The Erisian School of Zen Warlockry
(of the House of St. Francis)
Under the guidance of Kelleigh Boru Tzu, KSC, EZW, S.I.T.
Under the guidance of Kelleigh Boru Tzu, KSC, EZW, S.I.T.
There are many approaches to Erisian Enlightenment. Many are fond of the raw absurdity of existence. Others enforce a sub-rule of nonsense in a rigid society. Both are good methods; both lead to an increased knowledge of disorder, and a lessened trust in law. But though a student can expand his perceptions to encompass other possible frames of being by these methods, the student will be extraordinarily lucky if he or she pieces together the larger picture of reality, which is Chaos.[ see also "Five Blind Men & An Elephant" in the Apocrypha Discordia. - F"T"M ]
How then can a Discordian figure it all out, assuming he or she is so inclined? If denial of the "Curse of Greyface" isn't enough, what more is required? Aren't we out of our mental cages? Doesn't Eris make us Free? The answer, in most cases, is an unfortunate "No."
Eris doesn't make anyone free. Freedom simply is. It is a thing you are born with, more native than your first breath. Eris doesn't make you free, but she can point the way out of the prison most people are happy to be in, the prison most people don't realize is a prison. The choice to leave is up to each individual.
Once free, most people will hunt for another prison without realizing they do so. The vast plain between order and disorder is too daunting for most people the first time they walk on it. There are too many options. It is hard to understand what is happening. Disorder is more easily handled as a joke told in the familiar confines of a well-order cage. This is where most Discordians are. Unlike many, they have had their first experience with Chaos, with a state of mind that recognizes a grander kind of freedom than any Constitution offers. And having had their glance, they return to order and society.
I do not blame them. Freedom is one of the most terrifying things.
There is a riddle, referred to as a Zen riddle by some, about a goose in a bottle. A gosling is placed inside a bottle while it is still very young, and its keeper feeds it regularly, keeps it clean and healthy, but lets it live and grow entirely inside the bottle. Eventually the goose become too large to fit through the neck of the bottle. How does the keeper get the goose out without breaking the bottle? Goose In The Bottle
He does nothing.
When the goose is ready, it will peck its own way through the glass, the same as it did its shell. This is how we of the Erisian School of Zen Warlockry seek Enlightenment. From the time we are very small, all people are trapped within the bounds of society. We live and grow, but we are fed things that will keep us small - our keeper, Aneris, Greyface, or whoever, wants to keep us kept. You can consider Discordianism a change of diet.
As I said, many Discordians barely touch on the reality of Chaos (even though a touch is a great deal more than most people will seek.) They glimpse a vision and flee from it, and spend a long time afterwards trying to reclaim it. They cheat the keeper, and somehow jump out of the bottle still small, and then cheat themselves, and jump back in. While in this "Bottle of Thud", if you will, they might very well write webpages, contribute to new editions of the Principia, or go insane. But they have not escaped the Bottle. They have not escaped their mental cage for good.
Neither have we.
We have escaped on many occassions, and fled "home." We have had the epiphanies promised by the pineal gland. We have talked to Eris. But we too always come back. Escape is no longer the goal. That is not how the riddle ends. We seek to grow, like the goose, until we can destroy the bottle from within. To dissolve the prison through self-knowledge and altered thought. To step calmly into the plain of true Chaos, true freedom, where order and disorder are balanced, and no longer frightening.
And we will do it, if for no other reason than because we can. Everyone can.
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