc.
ON PRAYER
MAL-2 was once asked by one of his Disciples if he often prated to Eris. He
replied with these words:
No, we Erisians seldom pray, it is much too dangerous. Charles Fort has listed
many factual incidences of ignorant people confronted with, say, a drought, and
then praying fervently – and then getting the entire village wiped out in a torrential
flood.
00012
“OF COURSE I’M CRAZY, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN
I’M WRONG. I’M MAD BUT NOT ILL.”
(Werewolf Bridge, Robert Anton Wilson)
14. Wipe thine ass with What is Written and grin like a ninny at
what is Spoken. Take thine refuge with thine wine in the Nothing
behind Everything, as you hurry along the Path.
THE PURPLE SAGE
HBT; The Book of Predications, Chap. 19
Her geneology is from the Greeks and is utterly confused. Either She
was the twin of Aries and the daughter of Zeus and Hera; or She was
the daughter of Nyx, goddess of night (who was either the daughter
or wife of Chaos, or both), and Nyx’s brother, Erebus, and whose
brothers and sisters include Death, Doom, Mockery, Misery and
Friendship. And that she begat Forgetfullness, Quarrels, Lies, and a
bunch of gods and goddesses like that.
One day Mal-2 consulted his Pineal Gland* and asked Eris if She
really created all of those terrible things. She told him that She had
always liked the Old Greeks, but that they cannot be trusted with
historic matters. “They were,” She added, “victims of indigestion, you
know.”
Suffice it to say that Eris is not hateful or malicious. But She is mis-
chievous, and does get a little bitchy at times.
*THE PINEAL GLAND is where each and every one of us can talk to
Eris. If you have trouble activating your Pineal, then try the appendix
which does almost as well. Reference: DOGMA I, METAPHYSICS
#3, “The Indoctrine of The Pineal Gland.”
00015
DIRUIT AEDIFICAT MUTAT QUADRATA ROTUNDUS
— Horace
00016
The Inside Story!
THE LAW OF FIVES
PLE
DOC ASE DO
UME N
NT A OT US
S TO E TH
The Nagas of Upper Burma say that the sun ILE IS
T TI
shines by day because, being a woman, it SSU
E
is afraid to venture out by night.
00017
YOU WILL FIND that the STATE is the kind of
ORGANIZATION which, though it does big things
badly, does small things badly too.
- JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
It seems that Zeus was preparing a wedding banquet for Peleus and
Thetis and did not want to invite Eris because of Her reputation as a trouble
maker. *
This made Eris angry, and so She fashioned an apple of pure gold**
and inscribed upon it KALLISTI (“To The Prettiest One”) and on the day of
the fete She rolled it into the banquet hall and then left to be alone and
joyously partake of a hot dog.
Finally, Zeus calmed things down and declared that an arbitrator must
be selected, which was a reasonable suggestion, and all agreed. He sent
them to a shepherd of Troy, whose name was Paris because his mother had
had a lot of gaul and married a Frenchman; but each of the sneaky god-
desses tried to outwit the others by going early and offering a bribe to Paris.
Athena offered him Heroic War Victories, Hera offered him Great
Wealth, and Aphrodite offered him The Most Beautiful Woman on Earth.
Being a healthy young Trojan lad, Paris promptly accepted Aphrodite’s bribe
and she got the apple and he got screwed.
when Sparta demanded their Queen back and that the Trojan War is said to be
The First War among men.
*** Actually there were five goddesses, but the Greeks did not know of the Law
of Fives.
Remember:
KING
KONG
Died For
Your Sins
5. An Age of Confusion, or an Ancient Age, is one in which
HO CHI ZEN
History As We Know It begins to unfold, in which Whatever Is
Coming emerges in Corporal Form, more or less, and such
times are Ages of Balanced Unbalance, or Unbalanced
6.
Balance.
An Age of Bureaucracy is an Imperial Age in which Things
IS
Mature, in which Confusion becomes entrenched and during
which Balanced Balance, or Stagnation, is attained. KING CONG
7. An Age of Disorder or an Aftermath is an Apocalyptic Period of
Transition back to Chaos through the Screen of Oblivion into
which the Age passeth, finally. These are Ages of Unbalanced
Unbalance.
HBT; The Book of Uterus, Chap. 3
00018
DO YOU REMEMBER?
1. Polite children will always remember that a church is the
______________ of _____________.
00019
AN ERISIAN HYMN
by Rev. Mungojerry Grindlebone, KOB
Episkopos, THE RAYVILLE APPLE PANTHERS
Onward Christian Soldiers,
Onward Buddhist Priests.
Onward Fruits of Islam,
Fight till youre deceased.
Fight your little battles,
Join in thickest fray;
For the Greater Glory,
of Dis-cord-i-a.
Yah, yah, yah,
Yah, yah, yah, yah.
Blfffffffffft!
NOTE: A, B, and C are POEE PROPER; while D and E are POEE IMPROPER
A. Miscellaneous Avatars
B. The Fifth Column
C. POEE =POPES= everywhere
D. Drawer “O” for OUT OF FILE
E. Lost Documents and Forgotten Truths
OFFICIAL – POEE
Head Temple, San Francisco
HOUSE OF THE RISING PODGE
Bureau of The POEE Epistolary
US IVE:
EXCL
= THE FIVE FINGERED HAND OF ERIS =
The esoteric name for this symbol is THE FIVE FINGERED HAND
OF ERIS, commonly shortened to THE HAND.
00021
The POEE HEAD TEMPLE is the Joshua Norton Cabal of The Discordian
Society, which is located in Mal-2’s pineal gland and can be found by
temporaly and spacialy locating the rest of Mal-2.
5. SELF-PORTRAIT
Rev. Mungo
For Office Use Only - acc. rej. Burned
00023
POEE & IT’S PRIESTS
Should you find that your own revelations of The Goddess become
substantially different than the revelations of Mal-2, then perhaps The
Goddess has plans for you as an Episkopos, and you might consider
creating your own sect from scratch, unhindered. Episkoposes are not
competing with each other, and they are all POEE Priests anyway (as
soon as I locate them). The point is that Episkopos are developing
separate paths to the Erisian mountain top. See the section “Discordian
Society.”
The Polyfather wishes to remind all Erisians the POEE was conceived not
as a commercial enterprise, and that you are requested to keep your cool
when seeking funds for POEE Cabals or when spreading the POEE word
via the market place.
00025
The hidden stone ripens Fast,
Then laid bare like a turnip
Can easily be cut out at last
But even then the danger isnt past.
That man lives best whos fain
To live half mad, half sane.
- Flemish poet Jan Van
Stijevoort, 1524.
To diverse gods
Do mortals bow;
Holy Cow, and
Wholly Chao.
- Rev. Dr. Grindlebone
Monroe Cabal
If you cannot find the Polyfather, or having found him, don’t want anything to do
with him, you are still authorized to form your own POEE CABAL and do Priestly
Things, using the Principia Discordia as a guide. Your Official Rank will be POEE
CHAPLIN for THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD, which is exactly the same
as a POEE PRIEST except that you don’t have an Ordination Certificate. The
words you are now reading are your ordination.
This Mysteree Rite is not required for initiation, but it is offered by many
POEE Priests to proselytes who desire a formal ceremony.
1) The Priest and four Brothers are arranged in a pentagon with the
Initiate in the center facing the Priest. If possible, the Brothers on the
immediate right and left of the Priest should be Deacons. The Initiate
must be totally naked, to demonstrate that he is truly a human being
and not something else in disguise like a cabbage or something.
RETURN TO
RESTRICTED
DO NOT
ROOM
PASS GO.
DO NOT COLL
00029 ECT $ 200
-2-
4) All present rejoice grandly. The new Brother opens a large jug of
wine and offers it to all who are present.
00030
ANSWERS:
1. Harry Houdini
2. Swing music
3. Pr
Preetzels
ze
4. 8 months
5. Testy Culber
Culbertt
6. It protr
ro udes
rudes
7. No v ocal cor
vo ds.
rd
DISCARDED
G3400
THE POEE MYSTEREE OATH
5O
DMTS
The Initiate swears the following:
FOREI
FLIEEGENDE KINDERSCHEISSE!
or perhaps
WIECZNY KWIAT WTADZA!!!!! GN
which is Ewige Blumenkraft in Polish.)
It says little,
does less,
means TRAVEL AGENT
nothing.
00033
SACRED DOCUMENT OF THE FROGS (old Erisian poem):
PERPETUAL DATE CONVERTER FROM GREGORIAN TO POEE CALENDAR
SEASONS
1) Chaos - Patron Apostle Hung Mung
2) Discord - Patron Apostle Dr. Van Van Mojo
3) Confusion - Patron Apostle Sri Syadasti
Aftermath
Chaos, Discord, Confusion, Bureaucracy and
4) Bureaucracy - Patron Apostle Zarathud
5) The Aftermath - Patron Apostle The Elder Malaclypse
DAYS OF THE WEEK*
1) Sweetmorn *The DAYS OF THE WEEK are
2) Boomtime named from the five Basic Ele-
3) Pungenday ments: SWEET, BOOM, PUN-
4) Prickle-Prickle GENT, PRICKLE, and ORANGE.
5) Setting Orange
HOLYDAYS
A) APOSTLE HOLYDAYS B) SEASON HOLYDAYS
73 Days hath
1) Mungday 1) Chaoflux
2) Mojoday 2) Discoflux
3) Syaday 3) Confuflux
4) Zaraday 4) Bureflux
5) Maladay 5) Afflux
Each occurs on the 5th day of the Season Each occurs on the 50th day of the Season
C) ST. TIB’S DAY - occurs once every four years (1+4=5) and is
inserted between the 59th and 60th days of the Season of Chaos
SM BT PD PP SO SM BT PD PP SO
Jan 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 Chs Jul 5 6 7 8 9 40 41 42 43 44 Cfn
6 7 8 9 10 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 45 46 47 48 49
11 12 13 14 15 11 12 13 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 50 51 52 53 54
16 17 18 19 20 16 17 18 19 20 20 21 22 23 24 55 56 57 58 59
21 22 23 24 25 21 22 23 24 25 25 26 27 28 29 60 61 62 63 64
26 27 28 29 30 26 27 28 29 30 30 31 1 2 3 65 66 67 68 69
31 1 2 3 4 31 32 33 34 35 Aug 4 5 6 7 8 70 71 72 73 1 Bcy
Feb 5 6 7 8 9 36 37 38 39 40 9 10 11 12 13 2 3 4 5 6
10 11 12 13 14 41 42 43 44 45 14 15 16 17 18 7 8 9 10 11
15 16 17 18 19 46 47 48 49 50 19 20 21 22 23 12 13 14 15 16
20 21 22 23 24 51 52 53 54 55 24 25 26 27 28 17 18 19 20 21
25 26 27 28* 1 56 57 58 59 60 29 30 31 1 2 22 23 24 25 26
Mar 2 3 4 5 6 61 62 63 64 65 Sep 3 4 5 6 7 27 28 29 30 31
7 8 9 10 11 66 67 68 69 70 8 9 10 11 12 32 33 34 35 36
12 13 14 15 16 71 72 73 1 2 Dsc 13 14 15 16 17 37 38 39 40 41
17 18 19 20 21 3 4 5 6 7 18 19 20 21 22 42 43 44 45 46
22 23 24 25 26 8 9 10 11 12 23 24 25 26 27 47 48 49 50 51
27 28 29 30 31 13 14 15 16 17 28 29 30 1 2 52 53 54 55 56
Apr 1 2 3 4 5 18 19 20 21 22 Oct 3 4 5 6 7 57 58 59 60 61
6 7 8 9 10 23 24 25 26 27 8 9 10 11 12 62 63 64 65 66
11 12 13 14 15 28 29 30 31 32 13 14 15 16 17 67 68 69 70 71
16 17 18 19 20 33 34 35 36 37 18 19 20 21 22 72 73 1 2 3 Afm
21 22 23 24 25 38 39 40 41 42 23 24 25 26 27 4 5 6 7 8
26 27 28 29 30 43 44 45 46 47 28 29 30 31 1 9 10 11 12 13
May 1 2 3 4 5 48 49 50 51 52 Nov 2 3 4 5 6 14 15 16 17 18
6 7 8 9 10 53 54 55 56 57 7 8 9 10 11 19 20 21 22 23
11 12 13 14 15 58 59 60 61 62 12 13 14 15 16 24 25 26 27 28
16 17 18 19 20 63 64 65 66 67 17 18 19 20 21 29 30 31 32 33
21 22 23 24 25 68 69 70 71 72 22 23 24 25 26 34 35 36 37 38
26 27 28 29 30 73 1 2 3 4 Cfn 27 28 29 30 1 39 40 41 42 43
31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Dec 2 3 4 5 6 44 45 46 47 48
Jun 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 7 8 9 10 11 49 50 51 52 53
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 12 13 14 15 16 54 55 56 57 58
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 17 18 19 20 21 59 60 61 62 63
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 22 23 24 25 26 64 65 66 67 68
25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 27 28 29 30 31 69 70 71 72 73
30 1 2 3 4 35 36 37 38 39 (1970 = 3136) (Next St. Tibs Day in 3138)
HOLY NAMES
00035
When Hypoc was through meditating with St. Gulik, he went there into
the kitchen where he busied himself with preparing the feast and in his endevor,
he found that there was some old tea in a pan left standing from the night
before, when he had in his weakness forgot about its making and had let it sit
steeping for 24 hours. It was dark and murky and it was Hypoc’s intention to
use this old tea by diluting it with water. And again in his weakness, chose
without further consideration and plunged into the physical labor of the prepara-
tions. It was then when deeply immersed in the pleasure of that trip, he had a
sudden clear voice in his head saying “it is bitter tea that involves you so.”
Hypoc heard the voice, but the struggle inside intensified, and the pattern,
previously established with the physical laboring and the muscle messages
coordinated and unified or perhaps coded, continued to exert their influence
and Hypoc succumbed to the pressure and denied the voice.
And again he plunged into the physical orgy and completed the task, and
Lo as the voice had predicted, the tea was bitter.
00037
“The Five Laws have root in awareness.”
—Che Fung (Ezra Pound, Canto 85)
One day Mal-2 asked the messenger spirit Saint Gulik to approach
the Goddess and request Her presence for some desperate advice. Shortly
afterwards the radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female Voice said
YES?
“I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of pain. Ev-
erywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with injus-
tices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers imprison
sons, children perish while brothers war. O, woe.”
SINISTER
038
DEXTER SE
E
XTN
O.
00
T E
HAS A BROKEN
SPIROMETER.
CHAPTER 5: THE PIONEERS
= THE FIVE APOSTLES OF ERIS & WHO THEY BE =
1. HUNG MUNG
00039
-2 -
00040
The teachings of the Sri Syadasti School
All statements are true in some sense, false
of Spiritual Wisdom are true in some
in some sense, meaningless in some sense,
sense, false in some sense, meaningless in
true and false in some sense, true and mean-
some sense, true and false in some sense,
ingless in some sense, false and meaningless
true and meaningless in some sense, false
in some sense, and true and false and mean-
and meaningless in some sense, and true
ingless in some sense. A public service
and false and meaningless in some sense.
clarification by the Sri Syadasti School of
Patamunzo Lingananda School of Higher
Spiritual Wisdom, Wilmette.
Spiritual Wisdom, Skokie.
THE HONEST BOOK OF TRUTH
being a BIBLE of The Erisian Movement
1. There came one day to Lord Omar, Bull Goose of Limbo, a Messenger of
Our Lady who told him of a Sacred Mound wherein was buried an Honest Book.
2. And the Angel of Eris bade of the Lord: Go ye hence and dig the Truth, that
ye may come to know it and, knowing it, spread it and, spreading it, wallow in it and
wallowing in it, lie in it and lying in the Truth , become a Poet of the Word and a Sayer
of Sayings - - and inspiration to all men and a Scribe to the Gods.
3. So Omar went forth to the Sacred Mound, which was to the East of Nullah, and
thereupon he worked digging in the sand for five days and five nights, but found no Book.
4. At the end of five days and five nights of digging, it came to pass that Omar was
exhausted. So he put his shovel to one side and bedded himself down on the sand,
using as a pillow a Golden Chest he had uncovered on the first day of his labors.
5. Omar slept.
6. On the fifth day of his sleeping, Lord Omar fell into a Trance, and there came to him
in the Trance a Dream, and there came to him in the Dream a Messenger of Our Lady
who told him of a Sacred Grove wherein was hidden a Golden Chest.
7. And the Angel of Eris bad of the Lord: Go ye hence and lift the Stash, that ye may
come to own it and, owning it, share it and, sharing it, love in it and, loving in it, dwell in
it and, dwelling in the Stash, become a Poet of the Word and a Sayer of Sayings – an
Inspiration to all men and a Scribe to the Gods.
8. But Omar lamented, saying unto the Angel: What is this shit, man? What care I for
the Word and Sayings? What care I for the Inspiration of all men? Wherein does it profit
a man to be a Scribe to the Gods when the Scribes of the Governments do nothing, yet
are paid better wages?
9. And, lo, the Angel waxed in anger and Omar was stricken to the Ground by an
Invisible Hand and did not arise for five days and five nights.
10. And it came to pass that on the fifth night he drempt, and in his Dream he had a
Vision, and in this Vision there came unto him a Messenger of Our Lady who entrusted
to him a Rigoletto cigar box containing many filing cards, some of them in packs
with rubber bands around, and upon these cards were sometimes written verses,
while upon others nothing was written.
11. Thereupon the Angel Commanded the Lord: Take ye this Honest Book of Truth to
thine bosom and cherish it. Carry it forth into The Land and lay it before Kings of
Nations and Collectors of Garbage. Preach from it unto the Righteous, that they
may renounce their ways and repent.
00042
T IO N A L C H AO S
CONVEN
DO N
OT B
END
GREYFACE
It is not presently understood why men were so gullible at that particular time,
for absolutely no one thought to observe all the disorder around them and
conclude just the opposite. But anyway, Greyface and his followers took the
game of playing at life more seriously than they took life itself and were
known even to destroy other living beings whose ways of life differed from
their own.
The unfortunate result of this is that mankind has since been suffering from a
psychological and spiritual imbalance. Imbalance caused by frustration, and
frustration causes fear. And fear makes a bad trip. Man has been on a bad
trip for a long time now.
Bullshit makes
the flowers grow
and that’s beautiful.
Climb into the Chao with a friend or two
MANDALA
00043
MEANWHILE, at the Chinese Laundromat . . .
5. And therein emerged the Active Force of Discord, the Subtle Manifestation
of the Nonexistent Chao, to guide Everything along the Path back to
Oblivion – that it might not become lost among Precepts of Order in the
Region of Thud.
7. And under Eris Confusion became established, and was hence called
Bureaucracy; while over BureaucracyEris became established, and was
hence called Discordia.
10.During and after the Fall of the Establishment of Bureaucracy was the
Aftermath, an Age of Disorder, in which calculation, computations,
and reckonings were put away by the Children of Eris in Acceptance
and Preparation for Return to Oblivion to be followed by a Repetition
of the Universal Absurdity. Moreover, of Itself the Coming of After-
math waseth a Resurrection of the Freedom-flowing Chaos. HAIL
ERIS!
11. Herein was set into motion the Eristic pattern, which would Repeat
Itself Five Times Over Seventy-three Times, after which nothing would
happen.
* This doctrine should not be confused with DOGMA III – HISTORY #6,
“HISTORIC CYCLES,” which states that social progress occurs in five
cycles, the first three (“The Tricycle”) of which are THESIS, ANTITHESIS
and PARENTHESIS; and the last two (“The Bicycle”) of which are CON-
STERNATION and MORAL WARPTITUDE.
NOTE: It is from this text from The Book of Uterus, that POEE has based
its Erisian Calendar with the year divided into 5 Seasons of 73 days
each. Each of the Five Apostles of Eris has patronage over one Season.
A chart of the Seasons, Patrons, Days of the Week, Holydays, and a
perpetual Gregorian converter is included in this edition of Principia.
ere Filler
ll but Sinc
Du
00045
And behold, thusly was the Law formulated:
IMPOSITION of Order = escalation of Disorder!
(H.B.T.; The Gospel According to Fred, 1:6)
1. The Military Order of THE KNIGHTS OF THE FIVE SIDED TEMPLE. This
is for all of the soldiers and bureaucrats of the world.
2. The Political Order of THE PARTY FOR WAR ON EVIL. This is reserved for
lawmakers, censors, and like ilk.
Dont let
A person belonging to one or more Order is
THEM just as likely to carry a flag of the counter-
establishment as the flag of the establishment
immanentize – just as long as it is a flag.
the
Eschaton MILIT 00046
HIP-2-3-4, HIP 2-3-4 ARY
GO TO YOUR LEFT-RIGHT
.
00047
That is, in any given situation, less organization, more chaos, is over-
whelmingly more probable than tighter organization or more order.
The whirlpools that swirl in a direction opposed to the main current are
called “enclaves”. And one of them is life, especially human life, which in a
universe moving inexorably towards chaos moves toward increased order.
HONE
Personal
TEL E P
IF THE
PLANETARY PI, which I discovered, is
ODAY
61. It’s a Time-Energy relationship
existing between sun and inner plants and
I use it in arriving at many facts unknown
RINGS T
T!
WATER I stic
to science. For example, multiply nude
earth’s circumference 24,902.20656 by 61
a s, G n o
om
-Rev. Th
and you get the distance of moon’s orbit
bal
around the earth. This is slightly less than
N.Y.C. Ca
actual distance because we have not yet
considered earth’s atmosphere. So be it.
Christopher Garth, Evanston.
FIND PEACE
TAO FA WITH A
TSU-DAN CONTENTED
CHAO
00048
UST
THE SACRED CHAO
M
We look at the world through windows on which have been drawn grids
(concepts). Different philosophies use different grids. A culture is a group
of people
00049
-2-
THE TRUTH IS FIVE BUT MEN HAVE ONLY ONE NAME FOR IT.
Patamunzo Lingananda
It also is the shape of the United States Military Headquarters, the Pentagon
Building, a most pregnant manifestation of straightjacket order resting on a
firm foundation of chaos and constantly erupting into dazzeling disorder; and
this building is one of our more cherished Erisian Shrines. Also it so hap-
pens that in times of medieval magic, the pentagon was the generic symbol
for werewolves, but this reference is not particularly intended and it should
be noted that the Erisian Movement does not discriminate against
werewolves - - our membership roster is open to persons of all races, na-
tional origins and hobbies.
00051
28 DAY RECORDING
5. Hung Mung slapped his buttockss,
hopped about, and shook his head, saying,
“I do not know! I do not know!”
HBT; The Book of Gooks, Chap 1 00052
BRUNSWICK SHRINE
In the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier there lives a bowling alley, and
within this very place, in the year of Our Lady of Discord 3125 (1959*),
Eris revealed Herself to The Golden Apple Corps for the first time.
It is written that when The Corps returns to the Shrine for the fifth time
five times over, then shall the world come to an end:
IMPENDING DOOM
HAS ARRIVED
And Five Days Prior to This Occasion The
Apostle The Elder Malaclypse Shall Walk the Streets
of Whittier Bearing a Sign for All Literates to Read
thereof: “DOOM”, as a Warning of Forthcoming Doom
to All Men Impending. And He Shall Signal This Event
by Seeking the Poor and Distributing to Them Pre-
cious MAO BUTTONS and Whittier Shall be Known as
The Region of Thud for These Five Days.
c/o
Quiet night S
* Or maybe it was 1958, I forget.
00053
STARBUCK’S PEBBLES
Which
Is
Real?
An Illuminated Mind can see all of these, yet he does not insist that any
one is really true, or that none at all is true. Stars, and pentagons, and
disorder are all his own creations and he may do with them as he wishes.
Indeed, even so the concept of number 5.
Can you chart The real reality is there, but everything you
the COURSE KNOW about “it” is in your mind and yours to
to do with as you like. Conceptualization is art,
Captain and YOU ARE THE ARTIST.
Valentines
SWEETHEART?
Convictions cause convicts.
Brother Ram,
Your acute observation that ERIS spelled backwards is SIRE, and your
inference to the effect that there is sexual symbolism here, have brought me
to some observations of my own.
And so thank you for your insight, it may well be the clue to the mystery of just
where Eris has been fucking around for 3125 years.
NO
TF
OR
CIR
CUL
ATI
O N
Which is not the same as Dogma I – METAPHYSICS #2, “COSMOLOGY” (Book of Uterus)
In the beginning there was VOID, who had two daughters; one (the smaller) was that of BEING, named
ERIS, and one (the larger) was of NON-BEING, named ANERIS. (To this day, the fundamental truth that
Aneris is the larger is apparent to all who compare the great number of things that do not exist with the
comparatively small number of things that do exist.)
Eris had been born pregnant, and after 55 years (Goddesses have an unusually long gestation period—
- 1-
longer even than elephants), Her pregnancy bore the fruits of many things. These things were composed
of the Five Basic Elements, SWEET, BOOM, PUNGENT, PRICKLE and ORANGE. Aneris, however, had
been created sterile. When she saw Eris enjoying Herself so greatly with all of the existent things She
a
had borne, Aneris became jelous and finally one day she stole some existent things and changed them
>
into non-existent things and claimed them as her own children. This deeply hurt Eris, who felt that Her
sister was unjust (being so much larger anyway) to deny Her her small joy. And so She made Herself
swell again to bear more things. And She swore that no matter how many of her begotten that Aneris
would steal, She would beget more. And, in return, Aneris swore that no matter how many existent things
Eris brought forth, she would eventually find them and turn them into non-existent things for her own.
(And to this day, things appear and disappear in this very manner.)
At first, the things brought forth by Eris were in a state of chaos and went in every which way, but by the
by She began playing with them and ordered some of them just to see what would happen. Some pretty things
arose from the play and for the next five zillion years She amused Herself by creating order. And so She
grouped some things with others and some groups with others, and big groups with little groups, and all combi-
nations until She had many grand schemes which delighted Her.
Engrossed in establishing order, She finally one day noticed disorder (previously not apparent because
everything else was chaos). There were many ways in which chaos was ordered and many ways in which it was
not.
00057
-2-
“Hah,” She thought, “Here shall be a new game.”
And She taught order and disorder to play with each other in contest games, and to take turns amusing
each other. She named the side of disorder after Herself, “ERISTIC” because Being is anarchic. And then, in a
mood of sympathy for Her lonely sister, She named the other side “ANERISTIC” which flattered Aneris and
smoothed the friction a little that was between them.
Now all of this time, Void was somewhat disturbed. He felt unsatisfied for he had created only physical
existence and physical non-existence, and had neglected the spiritual. As he contemplated this, a great Quiet
was caused and he went into a state of Deep Sleep which lasted for 5 eras. At the end of this ordeal, he begat a
brother to Eris and Aneris, that of SPIRITUALITY, who had no name at all.
When the sisters heard this, they both confronted Void and pleaded that he not forget them, his First
Born. And so Void decreed thus:
That this brother, having no form, was to reside with Aneris in Non-Being and then to leave her and,
so that he might play with order and disorder, reside with Eris in Being. But Eris became filled with
sorrow when She heard this and then began to weep.
“Why are you so despondent?” demanded Void, “Your new brother will have his share with you.” “But
Father, Aneris and I have been arguing, and she will take him from me when she discovers him, and
cause him to return to Non-Being.” “I see, “ replied Void, “Then I decree the following:
-3-
“When your brother leaves the residence of Being, he shall not reside again in Non-Being, but shall
return to Me, Void, from whence he came. You girls may bicker as you wish, but My son is your
Brother and We are all of Myself.”
And so it is that we, as men, do not exist until we do; and then it is that we play with our world of
existent things, and order and disorder them, and so it shall be that non-existence shall take us back
from existence and that nameless spirituality shall return to the Void, like a tired child home from a
very wild circus.
Seek ye
the Eye
of the Hurricane.
Unlike a song, chants are not sung but chanted. This particular one is
much enhanced by the use of a Leader to chant the Sanskrit alone, with
all participants chanting the English. It also behooves one to be in a
quiet frame of mind and to be sitting in a still position, perhaps The
Buttercup Position. It also helps if one is absolutely zonked out of his
gourd.
RUB-A-DUB-DUB
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Hung Mung.
SYA-DASTI
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Mo-Jo.
SYA-DAVAK-TAVYA
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Zara-thud.
SYA-DASTI SYA-NASTI
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Elder Mal.
SYA-DASTI KAVAK-TAV-YASKA
O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Gu-lik.
SYA-DASTI, SYA-NASTI, SYA-DAVAK-TAV-YASKA
O! Hail Eris. All Hail Dis-cord-ia.
RUB-A-DUB-DUB
It is then repeated indefinitely, or for the first two thousand miles, which
ever comes first.
00059
00060
THE CLASSIFICATION OF SAINTS
2. LANCE SAINT
3. LIEUTENANT SAINT
4. BRIGADIER SAINT
NOTE: It is an Old Erisian Tradition to never agree with each other about
Saints.
= On Occultism =
Magicians, especially since the Gnostic and the Quabala influences, have
sought higher consciousness through the assimilation and control of universal
opposites - - good/evil, positive/negative, male/female, etc. But due to the
steadfast pomposity of ritualism inherited from the ancient methods of the sha-
man, occultists have been blinded to what is perhaps the two most important
pairs of apparent or earth-plane opposites: ORDER/DISORDER and SERIOUS/
HUMOROUS.
Magicians, and their progeny the scientists, have always taken themselves and
their subject in an orderly and sober manner, thereby disregarding an essential
metaphysical balance. When magicians learn to approach philosophy as a
malleable art instead of an immutable Truth, and learn to appreciate the absur-
dity of man’s endeavors, then they will be able to pursue their art with a lighter
heart and perhaps gain a clearer understanding of it, and therefore gain more
effective magic. CHAOS IS ENERGY.
Sunday
With an
Enemy
Study
This
00061
00062
1) On your next Birthday, return to the place of your birth and, at precisely
midnight, noting your birth time and date of observation, count all visible
stars.
2) When you’ve done this, write to me and I’ll tell you what to do next.
assumption.
00063
ERISIAN MAGIC RITUAL – THE TURKEY CURSE
Revealed by the Apostle Dr. Van Van Mojo as a specific counter to the evil
Curse of Greyface, the TURKEY CURSE is here passed on to Erisians
everywhere for their just protection.
The Turkey Curse works. It is firmly grounded on the fact that Greyface and
his followers absolutely require an aneristic setting to function and that a
timely introduction of eristic vibrations will neutralize their foundation. The
Turkey Curse is designed solely to counteract negative aneristic vibes and if
introduced into a neutral or positive aneristic setting (like a poet working out
word rhythms) it will prove harmless, or at worst, simply annoying. It is not
designed for use against negative eristic vibes, although it can be used as
an eristic vehicle to introduce positive vibes into a misguided eristic setting.
In this instance, it would be the responsibility of the Erisian Magician to
manufacture the positive vibrations if results are to be achieved. CAUTION
– all magic is powerful and requires courage and integrity on the part of the
magician. This ritual, if misused, can backfire. Positive motivation is essen-
tial for self-protection.
Take a foot stance as if you were John L. Sullivan preparing for fisticuffs.
Face the particular greyface you wish to short-circuit, or towards the direc-
tion of the negative aneristic vibration that you wish to neutralize. Begin by
waving your arms in any elaborate manner and make motions with your
hands as though you were Mandrake feeling up a sexy giantess. Chant,
loudly and clearly:
GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE!
00064
A PRIMER FOR ERISIAN EVANGELISTS by Lord Omar
THE BLIND ASSERTION and say “Well, He is a girl and His name
is ERIS!” Shrewdly observe if the subject is convinced. If he is, swear him
into the Legion of Dynamic Discord before he changes his mind. If he
does not appear to be convinced, then proceed to:
THE FAITH BIT: “But you must have Faith! All is lost without Faith!
I sure feel sorry for you if you don’t have Faith.” And then add:
THE FIRST CLAUSE PLOY wherein you point to all of the discord
and confusion in the world and exclaim “Well who the hell do you think did
all of this, wise guy?” If he says, “Nobody, just impersonal forces.” Then
quickly respond with:
00065
A GAME
TURNS are taken thusly: who somever gets the junk up in the air first.
DUTY: It shall be the duty of all persons playing “SINK” to help find
more objects to sink, once; one object is sunk.
UPON SINKING: The sinked shall yell “I sank it!” or something equally
as thoughtful.
If a lot of people who receive this letter plant a few seeds and a lot of people
receive this letter, then a lot of seeds will get planted. Plant you seeds.
In parks. On lots. Public flower beds. In remote places. At City Hall. Wher-
ever. Whenever. Or start a plantation in your closet (but read up on it first for
that). For casual planting, its best to soak them in water for a day and plant in
a bunch of about 5, about half an inch deep. Don’t worry much about weather,
they know when the weather is wrong and will try to wait for nature. Don’t soak
them if its wintertime. Seeds are a very hearty life form and strongly desire to
grow and flourish. But some of them need people’s help to get started. Plant
your seeds.
Make a few copies of this letter (5 would be nice) and send them to friends of
yours. Try to mail to different cities and states, even different countries. If you
would rather not, than please pass this copy on to someone and perhaps they
would like to.
THERE IS NO TRUTH
To the legend that if you throw away a chain letter then all sorts of catastrophic,
abominable, and outrageous disasters will happen. Except, of course, from
your seed’s point of view.
00067
00068 Q. “How come a woodpecker doesn’t bash its brains
out?” A. Nobody has ever explained that.
00069
2. Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain ye, la-
menting, that ye’ve been left to fight alone.
3. All Chaos was once yer kingdom; verily, held ye domination over the
entire Pentaverse, but today ye wax sore afraid in dark corners,
nooks, and sink holes.
4. O how the darness do crowd up, one against the other, in ye hearts!
What fear ye more than what ye have wroughten?
5. Verily, verily I say unto you, not all the Sinister Ministers of the Bavar-
ian Illuminati, working together in multitudes, could so entwine the
land with tribulation as have yer baseless warnings.
“ILLUMINATE
CIAL TI THE OPPOSITION!”
OFFI LUMINA ! - - Adam Weishaupt,
T
AR IAN IL ENKRAF Grand Primus Illuminatus
BAV E BLUM
IG
EW
00070
INTER-OFFICE PRIVATE WIRE SENT
D5
THE ANCIENT ILLUMINATED SEERS OF BAVARIA – VIGILANCE LODGE
Mad Malik, Hauptscheissmeister; Resident for Norton Cabal
X
DISCORDIAN SOCIETY SUPER SECRET CRYPTOGRAPHIC CYPHER CODE
Of possible interest to all Discordians, this information is herewith released from the vaults of A.I.S.B., under the aus-
pices of Episkopos Dr. Mordecai Malignatius, KNS.
CONVERSION:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
STEP 1. Write out message (HAIL ERIS) and put all vowels at end (HLRSAIEI)
STEP 2. Reverse order (IEIASRLH)
STEP 3. Convert to numbers (9-5-9-1-19-18-12-8)
STEP 4. Put into numerical order (1-5-8-9-9-12-18-19)
STEP 5. Convert back to letters (AEHIILRS)
Bavarian Illuminati
Founded by Hassan i Sabbah, 1090 A.D. (5090 A.L., 4850 A.M.)
Reformed by Adam Weishaupt, 1776 A.D. (5776 A.L., 5536 A.M.)
In response to your request for unclassified agitprop to be inserted in the new edition of the
PRINCIPIA, hope the following will be of use. And please stop bothering us with your incessant
letters!
Episkopos Mordecai, Keeper of the Notary Sojac, informs me that you are welcome to reveal
that our oldest extant records show us to have been fully established in Atlantis, circa 18,000 B.C.,
under Kull, the galley slave who ascended to the Throne of Valusia. Revived by Pelias of Koth, circa
10,000 B.C. Possibly it was he who taught the inner-teachings to Conan of Cimmeria after Conan
became King of Aquilonia. First brought to the western hemisphere by Conan and taught to Mayan
priesthood (Conan is Quetzlcoatl). That was 4 Ahua, 8 Cumhu, Mayan date. Revived by Abdul
Alhazred in his infamous Al Azif, circa 800 A.D. (Al Azif translated into Latin by Olaus Wormius,
1132 A.D., as The Necronomicon.) In 1090 A.D. was the founding of The Ismaelian Sect
(Hashishism) by Hassan i Sabbah, with secret teachings based on Alhazred, Pelias and Kull. Founding
of the Illuminated Ones of Bavaria, by Adam Weishaupt, on May 1, 1776. He based it on the others.
Weishaupt brought it to the United States during the period that he was impersonating George Wash-
ington; and it was he who was the Man in Black who gave the design for The Great Seal to Jefferson in
the garden that night. The Illuminated tradition is now, of course, in the hands of The Ancient Illumi-
nated Seers of Bavaria (A.I.S.B.), headquartered here in the United States.
Our teachings are not, need I remind you, available for publication. No harm, though, in
admitting that some of them can be found disguised in Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, Burroughs Nova
Express, the King James translation of The Holy Bible (though not the Latin or Hebrew), and The Blue
Book. Not to speak of Ben Franklin’s private papers (!), but we are still suppressing those.
Considering current developments - - you know the ones I speak of - - it has been decided to
reveal a few more of our front organizations. Your publication is timely, so mention that in addition to
the old fronts, like the Masons, the Rothchild Banks, and the Federal Reserve System, we now have
significant control of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (since Hoover died last year, but that is still
secret), the Students for a Democratic Society, the Communist Party USA, the American Anarchist
Assn., the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Black Lotus Society, the Republican Party, the John
Dillinger Died For You Society and the Camp Fire Girls. It is still useful to continue the sham of the
Birchers that we are seeking world domination; so do not reveal that political and economic control
was generally complete several generations ago and that we are just playing with the world for a while
until civilization advances sufficiently for phase five.
In fact you might still push Vennard’s The Federal Reserve Hoax: “Since the Babylonian Captivity
there has existed a determined, behind-the-scenes under-the-table, atheistic, satanic, anti-Christian
force – worshippers of Mamon – whose underlying purpose is world control through the control of
Money. July 1, 1776 (correct that to May 1st, Vennard can’t get anything right) the Serpent raised its
head in the under-ground secret society known as The Illuminati, founded by Adam Weishaupt.
There is considerable documentary evidence to prove all revolutions, wars, depressions, strikes and
chaos stem from this source.” Etc., etc., you know the stuff.
The general location of our US HQ, incidentally, has been nearly exposed; and so we will be moving
for the first time this century (what a drag!). If you want, you can reveal that it is located deep in the
labyrinth of sewers beneath Dealy Plaza in Dallas, and is presided over by the Dealy Lama. Inclosed
are some plans for several new potential locations. Please review and add any comments you feel
pertinent, especially regarding the Eristic propensity of the Pentagon site.
Oh, and we have some good news for you, Brother Mal! You know that Zambian cybernetics genius
who joined us? Well, he has secretly co-ordinated the FBI computers with the Zurich System and
our theoriticians are in ecstasy over the new information coming out. Look, if you people there can
keep from blowing yourselves up for only two more generations, then we will finally have it. After
20,000 years, Kull’s dream will be realized! We can hardly believe it. But the outcome is certain,
given the time. Our grandchildren, Mal! If civilization makes it through this crisis, our grandchil-
dren will live in a world of authentic freedom and authentic harmony and authentic satisfaction. I
hope I’m alive to see it, Mal, success is in our grasp. Twenty thousand years…..!
Ah, I get spaced just thinking about it. Good luck on the Principia. Ewige Blumenkraft! HAIL
ERIS.
Love,
MAD MALIK
The human race will begin solving it’s problems on the day that it ceases
taking itself so seriously.
To this end, we propose that man develop his innate love for disorder, and
play with The Goddess Eris. And know that it is a joyful play, and that
thereby CAN BE REVOKED THE CURSE OF GREYFACE.
If you can master nonsense as well as you have already learned to master
sense, then each will expose the other for what it is: absurdity. From that
moment of illumination, a man begins to be free regardless of his sur-
roundings. He becomes free to play order games and change them at will.
He becomes free to play disorder games just for the hell of it. He be-
comes free to play neither or both. And as the master of his own games,
he plays without fear, and therefore without frustration, and therefore with
good will in his soul and love in his being.
00074
THUS ENDS PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA
This being the 4th Edition, March 1970, San Francisco; a revision of
If you think the PRINCIPIA is just
the 3rd Edition of 500 copies, whomped together in Tampa 1969; which
revised the 2nd Edition of 100 copies from Los Angelas 1969; which
a ha-ha, then go read it again.
binding, and it is a rotten shame that you have read all the way
down to the very last word.
UE RIS
AG I-A
LE T
AN
DISCORDIAN SOCIETY EE
DEDICATED TO AN ADVANCED
UNDERSTANDING OF THE PARAPHYSICAL
PO
MANIFESTATIONS OF EVERYDAY CHAOS
It has been ten years since I met the mysterious Malaclypse the Younger. I
was free lancing for the underground papers and went by POEE Head Temple at
555 Battery Street to try for an interview.
I found him in the Temple PO Box busy wrapping up the new Fourth Edition of
Principia. He seemed impatient with me, insisting that he didn’t have the time or
inclination for foolish questions from reporters. Undaunted, I burst out with ques-
tions like whether he preferred Panama Red or Acapulco Gold and how the fuck
did we manage to fit inside of a tiny post office box and other things apropos a
naive young semiliterate dropout hippy writer. He asked me if I wanted to drop
mescaline and fuck all night and said he knew how to turn himself into a unicorn
and there might be room for a tiny interview on the cover of the Principia if I wanted
to work for the Greater Poop so I said sure, OK, I’ve never dropped mescaline in a
post office box before.
It turned out I was among the last to see Malaclypse. As subsequent issues of
Greater Poop revealed, he was to disappear and POEE business was to be as-
sumed by his students at Norton Cabal. Professor Ignotum P. Ignotius, Department
of Comparative Realities, was assigned the Trust of the POEE Scruple and Rev.
Dr. Occupant became Keeper of the Box. The newly published copies of Principia
were distributed by Mad Malik, Block Disorganizer, who had distribution contacts
with the Aluminum Bavariati. Practical relations remained in the hands of concept
artist G. Hill.
When the 1000 Principias were gone the Greater Poop stopped publishing,
Head Temple closed down and the Cabal just seemed to evaporate. Finally even
the box was closed. But over the years I noticed that copies were still circulating,
and that independent Discordian Cabals would occasionally pop out of nowhere
(and still do). And I would wonder what ever happened to Malaclypse.
When I read the Illuminatus trilogy I resolved to again find and interview the
denizens of Joshua Norton Cabal of the Discordian Society.
***
As I cabled over Nob to San Francisco’s Station ‘O’ Post Office I couldn’t
help but wonder at Goddess, hand in assigning street addresses to Her outposts.
Mal2 had told me that Good Lord Omar always filed everything under “O” for Out
Of File.
“Maya is marvelous” I was thinking when I rapped on the little metal door and
was greeted warmly by a huge beard who introduced himself as Professor
Ignotius. He ushered me into a spacious wood paneled and tapestry hung parlor
where three others were laughing and passing around a wine jug. The sunny one
in a tunic was the Reverend Doctor Occupant, the trim khaki and jeans was Mad
Malik and the wine jug claimed to be Hill. I got the recorder on ....
GYPSIE SKRIPTO [in response to a question]: ...1969 but only briefly. I guess I
missed you guys.
MAD MALIK: No wonder, he was pretty much a one man show then. We were
just his students and were usually off on errands. You worked for the Poop?
Gypsie: Well, for one night anyway. The interview is in the Principia.
REV. DR. OCCUPANT: Malik was the only one he would ever let write for the
Poop or get on the letterhead.
Gypsie: Did you [Malik] have higher authority than the others?
Malik: No, [but I was allowed to speak in the Poop] because [Malaclypse the
Younger] hated politics. He was infuriated with Johnson and Nixon over Viet Nam
because it was turning the renaissance into a political revolution and was stealing
his sacred thunder. So he trained me in Zenarchy, which he learned from Omar,
and
I was the official anarcho-pacifist for the Cabal. Also I was liaison to The Ancient
Illuminated Seers of Bavaria, the Chicago Discordians. Later Omar activated the
Hung Mung Cong Tong and ELF, on zenarchist principles, and also Operation
Mindfuck. I was also into those. Though at that time I was masquerading in
Greater Poop as a cremated cabbage to throw off the FBI.
Gypsie [to Hill]: Since you wrote it, I take it you are an anarchist?
G.H. HILL: Since then I have given up anarchy. Too many rules—hating the government
and all that stuff.
Malik: [Anarchy] is also standing up and proceeding forward, fantasy rule or not. The
condition is the same.
Malik: We have had this argument before, Reverend Doctor Brother. But wine before
platitudes, fill it up.
Hill: I’m not sure I ever was one. Mal2 was not, Malik was. Personally I accepted self
defense yet I could never reconcile that with the ideal. I finally gave up on that one too.
Actually I just gave up on idealism.
Malik: Mal2 once told me that pacifism was a dilemma. If everybody was a pacifist then
everything would be perfect. But nobody is going to be a pacifist unless I am first. But if
I am and somebody else is not, then I get screwed. He said that there were five choices
under that circumstance. The first was napalming farmers and the second was execut-
ing your parents. The third was hypocrisy, the fourth was cowardice, and the fifth was to
swallow the dilemma. Zenarchists are trained in dilemma swallowing.
Occupant: Dilemma, Schlimemma. [to Gypsie]: What do you think of this, pretty
ma’am? We don’t get to hear your thoughts.
Gypsie: Hey, guy, later. [to Hill]: Doesn’t this leave you a little schizy?
Occupant: Well I can have a sign if I want to and screw both of you.
Malik: Come on Greg, you just think that we are your characters....
Occupant: You were inhabited by Malaclypse the Younger. He caused you to create
roles and those roles are being performed by us spirits.
Hill: Well you can look at it like that if you want to, but I created Mal2 to my specifica-
tions just as I conceived all the rest of you.
Occupant: You didn’t invent Eris. She caused you to think you created the spirit of
Malaclypse.
Hill: Oh bull! Besides, I changed her so much the Greeks would never recognize her.
Malik: What you don’t realize is that a spirit has a self identity.
Hill: Nope. A spirit is a product of definition and the one who is doing the defining
around here is me. Your identity is what I say it is. Just to prove it, I’m going to change
your name.
79/11/26 -4- Loompanics
NORTON CABAL INTERVIEW G. Skripto
SINISTER DEXTER: It’s OK with me. Fate is fate. I never much liked “Mad Malik”
anyway.
Hill: Its a name I came up with in the old days and never used much. Its on page
38 of the Principia referring to Vice President Spiro Agnew. I always thought I
invented it but now it sounds like a Stan Freberg name now that I think about it. It
may have stuck in my preconscious memory from early TV.
Hill: If it is his? I don’t know. I hope so. It means “left right” in Latin and is a perfect
name for a libertarian anarchist. Actually in my kind of art the question of what can
I use freely and what can I not is a very trickly problem.
Hill: Well, take a collage for example. Like the early one on page 36 of the
Principia. Each little piece was extracted from some larger work created by some
other artist and published and maybe copyrighted. I find them in newspapers and
magazines mostly. Often from ads. With a collage you select and extract from your
environment and then assemble into an original relationship.
There is a lot of pirated stuff in the Principia, especially in the margins. But also I
sympathize with artists who must own and sell their works to earn a living. Art, like
knowledge, should be free fodder for everyone. But it isn’t. It is perplexing.
Hill: Well, a full answer would take a whole book in itself. Most of the writing cred-
ited to a name is a true person and almost always a different name means a differ-
ent person. Most of the non-credited, you know,
Malaclypse, text is mine although some things credited to either Mal2 or Omar
were actually co-written and passed back and forth and rewritten by each of us.
The marginalia, dingbats and pasted in titles and heads and things came from
wherever I found them—some of which is original but uncredited Discordian
output, like the page head on 12 and other pages which is from a series of satiric
memo pads from Our Peoples Underworld Cabal. All page layout is mine and
some whole graphics like the Sacred Chao and the Hodge Podge Transformer are
mine but mostly I just found stuff and integrated it. Mostly I did concept, say 50%
of the writing, 10% of the graphics, all of the layout.
Hill: Well, the poem on the front cover is by Walt Kelly and was spoken by one of
his characters in Pogo. The government seals starting on page 1 are from a book
of sample seals from the U.S. Government Printing Office. Western Union on
page 6 got into the act because I used to be a teletype operator and had access
to blank forms. Rubber stamps came from all over the place and some, like the
apple on page 27, I carved myself. A few I ordered to my specification, like on
page 1. The quote on top of page 8 might be from Barnum, I’m not sure. The
jumping man on page 12 is from an advertisement. I recognize the style—a popu-
lar commercial artist—but I don’t know his name. The Chinese on that page is a
grocery ad, I think. The Norton money on page 14 is historic, plus my little addi-
tions. The apple on page 17, as well as the triangle on 23 and the Sacred Chao
on 50 are, believe it or not, pasteups from mimeoqraphs, from Seattle Cabal. That
group produced the best damn mimeography I’ve ever seen. The Lick Here Box
on page 23 is one of many tidbits making the rounds in alternative/underground
newspapers in those days. Trip 5 page header on 29 was a chapter title in one of
Tim Leary’s books. The Knight on the bull with the TV antenna on his helmet on
page 46 came from a very artistic magazine called Horseshit and put out by two
brothers from Long Beach. I don’t remember their names. Wonderful magazine.
Occupant: Eris told Mal2 what to use and where to find it.
Hill: Yeah, in a way that is right. That is why my name does not appear anywhere
on the Principia and why it was published with a broken copyright—Reprint What
You Like. I knew I was taking liberties and didn’t want my intentions to be misun-
derstood. It was an experiment and was intended to be an underground work and
that involves a different set of ethics than commercial work.
Hill: Oh, some. Camden Benares is a real name because he legally changed his
original name to his Holy Name. Also, instead of using Mordecai Malignatus I used
Bob Wilson’s real name on page 12 because Werewolf Bridge was a work before
Discordianism. And of course real people like Neils Bohr crop up in quotes.
Gypsie: What do you think about the Principia now? Would you want to change it?
Hill: I consider it a successful work and I wouldn’t want to change it. In some ways
it is immature and I am not the same person I was 10 years ago, but it accom-
plished the objectives I set for myself and it has the effect I wanted it to have.
There are a few errors though.
Hill: Oh, I changed a quote from Tom Gnostic on page 61 and I don’t think he ever
did forgive me for it. He’s right. Starbuck’s Pebbles should have been preceded by
the Myth of Starbuck which was being saved for something else and never got
used. I should have used it when I had the chance. And then Eris did a neat little
trick on me by having IBM make the Greek selectric typewriter element not coin-
cide with all the characters on their keyboard. So the little “kallisti” that first ap-
pears on the title page and lastly on the back cover came out “kallixti” and I was
too dumb to know the difference.
Hill: There already is a Fifth Edition, by Mal2. It is a one page telegram that re-
duces everything to an infinite aum. I found it at Western Union where a machine
got stuck and kicked out hundreds of pages of nothing but m’s. He made it the
Fifth Edition and then left.
Principia/Malaclypse was a very personal work for me and actually took 10 years
to culminate. It was one single statement that included my adolescence in the 50’s
and my young adulthood in the 60’s. When I finally had the paste-ups done I knew
that I had finished it. That is why, quote, Malaclypse left. I knew it was finished. I
didn’t know exactly what it was, but it was done.
Occupant: See?
Gypsie: Earlier you said that you met your objectives. Just what were those objec-
tives?
Hill: Well, that’s hard to answer because it kept refining itself over the years. In
1969 I mainly
thought of myself as a cosmic clown and I set out to prove, by demonstration, that a
deity can be anything at all.
In other words, people invent gods and not the other way around. Later I decided that I
was doing some kind of conceptual art.
In the 50’s my culture taught me that I was created by and for a deity, a specific male
deity, and that all other deities are FALSE. Yet my growing experience showed me that
any deity is true in some sense and false in some other sense. So I set out to do what
my society told me is impossible—make a real religion from a patently absurd deity.
In the 50’s a female deity was blasphemy. In the 70’s a humorous deity is still consid-
ered impossible, ridiculous and blasphemous. As far as I’m concerned, I have proven
my point. Eris is a real deity and even though I don’t promote Erisianism as a serious
religion ....
Occupant: I do!
Hill: ...I do point out that it makes just as much sense from its own perspective as all
the others do from each of their own perspectives.
Ignotius: If you can live rewardingly with Goddess Eris you can live with any deity,
including none or all.
Dexter: I don’t much go for the worship business but I agree with Occupant about the
spirit of the thing. We live in a time of turmoil, the whole planet is in a state of change.
If we, as a species, cower from the confusion then we die with the dying. This is revolu-
tion.
[ laughter ]
Hill: Oh, I love it. I was finishing Principia when Shea and Wilson were working on
Illuminatus. It took
79/11/26 -8- Loompanics
NORTON CABAL INTERVIEW G. Skripto
Dell five years to publish it...maybe that is significant. The 1969 Discordian Society was
a mail network between independent writers of various kinds. Norton Cabal was just me
and my characters and I used the other cabals as sort of a laboratory. In return other
Discordians would bounce their stuff off of me. We would toss in ideas and anybody
could take anything out. It was a concept stew. The exchanging of ideas and tech-
niques broadened and encouraged all of us.
Ignotius: I got misquoted. Worse, I wasn’t even in that scene and if I had been then I
would have said something else.
Hill: He got mixed up about me too, in Cosmic Trigger. Bob says that when Oswald was
buying the assassination rifle, my girlfriend was printing the first edition of Principia on
Jim Garrison’s Xerox. It wasn’t my girl friend, it was Kerry’s; it wasn’t the First Ed
Principia, it was some earlier Discordian thoughts; it wasn’t Garrison’s Xerox, it was his
mimeograph; and it wasn’t just before Kennedy was shot but a couple of years before
that.*
The First Ed Principia, by the way, was reproduced at Xerox Corp when xerography was
a new technology. Which was my second New Orleans trip in 1965. I worked for a guy
on Bourbon Street who was a Xerox salesman by day.
Dexter: I think that George Dorn took too much guff from Hagbard. If someone pulls a
weapon on me, I’m more inclined to either leave or kill the sonofabitch.
Dexter: I’m speaking figuratively of course. I’ll tell you more tomorrow.
________
* I checked this further with Mr. Thornley. He says that the woman in question was not
his girlfriend, she was just a friend, and it wasn’t a couple of years before Kennedy was
shot but had to be a couple of years after (but before Garrison investigated Thornley).
—GS
Gypsie [to Hill]: Did you really translate erotic Etruscan poetry?
Hill: Sure, but I used a pen name. I signed it “Robert Anton Wilson”.
Gypsie: ...what I really want to know is how can we all fit inside of a tiny little post
office box?
Gypsie: To me?
[Paper tearing]
Gypsie [reading]: “If I told everybody how they could live inside of a post office box
then everybody would stop paying landlords and go live inside their post office boxes.
It would collapse the building! Can you imagine, post offices collapsing all over the
country, the hemisphere, the PLANET! The whole world’s communication system
would be destroyed. No, no, I must not say. I dare not!
# # #
PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA
or
being the
FINAL STATEMENT
of Malaclypse the Younger
- Prince Mu-Chao
..
FUN PAGE
U M AK E THE CONNECTION! AN-
YO E LINE THAT
M
CAN YOU D RAW A SINGL TELY
O N N E C T T H ESE COMPLE T-
AGES TO C
A N D U T T E R LY CHOSEN-A
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UNCONNECT
E MS?
RANDOM IT
ALPHABET
ANTICS!
REARRANGE THE
LETTERS BELOW TO
FORM THE ENTIRE
DOES
IO N : H O W MANY SIDES LONG-SUPPRESSED
T N-
BONUS QUES E ? H IN T: “P YRAMID”, “PE THIRD TESTAMENT OF
HAV AME
THE PYRAMID T A G R A M ” HAVE THE S THE BIBLE THAT EX-
“P E N
TAGON”, and OST! PLAINS ALL THE MYS-
B E R O F L E T TERS . . . ALM TERIES OF THE FIRST
NUM
00091 TWO!
Mr. Momomoto, following the swallowing of his nose in late summer of 44.
the conclusion that it was ACTUALLY Mr. Momomotos brother-in-law who swallowed
STRONG EVIDENCE has persisted beyond the persistence of rumor, bringing us to
This is the Official Discordian Blessing, which may
only be performed by Officially Sanctioned POPES of
the Church of Eris. Since everyone is an Officially
Sanctioned POPE, approved by the House of Eris, this
means you and your family may spend meaningless
hours of your time chaotically blessing whatever you
please with our meaningful and inspirational blessing.
00092
connection with Otomomom,
We completely disavow any
The ceremony invokes the primal CHAOS in the surroundings, and causes a
temporary, localized change in physical reality. Unfortunately, our human
brains will ignore this change, so it will appear as though nothing has hap-
pened. If nothing seems to happen, then the ceremony was successful. If it
starts raining cheese , you fucked up.
00095
NOCTURNAL REVELATION
The first message I received from Goddess was in a dream. The dream took
place in a room filled with people I’d never seen before. Some of these people
left the room to enter another room, while the rest of the crowd was not allowed
to pass. I asked one man why this was so, but he did not answer. Then I saw
a strange sign on the wall which had a picture of a broken walnut and said:
THAT WHICH BINDS US TOGETHER LIKE A NUTSHELL COUNTS ONLY AS
ONE ACT. When I woke up, I remembered these words, but I knew not their
meaning.
That day, I asked the wise Domber what it meant. Maybe it was a message
about war, or racism, or protein. I questioned frantically until the wise Domber
spoke. “Sometimes Godess likes to fuck with your mind.” And so we were
both enlightened.
THAT WHICH
BINDS US
TOGETHER
LIKE A NUTSHELL
COUNTS ONLY AS
ONE ACT There is a difference.
00096
Dys
sel lexic
ls s
oul Chris
to S tian
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a
THE PARABLE OF RONALD REGAN
Donald Regan awoke to find that his arms had been gnawed off by wild
beavers in his sleep.
“Boy!” he thought as he bolted upright in his blood-soaked sheets. “It’s a
good thing this parable isn’t about ME!”
00097
- Write a letter to Oscar Meyer, Inc., telling them which film should
win Best Picture.
- Collect cliches. I put mine in a jar with formaldehyde, and then pin
them on a board. Be sure to note when and where you collected
them.
00100
Sacred Erisian High Mass of the Krispy Kreme Kabal
Designed by the Reverend DM Psiqosys
FACT , at his sole discretion, the right to waive the prior phone
Date ________________
Commission expires __________
Notary_______________
persons and conditions as he shall in his discretion elect;
POWER OF BOZO
Date ________________
Signed ______________
if personally present.
sooner.
EVERYWHERE WE LOOK
BE NICE TO OTHER PEOPLE; THEY
OUTNUMBER YOU 5.5 BILLION TO 1
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POP
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POP
A Discordian is anyone willing to
PO
5th edition introduction:
by Kerry Thornley, Discordian Society Co-founder
If organized religion is the opium of the masses, then disorganized religion is the marijuana of the lunatic fringe.
Most disorganized of all religions, Discordianism alone understands that organization is the work of the Devil.
Holy Chaos is the Natural Condition of Reality, contrary to popular belief. Theologian cite Order in the Universe as proof
of a Supreme Intellegence, but a glance is enough to see that the stars are not actually in neat little rows. (Oh, sure, there
is the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper - but if they were really connect- the-dot drawings there would be numbers next to
the stars.) Theology is just a debate over who to frame for creating reality. What we imagine is order is merely the
prevailing form of chaos.
Every few thousand years some shepard inhales smoke from a burning bush and has a vision or eats moldy rye
bread in a cave and sees God. From then on their followers kill one another at the slightest provocation. Haunted houses
called temples are built by one side and torn down by another - and then bloody quarrels continue over the crumbling
foundations.
Organized religion preaches Order and Love but spawns Chaos and Fury. Why?
Because the whole Material Universe is exclusive property of the Greco-Roman Goddess of Chaos, Confusion,
Strife, Helter-Skelter and Hodge- Podge. No Spiritual power is even strong enough to dent Her chariot fenders. No
material force can resist the temptation of Her Fifth Intergalactic Bank of the Acropolis Slush Fund for Graft and Corrup-
tion.
All this was revealed to me in an absolutely unforgettable miraculous event in 1958 or 1959 in a bowling alley in
Friendly Hills or maybe Santa Fe Springs, California, witnessed by either Gregory Hill or Malaclypse the Younger or
perhaps Mad Malik or Reverend Doctor Occupant or some guy who must have vaguely resembled one or another of
them.
With the help of a Chaosopher’s Stone I found the Goddess Eris Discordia in my pineal gland (on Cosmic
Channel Number Five) and ever since I have known the answers to all the mysteries of metaphysics, metamystics,
metamorhpics, metanoiacs and metaphorics. (Before that I didn’t even know how to install a plastic trash can liner so it
wouldn’t fall down inside the first time somebody threw away garbage.)
You, too can activate your pineal gland simply by reciting the entire contents of this book upon awakening each
morning, rubbing sandalwood paste between your eyes each evening upon retiring, banging your forehead against the
ground five times a day, refraining from harming cockroaches and meditating (defined as sitting around waiting for good
luck).
When your pineal gland finally lights up you will never again, as long as you live, have to relax.
Eris Discordia will solve all your problems and She will expect you in return to solve all Her problems. In these
very pages you will learn about converting infidels. Later on, you will be taught how to annoy heretics. You will also be
required to resolve Zen-like riddles, such as: If Jesus was Jewish, then why did he have a Puerto Rican name?
Once you become adept at leaning on backsliders, you will qualify for a calling. Maybe you will be a
Chaosopher (who delivers commentaries on chaos) or perhaps, instead, a Chaoist (who goes around stirring up chaos) or,
perchance, a Knower (whoknows better than to do either one).
But under no circumstances may you become a Prophet. We don’t intend to jepordize our nonprophet status.
What we lack in Prophets, however, we make up for in Saints. Only a Pope may canonize a Saint, but every man,
woman and child on this planet is a genuine and authorized Pope (genuine and authorized by the House of the Apostles of
Eris). So you can ordain yourself - and anyone or anything else - a Saint.
Times weren’t always so easy. When in 1968 I first declared myself a Saint, Gregory Hill said, “That’s impos-
sible,” insisting, “Only dead people can be Saints,” adding, “and fictional characters,” guessing, “You are neither one.”
But it happened that, although I was no longer a believer, I was still on the membership roles of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So Greg was too late. Me and all the other Mormons were already Saints - and some of
us living ones - no matter what he said.
Nowadays only the Mormons have more Saints than the Discordian Society. But we plan to catch up with them.
Won’t you please join our Sainthood Drive? Moral perfection isn’t necessary for Discordian Sainthood. You just have to
suffer a lot.
Nowadays only the Mormons have more Saints than the Discordian Society. But we plan to catch up with them.
Won't you please join our Sainthood Drive? Moral perfection isn't necessary for Discordian Sainthood. You just have to
suffer a lot.
So many other privileges of membership in our religion come to mind that I don't know where to begin. For
instance, you don't have to get out of bed early on Sunday morning to attend church. You can sleep in. How many
Christian denominations - for all their talk of brotherly love - are that compassionate?
You can even be a Discordian in good standing without ever having to so much as look at another Discordian -
early in the morning or any other time. That’s an advantage to mail-order religion that the more conventional faiths try to
play down.
What is so unusual about Discordian Abnormail - as we call it - is decentralization. Don’t contact me here at
Orthodox Discordian Society Hindquarters! Send your letters, notes, relics, sacraments and writs of excommunication to
one another. That, says Discordian Episkopos Ol’ Sam (36 Erskine Drive, Morristown, NJ 07960), is erstic abnormail -
adding: “Unfortunately, the majority of eristic abnormail is nothing but inane gossip, masturbatory in-jokes, trivial
variations of stale dogma, snide put-downs of those not weird in exactly the same was as ‘us’, and similar such garbage ad
naseum; and that’s good too!” (I like the way Ol’ Sam always keeps a positive attitude.)
Our outreach program is called aneristic abnormail and is defined by Ol’ Sam as “weird things sent in fun to
those still trapped in the Region of Thud” - sqaures, that is. When some order-bound heathen makes an especially
unenlightened public remark, that unsuspecting dolt is likely to receive a Jake - whole mail box full of weird shit from
Discordians everywhere on the same day. “For maximum benefit,” says Ol’ Sam, “a good Jake should be in response to a
particularly gross mainfestation of the Aneristic Delusion, not merely intended to chastise, but to teach and amuse as well
(or else make them hopping mad). The best Jakes involve a lot of Discordians, all conspiring to contact the subject on
Jake Day - a shining example of Discordian accord, as pradoxical as that sounds.” (If you think that sounds paradoxical,
wait until you hear about the Discordian accordian.)
Another advantage to Discordianism over the world’s other great religions is that we tell you about the
Fendersons. While it is true that you don’t have to be a Discordian before becoming a Fenderson, the Taoists - for
instance - don’t even know about the Fendersons. And those who know do not speak.
Fenderson Discordian Graham Trievel explains that “a Fenderson is a member of a family you can join by
saying you are one. Yes, anybody who wants to be a Fenderson can be a Fenderson. Just say these three words, ‘I’m a
Fenderson.’ It’s as simple as that.”
Genealogy buffs will be interested to know, “Our Fenderson forefather can be reached at : S.J. Glew, 5611
Lehman Road, DeWitt, MI 48820 ..... Blame him.”
All Fendersons add Fenderson to their existing name or they use the last name of Fenderson with entirely new
first and/or middle names. “For example, you can call me Graham Fenderson Trievel, Fenderson Graham Trievel, or
Graham Trievel Fenderson.” (And you can call me Saint Ignatius Fenderson.)
But you must at all times keep in touch with other Fendersons. “This,” says Fenderson, “is easy to accomplish as
you can make anybody you want a Fenderson, even if they don’t want to be one.”
Write Graham Fenderson Trievel about how to get a 1989 Fenderson family reunion baseball cap at Rt. 113,
Box 481, Lionville, PA 19353. But he warns, “I’ll be collecting names and addresses of Fendersons for possible future
publication.”
If you become a Discordian and also want salvation in the Industrial Church of the SubGenius (Box 140306,
Dallas TX 75214) you are free to mantain a duel membership. Or if you live outside of Texas (in some state where
dueling is illegal), you can be an honorary SubGenius and a dishonorary Discordian both at once.
You might even say SubGeniusism is our sister faith or brother religion - or at least our Marine-Corps buddy
theology, because J.R. “Bob” Dobbs was my Marine Corps buddy in Atsugi, Japan (where he distinguished himself by
shooting his own toe while on guard duty - although he was only aiming for a fly on the tip of his boot). Dobbs want on to
become a supersalesman and trance medium who until his untimely assassination channeled Prescriptures that occasion-
ally mentioned Eris Discordia, if not always as kindly as prudence would dictate.
Out of these Prescriptures came the SubGenius Church - so named because you only qualify to join if you IQ is
below genius.
A pipe in his mouth and a maniacal gleam in his eyes were trademarks of “Bob” and so his fanatical cult sues for
copyright violation anyone whose eyes gleam in a similar fashion. Other exciting features of the SubGenii include their
spirited quest for Slack, their brave determination to be Overmen, their understandable disgust with Technoboredom,
their unblushing Crass Commercialism and their keen pride in their Northern Tibetan abominable snowman ancestry.
You can find out more by sending them your bank account.
If, on the other hand, you would rather join the Bavarian Illuminati, you have to bury your bank account in a
cigar box in your yard. One of their underground agents will find it and contact you.
Our religion is so completely infiltrated with agents of the Ancient Illuminate Seers of Bavaria that if, for
instance, you pass out Fair-Play- For-Switzerland flyers for us you are assured of rapid advancement to more important
work for the Illuminati.
Both the _Illuminatus!_ trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson and the Illuminati Board Game by
Steve Jackson mention the Discordian Society almost as often as they speak of the nefarious Bavarian Conspirators
themselves. Prestige of intimate association with the Illuminati is enormous because they have absolutely ruled the whole
world for the past five thousand years.
Unlike the Illuminati, who are everywhere, the Right Reverand Jesse Sumps’s First Evangelical and Unrepentant
Church of No Faith is an exclusive Discordian franchise. Upon receiving a precious Mao button that said, “We must have
faith in the Pary and we must have faith in the masses,” Sump exclaimed: “No faith! No faith in the Party, no faith in the
masses, no faith in God and no faith in the ruling class!” and thus the First Evangelical and Unrepentant Church of No
Faith began. Jesse Sump has faith in Eris Discordia, though, “because everybody has just got to believe in something.”
Perhaps the chief difference between the Discordian Society and Sump’s outfit is one of style. We got it. They
don’t.
But if you like working yourself into a frenzy at camp meetings in order to foam at the mouth, speak in tongues,
handle snakes, run moonshine and experience phantasmagoria, the No Faith Church will make you happy as a pig in mud.
Of couse, all the high-church glitter of the Paratheoianametamystichood of Eris Esoteric is not just yours for the
asking. We solicit no donations, demand no tithes, charge no admission, levy no poll tax and run only a few nifty religious
novelty stores on the side. But certain obligations adhere to the more hallowed manifestations of Discordianship.
Eating hot dog buns is prohibited, except on Friday - when it is cumpulsory. Stepped on cockroaches will earn
you no pointswith our Blessed Saint Gulik. You must discipline yourself under a certified Slackmaster until you are
capable of drinking beer and watching television with total concentration. All bowling alleys are sacred to Discordians
and, if necessary, you must give your life to protect them from desecration - if anyone ever decides to desecrate bowling
alleys. Finally, you must not rest until all the sheep are brought into the fold. (And when we convert all the sheep we are
going to the dogs next, then wolves, goats and, at the annoited hour, human beings.)
Goddess also expects you to work on yourself. You must devote your full attention to every task you perform so
you will realise - in a flash of sudden enlightenment - how confusing it is. You must master one Little Moron riddle after
another until, with years of study, there is no longer any separation in your perception between subject and object,
between you and the Little Moron.
Then there are bigots, who will persecute you because they hate Eris Discordia, and have no better sense than to
judge an entire religion by the behavior of a single deity.
But before I was a Discordian, when I entered my room only to be reminded by its disarry that it was a mess, I
felt a sense of defeat. These days when that happens I just say, “Hail Eris!” - our customary salute to any embodiment of
chaos - and then I cheerfully carry on, secure in the knowledge that the constellations look no better.
Before I was a Discordian, I wasted a lot of time arguing with evangelists about God and Jesus. Now they waste
a lot of time arguing about Eris Discordia with me.
Before I was a Discordian, I took life much too seriously. When you take life too seriously you start to wonder
what the point of it all is. When you wonder what the point is in life, you fall into a trap of thinking there is one. When
you think there is a point, you finally realise there is no point. And what point is there in living like that? Nowadays I skip
the search for a point and find, instead, the punch lines.
Before I was a Discordian, I was distressed by the inefficiency and inhumanity of organizations. Now I am
vindicated by their inefficiency and inhumanity.
Before I was a Discordian, I used to be afraid of my own shadow. Ah, but now my shadow is afraid of me!
Having at last glimpsed the value of Discordianism, you are hereby ready to be awed by the importance of the
little book you hold in your hands this very moment.
Five years of Discordian Society activity transpired before the First Edition of Principia Discordia rolled off
District Attorney Jim Garrison’s mimeograph machine (without his knowledge) in New Orleans in 1964. That was the
work of Gregory Hill and Lane Caplinger, a Discordian typist in the DA’s office.
During the next five years Greg preoduced bigger and funnier editions, with a little help from me (but not as
much as the enemies of our faith suspect).
By no means is the Principia our only scripture. All along Greg has been writing what he says is a summary of
the Universe, but evidently it will be quite some time before he completes it. Additionally, there are piles and piles of
Discordian leaflets and broadsides cranked out by zealous converts from everywhere - with new ones arriving in the mail
each month - but Goddess only knows where they all are now or remembers what they said. There is also Chaos: Broad-
sheets of OntologicCl Anarchism by Hakim Bey (Grim Reaper Books) of the Unarmed Expropriation Committee of the
John Henry McKay Society and Bishop of Persia (in Exile) of the Moorish Orthodox Church of Amrerica. But out most
exalted testament of all is The Honest Book of Truth - of which there is, alas, only one copy locked away in the Closed
Stacks of the Akashic Records. Only qualified Discordian Episkoposes with activated pineal glands may copy passages
from it - and these may only be published when they can be shown beyond a reasonable doubt to have redeeming social
value, such as by educating you or arousing purient interest.
But this Forth and Fifth Combined Edition of Principia Discordia is unquestionably the most influential of all the
great, immortal works of signifigicant literature our classic Greek Goddess has inspired.
Who would even venture to guess how many wretched and thankless lives these few astonishing pages have
deprived forever of meaningless purpose? Who can say how many seminarians read the Principia and decided to change
vocations and become clowns, or many landlords it has caused to sell their estates and buy yachts or airplanes for
smuggling marijuana, or how many politicians it has inspired to vanish alone into the high mountains and become
sagacious hermits, or how many investment bankers it has turned into anarchists?
Slim Brooks was just an ordinary merchant seaman dwelling in the New Orleans French Quarter until he read
Principia Discordia. The he became the mysterious Keeper of the Submarine Keys who would never tell anyone what
submarine or why it was locked.
Roger Lovin was just a dashing, talented and handsome con artist who was too shallow to settle into any one
thing. But for years and years after he read the Principia, under his Discordian Name of Fang the Unwashed, he consis-
tently and with unswerving devotion to the task excommunicated every new person any of the rest of us initiated into the
Discordian Society.
Robert Anton Wilson was just a Playboy advisor who wrote safe and insipid answers to inquiries from readers
about the size and present whereabouts of John Dillinger’s penis until he read this remarkable tract. Then he became
Mord the Malignant and wrote a whole library full of widely read books about the Illuminati and how to make
Syncronicity work for you in finding quarters on the sidewalk.
Mike Gunderloy was just a compulsive reader of fanzines until the fateful day he read Principia Discordia
(under the mistaken impression it was another fanzine). Now he is Ukelele the Short of the Discordian Society and big-
time publisher of Factsheet Five.
Elayne Wechsler was just some broad with a funny bone until she read the Principia and asked the question that
led to my great definition of theology. “Why,” she wanted to know, “is the Discordian Society, which worships a female
divinity, so male dominated?” Recalling that more women than men are devout about Christianity with its male God and
His male Son, I decided that people like religions that blame reality on the opposite sex. So let that be a lesson to us
males. Behind every great idea there is a broad with a funny bone.
So there is no telling how much happier and better adjusted reading this book will make you. Principia Discordia
is both a psychological laxative and a spiritual corn plaster. Unsolicited testimonials can be mailed to me in care of Out of
Order - the sectual organ of the Orthodox Discordian Society - at Box 5498, Atlanta GA 30307.
How Discordianism will change you is not, however, the real question. Anybody can be changed by something
they read. No wit, imagination, creativity, talent or energy is required for that much. How will you change the Discordian
Society is the real question - a question you should be asking yourself from page 00001 all the way through page 00075, a
question you should keep asking yourself long after you reverently close the covers of Principia Discordia, wrap it
carefully in silk, solemnly return it to its golden box and bow five times after resting it in its place of honor on your altar.
Most neophyte Discordians are either too cautious or too serious. They constantly ask permission to do this or
that like there are rules hidden away somewhere in the folds of our robes of office. Or they labor at length over ponderous
metaphysical schemata with no gags in them, as if the sole ironclad rule of our Society isn’t that you have to be funny, as
much as possible and as often as possible - or else.
But we are indulgent toward monks who catch on in due time. Seldom do I beat anyone with my trusty staff -
and certainly never without their help.
On the subject of personal encounters with other Discordians - and sometimes even the most careful among us
cannot avoid them - keep in mind the lodge grips of our Disorder. Somewhere in the following pages you will learn the
Turkey Curse. Among Zen Buddhists it is said, “When you meet another bodhisattva on the road, greet him with neither
words nor silence.” That leaves you with a vast selection of barnyard noises from which to choose.
But as you crow like a rooster or quack like a duck or moo like a cow, scrutinize your brother or sister
Discordian with alert interest - never cracking a smile - to see how he or she will respond. An oinking reply that is too
loud indicates a swaggering bravado which falls short of mature eristic enlightenment, but that is far better than a feeble
and spiritless neigh.
Perhaps best of all is simply uttering a mondo. That is like picking up the telephone when it rings and saying,
“Wrong number, please!” However much you think about a mondo it makes no sense - even clamps and pliers cannot get
hold of it. Yet at the same time, if it is a good mondo, the longer you think about it the more it seems light it ought to
make sense - although you can never figure out why. Beyond that much, a truly great mondo sticks to your mind like hot
pine pitch - gumming up your thought process for weeks on end.
When the Zen Master Joshu was still a monk, his master - Nansen - struck him in answer to some dumb remark
or other. Joshu grabbed Nansen’s arm, glared at the master and said, “From now on do not hit people by mistake!”
Nansen replied as follows: “The whole world can tell a snake from a dragon, but you cannot fool a Zen monk.” That’s a
genuinely great mondo.
From this much you can see why meeting other Discordians in person can be harrowing. Besides the pen is only
mighter than the sword at a range greater than five feet. When the SubGenius Church held its first Devival, Reverand Ivan
Stang of the Dallas Clench expressed suprise at how nice and polite all the fans of his Dobbswork were, adding, “It’s
almost disappointing.” Still, the wise take no unnecessary chances.
As you can tell, we are much indebted to other religions. Not only SubGeniusism and Zen and Taoism have
inspired us, but also Zoroastrianism - which practiced fire worship. We too, pay homage to fire in certain circumstances -
such as when it is burning the writings of false prophets or is producing inhalable quantities of cannabis smoke. Our
tradition is rooted in a medievil rite called the Mass of the Travesty in which marijuana was the sacrament. According to
The Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Herer, the Mass of the Travesty “can be liked to a Mel Brooks, Second City- TV,
Monty Python, or Saturday Night Live - e.g., Father Guido Sarducci- type group - doing irreverent, farcical or satirical
take-offs on the dogmas, doctrine, indulgences, and rituals of the R.C. Ch. mass and/or its absolute beliefs.” Unfortu-
nately, the humorless Roman Catholic Church authorities of the 15th century thought the Mass of the Travesty was
heretical - and that was the true story of how marijuana got its bad name, which it has never since been able to shake off.
Actually, the Mass of the Travesty may have been a disguised remnant of the original Greek Discordianism. For
history indicates there must have been, among those ancient ones, Erisian Mysteries. (But if so, they were never solved.)
Eris tells us they existed and were the work of Malaclypse the Elder, a mystery writer by trade who also tutored the
philosopher Diogenes in lamp maintenance, barrel keeping, rock rolling, public masturbation and Cynicism - until
Diogenes was with it enough to fend for himself.
No outpouring of gratitude would be complete without acknowledging the desert religions of the Middle East
which keep that part of the world alive with action to this day - and from which we inherited our fanatical dtermination to
be at all times, right or wrong, as unreasonable as possible. Translated into latin this commitment is the motto on our
coins, seals, rings, plaques and tomb stones: Semper Non Sequitur!
Much of our grandeur is also derived from Hinduism. From the Aryan mystery cult we aquired our soma-
drinking habit. Soma, in turn, fortified us with the confidence that we are better than people who look different than us.
From Verdanta we learned how to Sanskrit our temple walls. Tantra taught us our many strange sex secrets. That staying
up all night to smoke ganga and dance and sing can be passed off as religious activity was something we learned from the
Bauls of Bengal. But surely the cult of Kali, Cosmic Mother, Giver and Taker of Life, resembles Discordianism most. We
asked Eris about this and She said Kali is short for the Greek Kallisti, which was engraved on the party-crashing Golden
Apple of Discord dealt with later on in this informative volume. She added that Her own full name is actually Eris Kallisti
Discordia, but took the Fifth Amendment when we asked if this means She and Kali are one in the same.
Our borrowings from Christianity are so obvious that mention of them is almost insulting to whatever modicum
of intellegence you possess. But from that tradition we gained our crafty distrust of the reality principle as well as the
rather singular notion of an Only Begotten Son.
We asked Goddess if She, like God, had an Only Begotten Son. She assured us that She did and gave His name
as Emperor Norton I - whom we assumed was probably some Byzantine ruler of Canstantinople. Dilligent research
eventually turned up the historical Norton, as we call Him, in the holy city of San Francisco - where He walked his
faithful dog along Market Street scarcely more than a century ago.
Gregory Hill has since become the world’s foremost authority on Joshua A. Norton who, on September 17th of
1859, crowned Himself the Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. Just before then, He vanished for a
number of days - perhaps into the wilderness where maybe He was tempted by the Devil, probably to organize His life
and get His affairs in order.
Certainly they looked like that’s what they needed. For on the day before his disappearance Norton, heretofore
little more than a successful businessman, cornered the rice market - only to be foiled by the unscheduled arrival of a
whole shipload of rice from the Orient. A lesser man would have been thrown out of step by that event which for Him
became a step to the throne.
When the U.S. Congress failed to obey His Majesty’s Royal Order to assemble in the San Francisco Opera
House, Norton fired every last member of that rebellious organization. Thus, the people of San Francisco knew better
than to incute His Imperial wrath. His Royal Decrees were printed free of charge in the newspapers, the currency He
issued was accepted in the saloons, local shopkeepers paid the modest taxes He occasionally demanded and on at least
one occasion a tailor furnished Him with a new set of Royal finery.
Although a madman, Norton wrote letters to Abraham Lincoln and Queen Victoria which they took seriously.
One night a gang of vigilantes gathered for a pogrom against San Francisco’s Chinatown. All that stood in their
way was the solitary figure of Norton. A sane man would not have been there in the first place. A rational man would
have tried to reason with them. A moralist would have scolded them. A man as daft as Norton usually seemd would have
loudly ordered them to cease and desist in the name of His Royal Imperial authority. All such tacks would probably have
been futile, and Norton resorted to none of them.
He simply bowed His head in silent prayer.
The vigilantes dispersed.
Discordians believe everybody should live like Norton.
So write your legislative representatives demanding harsh laws with teeth in them requiring people of all faiths -
especially Christians and especially on Sunday - to live as Joshua A. Norton did.
About five years ago I had a dream in which someone was yelling, “SIGNS IN THE SKY!” When I looked up I
saw balloons and blimps carrying aloft big neon letters that said: “NORTON DIED! WANT NO DEAD!”
But when Emperor Norton died, tens of thousands of San Franciscans flocked to His full Masonic funeral.
Pilgrimages to His grave are still common.
Perhaps occasionally the soul of Emperor Norton descends once more into the world to momentarily inhabit the
body of an otherwise undistinguished infidel. One day I was sitting in a hamburger stand in rundown midtown Atlanta. A
burned-out speed freak at a nearby table looked at me with a pleasant smile and said, “I’m King of the Universe. I don’t
know what I’m doing in a place like this.”
And perhaps that’s the big attraction of our faith. If you want, you can be King of the Universe. Jesse Sump is
Ancient Abbreviated Calif. of California. I am Bull Goose of Limbo and President of the Fair-Play-for- Switzerland
Committee. Camden Benares is Pretender to the Throne of Lesbos. Greg Hill is Polyfather of Virginity-in-Gold. Sabal
Etonia is High Constable of Constantinople. You can declare yourself Archbishop of Abyssinia or Curator of the Moon -
we don’t care but your mailman will be impressed.
According to L.A. Rollins in Lucifer’s Lexicon a Discordian is one who likes to wear Emperor Norton’s old
clothes. If anything could be added to that definition, I cannot think what.
As I indicated earlier, my own background is Mormon. Since few are familiar with the off-beat creeds of that
unusual sect, Mormonism doesn’t land itself to broad satire readily. Yet the temptation is forever with me to swipe such
startling rituals as, say, baptism of the dead.
Based on the rule that you cannot enter the Celestial Kingdom unless you name is recorded in Salt Lake City, all
who passed away without the benefit - at any time in the past - must, for their own good, be sooner or later baptised. (So
strong a conviction is this among the Saints that when my uncle died and left a lot of unpaid bills my Aunt Lena made off
with his church records one day while doing volunteer secretarial work, secure in the faith his soul would be locked
outside the Pearly Gates until or unless she brought them back.)
But Mormon baptism of the dead is a cop-out because in spite of stressing the importance of complete physical
immersion for the living, they dunk the deceased by proxy. A Discordian Church of Ladder Night Saints could open
graves for the purpose of submurging skeletons and corpses. Then it could lower them back down before dawn. That
would give us an exciting mission which would heighten our commitment by inviting persecution - a function served in
the early days of Latter Day Saint Church history by polygamy.
Technically the Mormons practiced only polygyny - one husband with a plurality of wives. Polyandry - one wife
with more than one husband - is also a form included by the generic term of polygamy. Discordians are free to practice all
varieties of polygamy and polymorphous perversity as well. Marriage is an institution which should adjust itself to the
needs of individuals and not the other way around. Any Discordian Episkopos may perform group marriage ceremonies,
short-duration marriages, same-sex marriages and, with special permission, straight monogamous weddings.
If Mormonism is out of the mainstream, it still does not rival in that way an obscure Japanese religion called
Perfect Liberty. May Goddess damn me if I am putting you on: Perfect Liberty teaches salvation through playing golf (as
close to our own theory of salvation through nonsense as anyone else has come). For that reason Perfect Liberty owns
many of the regular golf courses that dot the U.S. and Japan.
Personally, I think we Discordians could work out a similar path to liberation via surfing. That sounds like a
program that would work for me. Unlike Will Rogers, I cannot honestly say I’ve never met a man I didn’t like. But
certainly I have never met a surfer I didn’t like.
When Pope Paul excommunicated Saint Christopher - who happens to be the Patron Saint of Surfers - for what
seems to us like the rather negligable fault of never existing, the Discordian Society adopted him, along with Saint Patrick
(discharged for the same reason at the same time).
Already an experienced beach bum, with many years on the sands of Florida’s Sun Coast, I think I might very
well spend the twilight years of my life in the holy land of California mastering the graceful art of riding a surfboard.
When I am ready to take on disciples, you can probably find me somewhere along the stretch between Venice and San
Diego, praying to Eris for surf. But joining me will entail sacrafices because a Discordian surfer will be prohibited from
owning anything but a surfboard, trunks, a toothbrush, a beach towel and an automobile (maybe a hot rod or dune buggy).
Because surfing is not just a sport; it’s a lifestyle. And Discordianism is not just a religion; it is a mental illness.
Should you arrive too late, during the first many years of my next lifetime I shall be found in the Simon Bolivar
School for Boys of the Discordian Convent of San Medellin, Ciudad de Sandoz, Columbia - where instead of beating
pupils for misconduct, the nuns give them blow jobs and then threaten delinquents with a termination of favors. (At least
that’s what Discordian San Juan Batista, Keeper of the Seven Veils, tells us.)
But enough of this vocational planning.
If the Discordian Society is to become the world’s next great cargo cult it will be due to the efforts of the House
of Mirrors. Not only have we nunneries, but recognized and accepted heresies, powerful lobbies complete with popcorn
concessopns and everything from progressive belaboring unions to square sewing circles. Many are mentioned in the /
Principia/ proper and I don’t think it proper to repeatedly engage in repetitive repitition by repeating things repeated later
on because I hate redundancy.
But there are also some new ones, such as the Ignorant Rescue Mission with its rousing slogans: “Rescue the
ignorant! Save the dead! Cast out lepers!” (Members dress in old band or military brass-button jackets and help attractive
females get adequate sex.)
There are also the Brunswick Shriners, Moral Regurgitation, Citizens against Infant Sexuality, the Crack House
Integration of the Black Lotus Society, the Misplaced Bolivian Wild Animal Relocation Fund, the Laurel Foundation for
the Recognition of Unique Achievement, the Gould Charitable Trust for Dynamic Population Control, the Patrio-
Psychotic Anarcho- Materialism Study Group and the Sovereign State of Confusion.
Also not mentioned in the Principia - our many business ventures. No church likes to engage in the unseemly
practice of boasting of its great wealth, but since I am being paid by the word I will list the names of our financial assets:
the Brooklyn Bridge Holding Company, the Umbrella Corporation, the Spare Change Investment Corporation, Junk Mail
Assossiates, San Andreas Shoreline Properties, the Fast Buck Riding Academy, the Informed Sources News Syndicate,
Fly-by-Night Drug Transport, Infinite Vistas, Ltd., Everglades Land Investment, Cosa Nostra Amusements of New Jersey
and the Laughing Buddha Jesus Ranch of Pinga Grande, Texas, Inc.
No doubt you are a little confused. Jesus, God and the Devil get such frequent billing in our religion - whereas
most other faiths never advertise the competition. That’s mostly because of the neoGnostical influence of SubGeniusism.
Jesus was not the Son of God at all but - as He says again and again in The Bible - He was the Son of Man.
Actually, His mission was to warn us against God - a laser-armed computer-robot space station sent to regulate or destroy
humanity. (Our very own Dr. Van Van Mojo finally got rid of YHVH-1 by sticking hat pins in a tetherball, but that’s
another story.)
As for the Devil - that is somebody our religion tried to do without for a long time. We didn’t think we needed a
Devil, especially with Eris Discordia’s reputation being what it is already.
But religions without devils are like politicians without enemies or perpetual motion machines. If they are
possible, they might just work. But who will ever know?
Our Devil came through the back door after introducing himself as Mr. Greyface. You will read about him in
“The Curse of Greyface.” After blaming the first few evils on him we realised how handy he was and gave him a lifelong
membership before we determined his true identity.
What really fooled us is that his face is grey - and that’s far from being his only resemblance to J.R. “Bob”
Dobbs, the SubGenius Messiah of Mediocrity. But then so many grey-flanneled American males look like “Bob”, that is
hardly evidence of conspiracy.
One difference: Greyface never smiles except when he is showing you how stupid you are; “Bob” always smiles
except when he is showing you how stupid you are. For that reason the SubGenii call Greyface the Anti”Bob”, but in both
our churches seers and sages know he is the Devil.
No matter whether he calls himself Greyface or the Anti”Bob” he acts like the Devil, because his most famous
line is: “Let me organize it for you!”
But no doubt you are also curious about Eris. Where does she hang out these days - now that Olympus has gone
tourist?
Eris Discordia is in Limbo, where all we virtuous pagans and our gods and goddesses go between lifetimes.
Think of Key West in the off- season and you’ve got it.
Imagine an open-air bar at about ten in the morning. An aging barefoot Greek beauty with an Art Garfunkel
hairdo is giving Zeus, the bartender, a hard time with a barbed wit that always leaves him bereft of any retort besides an
extended middle finger.
Another attraction of Limbo is a nonstop party for the faithful, but Zeus has child support bills and Eris never
was much of a party animal, contrary to popular belief.
Nor will you find any SubGenii at that party, or anywhere else in Limbo. With bikers and Nazis - if they were
good Nazis - skinheads and pillars of the Church of the SubGenius go to Vahallah.
Bad people of every persuasion go to the Region of Thud.
A sprawling astral subdivisionwhere there is nothing to do but eat and watch television and where all the houses,
yards and people look pretty much alike, Thud keeps up with the Jonses. Most Christians are there, but in their creed it is
called Paradise.
Only souls who, in the eyes of Eris, went out of their way to be a pain in the ass during their earthly sojourns are
in Hell. Harry J. Aslinger qualifies. But still, the perils of Hell are exaggerated. Fire and brimstone are sources of heating
during cold snaps, but our human rights group, Amnasty Interfactional, reports that nothing in Hell is any worse than the
hideous shade of pink on its walls.
There are also such things as Nirvana - an exclusive resort for extinguished Zen Masters - and the Happy
Hunting Grounds, where traditional Native American braves and warriors are the forest rangers. Dead cops (and
Gurdjieffians who forgot to remember themselves) go to the Moon, a big precinct station in the sky, controlled by space
aliens, where there are twice as many laws as here - converted to its present use from what was originally a slain space
monster’s hollow titanium skill.
You can onl be asking yourself at this point how these guys could possibly be taking all this shit seriously. If we
weren’t serious, do you really think we would have published so many tracts and pamphlets at our own expense for so
many years? Do people who are not serious stay awake nights thinking up new theologies and scriptures? Who but
serious fanatics would have risked their lives by exposing their work to the readership of our first mass-circulation
publisher, Loompanics?
Let me answer by asking what being serious has to do with believing what we write. But that isn’t to say we
don’t at least believe in Goddess - even if we are skeptical of what She says. But that is now, after more than three
decades of Discordianism. No way did we think there was an Eris Discordia at first. But as Greg says, “At first I thought I
was fucking around with Eris. Now I see that Eris is fucking around with me.”
A Discordian must believe that Eris Discordia rules the Material Universe - and that She won it from God in a
divorce suit during the Beforelife, and that the French anarchist Pierre Joseph Proudhon was Her attorney at the trial, and
that nobody is Her Prophet, and that eating hotdog buns is a sin. All else is a matter of individual conscience.
Graven images and icons and pictures of Eris are all right as long as they are flattering.
Safe sex - with a condom, rubber gloves and a wet suit is fine as long as you don’t fall in love.
You may covet your neighbor’s ass - providing your neighbor is into it.
You may drink, but not to escape problems. (Like the Maltafarians of the SubGenius Church, you may only
drink to create problems.)
There is no prohibition against prayer - which is not to say we think it is a wise activity.
You don’t have to believe in Eristic Avatars to be a Discordian, but it helps. Eristic Avatars are sent down into
Reality, the original Rorschach, for the purpose keeping things from becoming so well ordered that they stop working.
This they often accomplish by insisting that certain arbitrary interpretations of reality are the only valid ones. That causes
Strife which results in Confusion which revitalizes Holy Chaos. Most Eristic Avatars display certain signs by which they
can be certified, such as employment as civil servants. So far, the most successful Eristic Avatar has been Confucius.
Eristic Avatars can also be ascertained by the fact that they are always ignorant of their mission and have no idea they are
serving Eris or, for that matter, that they are even promoting confusion.
That is made possible by the Law of Eristic Escalation, of which you must innocent to serve as Eristic Avatar.
(For an unknown reason, it does not work as well for those of us who guilty of it.)
This Law pertains to any arbitrary or coercive imposition of order. It is: Imposition of Order = Escalation of
Chaos.
Fenderson’s Amendment adds that the tighter the order in question is maintained, the longer the consequent
chaos takes to escalate, BUT the more it does when it does!
Armed with the Law of Eristic Escalation and Fenderson’s Amendment any imbecile - not just a sociologist - can
understand politics.
So I will translate into the lingua franca of the Western world: An imposition of order creates a chaos deficit,
which compounds until it is paid off (by enduring all the outstanding chaos).
Of course, Eris thinks all chaos is outstanding. But we mortals find too much of a good thing a little overwhelm-
ing. Thus we cringe when we encounter an anerism - a pronouncement, that is, which is innocent of the Law of Eristic
Escalation.
If you hear that outlawing prostitution will eradicate rape, you are listening to an anerism - a manifestation of
Aneristic Delusion. (If you read “The Sacred Chao” on pages 00049 and 00050 - instead of skipping over it in the
recommended way - you will comprehend the anamysticmetaphorics of aneristics.)
An anerism nearly always enters the world through the mouth of a politician - but it can come by way of any
authority figure such as a minister or a teacher or a parent or a boss or Ronald McDonald.
“We need more laws with stiffer penalties to rid our community of drugs,” says an innocent pawn of Eris. To be
sure, these laws make smuggling and selling and buying drugs more risky. That, in turn, drives up their prices - thus
making them more profitable. So more money and work goes into expanding the market for the contraband - in keeping
with the Law of Eristic Escalation.
Or, as the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu simply said, “The more laws there are, the more crime there is.”
(Identification and elucidation of anerisms is a favorite pastime of politically conscious Discordians - who note
that the whole text of my “Epistle to the Paranoids” on page 00069 is a psychological anerism. Goddess punished me for
it, about five years later, by turning me into a paranoid myself. A conspiracy helped Her. As of this writing, I am still
paranoid - according to my friends.) (Or are they my enemies?)
Proliferation of crime in the wake of multiplication of laws is more than a matter of expanded definition.
Governments are impositions of order designed to discourage theft and killing. But they wind up taking more in taxes
than all the freelance crooks around could steal. Their wars involve more killing than all the meanest toughs and hood-
lums can hope to rival.
Laws were unknown to the True People of Old, says Chuang Tzu. All during the paleolithic and the neolithic
there could hardly have been any laws, because the cave paintings in France and Spain depict no battle scenes.
We know that in the time of Moses many laws did not seem necessary or desirable because the second time he
came down from Mount Sinai he said: “The good news is I got Him down to ten; the bad news is that one of them is still
THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.”
In Limbo there are only five laws: 1) No making anybody do anything they don’t want, except mind there own
business; 2) No shitting or pissing in the streets; 3) No spitting on the floors; 4) No undated notices on the bulletin board;
5) No eating of hotdog buns. That sounds like a program that will work for me because there is nothing in there against
swiping jokes.
Nearly all the graphics in Principia Discordia, by the way, were ripped off. (I don’t know why, because Greg and
I are both passible artists.) The Discordian Society does not condone plagiarism. (Our rates for illos are quite reasonable.)
Discordians hold all unoriginality in contempt. (Our familiarity with Discordian themes is unsurpassable.) Henceforth, no
Discordian shall rip off graphics. (Contact me, or Greg, for your eristic artistic needs.)
All I can say in our defense is at least we were honest about it. As we reached the end of the Third Edition, Greg
pasted in a little blurb that credited the graphics to Rip-Off Press - which he snipped out of something that was actually
printed by Rip-Off Press. How’s that for a rip- off?
You will also notice an unusual number of unusual rubber stampings scattered about among the following pages.
That was Greg showing off his rubber stamp collection. Few hobbies are as psychologically gratifying - especially when
some bureaucrat is making you wait, with his or her back to you for a moment - as collection rubber stamps. This is also
an exciting way to recoup some of your tax losses. But you must abide by the laws of the Rubber Stamp Congress. All
Discordians are permitted to collect rubber stamps provided they don’t mention the Discordian Society if they are caught.
Just point out to them that among people of all faiths stamp collecting is a popular hobby. And tell them your religious
preference is none of their business. Tell them that collecting stamps in the name of your nameless religion is your
Constitutional right and then, to make your point, take the Fifth Amendment. They will find themselves in a legalistic
quandary.
On most occasions mentioning your Discordian Society affiliation is perfectly acceptable. If perchance, you are
idiotic enough to somehow foolishly blunder and end up in the military, insist they stamp DISCORDIAN on your dog
tags. Because we are sick and tired of hearing there are no Discordians in foxholes.
You might also wish to list “Discordian” as your religion on job applications - especially if you are already on
unemployment and don’t want the damned jobs anyhow.
A secret method of identifying your Discordianship for the benefit of other Discordians is by wearing a pull-off
aluminum beer-can tab, strung through its ring, around your neck. That is called an All-Seeing Eye of Eris (complete with
Tear) and it will help other members of the Discordian Society keep out of your way.
Or if you are an extrovert - and are not even ashamed of it - you can get up on a soap box and rant for Goddess
right out in public. Personally I prefer standing on a wooden box but, anyway, you get at least five points for every rant
you deliver. Extra points are awarded for handling hecklers with aplomb - or with anything else besides your fists.
A secret of dealing with hecklers, incidentally, was imparted to me by a professional rabble rouser who used to
speak in Hyde Park. You memorize a bunch of standardized put-downs good for all occasions. So no matter what your
tormentor says, you can fire back with something like: “Hot air makes a balloon go up. What’s holding you down?”
Another secret of ranting was revealed by Rev. Ivan Stang when, of a rejected submission to The Stark Fist, he
said: “It wandered, but not enough.” A fine rant doesn’t just wander, it positively meanders. (Use this introduction as a
model.) Keep changing the subject so your listeners, with their short attention spans, won’t get bored. If you change
themes between 45 and 72 times a minute (a rhythm close to the human heartbeat) - and mystify them by mixing meta-
phors - pretty soon those suckers will be putty in the palm of your hand at your feet wrapped around your little finger.
You can also learn a great deal by studying magnificent orators of the past. Huey P. Long taxed Standard Oil ten
dollars for each barrel they pumped in Louisiana and then gave them back 90% of it under the table. Aaron Burr shot
Alexander Hamilton.
Mark Anthony kept saying, “...but these are honorable men,” all through his speech. Remember how effective
that selective repitition was in swaying the emotions of the actors in Shakepeare’s play who were cast as Roman citizens.
Do not for a moment think you cannot be an exceptional orator if you can just find some way to keep repeating
yourself hypnotically and changing the subject of your speech frequently at the same time.
Winston Churchill pointed out another attribute of good rhetoric: it is sincere. You must yourself realy be against
the Germans buzz-bombing London before you can persuade the English people it is a rotten notion.
Natural aptitude also plays its part. America has known no greater public speaker than Franklin D. Roosevelt,
whose son once quipped, “Father wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.” And that’s
important to keep in mind, because if you want to be the bride at every funeral and the corpse at every wedding you just
are not made of the right ingredients. Your timing is off.
In that case you could have better luck with eyeball-to-eyeball conversations, the versatile art of one-on-one
seduction which you want to learn anyway. Here, too hypnotic repitition is a key to unlimited potential. Pick any theme
out of the air for repeating - a word, a name or a number will do. Let us say, for this example, that you choose the number
five into your pitch. Again and again, five times five, over and over, drive that mother home until your victim is entranced
in the Fifth Dimension. Then dazzle them with all the techniques in “A Primer for Erisian Evangelists” on page 00065.
Such mood setters as lighting and music are also important. For maximum results, illuminate the room with
strobe lights. Play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in the background. They will be putty eating out of your hand.
If you are repelled by having anything to do with human beings whatsoever - as individuals or in groups - then
you were probably meant to be a great Discordian writer such as myself.
That being the case, my advice to you is consider that rousing literary form known as the manifesto. Not only
should you read The Communist Manifesto so you can find our how to get bankers to finance your activities, you should
also study the lesser-known but equally great specimens of this genre. What especially comes to mind in this respect is
that underground classic anonymous authorship, “Manifesto of the Artistic Elite of the Midwest.”
As it has not yet been anthologized, I reproduce it here in full just as it appeared in issue #2 of False Positive (c/
o Donna Kossy, Box 953, Allston, MA 02134):
Manifesto of the Artistic Elite of the Midwest
Artistic elite is a misnomer. We claim unity with the American
Midwest where we were born and raised. We support the secession of the
Midwest from the faltering carcass of the American way. We feel that the
Midwest should sign its own treaties and create its own alliances. We
support liberation for Quebec! We don’t believe in the balance of terror
hypothesis and wish to be counted out of all future nuclear war. We
believe in the sanity and stability of the Midwest and refute those of
either coast who see the heartland as oppressive, backward, uncultured (we
are redneck, motherfucker), etc. This is propoganda created by the
intellectual power elite of the East in their cynical and ruthless attempt
to keep the chains on middle america. We claim solidarity with the Third
World as an exploited people! As one of the richest Third World nations we
vow to beat our Winebagos in plowshares in order to do our part in the
growing Third World alliance. We call for the cessation of the
telecommunications monopoly and destruction of all over the air methods of
propagandizing. No more Lucy. No more Beaver. No more corporate
propagandizing for the consumerist ethic. Free TV! A new localized media
system will be created. No more sensationalist news coverage. Constant and
open exchange of ideas and a refutation of present mass-subscribed theories
of the free exchange ideas. No more enslavement to the Marlboro cowboy! No
more enslavement to the false illusion of American individuality. Real
individuality, not hype. No more Charlie’s Angels. No more escapism. This
is a call for the Midwest peoples to be concerned with their own lives, not
the lives the West thinks we have and the East demands we have. This is a
call for solidarity of all Midwestern peoples so that we can refute the
ideas of the East, to call a halt to the convenient image of the Midwest as
a passive land filled with bumpkins and hayseeds. Of easily led puppets, of
a land easily dominated by the ideas and wills of our English speaking
cousins. We’re not your puppets anymore! We need to restructure our
Eastern dominated universities. Solidarity with the Canadian Midlands.
Solidarity with the Ukraine! An end to the industrial monopoly of the
world’s resources. An end to the blight of consumerism. An end to the
present sectioning of the world and unity with all oppressed peoples!