One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. –Friedrich Nietzsche
Happy Discordian New Year! It’s the fifth day of Chaos — the first season of the Discordian calendar — and so we celebrate Mungday, the Holyday of the Apostle Hung Mung.
Hung Mung (sometimes transliterated as Hung Meng or Hong Meng) carries the distinction of being the only Apostle to verifiably exist outside of Discordianism. In Taoist creation stories, Hung Mung represents the primordial world, and he is usually presented as slapping his knees and shouting, “I do not know!”
Hung Mung is only mentioned a couple of times in the Principia Discordia, but he is credited with devising the Sacred Chao, which is up there with the Hand of Eris as one of the most recognizable symbols of Discordianism. Page 00049 of the Principia explains the significance of the Chao.
THE SACRED CHAO is the key to illumination… it was modified and popularized by the Taoists and is sometimes called the YIN-YANG. The Sacred Chao is not the Yin-Yang of the Taoists. It is the HODGE-PODGE of the Erisians. And, instead of a Podge spot on the Hodge side, it has a PENTAGON which symbolizes the ANERISTIC PRINCIPLE, and instead of a Hodge spot on the Podge side, it depicts the GOLDEN APPLE OF DISCORDIA to symbolize the ERISTIC PRINCIPLE.
The Sacred Chao symbolizes absolutely everything anyone need ever know about absolutely anything, and more! It even symbolizes everything not worth knowing, depicted by the empty space surrounding the Hodge-Podge.
We get redundant additional information on the Chao on page 00050:
The PODGE of the Sacred Chao is symbolized as The Golden Apple of Discordia, which represents the Eristic Principle of Disorder. The writing on it, “KALLISTI” is Greek for “TO THE PRETTIEST ONE” and refers to an old myth about The Goddess. But the Greeks had only a limited understanding of Disorder, and thought it to be a negative principle.
The Pentagon represents the Aneristic Principle of Order and symbolizes the HODGE. The Pentagon has several references; for one, it can be taken to represent geometry, one of the earliest studies of formal order to reach elaborate development; for another, it specifically accords with THE LAW OF FIVES.
It is also the shape of the United States Military Headquarters, the Pentagon Building, a most pregnant manifestation of straightjacket order resting on a firm foundation of chaos and constantly erupting into dazzling disorder; and this building is one of our more cherished Erisian Shrines. Also it so happens that in times of medieval magic, the pentagon was the generic symbol for werewolves, but this reference is not particularly intended and it should be noted that the Erisian Movement does not discriminate against werewolves — our membership roster is open to persons of all races, national origins and hobbies.
To sum up:
- The Pentagon/Hodge represents Apparent Order.
- The Apple/Podge represents Apparent Disorder.
- The two together represent pure Chaos.
- Werewolves are people too.
And, of course, anything you can do to wreak havoc for Greyface is highly encouraged today, especially if your tactics involve faux naivete, maintaining your innocence in the wake of his frustrations. If you’re old enough to remember Family Matters, picture Greyface as Carl and yourself as Urkel, standing amidst the smoking remains of the Winslow kitchen and asking contritely, “Did I do that?”
While it’s not Discordian canon, and pentagons don’t represent werewolves in our religion, I feel like anyone cursed with lycanthropy should be allowed to turn into a wolf tonight under the light of the planet Eris, regardless of the phase of the moon. As a treat.
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