Category:Working Within the New Age Tradition
From Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers
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The term New Age Movement is generally applied to a range of spiritual and religious beliefs and practices that came into being in Europe and the Americas from the 1870s through the 1970s, and continue to the present day as a religious tradition, a magical tradition and a way of working with spirits, angels, the Divine Source, and the ascended masters. Some New Age practitioners and ministers refer to themselves as Lightworkers.
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History and Origins of the New Age Tradition
Although the New Age Movement draws some important ideas from the earlier New Thought Movement, the two are not the same. The name “New Age” refers to the widespread belief in a coming new era of peace, plenty, justice, and kindness -- the “Age of Aquarius,” brought about by the progressive spiritual development of Earth’s population.
The New Age Movement is a group of religious traditions that arose during the 19th century and grew in number during the 20th century and to the present.
Theosophy
The religion of Theosophy was founded in 1875 in New York City by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891), Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), and William Quan Judge (1851–1896). Their ideas concerning the nature of divinity, human evolution, and reincarnation were heavily influenced by two Asian religions, Hinduism and Buddhism.
Blavatsky came from an aristocratic family. She was born in Dnipro, Ukraine, during a time when Ukraine was under the rule of the Russian Empire. Her interest in various esoteric, mystical, and religious traditions led her to undertake a series of world travels in 1849, during which she visited Europe, the Americas, and India. It was in India that she met with a group of spiritual leaders whom she called "The Masters of Ancient Wisdom," and, by her account, they in turn sent her to Tibet for further study. During her time in Europe she also became a Spiritualist and practiced mediumship and contact with the dead. She moved to the United States in 1873, where she came into contact with the works of the celebrated medium and conjure doctor Paschal Beverly Randolph, an African-American Spiritualist teacher and author. In America, Blavatsky gained both fame and notoriety as a spirit medium. In 1875, with Olcott and Judge, she co-founded the Theosophical Society as "the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy," and in 1877 she published her influential book, "Isis Unveiled," which drew links between Theosophy and Neo-Platonism, within the context of the late 9th century Hermetic Revival.
In 1880 Blavatsky and Olcott moved to India, where they supported the so-called "Modern Hinduism" movement. That year, in Ceylon, both of them formally converted to the religion of Buddhism. It was during this period that Blavatsky teachings on the topic of transcultural and trans-religious wisdom teachers and Ascended Masters took form, and they immediately captured public attention, bringing the Theosophical Society to world recognition.
Blavatsky spoke of the presence on Earth of the Great White Brotherhood of reincarnating Mahatmas ("Great Souls"), "men of great learning, whom we call Initiates," or living "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom" who resided in Tibet, from where they guided seekers on the path. This cosmology was expanded upon and carried further by a series of Ascensionist and Universal Light organizations of the 20th century, each of which produced its own list of ascended masters.
The I AM Activity
One of the first schismatic groups from Theosophy was the I AM Activity of the Saint Germain Foundation, founded by the mining engineer and Theosophist Guy Warren Ballard (1878–1939) and his wife Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard (1886–1971), a concert pianist. They married in 1912 and their son Edona Eros "Donald" Ballard (1918-1973) was born in 1918. Guy Ballard met the ascended master Saint Germain at Mount Shasta, California, in 1931 and the next year he and Edna founded the Saint Germain Foundation to publicize these contacts. Guy and Edna Ballard greatly lengthened the Theosophical list of recognized wisdom teachers who could voluntarily leave the realm of physical reincarnation and become ascended masters, and they brought the term itself to wide popularity. Although Guy Ballard only led the I AM Activity for seven years, his charismatic personality and the message he bore made a great impression on those who attended his lectures, and the organization grew rapidly. Within the group, which was said to number one million adherents, Guy was known as Godfre Ray King and Edna was known as Lotus Ray King.
Guy died on December 29th 1939, at the age of 61. As World War Two engulfed America, Edna placed extreme importance on patriotic Americanism as a religious tenet. She became an exclusionist and at her direction I AM meetings were closed to the public, with members required to show a "pass card" for admittance. Her son Donald became the co-leader of the group, and Guy was recognized as an ascended master also known as "Beloved Daddy," one of whose previous incarnations had been as George Washington, the first president of the United States. Edna stated that her own previous incarnations had included Queen Elizabeth I of England and Saint Joan of Arc.
In 1940 Edna and Donald Ballard were indicted on charges of religious fraud. The prosecution claimed that they sought and collected donations on the basis of religious claims that they themselves did not believe to be true. They were convicted but appealed, and when their case, United States v. Ballard (1944), reached the Supreme Court, the original decision was overturned, as the court held that the question of whether they believed their own religious claims should not been placed before a jury because to do so violated the principle of freedom of religious belief.
In 1947, upon the death of the artist Charles Sindelar, whose beautiful paintings had measurably enhanced the popularity of the I AM Activity, he too was declared to be an ascended master and it was noted that his previous incarnations had included Saint Lazarus and Leonardo da Vinci.
Edna Ballard died on February 10th, 1971, at the age of 84. The I AM Activity continues to this day, but it has not recaptured the vitality or the membership numbers it had under Guy Ballard's leadership, in part because the policies of Edna Ballard led to schisms within the organization.
The Bridge to Freedom
After Guy Ballard's death in 1939, as Edna and Donald Ballard led the I AM Activity further into Americanism, the first schismatic group appeared -- the Bridge to Freedom, founded in 1951 by Geraldine Innocente (1916-1961). In 1944, at the age of 28, Innocente began to receive contact from the ascended master El Morya, and as Edna Ballard developed her own vision for the I AM Activity, Innocente received an anointing to become a messenger for the Great White Brotherhood, with the intention of preserving the original vision of Guy Ballard. In particular, she believed that the ascended master Saint Germain wished for his teachings to be distributed as widely as possible, including by translation into languages other than English, and she also recognized as authentic some messages received by group members other than the Ballards.
When Edna Ballard demanded that Innocente cease the circulation of unauthorized messages, Innocente and a group of I AM Activity members departed to form The Bridge to Freedom. This new group emphasized the "twin flame" concept, by which living people were connected to specific ascended masters; for example, Geraldine Innocente was said to be the twin flame of El Morya.
In 1958, a number of key members of the Bridge to Freedom left Innocente to follow fellow-member Mark Prophet as he founded a schismatic group called The Summit Lighthouse. On June 21, 1961, at the age of 45, Geraldine Innocente committed suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates. Lucy Littlejohn then became the new leader of The Bridge to Freedom, and in 1978 she was succeeded by Peter Leach Lewis.
The New Age Church of the Christ
Upon assuming leadership of The Bridge to Freedom in 1978, Peter Leach Lewis promptly announced that The Bridge to Freedom had fulfilled its purpose on Earth and would henceforward be known as The New Age Church of the Christ. He mass-baptised the remaining members of The Bridge to Freedom as congregants in his new church, thus effectively ending the existence of The Bridge to Freedom. The next year Lewis published a message he had received from the ascended master Helios which stated that "On New Year’s Eve [1980], Los Angeles will be wiped off the face of this Earth. There will be a tidal wave or two; but apart from that, just Los Angeles will slip into the Pacific Ocean, to be buried forever. [...] And it is necessary. It is very necessary! We intend to make an example of Los Angeles. And I tell you now, prepare yourselves for such an event. It will be truly devastating, cataclysmic and absolutely irreversible. If you can move, do it! I advise you to."
When Lewis's apocalyptic prophecy failed to come true, membership in The New Age Church of the Christ dropped, and a few years later, Lewis himself left the organization. Remaining members formed small, schismatic groups of their own and went to court to establish physical ownership of the former headquarters of The Bridge to Freedom on Long Island, in New York state. In the end, the property was sold. Werner Schroeder. a former follower of Geraldine Innocente, acquired copies of her writings, most of which were out of print, with the aim of keeping them before the public.
The Summit Lighthouse
In another schism from the I AM Activity and The Bridge to Freedom, the Summit Lighthouse was established in 1958 by Mark L. Prophet (1918-1973). Prophet had been contacted by the ascended master El Morya in 1936 at the age of 18 and maintained his alliance with the I AM Activity until Geraldine Innocente's schismatic Bridge to Freedom was established in 1951. He then studied under Innocente and was greatly influenced by her writings and those of her associates until, in 1958, he was instructed to establish The Summit Lighthouse. Prophet's bold breakaway from Innocente's group led several key members of the Bridge to Freedom to defect from Innocente's leadership and follow him instead. on April 22, 1961, Mark Prophet met his soon-to-be wife, Elizabeth Claire Wulf (1939-2009). He was 43 years old and she was 22, but he immediately accepted her as a student and elevated her to the position of a messenger of the ascended masters. It has been speculated that the loss of her entire publishing staff and the rapid rise of Elizabeth Clare Wulf within the Summit Lighthouse contributed to Innocente's suicide in December 1961.
On March 16, 1963, Mark Prophet married Elizabeth Claire Wulf and she became the co-leader of his group. For the next dozen years, Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet were partners, and under their direction, the Summit Lighthouse freely adopted as contacts many entities better known as deities and saints in older, previously-established religions. In addition to Theosophical and I AM Activity guides such as Saint Germain, Maitreya, Jesus Christ, and El Morya, these non-Theosophical ascended masters included Gautama Buddha, Saint Michael the Archangel, Zarathustra, Moses, Melchizedek, the Virgin Mary, Saint Francis, and Saint Therese of Lisieux.
The Church Universal and Triumphant
Eliizabeth Claire Wulf was raised in a Christian family, her father being a Lutheran and her mother a Catholic who also studied and practiced The New Age denominations of Theosophy and the I AM Activity, as well as the New Thought denomination of Christian Science. Eliizabeth was a member of Christian Science and worked in their publishing department when she met Mark Prophet at the age of 22 and joined his Summit Lighthouse denomination. After Mark Prophet's death in 1973, she led the Summit Lighthouse until, two years later, she refashioned the group as The Church Universal and Triumphant.
Among her many other decrees, Elizabeth Claire Prophet forbade the keeping of pets, as they were lesser beings, and she informed her membership that Geraldine Innocente of The Bridge to Freedom had never been the twin flame of El Morya and had been "mistaken" in that belief. She took on the name Guru Ma and she also urged members to build fallout shelters in preparation for a coming nuclear war, which she predicted would occur before the end of the 1980s. This prophecy went unfulfilled and in 1999 Elizabeth Claire Prophet retired from her leadership position within The Church Universal and Triumphant due to Alzheimer's disease. After her death in 2009, she became known as Ascended Lady Master Clare and it was said that her prior incarnations had included Saint Clare, Saint Catherine of Siena, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, and a daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
The Association for Research and Enlightenment
The Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) was founded in Virginia in 1931 by the clairvoyant Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), known as "The Sleeping Prophet" due to his delivery of prophesies while in a slumbering trance. Cayce was a Christian mystic who gave more than 14,000 life readings and never charged for them. His mentions of extraterrestrial aliens, the existence of a library of akashic records of all existeance, and his visions of the lost civilization of Atlantis influenced other New Age thinkers and became commonly held beliefs among people who were not specifically his followers or members of the A. R. E. organization.
Among Cayce's Atlantean visions was one that involved in a giant sun-crystal that provided power to the ancient civilization. He predicted that in 1958 the United States would rediscover an Atlantean death ray, that the Second Coming of Christ would take place in 1998, and that Los Angeles and San Francisco would be destroyed at that time. The failure of these predictions to come true did not affect Cayce's reputation during his lifetime, as he was long dead by the times given for these events; however, his true reputation was built upon his humble and dedicated medical readings, carefully transcribed and searchable as a database, and still in use by contemporary spiritual healers.
The A.R.E. is an active group that links spirituality and belief in ancient civilizations with holistic health practices. The Cayce Hospital for Research and Enlightenment was built in 1928 on Virginia Beach, Virginia. Cayce gave psychic readings for patients there, while trained physicians, physical therapists, nutritionists, and body-workers carried out his prescribed treatments. The hospital opened in 1929 with 30 beds, was sold off during the Great Depression, was repurchased by A.R.E. in 1956, underwent renovation in 2014, and currently operates as the A.R.E. Health Center and Spa.
The Aetherius Society
In 1954, George King (1919-1997), a London taxi driver, heard a voice that told him "Prepare yourself! You are to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament." The next week a Hindu swami entered King's locked apartment and led a system of training under which King learned yoga, prayer, and meditation. King founded the Aetherius Society in 1955, basing its teachings on Theosophy, with an emphasis on UFO contacts as helpful guides. These guides are known as the cosmic masters, but although they come from outer space, they function in the same way as the ascended masters who are found in other New Age groups. Among the cosmic masters are Jesus and Buddha, both of whom are said to have been born on the planet Venus.
In addition to UFO contact, the Atheherius Society also teaches a system of physical yoga training inspired by Hindu traditions.
Eclectic and Unaffiliated New Age Groups
Many of the original New Age groups that descended from Theosophy affirmed belief in the existence of perfected human beings who spread their teachings through a secret organization variously known as the Great White Brotherhood, the ascended masters, the cosmic masters, the masters of ancient wisdom, or the Church Invisible. The teachings of these groups eventually mingled with the 1960s counterculture movement, and the melding was encapsulated in the term "New Age," which first appeared in the United Kingdom in the 1970s, and spread to other countries over the next few years.
No longer merely a collection of new religions and teaching centers who have contact with ascended masters or a Great White Brtherhood, the New Age Movement expanded to incorporate aspects of the Human Potential Movement, Spiritualism, Esalen and other spiritual retreats, Transcendental Meditation, Rosicrucian and other esoteric forms of Christianity, Buddhist and Hindu training centers and teachers in the West; Wicca, Neo-Paganism, UFO sightings, healing through Light Work, the use of psychedelic drugs for spiritual development, contact with spirits and spirit guides, experiments in communal living and self-sustaining agriculture, research into extra-sensory perception (ESP), aura perception, and exploration of indigenous American nature religions.
In a sense, the eclectic New Age Movement has outgrown its earlier focus on small denominations with a specific cosmology and has spread to become an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of spiritual, religious, and even secular practices that share many common themes.
Beliefs of the New Age Tradition
As an eclectic and syncretic practice, contemporary New Age ideas draw from older traditions of Western metaphysical religions and from Asian religious traditions which go back thousands of years: Buddhist and Hindu teachings have been known in the West, at least in passing, since the end of the 18th century. These were developed and disseminated within the new religion of Theosophy and, to a lesser extent, by the New Thought tradition, whose published works were rediscovered by the members of the counterculture movement. Increased opportunities for global travel led many Europeans and Americans to make the "Journey to the East" to experience Asian cultures first-hand, and they melded what they had learned with their perceptions of Native American and European Pagan beliefs and customs.
“New Ager” is a term that participants sometimes use to describe themselves, but many prefer terms such as "spiritual seeker," "eclectic," and "light Worker," and some may identify themselves as members of other religions — Christian, Jewish, or Buddhist — because they do not consider New Age beliefs to be a distinct “religion” at all.
The Nature of God
The bedrock belief of the New Age Movement is that the Divine Source is inherent within all things, including each human being, and the Divine is often conceived of as Light. Because the Divine or Divine Light is within all, each human is able to understand the nature of God for him- or herself. Furthermore, if everyone, or even the majority, undertake the task of understanding God, it will go far to eliminate evil, suffering, and injustice in the world. This spiritual development is not self-indulgence, but a noble work, even a responsibility. A wide variety of practices have developed from this belief.
Quite a few New Age denominations incorporate Christian teachings, but they generally do not fully endorse traditional Christian theology when it comes to describing God. For instance, according to Dr. Josephine Trust (1886 -1957), the founder of Superet Atom Aura Science, "Superet Light Doctrine teaches that reincarnation is a fact," "Jesus Christ's Religion is the Religion of Light," the Holy Spirit is "the Wondrous and Almighty Mother God," and "Superet is the Sacred Purple Heart of God" -- none of which are standard Christian beliefs.
Cosmology and Cosmogony: The Origin and Nature of the Universe
New Age cosmology varies among denominations, but generally draws from Hinduism and Buddhism, with some elements of Christian mysticism and perhaps a nod to the so-called “Big Bang” scientific theory. For most believers, the universe passes from age to near-infinite age, as living individuals pass from life to life.
In some New Age religions, Christian ideals concerning the universal nature of divine love or the recognition of Jesus Christ as a role model form a portion of the cosmology. In others, the divine is seen as Light, and the dissemination of Light in varied rays of colour gives rise to our universe. In those denominations in which God is not seen as a single omnipotent personality, cosmology and cosmogony, or theories as to the origin of the universe and why life exists, never arise, and the most that can be said is that the existence of the universe was as inevitable as the sprouting of a seed.
For most New Age adherents, the universe has room for subtle energies, spiritual realities, and etheric qualities; these give rise to an alternative approach to science, which more resembles the scientific systems of Asia, medieval Europe, ancient cultures, or the occult, than modern materialist science.
Afterlife, Reincarnation, and Ascension
New Age adherents generally believe that human nature, soul, or individuality survives death, because its fundamental nature is spiritual consciousness. Each tradition within the larger New Age community has its own view of what experiences and states follow this earthly life. These can include reincarnation as a living, embodied creature on this earth, or on another planet, or as a spiritual entity in some other spiritual realm. Many adherents believe that those who are spiritually aware of their own natures can remember their past incarnations and choose future ones.
Each lifetime or incarnation allows for further spiritual development, that is, realization of everyone’s Divine nature. For this reason, New Age adherents view reincarnation as something to be sought, an ascension or spiritual journey rather than a series of trials and tests. Entities who achieve the ability to cease incarnating are known as Ascended Masters, who chose to guide and teach humanity, in a manner similar to that of Buddhist bodhisattvas. Eventually the Master achieves union with the Divine Source, never to return to the material world again.
Spirit Guides and Ascended Masters
For more information, see Spirits and Spirit Guides
For more information, see Ascended Masters
It is natural for spiritual people to look beyond living teachers to those in the spiritual realm. New Age adherents often place special emphasis on what they have learned from teachers, mentors, and guides who are not currently embodied in human form.
From Spiritualism, some New Age denominations adopted concepts such as mediumship and channelling, not only with one's own ancestral dead but also with great humans of the past. Among these groups, those who speak for the invisible ones are generally called "Messengers."
From Theosophy, which taught followers that a group of Mahatmas or great souls guided the destiny of humanity, Guy Ballard, an early leader of the New Age Movement, developed the concept of the Ascended Masters, spiritual adepts who began as ordinary humans and have undergone extensive training and spiritual transformations in order to become secret teachers and administrators of the world. Some of the best known of these are Koot Hoomi, El Morya, Serapis Bey, and Saint Germain. These beings, as well as revered nature spirits, are commonly associated with the ascension of sacred pilgrimage sites, including the Himalaya Mountains in Tibet, Mount Shasta in California, and Grand Teton in Wyoming.
Many New Agers accept Christ, Hindu gods and goddesses, Buddha, Angels, and other great spiritual teachers as personal spirit guides.
Extraterrestrials are believed by some adherents to offer personal guidance, and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOS are said to be vehicles by which these extraterrestrials visit Earth.
Nature spirits, animal spirits, plant spirits, and mineral spirits are also welcomed as spirit guides and teachers by many in the New Age community, especially those with interests in Pagan and Neo-Pagan traditions. To these adherents the interpretation of dreams, signs, and omens from nature form an important form of experiential learning.
Sin, Suffering and the Problem of Evil
New Age teaching maintains that, because sin, suffering and evil are contrary to Divine Nature, they result from ignorance of the Divine. The manifestations of evil in the material world are regarded as the result of imbalance or social failure. This may be counteracted and mitigated by self-development which enables one to participate in the evolution of society, even over many lifetimes. Ultimately, relief from suffering is the believer’s own responsibility.
There is another reason for suffering that depends on the truth of reincarnation: before birth, one can choose a difficult life in order to learn its lessons. This gives existential meaning to all kinds of pain -- and working through that pain while maintaining ahimsa, the Hindu concept of harming none, is of benefit to oneself and to all.
Spiritual Authority and Sacred Texts
Since most New Age teachers say that each of us is connected to, or contains within us, a spark of the Divine, each believer is free to be his or her own source of spiritual authority. Personal gnosis, the concept that one's own knowledge is as valid as any form of received wisdom, is thus accepted as a natural way of learning and evolving one's understanding.
In light of this, sacred texts may not be not perceived to be the “inerrant word of God” or the "authoritative word of the Teacher," or "the teachings of the Messenger," which cannot be changed or contradicted. They may instead be thought to be texts from many traditions which the individual believer may or may not find helpful for personal spiritual development. Such texts might include memoirs, instruction in various forms of meditation and divination, channeled teachings from Ascended Masters, extraterrestrials, and spirit guides, and the works of mystics from many world religious traditions.
Practices of the New Age Tradition
The New Age tradition covers a widely eclectic variety of practices, ranging from mundane to the divinatory, spiritual, and magical. These practices are typically presented as forms of Blessing, Cleansing, Healing, and Tranquility for the client, and not as forms of magical spell-casting to influence the lives of others in the the client's family or circle of acquaintances.
While not every New Age practitioner will engage all of these methodologies (some of which exclude the others), most will be familiar with various physical forms of diagnostic and healing bodywork, including holistic healing, herbal medicine, homeopathy, dietetic healing, nutritional therapy, vegetarian and vegan cookery, massage therapy, biofeedback, bio-energetics, yoga training, chiropractic, aromatherapy, iridology, chromotherapy, pendulum divination, dowsing, and kinesiology,
In addition, many also practice magical and spiritual modes of assistance to clients. These may include spiritual development by means of solo meditation, guided meditation, visualisation, reincarnation therapy, psychic healing, aura cleansing, reiki, chakra balancing, and healings or energy alignments using crystals, metals, music, colours, and flowers.
The creation of a better life for the client may also include visualizations and manifestations for the purpose of experiencing financial abundance and the joys of love and romance.
These services can be conducted one-on-one or in a group setting, and may be offered in person, via the internet, through books, or as public teaching.
Credits
This page is brought to you by the AIRR Tech Team:
- Author: catherine yronwode
- Contributors: Miss Michaele, Papa Newt, Reverend James, nagasiva yronwode, Michele R. Jackson
- Images: Charles Sindelar, Priestess Najah, NASA, Rukiah Shamon, Unknown Hindu Artist, Joanna Kosinska at Unsplash, May DaCamara Unknown Photographers; photo-edited by catherine yronwode, and Papa Newt
See Also
- Religious Traditions
- Magical Traditions
- Divination, Fortune Telling, and Oracles
- Hoodoo, Conjure, Witchcraft, and Rootwork
- Working with Spirits
AIRR Readers & Rootworkers Who Perform This Work for Clients
Pages in category "Working Within the New Age Tradition"
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