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Apocalypse Not: Everything You Know About 2012, Nostradamus and the Rapture Is Wrong
For almost 3,000 years apocalypse prophecies have convinced people all over the world that the future is about to give them the world they want instead of the world they've got. All the end time prophecies splashed across the media in every age have had something else in common: every one of them has been wrong. Apocalypse Not is a lively and engaging survey of predictions about the end of the world, along with the failed dreams and nightmares that have clustered around them. Among the stories highlighted in Apocalypse Not are: the birth of the apocalypse meme out of archaic star myths in the ancient Middle East; the failed end time prophecies of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton, and other famous prophets; the long and murky road from the Great Pyramid to today's Rapture beliefs; and the real origins of the belief in apocalypse in 2012 (hint: it's not originally Mayan at all).
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
272 pages, Paperback
First published September 6, 2011
3 people are currently reading
320 people want to read
About the author
John Michael Greer
212 books518 followersJohn Michael Greer is an author of over thirty books and the blogger behind The Archdruid Report. He served as Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. His work addresses a range of subjects, including climate change, peak oil, the future of industrial society, and the occult. He also writes science fiction and fantasy. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 22, 2011
What a terrific book! John Michael Greer traces our fascination with The End Times to the beginnings of monotheism, and shows that in almost every case, Doomsday predictions have been wrong. Except in one -- the Book of Revelations -- which Greer says was one of the few correct prophecies on record. Revelations was written by guy named John, who had a strange and terrifying vision one Sunday about the end of civilization as he knew it:
And yet, for millennia, Greer says, people have used the Book of Revelation as apocalyptic fodder. And they've been wrong.
He expects those predicting the End of Days in December 2012, when the Mayan calendar supposedly ends, to be wrong as well. The Mayans, as a polytheistic society, didn't concern themselves with a beginning or end of time -- to them, time just kept rolling. Some of their hieroglyphics even point to things that they expected to happen after the current calendar ends -- hardly the sort of thing you'd do if you were expecting time to stop.
It's too bad, in a way. Not that I was looking forward to the Earth's magnetic poles to shift, mind you. But wouldn't it be nice if the New Age prediction came true, and a kindler, gentler humanity did emerge on the winter solstice 2012? Oh well, apparently if we want it, we're going to have to get it the old-fashioned way: by working for it ourselves.
The astonishing detail is that he was right. The Roman Empire was, in fact, ravaged by epidemics and earthquakes in the three centuries between John's vision and the fall of Rome. The terrifying horsemen showed up on schedule -- historians call them the Huns -- and so did the battles, as the Roman Empire was wracked by barbarian invasions and civil war. For a thousand years after the Christianization of the Roman Empire, Christianity was the unchallenged faith of the Western world. Thereafter the devil, in the form of classical Greek and Roman culture, did indeed get let out of prison; we call that period the Renaissance. The last phases of John's vision are harder to fit with what happened after the Renaissance, granted, but even a very good prophet has his off days.
And yet, for millennia, Greer says, people have used the Book of Revelation as apocalyptic fodder. And they've been wrong.
He expects those predicting the End of Days in December 2012, when the Mayan calendar supposedly ends, to be wrong as well. The Mayans, as a polytheistic society, didn't concern themselves with a beginning or end of time -- to them, time just kept rolling. Some of their hieroglyphics even point to things that they expected to happen after the current calendar ends -- hardly the sort of thing you'd do if you were expecting time to stop.
It's too bad, in a way. Not that I was looking forward to the Earth's magnetic poles to shift, mind you. But wouldn't it be nice if the New Age prediction came true, and a kindler, gentler humanity did emerge on the winter solstice 2012? Oh well, apparently if we want it, we're going to have to get it the old-fashioned way: by working for it ourselves.
December 13, 2011
His basic thesis is that ideas/memes have a mind of their own; they're like viruses and as such continue to multiply across time/throughout history and that's why we have so many apocalypse stories nowadays. But I don't think he met his criteria. He didn't show me why we should see it this way. The evidence just didn't convince me. He should have made it a bit longer and provided a lot more notes and information. An interesting theory, one I'd like to explore more, but one he didn't provide much support within its pages.
February 9, 2025
A look at the apocalypse meme and how it has manifested in religion, politics and spirituality over the last three thousand years. This came out before 2012 and uses that as a jumping off point, but the book is not about that particular failed apocalyptic prophecy, but about the idea itself. How it came to be and how it has changed and survived, and what people get out of believing it.
January 9, 2025
John Michael Greer has become one of my favorite authors. Here he ties together many threads of history to show how apocalypse, in both religious and secular contexts, is just another meme in the Dawkins sense.
It's an easy, enjoyable read. I got through it at a relaxed pace in just two days.
Reviews should always include some criticism or point of departure, when available. Mine is that Greer talks about astrotheology in describing the Zoroastrian roots of Judeo-Christianity, but could have gone further. For example, he should have taken the opportunity to describe how Judaism is mostly a syncretism of the mythologies predating it, borrowing particularly heavily from the Egyptian religion, or how Christ is merely the archetype of the rising and dying solar deity, symbolizing the death at winter solstice and resurrection at the vernal equinox.
Likewise, he could have taken even a paragraph more to describe the roots of modern Zionism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the alliance between Ashkenazi Jews and antisemitic European protestants.
Also, there's a strong parallel to the apocalypse myth and green mythology, which he writes about elsewhere: ecological footprint is original sin, renewable energy is the salvation that will usher in the new age of green energy, and so forth.
Lastly, I don't recall Greer ever specifically touching this elsewhere, but the LGBTQ movement also mirrors the same phenomenon: rich, white, heterosexual males are the original sin, LGBTQ is the salvation that will usher in the new age of love without limits, and so forth.
These two additional examples should be included in a revised edition.
It's an easy, enjoyable read. I got through it at a relaxed pace in just two days.
Reviews should always include some criticism or point of departure, when available. Mine is that Greer talks about astrotheology in describing the Zoroastrian roots of Judeo-Christianity, but could have gone further. For example, he should have taken the opportunity to describe how Judaism is mostly a syncretism of the mythologies predating it, borrowing particularly heavily from the Egyptian religion, or how Christ is merely the archetype of the rising and dying solar deity, symbolizing the death at winter solstice and resurrection at the vernal equinox.
Likewise, he could have taken even a paragraph more to describe the roots of modern Zionism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the alliance between Ashkenazi Jews and antisemitic European protestants.
Also, there's a strong parallel to the apocalypse myth and green mythology, which he writes about elsewhere: ecological footprint is original sin, renewable energy is the salvation that will usher in the new age of green energy, and so forth.
Lastly, I don't recall Greer ever specifically touching this elsewhere, but the LGBTQ movement also mirrors the same phenomenon: rich, white, heterosexual males are the original sin, LGBTQ is the salvation that will usher in the new age of love without limits, and so forth.
These two additional examples should be included in a revised edition.
July 27, 2024
This book is less of a debunking effort, though there is plenty of that, and more of an interesting and entertaining history of apocalyptic thought, trends and events. He covers a lot of ground for such a relatively short book, from prehistory to the modern day, and I've got quibbles with some of his narrative. But it's a fun read nonetheless.
March 10, 2022
John Michael Greer seems incapable of comprehending that multiple people/groups of people can have the same idea without ever having contact or otherwise influencing each other in any way, shape, form or fashion. Because although he uses the term 'Meme' to avoid the negative connotations, in this book, he frames the concept of 'Apocalyptic Beliefs,' (I, e, the belief that 'Evil' currently controls the world, but that one day, the forces of 'Good' will overthrow them and/or create/be taken away to paradise) as a 'Virus' which can be traced back to Zarathustra, just as Covid19 has been traced back to a market in Wuhan, China.
As a result, Greer struggles to frame this book as an epidemiological study, tracing the spread of 'The Apocalypse Meme' from Ancient Persia all the way around the world. Just like every pseudo-academic who refuses to admit that their cool new pet theory has more holes in it than swiss cheese, conveniently glossing over those instances (such as in the case of the remnants of the Toltec Empire,) in which the 'Virus' had no possible means of 'Spreading' to that society. And at the end of the book, he merely shoves in Nostradamus as a concluding footnote because he couldn't find a way to fit his prophecies into his broader narrative.
Of course, books work much better when they are built upon such narratives. As Greer explains himself in the introduction, the reason why ancient societies converted dry astronomical facts into the stories about the Gods that we now know as the mythologies of those Civilisations was that they made vital information about when to plant crops and when the Nile would flood, etc, as easy to remember as the nursery rhymes that we all learned as children, because that's simply how our minds work.
Indeed, as humans, we appear to be hard-wired to seek a narrative that explains the chaotic and often meaningless world around us, usually framing conflicts as moralistic battles of 'Good Vs. Evil,' etc. So it's deeply ironic that Greer sought to impose a 'Meme' narrative to explain the 'Spread' of Apocalyptic beliefs in order to make his book more digestible, engaging and memorable when that very same need to 'Create Stories' explains how different peoples in different parts of the world all came up with roughly the same idea.
So in short then, while the information presented in this book is incredibly valuable because, from the Rapture and Fascism to QAnon and the belief that Elon Musk will 'Save Humanity' by founding a colony on Mars, people will always imagine that everything will be perfect as soon as the Evil 'Other' is destroyed and/or the 'Righteous' create/leave to find paradise, whenever someone attempts to reduce reality to a simplistic story, we must treat their narrative framing devise as precisely that; as a lens through which to better comprehend the material, nothing more.
As a result, Greer struggles to frame this book as an epidemiological study, tracing the spread of 'The Apocalypse Meme' from Ancient Persia all the way around the world. Just like every pseudo-academic who refuses to admit that their cool new pet theory has more holes in it than swiss cheese, conveniently glossing over those instances (such as in the case of the remnants of the Toltec Empire,) in which the 'Virus' had no possible means of 'Spreading' to that society. And at the end of the book, he merely shoves in Nostradamus as a concluding footnote because he couldn't find a way to fit his prophecies into his broader narrative.
Of course, books work much better when they are built upon such narratives. As Greer explains himself in the introduction, the reason why ancient societies converted dry astronomical facts into the stories about the Gods that we now know as the mythologies of those Civilisations was that they made vital information about when to plant crops and when the Nile would flood, etc, as easy to remember as the nursery rhymes that we all learned as children, because that's simply how our minds work.
Indeed, as humans, we appear to be hard-wired to seek a narrative that explains the chaotic and often meaningless world around us, usually framing conflicts as moralistic battles of 'Good Vs. Evil,' etc. So it's deeply ironic that Greer sought to impose a 'Meme' narrative to explain the 'Spread' of Apocalyptic beliefs in order to make his book more digestible, engaging and memorable when that very same need to 'Create Stories' explains how different peoples in different parts of the world all came up with roughly the same idea.
So in short then, while the information presented in this book is incredibly valuable because, from the Rapture and Fascism to QAnon and the belief that Elon Musk will 'Save Humanity' by founding a colony on Mars, people will always imagine that everything will be perfect as soon as the Evil 'Other' is destroyed and/or the 'Righteous' create/leave to find paradise, whenever someone attempts to reduce reality to a simplistic story, we must treat their narrative framing devise as precisely that; as a lens through which to better comprehend the material, nothing more.
March 14, 2012
Had I known that this was written by a druid and published by a company out of liberal Berkeley, CA, I might not have bothered with this book. The writer scathingly suggests that anyone who believes in an end times scenario is a kook, including believers of mainstream Christianity. This is frankly a bit insulting, mainly because mainstream Christianity differs from all the other examples he cites in that the date of the end of the world isn't actually known. If he read the Gospels properly, he would know that the central figure of Jesus specifically says that his followers won't know the day or hour when he returns and life as we know it ends.
The book's back cover got me sucked in by stating the narrative included, "The Biblical prophets whose successful predictions have been ignored for two thousand years" and "The failed end time prophecies of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton and other visionaries." Well, I must have completely missed the section on the first, because the author's description of the events circa AD66 do not fit the criterium at all of Daniel and John's prophecies. Secondly, I want my Mother Shipton section! Where is it? Nostradamus gets maybe a page, but the only mention of the old dear is on the back cover! Talk about false advertising. Mother Shipton was of particular interest to me because she alledgedly lived in the area where I grew up.
If you're looking for a good book explaining in thoughtful detail why the world will not end in December 2012, do not look to this book. Greer text mocks a good portion of the global population, and his 'notes' and 'bibliography' do little to support his work.
The book's back cover got me sucked in by stating the narrative included, "The Biblical prophets whose successful predictions have been ignored for two thousand years" and "The failed end time prophecies of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton and other visionaries." Well, I must have completely missed the section on the first, because the author's description of the events circa AD66 do not fit the criterium at all of Daniel and John's prophecies. Secondly, I want my Mother Shipton section! Where is it? Nostradamus gets maybe a page, but the only mention of the old dear is on the back cover! Talk about false advertising. Mother Shipton was of particular interest to me because she alledgedly lived in the area where I grew up.
If you're looking for a good book explaining in thoughtful detail why the world will not end in December 2012, do not look to this book. Greer text mocks a good portion of the global population, and his 'notes' and 'bibliography' do little to support his work.
April 15, 2012
A lot of people are, once again, expecting the end of the world. This time, the end is supposed to come on December 21, 2012. How many times over the last thirty years has the end been predicted? At some point, you have to start wondering why we keep believing these fear scenarios.
Apocalypse Not is a refreshing and extremely interesting read. The book looks beneath these doomsday prophecies to the root. At the foundation is a meme (a thought construct) transmitted from one person to another. It is thought that this meme began with Zarathustra who founded Zoroastrianism somewhere between 1500 and 1200 BCE. Through association, influence, and sometimes purposeful planning, the apocalyptic meme spread to other cultures and belief systems.
Literally, for thousands of years, people have been waiting for the Messiah (or their religious equivalent) and some form of last judgment. Each time, people believe these notions and fixate on them because this could be the end. At some point though, you have to wonder if maybe our energy could be much better spent. Rather than living in fear of some potential mass judgment maybe we could just live good lives and make our time allotted here count.
Apocalypse Not is a refreshing and extremely interesting read. The book looks beneath these doomsday prophecies to the root. At the foundation is a meme (a thought construct) transmitted from one person to another. It is thought that this meme began with Zarathustra who founded Zoroastrianism somewhere between 1500 and 1200 BCE. Through association, influence, and sometimes purposeful planning, the apocalyptic meme spread to other cultures and belief systems.
Literally, for thousands of years, people have been waiting for the Messiah (or their religious equivalent) and some form of last judgment. Each time, people believe these notions and fixate on them because this could be the end. At some point though, you have to wonder if maybe our energy could be much better spent. Rather than living in fear of some potential mass judgment maybe we could just live good lives and make our time allotted here count.
April 12, 2012
Greer traces the development of the apocalyptic meme throughout Earth's history from Zarathustra's Zoroastrians, to the modern day Evangelical Rapture fever, to the end of the 2012 Mayan calendar and what it DOESN'T mean for the planet.
Written with a supersized dash of snark, this book moves quickly in the beginning but bogs down painfully in the middle. And while Greer's arguments are interesting, I'm not sure how many of them would stand up to close scrutiny.
Still a worthwhile read, especially if you're one that's prone to believe that the Tribulation is right around the corner, or that the Mayans may actually have been right. Greer will set your mind at ease. Take it from him: mankind is nowhere near ready yet to be thrust into Paradise. We'd wreck it faster than you can say "Millenial Kingdom."
Written with a supersized dash of snark, this book moves quickly in the beginning but bogs down painfully in the middle. And while Greer's arguments are interesting, I'm not sure how many of them would stand up to close scrutiny.
Still a worthwhile read, especially if you're one that's prone to believe that the Tribulation is right around the corner, or that the Mayans may actually have been right. Greer will set your mind at ease. Take it from him: mankind is nowhere near ready yet to be thrust into Paradise. We'd wreck it faster than you can say "Millenial Kingdom."
November 12, 2015
A very informative source on the origins of the end-of-the-world myth, and its various permutations through history. Originally published in 2011, when the faux-Mayan 2012 end prophecy was in vogue, this book still has relevance today. Since the first recorded end times prophet, Zarathustra, expounded his vision of the final battle between good and evil, the notion that tomorrow might never come has cropped up over and over again, and caused a great deal of bloodshed. No matter how many times the prophets get it wrong, a seemingly endless supply of suckers line up for the next one. Heartily recommended.
February 6, 2012
I've been interested in the way people think of the end of the world for a long time. This is a great book thats goes through time and shows the reader all the failed attempts at predicting the end of the world. It leads up to the day most people now know as "the day the Mayans predicted to be the end of the world 12/21/12" and shows how that myth was started and what the Mayans really thought about that date. It was a great book with lots of history that was a little dry in parts but an overrall awesome read for anyone interested in the Apocalypse meme
March 2, 2012
Highly entertaining overview of various apocalyptic trends and how the whole idea of apocalypse came to influence people. Wow. We humans are a funny lot.
Want to read
December 24, 2011Waiting to see this come out--nice to see some reasonable,calm minds talk about why people hope for my world & life to be destroyed (and smile about it).
May 2, 2013
Good read - not to much new ground broken here, but a firm rebuke to the end-of-timers.
September 7, 2019
Excellent overview of the history of apocalyptic mythology
July 8, 2013
I guess I was expecting funny, and not a serious discussion of the spread of the "meme" of world's end. Still, this is an interesting book.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews