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I am Brenton Clutterbuck. In 2012 I began a project entitled Chasing Eris, where I started interviewing Discordians world wide. Discordianism is, loosely, the worship of the Goddess Eris, the Greco-Roman Goddess of Strife, and the embracing of disorder over order. Discordianism is often regarded as a joke or parody religion, with few adherents regarding Eris as a literal deity, in the most traditional sense.
The original work of Discoridanism, the Principia Discordia has an almost scrapbook like set up, and refuses to explicitly reveal the ‘main idea’ of Discordianism. Apocryphal texts often continue this theme, and as a result there is vast deviation between adherents as to the real meaning of Discordia (or even, if there is one).
Discordianism has had a little known but significant impact on the world. The Principia’s licensing as ‘Copyleft’ was one of the first notable deviations from traditional All Rights Reserved Copyright, and was the conceptual precursor to creative commons. Co-founder Kerry Thornley is also regarded to have been the first to use the term ‘Pagan’ to describe modern American nature religions. Robert Anton Wilson’s and Robert Shea’s explicitly Discordian Illuminatus! trilogy, was responsible for propelling the then lesser known ‘Illuminati’ back into mainstream popular culture.
If you know this, congratulations on your initiation! Proceed without caution! (One of us! One of us! Gooble Garble We Accept You!)
If you're new to the whole thing, you may find some of the following a bit daunting. Discordia is kind of like a spider web, drawn by multiple spiders at the same time, while occasionally eating each other or arguing on the Internet. It looks like a lot of different things, it's been practiced in a lot of different ways, it's been meaningful to people in many different periods of time. The below is a shinkansen ride through the journey I have been through; if you really want to take your time and get a good, clear, detailed look at it all, then by sheer coincidence, you're in luck: I happen to be writing a book that does just that! It's called CHASING ERIS.
THE TRIP
I started in Brisbane, meeting the Fairly Reverend Dr Jon Swabey who compiled the Apocrypha Discordia, and other Discordians from my home city, including an Anarchistic Chaos Magician, a Subgenius, an IT professional who uses his Pope Card to pull rank, and read Discordian tarot for a man who admitted eating a piece of Trinotite while drunk. I was also in Email contact with some people who weren’t real, which you can imagine was rather odd.
I travelled then to America, to Portland OR ‘where young people go to retire’ and was able to meet with the most varied group of Discordians I’ve yet seen, with Adam Gorightly, author of Prankster and the conspiracy, the well known Johnny Brainwash, members of the PeeDee Cabal, Timmy from the House ov Discord, and others from across the USA. I also received some wonderful Money-virus stickers, handmade by a shadowy figure, that have found their way to others all through the Americas.
From there, I met some of the people who knew and loved Greg and Kerry in California, Louise Lacey, Dr Robert Newport (Brother Hypocrates Magoun in the Principia Discordia) and Tantra Bensko, a former housemate of Thornley. I met again with Adam Gorightly who took me through some of the Discordian Archives. I also visited the Brunswick Shrine (the bowling alley where Discordianism allegedly began), and hung with St. Mae and the rest of Das Hive, the Avartar Jones Memorial Cabal, and other wonderful folk at pagan convention PantheaCon, where the blades were peace bonded, the pagans and the bros were equally freaked out by each other, and Discordianism was universally known (though not, perhaps, universally loved).
In Texas I was privileged to share in the hospitality of a crew of Discordian and non-Discordian types, standing on various numbers of legs who offered accomodation, food and friendship. This was such a house of good vibes and love. I learned about how the Secret Service raid on Steve Jackson Games helped inspire the birth of the EFF. I was also able to meet with several members of the House ov Discord; a house of Discordians and Thelemites which hosted such events as a holy book burning, naked pudding wrestling and Hobo Christmas, and Domme Discordia, who spoke to me about absurdism and BDSM. I also met with the members of the band One Eyed Doll.
Down in New Orleans I hitched a ride on the river boat quee… no wait, that’s a song.
I did get to wander through the French Quarter, where Greg and Kerry lived, met some extraordinarily high quality human beings who were also traveling, and saw the Preservation Hall, started up by Barbara Reid, the person who testified against Kerry in the Warren Commission. I also learned more about the early days of Discordia, and of the recent Krewe of Eris parade, where fires were lit, people were jumping on cars, and police batons made liberal contact with Discordian/Anarchist heads. I was also able to get a lift to…
…Memphis, with Gavriel Discordia of the Discordian culture shop, who threw a few more stickers my way and shared some of his stories with me. Then, it was time for Memphis barbecue.
I discussed the great sin of misrepresenting an online community, and becoming a leper of the Internets with ArchBrony Timothy Bowen, and met Autumn, his partner in crime in the Great Jerry Springer Brony Heist, when in Jonesboro Arkansas. Timothy Bowen upset the Brony community by appearing on Jerry Springer to discuss My Little Pony, and found that peace and love weren’t always the priority of other Bronies. He is known for his publication of the Jonesboria Discordia and Voices of Chaos.
The quality of the people who offered an epicness of time and energy to overwhelm me with Southern Hospitality served to ensure that what is widely accepted as one of the worst towns to hang out in in America, was one of my favourite to spend time in, dog bites and all.
In Nashville, author of many true crime novels, and online publisher of Kerry Thornley’s ‘Confession to Conspiracy’ Sondra London showed me around, and took me out to jam with a possie of raggle taggle gypsies, and see a talk about Sherman’s campaign in Atlanta.
In Atlanta I again met some incredible people who offered a great deal of their time and energy. Joel Love and Cy Buck both knew Kerry and talked about their time with him. I visited BDSM Dungeon Studio Eris. I also met the XX3 in Rome, a clan of around seven Discordians. I scoped out Little Five Points and had the extraordinary good fate to be given access to Kerry’s Discordian archives by Groucho Gandhi, and see some of Greg Hill’s rarities, and a great deal of Kerry’s files, offering some new perspective on the man himself. All of which we are very lucky to still have!
In Washington DC Karl Musser, who assisted the Fairly Rev. Dr Jon Swabey in making rare files accessible to the public by photocopying them from the JFK archives, took me around to see some science fiction themed burlesque and the Masonic monument to George Washington.
In New York I was again overwhelmed with hospitality, went to Discordian Church with musical wunderkind Jay Ackley, initiated a new Erisian into the fold with Jay and David, and met with the infamous moustached Professor Cramulus. I was also given the chance to meet some LaRouchans and share with them news of the secret society of Discordians who were busy fighting the illuminati, and visited the alleged birth site of the phrase ’23 Skiddoo’.
I took a plane to Brazil, landing in Rio De Janeiro, and met chaos magicians Fernanda, Kaos Vortek, Rajiphun Maldonado, and Mafagafling. We were further joined by PeeDee Cabal member Mistre, and not-really-a-Discordian Julia Fenderson. Julia Fenderson, Mafagafling, Rajiphun and myself proceeded to witness protests in Lapa. The next day, the whole group met up and performed a Discordian ritual, offering a golden apple to ‘the prettiest girl’ as a tribute to Eris.
In Sao Paulo I met another chaos magician, Alleseyo and Rosicrucian Joao. Alleseyo wrote a Portuguese article about our meeting. I also attended Baixo Centro, an explicitly Copyleft Festival which hosted public arts events without gaining permissions from the authorities, under the conviction that public space is for public use.
I then travelled to Florianopolis to meet with Peterson Silva, university student and contributor to Discordian works Contos Discoridanos and Discordia Brasilias.
I then travelled for a week to Buenos Aires Argentina. Sirrius Mazzu, who translated the Illuminatus trology into Spanish helped me get into contact with a few Discordians, including Kokote Multiversal, of the band Sensacion Tropineal. I also met a pair from Agencia Ouranos, who would dress in bio-hazard suits and gas masks before blindfolding and initiating subjects into Discordia. I also met with Rita, a Discordian skeptic stalked by the supernatural. I also had a little spare time which I used to visit Tierra Santa, one of the world’s only two Christian theme parks.
Again, as with North America, I felt very privileged to have the chance to spend time with such creative, kind and innovative individuals.
I returned home to Australia and worked for a while. But there was still a need to continue.
I traveled to England where I visited London's Theater Archive and scored a whole lot of information about the Illuminatus! play based on the Illuminatus! trilogy by Discordian Robert Anton Wilson. I met members of the PeeDee cabal, including Feminist Discordian Pixie. I also saw James Cauty's new artwork, The Aftermath Dislocation Principle.
Cauty, along with Bill Drummond (who did the odd and critically acclaimed set design for Illuminatus!) together formed the band The KLF, who threw around Illuminatus! references like they were going out of style. The band ultimately quit the music business, dropped a dead sheep outside a music awards after party and proceeded to burn the one million pounds they made in their musical career. I went to the Scottish island of Jura to visit the boathouse in which they burned the money.
I then went further into Scotland, meeting St Syn, without whose Synapaclips Generator publisher, many early Discordian works would probably have been lost to the ever hungry jaws of time. He was also responsible for the lovely, now out of print hardcover Principia.
Ducking back down to England, I saw Daisy Eris and John Higgs present on the topic 'The late, great Robert Anton Wilson'. Daisy is working on a new play of Cosmic Trigger, and John recently wrote a fantastic book on the KLF.
In Ireland I loitered outside the old home of Robert Anton Wilson, met Hagbard Celine who runs the Eris Discordia Society on Facebook, and others.
In Finland I met researchers Hanna Leihten and Essi Makela who have written about Discordianism academically. I visited the giant rubber gorilla of Helsinki, the Pigduck of Turku, a number of other Discordians and got naked with alarming frequency (those Finns and their wacky sauna culture).
In Poland I met a group of Chaos Magicians including Lao Hunluan who is working on a new translation of the Principia into Polish. I met Dariusz Misiuna of Okultura, the biggest occult and alternative publisher in Poland, and chatted to Matragon who wrote the Discordian themed track 'The Sacred Chao'.
In Germany I met with Rev. Schneider, one of the Brazilian Discordians who collaborated on the projects I mentioned from Brazil. I also got to groove into a big meetup with members of Aktion23 and the Nether Metadox Cabal of the Fractal Cult from the Netherlands, including Etcetera Discordia co-conspirator Triple Zero, Fluxcraft engineer Ixxie and an independent discoverer of some of the hidden origins of the Principia Discordia, El Sjaako. I hung out with those characters in the Netherlands, before meeting with academic Christian Greer.
Finally I polished matters off by visiting the house that birthed the real, historical Barvarian Illuminati (said to be the archenemy organization of the Discordian Society). Of course it was number 23!
Right now I'm writing up the trip. Please feel free to look around at the videos and photos I've collected on the trip, as well as mentions in the media, and some links to extra Discordian Material
Also I strongly recommend checking out the Discordian Archives.
Meanwhile, check out the Facebook page, or @ChasingEris on twitter.
If you would like to offer support (for free copies to be given to interview participants, additional research materials, additional travel and so on), none is expected, but all is appreciated.
The original work of Discoridanism, the Principia Discordia has an almost scrapbook like set up, and refuses to explicitly reveal the ‘main idea’ of Discordianism. Apocryphal texts often continue this theme, and as a result there is vast deviation between adherents as to the real meaning of Discordia (or even, if there is one).
Discordianism has had a little known but significant impact on the world. The Principia’s licensing as ‘Copyleft’ was one of the first notable deviations from traditional All Rights Reserved Copyright, and was the conceptual precursor to creative commons. Co-founder Kerry Thornley is also regarded to have been the first to use the term ‘Pagan’ to describe modern American nature religions. Robert Anton Wilson’s and Robert Shea’s explicitly Discordian Illuminatus! trilogy, was responsible for propelling the then lesser known ‘Illuminati’ back into mainstream popular culture.
If you know this, congratulations on your initiation! Proceed without caution! (One of us! One of us! Gooble Garble We Accept You!)
If you're new to the whole thing, you may find some of the following a bit daunting. Discordia is kind of like a spider web, drawn by multiple spiders at the same time, while occasionally eating each other or arguing on the Internet. It looks like a lot of different things, it's been practiced in a lot of different ways, it's been meaningful to people in many different periods of time. The below is a shinkansen ride through the journey I have been through; if you really want to take your time and get a good, clear, detailed look at it all, then by sheer coincidence, you're in luck: I happen to be writing a book that does just that! It's called CHASING ERIS.
THE TRIP
I started in Brisbane, meeting the Fairly Reverend Dr Jon Swabey who compiled the Apocrypha Discordia, and other Discordians from my home city, including an Anarchistic Chaos Magician, a Subgenius, an IT professional who uses his Pope Card to pull rank, and read Discordian tarot for a man who admitted eating a piece of Trinotite while drunk. I was also in Email contact with some people who weren’t real, which you can imagine was rather odd.
I travelled then to America, to Portland OR ‘where young people go to retire’ and was able to meet with the most varied group of Discordians I’ve yet seen, with Adam Gorightly, author of Prankster and the conspiracy, the well known Johnny Brainwash, members of the PeeDee Cabal, Timmy from the House ov Discord, and others from across the USA. I also received some wonderful Money-virus stickers, handmade by a shadowy figure, that have found their way to others all through the Americas.
From there, I met some of the people who knew and loved Greg and Kerry in California, Louise Lacey, Dr Robert Newport (Brother Hypocrates Magoun in the Principia Discordia) and Tantra Bensko, a former housemate of Thornley. I met again with Adam Gorightly who took me through some of the Discordian Archives. I also visited the Brunswick Shrine (the bowling alley where Discordianism allegedly began), and hung with St. Mae and the rest of Das Hive, the Avartar Jones Memorial Cabal, and other wonderful folk at pagan convention PantheaCon, where the blades were peace bonded, the pagans and the bros were equally freaked out by each other, and Discordianism was universally known (though not, perhaps, universally loved).
In Texas I was privileged to share in the hospitality of a crew of Discordian and non-Discordian types, standing on various numbers of legs who offered accomodation, food and friendship. This was such a house of good vibes and love. I learned about how the Secret Service raid on Steve Jackson Games helped inspire the birth of the EFF. I was also able to meet with several members of the House ov Discord; a house of Discordians and Thelemites which hosted such events as a holy book burning, naked pudding wrestling and Hobo Christmas, and Domme Discordia, who spoke to me about absurdism and BDSM. I also met with the members of the band One Eyed Doll.
Down in New Orleans I hitched a ride on the river boat quee… no wait, that’s a song.
I did get to wander through the French Quarter, where Greg and Kerry lived, met some extraordinarily high quality human beings who were also traveling, and saw the Preservation Hall, started up by Barbara Reid, the person who testified against Kerry in the Warren Commission. I also learned more about the early days of Discordia, and of the recent Krewe of Eris parade, where fires were lit, people were jumping on cars, and police batons made liberal contact with Discordian/Anarchist heads. I was also able to get a lift to…
…Memphis, with Gavriel Discordia of the Discordian culture shop, who threw a few more stickers my way and shared some of his stories with me. Then, it was time for Memphis barbecue.
I discussed the great sin of misrepresenting an online community, and becoming a leper of the Internets with ArchBrony Timothy Bowen, and met Autumn, his partner in crime in the Great Jerry Springer Brony Heist, when in Jonesboro Arkansas. Timothy Bowen upset the Brony community by appearing on Jerry Springer to discuss My Little Pony, and found that peace and love weren’t always the priority of other Bronies. He is known for his publication of the Jonesboria Discordia and Voices of Chaos.
The quality of the people who offered an epicness of time and energy to overwhelm me with Southern Hospitality served to ensure that what is widely accepted as one of the worst towns to hang out in in America, was one of my favourite to spend time in, dog bites and all.
In Nashville, author of many true crime novels, and online publisher of Kerry Thornley’s ‘Confession to Conspiracy’ Sondra London showed me around, and took me out to jam with a possie of raggle taggle gypsies, and see a talk about Sherman’s campaign in Atlanta.
In Atlanta I again met some incredible people who offered a great deal of their time and energy. Joel Love and Cy Buck both knew Kerry and talked about their time with him. I visited BDSM Dungeon Studio Eris. I also met the XX3 in Rome, a clan of around seven Discordians. I scoped out Little Five Points and had the extraordinary good fate to be given access to Kerry’s Discordian archives by Groucho Gandhi, and see some of Greg Hill’s rarities, and a great deal of Kerry’s files, offering some new perspective on the man himself. All of which we are very lucky to still have!
In Washington DC Karl Musser, who assisted the Fairly Rev. Dr Jon Swabey in making rare files accessible to the public by photocopying them from the JFK archives, took me around to see some science fiction themed burlesque and the Masonic monument to George Washington.
In New York I was again overwhelmed with hospitality, went to Discordian Church with musical wunderkind Jay Ackley, initiated a new Erisian into the fold with Jay and David, and met with the infamous moustached Professor Cramulus. I was also given the chance to meet some LaRouchans and share with them news of the secret society of Discordians who were busy fighting the illuminati, and visited the alleged birth site of the phrase ’23 Skiddoo’.
I took a plane to Brazil, landing in Rio De Janeiro, and met chaos magicians Fernanda, Kaos Vortek, Rajiphun Maldonado, and Mafagafling. We were further joined by PeeDee Cabal member Mistre, and not-really-a-Discordian Julia Fenderson. Julia Fenderson, Mafagafling, Rajiphun and myself proceeded to witness protests in Lapa. The next day, the whole group met up and performed a Discordian ritual, offering a golden apple to ‘the prettiest girl’ as a tribute to Eris.
In Sao Paulo I met another chaos magician, Alleseyo and Rosicrucian Joao. Alleseyo wrote a Portuguese article about our meeting. I also attended Baixo Centro, an explicitly Copyleft Festival which hosted public arts events without gaining permissions from the authorities, under the conviction that public space is for public use.
I then travelled to Florianopolis to meet with Peterson Silva, university student and contributor to Discordian works Contos Discoridanos and Discordia Brasilias.
I then travelled for a week to Buenos Aires Argentina. Sirrius Mazzu, who translated the Illuminatus trology into Spanish helped me get into contact with a few Discordians, including Kokote Multiversal, of the band Sensacion Tropineal. I also met a pair from Agencia Ouranos, who would dress in bio-hazard suits and gas masks before blindfolding and initiating subjects into Discordia. I also met with Rita, a Discordian skeptic stalked by the supernatural. I also had a little spare time which I used to visit Tierra Santa, one of the world’s only two Christian theme parks.
Again, as with North America, I felt very privileged to have the chance to spend time with such creative, kind and innovative individuals.
I returned home to Australia and worked for a while. But there was still a need to continue.
I traveled to England where I visited London's Theater Archive and scored a whole lot of information about the Illuminatus! play based on the Illuminatus! trilogy by Discordian Robert Anton Wilson. I met members of the PeeDee cabal, including Feminist Discordian Pixie. I also saw James Cauty's new artwork, The Aftermath Dislocation Principle.
Cauty, along with Bill Drummond (who did the odd and critically acclaimed set design for Illuminatus!) together formed the band The KLF, who threw around Illuminatus! references like they were going out of style. The band ultimately quit the music business, dropped a dead sheep outside a music awards after party and proceeded to burn the one million pounds they made in their musical career. I went to the Scottish island of Jura to visit the boathouse in which they burned the money.
I then went further into Scotland, meeting St Syn, without whose Synapaclips Generator publisher, many early Discordian works would probably have been lost to the ever hungry jaws of time. He was also responsible for the lovely, now out of print hardcover Principia.
Ducking back down to England, I saw Daisy Eris and John Higgs present on the topic 'The late, great Robert Anton Wilson'. Daisy is working on a new play of Cosmic Trigger, and John recently wrote a fantastic book on the KLF.
In Ireland I loitered outside the old home of Robert Anton Wilson, met Hagbard Celine who runs the Eris Discordia Society on Facebook, and others.
In Finland I met researchers Hanna Leihten and Essi Makela who have written about Discordianism academically. I visited the giant rubber gorilla of Helsinki, the Pigduck of Turku, a number of other Discordians and got naked with alarming frequency (those Finns and their wacky sauna culture).
In Poland I met a group of Chaos Magicians including Lao Hunluan who is working on a new translation of the Principia into Polish. I met Dariusz Misiuna of Okultura, the biggest occult and alternative publisher in Poland, and chatted to Matragon who wrote the Discordian themed track 'The Sacred Chao'.
In Germany I met with Rev. Schneider, one of the Brazilian Discordians who collaborated on the projects I mentioned from Brazil. I also got to groove into a big meetup with members of Aktion23 and the Nether Metadox Cabal of the Fractal Cult from the Netherlands, including Etcetera Discordia co-conspirator Triple Zero, Fluxcraft engineer Ixxie and an independent discoverer of some of the hidden origins of the Principia Discordia, El Sjaako. I hung out with those characters in the Netherlands, before meeting with academic Christian Greer.
Finally I polished matters off by visiting the house that birthed the real, historical Barvarian Illuminati (said to be the archenemy organization of the Discordian Society). Of course it was number 23!
Right now I'm writing up the trip. Please feel free to look around at the videos and photos I've collected on the trip, as well as mentions in the media, and some links to extra Discordian Material
Also I strongly recommend checking out the Discordian Archives.
Meanwhile, check out the Facebook page, or @ChasingEris on twitter.
If you would like to offer support (for free copies to be given to interview participants, additional research materials, additional travel and so on), none is expected, but all is appreciated.
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