BEYOND THE NEW AGE

For our third Quilt we identified problematic elements of the current New Age space and then did some blue-sky envisioning about where we can go from here. The conversation was rapid and free-flowing, I’m sharing my notes below even though they are not comprehensive. There is a lot more here that I’d like to bring to life in the future. I encourage you to engage in your own contemplations using these ideas as potential jumping off points…

BEYOND the NEW AGE

FIRST ITEM – RECKONING WITH (AMERICAN-FLAVORED) HYPERINDIVIDUALISM

The greatest thing about the new age is that anyone can do whatever they want.

The worst thing about the new age is that anyone can do whatever they want.

Although the platitude ‘we are all one’ occasionally makes its way from the mouth of the modern mystic, the new age scene has become very ‘every man for themselves’. Or every influencer for themselves.

We, the general population, are turning ourselves into brands.  We are all selling something. 

That is a natural thing for us to do now, to ensure our financial survival and digital social standing.

And we, the new age population, have become (through necessity) very skilled at selling materialistic consumerism in spiritual guises.

Again, every influencer for themselves.

We are being taught spiritual truths from the people with the biggest following, which means they have high sales drive – which is totally a fine way to be.

But…

Since they have a high sales drive, they might think the easiest thing to sell is teaching you to attempt to have what they have. And maybe that might send a lot of people in the wrong direction – not only on an individual level, but also in terms of planetary balance.

If we are to go beyond the new age, we will have to plumb the depths and heights of our inner knowing and make choices with our hearts and guts and consider the interests of all life on earth, BEFORE we start ‘manifesting’ and especially before we start ‘selling’.

And as far as being a student of the new age goes – we have become unimaginative in terms of what we are after when we engage in these magical practices.

If we are to go beyond the new age I hope it is into a space where we consult our wildest imagination and tune into the aether before we accept ANY ONE ELSES VISION for us; even a beloved teacher or school of thought. WE MUST BECOME MORE VISIONARY, all of us, everyone.

If we are to go beyond the new age we need to check our American hyper-individualism and balance it with true contemplation about and making magic for the upliftment of all creation.

We have to stop thinking only of ourselves. We must use our power of the collective as well as the individual level. (This also makes us more able to access power from the collective on an individual level.)

SECOND ITEM - WE HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES TO THE NATURAL WORLD

We have special abilities and should offer them and our consideration to the natural world.

I am still working on this one. I, like everyone else, has been repeatedly hypnotized in a thousand ways that humans are at the top of the food chain and all other life is subjugated and transformed into ‘resources’ we plunder the earth for.

I, like you, have been raised in a world where competition is the name of the game (as opposed to something like cooperation).

And yet, when I listen to Nature she consistently offers up something helpful I never consciously knew before. She is THE ONE and all of us as we head into whatever is beyond the new age need to sincerely connect to her daily and act on her behalf.

Whatever is beyond the new age must be practices that center the good fortune of getting to live on this beautiful blue green planet – our magic must be for her as well.

THIRD ITEM - HARDSHIP IS A PART OF LIFE

Much of the current ‘fluffy internet’ new age ignores or woefully disintegrates in the face of trauma and collective suffering. We fall into two camps - either we are spiritually bypassing or engaging in highly problematic ‘vulnerability/authenticity performances’ to endear ourselves to our audiences. True witches, shamans and sages would never do either of these things.

Perhaps even more problematic is the new age’s incapacity to address or even acknowledge the systemic, structural inequalities inherent in our culture and the world at large.

In my humble opinion the missing ingredient is contemplation/deeper internal exploration. Otherwise we numb out or become de-stabilizing and reactionary; our problem is glamorized and may inorganically become contagious to others.

The days of spiritual bypassing are over. The days of vulnerability porn and virtue signaling are over.

Whatever is beyond the new age must be comfortable with loss, grief, hard times, ‘bad luck’, anger, fear, uncertainty. It must create new frameworks and spiritual procedure for supporting folks in hard times with nuance and creativity.

In whatever is beyond the new age we must be able to understand enough about the (individual and collective) human experience to respond rather than react. We must attend to our alchemy FIRST. We have to work our magic; and then, after spending time magically addressing the situation, once the alchemy is performed - bringing it forth to the collective.

All flavors of life experience will be held in skillful contemplation that will lead to beautiful wisdom and/or action in whatever is beyond the new age.

FOURTH ITEM - WE MUST BECOME ABLE TO SWITCH WHENEVER WE LIKE BETWEEN 3-D TO 5-D REALITIES

If we are to go beyond the new age we have to exist within a paradox - a dance of opposite truths, both of which are true.

 The paradox is we are spiritual beings having a human experience, AND we are embodied and enmeshed in a somatic, visceral, emotional 3-d life experience in which our unique experience and expression matter.

We have to address some of the disassociation/‘body escapism’ qualities  of current new age offerings.

If we are to go beyond the new age, we all will be able to switch from the 5-D to the 3-D viewpoint whenever we need to. When we go beyond the new age, no mystical/spiritual type would want to seclude themselves in their own private enlightenment bubble - the ultimate state would be of the witness who dives avidly into the daily life experiences they are offered, enjoying being in a living body on a living earth as much as astral travel.