New Age

“New Age” refers less to a single religion than to a broad, eclectic current of modern spirituality that crystallized in the 1960s–80s and draws on earlier streams: Western esotericism (Hermeticism, Theosophy, Spiritualism), Transcendentalism, Jungian psychology, the Human Potential Movement, and popularized Eastern ideas. The phrase gestures to the astrological “Age of Aquarius,” imagined as a cultural shift toward harmony, creativity, and expanded consciousness. Core themes include holism (everything is interconnected), immanence (the sacred suffuses nature and the self), and the malleability of reality through consciousness, intention, and vibration. Many adherents embrace a “perennial philosophy”—the view that all traditions encode a common wisdom—leading to syncretic blends of meditation, yoga, tarot, astrology, energy healing, and nature reverence. Authority is experiential and decentralized: intuition, the “higher self,” psychedelics or breathwork insights, and channeled teachings may be treated as valid sources of guidance. Concepts like subtle energy, chakras, aura, karma, and reincarnation are common—often reinterpreted outside their original religious frameworks. Optimism about personal and planetary transformation underwrites practices such as affirmations, visualization, and “law of attraction.” Critics point to vagueness, cherry-picking of cultures, and commercialization; scientists dispute metaphysical claims that lack empirical support. Supporters counter that New Age spirituality functions as an adaptive toolkit—meeting modern longings for meaning, embodiment, and community beyond institutional religion. In short, the New Age is a marketplace of ideas organized around self-transformation, cosmic interconnection, and the hope that inner change can ripple outward into social and ecological renewal.