Eris’ Confusing Cohorts Fly The Torch Of Unusualness
Discordianism and the Paratheo-Anametamystikhood of Eris Esoteric
Discordianism is a very hard religion to pin down, since it contains so many contradictory snippets of wisdom, information and other stuff. It was allegedly started in 1958 in California by Malaclypse the younger and Lord Omar Ravenhurst, who had an enlightening experience during a discussion in a bowling alley about life and other things.
The discordians seem to worship Eris, the Greek goddess of discord. This throws a spanner into the works however, since worshipping the goddess of discord basically means you can do what you like. It even means you don’t need to actually worship Eris! (as far as i can work out anyway) It seems to me that the main purpose of discordianism is to do weird things, and generally spread discord in an effort to get the world to be more interesting.
Here are a few things that some discordians have to say about their religion:
- “A Discordian is anyone who is willing to look at the windmills and concede that they might be giants.”
- “Does it make sense out of a constantly changing society in which nobody is sure of their rightful place? NO! Nothing can do that! But it can make you stop caring.”
- “‘Tis an ill wind that blows no minds”
- “It is my firm belief that it is a mistake to hold firm beliefs.”
– Shig the Unmentionable
– Pope Icky Fundament, PKZ
– Syadasti
– unknown
The Paratheo-Anametamystikhood of Eris Esoteric is a sub-denomination of discordianism, if you like, and seems at first to be organised. This is of course a complete piece of misdirection, and their arcane bureaux, official Head Temples, the law of fives and the holy twenty three all serve to completely confuse anybody who tries to take it seriously! For your information, the image below is the symbol of the PoEE, the “Five Fingered Hand of Eris”. It is two arrows pointing inwards at each other, or else it is horns, or something else.
According to Lichtenberg, “PoEE has no treasury, no by-laws, no articles, no guides save Mal-2’s pineal gland, and has only one scruple, which Mal-2 keeps on his keychain.” This sect seems to revel in such statements as “This statement is false” and “No two equals are the same!” which, of course just shows how committed they are (or should be) to discordianism.
It is very difficult to write a proper article about discordianism since so much of it thrives on contradictions. Personally, i’m still not 100% convinced that they are even a real religion (though they even have their own section in the Yahoo search index)… They seem to mean it though, they have their own calendar and they say that everybody is a pope and that a pope is somebody who is not under the authority of the authorities. They also say that they do not recognise the state (but which state?). To me it seems almost as though discordianism is an attempt to conceal nuggets of philosophical wisdom amongst something that many will see as comedy. This is just my own viewpoint though.
For a fuller (or lesser) understanding of this fantastic quixotic twentieth century religion, it will be well worth your time to read the Principia Discordia and all its associated texts, even if you just want an entertaining read.