Is New Age Occult? Mystery, Gnosis, and Spiritual Discernment, Part Eight: What kind of person does a practitioner become?

This is the last part of an 8-part series. You can start with the Introduction here.

We began this series with a seemingly simple question: Is New Age occult? Along the way, that question opened into much larger ones that we’ve been exploring. What does “occult” actually mean? How does Christianity understand its own relationship with mystery and unseen reality? How do my roots and my Wesleyan understanding of what Methodists call the Quadrilateral of scripture, tradition, reason, and experience shape spiritual discernment?

What happens when we understand creation panentheistically, as existing within the presence of God, as I do? What can ritual, earth-centered spirituality, and Goddess imagery contribute to our spiritual imagination? And, if gnosis means direct experiential knowledge of the sacred, who gets access to it? As I wrote in the previous part, one thing has become especially important to note: Mystery is not the same thing as secrecy. The Divine is available to everyone and cannot be possessed by anyone.

With that in mind, we can return to the original question. Is New Age spirituality occult?

In the older historical sense of the word, some of it certainly is. Some New Age practices draw directly or indirectly from traditions historically described as occult or esoteric. Astrology, divination, channeling, energy work, and various forms of metaphysical teaching all have connections with the history of Western esotericism and other spiritual traditions concerned with unseen dimensions of reality. But “New Age” and “occult” are not identical categories.

One thing I feel is important is understanding that even when a practice can accurately be described as occult, that description alone does not tell us whether it is spiritually healthy. It does not tell us whether it is true or false, whether it is liberating or harmful. All it tells us is something about the kind of practice or tradition we are discussing.

It still must be evaluated in order to answer those questions. The evaluation leads to discernment. My spiritual background gives me useful resources for that task. I can ask what scripture contributes to the conversation without pretending that a single verse necessarily ends it. By scripture, I mean the Holy writings of various belief systems. I can listen to the traditions of those who practice a spiritual path without assuming that every inherited judgment is beyond reconsideration. I can use reason to examine spiritual claims critically. I can take experience seriously without assuming that every interpretation of an experience must be correct.

In the end, I can ask about the fruits. What kind of person does the practice develop? Do they deepen love, compassion, justice, humility, responsibility, and freedom? Do they have greater reverence for other people and for the Earth? Do they take time for thoughtful discernment, or do they demand unquestioning belief?

Does the practice empower people, or create dependency? Does it cultivate humility before mystery, or spiritual grandiosity? Does it invite exploration, or does it use fear to prevent questions? Does it deepen the practitioners capacity to love?

These questions can be asked of New Age spirituality. They can be asked of Theosophy, Wicca, paganism, Druidry, esoteric traditions, and Goddess spirituality. They must also be asked of Christianity.

Something does not become spiritually healthy merely because it is labeled Christian. History gives us far too much evidence to make that assumption. Likewise, something does not become spiritually dangerous merely because it is labeled pagan, occult, mystical, or New Age.

I do not believe mystery belongs only to Christianity, nor does gnosis belong only to initiates of a particular practice. I do not believe the Divine is confined to the boundaries human beings draw around religious traditions, and I do not believe openness requires abandoning discernment.

The deeper question beneath “Is New Age occult?” is not whether we can place New Age spirituality safely inside or outside a particular religious boundary. The deeper questions are these: What do we mean by “occult”? Why has the word become so strongly associated with fear? What is the difference between mystery and secrecy? Who, if anyone, owns spiritual knowledge? By what criteria do we discern whether a spiritual path or practice is genuinely life-giving?

If the occult is simply “that which is hidden,” perhaps the task of spiritual life is not to possess hidden knowledge but to become more attentive to the mystery that has been present all along.

The sacred may be hidden not because it has been withheld from us,
but because we are still learning how to see.