Principia Discordia: How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her [Paperback]

Malaclypse the Younger (Author), Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1991

One of the great books of our time, Principia Discordia is the official bible of the most relevant religion ever conceived, Discordianism. This legendary underground classic contains absolutely everything worth knowing about absolutely anything. Discordianism is the religion for these screwed-up times, and Principia Discordia reveals it here for your enlightenment, confusion and entertainment. --(Text refers to a previous edition)

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Illuminet Press (January 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096265342X
• ISBN-13: 978-0962653421
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,453,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Notes of a "guerrilla mind theatre", September 30, 2001

By 

Michael J. Mazza - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Principia Discordia: How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her (Paperback)

The Torah of Judaism. The New Testament of Christianity. The Qu'ran of Islam. The Dhammapada of Buddhism. To these, and other immortal sacred texts of the world's great religions, we can add the Principia Discordia, the foundational text of Discordianism.

Since I first read the Principia (also known as the Magnum Opiate of Malaclypse the Younger), it has become one of my favorite books. I recommend the edition that contains an introduction by "Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst" (also known as Kerry Thornley), who is celebrated in a cover blurb as "the co-founder of Discordianism."

Thornley opens his delightful intro, "If organized religion is the opium of the masses, then disorganized religion is the marijuana of the lunatic fringe." Discordianism, which is inspired by the Greek goddess of chaos and confusion, is such a disorganized religion. In his intro Thornley recalls the founding/revelation of Discordianism in 1958 or 1959 in a bowling alley in California.

The Principia itself could be read as a collage-like satire of conventional religions and their sacred texts. The book is a merry blend of jokes, puns, satiric narratives, parodic songs and rituals, word games, illustrations, and secret ciphers. Among the gems in the book are the Law of Fives, an explanation of the Discordian calendar, and information about the Bavarian Illuminati ("The World's Oldest And Most Successful Conspiracy").

One section of the book notes that the Discordian Society "has been called a guerrilla mind theatre." The Principia is a manifesto of this theatre. If you want to read something really different, check out the Principia Discordia.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Absolute WORST Edition of Principia Discordia Ever Put on Paper, October 14, 2011

By 

Pope Cahbet "pope_cahbet" (Memphis, TN United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Principia Discordia (Paperback)

If you had asked me if it were possible to rip off people by printing a public domain book, I would have said no. Well, this edition of the Principia Discordia has shown me that I would have been wrong. While the original PD is indeed a CLASSIC of many different things and an excellent introduction to Discordianism, the most relevant post-modern religion with pre-Christian roots to ever be envisioned, this edition is, to put it mildly, JUNK.

It looks like the publisher either took a bad scan off the internet or made their own and just ran it through an old OCR program and sent it in for printing. No graphics appear in this edition at all, when they are throughout the Loompanics, Steve Jackson and Illuminet editions. The text, so carefully laid out in all previous editions, is skewed and messed up so badly that it hurts to even attempt to read this. Seriously, if you are going to take a document that is laid out in multiple columns on a single page and run it through a program to pull out the text, you simply MUST go back through the results to see if the pages are even read-able after the program runs. This one is not.

If they had taken at least an hour to go back through this and put the text into proper columns, tables or any decent layout, it might have been worth having, even with the lack of art. With no art and very, very poor layout, this is the absolute worst edition of Principia Discordia that has appeared on paper since the now-missing 1st through 4th editions, which were mostly circulated in mimeo, ditto and bad photocopy.

Save your money and buy the Steve Jackson Games edition, the Illuminet Press edition, or the Loompanics edition. Those are all worthy of the name Principia Discordia. This piece of junk is not.

I would have given this -10 stars, had it been possible.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Changed My Life!(TM), July 6, 2002

By 

"bugarup" (Illuminati Hindquarters, Bavaria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Principia Discordia: How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her (Paperback)

My Discordian friend from England gave me this book so I would see what the joke was about. There is an online edition, which can be found all over the Internet, but there's nothing like compressed plant fibre when you're looking for holy scripture.
So I read through it, had a good chuckle, read it again, and then I saw the light. It was kind of greenish-purple in color. I turned off that light and went to sleep. The next day, I knew I was a Discordian. Ever since, I see the world differently - particularly how silly and confusing everything is. Go on. Buy this book. It's best to read the Illuminatus trilogy after you've read this - you will get a lot more of the in-jokes that way.
This book truly contains everything there is to be known about absolutely anything. And if you think it is just a joke, read the page with "The Golden Secret" again - slowly and carefully this time. If you're still thinking "What a load of hippie (expletive)" afterwards, then Discordianism is probably not for you. If you start saving your barcodes afterwards, then I am happy to have helped you a little along the path. Praise Eris. Or don't. She doesn't really care, but do something funny and maybe She will reward you.
By the way: there is a second compilation of Discordian scripture, the Apocrypha Discordia. It's in the public domain and available for download at 23ae.com. (No, I'm not paid to advertise it. ;)) Have a good time, anyway.