New article on Kerry Thornley, Oswald and Eris (the planet)

A Hubble Space Telescope photo of Eris. Public domain photo. 

About ten years ago, I did a brief blog post about the solar system's dwarf planet, Eris, and the astronomer who named it, noting the scientist's apparently Discordian background. 

A new article, "Kerry Thornley: Dwarf Planet Eris, Discordianism and the John F. Kennedy Assassination," by Alden Loveshade, goes over the Discordian history that will be familiar to some of you. The naming of the dwarf planet Eris is what I know the least about, so I was most interested in that part of the story, and would like to know more. I guess I need to get around to reading astronomer Mike Brown's book, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.

There isn't a good photo of the planet Eris available yet apparently; I've shared what's shown at the Wikipedia article.  The story of the goddess Eris and her role in starting the Trojan War, wielding a golden apple because she didn't get invited to an important social event, is told in Illuminatus!.

Hat tip: William H. Stoddard, president of the Libertarian Futurist Society, the folks who give out the Prometheus Award. 

'All Hail the Goddess Eris'

Eris on an Attic plate, ca. 575–525 BC

An explanation of Discordianism from Robert Anton Wilson, published in Gnostica in 1974 and made available to us today by Martin Wagner. 

"It will be understood by the Cabalistic reader that Discordianism is a system of transcendental Atheism, agnostic Gnosticism, skeptical Monotheism, and unified Dualism. In short, the Erisian revelation is not a complicated put-on disguised as a new religion, but a new religion disguised as a complicated put-on."

New Yorker 'Eris' headline

Adam Gorightly confesses that he missed the above headline when it first appeared, and I have to admit the same thing. More from Adam here at the excellent Historia Discordia. 

New Eris of the month

Adam Gorightly's new Eris of the Month at Historia Discordia is by Kerry Thornley! More information. 

New 'Eris of the Month'

Although I usually post an illustration here, this time I'll just suggest you go over to Adam Gorightly's Historia Discordia and look at the Eris of the Month. 

A green Eris

Adam Gorightly's latest Eris of the Month (pictured) is a mash-up of Eris and Pepe the Frog; the latter is apparently some kind of symbol of the alt-right.

"I immediately screen-capped this Eris/Pepe mash-up because you know how these things have a tendency to disappear. This turned out to be a wise move because shortly afterwards our Green Skinned Lady of the Golden Apple was deleted for some reason," Adam explains.

If you are confused about Pepe and how he/it kind of relates to Discordianism and Operation Mindfuck techniques, Adams has the full rundown. Also, you get to learn how to write "Hail Eris!" in Russian! 

Steve Bellitt's Eris

The Eris of the Month this month at Historia Discordia is from artist, comics guy and RAW fan Steve Bellitt.

I'm inviting you to go over there and look at it, so I'm not posting the piece here. Instead, I've nicked a drawing I liked that Steve did to direct people from his blog to his Twitter account. 

Latest 'Eris of the Month'

Over at Historia Discordia, Adam Gorightly has a particularly good piece of art (which I've nicked, above) for  his "Eris of the Month" feature. "Eris Provocateur" is by Mylene Cagnoli.

More on Cagnoli here. And here is Adam's Eris archive.  

News from the holy land of southern California

Eris by Michele Witchipoo, which launched the Eris of the Month feature at Historia Discordia.

Muslims have Mecca, Christians have Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Jews have the Holy Land, and Discordians have the Brunswick Shrine in Whittier, Calif., in Los Angeles County, sacred to the memory of Richard Nixon and the goddess Eris. The shrine is the bowling alley where Eris appeared to the two co-founders of Discordianism, Kerry Thornley and Gregory Hill.

The Herodotus of Discordianism, Adam Gorightly, has now completed three articles on the "Tales of the Brunswick Shrine," which you can now peruse (here is one, here is two and here is three.) The new entry, posted on Jan. 8, focuses on  the movie "The Big Lebowski."

The golden apple, in "Ulysses"

I've been re-reading Ulysses by James Joyce, as I've previously mentioned. I have yet to get to the halfway point. It's not a fast read, and I'm determined to have some idea of what's going on this time, so I'm trying to read it carefully.

But when I read ahead a little bit, by looking at a passage analyzed in my college English lit textbook, I discovered something that surprised me, in the sense that I would have thought a RAW fan would have mentioned to me before: The golden apple of discord of the goddess Eris is mentioned in passing. It's in the "Nausicaa" episode, the one that features Leopold Bloom ogling Gerty MacDowell:

But just then there was a slight altercation between Master Tommy and Master Jacky. Boys will be boys and our two twins were no exception to this golden rule. The apple of discord was a certain castle of sand which Master Jacky had built and Master Tommy would have it right go wrong that it was to be architecturally improved by a frontdoor like the Martello tower had. But if Master Tommy was headstrong Master Jacky was selfwilled too and, true to the maxim that every little Irishman's house is his castle, he fell upon his hated rival and to such purpose that the wouldbe assailant came to grief and (alas to relate!) the coveted castle too. Needless to say the cries of discomfited Master Tommy drew the attention of the girl friends.

Of course the "apple of discord" refers to the apple Eris, e.g. Discordia,  wielded to set off a series of events that led up to the Trojan War. Odysseus (e.g. Ulysses) brought the war to an end with his wooden horse scheme for getting inside the city.

When I searched for "apple" in an online version of Ulysses, I got 24 hits — the "apple of discord" and 23 others. Make of that what you will.

A mysterious Bible verse

Over at Overweening Generalist, Michael Johnson riffs on an interesting verse from the Bible, and posts a really good picture of Eris.

Also, PQ puts together quotes from Robert Anton Wilson, Euripides and Robert Ingersoll and recommends a book discussion group.  Thanks, PQ!

Hail Eris!

Here's a photo of a statue of the goddess Eris, clutching her golden apple. The Rev. Dr. Narot (@narot23 on Twitter) tells me it's a photo of a statue at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. I don't have any other information. Original link here.