Flaming Sword, The.
A Radical, Rational and Racy Reform Paper.
The only Unique Journal in the World. Only paper devoted to Universology
1889—1949 Weekly, monthly, then quarterly
Washington Heights, Chicago, IL, then Estero, Lee County, FL. Publisher: Dr. Cyrus R. Teed ("Koresh"); Guiding Star Publishing House.
Succeeds: Herald of the New Covenant of the New Jerusalem (1876, 1879?); The Guiding Star (1/1, December 1, 1886-3/5, May 1889) Succeeded by: Plowshare and Pruning Hook, 1891-1895 (merged into Flaming Sword)
1/1, November 1889-January 1949. 16 pp., $1.00 a year. The title refers to the sword of the angel set to guard the entrance of Eden after Adam and Eve had been expelled for (sexual) transgressions. This was the organ of Koreshan Unity, the hollow-earth cult founded by Cyrus R. Teed (1839-1908). Notes and Queries 15/7 (July 1897): 244, describes the journal as a "sixteen-page monthly, radical, rational, and racy reform paper; edited by a staff of able writers. A revolutionizer of thought." (It is not often that you see "racy" and "reform" in the same description.) Gould's Arcane Fraternities in the United States (Manchester, NH, 1905), reports that the group had moved to Estero, Florida, and emphasized that it was not a reform but a revolutionary movement, "a Communistic Order." Koreshan Unity was built on the premise that the earth is hollow and we live on its inner surface. To this arresting thought, the group added the doctrines of God's male and female halves, absolute sexual continence, and the multiple wills of God and man (all related in various mathematical ways). Teed began his career as an alchemist and eclectic physician and played an important role in the early history of New Thought. Advertised in Peter Davidson's The Morning Star, August 1897. Rowell's American Newspaper Directory for 1900 says this had a circulation of 2,000. LOC; Hamilton College.

A substantial portion of this run of The Flaming Sword is provided by the Koreshan Unity digital archive project at Hamilton College.

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