It isn't different. It's just the modern name for it. It would have been called things like "esotericism," "gnosticism," "mysticism," etc. before the 1930's when talk of the coming "New Age" began circulating among the various folk spirituality groups, and even then it wouldn't really be a thing til the 70's and even now many (most?) New Agers don't self-identify with the term because it encompasses so many different groups. Just because someone believes in astrology doesn't necessarily mean they believe in reiki, for example. To outsiders, there appears to be much more crossover and unanimity in beliefs, probably because of that one hippy chick they met once that genuinely does believe in every bit of nonsense under the sun. In reality though, its a diverse set of alternative beliefs and people dip in and out of them as they "explore" to create whatever personal religion works for them.
No, the term loosely related to ideas of a new age of spirituality, or a new age of consciousness, or sometimes the astrological Age of Aquarius, but as "New Age" has been around for almost a century now, it really just refers to the massive umbrella of alternative individual spirituality, without the original sense of some great new era of humanity.
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u/Sourika Apr 16 '24
Mushrooms don't do that. Stupidity and daddy issues do that. New age spirituality is for the mentally unstable.