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THE BIRTH OF THE ERISIAN MOVEMENT:      10.  The Earth quakes and the
THE REVELATION                          Heavens rattle; the beasts of
                                        nature flock together and the
                                        beasts of men flock apart;
                                        volcanoes usher up heat while
                                        elsewhere water becomes ice and
                                        melts; and then on other days
                                        it just rains.
                                        11.  Indeed to many things come
                                        to pass.

Just prior to the decade of the nineteen-sixties, when Sputnik was
alone and new, and about the time that Ken Kesey took his first acid
trip as a medical volunteer; before underground newspapers, Viet Nam,
and talk of a second American Revolution; in the comparative quiet of
the late nineteen-fifties, just before the idea of RENAISSANCE became
relevant . . .

    Two young Californians, known later as Omar Ravenhurst and
Malaclypse the Younger, were indulging in their habit of sipping
coffee at an all-night bowling alley and generally solving the world's
problems.  This particular evening the main subject of discussion was
discord and they were complaining to each other of the personal
confusion they felt in their respective lives.  "Solve the problem of
discord," said one, "and all other problems will vanish."  "Indeed,"
said the other, "chaos and strife are the roots of all confusion."

                     ...First I must sprinkle you
                          with fairy dust...

    SUDDENLY THE PLACE BECAME DEVOID OF LIGHT.  THEN AN UTTER SILENCE
ENVELOPED THEM, AND A GREAT STILLNESS WAS FELT.  THEN CAME A BLINDING
FLASH OF INTENSE LIGHT, AS THOUGH THEIR VERY PSYCHES HAD GONE NOVA. 
THEN VISION RETURNED.

    The two were dazed and neither moved nor spoke for several
minutes.  They looked around and saw that the bowlers were frozen like
statues in a variety of comic positions, and that a bowling ball was
steadfastly anchored to the floor only inches from the pins that it
had been sent to scatter.  The two looked at each other, totally
unable to account for the phenomenon.  The condition was one of
suspension, and one noticed that the clock had stopped.

                       ...NEW STORY OF CHAOS...

                                      no girdle ever cured a pregnancy

    THERE WALKED INTO THE ROOM A CHIMPANZEE, SHAGGY AND GREY ABOUT THE
MUZZLE, YET UPRIGHT TO HIS FULL FIVE FEET, AND POISED WITH NATURAL
MAJESTY.  HE CARRIED A SCROLL AND WALKED TO THE YOUNG MEN.

    "GENTLEMEN," HE SAID, "WHY DOES PICKERING'S MOON GO ABOUT IN
REVERSE ORBIT?  GENTLEMEN, THERE ARE NIPPLES ON YOUR CHESTS; DO YOU
GIVE MILK?  AND WHAT, PRAY TELL, GENTLEMEN, IS TO BE DONE ABOUT
HEISENBERG'S LAW?"  HE PAUSED.  "_SOMEBODY HAD TO PUT ALL OF THIS
CONFUSION HERE!_"

    AND WITH THAT HE REVEALED HIS SCROLL.  IT WAS A DIAGRAM, LIKE A
YIN-YANG WITH A PENTAGON ON ONE SIDE AND AN APPLE ON THE OTHER.  AND
THEN HE EXPLODED AND THE TWO LOST CONSCIOUSNESS.


THE BIRTH OF THE ERISIAN MOVEMENT:
ERIS -- GODDESS OF CHAOS, DISCORD, & CONFUSION

They awoke to find the sound of pins clattering, and found the bowlers
engaged in their game and the waitress busy with making coffee.  It
was apparent that their experience had been private.

    They discussed their strange encounter and reconstructed from
memory the chimpanzee's diagram.  Over the next five days they
searched libraries to find the significance of it, but were
disappointed to uncover only references to Taoism, the Korean flag,
and Technocracy.  It was not until they traced the Greek writing on
the apple that they discovered the ancient Goddess known to the Greeks
as ERIS and to the Romans as DISCORDIA.  This was on the fifth night,
and when they slept that night each had a vivid dream of a splendid
woman whose eyes were as soft as feather and as deep as eternity
itself, and whose body was the spectacular dance of atoms and
universes.  Pyrotechnics of pure energy formed her flowing hair, and
rainbows manifested and dissolved as she spoke in a warm and gentle
voice:

         I have come to tell you that you are free.  Many ages ago, My
    consciousness left man, that he might develop himself.  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.

    During the next months they studied philosophies and theologies,
and learned that ERIS or DISCORDIA was primarily feared by the
ancients as being disruptive.  Indeed, the very concept of chaos was
still considered equivalent to strife and treated as a negative.  "No
wonder things are all screwed up," they concluded, "they have got it
all backwards."  They found that the principle of disorder was every
much as significant as the principle of order.

    With this in mind, they studied the strange yin-yang.  During a
meditation one afternoon, a voice came to them:

    IT IS CALLED _THE SACRED CHAO._  I APPOINT YOU KEEPERS OF IT. 
THEREIN YOU WILL FIND ANYTHING YOU LIKE.  SPEAK OF ME AS _DISCORD,_ TO
SHOW CONTRAST TO THE PENTAGON.  TELL CONSTRICTED MANKIND THAT THERE
ARE NO RULES, UNLESS THEY CHOOSE TO INVENT RULES.  KEEP CLOSE TO THE
WORDS OF SYADASTI:  "'TIS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO MINDS."  AND
REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO TYRANNY IN THE STATE OF CONFUSION.  FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION, CONSULT YOUR PINEAL GLAND.

"There are trivial truths & there
are great truths.  The opposite of
a trivial truth is plainly false.                      "I hear music!"
The opposite of a great truth is
also true."  -- Neils Bohr

    "What is this?" mumbled one to the other, "a religion based on the
Goddess of Confusion?  It is utter madness!"

    And with those words, each looked at the other in absolute awe. 
Omar began to giggle.  Mal began to laugh.  Omar began jumping up and
down.  Mal was hooting and hollering to beat all hell.  And amid
squeals of mirth and with tears on their cheeks, each appointed the
other to be high priest of his own madness, and together they declared
themselves to be a Society of Discordia, for whatever that may turn
out to be.

"Did you know that there is a million   [Illustration:  an ostrich
    bucks hidden in the house next      with its head buried in the
    door?"                              ground.  A balloon from the
"But there is no house next door."      hole reads, "WOW!"]
"No?  Then let's go build one!"
                                -- Marx         All things are perfect
                                                To every last flaw
                                                And bound in accord
                                                With Eris' law.
                                        -- HBT; The Book of Advice 1:7


                           FNORDS -> FNORD,
                      FNORD, FNORD, FNORD, FNORD,
                      FNORD, FNORD, FNORD, FNORD,
                        FNORD, FN-O-RD, FNORD,
                               FNORD...

            Momomoto, famous Japanese, can swallow his nose