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When someone says the words occult or new age.What comes to mind?

PoetPhilosopher

PoetPhilosopher

Veteran Member
To play word association....

When I hear the word New Age, I think of this newer faith called New Age with a mishmash of ideas.

When I hear the word Occult, I actually think of Left Hand Path
 
sun rise

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
occult - interest in the astral plane not the higher spiritual plane.

new age - this image says it

energy.jpg
 
George-ananda

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
Frank Goad said:
When someone says the words occult or new age.What comes to mind?:)
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That the 'occult' and New Age' are very different things.

Occult to me deals with the hidden spirit world around us.

New Age is the Hindu philosophies of non-dualism (God and creation are not-two) and the non-physical parts of our being brought to the modern western world.
 
Yazata

Yazata

Active Member
Frank Goad said:
When someone says the words occult or new age.What comes to mind?:)
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I can only speak for my own associations here.

"new age" suggests (to me) religious eclecticism. It's the idea of people choosing an idea from this tradition and another idea from that one, without a lot of doctrine or philosophy tying it together into a single whole. At its least sophisticated, there's a hint of uncritical embrace of anything that strikes people as 'cosmic' somehow. But I have to say that generally speaking I like it and feel some affinity for it.

"occult" suggests (to me) the western occult tradition . I see that as kind of a clandestine religious countercurrent passed on by personal teaching that originated in things like the weirder sorts of late antique neoplatonism (theurgy etc.) This evolved into ritual magic, alchemy and all sorts of disseparate currents that have survived down to the present time. I have lots of historical and philosophical interest in this one.

So in a word, the phrase "new age" suggests contemporary do-it-yourself religiosity in my mind. While "occult" suggests an at least 1500-year-old traditional Western religious counterculture with multiple sources in ancient and early medieval "paganism".
 
VoidCat

VoidCat

Pronouns: he/him/they/them
Occult- hidden knowledge. It's not crystals and nonsense like @Rival said. It is a quest for deeper knowledge of the world and the spiritual realm like mysticism, and witchcraft being two different paths under it

New age: Fluff bunnies. Sorry. That's kinda rude but it's the first thing that comes to mind. After that its: I don't know enough about new age practices to speak on their views
 
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U

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
Frank Goad said:
When someone says the words occult or new age.What comes to mind?:)
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This is something I read of interest: New Age Theology

New Age Theology – Introduction
Like every other worldview, New Age theology forms the foundation for all other aspects of its worldview. However, the New Age movement (Cosmic Humanism) differs from Christianity, Islam, and the secular worldviews in that it embraces neither theism nor atheism.

Cosmic Humanism begins by denying the preeminence of any purported special revelation over any other. That is, Cosmic Humanists believe that the Bible is no more the word of God than is the Qur’an, or the teachings of Confucius. New Age advocate David Spangler says, “We can take all the scriptures, and all the teachings, and all the tablets, and all the laws, and all the marshmallows and have a jolly good bonfire and marshmallow roast, because that is all they are worth.”1

Obviously, if the Bible is valuable only as fuel, this nullifies the significance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Cosmic Humanist sees Christ’s life as important only in the sense that it showed humanity to be capable of achieving perfection, even godhood. An article in the New Age publication Science of Mind states, “The significance of incarnation and resurrection is not that Jesus was a human like us but rather that we are gods like him—or at least have the potential to be.”2

This interpretation of Christ allows the New Age theologian to postulate, as John White does, that “The Son of God...is not Jesus but our combined Christ consciousness.”3 Jesus is looked on as one of a select company, having achieved Christ consciousness. Every person is encouraged to acquire this same level of consciousness.

How can anyone hope to achieve such a divine consciousness? Because everyone is a part of God. Cosmic Humanists believe that we and God are ontologically one. “What is God? God is the interlinking of yourself with the whole.”4
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And so forth.

The first thing I think of with new age movement is finding religions and practices that oppose traditional religions. That seems like the central theme I find in many new age and universalist practices and religion. I think it depends on the person how they go about practicing.

Occult, I only know the derogatory definition of the term. I don't know anything about it to judge what it is from my personal opinion.
 
IndigoChild5559

IndigoChild5559

Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
Frank Goad said:
When someone says the words occult or new age.What comes to mind?:)
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Occult -- the dark arts. Witchcraft, Necromancy, Divination primarily. Common forms today are the Ouija board, talking to psychics, tarot readings, I-Ching... One of the things I think is dangerous about these sorts of predilections is that it gives the practitioner a sense that they are "special" in some way, gifted, or that they have special knowledge that others don't have. It leads to a disturbed kind of arrogance. The second thing I'd say is be warned about the presence of a great many con men in these fields, who are not true believers, and are just into it to get as much of your money as possible.

New Age -- the western discovery of Eastern Religion, and the westernization of many of its characteristics. This would include beliefs like reincarnation or spiritual energy in objects and places, practices such as channeling spirits and angels or following astrological predictions.
 
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