Introduction
The New Age movements that emerged chieflyin the second half of the
twentieth century constitute together an expression of the personalization
of religion that has characterized modern Western spirituality in
the wake of an increasing decline of institutional religious influence on
social concerns, the increase of secularization as a non-religious option
and the growing search for individual solace in the face of cultural uncertainties
and bureaucratic hegemonies. In the ever-expanding pluralism
of the West in which the individual possesses multiple affiliations
and social identities, many people are concerned with developing an
identifiableempowerment of self to counter the confusions arising from
a surfeit of choice as well as the expanding macro-contexts that continue
to dwarf .individual independence. The religio-spiritual often appears
to offer a last domain in which a person retains the feeling that
some freedom of self-determination is not only a possibilitybut is necessary
to any viably sustainable location of value and meaning. Personalized
religion takes many different forms (New Age, paganism, implicit
religion, sectarianchoice, evangelism, secular ideology, etc.), and
part of this proliferation is the consequence of the "age of information"
that has emerged and in which the individual is confronted by knowledge
and awareness of other religious possibilities beyond that in which
helshe has been born and acculturated.
In modem times, the West has been characterized by periodic religious
revivals or "Great Awakenings." At the same time, an alternative
and eclectic metaphysical tradition has always persisted in the West
that has offered a range of contrasting possibilities to accepted ecclesiastical
tradition. This occult potpourri or "cultic milieu" has provided a
2 Introduction
perennial source for Western alternativereligious inspiration, including
both contemporaryWesternpaganism and New Age spiritualities.
Early American expression of counter-traditional spiritual interest
appears with the rise of transcendentalismin the New England states of
the late nineteenth century that promoted an interest in Eastern spirituality,
especially Hinduism. Perhaps more of a literary developmentthan
a full-fledged religion, Transcendentalismbecame a leading instigator
behind the American or Western metaphysicaltradition with its concern
for healing and its emphasis on the reality and immanence of the spiritual.
As the alternative spirituality of the nineteenth century, the Metaphysical
Tradition stressed not only the reality of the spiritual world
and the importance of the mystical experience, but also the healing
value of reputedly invisible forces that .operate on the mind and body.
Between them, such people as Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772),
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-181.9, Phineas P. Quimby (1802-1866),
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Warren Felt Evans (1817-
1887) created the common language of the transcendentalist and metaphysical
traditions in America.
It was Swedenborg who first stressed for the modern West the importance
of exploring the supernatural personally and directly rather
than simply accepting the lackluster mediation offered by mainstream
churches. His own alleged communication with angelic forces or beings,
as well as his out-of-body experiences, laid the foundation for a
revival of gnosticism's prioritization of spirit over matter and its consideration
that spirit is ultimatelythe only reality. Emerson, in turn, was
deeply influenced by Swedenborgianideas, as well as by the spiritual
notions embedded in the Hindu Bhagavad Gita.He advocated as a consequence
an understanding of a unified world as an expression of mind
or God. His philosophy's nature mysticismattracted such other thinkers
as Henry Thoreau, Margaret Fuller and Amos Bronson Alcott. Beside
stressing a Unitarian reaction to Calvinist doctrine,New England Transcendentalism
promoted a reliance on intuition and a development of
human potential that together became the hallmarks of the American
metaphysical tradition and eventually the broad congeries of New Age
movements that emerged in the twentiethcentury.
To understandNew Age spirituality,it is also necessary to consider
the developments of spiritualism, New Thought and theosophy that
grew out of Swedenborgianismand transcendentalism.New Thought in
Introduction 3
particular owes much to Mesmer and his teachings concerning animal
magnetismand, eventually, the dynamics of hypnosis. The power of the
mind becomes the central affirmation, and illness, poverty and misfortune
in general are considered illusions that a proper gnosis and mental
acumen will dispel and eliminate. With Quimby, the spiritual orientation
that led to New Thought focused on healing-whether physical,
mental or spiritual-through the power of suggestion.
While spiritualism leads to such peripheral New Age emphases as
channeling and other forms of discarnate guidance, and theosophyitself
an offshoot of spiritualism-provides another range of cosmetic
additions such as the Eastern spiritual notions of karma, reincarnation
and ascended masters, it is New Thought which lies at the core of New
Age identity and its fundamental assumptions. Often working still
within an essential Christian framework, Jesus is now seen as the Wayshower
rather than a necessary cosmic Redeemer of original sin. He is
instead the one who indicates the way toward personal regenerationpar
excellence: Jesus exemplifies the mind-in-action and its power to shape
the world and life toward spiritual achievement and emancipation. Instead
of atonement, the goal is now "at-one-ment" between God and
humanity through which each person regains and unfolds hisher essential
divine nature. New Age interprets its Christian heritage of biblical
metaphysics metaphorically, while expanding its Christianitywith various
Eastern concepts. Reincarnation is now accepted as providing the
steps that lead to eventual immortality. As an assisting practice that
augments spiritual growth and progress, basic Hindu and Buddhist
predilectionstoward vegetarianism are also frequentlyincorporated.
As a product of the cultic milieu that comprises transcendentalism,
the metaphysical tradition, New Thought, spiritualism and theosophy,
the New Age movement or collection of movements is a specific development
of the 1960s counterculture that abandoned the notion of any
set spiritual script that must be followed. Spiritual resources become
available utilities rather than dogmatic injunctions. They may be sampled,
experimented with and incorporated or rejected as their usefulness
is demonstrated to the individual. But on the global as opposed to the
personal level, the counterculture demands a restructuring of the world
in conformity with its utopian potential rather than simply maintaining
its dominant corporateand national divisions. As such, the legacy of the
1960s counterculture includes both contemporary Western paganism
4 Introduction
and New Age. The former wishes to restructure the world in line with
environmental and ecological holistics. The latter would redesign the
global polity to reflect a transcendental hegemony. The one reflects the
immanent animism, pantheism and polytheism of ancient paganisms;
the other is a recasting of heretical gnosticism commensurate with the
spiritualconsumer market of today.
Both New Age and contemporary Western paganism draw their
adherents from the broader religious exchange market in which religions
themselves, as well as their various artifacts, practices and beliefs
become marketable commodities. Vis-6-vis mainstream canonical religions,
New Age and paganism are natural allies. They represent essential
democratizations of religion, but not only are they generally condemned
as heresies, they also encourage individual exegesis that is
anathema to doctrinally established forms of belief. Both also incorporate
a pervasive fusionbetween the religious and the psychological.
The difference between New Age and Neo-paganism lies foremost
in the realm of theology and the respective attitudetoward the tangible,
physical and/or natural world. Pagan ways of thinking understand the
sacred as all-pervasive-including, if not beginning with, the material
dimension. New Age, in contrast, and following its gnostic and transcendental
heritage, posits the corporeal-whether consciously or implicitly-as
an obstacle to spiritual progression. Nature is an illusion
that must be sundered and bypassed. If it is considered a bona fide reality,
it is nonetheless a secondary reality at best and ultimately worthless
when placed into the grander scheme of things. The final spiritual goal
is transcendence of the mundane, a transcendence of the impediment
that the material presents to ethereal self-fulfillment and not the pagan
aspiration to honor, cherish and celebrate the substantial as part of the
pleasures of life. New Age seeks to regain an original state of gnostic
grace and re-find the spark of divinity latent within each individual.
Paganism avoids the ladder metaphor for that of the ascending spiralcyclical
but advancing.What lies ahead is not a return but an evolution.
Apart from their contrasting theologies, New Age and paganism
differ also in their social compositions or expressions. New Age manifests
chiefly through what sociologists Rodney Stark and William Sims
Bainbridge understand as the audience and client cults, only occasionally
as a full-fledged cult movement. The primary venue is the lecture
theater-whether a borrowed church, hired hall or New Age center
Introduction 5
meeting space. Almost as important for New Age is the client consultation
with a service provider-whether an astrologer, yoga teacher,
therapist, psychophysical trainer, geomancer, mediumistic channel, etc.
For contemporary pagans, by contrast, the venue is a private home or
garden, a leased university hall, a summer camp, a private woods, a
public park, a tavern or an ancient site depending on whether the occasion
is social, initiatory, ritual or a festive fair. The pagan occasion is
less that of an audience gathering with little that is characteristic in
terms of the client-consultant relationship. While both movements have
little in the way of hierarchical structure, let alone bureaucracy, and
both movements are composed by relatively high numbers of solitary
practitioners,the group coalescing that does occur and their subsequent
trajectoriesas well as the raisons d'2tre behind them are different.
Another major difference between New Age and contemporarypaganism
concerns theodicy. While both orientations tend to dismiss the
reality of sin and evil, they nevertheless take differentpositions on what
the negative is. For New Agers, misfortune is a figment of the imagination.
Unhappiness, disease, poverty and so forth are all mental aberrations.
The purpose of spiritual progress is to acquire the gnosis or understanding
that allows one to neutralize andlor eliminate the power of
faulty thinking. For pagans, however, the negative is not a product of
ignorance as much as it is one strictlyof illness-whether an imbalance
in the natural and organic equilibrium or the result of an invading
pathogen. Rather than enlightenment, the emphasis is one that seeks to
cure an imperfect situation. If New Age emphasizes the acquisition of
knowledge or understanding, contemporary Western paganism is primarily
concernedwith the development and exercise of will.
But if paganism and New Age have many similarities and contrasts,
in practice they often tend to fuse and incorporate mutual elements
on an ad hoc basis that make any operative differentiation between
them difficult at best. Many scholars of religion, in fact, see Neopaganism
as a part of the wider New Age umbrella. From an outsider's
perspective, New Age is often an eclectic amalgam of appropriated
elements from across the full religious spectrum and frequently seemingly
without rhyme or reason. The very issue of appropriation is
greatly contentious according to New Age critics and has raised the
question of integrity and respect within the global spiritual arena. What
is at stake here is the problem of spiritual ownership. The mix-and-
6 Introduction
match conglomeration that often results can appear not only superficial
but also an insult to those from whom various elements have been appropriated-especially
if this involves a people such as Native Americans
or Australian Aborigines-who perceive themselves under threat
of losing their own self-identity.
But the appropriation issue aside, understanding New Age spirituality
as essentially a continuation of New Thought, despite the many
different cosmetic additions that have been fused to it-sometimes
permanently-allows a realization that New Age is much more consistent
than might otherwise appear the case. This detectable consistency
beneath its many multifaceted individual forms allows one to approach
New Age as a legitimate and distinct spirituality,permits a mutual recognition
between adherents and provides a common language, a sort of
New Age speak, of spiritual nuance and vertical metaphor. The focus is
almost invariably on healing-healing the body of infirmity, healing
the mind of doubt, confusion, uncertainty and anxiety and healing the
spirit from separation and darkness. In this quest for the higher state of
being, for the higher mind and higher self, it is gnosis that breaks apart
the chains of ignorance for a greater, more holistic, more integrated,
more dynamic and more effective and ascending state of being. The
acquisition of gnosis is to achieve enlightenment, and along with the
upldown framework in which New Age chiefly operates, there is also
employmentof a pervasive light-versus-darkness symbolism.
Some New Age critics deplore what they perceive as New Age's
exclusive exaltation of light. Among these are Neo-pagans whose more
pantheistic approach honors both luminescence and darkness. New
Age's light-fixation can be decried as one that leads ultimately to the
praise of nuclear oblivion. More typical, however, of a general antiNew
Age consensus is an attitude that sees it, perhaps less threateningly,
as simply lavender-scented and pastel-colored, a mishmash of
incense and crystals and the ultimate in self-pampering.New Age narcissism
is certainly a criticism that is often leveled against spiritual consumerism
in general, and the "airy-fairy" proclivities of New Age are
often fair game for ridicule and dismissal by outside viewers.
But New Age frequentlyrefers to itself as, or part of, the Wisdom
Tradition. Its essential thrust represents an attempt to uncover hidden,
esoteric and occult knowledge that reputedly belonged to the rnages,
sorcerers and secret societies that have flourished beneath mainstream
Introduction 7
spiritual traditions. Along with these, New Age includes the spiritual
truths believed embedded in the mythologies and practices of indigenous
peoples. In fact, New Age seeks to discover the common denominators
linking all religions-whether mainstream, endangered, extinct
or esoteric. In its quest for a "new age," one that is generally associated
with the astrological notion of an Age of Aquarius, New Age spirituality
advances the idea that spiritualproperty is no longer an exclusive or
private concern of any privileged elite but is now part of a public domain
accessible and potentially usable by everyone. The Wisdom Tradition
that formerly survived sub rosa is, in the Aquarian New Age or
Information Age, increasingly manifest. And it is this very Wisdom
Tradition that New Age believes transcends any and all religion.
But it is not only this innovative declaration of the sacrosanct and
independent integrity of this tradition that distinguishes New Age, it is
also the insistence that this tradition is directly accessible. From a New
Age perspective, there is no need of a middle person to mediate between
the individual and a sacred reality. Gurus and teachers are instead
guides: helpers rather than indispensable agents, wayshowers
rather than magical surrogates. Consequently, New Age repudiates
priests, prophets and other institutional authorities who presuppose that
they can tell others what to believe and what to do that is mandatory in
obtaining spiritual grace. Instead, it is the individual himself/herself
who becomes, if not a self-authority, the self-determiner in regard to
spiritual matters. Mistakes that a person makes become learning experiences,
and it is this very experiential approach that constitutes the sine
qua non experimentation and discovery of New Age identity. Even in
the case of more institutional New Age sects such as the Church Universal
and Triumphant, the locus of final authority is still believed to
rest with the individual adherent who chooses to subscribe to a particular
regime and spiritual framework.To the degree that New Age can be
identified as championing the absolute freedom of individual selfdetermination
concerning spiritual matters, it includes contemporary
Western paganism. It is instead when considering what is spiritual that
the two orientationsare to be differentiated.
Consequently, New Age reveals a long legacy that stretches from
ancient gnosticism, the Masonic and Rosicrucian lodges from the middle
ages, ceremonial magical pursuit of the Renaissance, New England
transcendentalism, spiritualism, theosophy, New Thought and the
8 Introduction
American metaphysical tradition. For the most part, it occupies a middle
ground between such differing expressions as the Holy Order of
MANS (HOOM) and Heaven's Gate. The former, originally a typical
New Age liberal blend of various traditions, slowly transformed into a
conservative Christian institution. Its women were forced to surrender
their holy orders. Membership developed into village-like enclaves, and
in 1988 its remaining 750 members underwent baptism and joined the
Holy Orthodox Archdiocese of Queens, New York. The group assumed
its new name of Christ the Savior Brotherhood. Along with most
remaining parishes, the Brotherhood later joined the more mainstream
Orthodox Church in America. It is now dedicated to converting the
world to Eastern Orthodoxy, and the remnants of its former New Age
expectation have been channeled into preparation for Christ's Second
Coming.
Heaven's Gate developed from the nomadic spirituality of Marshall
Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles-originally known to
followers as Bo and Peep; later as Do and Ti. The two established a
UFO cult in the American southwest that combined science fiction
elements with biblical prophecy-seeking redemption in an extraterrestrial
"Kingdom of Heaven" and accepting a gnostic theology in which
human bodies are merely "shells" or "vehicles" antecedent to The Evolutionary
Level Above Human (TELAH). The arrival of the Hale-Bopp
comet was interpreted as a marker and arrival of a spacecraft from the
higher state, and this culminated in the suicides of thirty-nine residents
of Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego on the 26th of March, 1997,who believed
that through the death of their mortal bodies, they would achieve
TELAH. While the Heaven's Gate narrative is expressive of the extremes
of New Age thought, it is not typical of the more moderate mix
of ideas that constitute the bulk of the New Age movement. Both
HOOM and Heaven's Gate are difficult-to-locate expressions within
the more popular New Age spiritualitythat the present dictionary hopes
to illustrate.