NEW AGE LITERATURE

AS POPULAR ESOTERICS
QUESTIONS:
- PERSON’S LIFE IS PREDETERMINED BEFORE THEY ARE BORN. DO YOU AGREE?
- DO YOU BELIEVE IN MYSTICISM ?
- HOW OFTEN DO YOU MEDITATE? DOES MEDITATION HELP YOU RELAX?
“Esotericism”
– from the Greek adjective esoterikos, which means “inner”;
- describes mystical, spiritual or occult viewpoints;
- in religion is called “obscurantism”.
THE ERA OF THE NEW AGE CONSIDERED TO BE AS THE ESOTERIC ONE
- THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT:
* SPREAD THROUGH THE OCCULT AND METAPHYSICAL RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN
THE 1970S AND ʾ80S;
* THE MOVEMENT’S STRONGEST SUPPORTERS WERE FOLLOWERS OF MODERN
ESOTERICISM;
* AMERICAN THEOSOPHIST DAVID SPANGLER – DEVELOPED THE FUNDAMENTAL
IDEA OF THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT;
*HE PRESENTED HIS IDEAS IN A SET OF POPULAR BOOKS ONE OF THEM
“REVELATION: THE BIRTH OF A NEW AGE” (1976)
 Richard Alpert Timothy
Leary
(psychologist)
(psychologist)
ESOTERIC BOOKS AND THEIR AUTHORS
BENJAMIN CRÈME
- A SCO T T I SH A RT I S T, A U T H O R, E SO T E R I C I S T, A N D E D I TO R O F S H A RE I N T E R N AT I O N A L M A G A Z I N E .
- “ T R A NS M I S S I O N - A M E D I TA T I O N F O R T H E N E W A G E ”
* “T R A NS M I S S I O N M E D I TA T I O N I S A G R O U P S E RV I C E A C T I V I T Y W H I C H ' S TE P S D O W N' T H E G R E AT S P I R I TU A L E NE R G I E S T H AT
CO NTI NU A LLY S T R E A M I N TO O U R P L A NE T, F O C U S E D B Y T H E M A S TE R S O F W I S D O M - O U R 'ELDER BROTHERS”.

Maitreya
John Frederick Carden Michell
- English author and esotericist who was a prominent figure in the development of the Earth mysteries
movement;
- “The View Over Atlantis” (1969);
* The tone of his work reflected "a fervent religious feeling", describing the existence of an ancient,
universal, and true system of belief that was once spread across the ancient world but which had been lost
through the degeneracy of subsequent generations.
- published a sequel to The View Over Atlantis as City of Revelation (1972);
* This work was more complex than its predecessor, including chapters on sacred geometry, numerology,
gematria, and the esoteric concept of the New Jerusalem, and required an understanding of mathematics and
Classics to follow its arguments.
- Michell was a proponent of the Traditionalist school of esoteric thought.
Frances Amelia Yates

- one of the pioneering scholars of Western esotericism;

- wrote a number of books on the subject of esoteric history;
- her famous work “Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition”:

* This book is about an intellectual and spiritual luminary several centuries ahead of his time. Bruno
imagined astrological, mathematical and philosophical truths staggering in their modern sensibility and haunting
in their implications:
- The universe is not helocentric nor earth-centric, but is infinite, with stars really as suns with their own
planets surrounding them.
- God is not only one and within all of nature, but is a force and blinding love completely separate even as it
penetrates everything.
- Spiritual images of Egyptian and occult faiths long since past are a way to connect with and draw divine
energies into earthly matter and the human heart.
- We are all one with the divine mind, and it unifies, instead of divides.

Giordano Bruno
 - a prominent French scholar of Western esotericism;
- In several publications, Faivre has described esotericism as a distinct
ANTOINE FAIVRE
"form of thought", in terms of six characteristics:
1. “Correspondences”
2. “Living nature”
3. “Imagination and Mediations”
4. “Experience of Transmutation”
5. “The praxis of Concordance”
6. “Transmission”

born in Reims June 5, 1934

Alice Ann Bailey
- an influential writer and teacher in the fields of spiritual, occult,
esoteric, astrological, theosophical, Christian and other religious
themes;
- her works, written between 1919-1949, describe a wide-ranging
system of esoteric thought;

 «Esoteric Psychology I» (the first volume of The Treatise on the Seven Rays) June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949
"seven Rishis of all the ancient scriptures" :
1.The Lord of Power or Will
2.The Lord of Love-Wisdom
3.The Lord of Active Intelligence
4.The Lord of Harmony, Beauty and Art
5.The Lord of Concrete Knowledge and Science
6.The Lord of Devotion and Idealism
7.The Lord of Ceremonial Order or Magic
 «Esoteric Psychology II» (the second volume of The Treatise on the Seven Rays)
Bailey describes the ray qualities controlling the life, consciousness and appearance of a
human being on the physical plane
 «Esoteric Astrology» (the third volume of The Treatise on the Seven Rays)
 The First Ray: Will/Power - Signs: Aries, Leo, Capricorn - Planets: Vulcan, Pluto

 The Second Ray: Love/Wisdom - Signs: Gemini, Virgo, Pisces - Planets: Jupiter, Sun

 The Third Ray: Active Intelligence - Signs: Cancer, Libra, Capricorn - Planets: Earth, Saturn

 The Fourth Ray: Harmony through Conflict - Signs: Taurus, Scorpio, Sagittarius - Planets: Mercury, Moon

 The Fifth Ray: Concrete Knowledge - Signs: Leo, Sagittarius, Aquarius - Planet: Venus

 The Sixth Ray: Devotion and Idealism - Signs: Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces - Planet: Mars, Neptune

 The Seventh Ray: Ceremonial Order and Magic - Signs: Aries, Cancer, Capricorn -Planet: Uranus

 «Esoteric healing » (the fourth volume of The Treatise on the Seven Rays)

- a major subject in the philosophical writings of Alice Bailey;

- esoteric healing is not on the physical body or any of the three personality bodies of the human being (physical, emotional,
mental), but on the soul;
 Recommended books to read
 Birgit Lomborg “The Disciple's Mirror”

 Clarissa Pinkola Estes “Women who run with the wolves”

 Raymond Moody “Life After Life”

 Doreen Virtue “The Crystal

Children”