I am profoundly acquainted with the new age movement.
As someone who has explored, and in many cases practiced (and sometimes promoted), the endless varieties of new age methodologies and philosophies out there, I’ve seen pretty much all of it.
While yes, there’s a lot of undeniable beauty in the new age movement, there are also a lot of unhealthy and even dangerous elements within it, surprisingly.
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Also, while there are lots of religious articles out there condemning new agers, there aren’t many non-religious folks shining the lights on the ins and outs of this popular movement.
I hope to bring more balance to this arena. My goal is to support you, particularly if you’re new to the spiritual journey (and even if you’re a veteran), in avoiding the traps and pitfalls inherent in new age mentality.
After being disillusioned too many times and witnessing the confusion of those on this inner path alongside me, it’s time to get real and grounded in some down-to-earth spirituality.
Table of contents
What is the New Age Movement? (It’s Origins)
The new age movement is an eclectic combination of many different psychological, philosophical, and religious ideas from around the world. It emerged after the countercultural hippy movement of the 1960s and began to truly blossom by the 1980s.
Ethnobotanist and psychonaut, Terence McKenna, once defined the new age in this way:
The New Age is essentially humanistic psychology eighties style, with the addition of neo-shamanism, channeling, crystal and herbal healing, and this sort of thing.
The original driving force behind the new age movement was to liberate humanity from the dry, rigid, life-denying, and in many cases, dangerous ideas propagated by orthodox religion.
Such a noble and worthy ideal to leave corrupt religious ideology resulted in the impulse to combine, cross-reference, and merge multiple wisdom paths and teachings to achieve a kind of universal unity.
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Unfortunately, however, this syncretism, this fusion of different ideas and practices from around the world led to a dilution of their power. As such, we now have terms like “new age fluff” which is self-explanatory, and also references to “new agers” which is a term that’s increasingly used in disparaging ways.
Note: not every “non-religious” form of spirituality is necessarily new age. In other words, those who identify as “spiritual but not religious” are not always new age (although sometimes they can be).
Benefits of the New Age Movement
Although I’ve called new age spirituality the “McSpirit” of spirituality (and I still stand by that), I also want to point out that it does have value.
There’s a lot of good inherent in new age spirituality.
Here are some of the benefits or best things about the new age movement:
- It challenges religion – considering all the horrors perpetrated by religion, this point is enough to make the new age movement a positive force in the world
- It’s friendly and acts as a doorway into the spiritual path – for those totally new to spirituality, the new age movement’s focus on good vibes only and “love and light” encourages the spiritual impulse to come out and play
- It provides people with hope – many who have suffered terrible loss have found solace in the gentleness of new age ideas and practices
- It promotes the divine feminine – most religious paths are masculine dominated and therefore alienating to the other equally present force of life: the feminine (or yin)
- It embraces the body and sacred sexuality – sex, sexuality, and the body as a whole aren’t seen as shameful or wrong, but are celebrated, and this is beautiful
- It elevates the role and value of nature – nature is seen as sacred, not something to be used, ignored, or dominated (as in many religious paths)
- It emphasizes a personal connection with the Divine – for those who feel spiritually hungry, the new age movement reminds us that yes, we can connect with the Divine, it is our birthright!
In my years exploring, practicing, and in some cases promoting the new age movement, I’ve witnessed these wonderful benefits.
However, as positive as it is, it also swarms with numerous ‘demons’ beneath the surface.
The Cons of the New Age Movement, aka. McSpirituality
Without getting wordy and long-winded here, let’s just get right into the cons and greatest disadvantages of the new age movement.
I present these issues so that you can be keenly aware of the traps inherent in the new age movement that many overlook and never mention.
Hopefully, this exposé will save you years of struggle, confusion, and pain:
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1. Encourages Spiritual Escapism
As sparkly, cosmic, and feel-good as new age spirituality is, it’s also undeniably a form of escapism.
“Why is that bad?” you might instantly wonder. “Reality is full of terrible horrors.”
Yes, it’s true that reality can sometimes be hard to deal with. Government corruption, social media fake news, poverty, wars, trauma, racism, sexism, environmental destruction, and more recently a world pandemic can overwhelm us.
Some people may need the new age movement to help them get a handle on their mental health, and that’s totally understandable. I’ve been there too.
And yet, if we stay within the new age, with its emphasis on everything that is out of this world (spiritual ascension, higher vibration, higher self, 5D, pleiadians, aliens, etc.), we ignore the need to face this human experience. We spiritually bypass the uncomfortable reality around us and become addicted only to that which gives us a spiritual high.
This focus on anything that is blissful, transcendent, and full of light isn’t progressive, it’s regressive. It’s infantile spirituality.
Furthermore, the spiritual path isn’t all about love and light. It is also about darkness, pain, ego death, and awkward transformation as well. If you truly want to “follow your bliss,” you’re going to have to deal with some ugly situations, feelings, and tendencies within you and others. And that’s a fact of life.
2. Low Committment and Low Impact
Because of the escapist nature of new age spirituality, it tends to avoid the issues plaguing the world, and thus makes little to no active social impact.
Poverty, racism, environmental degradation? Forget it! Although on the surface the new age movement talks a lot about how “sacred” everything is, when it comes down to it, there isn’t much active involvement in the world. If there is active involvement, it’s usually because the new age practitioner has sided with another philosophy like veganism, feminism, minimalist, sustainability, and so on.
There is also a marked lack of commitment amongst new age practitioners who tend to jump from one philosophy or practice to another. If drumming circles become boring or unfulfilling, angel channeling becomes the next dopamine hit. Perhaps crystals and manifestation grids will come next, and then studying numerology and getting a psychic reading will follow.
As detrimental as religions have been to humanity, there is one thing that they have offered us, and that is the ability to commit, to make a substantial social impact, and to provide in-built accountability.
With the new age movement, there’s no accountability – you’re meant to keep yourself in check. And yet as a fallible human being, is that really reasonable?
As Steve Bruce writes,
[New Age] elicits only slight commitment and little agreement about detail. It thus makes a shared life unlikely. It has little social impact. It has little effect even on its adherents. It does not drive its believers to evangelise. It is vulnerable to being diluted and trivialized . . . eclectic to an unprecedented degree and dominated by the principle that the sovereign consumer will decide what to believe . . . a low-salience world of pick-and-mix-religion.
This ‘pick-and-mix’ spirituality that the new age movement essentially is, results in what we could call ‘spiritual tourism’ – hopping from one thing to another without ever settling down, going deep, or seeing through.
Don’t get me wrong, exploring and being curious is healthy and beautiful. But the shiny allure of the new age movement can keep us perpetually stuck in that place, without ever deepening.
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3. Stunts Our Growth
While it’s liberating at first to be able to cherry-pick what we like out of various wisdom traditions throughout the world, it also tends to stunt our growth.
The term “new age fluff” sums up what I’m about to say pretty well: with the ability to pick and choose what we like, we also get to avoid what we dislike. Namely, the new age movement promotes avoiding the reality of pain, darkness, death, and suffering. Instead, new age practitioners tend to focus only on what feels good, is affirming, is artificially empowering, and helps them to avoid the harsh realities of the world.
What happens when we avoid the darkness is that we become stunted. We become overly dependant on our ‘healers,’ ‘psychics,’ ‘shamans’ and other people and tools to alleviate our pain and provide us with direction. We lose the ability to develop resilience, focus, determination, and deep courage.
My conclusion is that while yes, religion often equals imbalanced yang/masculine energy the new age movement represents the opposite: imbalanced yin/feminine energy.
4. Promotes Spiritual Consumerism
I’m sure you’re familiar by now with what a “new age shop” looks like. Walking in, you’ll find an endless assortment of candles, crystals, incense, dream catchers, cards, books, statues, essential oils, and the list goes on and on. Chances are there’s even one in your own town!
If you’ve been on Instagram or any other social media platform, you’ll also likely be familiar with the “spiritual aesthetic.” This new age invention involves pictures that look dreamy, airy, and feature an array of crystals, pendulums, candles, and other metaphysical trinkets (perhaps with a yoga mudra or pose thrown in for good measure). Such consumerist imagery is everywhere. And it’s mesmerizing!
Within the new age movement there’s almost this unspoken assumption and even rule that in order to be spiritual, you need to look spiritual. Without looking spiritual, without displaying your beautiful spiritual material items to the world, you might as well not bother!
While there’s nothing wrong with having some pretty or mysterious looking tools, when your spiritual path is all about getting more, it’s spiritual materialism. As the Tao Te Ching says,
Reduce what you have. Decrease what you want.
If you’re on the spiritual path, you’re probably already quite aware of the fact that stuff doesn’t make you happier. Material things don’t fill that void within you. In fact, they often contribute to feeling empty inside.
And yet, because of the lack of a strong central core, the new age is prone to fuelling such an insidious branch of consumerism that preys on spiritually empty and undiscerning individuals.
5. Results in Cultural Appropriation
Cultural appropriation is what happens when someone (usually from a dominant culture) adopts elements from another (usually a non-dominant) culture.
For instance, someone might adopt the fashion, tattoos, speech, rituals, and other practices from another culture without asking for permission or acknowledging where that adopted element came from.
Unfortunately, the tendency to promote cultural appropriation is one of the more nauseating elements of the new age movement. I’m sure you’ve seen and heard ‘new agers’ use and misuse rituals, items, and other sacred words and beliefs that disrespect the original culture that carried these customs.
Now, I’m aware that some level of cultural mixing is necessary and needed in the world. Variety is the spice of life, as they say. And I’m not the “woke police” trying to punish anyone for saying a Sanskrit mantra or wearing an Om pendant – that’s silly and honestly another form of ego inflation (by acting as the almighty savior or punisher of others).
But when someone tries to identify as a member, for instance, of an indigenous culture when they’re clearly not, that’s obviously disrespectful. And that’s the thing about the new age, it creates this “noble savage” idea about other cultures and promotes using their customs without having a dialogue and finding a sense of shared humanity.
Some examples of cultural appropriation perpetuated by the new age movement can be found in the misuse of Native American spirituality (sweat lodges, smudging, etc.), self-styled shamanism that borrows sacred rituals without permission, and other metaphysical practices.
Note: not all use of other cultural images is necessarily disrespectful or blatant cultural appropriation – it’s all about the context. One helpful question many new age practitioners would do well to ask is, “Are my actions hurting or degrading the value of other cultures?” and “How am I promoting white supremacy or racism by purchasing this or practicing that?”
6. Promotes Ego-Centrism
While I find most religions distasteful, I do appreciate their ability to help their adherents to practice humility and recognize the limitations of the ego. The opposite is true with new ageism where you essentially become God.
If I was given a gold coin every time I saw a post, book, workshop, or other spiritual resource promoting “your gifts,” “your power of manifesting,” “your growth,” “your angel number,” “aliens who have contacted you,” “you being a goddess,” “your planet in mercury retrograde,” etc. etc. … I would be Supreme Ruler of the Universe. ;)
Certainly, it’s normal and good to learn about ourselves. It’s important to desire to better our lives. But at a certain point, our spiritual paths need to move beyond just us and our interests and instead to others, nature, the world, and the Divine. If we’re always focusing on ourselves, our spirituality can quickly become ego-centric and shallow.
“Not my will but thine be done” was probably one of the more illuminating phrases of Jesus and it’s a quality I, once again, appreciate about religion (as much as I dislike most religious institutions). Humility, reverence, and devotion are all qualities blatantly missing from new age spirituality.
And the irony is that while the new age demonizes the ego, it is ruled by it – when one’s spiritual path is all about “me, my, and mine” how could it not be?
At some point, we need to learn to surrender, to let go, and to trust in something Greater than ourselves.
Even the focus on one’s Higher Self can be confusing, mixing up the subjective ego with the objective Divine essence. Sadly, this leads to one of the greatest tragedies: a grotesquely inflated ego that is drunk on its own supposed ‘virtues,’ ‘gifts,’ insights, and ‘downloads’ from the Divine, mistaking itself as ‘enlightened’ and essentially untouchable. I call this grievous pitfall spiritual narcissism.
The reality is that for true spiritual growth to occur, the ego must dissolve and go on an immensely painful process of ‘crucifixion’ and dismemberment. There’s just no way around it folks.
How Do I Avoid the Perils of New Age Spirituality?
The result of all the above six pitfalls of new age spirituality is why I refer to it as McSpirituality (or the McDonalds of spirituality if that isn’t clear).
The unfortunate conclusion I’ve drawn after more than a decade in this field is that it is like junk food – sure it fills you, but it ain’t that good for you.
That being said, yes, there are good things about the new age. But if we want to be more than just tourists and dabblers (which is fine), if we truly want to touch deep states of peace, love, and freedom, we need something more.
How do we avoid the perils of McSpirituality? Here are some suggestions:
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$3- Find one holistic path (that involves the body, heart, mind, and soul) and go deep within it. Follow it through until the end. Recognize the hedonistic adaptation that makes you want to jump around and try something new. (Of course, it’s okay to experiment with other practices, but ensure you have one central unmoving one.)
- Find a path that has in-built accountability. In other words, when you’re getting lazy or forgetful or are totally off your tits with bizarre ideas, who ya gonna call? Who is there to help motivate, correct, and guide you? Having a community to return to unified with the same purpose will be essential.
- Find a path that focuses on honoring something greater than yourself. Humility is such a crucial part of the spiritual path, and if it’s all about you all the time, it will become shallow and unfulfilling quite quickly.
- Be courageous and dare to face the shadows. Learn to accept (and find resources that help you to embrace) the fact that life is full of a lot of nasty shit. There is pain and suffering everywhere. How can you face that? How can you embrace the fact that one day you will die?
- Find a path that encourages social change. As a Buddhist, I adore the term coined by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh: interbeing. Such a word refers to how interconnected and essentially inserparable we all are. What we do influences everything else, and everything else influences us. This simple concept helps us to understand how important it is to live consciously and inspires action. Ask yourself, what can I do to make a change in society, however small?
I think anyone new to spirituality is bound to fall into the trap of new ageism sooner or later – me included. But it’s okay. This is all a learning process!
The Third Way
There are times when the spirit is completely darkened because it needs to be reborn.
– Carl Jung
In many ways, the new age movement is the antithesis of religion. Yet I believe the friction between the new age and religion is needed to create a third way, an integration of both new age free-thought and religious depth.
In other words, if our spiritual paths are to mature, there needs to be a synthesis of the yin (new age) and yang (religion).
Without religious qualities, new age is shallow, consumerist, escapist, and ego-centric. And without new age qualities, religion is stale, dry, shame-inflicting, and dogmatic.
So the question I pose to you now is this: how can you walk the third way? What does that look like for you?
Final Words
New Age culture cannot create a shared sense of direction or movement because it’s central body elicits little commitment and agreement about the details. With it’s endless varieties, techniques and practices, people cannot unite to evangelize it, it becomes trivialized and diluted.
– J.R. Lewis & J.A. Peterson, Controversial New Religions
The new age movement has helped humanity, but also hindered it.
With its tendency to selectively choose only pleasant truths, it denies the essential wholeness of the human condition with all of its joy and suffering.
Is it “bad” or “wrong” to dabble in the new age? Absolutely not. We all need to do a little exploration which is totally healthy and normal. And if we want to stay within the new age forever, that’s fine too. At the end of the day, we’ve all got to do what suits and resonates with us.
But for those who are called to go beyond the new age, I hope this article has helped, inspired, and motivated you to go a little deeper.
What are your thoughts about the new age? I’d love to hear below. Please also share this article with someone if you think it might help them. ♡
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As a 100%Disabled Veteran I began my spiritual journey eithout realizing it at all. I was looking for valid tools of healing wherever they might be found. After a falling out between myself and the Roman Catholic church, I started studying Theology in the attempt to replace that church and around 8 yrs of this I reached the conclusion that all “organized” religions were creations of man, not our percieved Creator. Whether it’s God, Allah or whoever you call your Creator, he/she did not write those “Good Books”. Not the Bible, the Koran or any other good book of any organized religion was ever written by Creator at all. It was men who did so and when 1st done their intentions were likely based in good. But over time that was corrupted by men to become tools of control. Tools of gaining riches, influence and ultimately of gaining ultimate power. Now not all are equals in this but not all have gone down that slippery slope to the levels the Catholic church but they are sll on that slope I feel. This led to the times we now find ourselves because they all use fear and hate to maintain control and gain more power & control. So I left that path as I felt they all lost their balance. I began a new journey of knowledge in the hope it would lead to a true relationship with Creator to experience and grow within with no middleman determining the qualities of said relationship. Think about it. It’s like the healthcare system of the USA that allows insurance companies to the qualities of our healthcare. Bean counters now make most of the decisions that should be between a doctor and their patients to determine. This led to society’s lack of health and due to the insurers need for ever increasing profits as the priority rather than the health of the nation’s people…here we are. A nation full of unhealthy people who fear and hate each other based on their political affiliations and beliefs. A broken society.
INTENTIONS ARE KEY IN EVERYTHING WE DO! We must never forget that.
As I began study spirituality rather than researching religions to replace the one I left I continued my search for tools to improve the impacts of my disability I went down the paths of my two ancestral paths. The Native American Indians and the Irish/Celtic that are both strong in my bloodlines and learned that they knew how to live in balance with all things in existence still and still do to this day (Modern man and our society’s have lost that ability completely.). All Indigenous Peoples still know how to live in balance as they’ve never lost their intentions to do so. They want us all to appropriate their culture ways if our intentions are for the Greater Good of ALL in existence but not for narcissistic reasons of frivolity or worse. That is how we restore the balance here on our Dear “Mother Earth” and eventually solve all our issues. That is how we all ascend into a blissfull existence.
At some point on this journey my healing path and my spiritual paths merged and become one path know by my Native ancestors as the “Red Road” and my Celtic ancestors called the “Druidic Ways”.
I am still one that path and keep bumping into this “New Age” path which is not new at all. Jesus was a New Age practitioner as were many before him. It was in Egyptian society, Sumarian and all Ancient Society’s. That’s because IMHO it is our path ever since our fall from grace as a way to get back to where our Creators intentions were in our creation: to be his/her equals, not to be created in his image (that is extremely narcissistic reason for such creating buy him/her and would never occur). We were created, I feel, to be his equals as loving co-creators of news things in existence simply for love and harmonious balance…for our eternal bliss and beyond.
I have become a bit of a healer as I solve my own pronlems andvhave become an advocate willing to teach other disabled veterans how to better their live by helping them learn how to keep their disability from causing them to lose hope. But that created many enemies in my life. Recently a couple of years ago I realized every damn one of those enemies came from America’s Organized Religions! Especially the Catholics, Baptists and Evangelicals…God forbid . That inspired my continuation on my path.
I have been mentored by Medican Men within 1st Nation Tribes. Shamanism comes from Mongolian healers not Native American Indians. Nor does it come from the Celts or anywhere else. But all society’s had their healers and this was developed over time (it still is evolving today).
Long story short, I am considered a 21st Century Druid by those who know me and was mentored by Medicine men, one of whom once told me while teaching me his Medicine Man ways that I already had that knowledge. It just looked different due to my Celtic Druidic knowledge. It just had different totems and ceremonies based on old school Celtic Paganisms of that side of my ancestral bloodlines. He said all society’s from the beginnings of man had Healers and Shamanic practices are global and similar to each other because the intentions were the same for them all.
This I feel, is what will save mankind and at the same time it could be viewed as culteral appropriation to the extreme but if you were to ask any healer within Indigenous populatios they would say that it is mans salvation as all Shaman on Earth have exactly the same intentions: The Greater Good of ALL in existence. Especially our dear “Mother Earth” as she is our home and our sustenance. All of ours and there is only one tribe on Earth…one called Humanity.
Oh also people need to understand there is no such thing as a true evil here. Everythingbin existence is like a coin. It all, like all coins has 2 sides. The light and the dark, the good & the bad, the pro’s and the con’s… We humans have stories about the dark and the light wolves within us. And we are/were taught that they are equals and Must be treated as such in order to maintain our own inner balance but we are prone to shunning our dark wolf and loving our light one. In my mind that’s where the concept of evil was created…an illusion, a Human Miscreation an abomination that Organized Religions have adopted as a tool of control of the masses and society has adopted it in full.
This pandemic is allowing folks to see this a bit which I feel, is why Corona virus is here right now. Corona means Crown. Jesus spoke of it 2000 yrs ago. It was how he described his return to Earth as a Lion! He has returned. Not as a man walkingbon Earth though. His return is in the form of Christ Conciousness being infused in the minds and hearts of all who are open to it. And all the craziness going all is the Purging of ALL HUMAN CREATIONS ever created by man being put into full view for us all to see for what they truly are. Once that’s done they will be transmuted back into the original form Creator intended. This, I feel, is what Jesus was trying to accomplish for us but his failure was due to our need to collectively do for ourselves and he now knows his failure was due to the yin leaving mankinds presence with our falling from depicted in the stories of Adam & Eve. But that story was altered by men through the years as a false illusion that help them control the masses. But then we found the Dead Sea Scrolls and science is now proving that the great flood actually is real. Man is now connecting the dots of our forgotten history and startingbto see the truth of it all.
A few yrs back our planet left the Age a Pisces and are now fully in the Age of Aquarius that the Hippies sang about in the sixties. They were off by a few decades because they smoked two joints in that morning when they did the math on that. DOHH!
SO JUST REMEMBER: IT’S ALL ABOUT OUR INTENTIONS
I agree with your article and feel that spirituality is now being commercialised and the focus on all ‘love and light’ means that we are disowning the shadow which needs to be owned and integrated within everyone to achieve true wholeness and wellbeing. I enjoy receiving daily emails from Father Richard Rohr who founded the Centre for Action and Contemplation (https: //cac.org/about/richard-rohr/). He’s an ‘elder’ and to quote from the CAC website: “His teaching appeals to a vast audience—from current and former Catholics, Anglicans, Evangelicals, and mainstream Protestants, to “spiritual but not religious,” to Buddhists, to agnostics—all around the world. He has referenced the Buddhist proverb to emphasize that his words are only a finger pointing to the moon, not the moon itself. “All spiritual language is by necessity metaphor and symbol. The Light comes from elsewhere, yet it is necessarily reflected through those of us still walking on the journey ourselves.”
Father Richard Rohr is one of the few people that I deeply respect as he is a scholar, a wisdom teacher and a humble and wise man of deep faith and he communicates the true pure essence of Christ consciousness and the teachings of Jesus, without all the doctrine. He doesn’t shun or judge the New Age, yet manages to embrace all faiths and include all people and every day there is something in his emails to contemplate. He brings together core deep truths and timeless wisdom so I feel that the work of Father Richard and Centre for Action and Contemplation (CAC) is one good example of the ‘third way’.
Couldn’t agree more! i was actually thinking to write a book on this very thing and you hit ALL of my major points. Perhaps I could interview you sometime if I ever make that book happen.
Sorry about poor grammar and such in this witing. One of my disabilities is traumatic brain injury causing me to live in a brain for. But that could be corrected by hiving us the opportunity to proof read and gorrect before it actually is posted.
By the why, my healing journey led me to lots of healing mushrooms not long ago and led me to Lions Mane that is correcting my brain fog by allowing my brain not to heal those ruined synaptic connections, but by growing new ones and micro-dosing magic mushrooms is helping my ptsd and social anxiety so now I am a Healer with enthomycology and enthobotanical grower of many healing tool including my Medicinal Cannabis of which Oregon gave me a license to do and Oregon legalized shrooms for therapeutic healing purposes. I believe Christ Consciousness is the stimulus for these reversals of negative intentions and that’s why we are enduring this Corona virus pandemic here on Earth. Once we complete the infusion of said Christ Consciousness we will ascend to our 1st thousand years of blissful existence here on Earth.
Thank you
Thank you for posting this article, this definitely gives a lot of clarity on what is really happening in this world. I have been completely lost and highly confused spiritually trying to find my way. I am retraining my mind to think positively because I have been stuck in the dark for so long. However i do believe it is highly crucial to face the darkness and confront it rather than avoid it. I have been sweeping it underneath the rug rather than facing it head on. I am still very lost and confused but I have hope that one day I will figure it out. This article was very informative and very helpful.
Long Time New Ager from Brooklyn, N.Y.:
The ONLY time in my life that I received any negativity about the New Age movement is when I had to relocate to Virginia because of my job.
I was always some sort of spiritual person, raised Italian-Catholic, but later became a Christian/NewAge mix (Castenada/Yaqui etc.).
What happened was that when I went into a so-called Christian managed bookstore seeking more written knowledge on this topic, I spoke with a nun at the counter about New Age products and she said point blank “I should hope not.” If she slapped me in the face, I couldn’t have been taken more aback/been more shocked.
I then kinda guessed then that folks and religeon down here are very closed minded and I’m not used to that from living up North.
But, I found out that that wasn’t the case, as I have since located other practices, I even married in an Indian ceremony, went to Edgar Cayce and met witches.
I know that new age is widely disparate due to many different practices/practicioners, but I never associated it with oppositional deviltry/devil worship. I know that you mentioned commercialism, but again I never put that kind of tag on it.
I still don’t know why there is such a backlash or schism between religeon and it! Can you be more precise as to when this all came about and why?
Clueless,
E. John Curcio
Thank you for this amazing article and reminder. Truly touched me and made me feel something of real value. Love your work.
I agree with most of your perspective on the New Age movement. For my personal journey, one in which I will never feel comes to an end, has been far from rainbows and butterflies. I feel like a magnet for everything at this point. To much of which is for-profit spirituality mongers. In social media, I am being bombarded more so than ever with money making scheme‘s or even straight up fraudulent activity. I have really only one true friend I feel at this point. All others have left.
So my situation through this awakening process has not been all about the light.
That is not because I did anything incorrectly. But clearly, my intuition and heart’s desire took control of my mind and projected exactly what I needed to face and overcome. We do manifest our own reality, that I have blind faith in.
Numerology has been a huge component, but that was only after I had experience with clairvoyance and clairaudience. In a deep state of meditation, I heard a voice that was internal. This was the third time in a short few weeks that I had experienced this phenomenon. It wasn’t somebody else’s voice, but as if one was being channeled through to my inner dialog. It told me to look at numbers in a certain way and from there on out, almost an obsession with numerology transpired. The specific number series I was being led to examine was one of much significance to all of the residents of the United States. I still stand by the benefit numerology has provided me through my process, and have not spent more than $50 in exploring it. But it can get quite frightening, especially if your mind is like mine and excels at numerical pattern recognition.
Through this, my desire to be of service to others has never been greater. Financially struggling on my own, I see the future of human as not so attached out of fear of death to this system of manufactured scarcity that keeps us enslaved. I have put up a giant money block in my life. I struggle to try to combine spirituality and income into a profession. For me, I’d prefer to donate time for any service I may be able to offer.
Ironically, my past career was finance. I haven’t worked in three years, but something needs to happen soon. I would rather be homeless than to go back to my old career. Of course, offers in my old line of work have poured in at the moment I decided to move beyond my old career. Funny how the past can seem to cling on for dear life.
On the matter of cultural appropriation, I start to diverge from your comments. I believe that being inspired by other cultures is a wonderful thing. Culture belongs to no person. So no person can speak on behalf of a culture. And win we participate in their art, food, music etc., as long as we do so to celebrate it and not to mock it, no harm can be done. Living in the United States, a blend of culture is inevitable. And I believe bringing them together and allowing everyone want to participate is only a positive thing. The idea of a ruling race seems to perpetuate the playbook of divide and conquer. I believe the future of humanity transcends this idea. But that is just my perspective.
I certainly appreciate and value everything you have to contribute. I get great pleasure and personally find so much value in the contact you provide. Many blessings, Aletheia!
Hello Aletheia,
I am so glad that you wrote this article as I don’t see a lot of criticism regarding the downfalls of the new age movement/spirituality. Funny that this article was published around this time as I’m at a point where new age related material (or should I say the people haha) is starting to be a turn off for me. I’d give credit to it allowing me to explore different facets of spirituality as a person who was raised in a Christian household. And a number of the teachings have helped me become more aware of myself, others, and the environment. But like many things, you start to see the downsides and negatives. In regards to the first con you made, it is something that I see among those who follow the path. To add on to what you stated, it also comes off as dismissive, like the mundane reality holds less importance. If you subscribed to the teachings, wouldn’t you want to use it to improve the world and make it a better place? Instead, I see them say that they don’t want anything to do with 3D reality when people like them are probably the ones most needed in today’s world. Somewhat of a gripe of mine.
With the new age movement becoming more popular and the rise of new age influencers, it now comes off as “gimmicky” and superficial because of the focus on the aesthetic. Along with the adherents, I also see the “spiritual ego”. I would think that they would be more humble and understanding, especially towards those that may be unaware of spirituality but instead, there’s this haughty and “better than thou” attitude that rubs me off the wrong way. One of them called logical people “hyper intellectual idiots” because they weren’t in touch with the right hand side of their brain. Like wow lady, judgmental much? At least have some grace. I ended up unfollowing and unsubscribing from a couple of them because of it. That’s something I don’t like. But then that’s a lesson they most likely need to learn.
In regards to cultural appropriation, you mentioned this in some of the comments under the article but it’s something that’s clearly not black and white. In addition to those that say there’s nothing wrong with borrowing elements from other cultures, I think the main question isn’t so much about that, it’s more so drawing the line between doing so respectfully and doing it in a mocking and degrading way.
Thank you for all that you do here on Lonerwolf. I discovered the website 7 years ago and still find your content inspiring and full of knowledge. As I go along with my spiritual path, I realize that I lean more towards spiritual philosophies and teachings that also include the psychological and human potential. Like that’s my core. I think that’s why I still come to the website and read the articles.
Hey Julie,
Firstly, what a honor that you’ve been along this ride with us for the past 7 years, that is bloody amazing!!! It means so much for me to hear that and I’m delighted that you still find value in what we share because it comes from such a deep Soul place.
Oooh yes, when you say “it also comes off as dismissive, like the mundane reality holds less importance” I can absolutely see that. With all the talk about the 5D and ascension and even extraterrestrials it’s always seeming to imply that there here and now is not enough. This reality, this earth, this world, is not good enough – and on one hand I can empathize with that (because the world *is* going through a shitstorm right now), and on the other I see how it perpetuates such unhealthy attitudes and behaviors.
With the haughty and “better than thou” attitude I second you – I think it’s referred to as the “woke culture” in mainstream lingo.
I’m so grateful for your sharing ❤
I LOVE your website, the weekly emails, articles and journals! I very much love it specifically because you write the articles with unbias. You present the information, you present your experience, and encourage people to safely, intelligently follow what resonates with them. One of my favorites was “religion is a belief system/god/divine based on another’s experience vs spirituality is belief based on your own experience.”
I think this article conflicts with all of that. I can see escapism in any form is unhealthy, and I can understand when people blindly identify with something you(ego) have a strong belief about- for the sole purpose of “being trendy.” But ultimately I don’t feel spiritual consumerism is bad, I’m happy other people share a love I love regardless of their authenticity because now I can buy a “Libra” candle instead of a white market one. Furthermore, it’s interesting you mention ego must dissolve yet you’re telling the world of spiritualists what to do…dissolve ego, find a niche and stick with it, even to tell people escapism isnt okay….
I feel it was triggering only because I had an experience with a person incredibly preachy about “divine, downloads” and extremely pushy, and love only, and totally used it for escapism. Then I realized I do the same with astrology. I told my daughter if she doesn’t like cleaning her room, pretend it’s Justin beibers room and maybe it’ll be more fun- why suffer if you’re capable of changing perception(delusion)? I feel this article could have been written less “antagonizing”, and more informative from an unbiased view maybe highlighting awareness of these things, and how to discern/navigate them. At the end of the day your a human and I’m a human and your views, experiences, beliefs are no better/worse, right/wrong than mine or anyone in your audience.
Ps I’ve studied astrology and psychology for two years, jungian archetypes, elements and cycles in nature, a little spiritual a little rational. I totally mix karma(Eastern) with western astrology, with chakra, with intuition, synchronization, dabbled with guides, born Jewish/raised half Christian, explored Neiche in high school, read the shack a few years after….. what’s wrong with exploration and what’s wrong with change/evolving beliefs? Maybe it’s okay to love it all.
Thank you!!!
Hi Morgan,
Absolutely – exploration is so normal and healthy and at the end of the day, we’ve all got to do what uniquely suits us.
As for spiritual materialism, I’ll have to disagree with you there – I struggle to find how it is helpful (although it can be like a doorway into spirituality). It has a cheapening and addictive quality which I dislike.
While most of my articles are indeed unbiased, I’m not a robot. So I do have opinions and perspectives which I’m entitled to share (as I’ve done in this article). Ultimately, this article is for those who are called to go beyond the new age and dig a little deeper – but if someone wants to stay in the new age, there ain’t nothing I can do about that. ;)
Best wishes ♡
I learned alot reading this article, thanks alot! And I agree the third way is the way to go.
Other, I don’t have much knowledge of New Age-stuff. Sure, some of it is cool, but some stuff of it can become too much. Same with religion.
I’ve also never, either understood, nor been much for the materialistic stuff. And then also the love and light only and the toxic-positivity vibes, even though there’s soooo much of that stuff outside of New Age nowadays also, I personally dislike that stuff alot. Sure, we all have our moments when we need a break from the negative. But to go only light, love and positivity while denying everything else and the reality out there of which needs adressing to (like global warming/climate change for example), or serious stuff in our own lives of which we need to adress etc, then these stuff is just harmful in the end.
Totally agree about the toxic positivity, Janni/ZeldAlice! Thank you for sharing and being here ♥