Theosophy and the New Age movement

New Age

Crystals, witchcraft, ESP, tarot cards, tai chi, yoga, and the I Ching, which are seemingly disparate tools, practices, and beliefs, come under one spiritual rubric: the New Age movement. The New Age amalgamates ancient philosophies and religious practices ranging from shamanism to Sufism and including everything in between. The New Age is almost an anything-goes spiritual path, as it has no one set of beliefs, no central text, no concrete origin, and a malleable theology. In fact, technically atheists can participate in New Age religion, for the New Age also embraces straight science and often espouses an impersonal universe devoid of an overarching anthropomorphic deity. However, the New Age can be isolated and analyzed as a distinct, albeit modern religious movement that began loosely around the turn of the twentieth century when Theosophy delivered fresh ideas from Eastern religions to the Western world and as the Western world was becoming increasingly more secular. The New Age is also characterized by an emphasis on personal responsibility and on the individual's unmediated connection with the divine. While there are no set dogmas associated with the New Age, concepts like karma and reincarnation and practices like meditation, vegetarianism and holistic healing are central to the movement. Moreover, the New Age movement tends to include environmentalism and liberal politics as part of its core ideology.

The infusion of Buddhism with Christianity, Islam with Taoism, Judaism with paganism, characterizes the New Age, and therefore the movement embodies flexibility and an embrace of both ancient and modern beliefs, rituals, and practices. Some "New Agers" are strictly pagan, worshipping gods from one or any number of ancient, multicultural pantheons like the Hindu or Teutonic. Others are monotheistic; their beliefs might be fully entrenched in a Jewish, Christian, or Muslim worldview but without ascription to the mainstream manifestations of those religions. Still others fall into no decipherable category but are still properly New Age, such as those who believe in "channeling" entities, communicating with extraterrestrial beings, or traveling in the "astral" body.

While there are no central texts associated with the New Age, the movement includes a plethora of printed material to guide and inform practitioners or potential practitioners. The early works published by the Theosophical Society, the Seth books, the Urantia book, and Deepak Chopra's books can all be considered New Age, as can classics of world religions like the Bible and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The New Age espouses no particular view of the afterlife and no singular worldview, although many practitioners believe in a Hindu or Buddhist-like concept of reincarnation rather than an absolute heaven or hell. Some New Age believers promote an apocalyptic worldview, seeing hidden spiritual meanings in natural disasters and political events, while others assert more optimistically the dawn of a glorious "New Age" in which all sentient beings are free from suffering. Many New Age practitioners see the problems of humanity as being divinely foretold and therefore inevitable; others view them as being the product of a wayward human race and therefore believe the human beings possess full and unlimited powers to control destiny.