The deal with New Age, in a nutshell
New Age, neopaganism, and witchcraft are neither synonymous nor mutually inclusive. Anyone who says they are either hasn’t done their research, or is lying to you.
New Age comes from Theosophy, a movement started by Helena Blavatsky, a white woman whose mission was ostensibly to seek out the perennial philosophy in the world’s religions. However, plenty of evidence points to Blavatsky being less than honest.
Helena Blavatsky was racist as fuck. She presumed to know what the traditions of non-white people were about better than they did themselves. She also wasn’t shy about referring to POC as s*v*ges. Some of her fans claim that she wasn’t actually racist because she had positive things to say about some POC, but she was basically painting them as pure and uncorrupted by civilization, so... still racist.
She was also into that gender essentialism that TERFs love oh so much - for example, she claimed that the goats of Thor’s chariot represented male power, while the reins that held them in place represented the female principle. Because, you know, women are passive yet restrain men from running absolutely wild.
Seriously if you have any doubt that this woman’s mind was full of rancid garbage, just flip through Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine for yourself; they’re literally free online.
The term “New Age” refers to what Helena Blavatsky called the Fifth Round (supposedly, we’re currently in the Fourth Round). Basically she believed that humanity is on a path of spiritual evolution, and that we’re about to enter a new phase in our evolution. This right here is the core tenet of New Age belief.
Entering the Fifth Round basically entails most of humanity dying off, leaving behind those enlightened (particularly by Blavatsky’s teachings) enough to become the fifth root race; IE, the progenitors of the next wave of humanity.
This is literally spiritual eugenics.
Helena Blavatsky didn’t invent Nazism but boy howdy did Nazis love her ideas, which should tell you a lot about what she peddled.
Like any other religious movement, New Age has evolved over time and not all members believe the exact same things. However, they pretty much all believe that getting on the spiritual evolution train means following their practices and subscribing to their beliefs.
Modern New Agers still perpetuate colonialism by presuming to understand what other people’s religious traditions are about better than they do.
Modern New Agers are huge fans of the ancient aliens hypothesis, which has always been racist bullshit.
So yeah, it’s still spiritual eugenics, and it’s still racist as hell.
They are constantly spiritualizing health conditions. Like being tired and sad all the time is supposedly an “ascension symptom.” Tinnitus is supposedly the universe trying to communicate with you. Symptoms of autism and ADHD supposedly mean you’re a starseed, indigo child, crystal child, or whatever else.
Starseeds, supposedly, are alien beings who have incarnated into human bodies in order to help Earth ascend by spreading New Age teachings. Basically, they’re missionaries from space.
New Agers claim starseeds were attested in many ancient traditions (especially Egyptian and Mesoamerican), but not a single one of them can produce a single scrap of evidence to substantiate this. (Literally the oldest text I’ve ever been able to locate that contains anything resembling a starseed is The Martian, an 1898 fiction novel.)
See how the racism just keeps compounding?
New Age is deeply tied into right wing conspiracy theories. The New Age to alt right pipeline is well-documented phenomena.
New Agers push spiritual bypassing and toxic positivity like whoa nelly. Some of them are worse about it than others, but it’s an extremely common thing.
A lot of them believe in what’s in The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean (not to be confused with The Emerald Tablet), a text that popped up in the early 20th century and claims a guy from Atlantis took over Egypt and taught them Atlantean spirituality. (This is very much in contradiction to what Plato said about Atlantis and Egypt, btw.)
New Agers are deeply into the Law of Attraction, which derives from New Thought, which is basically what happens when a bunch of rich fucks who don’t understand economics decide to spiritualize wealth.
And of course, there are the SCAMS. New Age is absolutely rife with scams, from people selling chunks of glass as powerful crystals for hundreds of dollars (the so-called “Andara crystals”), to people claiming to have “ancient wisdom” or “Native wisdom” they just made up, to all kinds of medical scams.
So yeah, no, there’s no good reason to respect New Age beliefs, because they are rancid.
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“We seek for truth in ourselves; in our neighbours, and in its essential nature. We find it first in ourselves by severe self scrutiny, then in our neighbours by compassionate indulgence, and, finally, in its essential nature by that direct vision which belongs to the pure in heart. Observe both the number and the sequence. To begin with, let Him who is the Truth teach you that you must search for truth in those around you before you look for it in its intrinsic purity. You will afterwards learn why you must search for it in yourself before you do so in your neighbours. Thus in the enumeration of the Beatitudes in His Sermon He placed 'the merciful' before 'the pure in heart'. For the merciful quickly discover truth in their neighbours when they extend their sympathy to them, and so kindly identify them- selves with them that they feel their good and evil characteristics as if they were their own.”
-St Bernard of Clairvaux, The Twelve Degrees of Humility and of Pride.
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What is now called the Christian religion existed among the ancients, and was not absent from the beginning of the human race until Christ came in the flesh, at which point the true religion, which already existed, began to be called Christianity.
St. Augustine of Hippo, On the Antiquity of the Christian Faith
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Human Freedom and the Future of Spirituality (Dialoguing with Roman Campolo)
Roman is a songwriter based out of Los Angeles with credits for K-Pop band BTS and legacy artists like Elton John and Stevie Wonder. The first 15 minutes of this didn’t record because of a technical glitch, but we felt the rest was worth sharing. We explore questions like: Where does spirituality fit into (post)modern life? What draws so many people to determinism. What kind of freedom might…
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This state of 'no-mind' exists, as it were, on a knife-edge between the carelessness of the average sensual man and the strained over-eagerness of the zealot for salvation. To achieve it, one must walk delicately and, to maintain it, must learn to combine the most intense alertness with a tranquil and self-denying passivity, the most indomitable determination with a perfect submission to the leadings of the spirit.
Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
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“Wisdom falls into three divisions.
The first division is the science of nature, called in Arabic, "Al-Ilm al-tibi". This branch of knowledge deals with the essential and incidental properties of material bodies.
The second division consists of the practical sciences, called in Arabic, "Al-Ilm al-riazi. These comprise arithmetic, engineering, astronomy, and music.
The third division, called in Arabic, "Al-Ilm al-ilahi. is the science of theology, which deals with the knowledge of G-d, knowledge of His torah, and other spiritual things, such as the soul, the intellect, and spiritual beings.
All these divisions of wisdom, and their respective branches, are gates which the Creator has opened for men through which they may attain a comprehension of religion and of the world. Only that some sciences are more needed for religious matters while others are more needed for secular interests.
The sciences whose use is closest to worldly matters is the science of nature, which is the lowest science and the practical science, which is second. These two sciences instruct on all the secrets of the physical world, its uses and benefits, its industries and trades and is conducive to physical and material well-being.
The science which is most needed for religion is the highest science - Theology.
We are under duty to study it in order to understand and obtain a knowledge of our religion. But to study it in order to attain worldly benefits is forbidden. Our teachers said (Nedarim 62a): "[expounding the verse: to love the L-rd your G-d, to hearken to His voice, and to cleave to Him' [This means that one should not say, I will read Scripture that I may be called a scholar. I will study mishna, that 1 may be called Rabbi, I will study [Talmud, to be an Elder, and sit in the assembly of elders; but learn out of love, and honor will come in the end". And "Do [good] deeds for the sake of their Maker, and speak of them words of torah for their own sake. Make not of them a crown wherewith to magnify yourself, nor a spade to dig with" (ibid). And "Fortunate is the man that fears the L-ord, that delights greatly in His commandments' (Ps. 112:1),
R. Eleazar expounds thus: In His commandments' but not in the reward of His commandments. This is just what we have learnt. He used to say, Be not like servants who serve the master on the condition of receiving a reward; but be like servants who serve the master without the condition of receiving a reward." (Avodah Zara 19a).”
-Rabbeinu Behaye, Chovot HaLevavo.
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