Adam Gorightly on Discordianism in Week Six

Adam Gorightly has written another meaty blog post on the Discordian references in Illuminatus!, this time concentrating on Week Six of the group reading. Here is part of the section in which he explains how the Law of Fives relates to the code number of British agent 00005, the Illuminatus! equivalent of James Bond, 007:

00005 is also an example of the same five digit numbering system Greg Hill devised for the Principia Discordia. Illuminatus! is permeated with such Discordian allusions, which very few people at the time of its publication in 1975 would have been able to pick up on—or had even heard of Discordianism, for that matter. During this period there were only a few hundred copies of Principia Discordia in circulation, and so these Illuminatus!-Discordian allusions (such as this obscure reference to The Law of Fives) were initially inserted into the narrative as nothing more, it would seem, than inside jokes to the few who would understand them: a small cabal of Early Discordians numbering no fewer than five and probably not more than 23. The ultimate design of including all these Discordian winks and nods in Illuminatus! was part of a well thought out (albeit semi-covert) Discordian campaign to bring the Principia Discordia and Discordianism to a larger audience.

If you are following along with the Illuminatus! group discussion, you should follow the link and read the whole thing.

Bonus link: Adam Gorightly, indie rocker.