Jeanne O'Connor...
Jeanne O'Connor is a lifelong Student of the Ageless Wisdom and a Friend of Higher Ground
NEW AGE MISTIQUE
What is there about the New Age that has so many people frightened, or sarcastic or condescending? “I don’t want anything to do with that new age nonsense.” we hear said. The Encarta encyclopedia defines the New Age as inner transformation, reincarnation, biofeedback, chanting, alchemy, Yoga, transpersonal psychology, Shamanism, martial arts, the occult, astrology, psychic healing, ESP, acupuncture, massage, tarot, Zen, mythology and visualization.
With the single exception of transpersonal psychology, and biofeedback, which is a scientific endeavor, there is nothing new in the New Age Movement. So why are so many people shying away from it? Almost everything listed above has been around for centuries. What is new is the celestial event of the earth moving into its new cycle, which the scientists call the Age of Aquarius. If you take an objective point of view, free of prejudice, you will see that the Age of Aquarius is a time of increased mental awareness of the wonders of the world around us and there is nothing to fear.
Let’s take a look at these alleged phenomena one by one. Inner transformation has been taking place since the dawn of mankind. Physical evolution took us from Neanderthal, to Cro-Magnon, Homoserectus, and finally to man, as we know him today.
With each change in his physical nature came a change in the development of man’s intellectual capacity. Inner transformation, in the Aquarian Age, refers to the ability of man to expand his mental capacity and awareness and the desire to grow from believing to knowing.
Tibetan monks practiced chanting as far back as 700AD. Reincarnation or the transmigration of the soul is a teaching that predates the ancient Egyptian era. Yoga dates back to the Indus Civilization in 1500 BC, and was practiced by Sidartha Guatama Buddha in 553 BC. Martial arts can be traced back to 600AD.
The Shaman priest was said to have meditated on the visible and spiritual worlds. Aztec, Inca and Mayan civilizations practiced Shamanism in the Pre Colombian era in 200 AD, some 2000 years ago. Samoyeds practiced Shamanism in Russia in 12 AD. The Mongols practiced Shamanism in the 13th century. Shaman priests were an integral part of the culture in Southeast and central Oregon in 1900.
Transpersonal psychology? Let’s look at that. Psychology is the study of the inner being. Trans means to cross over. Transpersonal psychology therefore means nothing more than going beyond the individual human being and exploring mankind and the mysteries of the universe. It wants to answer questions like “Why am I here? What am I to learn? What makes this universe of ours work?” Man wants to know.
The laying on of hands and psychic healing has also been around a long time. We have stories of Jesus as a healer over two thouand years ago, followed by Peter and Paul who also performed “Miracle” healings after the crucifixion. Today’s vernacular would call that psychic healing. Perhaps we would do well to realize that the word “psychic” has its roots in the Greek “psyche” which means soul. In spite of the fact that acupuncture was practiced by the Chinese over six thousand years ago, today it is considered an alternative to traditional medicine. It would be more accurate to say traditional medicine is an alternative to natural healing. Massage goes back to the day man found he needed to relax.
The telling of the future is nothing new either. The Tarot is a spin off from the I Ching, which was practiced by court astrologers in the service of Emperors in ancient China. They were diviners who used sticks to forecast the future. The ancient Greeks consulted the Oracle and the Greek mathematician Euclid, introduced astrology in Babylon and Greece in 500AD. In Rome special priests called Augers used nature signs to predict the future. The Tarot was also used by the Europeans in 1095 and by the gypsies in Italy in the fourteenth century. Psychism however goes far beyond two centuries ago. We read of Joseph’s dreams in the Bible. In ancient Egypt the Egyptian Pharos used Seers.
Nostradamus was a seer. His quatrains cited time and place for such events as World wars I & II, subterranean watercraft and aircraft, electricity and radio. He foretold of the Napoleanic conquests and of Hitler’s conquests. He spoke of the Atomic bomb. He described it as a huge explosion like a tree, (the mushroom cloud) between two harbors, (Nagasaki and Hiroshima). He told of the assasination of President Kennedy. He said that there would be an assassination of a great man, a bolt of lightening from a roof, and that a psychic will try to warn him. Jeanne Dixon, a renowned psychic of our times, did warn President Kennedy. Nostradamus wrote of these things five hundred years ago.
In biblical days they were called prophets and were highly respected. Today they are called psychics and are laughed at. The police departments that use psychics to help them solve crimes aren’t laughing though.
In 1885, over 100 years ago, the first known formal research on Extra Sensory Perception, sensitivity beyond our five physical senses, began with a study by William James. He did a thirty-year study with Mrs. Potter, who was had knowledge of objects or events outside her physical senses. This scenario has been repeated hundreds of times since then.
Zen Buddhism is a type of meditation that stresses the emptying of the mind allowing one to discover one’s true self and his true nature. This type of practice according to the Encarta Encyclopedia has been traced to 189 AD. It moved to China in the 6th century and to Japan in the 12th century.
So what is really new about this New Age? Perhaps what is new about it is that now we consciously recognize the use and value of these many routes of learning and understanding. The science of Astronomy goes back four thousand years. The Age of Aquarius is a Zodiacal sign, one of twelve that originated in Mesopotamia in 2000 BC. The Greeks adopted them from the Babylonians and passed them on to other civilizations. The Egyptians assigned them names and symbols. The Chinese called them animal names like Dog, Rat, & snake. Independently, on the other side of the planet Ascetics devised a similar system.
Each Age lasts between twenty four hundred and twenty six hundred years. The time of Jesus was the Age if Pisces and was symbolized by the fish. Christians used it as a symbol of identity and drew it in the sand as a means of identifying one another because they were being persecuted. The underlying principle of the Piscean Age was “I believe.” It was a time of the development of the emotional nature of man. This is evidenced by the devotional nature of the human being at the time. Magnificent oil painting, spectacular mosaic tile work and awesome sculpture of the Renaissance period all bear testimony to that, as does the brilliant music of Bach, Bethoven, Chopin and the other classic composers. One cannot listen to these scores without reaction. The greatest demonstration that man was drawn by his emotions was his willingness to die for their religious beliefs.
In the late 1900’s came the dawning on another age, the Age of Aquarius that is symbolized by the Water Bearer; “The bearer of the waters of knowledge.” The underlying principle is “I know.” It is currently called the Information Age. How appropriate. It manifests by way of scientific and medical advances such as cardiovascular surgery, micro and laser surgery, space travel, cures for major illnesses, and endless research, communication via computer is present in our shopping malls, our businesses and military installations. The average man in the street can communicate with literally all parts of the globe while sitting in his own home at a personal computer. Science and information systems have joined together to give us sophisticated air and spacecraft. I can’t imagine how sophisticated the systems we don’t know about yet must be. Man is exploring. Man wants to know.
Occult simply means hidden or veiled and is not to be confused with a “cult” that often wants to control mans mind. Conversely a study of the occult is merely mans desire to know what is hidden from his physical eyes. Atoms, molecules, & electrons used to be occult. Even today they can only be traced, not seen. Mans drive to know has given him a grasp of science has allowed us to trace them. The virus and bacteria that cause disease used to be undetectable (occult), now with the aid if microscopes they are no longer veiled from our eyes. In this age of knowing we want to see even beyond the physical body, we want to expand our vision beyond the physical sense of sight and increase the awareness of our consciousness. That is not mysterious. There was a time when man could not see color. Eventually he began to see reds and soon other primary colors. Today we enjoy hundreds of nuances of color. It is not reasonable that this evolution should continue and allow us to see beyond our physical sight?
The New Age is a celestial event that is a vehicle through which we are able to develop more knowledge as well as recognize that which we have had at our fingertips for hundreds, even thousands of years.
The alleged mysterious movements of the New Age aren’t new at all. We have seen that they date back two to four thousand years. What is new is man’s desire to know rather than just believe. We are exploring the science of the mind. Further some are not satisfied at stopping there. When Freud gave birth to Psychoanalysis in 1896 and Carl Jung began to explore the nature of man in the early 1900’s there were many who thought them to be upstarts and quacks. Years later we find their work to have great value and it impacts our lives. In the 20th and 21 Century man now is exploring beyond the mind and delves into his consciousness and his spiritual nature. It is a natural progression. Is your mind logical enough to accept that?
This is the age of knowing. Belief is no longer enough for human kind. It is not a matter of what mysteries have already been proven or what is yet to be proven. This celestial event is a time of natural evolution for man to grow through the development of his emotional nature into the development of his mental nature.
Meditation/Seed thought
I open my mind at all times that I may be able to absorb new information without prejudice or prejudgment.
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