New Age Path?

[Matsumoto]

I tried that belief-o-matic thing and after going through all the various selections I found that New-age best describes me. When I define new age I define it as (but not limited to) Astral exploration, Angelic/demonic/ other astral spirit contact, and other such cosmicy things. I'm experienced in the Astral and angelic elements but I'd love to learn about other forms of this "new age" schtuff. Anyone have any thoughts or infomation? I'm a wee little sponge of curiosity :)

[Drouach]

I'm not sure if 'New Age' is really a path, so much as a General Description.

For Example:- General Description: Christian, path = Catholic.

The thing about New Age, is most of it is pathless, or rather you take inspiration from all paths, and rarely stick to one.

New Age can be described as an open philosophy of spiritual exploration, but mainly centres of Post Christian Western communities.

Some say the New Age was kicked off by Edgar Cayce a famous medium in the 20th Century.

Mediums, Psychics, Tarot reading, Angel therapies, New thought. These are all part of New Age.

Current trends are:
Doreen Virtues teachings on Angels and Past Lives
The Secret
Laws of Attraction

And it goes on and on.

I've been in the scene for a while. Like all areas of Spirituality, there is the up and downsides.

[Matsumoto]

Yeah your post describes my current state. I can't really define what I am becuase I prefer to have no boundries when it comes to my spiritual growth. I'm kind of a deconstructionist in that way (maybe, we shouldn't define deconstruction becuase it would put a system on a systemless thing, maybe ;) )

But yeah I know doreen virtue. Her books are nice, I do enjoy her angel cards but don't take anything as gospel truth from her or any other author for the same reasons I listed above.

As you said, there are many ups and downs :)

[RainInanna]

Hm I don't have recommendations but I always like the Yahoo Directory as a starting point - http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Religion_and_Spirituality/Faiths_and_Practices/New_Age/

[cheddarsox]

don't rush to identify yourself if you are in the exploration phase. I'm happy for you that you are following the energy where it leads you. There is lots of good stuff at MW, and great people to share info and answer questions.

Many people who share your interests refer to themselves as ecclectics, seems the term New Age is sort of phasing out (it's so 80's, lol)

[Theres]

I'm not sure if 'New Age' is really a path, so much as a General Description.
or a marketing ploy.

[Toby Stimpson]

or a marketing ploy.

Thats a very good point.

There are many good things with New Age, and many negetive things as well. I'd say be very critical of what your reading and also the credibility of the person who wrote it. I'd honestly look at anything connected with New Age because it's such a huge category, and thats really what it is its a category and over all general 'feeling' I suppose.

[Silverfangs]

Thats a very good point.

There are many good things with New Age, and many negetive things as well. I'd say be very critical of what your reading and also the credibility of the person who wrote it. I'd honestly look at anything connected with New Age because it's such a huge category, and thats really what it is its a category and over all general 'feeling' I suppose.

Indeed... New Age brought lots of things, good and bad, that sometimes confuses someone who wishes to explore such a world. The one thing that bothers me, is the commercial tag that "New Age" brought to the market. There was wonce a time where esoteric themes in bookstores had it's special place where interested people would investigate. Now it is in the "Top 10" of bookstores, with large advertisings promoting all kind of books (unfortunatelly mostly trash books).

So I guess, in my opinion, New Age is just some huge umbrella that covers all kind of esoteric issues in the present days...

[Matsumoto]

Yeah it does seem that way. atmittedly I do assosciate the New Age section with joke books, some of those books are ridiculous "how to curse people in 5 simple steps" ick. Any good material just gets lost in the myre of teen revenge plots.

[Toby Stimpson]

Indeed... New Age brought lots of things, good and bad, that sometimes confuses someone who wishes to explore such a world. The one thing that bothers me, is the commercial tag that "New Age" brought to the market. There was wonce a time where esoteric themes in bookstores had it's special place where interested people would investigate. Now it is in the "Top 10" of bookstores, with large advertisings promoting all kind of books (unfortunatelly mostly trash books).

So I guess, in my opinion, New Age is just some huge umbrella that covers all kind of esoteric issues in the present days...

well it's not really an opinion... I mean that IS what it is... New Age ahs never been anything more than an umbrella of many unrelated and related things. I mean not to mention the fact that New Age does include Paganism in most bookstores... so really that IS what it is, a loose collective term to refer to anything 'else' lol.

But your right theres a lot of trash books, but also a LOT of good books too :).

[Matsumoto]

I'm just wary of books that don't quote soursces and difine words wrong. One book difined Dharma as "angel's will" I'm like "no...no that's not what it means!" xD

[Silverfangs]

Concearning the source quoting thingy... here in Portugal, some years ago it was released a book called "Wicca - the old religion of the west", from an author called Garcia Baptista. The entire book was based on web research without mentioning the sources.

So, basically, a New Age book about Wicca (fluffy bunny like), wich is a result of a mass gathering of (only) web information, and the reader doesn't know where did the author get that material.





Just thought about sharing it with you guys ;)

[Toby Stimpson]

I'm just wary of books that don't quote soursces and difine words wrong. One book difined Dharma as "angel's will" I'm like "no...no that's not what it means!" xD

LOL... see there are *some* trashy books... but theres also a lot of good ones. It depends where you go...I usually find that Independant bookstores do their research and get qaulity books, same with collectors. I mean with new Age theres also a LOT of theory involved... becasue New Age creates or ties a lot of things in to create new things. For example crystal healing, seems fluffy at first, but some authors with crystal healing use reputable sources like Reiki, Chakra healing etc,.


Concearning the source quoting thingy... here in Portugal, some years ago it was released a book called "Wicca - the old religion of the west", from an author called Garcia Baptista. The entire book was based on web research without mentioning the sources.

So, basically, a New Age book about Wicca (fluffy bunny like), wich is a result of a mass gathering of (only) web information, and the reader doesn't know where did the author get that material.

Just thought about sharing it with you guys ;)

LOL thats awefulll...I hate it when authors do that. I mean its one thing to use web resources like academic journals, or reputable website projects...but if theyre *just* using little webpages thats a little errr. Mind you thinking about it, you rasie a good point, when it comes to Wicca or Witchcraft, is material translated into other languages?

I mean we look around mysticwicks and the entire website is in english... most books that I have are in english, and I havn't seen many books on Wicca in Russian, or Hindi, or Portuguese...etc,.

I'd disagree with you though that new age books are all fluffy, because like i said New Age is so large. Theres a lot of trashy fluffy 'new agey' type stuff but theres a LOT of other stuff as well :p.

[Silverfangs]

I mean we look around mysticwicks and the entire website is in english... most books that I have are in english, and I havn't seen many books on Wicca in Russian, or Hindi, or Portuguese...etc

Well... here in my country I've seen Wicca/Pagan/Witchcraft books translated into Portuguese. There are some book companies dedicated only to these kind of themes (Like the "Chackra" collection or "Espelho Mágico" - Magic Mirror in english ^_^). In the beginning (like 2002) it was hard to find one wiccan book (the one I remember seeing was Silver Ranvenwolf's - TeenWitch:/ - wich triggered a lot of fluffy bunnyness). Now they just come out of nowhere, some well known, others that I never heard about. As said before it is the New Age thingy - books for all tastes and beliefs. Some very good, others very bad... :boing:

[Toby Stimpson]

Well... here in my country I've seen Wicca/Pagan/Witchcraft books translated into Portuguese. There are some book companies dedicated only to these kind of themes (Like the "Chackra" collection or "Espelho Mágico" - Magic Mirror in english ^_^). In the beginning (like 2002) it was hard to find one wiccan book (the one I remember seeing was Silver Ranvenwolf's - TeenWitch:/ - wich triggered a lot of fluffy bunnyness). Now they just come out of nowhere, some well known, others that I never heard about. As said before it is the New Age thingy - books for all tastes and beliefs. Some very good, others very bad... :boing:

Thats really interesting :). See I don't think that it's something that people really think of. I mean I would wonder how many people who are Witches or Wiccan are English. But its good to see that at least some is appearing in Portugal in different languages. I know theres a lot in German becasue Germany was quite powerful in the last two centuries for occult stuff, and new age stuff now. Thats interesting...what do you prefer though Filverfang, do you prefer English selections or Portuguese?

[Silverfangs]

Don't really know... I think the type/quality of book is superior to the language it is written in. But maybe I would prefer english, since I am more used to the english pagan words. When I see "Coven" as "Conventículo" or "Lord and Lady" as "Senhor e Senhora", kinda messes with me simply because I am not used to it. Maybe if I started my searches in portuguese since the beggining, I would thought different.

But another aspect is that (going back to the main theme), mostly the bad new age books (the more commercial, fluffy bunny like) are always the ones translated to portuguese. 8O