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„I have come to tell you that you are free. Many ages ago, My consciousness left humanity, that they might develop themselves. I return to find this development approaching completion, but hindered by fear and by misunderstanding. You have built for yourselves psychic suits of armor, and clad in them, your vision is restricted, your movements are clumsy and painful, your skin is bruised, and your spirit is broiled in the sun. I am chaos. I am the substance from which your artists and scientists build rhythms. I am the spirit with which your children and clowns laugh in happy anarchy. I am chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are free.“
To Eris worshippers, this is as evocative to us as the Charge of the Goddess is to Wiccans. With a charge so powerful, one can probably glimpse why anyone would become a Discordian.
Discordians focus on disorder, which is symbolized by the golden apple with kallisti written on it, as a corrective for society's emphasis on order. But we don't forget that since chaos underlies everything then order is also an expression of chaos. Our symbol for that order is a pentagon. The two symbols placed within a yin-yang type background make up what we call the Sacred Chao [kao or 'cow']. The Sacred Chao symbolizes the necessity of both order and disorder as expressions of creativity. When in balance, we call it the Hodge-Podge.
„To choose order over disorder, or disorder over order, is to accept a path composed of both the creative and the destructive. But to choose the creative over the destructive is an all-creative path composed of both order and disorder. To accomplish this, one need only accept creative disorder along with, and equal to, creative order, and also be willing to reject destructive order as an undesirable equal to destructive disorder.“ (PD)
Those Eris worshippers who have their own profound experiences with Eris, either through revelations, visions, or divine inspiration, take the letters KSC after their names to signify „Keeper of the Sacred Chao. “ KSC's sail the seas of chaotic thoughts, magic's and emotions while providing illumination to their fellow Discordians, if they wish. They are Eris's special group of crazy adherents. KSC's are often the catalysts of cabals and many happen to be the sort of people who can practice Discordian magic and get results. They also tend to be more esoteric and steeped in 'chaosophy' than most, but communion with Eris will do that.
There is also the widespread notion of the five stages, which is another expression of the ubiquitous 'law of fives' in Discordian thought. This idea is much like the 'aeonics' idea expressed within Chaos Magic (and they probably got the idea from us). The five stages are used to help understand and explain socio-historical developments. The First stage is Chaos, in which everything is in its natural state. Order and disorder are in dynamic balance. Organization occurs naturally. Authoritarian people hate this stage. It is like Hegel's thesis. It is the start and finish of every society. (Corresponding deity = Eris. ) The second stage is Discord, which starts with the appearance of ruling classes and governance. Authority becomes the main organizer of systems and of beliefs. It is Hegel's antithesis. The underclasses discover that its interests are not the same as the rulers. Society is thus divided. The third stage is Confusion, in which some attempt is made to restore balance or achieve a synthesis. It is an attempt to restore nature through unnatural means. Intuition is mistrusted. People try to break free of authoritarian ideas by using those same ideas. Every revolution becomes a mirror of what it overthrows. The forth stage is Bureaucracy, what we call the 'parenthesis' that Hegel missed, in which the synthesis does not reconcile the opposites. Society is exhausted, while appearing to be thriving. Ideas and rules have become more important than the people who create them. Superior people are ruled by idiocy. The fifth stage is the Aftermath, and represents the drift back to chaos. It is a transitional period where many people, in desperation or hope, turn to intuition and magic in order to rediscover their natures. Bureaucracy has collapsed under its own weight of intellectual ideas and 'paperwork'. Each one of these stages also has correspondences with deities, tarot cards, planets, the zodiac, elements, and more. They would be too numerous to list here. But anyone can find them in the PD or in the Illuminatus! Trilogy.
Some Discordian practices include the universalization of pope-hood - every now and then declaring that every human being is an authentic pope. (We also have mome-hood for those who want that. ) Discordians often like to canonize themselves and others, and you will find many saint names among us. When cabals gather for ritual, the only thing that can be assured is that all traditions are fair game and will be used in humorous ways. The
