Principia Discordia

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The Loompanics "Yellow Cover" combined 4th & 5th Edition Principia Discordia, (1979). In print until the company went out of business in 2006.
The Loompanics "Yellow Cover" combined 4th & 5th Edition Principia Discordia, (1979). In print until the company went out of business in 2006.

Principia Discordia is a Discordian religious text written by Greg Hill (Malaclypse The Younger) and Kerry Thornley (Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst). It was originally published under the title "Principia Discordia or How The West Was Lost" in a limited edition of 5 copies in 1965. The name, meaning "The Principles of Strife", deviates from correct Latin which would read Principia Discordiæ.

The Principia describes the Discordian Society and its Goddess Eris, as well as the basics of the POEE denomination of Discordianism. It features typewritten and handwritten text intermixed with clip art, stamps, and seals appropriated from other sources, possibly in violation of copyright laws.

While the Principia is full of literal contradictions and unusual humor, it contains several passages which propose that there is serious intent behind the work, for example a message scrawled on page 00075: "If you think the PRINCIPIA is just a ha-ha, then go read it again."

The Principia is quoted extensively in and shares many themes with the science fiction book The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. While Wilson was not directly involved in writing the Principia, both the letter signed "Mad Malik" and the stamps used were his.

Notable symbols in the book include the Apple of Discord, the pentagon, and the "Sacred Chao", which resembles the Taijitu of Taoism, but the two principles depicted are "Hodge" and "Podge" rather than yin and yang, and they are represented by the apple and the pentagon, and not by dots. Saints identified include Emperor Norton, Yossarian, Don Quixote, and Bokonon. The Principia also introduces the mysterious word fnord, later popularized in The Illuminatus! Trilogy; the trilogy itself is mentioned in the afterword to the Loompanics edition, and in the various introductions to the fifth editions.

Contents

[edit] History

The full title of the fourth and most well-known edition is Principia Discordia or How I Found Goddess And What I Did To Her When I Found Her: The Magnum Opiate Of Malaclypse The Younger, Wherein is Explained Absolutely Everything Worth Knowing About Absolutely Anything.

Included on page 00075 is the following note about the history of the Principia:

This being the 4th Edition, March 1970, San Francisco; a revision of the 3rd Edition of 500 copies, whomped together in Tampa 1969; which revised the 2nd Edition of 100 copies from Los Angeles 1969; which was a revision of PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA or HOW THE WEST WAS LOST published in New Orleans in 1965 in five copies, which were mostly lost.

Additionally, the "contents of this edition" note in the Loompanics edition identifies the fourth edition as having originally been published by Rip Off Press of San Francisco, California.

A "Fifth Edition" consisting of a single Western Union telegram page filled with the letter M was published as an appendix to the Loompanics and SJ Games re-printings of the 4th Edition.

In 1978, a copy of a work from Kerry Thornley titled "THE PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA or HOW THE WEST WAS LOST" was placed in the HSCA JFK collections as document 010857[1]. A scan of this document has been identified as the first edition and uploaded to 23ae.com. The record identifier can be found by searching for Thornley and Discordian on nara.gov.

The Principia includes a notice which purports to disclaim any copyright in relation to the work: "Ⓚ All Rites Reversed - reprint what you like." Regardless of the legal effect of this notice, the Principia has been widely disseminated in the public domain via the Internet and more traditional print publishers. Some re-publishers have claimed copyright in relation to the additional material included in their editions.

Known reprintings of the Fourth and Fifth Editions:

NARA Cover sheet for First Edition

"Yellow cover"
Loompanics Unltd, 1979

"Pink" or "Purple cover"
IllumiNet Press, 1991

"Black cover"
SJ Games, 1994

Discordia: Hail Eris Goddess of Chaos and Confusion
Ronin Press, 2006

"Snake cover"
Synaptyclypse Generator, 2007

[edit] Discordian Works

See also: The Illuminatus! Trilogy, Illuminati (game), and Illuminati: New World Order

On May 5, 2005 (5/5/5), role-playing game author John Wick published Discordia!: A Little Game about a Lot of Chaos under his Wicked Dead Brewing Company banner. Wick credits the game's inspiration to the Principia Discordia and The Illuminatus! Trilogy. The game features the players as "Discordian Double Agents" infiltrating various conspiracy groups such as the Bavarian Illuminati, the Hashashin, and others.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] Online versions

The Principia Discordia is widely available on the Web from these and other sources:

[edit] Translations

The following links lead to foreign language translations of the Principia. Note that at present the Polish edition appears to be a work in process.

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Discordian Religion
People
Organizations and Titles
Symbols and Mythological Personas
Foundations