\nThere are two competing spiritual attitudes, and often they are confused because they seem to deal with the same subject matters: metaphysics, spirituality, and so on. Yet there is a fundamental dichotomy, so divisive, in fact, that mutual conversation is barely possible. The New Ager is comprehensible from the Traditional viewpoint, but the New Agers has no understanding of the Traditional worldview, and can only regard it with contempt.<\/p>\n
\nTradition regards man as he is as the result of a fall from a perfect, primordial state. From a Golden Age to the Kali Yuga, there has been a continual degeneration in both man and society. This degeneration affects man\u2019s intellect, will, and moral sense. From an ordered, hierarchical, and differentiated world, there is a decline into chaos and egalitarianism. The way out is to achieve a reintegration of those chaotic elements.\n<\/p>\n
\nVertical Orientation<\/strong>: The Traditional worldview is transcendence<\/em>. Man\u2019s task is to transcend the human state and reach deeper states of being. This process is theosis<\/em>, or the God-man (NOT the deification of man).<\/p>\n \nThe New Age observes the same changes as Tradition, but its judgment is it very opposite. Rather than seeing the current world as the result of a Fall, it sees it as the outcome of a process of evolution, from a primitive state to a more enlightened state. Evolution is given a moral sense: what has evolved is \u201cgood\u201d and what it replaces is \u201cevil\u201d. All the symptoms of degeneration that Tradition decries, the New Age, instead, embraces.<\/p>\n \nHorizontal Orientation<\/strong>: The New Age worldview is immanence<\/em>. God is expressed through the human situation, so there is nothing to transcend. This is the deification of humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are two competing spiritual attitudes, and often they are confused because they seem to deal with the same subject matters: metaphysics, spirituality, and so on. Yet there is a fundamental dichotomy, so divisive, in fact, that mutual conversation is barely possible. The New Ager is comprehensible from the Traditional … Continue reading New Age<\/h2>\n