In 1919, in the wake of the upheaval of World War I, a remarkable group of English women came up with their own solution to the world's grief: a new religion. At the heart of the Panacea Society was a charismatic and autocratic leader, a vicar's widow named Mabel Barltrop. Her followers called her Octavia, and believed that she was the daughter of God, sent to build the New Jerusalem in Bedford. Proclaiming the female aspects of God, Octavia attracted former suffragettes, middle-class Christian women and passionate ...
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In 1919, in the wake of the upheaval of World War I, a remarkable group of English women came up with their own solution to the world's grief: a new religion. At the heart of the Panacea Society was a charismatic and autocratic leader, a vicar's widow named Mabel Barltrop. Her followers called her Octavia, and believed that she was the daughter of God, sent to build the New Jerusalem in Bedford. Proclaiming the female aspects of God, Octavia attracted former suffragettes, middle-class Christian women and passionate spiritual seekers to Bedford, where they followed her in rigorous religious practices. She appointed twelve women as her apostles, and put the rest to work to spread her Word: that human beings, through Panacea, could achieve immortal life on earth. Acclaimed historian Jane Shaw found the last living members of the Panacea Society, who revealed to her their immense, painstakingly-preserved archives. She discovered a utopian community that once had seventy residents, thousands of followers, and an international healing ministry that reached 130,000 people around the globe. "Octavia, Daughter of God" is a fascinating group biography and a revelatory work of cultural and narrative history. Vividly told, by turns funny and tragic, it reveals in intimate detail the complex, out-sized personality of Octavia; the faith of her devoted followers, who believed they would never die; and the intricacies and intrigues of her close-knit community. But "Octavia, Daughter of God" is also about a moment at the advent of modernity, when a generation of newly empowered women tried to re-make Christianity in their own image. Startlingly modern in their resolve and curiously reactionary in their social views and politics, their story is a portrait of an age. It offers a window into the anxieties and hopes of the interwar years through the lives of ordinary people who believed extraordinary things about God, this world and the next.
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Add this copy of Octavia, Daughter of God: the Story of a Female Messiah to cart. $15.00, like new condition, Sold by The Hermitage Bookshop rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Denver, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Yale U. Press.
Add this copy of Octavia, Daughter of God: the Story of a Female Messiah to cart. $21.49, like new condition, Sold by The Guru Bookshop rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hereford, WALES, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2011 by Jonathan Cape.
Add this copy of Octavia, Daughter of God: the Story of a Female Messiah to cart. $27.70, very good condition, Sold by Berry Books rated 1.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Berry, NSW, AUSTRALIA, published 2011 by Jonathan Cape.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. Size: 9"-10" Tall. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Biography & Autobiography; Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 14442.
Add this copy of Octavia, Daughter of God to cart. $92.71, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Jonathan Cape.
Add this copy of Letters From Angel-Land. Illustrated By Scott Calder to cart. $112.58, good condition, Sold by Burwood Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Wickham Market, SUFFOLK, UNITED KINGDOM, published 1921 by Cecil Palmer.
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Seller's Description:
First Edition. Hardback. Dust Jacket. Small 4to. pp. 101. Coloured frontispiece and one coloured illustration. Further illustrations and musical examples in the text. Original publisher's pale pink cloth-backed illustrated boards. A book aimed at introducing children to the beliefs of the Panacea Society. Includes references to William Blake and Joseph of Arimathea. Joanna Southcott, the prophetess, was expected to give birth to the Messiah but died in 1814 with no evidence of a child. In 1919, followers thought that a spiritual child had been born and immediately taken up to heaven and that the incarnation of that child was Mabel Barltrop who was a 53-year-old vicar's widow, better known to her devotees as Octavia. Based in Bedford she declared herself to be the Daughter of God. The Panacea Society was very much a product of the New Age movement as it was at the turn of the century. Frontispiece loose, boards rubbed at edges, lower board a little stained. Together with: SHAW, Jane. Octavia, Daughter of God: The Story of a Female Messiah and her Followers. London, Jonathan Cape, 2011. First edition. 8vo. pp. xviii, 398. 16pp. illustrations. Original publisher's black cloth lettered gilt on spine. Unclipped pictorial dust-jacket. Ownership inscription on front free-endpaper, closed tear to dust-jacket on spine. VG. 9780224075008 Very good with some light wear.
