Coincidance - Principia Discordia

196 COINCIDANCE
rather than churches, and has, since Gardner's death, come increasingly
under the influence of Feminism. It has covens rather than groves, and each
coven pretty much establishes its own dogma—some lean toward reincarnation,
Atlantis, and that sort of thing, while some don't—but all tend toward
a millenialist belief that male gods and male domination are responsible for
war, pollution, intolerance and most of our social problems; peace and
Utopia will dawn when the world returns to goddess-worship and achieves
sexual equality.
Oddly, the belief that the world is on the edge of a revival of goddessworship
has been expressed by some eminent scholars, including historian
Arnold Toynbee, psychologist Carl Jung, poet Robert Graves and anthropologist
Joseph Campbell. Witches know this and are fond of quoting these
authorities when being interviewed on TV.
If Wicca has merged somewhat with Druidism on one flank, it has also
been infiltrated by science-fiction on the other flank, due to partial
amalgamation with the Church of All Worlds, or CAW. Founded in 1974,
CAW has the unique distinction of being the first religion in history
explicitly based on a science-fiction novel—Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger In A
Strange Land. A best-seller in the 1960s and still in print today, "Stranger" tells
the story of Michael Valentine Smith, lone infant survivor of the crash of a
NASA rocket to Mars.
Raised by Martians, Smith is eventually found by another NASA space
crew, returns to Earth and finds Earth-people miserable, unhappy, war-like
and vicious; he sets out to reform us by preaching the religion of the
Martians—which turns out to be a rationalistic and pantheistic version of
Zen Buddhism. One fan of this novel, Timothy Zell—then a psychiatric
social worker in St. Louis—was so fascinated that he got an ordination from
Rev. Hensley and founded CAW which now has chapters, called nests, in
every major US city. Members say that a religion based on a science-fiction
novel is no more absurd than one based on the legends of the ancient
Hebrews or one based on the revelations of an angel named Moroni.
The basic teaching of CAW, taken directly from Heinlein's novel, is
"Thou Art God." After interfacing with wicca and Feminism, CAW now
says "Thou Art God" only to male members and "Thou Art Goddess" to
female members. Ceremonies, called water-sharings, are quite lovely, and
also come from Heinlein's scientific fantasy. For the rest, the theology is
rationalistic, individualistic and politically, somewhere between extreme
libertarian and non-violent anarchist. You will get the flavour if I say
CAW
political pronouncements often sound like an explosive and unstable
mixture of Ronald Reagan and Mahatma Gandhi.
Founder Tim Zell, still active in both CAW and wicca, has gone on to