Date: Sat 26 Mar 88 22:19:38 From: Farrell Mcgovern (on 1:163/5) Hello. Since it seems to
Date: Sat 26 Mar 88 22:19:38 From: Farrell Mcgovern (on 1:163/5)
Hello. Since it seems to be a new fad ("When we was Fad" H. Harrison)
to put in your autobiography, esp. after Brad's terrific entry, I will give
you mine for whatever egoboo or backround information it will give to me or
you.
*****
I was born on Feb. 19, 1963 at around 1 pm here in Ottawa. My family
spent the next 6 months here in Ottawa before moving to New York City to
live my Grandmother in the Bronx. After living there for a while, my Dad
got a job in Pennsylvania up near Kingston. We lived in a small town called
Trucksville. We lived on the side of a mountain, and the animals used to
come into the back yard at night and I used to watch them, esp the deer in
awe. We lived there till 1967 when we moved back to Canada and lived in
Mntreal for a short time, then moved back to Ottawa.
My first real pagan type experience came when I started to go out with a
girl from the local Science Fiction club. At the time she called herself a
satanist (She wasn't really, but that was what she was calling herself) and
she recommended that I read something by a guy named Crowley. Reading a
couple of things by, and about him, his ideas seemed to jive really well
with the other stuff I was reading (David Gerrold's works, Ayn Rand, Arthur
C. Clark) and I really enjoyed it.
In 1979 I attended the September Star Trek con in NY^2. I met a girl
there who changed my life forever. Her name was Heidi Heyman, and she was
Jewish. Now my Parents religion was obvious, one was Irish, and the other
was Italian, therefore, they were Roman Catholic. We fell in love via phone
and letter, and things were going great till Christmas came around and I
called her up and asked what she would like for Christmas...and found out
that Jews don't celebrate Christmas. This really jarred my world. Until
then I had assumed that everyone was Christian, just different flavours
thereof, and lapsed Christians. The fact that there were other religions
just wasn't important to me till then. This caused me to do a lot a
research into religion.
About the same time I had discovered that one area I was lacking
information in Physics was the area of Quantum Physics. So I read the
Dancing Lu Wi Masters, and a number of books and articles on the subject. I
then ran across a trilogy of books that had the same name as a famous
though experient by Irwin Shreodenger. Of course, that was the
Schroedenger's Cat Trilog by Robert Anton Wilson. Now remember, this was
going on in Grade 10...I read that it was a sequel to another Trilogy,
Illuminatus!.
Along the way, in the same section as the Crowley stuff I had been
reading, I found a book called Drawing Down The Moon. In it I read about
people who thought the same way I did, and that Discordians were REAL!
Within a year I had found a copy of the Principia Discordia, and
started to do Erisian things, and having a lot of fun. One of the funnyest
things that happened started at a Lunacon about 5 years back. I had a copy
of the Principia with me, and Heidi asked to borrow it. Somewhere along the
line either she or I lost it, and I simply assumed that it had found an
appropriate home. If only I had know how right I was.
A year later I attended I-CON at SUNY @Stony Brook. Heidi was going
there, so I decided to go down, see Heidi, and attend a con. About half way
though the con, I was walking donw the corridor in the Lecture Center and I
say a bunch of people sitting around, reading a Principia. So I wandered
over and stood infront of them, waiting to catch there attention. The
person who was holding the book noticed me, looked at my name tag, and
turned white. It turned out that they had found my Principia at Lunacon,
decided that they really liked it, and had formed a Cabal! I told them to
keep it.
This incident conviced me that there prbabley was a Goddess, and that
her name was ERIS, and that she was benevalent.
So by the time I had reached grade 11, I was a full fledged Erisian. Up
here we still have the Lord's Prayer read in the morning, and everyone must
stand for it. I decided that there was no way I was going to show any
respect for a relgion that had killed over a million people who had
believed in things that I believed in. This lead to a trip down to the vice
principle's office. I told him what and why I was not standing for the
Lord's Prayer, and he said that I should stand for it anyways. So he said
that I should stand out in the hall for the Prayer. I told him no, since
the only reason that people are sent out into the hall is because they are
doing something wrong, and I wasn't doing anything wrong. So things went on
for a number of weeks. Then I was called down to the VP's office again, we
had the same discussion, except he took the stance that it was a discipline
problem, and I maintained that it was a Religous problem. It was that day
that it started.
It was a campain of terror. People would trip me, or elbow me in the
stomach in the crowds in the halls. If I was carrying my books under my
arms, someone behind me would flip them out from under my arm and they
would scatter all over the hall. Earlier in the year I had swapped lockers
with a person so that I could get two side-by-side. I never told the school
that I had done so, even though you were supposed to report any locker
changes to the school as well as the combination to the lock. This person
started to get threatening notes addressed to me in his locker. All of my
friends knew where my locker was, the only people who would think that this
other person's locker was mine were people who had access to the school
records.
It all cumulated on a dark night after I had been at school playing D & D
late. I was walking home from school, since I only lived about a mile from
school, listening to a Walk-thing playing Black Noise by Toronto group called
FM. There was a lot of snow that year which caused the snow banks on either
side of the road to be about 4 1/2 feet high in some places. The only
breaks in the snow banks were the occasional driveways on either side of the
road. I didn't pay any attention to the car that was driving slowly behind
me. I was too into the music to pay attention. About three quarters of the
way home there is a curve in the road, and no driveways for about 50 yards. I
was in the middle of that streach when a voice, very feminine said "Look
behind you." in a quiet, but urgent voice. So I did. This car was just
comming around the curve, moving faster than it should...and the first
thought that came into my head was that it was going to try and run me
down. So mustering all the speed that had made me a star half back the
previous year playing minor league Football, I ran for the closest
driveway. I was just barley able to get into it when I turned and saw the
car take out part of the snow bank at the corner of the driveway.
I stood there a moment in total shock. I might have been killed my some
maniac, probably drunk, driving around. I was very glad that I had FM to
listen to, since I can totally loose myself in their music. With the
soothing sounds of "One O'Clock Tomorrow" blasting out of the headphones, I
began the final streach home. Suddenly, those headlights were comming at me
again from the opposite direction. IT WASN'T SOME DRUNK, SOMEONE WAS TRYING
TO KILL ME! I ducked back into the lane avoiding them again, but with a
much wider margin. I pulled off my headphones and waited till I could hear
the car no more. I must have waited about 5 minutes before I embarked again
on the final streach home, which I ran. We called the police when I got
home, but since I didn't get a good look at the car or the liscence plate,
there wasn't much they could do.
Anyways, the only conclusion that I got out of this was that there
really was a Goddess, and she was looking after me. The timing of the look
out behind you over the loud music was perfectly timed. If it had been a
second earlier, I woundn't have seen the car, and if it had been a second
later, I wouldn't have made the driveway in time.
That night I dedicated myself to my goddess and became an Erisian
priest.
Hail Eris, All Hail Discordia!
Farrell James McGovern II
P.S. And a small quote to end this a little less siriusly:
"There is No Goddess but ERIS, and Murphy is Her Consort"
-Sian Reid
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* Origin: Solsbury Hill:WEIRD SCIENCE is an Erisian fable... (Opus 1:163/5)
E-Mail Fredric L. Rice / The Skeptic Tank