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By: Xōtlos Mizathtēlos
Because Neo-Paganism and New-Age in general is a largely western phenomenon, it has baggage from Christian thought, Premodern Christianity had an extreme focus on ideas like "Original Sin" and over-focused on Expiation, forgiveness etc as well nonesense like "One True Faith", extreme dogmatic fideism etc. As a result, New Age religion seems to (in reaction) reject any idea of Sin as well as any conception of Dogma or even Truth. With this, it became a huge "no-judge" zone, where anyone could do anything, as long as it made them "happy". Which is itself, a result of misinterpretations of Ancient "Western", Eastern and Abrahamic conceptions of "peace" and/or esctactic union with the Divine.
Which leads to my next point: if you deny any truth and replace it with being "happy", then you essentially replace the Gods with "positive energy". The only Dogma of New Age spirituality is "don't hurt my feelings". Which drove conversation away from Truth and towards personal pleasure, personal pleasure at any cost, even if it means covering your eyes and shouting "lalalalalalala".
All of this was pushed further, by the Egoism of many New Age practitioners, who reduce all spirituality to some lower psychological "sub-conscious" thing. Which makes the source of all understanding of the Gods, the Ego. Thus, the will of the Gods is not based on Higher Principle, but instead on the whims of the Ego, and is driven not towards Unity with the Gods, but towards pleasure and "happiness". (None of this is to speak on the actual teachings of most of the early New-Agers, which were often the opposite of such a self centered world view)
I should state, I am not pro-dogmatic fideism. I am also not an enemy of happiness or psychological interpretations of the Divine. I just recognize these that there is a truth beyond the subjective experience of the Ego.
Because Neo-Paganism and New-Age in general is a largely western phenomenon, it has baggage from Christian thought, Premodern Christianity had an extreme focus on ideas like "Original Sin" and over-focused on Expiation, forgiveness etc as well nonesense like "One True Faith", extreme dogmatic fideism etc. As a result, New Age religion seems to (in reaction) reject any idea of Sin as well as any conception of Dogma or even Truth. With this, it became a huge "no-judge" zone, where anyone could do anything, as long as it made them "happy". Which is itself, a result of misinterpretations of Ancient "Western", Eastern and Abrahamic conceptions of "peace" and/or esctactic union with the Divine.
Which leads to my next point: if you deny any truth and replace it with being "happy", then you essentially replace the Gods with "positive energy". The only Dogma of New Age spirituality is "don't hurt my feelings". Which drove conversation away from Truth and towards personal pleasure, personal pleasure at any cost, even if it means covering your eyes and shouting "lalalalalalala".
All of this was pushed further, by the Egoism of many New Age practitioners, who reduce all spirituality to some lower psychological "sub-conscious" thing. Which makes the source of all understanding of the Gods, the Ego. Thus, the will of the Gods is not based on Higher Principle, but instead on the whims of the Ego, and is driven not towards Unity with the Gods, but towards pleasure and "happiness". (None of this is to speak on the actual teachings of most of the early New-Agers, which were often the opposite of such a self centered world view)
I should state, I am not pro-dogmatic fideism. I am also not an enemy of happiness or psychological interpretations of the Divine. I just recognize these that there is a truth beyond the subjective experience of the Ego.
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