New Age

[Guest guest]

There seems to be some dispute regarding New Age, so I thought this

might help.

 

David

 

 

 

>>> Excerpts from The Vatican's statement on " The essential matrix of

New Age thinking " <<<

 

" The essential matrix of New Age thinking is to be found in the

esoteric-theosophical tradition which was fairly widely accepted in

European intellectual circles in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was

particularly strong in freemasonry, spiritualism, occultism and

theosophy, which shared a kind of esoteric culture. In this

world-view, the visible and invisible universes are linked by a series

of correspondences, analogies and influences between microcosm and

macrocosm, between metals and planets, between planets and the various

parts of the human body, between the visible cosmos and the invisible

realms of reality. Nature is a living being, shot through with

networks of sympathy and antipathy, animated by a light and a secret

fire which human beings seek to control. People can contact the upper

or lower worlds by means of their imagination (an organ of the soul or

spirit), or by using mediators (angels, spirits, devils) or rituals.

 

People can be initiated into the mysteries of the cosmos, God and the

self by means of a spiritual itinerary of transformation. The eventual

goal is gnosis, the highest form of knowledge, the equivalent of

salvation. It involves a search for the oldest and highest tradition

in philosophy (what is inappropriately called philosophia perennis)

and religion (primordial theology), a secret (esoteric) doctrine which

is the key to all the " exoteric " traditions which are accessible to

everyone. Esoteric teachings are handed down from master to disciple

in a gradual program of initiation.

19th century esotericism is seen by some as completely secularised.

Alchemy, magic, astrology and other elements of traditional

esotericism had been thoroughly integrated with aspects of modern

culture, including the search for causal laws, evolutionism,

psychology and the study of religions. It reached its clearest form in

the ideas of Helena Blavatsky, a Russian medium who founded the

Theosophical Society with Henry Olcott in New York in 1875. The

Society aimed to fuse elements of Eastern and Western traditions in an

evolutionary type of spiritualism. "