12/22/2011

December 22

Three dates to note:

In 1880, George Eliot died. Her historical novel "Romola" grew from her own engrossment with the end of the world. The novel is about Savonarola, a Dominican friar in 15th-century Florence whose apocalyptic preachings and "bonfires of the vanities" led ultimately to his execution on orders from the Pope.

In 1908, Cyrus Reed Teed died. Titling himself "Koresh", or Messiah, Teed created a millennarian community in Florida which dissolved after his death.

In 1999, Charles Spiegel died (though he has been frequently channeled since). Spiegel, a retired psychology professor and director of the Unarian Movement, claimed that as part of an end-times scenario Atlantis would rise from the Caribbean in 2001. Predicting numerous other UFO-driven apocalyptic and world-historical events, the Unarians reached a peak membership of 10,000 in the 1980s.