Lesson Two of the Shrine of the Sacred Chao
Lesson Two - Discord Today
Today's Discordian embraces the Discord and Chaos inherent in our current system of the natural world and uses them as a force for good. Both of these powerful energies are embodied in the Goddess Eris. you can see Discord and Chaos wherever you look these days, proving the difficulty of imposing order on a primordial power that existed before anything else. Discordians learn to embrace and respect Chaos and the power contained therein.
Being a Discordian does not mean that you can't follow other Gods or Goddesses. Being a Discordian also doesn't mean you can't be a Wiccan, or a Goddess Worshipper, or any other type of religious person. Being a Discordian simply means that you acknowledge the existence of Chaos and Discord in the universe, and desire to manipulate that power. If you are also Wiccan, you must only manipulate that power in accordance with the Wiccan Rede. Practitioners of other religions must incorporate those religious laws into their practice of Discordianism.
In fact, just about any ritual can be turned to a Discordian bent. For example, a traditional ritual for Lammas could be changed just slightly to become:
No, this is not the celebration for Llamas, although the wool is really great. Instead, we celebrate the harvest festival. Autumn is coming, except in Virg inia where we will harvest mosquitoes for the next few months, but that's what w e get for living in a swamp. Anyway, time to celebrate anyway, cuz you know we Wiccans just love to celebrate. So let's get to it.
Cast a Circle
Place a freshly baked loaf of bread on the altar
The Wheel of the Year is turned
Now we come to First Havest - Lammas
Strike up Bad Music
So eat some bread, and throw some on the ground
Run in circles, dance around
Juggle apples, grapes and pears
Leave some honey for the teddy bears
Thank the God and Goddess too
For your can of Cheezy Spoo
Have the Spirits go or stay
They'll come back another day
Tell them Hail and then Goodbye
Now pass the wine and gimme some pie
Open the Circle
You can also use Discordian ritual to bring about changes that you might not feel suitable to a "traditional" ritual. For example, if you were having difficulty with a new puppy, a full Wiccan ritual may not be the appropriate thing. Instead, why not harness the power of Chaos and Discord and chant the following discordian ritual?
Small Puppy full of Pooh
We know what you want to do
On the floor and make it pew
Bad Puppy full of Pooh
If puppy does this thing
His butt will surely have to sting
With the holy rolled up thing
Then out the door in a giant fling
Use of the ritual and the rolled up newspaper generally works for most puppies you would come across.
More Resources on Modern Discord
There are several Holy Books on the Discordian faith, the first of which is called Principia Discordia. Luckily, you don't have to pay for it to read it since it is living on the Web at http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/1.php. Here you can read more about Our Lady Eris.
Yet more can be discered from the pages of most books by Robert Anton Wilson. Information about him and his books can be found at http://www.rawilson.com/main.shtml.
But perhaps the best source of Discordian information can be found at the official Correllian Personal Shrine, the Shrine of the Flaming Asscruft, located at http://www.outercon.com/discord.html. Joining the shrine will give you access to the Yahoo Group for the Shrine and its associated emails, stories, pictures, and links.
Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!
Pope Princess Bedwetter Fluffernutter
