AND WAS JERUSALEM BUILDED HERE IN ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE?

Jane Shaw and Philip Lockley (editors). The History of a Modern Millennial Movement: The Southcottians. I.B.Tauris, 2017. 

This collection of eleven papers traces the development of the various sects and groups claiming descent from Joanna Southcott (1750-1814 ), who proclaimed herself as the “Woman clothed with the Sun” out of Revelations and who believed she was about to give birth to a new Messiah, the Shiloh. Instead she died and her followers divided over the years into various groups.

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THE END OF THE WORLD SHOW

John Michael Greer. Apocalypse, A History of the End of Time. Quercus, 2012.

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Mathew Barrett Gross and Mel Gilles. The Last Myth, What the Rise of Apocalyptic Thinking Tells Us About America. Prometheus Books, 2012.

Well, we all know that the end of the world is going to be on December 21st, which is a shame for the kiddies, who will have been looking forward to their Christmas presents. But these two books reassure us that it’s probably still OK to plan for the turkey, crackers and paper hats.
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"BANDITRY AND THE DISTRESS OF NATIONS"

Jane Shaw. Octavia, Daughter of God: The Story of a Female Messiah and her Followers. Jonathan Cape, 2011.

British readers who are old enough may remember newspaper adverts back in the 1960s and 1970s which read something like "Crime, banditry and the distress of nations will increase until the bishops open Joanna Southcott's box". These strange adverts were the work of the Panacea Society, the subject of this book.
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THE EAST IS RED

Andrei Znamenski. Red Shambhala: Magic, Prophecy and Geopolitics in the Heart of Asia. Quest Books/Theosophical Publishing House, 2011.

This is a book which overturns many common perceptions about the world and politics, it is a revelation of a topsy-turvey world in which Tibetan Buddhist jihadists meet mystical Communists and Russo-American mystics in the pursuit of the dream of a perfect society peopled by new model human beings.
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