Today in a long awaited installment of the What is…? series here at Simple Abnormality, we are going to take a look at a widely misunderstood faith underneath the Paganism umbrella and that faith would be Discordia. Many people know a few Discordians and upon asking what they practice will rarely get one answer; which is just an aspect of practicing Discordia.
Discordia began, as most modern religions do with an idea. A couple of men named Gregory Hill whose pseudonym was Malaclypse the Younger and Kerry Thornley whose pseudonym was Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, wrote a book called Principia Discordia or How the West was Lost that was published in 1965. The book claimed seriousness with its humor and provided for the main tenant of the religion which is that chaos is much more important that order when it comes to the world. The first edition of the Principia only garnered five copies but the fourth edition entitled Principia Discordia or How I Found Goddess And What I Did To Her When I Found Her: The Magnum Opiate Of Malaclypse The Younger, Wherein is Explained Absolutely Everything Worth Knowing About Absolutely Anything and published in 1970 is the most well known and widely expounded upon text in the Discordian faith.
There are two main Goddesses associated with the faith and they are the Greek Eris and the Roman Discordia; both deities of chaos and discord. Now, it is worth mentioning that there are Erisians who will recognize Discordians but do not see the practice as an actual faith but more of an extension of their own faith. The symbolism of the faith is that of the Apple of Discord and the pentagon.
The main system of belief is that of chaos. Discordians embrace the ideal that there must be enough chaos to equal out the more organized structure of things. Being of discord or helping to create chaos and dissent are looked at as good things while forcing a certain view of reality to conform into order are seen as bad things. One of the most interesting precepts of Discordia is to continually question the presented world’s version of reality with the universal from of reality. This last view has many times labeled some Discordians in the media as Anarchists.
There are five commandments in Discordia which are known as the PENTABARF:
I - There is no Goddess but Goddess and She is Your Goddess. There is no Erisian Movement but The Erisian Movement and it is The Erisian Movement. And every Golden Apple Corps is the beloved home of a Golden Worm.
II - A Discordian Shall Always use the Official Discordian Document Numbering System.
III - A Discordian is Required during his early Illumination to Go Off Alone & Partake Joyously of a Hot Dog on a Friday; this Devotive Ceremony to Remonstrate against the popular Paganisms of the Day: of Catholic Christendom (no meat on Friday), of Judaism (no meat of Pork), of Hindic Peoples (no meat of Beef), of Buddhists (no meat of animal), and of Discordians (no Hot Dog Buns).
IV - A Discordian shall Partake of No Hot Dog Buns, for Such was the Solace of Our Goddess when She was Confronted with The Original Snub.
V - A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing what he reads.
Click here to read the Principia Discordia or How I Found Goddess And What I Did To Her When I Found Her: The Magnum Opiate Of Malaclypse The Younger, Wherein is Explained Absolutely Everything Worth Knowing About Absolutely Anything.
For more information you can check out the links below:
Discordian.com
Discordian Research Technology
The Eris Society
Maybe Logic Academy