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

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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.

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.

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.

...don't be serious. If you are the sort of person whose life can be changed by a book, *this book will change your life.* As Gregory Hill, co-author (Malaclypse the Younger) observed decades after writing it, "At first I thought I was (messing) around with Eris. Now I see that Eris is (messing) around with me."

Whether you believe in Eris, the Goddess of Confusion, or not, this book explains a *lot* about what's really going on, in language that even people with no previous exposure to philosophy or religion past a little Sunday school twenty years ago can understand. Once you've got into it, you'll never take anything on faith again that isn't *worth* taking on faith. You'll see. This edition also contains the introduction by Lord Omar K. Ravenhurst, which makes it worth having all by itself.

This is the bible of Discordianism. That is to say, that religion disguised as a complex joke disguised as a religion. Arcane Mysteries dwell herein young cabbage. Fnord. You must learn much about laughter before Eris will come and bless you with misunderstanding. Fnord.

Seriously, this book is far more important than it gets credit for. Basically, there are some who think religion should be a serious affair, and those who do not. This book is for people who think it should not. If you think you will enjoy the idea of the Universe being run by a crazy woman, get this book.

This book changed my life! I simply would not be who I am if not for this book.

Not everybody will like this book. But the ones that "Get" it, will REALLY "Get" it. (And the ones that ACTUALLY "Get" it, will think it's just OK) This book is a crutch for those who feel organized religion is a hospital bed for the free spirit. I love it. The words that spoke to me most, are to be found in "The Curse of Greyface and the Introduction of Negativism" : "To chose order over disorder, or disorder over order, is to accept a trip composed of both the creatve and the destructive. But to chose the creative over the destructive is an all-creatve trip composed of both order and disorder." This is one of the most important works of the twentieth century.

robert anton wilson's illuminatus trilogies changed the way i view the world. if you can't read a few thousand pages of fnord-free prose pricipia discordia is the short course. i loved it especially the Original Snub!

This "BOOK" is the most disorganized compilation of liturature I have ever looked at!It's great! If you have ever wondered why we are here,the meaning of life,or why things just aren't working the way you thought they would,please consult my personal friend Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst! This book flows like a toxic banana eating a telephone,fnord. I suggest learning all you can't about this book, and don't research anything involving it!You may never be the same. Don't take my word for it! Herein contains the entire text of the book: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz*

And that's leaving out all of the pictures.

*NOTE:some letters must be used more than once.

These profound scriptures come close to rivalling James Robinson's edition of the Nag Hammadi Library as the most important contribution to 20th century metaphysics. And not only for those who consider Discordianism as a form - albeit a weird one - of Gnosticism. Certain passages are more inspiring than others, like "The Enlightenment Of Zarathud" and Lord Omar's "Epistle To The Paranoids", although only the orthodox version of the latter appears here. According to the Samaritan Codex and the Octuagint there is an additional verse which reads: "Ye build high buildings, only to cast yeself from the roofs." The same Codex (but not the Octuagint) also contains "The Epistle To The Neurotics" by St. Euthanasius that sadly didn't make it into this edition. These minor gripes aside, I do recommend this work to all those who are searching for the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Eris, goddess of Chaos, is ready, willing and able to help you. For more information about spirituality and chaos, read Peter Carroll's Liber Kaos or Liber Null And Psychonaut. And if you appreciate this type of humour, you will love the work of Robert Anton Wilson.