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Eris and Discordianism

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19:49 / 03.01.06

I first heard of modern cult to Eris (goddess of discord and chaos) and Discordianism just recently, and I'm getting right into it. Chaos as a liberating creative force fits my own world view like a glove, and I would like to know if there's actually a movement on it or is it mostly a joke (like the Church of SubGenius) and I have to start such movement by myself all together?

In addition, I have been making personnal tributes to Eris - to test her powers, to be honest - and I have been greeted, more than once, by bats, as I make them. Are these cute flying mice in any way related to Eris and Chaos, like some sort of totem animal, or is it all in my own pretty little head?

Finally, is there some tested ritual I could use? In the next few days I shall make a tattoo of the word "chaos" in greek letters. This ought to attract her attention. Or, then again, maybe not, but such is Chaos, aint it?

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

19:57 / 03.01.06

*groan*

You might want to check a bit more about Eris before making that Tattoo.

It's not all situationist Californian dope inspired comedy routines. Also, search this forum. The search funtion is a bit crap, but should yield %positive% results for this particular Goddess.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

20:13 / 03.01.06

Like, here

and

here

If you're a bit lazy, like.

22:59 / 03.01.06

As a bit of a Discordian myself, I'm gonna have to advise against the tattoo, at least until you're on much better terms with Eris. She can have a slightly twisted sense of humor/justice (but then again, isn't that why we love her in the first place?). I'm not going to tell you not to get the ink, just recommending you be absolutely sure first. You wouldn't get married after only a couple of dates, would you?

Oh yes, and welcome to the club. Hope you enjoy the hot dogs.

All Acting Regiment

01:33 / 04.01.06

Hmm. I'd point you in the direction of Dada, Surrealism and the European Situationists as opposed to Discordianism itself, simply because from the publications I've seen it seems to lack edge. Of course, you could completely redefine the concept for yourself.

ESOZONE : Oct 10 - 12 PDX 2008

02:32 / 04.01.06

whats with all the safety?

have fun, have some laughs, fuckallelse!

02:47 / 04.01.06

It's okay to have some laughs with Discordianism, as long as you don't think it's funny. And then, later, when you realize it is funny, it's okay to laugh, but not out loud. At first.

07:09 / 04.01.06

You wouldn't get married after only a couple of dates, would you?

No, but I could fall in love, couldn't I?

besides, I heard about Eris and Discordianism just recently, but I have considered Chaos the driving force of the Universe for quite some time now. And besides, fuck safety. I'm gonna be dead in 50 to 60 years tops, anyway...

09:56 / 04.01.06

One more thing: the tattoo is for Chaos, not for Eris. Chaos, or Kaos, as I mean with the word, is the creation force in its purest form. As in, not micromanaged by God the Creator - whatever name you give it - but ready for the harvesting, at least to some extend, to anyone who accepts the fact it's never going to turn out exactly as you wanted it, but trusts that whatever difference may arise, it's for the best. It manifest it self in all kinds of unexpected, unlikely (and therefore inevitable) happenings. Eris is not Chaos itself, She only serves it as She sees fit. And so do I. I'm still fine tuning the tat's design before going for it.

And I'm not even sure I am an "orthodox" Discordianist (For instance, the sense of humor part of Discordianism is pretty funny, allright, but it's also a immature and very seriously overrated part of the whole thing). I certainly also partake in many other belif systems, from mystical Catholicism to technopylic Tanshumanism with a touch of Nietzscheanism. Whatever works, man!

11:52 / 04.01.06

If you want to understand the mysteries of Chaos and Discord, why not go to Iraq or Sri Lanka with no money in your pocket? Failing that, you could always just get the word Chaos tattooed on yourself in Greek letters, same difference I should expect.

13:38 / 04.01.06

Actually, I've been thinking about that too. I wish i WAS in France during the riots. Or in New Orleans during the looting

13:40 / 04.01.06

But, you know, chaos is more than just mindless violence and war. Sometimes chaos manifest itself in very compassive ways too (which people call "luck")

14:09 / 04.01.06

Err, 'Chance' perhaps, Luck is a different domain (Fortuna).

Why the Greek letters instead of the chaostar?

and, have you read Illuminatus?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

14:12 / 04.01.06

I'd actually be really interested to hear from anyone who'd built a working relationship with Discordia-Eris (as opposed to the original Greek goddess), how they expressed this in terms of interaction, if any, and how their lives had changed as a result.

It'd be great if one of the Discordians out there totally blew my preconceptions out of the water with an astonishing story of hir adventures with She Wot Done It All, something beyond the usual hitchhiking to Glastonbury in a Cat in the Hat hat and painting your tent pink on weak acid stuff. Something really mindblowing, something unforgettable, something that would leave me shivering in sympathetic horror or grinning in stupid joy or both.

It'd be pretty groovy if that happened.

Aaaanytime now, I guess.

Yup.

14:20 / 04.01.06

One of my old friends from school used to pronouce "chaos" as "chaz." Would Eris approve?

14:27 / 04.01.06

Err, 'Chance' perhaps, Luck is a different domain (Fortuna).

Good point, perhaps I should invite Fortuna too and make a threesome out of this relationship.

And, in addition, I'm from Brazil, I don't have to travel halfway cross the Globe to find Chaos, I only have to go outside. IN February we have a 4-day celebration that's pure chaos (Carnaval), so I'm covered

As for the chaostar, it's pretty cool, I would love to have a t-shirt with it ( and one with the Sacred Chao too), but that's not what came to me in a inspiration. I am very carefull to what I paint in my own body. So far I have only the Decepticons' logo (hence my nickname). Ans I want to have a tattoo no one else has, that's why I'm working on the design still. I'm also thinking of putting two little horns on the "o" (kinda like the disinformation net logo)

ONLY NICE THINGS

17:11 / 04.01.06

I believe that one of the great failings of the Greeks was that they did not put horns on their vowels often enough.

21:14 / 04.01.06

I'd actually be really interested to hear from anyone who'd built a working relationship with Discordia-Eris (as opposed to the original Greek goddess), how they expressed this in terms of interaction, if any, and how their lives had changed as a result.

I may not shatter your preconceptions, but I have improved my life since starting my work with Eris (you can go here to see when it started officially) and managed to avoid most of the Monty Pythonesque shindigery and unhelpful tom-foolery. I've met with her a few times and we've gotten on well enough, and she doesn't seem to mind helping me out now and then. To dip a little into my personal philosopy/theory, the way I see it, every moment of my (admittedly sheltered) life is chaos. Think of chaos theory, where there are fomulas and equations to work out everything, except these formulas are missing the unknown constant of Eris, and if you can get that constant to change, you can get some amazing results.

I hold her personally responsible for rolling those great cosmic dice just the right way for some really great things (and a few terrible things) happening to me in this last year; improving my magickal life/ability and helping me control my mental illness to name a few wonders. This may not blow your mind Mordant Carnival, but it certainly worked mine over.

And I realize that some of the ways I think of Eris would probably be better captured by Fortuna, but I'm not working with the Greek pantheon, I'm working with a modern version of an old god without all the cultural strings attached, and my work with her has backed up my thoughts on her (including her domain over chance).

Less searchable M0rd4nt

22:11 / 04.01.06

Uhh... wow. I've actually asked pretty much that same question several times in the past, at first sincerely and then as time wore on with increasing degrees of snark. What I usually get is ignored, sneered at for faliure to appreciate subversive genius, or "...and then we painted the tent lime green! Whaddaya think of that eh? Bet THAT baked your noodle!"

Don't think I've ever had an honest, thoughtful, reasonable answer before now. Colour me mindjobbed.

trouser the trouserian

08:03 / 05.01.06

I'd actually be really interested to hear from anyone who'd built a working relationship with Discordia-Eris (as opposed to the original Greek goddess), how they expressed this in terms of interaction, if any, and how their lives had changed as a result.

Well, I "worked" with - no, it'd be more accurate to say that I was simply besotted with Discordia-Eris for about two years - with occasional flings (sometimes with Pan at the same time) thereafter. I created a home altar to her, and continually strove to view all manifestations of the weird, wonderful & wacky in my life as gifts from her (and there were many, probably in part due to the amount of psychedelics I was imbibing at the time). I honoured her in any way I could; turning on friends to her; investing one friend as a Discordian Papess onstage at a night-club; concocted strange gematrical association-chains, the full 'significance' of which always remaining elusive; wrote reams of purple prose in her praise (some of which were later used in more formalised ritual); commissioned a painting of Eris from a local artist depicting her as a young girl cradling the Earth in her lap; muttered prayers to her into a 1950s telephone handset I carried round in my pocket; braided my hair with beads & LEDS as an offering; became involved with a street-theatre group and went to clubs in drag - pretty standard stuff really.

As for "results" - they're difficult to quantify or even describe without going into a lot of biographical background. Suffice to say that I feel that this period was when I stopped being entirely dependent on the magical practices I'd received from others (through working in groups, books, etc.) and started striking out on my own. Oh, and writing stuff too, like this. Also this Channeled communication from Eris (received on Stockport Station the morning after an Eris group ritual) - very sub-Book of the Law in tone, I know, but it was significant for me at the time.

10:43 / 05.01.06

Trouser- I like the intro to Apikorsus (link above), that neatly encapsulates a thread on underlying magical beliefs I was going to start- I particularly like 9. The entities which may be encountered during our experience of those other realities are real within their own world. To question their relative existence is unimportant, since the universe behaves as if they do exist.

I've never been one for Eris much myself. I do seem to encounter more discordians of the lime-green tent type than people who actually know a bit about it, which is a shame because it's really interesting.
Shit, I just noticed that I have a fat 23 sticker on the back of my phone and am habitually wearing an eye in the pyramid badge. Maybe I *am* a discordian and just so confused I've forgotten. I need a hat and some weak acid...

13:59 / 05.01.06

Funny story. I was just thinking about changing the tattoo I'm planning to do, due to some advice I received in this thread. I was researching chinese characters for other ways to write "chaos", and eventually other things I could write instead (ranging from my name to semi-random stuff like "the jade dragon rises") when the computer I was working on (I'm in my dayjob rigth now) just melted down. Seriuously, actual smoke came out from it. Some sort of energy surge, I suppose. Now, I have moved to another station, called tech support, and am seriously thinking that Eris really wants me to do the original tattoo, after all. With horns on the "o" and everything

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

14:14 / 05.01.06

She seems to be playing havoc with your 'Post Reply' button as well.

14:17 / 05.01.06

She does, doesn't she? Maybe the "threesome with Fortuna" joke pissed her off

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:17 / 05.01.06

Maybe she thinks that any tattoo is a terrible, terrible idea?

20:24 / 05.01.06

All is possible, but I can tell I had nothing but good feeling about the original tattoo. The idea came to me during New Year celebrations (I went to the beach with about a dozen childhood friends, and I can tell you, it was chaotic to the extreme, just like the good old days), which this year I dedicated to Eris, instead of Iemanjá (candomblé's "orixá" of shallow waters, equivalent to Our Lady), for a change. It was just today, a few hour after I started to have second thoughts, that weird signs this way came.

I'm really willing to risk it, y'know. "Fuck safety" and all.

23:23 / 05.01.06

I'd say go with your inspiration for the tattoo. Take it as a received message from Eris. Go with whatever finds you and resonates deeply enough to inspire action. Isn't that part of magick?

Shit, I just noticed that I have a fat 23 sticker on the back of my phone and am habitually wearing an eye in the pyramid badge.

I have 3 tattoos. The first I got when I turned 30, wanting to wait long enough to clear out some of the impetuosity of youth and be certain I was getting the right thing - something I could live with, a bread crumb in case I get lost. With a b-day gift cert from a bunch of friends I received a 23 with two dots in a circle squarely on my right sholder.

The second was a year later, mirrored on my left shoulder. An eye in pyramid with 13 rays shining out, all bound in a circle the same size as the one bounding the 23.

I have worked with Eris, I do fear/respect the invocation of Chaos, and I've always had a soft spot for anyone who embraces Discordia. Remember: it's a joke disguised as a religion... or possibly a religion disguised as a joke. If painting your tent green is an act of Discord, so mote it be. Any intentional offering is surely enough to feed the metameme of Eris, no matter how small. For a few of you, tent painting will always remind you of Discordia. That little silly discordant act has succesfully perpetuated the thought form and it's attendants.

And although some wags would cast stones keep in mind that these symbols, as popularized and perhaps diluted as they may now be, have deeply esoteric connotations worthy of much study.

And yes, if you haven't already, read Illuminatus! (and Cosmic Trigger 1).

Less searchable M0rd4nt

01:13 / 06.01.06

If painting your tent green is an act of Discord, so mote it be. Any intentional offering is surely enough to feed the metameme of Eris, no matter how small. For a few of you, tent painting will always remind you of Discordia. That little silly discordant act has succesfully perpetuated the thought form and it's attendants.

Great. That's just great. Thanks a fucking jumbo sausage roll.

Yes, a very simple act can have amazing and subversive significance for the people concerned. I.Get.It. My point was not "painting a tent pink/green can NEVAR be an important symbolic act in respect of Discordianism or any other damn thing, because it's NOT BIG and NOT CLEVER because I SAID SO." Or that Discordians are stupid or wrong nyahhh.

My point was that in the past, when I've tried to engage people in an honest discussion of what Discordianism has meant or done or been for them, how they've expressed those ideas themselves in their own way--what they did to the Goddess when they found her--I've essentially had one of two responses. Either I've been told to fuck off or offered a trite middle-class going-to-a-festival-and-taking-drugs story, not in the sense of "well, this might not impress anyone else but it was meaningful to me at the time," but as if the mere notion is going to kill me from fucking culture shock. As if everyone else in the entire world was by default sitting in on a beige Parker Knoll settee in a crimplene twinset and talking about how many Melting Moments to bake for the next WI meeting. You see how this might wear a tiny, tiny bit thin?

Did you actually read what I wrote or did you just mentally fill in a default selection from your private stock? I seem to recall expressing appreciation and pleasant surprise for the response to my question, but perhaps I accidently posted a demand for the return of National Service by mistake. (And now there are two posts wherein people have attempted to give an answer to my initial question. That's two more I've had in the recent past.)

How come Discordia is so damn sacrosanct that even having the temerity to ask people about their experiences with it gets you shot down, wrapped in unsold copies of the Daily Mail and buried next to Mary Whitehouse? How the fuck did hot-dog-Eris become a sacred cow?

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

02:39 / 06.01.06

personally, I find discordianism too hung up on 5s.

there are other numbers too.

like the trinity.

-not jack

03:21 / 06.01.06

Uh, having a bad day?

Mordant, I'm not sure why my response has irked you so. I don't see that I was being provocative in any way nor was I really responding only to you. There's a whole big thread upstream that I had only just read before my post. I'm just throwing shit off the top of my head, not trying to convince anyone of anything.

I don't know who's telling you Discordia and Eris are sacrosanct. Not me. In fact I'm suggesting exactly the opposite: that it's ok for people to give it lip service or wear it as a button. I don't think Discordia is really trying to be taken seriously.

Nalyd Khezr Bey

04:40 / 06.01.06

! FNORD ?

Don't look, but there are five of them behind you now...

Pope Nalyd Khezr Bey, K.'.S.'.C.'./K.'.S.'.P.'.

08:58 / 06.01.06

How come Discordia is so damn sacrosanct that even having the temerity to ask people about their experiences with it gets you shot down, wrapped in unsold copies of the Daily Mail and buried next to Mary Whitehouse? How the fuck did hot-dog-Eris become a sacred cow?

Well, I don't know about the others, but I just don't have anything interesting to tell. Remember, I'm just a neophyte. but you're not entirely wrong: hostil reactions to questioning is one of the signs (not the only, and not exclusively) of a freaking poser.

And I don't belive in sacred cows; to me, meat is meat.

Is this thread starting to get, hm, chaotic?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

09:48 / 06.01.06

LVX23: If you say your comment wasn't aimed at me then I accept that and I'm sorry if my reaction was inappropriate. You referenced the painting your tent green thing from one of my posts, then made that comment about wags throwing stones, so it looked like you were having a dig at what I'd said.

12:28 / 06.01.06

I hate you all

14:13 / 06.01.06

GL, say it like you mean it!!!

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