Young Omar became involved with the vagaries and intricacies of the Lady Eris, but he was perhaps the first person, at least in the United States, to use the word Pagan to describe past and present nature religions. Some have actually alleged that entire Neo-Pagan movement is an Erisian Plot (see Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's ILLUMINATUS) .... “ (pp. 276-77)

“In a way, it's ridiculous to even talk seriously about the Erisians, a group, or collection of groups, that has called itself a 'Non-prophet Irreligious Disorganization' that is 'dedicated to an advanced understanding of the para-physical manifestation of Everyday Chaos,' and at other times has stated, 'The Erisian revelation is not a complicated put-on disguised as a new religion, but a new religion disguised as a complicated put-on.'

“The Discordian Society was founded (if one can call it that) in 1957 (or 1958 -- even this primary confusion has never been cleared up) by Greg Hill (Malaclypse the Younger) and Kerry Thornley (Omar Ravenhurst) .... Omar Ravenhurst went on to form his own Erisian organization, the Erisian Liberation Front (ELF) ....” (pp. 304-5)

Other Erisian cabals formed. At one point there were rumoured to be more than twenty, although some may have had a membership of only one. Since radical decentralization is a Discordian principle, it is impossible to know how many Discordians there were and are, or what they are doing. Most of these cabals engaged in various non-violent, absurdist, revolutionary, magical and surrealist endeavours. A number of these 'actions' were done under the name of the supposed 'Bavarian Illuminati,' a rather mysterious organization founded by Adam Weishaupt in 1776. The Erisian 'Illuminati' has mostly been the inspirations of someone known as Thomas the Gnostic. Similar actions were initiated by ELF. Omar Ravenhurst, for example, invented a Do-It-Yourself Conspiracy Kit, complete with assortments of stationery bearing dubious letterheads....

“Eris is an authentic goddess. Furthermore, she is an old one. In the beginning I was myself as Malaclypse the Younger. But if you do this type of thing well enough, it starts to work”.... I asked Malaclypse, “What's Omar Ravenhurst doing these days?” He said, “Ravenhurst has recently been in a state of extreme discord.” We were talking about Eris and confusion and he said, “You know, if I had realized that all of this was going to come TRUE, I would have chosen Venus!” -- Margot Adler, DRAWING DOWN THE MOON (pp. 308-312)

c 1986 Kerry W. Thornley(a.k.a. Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, co-rediscoverer of Discordianism)

from: KULTCHA magazine, issue #20