A New Age for the Old Ways: My views on the term New Age

New Age, a term that is either loved or disliked for a multitude of reasons in the spiritual communities. A lot of the time there is a difference pointed out between someone who is New Age and someone who is Pagan. Typically a lot of New Age shops hold a lot of expensive items, even some items you could find elsewhere for a lot less money, and almost all of the items are machine made. While in Metaphysical Shops, prices will be more appropriate for the items worth, and you may come across many more hand-crafted items.

There have even been differences pointed out between New Age and Paganism, such as someone who is New Age won't really care much for the history of things, they are more focused on the new spiritual trend. While with Pagans, they are focused on the spiritual aspects of their beliefs, they care about the history, and truly delve into things.

And finally, much of the dislike is due to how the term sounds in comparison to the religions/spiritual paths. Many of these religions go back thousands of years, so hearing someone call it New Age upsets them because the religion is anything but new.

While I can fully understand this and agree with a lot of the sentiments for the face meaning of the term, I am also focusing on more of the deeper meaning behind it.

New Age; a new time, a new era, its really not trying to say that the religions and spirituality is new, but more, it is a new time to practice these old beliefs. A New Age for the Old Ways. And what many people forget is that, while yes, the religions and spirituality have roots that go back hundreds to thousands of years, time changes things.

I am very much a big supporter of reaching back to our roots, because without our past, we don't have a future. We should yes try to reconstruct as much as possible of the ancient beliefs, but we also must keep in mind that what we are practicing will never be exactly as how it was practiced in the past. So in a sense, there is still a newness to the practices because they are being revived after much of the practices being lost for so long.

Time moves forward, it doesn't go back, things will never be the same as they once were because anything that doesn't change dies. Beliefs are like water, as long as its flowing there is always fresh oxygen, there is a constant renewal and it stays clean and alive, but when water becomes stagnant, very little life can come about. There is no renewal, no way to clean it and remove any of the debris that has gathered, and eventually barely anything is alive in it.

So in a way it is a New Age, a New Age for reconnecting to our roots,  a New Age to reconnect with the Universal energies, a New Age for the Old Ways to live once again.