"New Age" of Aquarius

Though there are no formal or definitive boundaries for membership; those who are likely to sample many diverse teachings and practices (from both ’mainstream’ and ’fringe’ traditions) and to formulate their own beliefs and practices based on their experiences can be considered as New Age.’ Rather than follow the lead of an organised religion, "New Agers" typically construct their own spiritual journey based on material taken as needed from the mystical traditions of all or most world religions, including shamanism, neopaganism and occultism.

Most New Age practices and beliefs may be characterized as a form of alternative spirituality or alternative religion. Even apparent exceptions, such as alternative medicine or traditional medicine practices, often have some spiritual dimension —such as a conceptual integration of mind, body, and spirit).

Because the New Age term is generally limited to a Western context wherein the Judeo-Christian tradition and Positivism are dominant, the use of "alternative" (rel. religion and/or science) generally implies a contrast with the dominant beliefs. Hence, many New Age ideas and practices contain either explicit or implied critiques of organized mainstream Christianity —emphasis on meditation suggests that simple prayer and faith is insufficient. Belief in reincarnation (which not all New Age followers accept) challenges familiar Christian doctrines of the afterlife.History

The name New Age was popularized by the American mass media during the late 1980s, to describe the alternative spiritual subculture interested in such things as meditation, channelling, reincarnation, crystals, psychic experience, holistic health, environmentalism, other fields associated with pseudoscience, and various “unsolved mysteries” such as UFOs, Earth mysteries and Crop circles.

Typical activities of this subculture include participation in study or meditation groups, attendance at lectures and fairs; the purchase of books, music, and other products such as crystals or incense; patronage of fortune-tellers, healers and spiritual counselors.

Quartz crystals are believed to have mystical properties by some New Age followers

The New Age subculture already existed in the 1970s, and arguably continued themes from the 1960s counterculture. Earlier generations would have recognized some, but not all, of the New Age’s constituent elements under the practices of Spiritualism, Theosophy, or some forms of New Thought / the Metaphysical movement, all of which date back to the nineteenth century, as does alternative health. These movements in turn have roots in Transcendentalism, Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism, and various earlier Western esoteric or occult traditions, such as the Hermetic arts of astrology, magic, alchemy, and cabbala.

In the English-speaking world, we should make special mention of study groups devoted to American trance-diagnostician Edgar Cayce, who inspired many of today’s channelers. The British neo-Theosophist Alice Bailey’s writings may have supplied the term New Age (or New Era). The Findhorn Foundation, an early New Age intentional community in northern Scotland founded in 1962 played a significant role.

The movement in Russia has been heavily influenced by the legacy of Nicholas Roerich and Helena Roerich, who taught in the Theosophical tradition. Another former Theosophist, Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophical movement, is a major influence, especially upon German-speaking New Agers. In Brazil, followers of Spiritualist writer Allan Kardec blend with the Africanized folk traditions of Candomblé and Umbanda.

Crop circles are seen as evidence of spirit beings or aliens by some with New Age belief

Key moments in raising public awareness of this subculture include the publication of Linda Goodman’s best selling astrology books Sun Signs (1968) and Love Signs (1978), the Harmonic Convergence organized by Jose Arguelles in Sedona, Arizona in 1987; and the wave of interest in the broadcast of Shirley MacLaine’s television mini-series Out on a Limb (also 1987).

This was an autobiographical account of her mid-life spiritual exploration. Also influential are the claims of channelers such as Jane Roberts (Seth) and J.Z. Knight (Ramtha), as well as revealed writings such as A Course In Miracles (Helen Schucman), The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield), Mutant Message Down Under (Marlo Morgan), and Conversations with God (Neale Donald Walsch).

The question of which contemporary cultural elements ought to be included under the name of "New Age" is quite vexed. New Age channelers have many points of similarity with Spiritualist mediums. Many spiritual movements, such as neo-paganism and transpersonal psychology partially overlap with it. Many groups prefer to distance themselves from the possible negative connotations of the "New Age" name such as the media hoopla, commercialism, and perhaps hucksterism.

The following are some common — though by no means universal — beliefs found among New Agers:

• All humanity—indeed all life, everything in the universe—is spiritually interconnected, participating in the same energy. “God” is one name for this energy.

• Spiritual beings (e.g. angels, ascended masters, elementals, ghosts, and/or space aliens) exist, and will guide us, if we open ourselves to their guidance.

• The human mind has deep levels and vast powers, which are capable even of overriding physical reality. “You create your own reality.”

• Nevertheless, this is subject to certain spiritual laws, such as the principle of cause and effect (karma).

• The individual has a purpose here on earth, in the present surroundings, because there is a lesson to learn. The most important lesson is love.

• Death is not the end. There is only life in different forms. What some refer to as an afterlife does not punish us but teaches us, perhaps through the mechanisms of reincarnation or near-death experiences.
  Science and spirituality are ultimately harmonious. New discoveries in science (evolution, quantum mechanics), rightly understood, point to spiritual principles.

• It shares with many major world religions the idea that Intuition or "divine guidance" is a more appropriate guide than rationalism, skepticism, or the scientific method. Western science wrongly neglects such things as parapsychology, meditation, and holistic health.

• There exists a mystical core within all religions, Eastern and Western. Dogma and religious identity are not so important.

• The Bible is considered by some, but not all, to be a wise and holy book. Many important truths are found in the Bible, or are referred to only very obliquely. Some say that Jesus was an Essene, or that he traveled to India in his youth to study Eastern religions. Others say that Jesus was a later avatar of Buddha.

• Feminine forms of spirituality, including feminine images of the divine, such as the female Aeon Sophia in Gnosticism, are viewed as having been subordinated, masked, or obliterated by patriarchal movements that were widely practiced when sacred teachings were first committed to writing. A renaissance of the feminine is particularly appropriate at this time.

• Ancient civilizations such as Atlantis may truly have existed, leaving behind certain relics and monuments (the Great Pyramid, Stonehenge) whose true nature has not been discovered by mainstream historians.

• There are no coincidences (see Synchronicity). Everything around you has spiritual meaning, and spiritual lessons to teach you. You are meant to be here, and are always exactly where you need to be to learn from what confronts you.

• The mind has hidden powers and abilities, which have a spiritual significance. Dreams and psychic experiences are ways in which our souls express themselves.

• Meditation, yoga, t’ai chi, and other Eastern practices are valuable and worthwhile.

• The food you eat has an effect on your mind as well as your body. It is generally preferable to eat fresh organic vegetarian food.

• Ultimately every interpersonal relationship has the potential to be a helpful experience in terms of our own growth.

• We learn about ourselves through our relationships with other people by getting to see what we need to work on ourselves and what strengths we bring to the other party in order to help them in their life.

• All our relationships are destined to be repeated until they are healed, if necessary over many lifetimes.

• As Souls seeking wholeness, our goal is eventually to learn to love everyone we come in contact with.

• An appeal to the language of nature, mathmatics, as evidenced by numerology in Kabbala, gnosticism etc., to discern the nature of god and/or to minimize the discrepencies inherent in this pursuit.

• Naturally occurring irrational numbers such as Phi, Pi, and e might indicate a fundamental innability of nature to account for the extant universe and therefore imposes a limit to our corporeal understanding of god, or conversely, may be important clues to the attainment of said understanding.