An apparent ASCII computer generated photo from the late-70s or early-80s with Greg Hill and his wife Jeanetta…. Late-70s/Early-80s ASCII portrait of Greg Hill and his wife Jeanetta. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
Antero AlliNot only is this site dedicated to those trail blazing Discordians who put Eris on the map—which is not the territory, btw—but also to those who have carried the torch forward spreading the gospel of Goddess as well as exploring many other of those illuminating landscapes the Early Discordians traversed, including RAW (in cahoots with Tim Leary) and their shared explorations of Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, Life Extension (SMI2LE) and the Eight Circuit Model of Consciousness.
Antero Alli is one such adventurous spirit who has advanced RAW’s work another step (or two) in his books and films, many of these focusing on the Eight Circuit Model, which if you need a primer on you can check out this series of youtube vids.
Somewhere along the way Antero embraced Discordianism, and after becoming a card carrying Discordian Pope he started two new religions of his own: Confusionism and The Church of Fred Mertz.
In the late-70s and early-80s, RAW hosted Discordian salons at his Berkeley hills home that Antero attended along with the likes of Discordian Society founder Greg Hill. At one such salon, Antero recalled Hill whispering to him: “If dogma means absolute belief in anything, then katma probably means relative disbelief in something.”
During this period, the budding young writer Antero mentioned to RAW that he was working on a book concept (Angel Tech, published in 1988) that would take Leary’s theories and put them into practice by creating rituals revolving around the 8 Circuits. Concurrently RAW was working on a similar book that would employ a series of exercises to activate the Circuits (Prometheus Rising, 1984.) Alli has continued to navigate these neural networks with The Eight-Circuit Brain, 2009. Part of Antero’s method of exploring these realms includes a Tarot Deck he began developing in the early 1980s.
When I first got my hands on the Discordian Archives, I came across one such deck—hand drawn by Antero—which he’d apparently given to Greg Hill during one of their Discordian salon encounters, and of course it seemed only right that I should return the deck to Antero, who had all but forgotten about this long ago relic—or that he had even given it to Hill.
Cards 1, 1 ½ and 2 of the Chaos Tarot Deck that Antero Alli gave to Greg Hill. Courtesy of Antero Alli.
Antero and his wife Sylvie have further refined this Tarot Deck concept with The Vertical Oracle comprised of an instructional manual and Tarot Deck “designed to incite creative responses to everyday real life quandaries. The ageless archetypes—Magic, Death, Rebirth, Ritual, Chaos, Hope, Synchronicity—are given a 21st century context for inspiring more meaningful connections between our vertical spiritual sources and the horizontal realms of the out-there material world.”
You can find out more about the always evolving and perpetually prolific Mr. Alli at http://www.verticalpool.com.
Caught in the Crossfire: Kerry Thornley, Lee Oswald and the Garrison Investigation Order The Chaos Now!Feral House just recently released my latest effort involving the Discordian Archives, Caught in the Crossfire: Kerry Thornley, Lee Oswald and the Garrison Investigation (Feral House, Amazon), which features the fine cover art of Robert Preston.
Sometime back, I became facebook friends with Robert and played a role—as I recall—in inspiring his Lone Nut Series, this after seeing some of Robert’s conspiratorially influenced paintings on facebook.
At that time, I floated the idea that he ought to do some “Lone Nut Trading Cards” and from there Robert put his own spin on the theme in a series of paintings recently on display at the Conspiracy Store in San Diego.
Preston's Lone Nut paintings on display at Ron Patton's Conspiracy Store in San Diego, CA.
Earlier this year—as Caught in the Crossfire was in development—I suggested to Feral House publisher Adam Parfrey a front cover concept featuring a photo of Kerry Thornley (from The Tampa Tribune, February 22nd, 1968) where he’s holding his hand by the side of his face like he was either being swore in before the grand jury or, conversely, trying to brush back bothersome journalists buzzing around him like flies after a trying day of testimony.
The Tampa Tribune, February 22, 1968, Garrison Cites Thornley for perjury. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
I suggested to Parfrey that we take this newspaper image and superimpose smaller images of Lee Harvey Oswald and Jim Garrison into the cover concept, as meanwhile thinking in the back of my mind, it’d be cool to have Robert Preston do the artwork—although I didn’t mention this to Parfrey at the time.
Parfrey shortly after emailed me back and asked if I knew Robert Preston and how would I feel about him illustrating the cover(!), which is just the type of synchronicities I always seem to encounter during the course of book projects, and in particular the Discordian related projects I’ve worked on over the years.
Since launching historiadiscordia.com (on JFK Assassination Day last year) we’ve had—upon occasion—some rather eyebrow-raising visitors to the site, among them the Dept. of Justice, not to mention the Church of Scientology, and most recently the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Defense.
We welcome you!
One can only speculate why THEY would be interested in little ol’ us, though I no doubt suspect that certain agencies in our gubmint have long been trying to get a handle on just exactly what Discordianism “is” and to determine if it’s a threat to National Security. (Why anyone would fear a religion based on the worship of the Greek Goddess of Chaos and Discord is beyond me!)
Department of Homeland Security visits to historiadiscordia.com.Department of Homeland Security visits to historiadiscordia.com.
Department of Defense visits to historiadiscordia.com.
As seen in the assembled screen shots—which were captured during a couple of the DHS and DOD visits—at one point THEY hit the Illuminati tag, a Discordian connection that dates back to the glory days of Operation Mindfuck (OM) when Kerry Thornley—in cahoots with his other Discordian miscreants—cooked up the modern day Bavarian Illuminati (The World’s Oldest And Most Successful Conspiracy).
Another fine example of OM courtesy of Ho Chi Zen (aka Kerry Thornley). Letter to John M. Fisher of the American Security Council Foundation, dated August 8, 1970. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
Discordianism—as Erisian history instructs—has enjoyed a long association with the Illuminati (which may secretly run the U.S. Government!) as well as certain other Governmental branches (because we all know where “true” chaos comes from!) among them the military, and in particular the Pentagon which is incorporated into the Sacred Chao, that most holiest of all Discordianism symbols.
Original printing of the Sacred Chao which served as a frontispiece to the 1st ed. Principia Discordia. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
The Sacred Chao is a twist of sorts on Taoism’s Yin and Yang, depicting as it does the opposing forces of The Pentagon and The Golden Apple, also known in Discordianism as the Hodge and Podge. The Pentagon—according to Discordian mythos—represents the Aneristic Principle (Apparent Order) in counterbalance to The Golden Apple, which represents The Eristic Principle (Apparent Disorder.) To find out more about all this you will have to consult your pineal gland and call me when the brain swelling goes down.
The 1st edition Principia Discordia lists several Orders of Eris, one of which is the Knights of the Five Sided Temple, “a movement that is specifically Anti-Discordian. Such people are almost invariably found to be either bureaucrats or militarists (frequently both). The Five Sided Temple referred to is The Pentagon Bldg. itself where there is an incredible concentration of Knights. In your own experiences with military service and bureaucracies, you will notice many people with a heavy tendency towards the Eristesque Principle, but every so once in awhile you will find a person who is absolutely wound up in all sorts of fantastic and technical formal order which due to its own weight ends up only in a comical-absurd cross-reference maze of nothing; and such a person who lives, thinks and breathes in such terms—he is a Knight.”
Knights of the Five Sided Temple illustration by Greg Hill from the 1st ed. Principia Discordia. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
As you can see, Discordianism has long been connected to the Pentagon, which some may also find confusing, because many people considered those old school Discordians just a bunch of long haired pot smoking no-good hippie types—which of course many of them were!—so the Discordian Society’s apparent veneration the Five Sided Temple might appear a bit perplexing to some. However, all of these five-sided Discordian endeavors were simply a means to demonstrate the dichotomy found in Discordianism—the Aneristic vs. Eristic principles—which is not unlike the ol’ good vs. evil dualism of Christianity, because without one you couldn’t have the other. (Maybe.)
If you’d like to find out more about the hidden history of Discordianism, Illuminism and its sinister connections to not only the U.S. Government, but all governments of the world, I would encourage you (and THEM) to pick up a copy of Historia Discordia: The Origins of the Discordian Society while copies last!
On page 274, a “grinning young man with a Frisco-style Jesus Christ hair-and-beard” welcomes Joe Malik and Simon Moon to the Joshua Norton Cabal located at “a normal but untypically clean hippie hangout” which perfectly describes Greg Hill and his San Fran abode during that late-60s period chronicled in Illuminatus! (Amazon).
Greg Hill pictured at his 'normal but untypically clean hippie hangout' with Sister Deacon Iona K. Fioderovna and her daughter, Nancy. Joshua Norton Cabal missive, dated May 23, 1970, announcing the disappearance of Malaclypse the Younger. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
On page 275 the character of Doc Iggy (short for Dr. Ignotum P. Ignotius) is formerly introduced. Doc Iggy—according to Discordian lore—was the successor of Malaclypse the Younger (aka Mal-2), Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold (OPVIG)—both of course being alter egos of Greg Hill, as documented in the following pronouncement dated Syaday 3136 (May 23, 1970).
As for the Joshua Norton Cabal, Greg Hill once described it this thusly:
“The 1969 Discordian Society was an exchange between independent artists of various kinds. Norton Cabal was just me and my characters and I used the other cabals as sort of a laboratory. In return, other Discordians would bounce their stuff off of me. We would toss in ideas and anybody could take anything out. It was a concept stew. Principia was my product from my perspective. Thornley, and Wilson and Shea, had other perspectives, which had substantial influence on me. It was mutual, but without the exchange each would have done something similar anyway. The exchanging of ideas and techniques broadened and encouraged all of us.”
As noted on Page 276, Emperor Joshua Norton—although a pauper—issued his own currency which some considered a joke but was just the same accepted by many businesses in old San Fran. To this end, Wilson and Shea mention a couple of anarchists—William Green and Lysander Spooner—who also tried to establish their own respective currencies but were put down by The Man.
Emperor Norton's currency.
It was in this spirit that the early Discordians came up with their own alternate currency (flaxscript) as outlined in this “statement of policy” that Greg Hill—still in his incarnation of Malaclypse the Younger—drew up in 3135 (1969).
Courtesy of the Discordian Archives. Please do not widely distribute this information. One Ton of Flax issued by Malaclypse the Younger.
One Ton of Flax issued by Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst.
On page 282, the Yin Revolution is mentioned in passing, which happened to be a phrase and conceptual framework that Kerry Thornley was tinkering around with in the late-60s/early-70s as found in this article from 1970 by Chairman Lao (aka Kerry Thornley) on “Yin Revolution.”
Kerry Thornley, Says the Chairman, dated December 1970. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
Here’s a rough pencil sketch by Greg Hill from the late-60s depicting the Discordian Sacred Chao in a swirling vortex of fire!
Greg Hill sketch of an early version of the Sacred Chao, late 1960s. Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
Since launching historiadiscordia.com (on JFK Assassination Day last year) we’ve had—upon occasion—some rather eyebrow-raising visitors to the site, among them the Dept. of Justice, not to mention the Church of Scientology, and most recently the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Defense.
If you’d like to find out more about the hidden history of Discordianism, Illuminism and its sinister connections to not only the U.S. Government, but all governments of the world, I would encourage you (and THEM) to pick up a copy of Historia Discordia: The Origins of the Discordian Society while copies last!
