![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
causticusI honestly have no idea what the next spiritual paradigm is going to look like, as far as its core teachings, practices, and aesthetic themes are concerned. In general, making accurate predictions about the future is not one of my gifts. But I do think that any astute observer of history and the human condition can spot trend and patterns and get a general sense of which direction the wind might start blowing tomorrow.
One thing I have seen brewing is the vigorous rejection of nearly everything the Baby Boomer generation stood for, metaphysically, politically, and aesthetically. I’m not going to lay out a laundry list of every misdeed and act of stupidity that can be plausibly pinned on the boomers; such would be the thing of an entire book (or encyclopedic set of volumes!), and there have already been plenty of authors and commentators who have thoroughly covered that topic anyway.
If I’m to offer up a listicle of any sort, it would consist of a few hypothetical trends that might become features of the next spiritual wave. Let’s take a hack at this:
1. So many of the boomers like to believe “hey, we’re all the same, maaaan.” (Not) sorry to say, but we may soon see a rejection of many egalitarian (particularly, blank-slatist) ideas about human nature and the human spiritual condition, and a subsequent return to hierarchical cosmo-theologies and observation-based takes on the human condition. For Christians, this simply means a return to long-established doctrines like original sin, or at least recognition that humanity is mostly alienated from higher spiritual truths. In some corners of present-day occultism and philosophy, there seems to be a much-needed return to recognizing the Platonic tradition as being both fundamental and essential to Western Spirituality. Notice that in boomer Neo-occultism, and in New Age, and Neopagan movements, Platonic metaphysics barely gets a nod, since Platonic cosmology is rather hierarchical and rightly notates humanity’s humble place in the grand cosmological scheme of things. This is because spiritual boomers by and large are Luciferians who worship their own egos. It’s no wonder that in boomer occultism, metaphysical miscreants and dabblers like Aleister Crowley and Gerald Gardner got all sorts of airtime, while serious teachers like Dion Fortune and Manly P. Hall were barely acknowledged. The higher-IQ end of the boomer generation enthusiastically traded traditional metaphysics for nihilistic existentialism, atheism, subjectivism, secular humanism, and postmodernist relativism, and attitudes stemming from all those things combined eventually filtered down to the more average and lower intellects among them and the next couple generations to follow.
2. There will likely be a (re)segregation of the sexes in many religious and spiritual spaces. Yeah, the sexual revolution and that great cultural catastrophe known as feminism has failed, bigtime. The ham-fisted forced infiltration of women into male spaces has spectacularly failed as well. We’ve had to re-learn the hard way that men and women are indeed different, and that members of each respective sex learn, communicate, and conduct their affairs in different ways. Mindlessly and carelessly blending the two sexes in organized activities just creates chaos and anarcho-tyranny. The wish to dissolve boundaries, differences, and distinctions was one of the major themes of boomer spirituality, probably owing to a rather shallow reading of various Eastern mystical teachings. We can see exactly where that mentality has gotten us. Within religious organization, putting women in magisterial roles has proven to be an unmitigated disaster. There’s a damn good reason why most Mainline Protestant churches today care about little more than flying rainbow flags, screeching woke bromides from the rafters, and going on and on about how terrible and evil the Orange Emperor is. The average age in those congregations likely hovers around 75. Meanwhile, younger people interested in something resembling spiritual discipline are joining Traditionalist Catholic and Orthodox Churches; y’know, the sorts of places where the Priest is still allowed to tell you what a woman is.
3. Spirituality may once again become something much grater than a vehicle for individual navel-gazing and narcissistic self-expression. Perhaps a great emphasis on collective purpose will come to replace so much of the self-indulgent nonsense that defined boomer spirituality; as we know, 1001 boats each going their separate way does not a community make; the catastrophic failure of most boomer utopian communes from the 60s and 70s clearly illustrates this. Instead of chasing unrealistic ideals, perhaps the emerging spiritualties will focus on more imminent, attainable goals.
4. The emphasis on tangible action over mere virtue-signaling and platitude-bombing (usually in service of naked self-interest). Hopefully, we’ll once again learn to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Perhaps a greater emphasis on serious introspection will become a thing. Of course moral hypocrisy will always be with us, as those hypocritical, moralizing-yet-sinmaxxing pastors and spiritual gurus aren’t going away any time soon.
5. Right now we’re seeing the beginnings of a renewed sense of respect and reverence for time-honored traditions and the great sacrifices our ancestors bequeathed to us. This will only increase more over time as more and more boomers leave this world and pass into the afterlife. One of the hallmarks of the postmodern Neopagan project was the wholesale rejection of the entire Judeo-Christian part of our Western civilizational heritage; in practice this results in antinomianism and the “rebel without a clue” mentality, because such a significant part of our history occurred under the auspices of Christian moral and social order. This re-embrace of our heritage doesn’t necessarily mean everyone going back to dogmatic Christianity. Rather, we can say that emerging and evolving pluralistic spiritualties will at least acknowledge the good things Christian traditions have given us. Some groups may even come to re imagine the Bible as a collection of sibylline oracles to draw varying degree of spiritual inspiration from, rather than an infallible, literally-interpreted text that is the final authority on every topic imaginable.
6. We may finally see a move away from the shrill and rigid moral universalism that’s been a norm for a very long time. Boomers probably thought their spiritualities were moving away from this, but instead just replaced existing forms of shrill moral universalism with their own brand of shrill moral universalism. Some of us have realized that it’s all cringe, not just one or another particular flavor of it. It seems the Aquarian energies are ever-increasing in our collective consciousness and as a result, the various forms of monolatry and simplistic spiritual formulae will likely become less of a common feature. The boomers arrogantly proclaimed, “all you need is love!” Yeah, umm, not really. In actuality, the world can be a very hostile place full of unfriendly people and groups who will jump at any chance to come grab your stuff (and possibly kill you in the process) when they think they can get away with it. Kudos to Heathenry for re-introducing the concepts of boundaries and self-protective measures having a sacral quality to them; hopefully this carries over into at least some of the emerging spiritualties.
7. By that, will there be a return of in-group cultural particularism? The liberal half of the boomer generation is real big on xenophilia (their seeming-love of foreign cultures) and a resulting shunning and hatred of their own Western cultural heritage. Of course, this attitude didn’t actually start with the boomers, but first became a thing in late 19th century occult and spiritual circles, when the embrace of newly-discovered (to Westerners) Eastern spiritual traditions (Orientalism) became all the rage. By that time, centuries of Western rationalism, scientific discoveries, and the resulting critical examination of Christian doctrines and the Biblicist worldview, rendered a dogmatic and literalist interpretation of the religion’s teachings a nonstarter for most educated and intelligent people. Said xenophila was a reaction to “the death of God” and boomers cranked that reaction to 11. Boomers are often criticized for appropriating Eastern spiritual practices without understanding their cultural or historical contexts. For example, yoga and meditation are sometimes reduced to trendy lifestyle choices, stripped of their deeper philosophical roots. The sort of Westernized (i.e. secularized) Buddhism that some boomers embraced and promoted, became more about therapy and self-help than about spiritual liberation from trappings of the material world. In fact, many boomer “Buddhists” are in fact atheists who don’t believe in any higher spiritual reality. Similar to many New Age spiritual groups, the boomer leaders of Westernized Buddhist groups run them like money-hungry business enterprises (The money part is of course an American phenomenon, and not necessarily a boomer-specific one). I think the realization that we, as Westerners, have very rich traditions of our own to draw from, will begin to skin in more and more. The impending “Second Religiosity” of Spenglerian historical theory, will likely come to fully embrace this notion.
8. I’m probably failing to think of a lot of other good points that should be on this list, but I think I did an OK job summing up the major themes and how those themes might become undone in the near-to-distant future.
One thing I have seen brewing is the vigorous rejection of nearly everything the Baby Boomer generation stood for, metaphysically, politically, and aesthetically. I’m not going to lay out a laundry list of every misdeed and act of stupidity that can be plausibly pinned on the boomers; such would be the thing of an entire book (or encyclopedic set of volumes!), and there have already been plenty of authors and commentators who have thoroughly covered that topic anyway.
If I’m to offer up a listicle of any sort, it would consist of a few hypothetical trends that might become features of the next spiritual wave. Let’s take a hack at this:
1. So many of the boomers like to believe “hey, we’re all the same, maaaan.” (Not) sorry to say, but we may soon see a rejection of many egalitarian (particularly, blank-slatist) ideas about human nature and the human spiritual condition, and a subsequent return to hierarchical cosmo-theologies and observation-based takes on the human condition. For Christians, this simply means a return to long-established doctrines like original sin, or at least recognition that humanity is mostly alienated from higher spiritual truths. In some corners of present-day occultism and philosophy, there seems to be a much-needed return to recognizing the Platonic tradition as being both fundamental and essential to Western Spirituality. Notice that in boomer Neo-occultism, and in New Age, and Neopagan movements, Platonic metaphysics barely gets a nod, since Platonic cosmology is rather hierarchical and rightly notates humanity’s humble place in the grand cosmological scheme of things. This is because spiritual boomers by and large are Luciferians who worship their own egos. It’s no wonder that in boomer occultism, metaphysical miscreants and dabblers like Aleister Crowley and Gerald Gardner got all sorts of airtime, while serious teachers like Dion Fortune and Manly P. Hall were barely acknowledged. The higher-IQ end of the boomer generation enthusiastically traded traditional metaphysics for nihilistic existentialism, atheism, subjectivism, secular humanism, and postmodernist relativism, and attitudes stemming from all those things combined eventually filtered down to the more average and lower intellects among them and the next couple generations to follow.
2. There will likely be a (re)segregation of the sexes in many religious and spiritual spaces. Yeah, the sexual revolution and that great cultural catastrophe known as feminism has failed, bigtime. The ham-fisted forced infiltration of women into male spaces has spectacularly failed as well. We’ve had to re-learn the hard way that men and women are indeed different, and that members of each respective sex learn, communicate, and conduct their affairs in different ways. Mindlessly and carelessly blending the two sexes in organized activities just creates chaos and anarcho-tyranny. The wish to dissolve boundaries, differences, and distinctions was one of the major themes of boomer spirituality, probably owing to a rather shallow reading of various Eastern mystical teachings. We can see exactly where that mentality has gotten us. Within religious organization, putting women in magisterial roles has proven to be an unmitigated disaster. There’s a damn good reason why most Mainline Protestant churches today care about little more than flying rainbow flags, screeching woke bromides from the rafters, and going on and on about how terrible and evil the Orange Emperor is. The average age in those congregations likely hovers around 75. Meanwhile, younger people interested in something resembling spiritual discipline are joining Traditionalist Catholic and Orthodox Churches; y’know, the sorts of places where the Priest is still allowed to tell you what a woman is.
3. Spirituality may once again become something much grater than a vehicle for individual navel-gazing and narcissistic self-expression. Perhaps a great emphasis on collective purpose will come to replace so much of the self-indulgent nonsense that defined boomer spirituality; as we know, 1001 boats each going their separate way does not a community make; the catastrophic failure of most boomer utopian communes from the 60s and 70s clearly illustrates this. Instead of chasing unrealistic ideals, perhaps the emerging spiritualties will focus on more imminent, attainable goals.
4. The emphasis on tangible action over mere virtue-signaling and platitude-bombing (usually in service of naked self-interest). Hopefully, we’ll once again learn to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Perhaps a greater emphasis on serious introspection will become a thing. Of course moral hypocrisy will always be with us, as those hypocritical, moralizing-yet-sinmaxxing pastors and spiritual gurus aren’t going away any time soon.
5. Right now we’re seeing the beginnings of a renewed sense of respect and reverence for time-honored traditions and the great sacrifices our ancestors bequeathed to us. This will only increase more over time as more and more boomers leave this world and pass into the afterlife. One of the hallmarks of the postmodern Neopagan project was the wholesale rejection of the entire Judeo-Christian part of our Western civilizational heritage; in practice this results in antinomianism and the “rebel without a clue” mentality, because such a significant part of our history occurred under the auspices of Christian moral and social order. This re-embrace of our heritage doesn’t necessarily mean everyone going back to dogmatic Christianity. Rather, we can say that emerging and evolving pluralistic spiritualties will at least acknowledge the good things Christian traditions have given us. Some groups may even come to re imagine the Bible as a collection of sibylline oracles to draw varying degree of spiritual inspiration from, rather than an infallible, literally-interpreted text that is the final authority on every topic imaginable.
6. We may finally see a move away from the shrill and rigid moral universalism that’s been a norm for a very long time. Boomers probably thought their spiritualities were moving away from this, but instead just replaced existing forms of shrill moral universalism with their own brand of shrill moral universalism. Some of us have realized that it’s all cringe, not just one or another particular flavor of it. It seems the Aquarian energies are ever-increasing in our collective consciousness and as a result, the various forms of monolatry and simplistic spiritual formulae will likely become less of a common feature. The boomers arrogantly proclaimed, “all you need is love!” Yeah, umm, not really. In actuality, the world can be a very hostile place full of unfriendly people and groups who will jump at any chance to come grab your stuff (and possibly kill you in the process) when they think they can get away with it. Kudos to Heathenry for re-introducing the concepts of boundaries and self-protective measures having a sacral quality to them; hopefully this carries over into at least some of the emerging spiritualties.
7. By that, will there be a return of in-group cultural particularism? The liberal half of the boomer generation is real big on xenophilia (their seeming-love of foreign cultures) and a resulting shunning and hatred of their own Western cultural heritage. Of course, this attitude didn’t actually start with the boomers, but first became a thing in late 19th century occult and spiritual circles, when the embrace of newly-discovered (to Westerners) Eastern spiritual traditions (Orientalism) became all the rage. By that time, centuries of Western rationalism, scientific discoveries, and the resulting critical examination of Christian doctrines and the Biblicist worldview, rendered a dogmatic and literalist interpretation of the religion’s teachings a nonstarter for most educated and intelligent people. Said xenophila was a reaction to “the death of God” and boomers cranked that reaction to 11. Boomers are often criticized for appropriating Eastern spiritual practices without understanding their cultural or historical contexts. For example, yoga and meditation are sometimes reduced to trendy lifestyle choices, stripped of their deeper philosophical roots. The sort of Westernized (i.e. secularized) Buddhism that some boomers embraced and promoted, became more about therapy and self-help than about spiritual liberation from trappings of the material world. In fact, many boomer “Buddhists” are in fact atheists who don’t believe in any higher spiritual reality. Similar to many New Age spiritual groups, the boomer leaders of Westernized Buddhist groups run them like money-hungry business enterprises (The money part is of course an American phenomenon, and not necessarily a boomer-specific one). I think the realization that we, as Westerners, have very rich traditions of our own to draw from, will begin to skin in more and more. The impending “Second Religiosity” of Spenglerian historical theory, will likely come to fully embrace this notion.
8. I’m probably failing to think of a lot of other good points that should be on this list, but I think I did an OK job summing up the major themes and how those themes might become undone in the near-to-distant future.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-08-25 08:54 pm (UTC)The main error that I think Librarian and Mark are making is the assumption that in the blending process, Christianity is the more correct, and therefore dominant portion. If you take away that assumption, a "syncretized Western religion" might be one where folks praise the Saints, their ancestors, and then Woden. Or where the Eddas and the Bible are treated as co-equal imperfect paths to higher wisdom. Or a crucifix sits next to a statue of Lugh. Or whatever.
As we've discussed before, for myself personally, it mostly comes down to using techniques or models from Christianity, or appreciating the more Christ-Agnostic aspects of the religion (like the virtues and vices), rather than directly incorporating any Christian worship. That's likely due to a lingering feeling of the "alienness" of Christianity from when I was closer to agreeing with the guy he excoriates in the first piece (not that I ever had the problem with the "Semitic" or "Jewish" aspects of Christianity, just it's far origins and very different viewpoints) along with a lack of personal "responsiveness" from Christian imagery and practice. I tried, and it just didn't work for me. Maybe if I tried again, in a very different headspace, or perhaps approaching other flavors of Christianity (like Orthodox or Catholicism rather than very American protestantism), I'd get something now, but it's not an experiment I feel particularly called to make.
Cheers,
Jeff
(no subject)
Date: 2025-08-26 03:25 pm (UTC)At the end of the day, their religion's (a)exclusivity claims, (b) insistence on a temporal-historical revelation as ultimate epistemic authority, (c) linear-teleological historical conception, and (d) the conflation of their object of worship with the metaphysical absolute, will make any interaction with other belief systems always devolve into a zero sum game (on their part). By design, their religion simply can't play nice with others. To play nice with other is to admit defeat. Because of its historicized mythology, Christinaity and the other Abrahamic religions live and die by their empirical assertions, (which begin on the first line of the first chapter of Genesis).
To admit the Eddas, or the Orphic Hymns, or the Bhagavad Gita, or the Tao Te Ching (or whatever else), as co-equal sources of spiritual inspiration to the Bible is the act of Christians agreeing to cease and desist from insisting that everyone else is just plain WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, and WRONG, no questions asked!
To lax up from this position is cease continuing along with the thundering cacophony of chest-thumping and egocentric posturing that has so effectively (until modernity) hidden the fact that behind all that bluster there isn't a whole lot of substance there. Outside of the traditional ritualism and some mystical practices of the old sacramental forms of Christianity, (i.e. the parts of the religion that actually work, from an occult perspective), things get real skimpy.
There's a type of political correctness within right-wing intellectual spaces that goes something like, "I believe in [OLD THING], which is the source of proper morality and rightness that made Western Civilization great; to make Western Civilization great again requires unquestioning adherence to [OLD THING]. To question or even take a nuanced approach to examining [OLD THING] is to show weakness in the face of our enemies!” So again, this is all about posturing and not so much about real belief or genuine, heartfelt religiosity. The Christianity of the New Right is mostly a social utility (we’ve discussed this before) and a weapon used to pwn the libs. Though as we know, utilitarian religion doesn’t actually inspire people. Nietzsche called it.
2. In my opinion, the sort of crude genetic fallacy that blaknetly dismisses ideas based on whatever historical-ethnic pedigree happens to be attached to those ideas, is even stupider than everything I outlined in the above point. Librarian was very much in the right to hammer the chud guy on that silly position.
I think Christianity is (mostly) wrong and not a religion for me because I disagree with its doctrines, and its religious elements don't resonate with me, not because the religion was founded by Semitic-speakers. As Librarian pointed out, some of the greatest Pagan Neoplatonist minds were Semites. Imagine the stupidity of writing off the likes of Porphyry and Iamblichus solely because of their respective ethnic backgrounds.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-08-27 01:44 am (UTC)1b. Again, fully agree. This "old equals right" viewpoint finds lots of traction on the right (for obvious reasons), but falls apart under thoughtful consideration (at least, it sure seems to do so to me). This seems deeply intertwined with the "authenticity" discussion that we've talked about at length before, as very often "is old" is a heuristic for "is authentic."
2. Indeed. The crude genetic fallacy is stupid both ways - either "origins in or participation by X linguistic-ethnic group invalidates a religion" or "origins in or participation by X linguistic-ethnic group makes a religion true" strike me as equally stupid and unhelpful, especially in this mutt-age of ours (in all senses of the word).
That said, I've been thinking through an idea lately after a reply to a question on Magic Monday that has some bearing here. It seems to me that a big part of prayer/ritual is "tuning the antenna." The divine is so incomprehensibly apart from our day-to-day existence that we have to find/make connections by minimizing the "interference." Cultural/linguistic/genetic continuity might all allow for some of these minimizations, but the idea that they are the basis for truth or connection seems deeply flawed. To put it in plain terms, I might find it easier to feel divine presence by praying to the Gods of my ancestors in their words and using their images, linked to my words and the images that speak to me by historical development, but the idea that this somehow makes the divine presence I feel more "true" or "correct" is a mistake. It's a bit like saying that the radio station I pick up in my city is more "right" than the garbled reception I get of the station from the next city over, especially if I can pick it up okay with a specialized antenna.
Anyhow, all of which is a long way to say "I agree," but they're interesting topics I enjoy expanding on.
Cheers,
Jeff