New Age Duality

2007-8-26 16:23:00

I was thinking lately about the dualities as they manifest in religious/philosophical thought.

The first major division is between East and West. Western thought is mainly male/outward/active and represented by Christianity, Islam, Judaism and some active New Age types.

Eastern is female/inward/magnetic and Buddhism, Hinduism are typical of this approach.

In Western civilization Christianity dominates and within it we have another male/female, conservative/liberal position. The conservative side are the evangelicals, Mormons and other fundamentalists who are the male side, active, outward and proselytizing in mindset. The liberal side are usually found in the more established churches settled into non confrontational mindset, except for the anti-war stance.

When we look at Christianity as a whole in the West I would say its opposite polarity would be the New Age movement. Now one may question this and say that there are only a few who identify themselves as New Agers and many who say they are Christians. Therefore, they cannot be an opposite polarity.

Consider this. The New Age influence is female/magnetic invisible whereas the Christian side is male active and visible. If this is true then the New Age side would have more influence than is obvious.

A Harris poll taken in 2003 bears this out. Overall over a quarter of the people believe in reincarnation and 31 percent believe in astrology. But even more interesting is this:   In the age group of 25-29, forty percent believe in reincarnation compared to 14 percent of those over 65.

Similarly, 43 percent of the younger group believe in astrology compared with 17 percent of those 65 and older.

What does this tell us? It tells us that even though New Age people are rarely joined in groups that they are beginning to dominate the younger generation where the seat of influence lies. Their influence is counterbalancing orthodox Christianity to the extent that it has arrived at its opposite polarity.

Does the polarity manifest within the New Age movement itself?

Yes. It is divided into those dominated by mind/heart and emotion/heart. I use heart in both examples because you have two heart centers. The first is associated with the heart area of the body and the second is a heart center in the head. The heart energies thus link the two dualities so they are similar in their feeling, but the mentally polarized are not very understood by the emotional/astral ones.

The mental side is composed of those who are attracted to the Alice A. Bailey writings, Theosophy, Rosecrucians, Masons, Gnostics and others in some ordered or structural pursuit of higher knowledge.

The emotional side is composed of many who follow no one train of thought but are attracted to most any astral channeling even if one contradicts the other. Some, however, do get hooked up with a guru that follow without question. This group will often claim there is no such thing as good and evil on one hand yet declare the mind to be evil on the other and disdain its use.

All these dualities have their use and if true heart and mind are used in directing them good can result. If the mind is sterile from feeling then the philosophy will be lifeless and if the feeling is devoid of common sense then a workable philosophy will not even be achieved.

The Keys is one of the few groups polarized in the mind with a link to the heart. We seek the mind as a link to the higher realm of pure reason and the heart as the link that leads to service to a struggling humankind.

  

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.
Voltaire (1694 - 1778)