What New Age Spirituality Gets and Doesn't Get Right
We are not here to make our lives “better,” we are here for our growth and evolution
New Age spirituality isn’t new anymore. In fact, it’s been around for a few decades, so these days it’s just branded spirituality. Yet, ask anyone what spirituality or New Age spirituality really is, and the answers will likely be all over the place.
New Age spirituality has given rise to so many modalities, ideas, theories, truths/half-truths, pseudo-sciences, and feel-good totems, it’s become a kitchen sink of spirituality.
From body and wellness to astrology, mindfulness and meditation, energy healing, channeling, chanting, sweating, Tarot, Angels, Star seeds, crystals, and so on, there’s seemingly no end.
With such an exhaustive list, it’s no wonder that New Age spirituality is difficult to encapsulate, which feeds a common perception that it’s wishy-washy and lacks any true identity.
Spirituality, distilled to its most basic understanding, is the connection an individual person develops with spirit. That spirit can be a soul, an entity that represents some kind of consciousness associated with some unseen or cosmic force, or a god-like figure that is not represented within any kind of conventional religion.
We can form and facilitate this connection however we see fit, whether through meditation, prayer, or awareness practices.
New Age spirituality builds upon these established practices in various ways, creating a multitude of experiences that may suit virtually everyone. There isn’t just one way to meditate, there isn’t just one way to interpret astrology, and there isn’t just one deck of cards to use.
While New Age spirituality has made spirituality more accessible — because there really is something for everyone — this infinite array of options can lead people to become lost in the pursuit of spirituality, achieving no real path to self-discovery, which is the reason for connecting to spirit or spirituality.
On the positive side, the mainstreaming of New Age spirituality has normalized the idea that there’s more to life than meets the eye.
There was a time when spirituality was regarded as more of a “hippy” thing that wasn’t talked about in wider circles.
Astrology was something you might read in the newspaper for amusement over coffee just after the cartoon page.
Tarot or other card decks were something reserved for the most esoteric and adventurous seekers, crystals were pretty rocks that “other” people would keep by their windows, and past life readings were considered eccentric.
These days, many people know their Sun signs, natal charts, and whether or not they’re compatible with a Scorpio whose ascendant is in Aries.
Some of them may know their Vedic and Kabbalistic astrology charts as well. Thanks to YouTube and TikTok, no one has to look very far.
And pre-COVID-19, we could easily find some kind of retreat that would help us enhance our Third Eye, align our Chakras, or get us in touch with our Master Guides.
All the searching can be fun, even addictive. New Age spirituality has made it all so accessible that almost anyone can find something of interest.
Exploring spirituality is a process of self-discovery. And like children just beginning to become aware of their place in a small world, we want the stories.
How we came to be, what it’s all about, and what we’re doing here.
We’re seeking a vocabulary and context for our lives. Astrology, Tarot, and Angels are fun for that. But they are not the only means through which we can find context or understanding for ourselves and our experiences.
As we get older and want to develop greater spiritual maturity, it requires that we go deeper into ourselves, so deep that no celestial or group of stars can really define it for us.
And this is where New Age spirituality can make us stuck.
There is absolutely no modality, practice, or theory it offers that brings us to that core understanding that somewhere within all of us is a spirit that teaches us how to connect the consciousness it embodies.
Many misunderstand spiritual consciousness, believing that it somehow has to do with how we think or what we believe.
Consciousness as a simulacrum of our beliefs, thoughts, or ideas is an aspect of our mental body. Our spiritual consciousness (which is held by our spiritual body) encompasses a more expanded view of these beliefs, thoughts, and ideas. And connects them to a larger Source which enables us to recognize our connection to one another.
The only way to reach the spiritual body is to have all of our bodies; the mental, the emotional, and the physical operating as harmoniously as possible so we’re not operating from only one or two of them.
New Age spirituality often keeps us looping through these three main bodies because we are utilizing tools and practices that steer our awareness toward spirit but don’t facilitate the fundamental connection needed to develop greater spiritual maturity.
To be fair, there was a time when we needed these tools. Our world, the hectic way we conducted our lives, and half-hearted relationships required that we make the extra effort to turn toward spirit.
We could become more “mindful” or “grateful”. We could become more conscious of our choices by “raising our vibration”. We could “manifest” the life of our dreams.
While these are very well-intended ideas, as someone who has practiced, helped, and taught spirituality for over sixteen years on four continents, I can promise you one thing, none of these actually change the trajectory of your life.
The better we feel, the more that can shift us out of self-defeating mindsets.
We can raise our vibrations to Yogananda levels and still have shit happen to us. That’s not a matter of luck. It’s life.
And life can be shitty until it’s not. And what moves it from being shitty to less shitty or not at all shitty is always a matter of how much attention we give it and what we can do about it.
But it begins with the open acknowledgment of how hard and shitty it is, followed by honestly feeling how shitty it is.
No one likes to feel bad. No one likes to feel sad. No one wants to feel pain.
And no one wants to see their suffering continue. But this is why New Age spirituality gains traction because it’s full of hacks to help assuage or avoid this discomfort.
Consequently, people may seek to raise their vibration, not by feeling their way to it, but by adopting a few behavioral modifications — changing their diets, cutting toxic people from their lives, getting more sleep, ignoring the news, and cutting back on social media (except for the positive, uplifting stuff).
However, this ignores the one fundamental rule of spirituality.
We are not here to make our lives “better,” we are here for our own growth and evolution.
The better part comes through growth and evolution, not in spite of it. And that is messy, uncomfortable, and perhaps on the surface, pretty ugly.
It doesn’t mean that it has to stay that way, but spiritual bypass in the form of superficial spirituality isn’t meaningful, it’s bogus.
The main goal of spirituality is to help make sense of life, not to escape it. It’s assisting us in seeing a larger context to our issues and to work through them through the lens of how to understand ourselves better, not to erase our identities.
But that is often how a lot of these ideas are presented.
Gratitude can help us see the good in everything but risks us ignoring the negative stuff that’s really hurting.
Mindfulness can assist us in being more aware of ourselves in a given moment but really overrides so much of that experience by allowing our minds to filter it for us.
Manifestation can help us attract what we think will make our lives better but stunt our spiritual growth.
And while they may help us through a period of emotional discomfort, mental anguish, or spiritual crisis, none of it will make our lives meaningfully better in the long run.
New Age spirituality, with its colorful mandalas, crystal grids, and sage sticks, has been useful when it comes to discussing how spirituality can fit into our everyday lives.
Not only has it mainstreamed the word spirituality and given it some popular appeal, but it has also allowed us to stretch our imaginations beyond what we would have typically associated with spirit or anything having to do with God, a god, Angels, deities, mystics, etc.
But we need to be able to stretch our imaginations even further to what lies beyond the woo-woo and magical stuff to that which brings us back to the very simple core of spirituality.
Within each and every one of us is a belief that something exists, a source of life or consciousness, and it is through that very consciousness that we connect to one another.
The main goal of spirituality is to help make sense of life, not to escape it. It’s assisting us in seeing a larger context to our issues and to work through them through the lens of how to understand ourselves better, not to erase our identities.
What do you think about the topic of what new age is and getting right? I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments below.
