Angela Puca AP: What is Discordianism and what role does Magick play in it? Is it a form of Paganism and what are their religious beliefs? Stay tuned if you want to find out.

Hello everyone I’m Angela and welcome back to my channel your online resource for the academic study of Magick and Magick practising religions and traditions. In this video, we will talk about Discordianism and we will do it with our special guest Essi Mäkelä. Essi is a PhD candidate at the University of Helsinki. She has written her master’s thesis on Finnish Discordianism as a liquefying religiosity. Her research interests cover fields of Paganism, discourses around religion and the relationship between religion and humour. Essi is also currently chair of the Eristic Association in Turku.

In this interview, we will be covering what is Discordianism? The cosmology in Discordianism. What is the Discordant philosophy? And how Discordianism is organized as a religion? And we will also touch on whether Discordianism can be seen as a form of Paganism and what role does Magick play in this tradition. So check the infobox because I will leave the timestamps. Help me in welcoming Essi. Hello Essi, how are you today?

Essi Mäkelä EM: Thanks. I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m surviving. How are you?

AP: I’m surviving.

EM: I guess that’s the best you can do these days.

AP: Yeah, that’s that’s quite true, but at least we’re here to entertain you with a knowledgeable, a doctoral researcher who is going to talk to us about Discordianism. So you will be the one entertaining and educating us. and yeah, edu-entertaining us. Okay maybe. I swear this is not alcohol.

EM: Okay, whatever. I mean it’s your show.

AP: Yeah, so let’s start by giving an overview of Discordianism. So my first question, Essi, is what is Discordianism? Can you give us an overview of what it is when it started?

EM: Sure. Well, Discordianism is a movement that started in the 1950s in California. Some students basically hung around at the bowling alleys and drank beer and talked about philosophy. And then they came up with an idea that would be basically one of the silliest things that human beings could worship and they came up with a religion worshipping the Goddess of Chaos and the Greeks actually had a name for this Goddess and that’s Eris and from the Roman mythology it’s Discordia and basically they then started to create, design papers with some like, well a lot of like collage artistic material texts and funny pictures and ended up with a hundred-page long book called “Principia Discordia,” I actually have a version of it here. This is one cover of “Principia Discordia” and that was created from it and basically, the idea is to question the rigid ideologies that people are brought up with.

I actually, yesterday, talked with one of the guys who has created Discordianims and he said that it was a joke in the beginning but then it evolved into something deeper. And of course, because back in the 50s everything in America was supposed to be great like everything was good if it was American. So you couldn’t question it and that’s basically the idea where it started from. And also the war in Vietnam affected it and everything and it’s a very… I think Discordianism is very much of a child of its time because of kind of questioning the roles that you’re supposed to have based on your gender or that, if you’re American, you’re supposed to be Christian and so forth and that’s where it started basically.

AP: That’s interesting. So basically it started as a way of challenging the status quo religiously and even culturally to a certain degree.

EM: Yeah and the people who were doing it were actually doing quite a lot of like protesting, like peaceful protesting and demonstrations against and for their causes and then against the causes that they felt that we’re oppressing them. For example, making people go to Vietnam and keeping up the war and then questioning all kinds of conspiracies that were circling around back then especially when JFK was murdered there was a lot of stuff going on about it and that was picked up by these guys for many reasons but yeah. It’s like an activist thing as much as, I guess, it’s an artistic and religious practice.

AP: So does it mean that this Discordianism somehow combines both like… I mean protesting against the religious establishment but also the political establishment?

EM: Sure, yeah and it’s not just protesting but that’s, I guess, where it gets it fuel, that you know what is wrong and you know what you want to steer away from and then you create your own kind of ideology or religiosity and basically Discordianism, the ideas behind Discordianism and one of them is that you’re supposed to think for yourself, whatever that means. But then it’s also, like… now I’m losing my thought. But yeah, it’s also making like science and art and using that as a basis of finding your own world, I guess, finding your own definitions and finding your own reality and yeah, there maybe I will go into the details later.

AP: Yes, yeah, because now I’m going to ask you about the cosmology in Discordianism. How the world is constructed. How Discordians believe the world has been made or is made.

EM: Yeah, so, basically, in the “Principia Discordia” there is a story which tells that the so-called ‘counter-push-pull of Hodge and Podge’ is the one that keeps everything in balance. So when that counter-push-pull, as they say, is pushed towards Hodge and then towards Podge then that created the five seasons or Eras of Discordianism and those are after the primal chaos, there is Discord, then there’s Confusion where Eris the Goddess was born and then there’s Bureaucracy where Eris became established and from hence she was called Discordia and after Bureaucracy there comes the Aftermath which is brought by the shortage of paper that ends Bureaucracy, basically.

And well, I mentioned already the goddess Eris, she’s taken from the Greek mythology and she’s a kind of a trickster character, especially in the Discordianism because we don’t really know too much about the historical Eris or the Discordia Goddess in the Roman mythology but there is one story where she is especially in a big role because she created… she wasn’t invited to a party at the Olympus. Zeus didn’t want strife and chaos at his party so Eris created a golden apple that said ‘to the prettiest one’ on the side and then the goddesses started fighting about that. And they finally asked a human shepherd or a guy called Paris which one of the goddesses was the prettiest one. And then basically Aphrodite bribed him to say that Aphrodite was the prettiest one and she promised him the most beautiful woman on earth and that was Helen and that started the War of Troy because she already happened to be married and so forth.

So that’s where Eris is from the mythology but then in Discordianism, she is kind of this way to recognize how chaos and disorder are part of the world and reality and you can’t really organize everything and basically, the idea is that everything is true, even false things are true. So everyone has their own reality tunnel through which they look at the world and then even if you can’t really see all the primal chaos, you probably couldn’t comprehend it, being a human being. You can maybe understand that people look at the world differently and this way have more, maybe empathetical view for other people’s lives and thoughts.

AP: I really like the idea of the reality tunnel as you described it. It’s a very nice way of putting it.

EM: Yeah I think that’s from Robert Anton Wilson who was one of the guys who then wrote a lot about Discordianism and kind of brought it to life through the “Illuminati’s Trilogy’ – the sci-fi novel. But also he wrote more about a lot of different kinds of philosophical writings.

AP: And that’s really interesting. And I also want to ask you how is this movement organized? Do they have a specific organization or establishment as other religious movements have or do they only practice on their own? How do they practice? How are they organized?

EM: Yeah well, because it’s a religion of recognizing disorder, of course, it’s renowned for not being that organized. But there is, in “Principia Discordia,” like yesterday we were talking with Pope Phil(?) and he said that Greg Hill, who actually compiled the first versions of the book, really got deep into the idea of building this like anti-hierarchy into Discordianism. So basically a group of Discordians would be called a cabal and everyone is a Pope, like every human being, actually, every being is a Pope and so they should be treated well and then if you found a Discordian cabal you, the leader of the group, would be actually a Bishop. So they would be in service of the group as opposed to the congregation looking up to the minister or something like that. But that was also to question the patriarchy of the society and then their version of matriarchy, in this case, was kind of no leaders and not too many rules.

So basically, earlier on, you were supposed to be initiated by, I think, Kerry Thornley or Gregory Hill – the two guys who are often said that they were the creators of Discordianism but then, later on, they decided that everyone can do it by themselves or can do it to each other. And it’s also the idea was, at one point, was to get like an ordination for ministry, like every other religion, then Discordianism isn’t because Discordianism wouldn’t have such an ordination. But yeah, there is a way to get ordained and baptised and at the moment, for example, in Finland, there is one group that tried to register a religious community. Their Discordian group is called the Finnish Extremely Free Erisian Movement. Yeah and then we have the association, Eristic Association in Turku, which I’m a chair of and it’s a registered association, also in Finland. But then I know that there is a theatrical group in England which has been performing Discordian theatre and there is this international group called the Fellowship of the United Churches Of Kalisti. Also, there are these small groups that are getting more organized around Discordianism, disorganization. So I guess there is, in a way, there is hope Discordians wish to do stuff together even though Robert Anton Wilson said Discordians must stick apart. But yeah, it doesn’t mean that everyone is separate from everyone else it means that you don’t have to agree on everything to get together to do activism or religious stuff or art or science and so forth, to discuss important matters.

AP: Yeah, that makes sense and do they have a place of worship like a church or something similar?

EM: Well not as such. Of course, there’s been a pilgrimage to the bowling alleys in Los Angeles or California, somewhere there, I guess, it’s the area. I know that at least one group has made a sort of pilgrimage to a bowling alley that probably was one of the places where they hung around. But it’s basically it’s not as established as, for example, a temple or a church would be. So basically Discordians usually practice wherever and whenever they happen to get together and decide to do things.

AP: And what do they practice when they do practice something?

EM: Well in the beginning there was, I think I mentioned quickly the Operation Mindf***, they started to kind of create this story around the JFK murders and writing to papers saying that Discordianism and the Illuminati is a front of CIA and that’s like they are only kind of doing things to control people’s minds and they also had this practice of saying Jake of the Year. So you would choose someone, for example, a politician that is renowned for being very silly, let’s put it that way, and then they would send them cards, from all around the country congratulating, them for very silly things and that kind of stuff. But then there’s like in Finland there is this practice of LOL Cabbage ritual that was created because there is a cabbage mentioned in the baptismal right in discordance and the goddess Kali, in India, happens to sound like… the name of Kali is similar to the Finnish word that means cabbage and yeah it’s a long story but basically, people have been doing a ritual called LOL Cabbage walking around town with a cabbage and repeating the mantra ‘LOL Cabbage’ in Finnish. And the pilgrimage to a rubber gorilla has happened. And then people have done like spirit animal search for Discordian spirit animals and those have been, for example, a pink elephant or a flying pyramid, I think, that soft flying pyramid or something. Those are a few examples but usually people… like there are a lot of Discordians that, for example, would do Chaos Magick as their part of the Discordian practice. And for example, artistic practice could be called Discordian and I keep saying that my PhD is one of my biggest magickal practices that I’ve done so far and it’s been like…

AP: Why?

EM: Well there are… [Emmi drinks something]

AP: Drink, you might need it when you discuss your PhD.

EP: Well yeah, well it’s the biggest because it’s already been seven years. But it’s also, I think, there are a lot of interesting synchronicities that are connected. For example, I’m doing research on the registration of religious communities. I mean in the beginning, when I started the plan wasn’t to study a Discordian group but then later on when I was thinking of maybe that I could start a Discordian community and try to register that and see how that would go just to kind of test the system and also the academic system and how that would work for my PhD. Then at that same time, when I was actually collecting names for my group, I heard of another group that was actually practising Discordianism and had just sent their registration papers in. So I think that’s kind of a divine intervention, in a way.

AP: Eris really wants you to study Discordianism, let’s put it that way.

EM: Yeah, I can’t run away from it. I don’t want to either.

AP: Yeah and also you already mentioned that for Discordians nothing is really real, so you might as well make up your reality, whatever you like. Which is something that we also find in Chaos Magic, which you have just mentioned.

EM: Although I did say that everything is free for Discordianism. But yeah, I guess it’s the same.

AP: Yeah, like if everything is real so there’s nothing which is unreal.

EM: Yeah.

AP: So maybe that’s the opposite of Chaos Magick because in Chaos Magick they say nothing is real everything is permitted. So maybe in Discordianism, it’s more like everything is real so still, everything is permitted.

EM: Yeah, and I guess if you think of Chaos Magick as, for example, like using different symbols to create a ritual like for… I’ve heard people do like, what’s it called?, like in instead of for example invoking the great angels[angles] you would…

AP: The four corners you mean?

EM: Yes. Yeah, yeah, and then there are those angels[angles] in the Kabbalistic system already.

AP: Yes, yeah. Like to call upon the four elements which some say are the four corners.

EM: Yeah sure, yeah and then I’ve heard people do that, for example like instead of four elements it would be four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that they invoke and kind of see how that works and how the ritual works if you just switch the symbolism in it. And I guess if you think everything is real then you can, as you said, use everything but it’s also the same as if nothing is real and everything is permitted because you can again use everything in your own advantage.

AP: Yeah I guess there is some kind of similarity between the concept of nothing is real and everything is real because in both cases you are not excluding anything, somehow. So normally you have to kind of say that there are certain things which are real and other things which are not real in order to make the first ones, you know, stick out somehow. Whereas if everything is real it’s like just including every possible thing, even things which are made up or yeah, literally anything.

EM: Yeah, yeah, I mean in Discordianism well while Eris is the primal chaos it is also thought that she created everything that is and then there is the everything that isn’t, which is called ‘Uneris.’ So there is also this idea of having you know the small bunch of things that actually are a reality and then the rest that either we can imagine or can’t even imagine. So it basically includes everything and you just have different kinds of glasses or frames to which through which you look at the reality you live in. So yeah.

AP: and what is the philosophy of life of a Discordian? I mean how a Discordian sees life and reality.

EM: Yeah, often people think that then Discordianism would be like chaos worship or like kind of putting more pressure on chaos because it’s built around the Goddess of Chaos and Strife. But basically one of the philosophical points in “Principia Discordia” is that you’re supposed to balance between the creative order and creative disorder. So you can get rid of the destructive order and destructive disorder. So it’s kind of a good trip for human beings that Discordianism is looking for that the world doesn’t have to be as grey and boring and organized as we maybe feel.

AP: So it is actually a philosophy that seeks harmony somehow?

EM: Yes.

AP: It’s not chaotic at all. I mean it acknowledges the existence of chaos but at the same time is in search for some sort of harmony.

EM: Yeah, it’s like if you think about the artistic process, first you have to go into the private chaos and be very creative but you have to have some kind of a filter to create a piece of art that can even in any way to communicate what you might have experienced in the creative part. But if you imagine just following that chaotic, whatever.

AP: Rabbit-hole. A chaotic rabbit-hole.

AP: So it’s like you have to go deep into the chaos to then gather some harmony and balance. Is it is that right?

EM: Kind of, yes. It’s a very pretty way of saying it.

AP: Oh, thank you. And yeah, now I’d like to ask you, is it a form of Paganism? And also, is it a religion? But maybe we want to ask, I mean which one do you want to…

EM: Well maybe I’ll start with the Paganism and then we can go on with the religion. I mean both of the questions depend on how you define Paganism or religion but if you see, for example, Paganism as being a nature religion and then somehow inspired by, for example, pre-Christian traditions and including probably some kind of Magickal practice; you would have all of this in Discordianism. Like with seasonal changes of birth and death and then the Greek Goddess as the background for the whole thing and then doing Magick and many Pagans, actually many Discordians, actually, are Pagans. For example, the first Discordians I met through the Finnish Pagan Network when I joined it and I had read the book the “Principia Discordia” but I found it very curious, it kind of got me inspired and I thought it was a super cool thing because it’s not just a joke. It looks like a joke in the beginning but then, when you read it, you really see that there are some interesting philosophical points in it. So then it was super cool to actually meet people who call themselves Discordians and see that you can actually call yourself a Discordian and practice it and it’s okay. But yeah, there is a connection definitely between Discordianism and Pagans.

EM: I think it just depends on where you happen to be. How you find Discordianism. Not all Discordians are Pagans but some are. Because a lot of people might come up with Discordianism, for example, through doing like design, kind of art, you might get interested in how the whole design culture was built in the US, for example. And you would probably find the “Principia Discordia” and Kerry Thornley’s stuff from there. And then a lot of hackers, internet coders, hackers, whatever, internet computer people, a lot of them are also Discordians. You might get, for example, code that has some Discordian words written into them and yeah, it’s spread wide and far and I think it’s just basically what kind of interest group you happen to be mostly affiliated in.

AP: So between Paganism and Discordianism there are many liaison points but the two… you wouldn’t see the two as part of the same. I mean Discordianism as part of the umbrella…

EM: I would see Discordianism as part of the umbrella.

AP: Oh yeah, so you would, you would consider Discordianism as part of Paganism?

EM: Yeah but I’m just saying that it also, I think, it has another foot outside of the umbrella too. So, but definitely, if you read, for example, Margot Adler’s book, from the 80s The…

AP: The “Drawing Down…”

EM: “…of the Moon” yes, about the Pagans and Goddess worshippers in the US and Kerry Thornley had been interviewed for that book and I think some people, like actually even affiliate the first uses of ‘neopaganism,’ referring to the current practices that it refers to, have been used by Kerry Thornley in a writing that he did to a journal back in the days. So I think it’s very much connected to the whole Pagan movement. But I think also that there is the question of self-identification and not everyone would consider themselves Pagans or even religious and there are people who see Discordianism only as not a religion but more like a philosophy or a way of looking at things or some people might even be Discordians because they think religion is stupid and they don’t consider Discordianism a real religion, in that sense, because it’s not stupid to them.

AP: Yeah speaking of that, do you think Discordianism is a religion or a religious movement or do you think that it’s not to be deemed as a religion at all?

EM: Well, I guess there is the very classical way of looking at how religion has been defined in the history and the idea of comparing different phenomena to the existing ideas of religion. So does it have a ritual aspect to it, does it have a social aspect to it, does it have mythologies, does it have cosmologies and that kind of stuff? And I think Discordianism has everything because it is created to look like a religion so it definitely looks like a religion and it functions as a religion to many people who practice it. But then there is the element of parody and joke to it that doesn’t, I don’t think, excludes the definition of religion because it’s very much built into the idea that life isn’t supposed to be boring and serious but taken, you know, not with a grain of salt but a spoonful of sugar maybe.

AP: Yeah, like to take life more lightly and so the parody can be even a tool for their religiosity to a certain degree.

EM: Yes and it’s not a new idea either. Like, for example, Zen Buddhists have their Koans that are kind of funny looking stories about, for example, a student asking a teacher a question and then the teacher giving a very silly answer and then either the student is enlightened or they are not and those are very kind of funny things. And then there is a lot of humour in many religions but I guess it’s ever since the enlightenment when all the seriousness got into the Christian theology and trying to kind of compete with science and everything like that. So it’s a complicated history of trying to separate things and then now we have Discordianism. But then we have the Satan example and the Flying Spaghetti Monster that are…

AP: Pastafaian, Pastafarianism.

EM: Yes, they are very widely popular and very funny things but also claim to be religions. And I mean, of course, there is the question of using religion as a term whenever it is, you know useful for you to do so like, for example, to get use the pasta strainer on your head or to get to register a religious community that might give you some rights in the society. So you would want to be called a religion but then it’s, yeah, and the legal systems are more conservative, so their idea of religion is more historical at the moment. I guess so. It hasn’t like, for example, in the Finnish context the Pastafarians and the Discordians also failed to register their religious communities.

AP: I once read the paper on the attempt, the failed attempt even, in this case, in Finland to get Wicca registered as a religion. I think it was by Teemu Taira?

EM: Yep, yeah and I guess he wrote about it and I guess Suzanne Owen was in the similar context. But…

AP: Yeah, I think that they also all did a paper on the definition of religion, I think. Yeah, but I found it interesting because the case of Wicca in Finland really resembles a similar case occurred in Italy. But in Italy, it is very different. I mean how the state defines religion is basically shaped upon Catholicism so you don’t really have much room to… I mean not even Islam is considered legally. Of course, it is socially considered a religion but for the government, you know, for legal purposes. So yeah that is maybe a conflict between how things are socially understood and how law and whether law catches up with what people believe and how the discourse around religion evolves for people.

EM: Yeah and in the Finnish case the Wiccans, I guess, they failed mostly because they were trying to describe Wicca as kind of a self-identification. So, anyone who would call themselves Wicca wanted everyone that would call themselves Wicca, they wanted them to be able to sign the paper. So if you have a movement like Wicca that has a lot of different kinds of traditions and a lot of ways to practice it makes that a huge conglomerate of different things. And then the Education Ministry in Finland, they considered that you because you’re supposed to be able to… the state is supposed to be able to offer religious education for registered community members’ children. So if you can’t have your, if you don’t have your references and like a very clear idea of what the tradition is written down or already known, which is, of course, the thing with Christianity or Islam, if that’s what you searching for, they don’t have to describe their practices as much as these small religions.

EM: Yeah, that is a question and I mean, in Finland, you could, for example, register many different communities that would practice Wicca so you could have different traditions. And I mean you can think that it would be easier to register like a Gardnerian or an Alexandrian Wicca community. But then, I think, especially with Paganism, because everyone is supposed to build their own paths and even if they follow a certain kind of tradition everyone might have a different kind of interpretation of things and people want to remain quite free of this kind of state-controlled system. So there isn’t that much will to register religious community especially because it’s not obligatory, you can practice all kinds of religions and you can belong to all kinds of communities without having to register it based on the law.

AP: Yeah, that makes sense but now let’s move on to the fun stuff. Is there Magick in Discordianism and how do they practice Magick? I mean what role does Magick play? Let’s talk about Magick in Discordianism.

EM: Okay, yeah, well we did mention the Chaos Magick already. So I guess this again depends on how you would define Magick, for example, I see Magick as a very kind of wide thing. So basically everything that you do that you use your energy to change the reality around you could be considered Magick and of course, it might have like an element that is not like a cause and causation kind of follow up. So that’s why I call my PhD, for example, magickal practice. But yeah, I mean, it’s, yeah, I’m trying to think of something that we didn’t already discuss in them.

AP: Yeah, maybe something about the kind of magic they practice. I mean if it is Chaos Magick, what kind of Chaos Magick? Do they use sigils? Do they use Ceremonial Magic? Do they make up their own ceremonies? Do they work with the elements? What kind of Magick do they practice?

EM: Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. From that point of view the discordant Magick of course it looks a lot like the practitioner. So basically if you come to Discordianism through Wicca you might use Wiccan ritual kind of formats to then fit in the kind of chaos-magickal context. But for example the Finnish Extremely Free Erisian Movement they have the “Simon Necronomicon” that they use as their basis to try…

AP: The one by Lovecraft?

EM: Is it by Lovecraft the book is called “Simon Necronomicon.” I don’t remember the author.

AP: Oh, maybe it’s a reinterpretation of Lovecraft because the original “Necronomicon” is from Lovecraft.

EM: Yeah, it’s from the Lovecraft mythos but this one actually has rituals to, for example, summon spirits or open the gates to Hell or other realms. So basically they use the “Simon Necronomicon” to try to re-enact their rituals as close as they can. So, if it says that you have to have gold they would take like a golden bracelet, for example or something like that to represent gold, even if you wouldn’t have the amount of gold, that probably is unnecessary in that ritual. And they read the rituals or the summonings from the book and have these kinds of rules. They used to live actually in a commune where there was a bell hanging in a doorway, so any time the bell would ring, so if someone was accidentally bumped into it, if a cat would brush on it or if someone was deliberately ringing it, they would then stop everything they were doing and come to the living room and do a ritual of some kind. And I actually went to some of their rituals and then we did like summoning of this, well we summoned Katulhu and we also summoned, there is this very scary creature in the Moomin stories. I don’t know what the English word for it is [The Groke] but this frozen, scary blob monster that comes from the darkness.

AP: And did they appear after the summoning? Now I’m curious.

EM: Well, since I guess you know we all still are here, unless this is a dream, I guess, Katulhu didn’t rise but the funny thing with the monster is, because the Moomin monster is cold and everything she walks upon is frozen. So the spring had been super warm until the day we did the ritual and after that, there was like this drop in temperature. So yeah, I like to think that we, at least, manifested her in some way. But yeah so basically there’s these rituals and they also did a golem from a plush toy, a calamari plush toy so basically a Cthulhu golem. And some people do use sigils and stuff so there is… yeah, I guess like anything goes, all kinds of Magick is okay in the discordian realm. But these are like these examples that I’ve bumped into and I mean there are also people who practice the Finno-religious, the traditional Finnish practices and they call themselves Discordians and I know some Buddhists who call themselves Discordians too. So you can kind of use it as this kind of a background, backdrop for different traditions too, without it kind of being too… yes, and now I forget words but, you know, without them erasing each other. So it’s okay to practice all kinds of things and you can still label things Discordianism but you could also practice it completely separately from the traditions and that’s also a thing.

AP: And do most Discordians practice Magick? I mean, is it common for a Discordian to practice Magick or is it something that only the minority of them would practice?

EM: Well I think the kind of separation or schism between those who see Eris as a Goddess that’s supposed to be worshipped and those who see her as a symbol of getting rid of the hegemony of religion completely. It started from Gregory Hill and Kerry Thornley already Greg, I think Greg was the one who thought that Discordianism was a way to get away from religions and breakthrough that barrier but then Kerry Thornley started to actually worship Eris as a Goddess of Chaos. And then he did a lot of crazy stuff and went quite far with his artistic or chaotic practices. So I guess that’s also nowadays one way of categorising, typing different Discordians. So I don’t know if it’s common to practice Magick but it is or is considered Discordianism in religion. I think it is built into the system but there are people who don’t do it. I don’t have any statistics or which one would be a bigger group or anything but I’ve studied mostly the people who come from the Pagan background, so they are more inclined in using Magick in their practice in Discordianism too.

AP: Yeah actually, I really like what you said, that Magick is built into the system but there are people who take advantage of it or actually or rather utilize it and people who choose not to. It actually makes sense and it’s a better way of framing it rather than just saying how many Discordians or what percentage of Discordians would practice Magick because, yeah, as you said, it is part of the religious framework of this tradition but of course people are individuals and so each of them will decide according to their personal inclinations, belief system, and everything else.

EM: Yeah.

AP: Yeah, so this is it for today’s video. Hope you liked it. Don’t forget to check the infobox for all the details regarding Essi and all the references. And if you did like this video, please SMASH the like button, subscribe to the channel, activate the notification bell so that you will be always notified when I upload a new video and as always, stay tuned for all the Academic Fun.

Bye for now.

Essi’s Contact details
https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/essi-eleonoora-m%C3%A4kel%C3%A4

REFERENCES

Mäkelä, E. E. (2018) ‘“Impartial Sources” and the Registration of Religious Communities in Finland’, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, Australian Association for the Study of Religion, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 3–26 [Online]. DOI: 10.1558/jasr.35224.

Mäkelä, E. E. and Petsche, J. (2013) ‘Serious parody: Discordianism as liquid religion’, Culture and Religion, Routledge, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 411–423 [Online]. DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2013.841269.

First uploaded 23 Nov 2020