Once again Mr. Brooks refuses to see where his reasoning leads because of his ideological constraints. Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Astrology, Wicca, any form of"spirituality" -- they are all superstition and mythology based in fear of the unknown, and ultimately fear of death. None of it ever has or ever will cure what ails human kind. We need to get to some form of humanistic secularism and leave all of our mythology on the historical scrap heap of bad ideas.
13
What's interesting to me is watching Wicca grow from its invention in the late 60s until now. Its 'history', beliefs, and practices were all created out of whole cloth and elaborated since then, somewhat like Scientology.
Yet, clearly it speaks to some human need. So do Tarot, astrology, homeopathy crystals, and a host of other ideologies and belief systems which arose in the late 60s and early 70s.
However, since none of these is actually spiritually satisfying, they just end up creating more alienation and frustration, causing their practitioners to become even more shrill, intense, and partisan.
3
If my party was circling the bowl, I would fish around for outliers like this too. Nice try Dave.
4
Blame your school teacher who in some liberal misguided logic believes that all belief systems are created equal.
6
Another veiled screed against all things hippie and Age of Aquarius? This time astrology? Surely Mr. Brooks you recall the sainted Ronald Reagan whose wife, Nancy arranged that vapid president's daily schedule around the dictates of... astrology? See, it's not liberalism you dislike, but ignorance, and Nancy Reagan was as ignorant as they came. Except when it came to high fashion which she wore, mostly free, 24/7. She gave "being Red" a whole new meaning.
Ignorance is bipartisan Mr. Brooks. Except this time around your ignorant partisans chose the man with the ugliest personalty for president in my lifetime, even including Nixon. Except when they chose the biggest fool around known as W. before Trump.
5
Mr Brooks says that people need to “escape the pace of life technology wants”. But *technology* doesn’t *want* anything. It’s not an animate being. It is a human creation, managed and operated by humans.
Moreover, there are a host of technolg*ies*.
Talking the way Mr. Brooks does not only promotes misunderstanding: it adds to people’s sense of alienation and helplessness — unnecessarily!
Words matter.
4
What a bunch of disorganized and petty sneering.
Here are the cliff notes: Whatever threatens the incurious Mr. Brooks and his wealth is junk.
6
If some variety of rational philosophy is the alternative to superstition and fundamentalist religion, some responsibility must rest with the purely academic and scholastic nature of American philosophers, who spend their lives debating minute theoretical distinctions--in their own jargon, amongst themselves--with no attempt to reach out to a larger public outside their scholarly "discipline.". . . .The Greeks 2500 years ago invented democracy, drama and philosophy. We have plenty of politics and TV dramas. Where is the missing ingredient, Philosophy?
4
I suspect that in the long term, this brief period in American history will be known as a period of transistion from self-centered shallowness to meaningful and sustainable social activism. The voter turnout in 2020 will be telling.
2
This column is at least 20 years too late.
4
Established, organized religion is a muggles game.
3
"coherent creed"???? Are you kidding?
When someone tells me they believe in tarot cards, astrology, essential oils, think and grow rich, scientology or any other pseudo science they have then failed my IQ test. I grant a pass on major religions as they are cultural norms but you lose points as you become increasingly radical.
5
I believe in essential oils. They exist and they smell good. I just don't believe in the hype about their supposed medical uses.
4
As NYT won't publish my more detailed comment, I will summarize what I said earlier.
Human soul needs spiritual nourishment, a connection to the great unknown out there, and looking at universe, there is quite a bit of it.
We want the comfort that our psyches derive from rituals, chants, prayers, etc.
Also, when we face difficulties and troubles in life, we want reassurance, some glimpse into the future, that gives some hint that things will get better.
None of things mentioned here are a surprise, they have happened through millennia of human civilization history.
Divining, Paganism, lesser and higher gods, witches, established religions with myriad off-shoots... quite a cornucopia of human spiritual need on full-on display.
One just has to look with an unprejudiced eye.
4
Humbug, all of it (except the exercise part....)
Stella Bugbee seems perfectly named.
Sounds like just another way to mark the "left" as flakes. They'll do anything to discredit free thinkers that are not chained to Fox Noise no matter how trivial or newsworthy it is or is not.
2
These nut jobs are almost as crazy as the folks who believe human beings were molded out of clay by a magic ghost. His son was born without sexual intercourse! He turned water into wine! He made fish magically appear! Before that, people parted seas and spoke with burning bushes!
As a capital A Agnostic, my opinion is that mainstream, traditional religions are no more ridiculous than people who belief in witchcraft. What's the difference between believing in witchcraft and believing in miracles? Both ideas are equally insane.
The difference is that Brooks is willing too defend the historical insanity. He will use its language and try to drag it into politics. His beliefs are no more sane than those of there people in this piece. It's all equally bananas.
6
@Patrick: If you are agnostic, you are not decided on the issue of anyone ever speaking for God yourself.
1
@Steve Bolger I am an Agnostic, because, although I do not have faith, I acknowledge that there is much in the world that is unknown. I also believe in Reason, which is why I have no inclination to believe in witchcraft or religion. I was taking issue with the idea of someone who believes in God mocking New Age religion, because, in my view, they are the same thing — belief systems that are not based on anything empirical.
If I failed to live up to your narrow definition of Agnostic, apologies. I was using it more in the root sense of the word.
My use of it here is correct, because I don’t believe in traditional or new age deities for the same reason; they both lack the ability to prove their existence.
2
"29 percent of Americans say they believe in astrology. That’s more than are members of mainline Protestant churches."
Well, David, look. You can't get any more mainline than the Anglicans, and I'd say anybody who can swallow the Thirty-Nine Artivles should have no problem getting Saturn in the House of Libra down.
2
@Bob Acker
Actually, Bob, we Anglicans, since our formation, have been much more about process, the 'three-legged stool', and discerning one's path, than we have been about any specific set of doctrines. We are very light on doctrine, and strong on process.
1
Add to this list meaningful coincidences or synchronicity and serendipity. Serendipity is being studied world-wide. A new organization, the Serendipity Society, is having its first meeting in London in September. Most of the attendees will be academics. Meaningful coincidences are being studied as ways to new ideas about how reality works. There is science blooming in these once "occult ideas".
5
@Bernard D: Reputations are made by exploitation of coincidences.
No, there really isn't. Respectable mathematicians have shown that what we think of as synchronicity could easily be completely random. We experience so many micro-events in our lives that some of them are bound to seem to align and form patterns even if they don't. Genuine skepticism means being rigorous about doubt.
1
Mr. Brooks tries to equate today with the ‘60s, but there’s a big difference: the splintering and multiplicity of belief in the ‘60s was grounded in hopeful confidence things were right on the cusp of getting better, while today’s rise of “strange” beliefs is grounded in pessimistic fear that they wont.
I work in the high-tech sector that is doing everything it can to replace people first with robots that work alongside people (so-called “cobots”), and then with autonomous machines of all sorts that will, without question, put millions out of work. There’s a possibility that more rewarding jobs will result down the line (experts provide widely contradictory projections of how many jobs will be destroyed and how many created, and in what time frame), just as has happened in previous waves of the Industrial Revolution, but right now is just a time that feels bad.
It will be years, maybe decades, before we know if the future is utopian or dystopian, but for many, right now feels tumultuous and uncertain. To feel better, to burrow into *something,* people dig deeper into whatever feels right to them and gives them a purchase amid the tumult, be it mainstream religion, astrology, clairvoyance,Wiccan practices, gardening, etc. As a man past middle age, I don’t expect to live to see how this plays out, but have enormous empathy & sympathy for the tempest-tossed of the modern world.
5
I never believed in Astrology. How can the arrangement of such distant planets influence anything on earth? However, I had too many unexplained astrologically predicted events and I've come to realize (read believe) that astrology, like tarot cards, all psychic phenomena really, are conduits for spiritual, transcendent energy. Some people appear to be very good at it; others ah, need more practice.
New Age philosophy does appear to point people to practices that expand love and compassion. Unlike so many religions that purport to support non-violence, you never find New Age types running for their guns...
2
If it makes people behave themselves, great. Just don't claim that pseudoscience has any scientific basis. I will support you fully.
3
David Brooks make some interesting observations.
I would add a few more.
The Wiccan way of life does not involve knocking on other peoples doors, hosting hate radio shows, or posting fake propaganda news. They don't seem to want to hate people who don't follow their belief system, and they don't seem to want to govern the lives of non-believers.To my knowledge they have not taken over the Supreme Court and have no plan to do so. They don't seem to be political hypocrites and I am unaware of any special interest lobbying on their behalf.
All of which leads me to deduce that Wicca therefore cannot be an American religion.
108
@MrC, thank you.
trump supporters, we'd like your rebuttal; one that doesn't involve just insulting the left.
11
Astrology, witchcraft, Kabalah and the like are popular because they do not require any effort or work. They are the perfect "religions" for a generally, lazy generation. And we're just getting more and more lazy.
14
@Jay Orchard: They don't provide insight either. No tough questions have easy answers.
6
@Jay Orchard
Not sure that I would say they require no effort. Saying you are Catholic/Protestant/ etc and sitting in a pew/ kneeling on a rug, etc doesn't require the effort of learning about the Kabalah. It just requires following whatever Mom and Dad did. How much effort is there in "being" any faith your family held when you were growing up.
19
Watch out for witches. You've got no idea how bad fleas can be until you've been turned into a werewolf.
5
Ha ha, Millenials, am I right?
I wonder why more of them don't opt for more traditional religions, like the one which has institutionalized the rape of children. Or the ones headed by private-jet flying snake oil salesmen.
If it is true that AOC has interest in astrology, I find that much less disturbing than the Strangelovian longing for an earthly apocalypse to usher in the "Rapture" shared by our Vice President and Secretary of State.
8
@Andrew Larson: Astrology appeals to many people of Latin American origin. It may go back to Native American religion.
Mr. Brooks mentions that Astrology, Paganism, and the like had a surge of interest in the 60's and is now back in vogue. I think the bigger picture is that conventional religions, along with their belief systems, as well as "established" social institutions like marriage, have been receding in importance, or fundamentally changing, for at least my lifetime (now in my 70's). In fact, before my time, post-WWI saw an even larger disillusionment, in reaction to the horrors of, "The War to End All Wars", which of course it wasn't.
Institutions and belief systems that are found wanting and inadequate are no longer amenable to the dictum, "Because it has always been this way". I think the problem is even deeper than Mr. Brooks proposes here. Disillusionment with what "was" is both real and ongoing.
3
This is what happens when you defund education to give tax breaks to the rich. People believe in nonsense.
4
Not growing; always here. The need for assurance, aided by the profit motive of many providers, means that mystical thinking will always be here. The Reagans had an astrologer in the White House - remember?
1
Lions and tigers and bears oh my!
By the time a POPULAR social trend reaches this column, it's a fair bet it's already on the wane. This is because Mr. Brooks made a career championing UNPOPULAR things like War and "Conservatism" whatever that may be now. The only thing certain about his conservative movement is that it seeks scapegoats at every turn, having no there, there, to defend, it must remain on the offensive.
Magic, Astrology, Tarot cards, witches — all the archeological relics passed on from Babylon to Salem never really went a way. They're part of history and not really a threat to anyone.
They spark the popular imagination at times like now when it becomes blatantly apparent that the status quo is trafficking in a completely false interpretation of reality, with no one's best interests at heart but their own. This makes previously posited alternative realities very appealing to investigate.
After all if there is no such thing as trickle down and tax cuts don't work. if Iraq was unnecessary, simply mass murder. Deregulation a harmful fraud. If christians secretly long only to control and discriminate against you. If healthcare won't really care for you (unless you're wealthy).
Well then how much harm can you pull out of a witch's hat?
At least it's entertaining.
Our ruling class and the way they rule us have made nonsense look good. even a source of salvation, for they most obviously are not. They promote worse then nonsense, they are predatory.
3
Well i will admit that i am a Dystopian Non Believer with the moon in mars.
2
Does anybody read the classics of sociology and anthropology anymore?
Durkheim had the first and perhaps the last word on "anomie", the condition of normlessness that David decries in this column.
Max Weber's "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" is still compellingly full of insight about the effects of religious belief on secular behavior (and V.S. Naipal's "The Return of Eva Peron" is a nice bookend, comparing the secular effects of Catholicism and the Protest Reformation on the development of, respectively, Argentina and the United States).
Most of all, though, people who believe -- or "soft of believe" -- in witchcraft, astrology, praying to Greek or Roman gods -- whatever! -- would do well to look at Malinowski's "Magic, Science, and Religion". At very least, it might help them to distinguish among the three.
3
@GPS
You could do worse than to read the collective works of Eric Fromm, Karen Horney, Alice Miller — if you want to understand how and why your society is abusive and predatory. They're dated but there's truth in Freud, Jung and marx as well.
And in answer to your question, No. No one at all reads anything except entertainment which jibes with their closed belief system. if they read at all.
They don't even watch the great european, american and japanese art films of 1950 to 1980, which collectively explore every nuance of society imaginable.
They don't believe knowledge is important and from experience they seek only pleasure, nothing difficult.
Two years ago I started wondering what the statement "Jesus died for our sins" meant, so I asked half a dozen Christian friends none of whom was able to articulate a coherent answer, but then I asked a friend who had gone to Catholic grade school, Catholic high school and a Catholic college, and he immediately began an explanation that started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and, fifteen minutes later, ended with the conclusion that "Jesus died for our sins." When he finished I told him that his explanation didn't make sense, and he said, "the explanation isn't important - what's important is the message." Bring on the witches.
3
@Mathman314
Rather than witches, could we bring on Aristotle and Einstein, instead?
1
@Mathman314
Catholicism wasn't made on this earth to make sense, it was made to control weak minds, and does it still fairly well. It is a conglomeration of cults which were orbiting in the Roman Empire for several hundred years before they got sewn together into a new state religion for the imperial masses. It incorporated a lot of contradictory material and as a state religion required a political base backed by persecution of non believers under the law. Protestant sects did the same thing a thousand years later.
Both sects turned to burning witches around 1550, after centuries of declaring they didn't exist. 200 years later the mass murder is estimated to have killed millions. I'm sure most of them were simply political or religious enemies of the status quo, or someone whose land the church wanted. Children were not immune to this torture at times consisting of half the victims. A convenient way to keep all parents quiet and unsupportive of "heresy" or making demands of any kind.
The Puritans founded Yankee Culture and are still held out as admirable by their christian descendants. Honestly based on the historical record who do we really have to fear The christians status quo, known mass murders in every era, or the witches, who have yet to have a legitimate crime laid at their feet?
1
@The Lorax Absolutely!
As one who sits on the sidelines of spiritual and supernatural matters, Wicca doesn't look any more or less reasonable than Christianity, or Astrology, or the Pastafarianism. They all appear equally irrational. I mean that in a descriptive, not a pejorative sense.
Any preference I have for one over the other is based on the ratio of comfort given to practitioners vs. induced antipathy towards non-practitioners.
We could use more happiness and less hate in the world.
1
One million adherents to some species of neo-paganism out of a population of 327 million is still little more than an oddity. There are at least ten million Pentecostals in the U.S. whose superstitious zeal rivals that of any Wiccan but without any sense of irony. Then there is the quarter of the population who are Evangelicals who differ only by degree. Alas, I'll take neo-pagan blarney any day - at least they're vaccinating their kids and not denying climate change.
6
@Gary F.S.
"at least they're vaccinating their kids"
You had better hold your praise. My wife's sister is into all kinds of new age blather and she refuses to vaccinate her newborn.
2
A fine example of how poorly educated so many people are, including, unfortunately, a lot of college graduates.
2
To his great credit, Pope Francis offered a brilliant piece on the critical need for sustainable development, "Laudato Si", that includes these thoughts (my summary): We are not God and “dominion” over the earth does not mean domination of its creatures. Humans must respect the laws of nature. Bible has no place for a tyrannical anthropocentrism unconcerned for other creatures. Priority for other creatures of “being” before “being useful.
He noted that calling for environmental responsibility has been a part of the Catholic church for decades. Unfortunately, these messages get diluted, and so aren't as effective as they might be.
So people continue to seek alternatives that fit the challenges of the 21st century, of which reducing equality and living on earth sustainably are foremost. Most everyone faces a triple tension of earning a living, living within their moral code, and living sustainably...the latter two should be synonymous but sadly, for many religions, are not.
Just like businesses, religions will be relevant to people if they are solving their problems. With the educational access of the internet and science, we have great potential for decentralized human advancement - but regardless of our "god" or consciousness path, we must align ourselves with living more sustainably to protect the next generation from this one - a centrally moral decision vital to civlization's future.
1
snark from a republican?
2
I have noticed that more than three replies to a post aren't allowed, so I can't put this on the original thread: I did not mean to imply that modern pagans were engaging in human sacrifice. That is Alex Jones level paranoia. But the argument that pagan religions have a history which is morally superior to traditional religions, to me, is misguided. The Druids many neo-Pagans base their ideas on did indeed practice human sacrifice. Being pagan doesn't make you more moral than any other religion (or lack of religion) does. Morality comes from within.
2
This seems like lazy reporting to me since you don't take any of the alternatives at all seriously and rely on superficial sources to inform your article. Personally, I have a problem with all the Mindfulness/Woke business since it seems like nothing but self indulgent nonsense.
But people who practice Wicca (not "Witchcraft") or Astrology (not just reading your daily horoscope), have studied extensively and acquired a vast library of knowledge meant to encourage enlightenment, create good, promote acceptance and love, and reject hate and intolerance. A deeper investigation would have revealed a far more complex system of practices and beliefs that deserve to be supported, not dismissed out of hand.
1
@Chana
No, astrology and Wicca practices should absolutely be dismissed out of hand. These people should read Aristotle, Kant and Rawls if they want moral or spiritual guidance.
4
reminds me of a favorite spanish saying that I'll butcher into english -- "There is no such thing as witches, but when they fly -- they fly!"
1
Astrology is great for everyone, young and old alike. It teaches people to look at themselves and others as a composite whole laced with symbology. As individuals, we are interesting. We are not empty meaningless vessels determined by our actions or so-called accomplishments and success and misdeeds. Astrology also introduces people to the notion that our environment influences us; it can create who we are. Astrology can help us understand the unseen forces - like the air we NEED to breath - in an interesting symbolic way.
We have been told so many things that aren’t true that have been harmful and deadly to so many people and beings. Astrology is a description, not a mandate.
Brooks has a pretty nasty xenophobia to Eastern thought and seriously misrepresents them. The Eastern view of existence is probably correct.
That heaping scorn and derision on things I don’t know anything about doesn’t hide your ignorance. Knowing that you don’t know will always make you smarter: to paraphrase Plato writing about Socrates.
1
The problem is that astrology is utterly ludicrous - how does taking something so silly seriously make one a better, wiser person?
3
As the early 20th century British social critic G.K. Chesterton observed, “When [people] choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” In this astute column, Brooks has given us social criticism worthy of Chesterton.
IIn my view, right-wing religious individuals like Evangelicals need to look at their stifling and inhumane religious strictures, their disregard for the suffering of women and children on the border, their fight against minority and women's rights.
Many people have been alienated from Christianity not because of Christ's example of love, humility, and service, but by the intolerance and bigotry of right-wing Christianity. The cesspool of 'Christian' hypocrisy is pushing away many who are interested in spiritual connection and expression but can not find it in hard-hearted interpretations of Christ's message coming from those religious types..
4
" New forms are coming into being. We really are living through a moment of major transitional change."
Whys should Mr. Brooks be surprised or perplexed. The old "forms"/norms are not working. Western monotheisms are exponentially approaching moral and theological bankruptcy ...
1
I guess I don't see astrology as a religion, it's more like a system to explain the world... although I guess some people use religion for that too. Both seem to appeal to people who can't accept that things just happen, that there's no "why" behind a lot of it. People like to think there's a purpose for their life, and for everything that happens. I think that would be nice but don't believe it.
1
In my unknown quest for answers in the 80's I also dug deep into "women's" religions. Like current Christianity, etc., they didn't go far enough to provide more then superficial answers.
I have found my path, it was not what I was expecting but it is a road map to the end goal and that is what i was looking for but didn't know it, a combination of Eastern India and Western philosophy.
Since I'm not commenting to promote a single route to the internal to anyone I'll stop with this and some of you have heard this before - the answers are inside of you - Awake and you will find them.
2
A "golden rule" I have seen attributed to wicca is "do as thou wilt, an it harm none," sometimes abbreviated to simply "HARM NONE." I am not a Wiccan, but I have used that clear-as-day rule often to evaluate the claims and teachings of my inherited Christianity--and reject several.
Many of us are moving beyond traditional religious dogma to seek a relationship with that ineffable all-encompassing presence which is transcendent and immanent. Naming this essence of life is defining and limiting, trying to make finite the infinite; thus naming is not done. Many traditions use the word “God”. My spiritual journey evolves from the foundation of an active and beloved United Methodist Church experience on Long Island.
"This surge in belief is primarily among the young. According to a National Science Foundation survey, 44 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds say that astrology is somewhat or very “scientific.”
OH BROTHER! Astrology being "scientific" ends at the point where planetary movement and gravitational interactions are scientific....but that's where it ends.
Beyond that....non sequitur guys. Sorry. One's personality or future emotional entanglement is no more a function of planetary placement than the successful execution of a job interview is contingent upon the parking space one occupies before walking into the building.
5
@John Poggendorf Given the apparently declining standards of education these days, perhaps 44 percent of 18 - 24 year olds confuse "astrology" with "astronomy".
3
"44 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds say that astrology is somewhat or very “scientific.”
Ever ask an astrology believer how it's supposed to work?
2
A major problem in today's America is the inability for people to find meaning in their lives. Rural Americans, especially men, found meaning in the past in their work that provided a decent living for themselves and their families. No longer able to provide for them economically, they resort to alternative meaning makers, and if not, to opioids and other drugs of choice (like television). The loss of meaning for people in all parts of the country is a huge problem today, and people try to find meaning and belief where they can - in astrology, the occult, their church, mindfulness, buddhism, orthodox and reform judaism, islam, and so on. Those who don't find meaning drift, pass the time, and keep looking for it in other ways. David Brooks has hit upon a huge problem, much larger than this column suggests. Probably the search for meaning can lead to many more columns, even a book...
2
What is old is new again!
The Victorian’s fascination with the occult and witchcraft was fashionable. Mrs. Winchester was haunted by ghosts and taken advantage of by spiritual charlatans.
The hippies gave-up on communal poverty for the lure of capitalism.
This generation is just as gullible as the ones that came before them!
3
@Charlie
yes, I gave up on the Hippies when it turned out it was a non stop sx party and the women's only role was sx, baking bread and popin out kids. The men controlled the commune and became minor dictators if only in their small minds.
Some of us kept looking for an answer and found it in our selves.
3
Isn’t the mess in the White House enough for these people? Enough with the magical politics already. It's time for good old American hard work. The Democrats have come up with 20+ possibilities. Now the Republicans need to find some more viable candidates. If they can, that alone would work magic for me.
1
Just so you know David; we Easter Bunny Pagans haven't grown much. It's just me and Earl and the only point of contention we deal with is equal allocation of the good stuff. We handle it without violence.
1
In the late 1980s, I came out of the broom closet as a Witch. I typed up a four page summary about the essential religious beliefs of modern eclectic Witchcraft, and gave it to my parents to read.
My mother, a sentimental Episcopalian who never went to church, was angry and disappointed. However, my father, an atheist, read the four pages, put them down, and calmly went back to reading his book.
"So, what do you think?" I prodded him for a response.
"It's no stupider than Christianity," he replied.
Conventional religions are central to our world's most oppressive power structures. Conventional religions have brought us to the brink of global annihilation through climate change. Conventional religions assign men dominion over women, children, all the other species, and all natural resources. Conventional religions teach people NOT to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions: just go confess your sins to Big Daddy, be forgiven, and you are ready to go forth and sin some more.
Thus, conventional religions are watching their pews empty and their theology become irrelevant.
Witchcraft is life-affirming, not a death cult like conventional religions. Teaching people their true reward is after death has led to widespread mental illnesses, and has poisoned our planet. Humans would be far happier if we all danced under the moonlight around a bonfire more often, like we Witches do.
The future resembles the distant past more closely than the present.
76
I love your father!
22
@Caroline Kenner no stupider than Christianity, but it is as stupid.
1
@Caroline Kenner@BaldySanta
Actually, all of the things you attribute to traditional religion, except one, are failures to adhere, based on cherry picking the instructions. The very first book of the bible assigns us the responsibility for stewardship of the earth, not exploitation. The part attributed to male dominion is blatant and willful misreading of a lengthy instruction to respect and love others - all others.
You are correct about one thing: Most people use religion as a get-out-of-jail-free card. Those in positions of power read only far enough to justify their own agenda. I guess few really believe in an after-life, given that we are promised an uncompromising assessment of, and "reward" for, our actions in this life.
4
The mainstream religious right supports a corrupt President who denies the humanity of non-whites while witches speak out against the alt-right. I hope this is sustainable.
67
Got this one wrong, David.
This is proof of two things...
1) We are becoming scientifically illiterate
2) By definition, half the people are below average intelligence
Actually, you can cut and paste those and use them to explain so much of what's happening.
6
When people tell me witchcraft is real I disabuse them of such a silly notion and then turn them into newts.
77
@William Park Then what? Did they get better?
4
@Betrayus Of course they got better.
1
@William Park Let's see you turn Brooks into a newt.
4
Too many Christians have abandoned the teachings of Jesus for politics, and young people see that. And it doesn't help that there is a long "Christian" tradition of rooting out heresy: today, it's liberalism, abortion and apparently free markets that are marked for righteous extermination. Once this phase of fanaticism is past, traditional religion may be able to reassert its role in society.
1
@David Gleason
no I don't think so - today Christian tradition includes sx abuse by the evangelicals and not just the Catholics, dogma based on fear and hate, no REAL way to find God - that's why humans are continuing to SEARCH for the REAL answers, they been doing that since the beginning of time.
Come on Mr. Brooks, it's all a big joke. These are just atheists that are mocking traditional religion. They like to hang out with other funny people, so they do it under the guise of some crazy pagan sect or something.
Some of them, but not all of them.
“People Prefer a Wrong Map to None at All” - I forgot who said this, but it’s the reason why astrology is so popular. Christianity has gone down in popularity because most highly visible Christians are complete hypocrites or downright evil. So that’s what’s left of quasi religious thinking. There are no just causes, no blueprints for life, no stable careers, people have to turn to something.
I could easily think of a replacement for Religion. We could make social work honorable, finding the cure for cancer, alleviating poverty. But there are no structures to support this without going broke and uninsured (thanks to your right wing buddies Mr. Brooks)
"Christianity" has become a proxy for non-liberal voting white people in the U.S.
The assumption will obviously end up hurting some people who did nothing wrong, which is of course sad, but that's fundamentally how generalizations work - once enough people in a certain group exhibit a certain behavior, we stop caring about the exceptions altogether.
I'm sure most liberals would argue that stigmatizing religion is worth it in the long run, even if it hurts some people in the short term.
2
The definition of crazy is to pray to the same disinterested God over and over, and expect different results. Might as well try astrology.
1
'Hodgepodge spirituality' sounds shallow and selfish yet someone can use astrology, tarot, meditation or any other 'occult' tool to explore the subconscious and increase their feeling of interconnectedness with all people. Rather than mocking, why not provide a deeper exploration into why traditional monotheistic religions in the West are failing at this?
3
Maybe there is a Sixth reason - the GOP has created a klepto-plutocracy so heavily stacked against the average American, that they'll try anything in an attempt to dismantle it.
2
People who believe in astrology make Trump seem like the father of modern science. I can't stand to be within a few feet of anybody who is talking of their belief in astrology. A good representation of this is in Woody Allen's "Husbands and Wives" (1992). And since I brought up Woody I also can't stand to be within hearing range of somebody who rejects his movies on some supposed moral ground.
1
Remind me. Name of the Reagan's White House astrologer?
3
Ah, woo, woo land! Sad but true. My wife and I were talking to a young women a couple of years ago at a social event. She explained what she does for a living. She heals people. She can heal anyone by knowing just one thing, their last name, that’s all she needs!
It’s incredible what people will “believe” up to and including this guy in the White House. Things could not be better, believe me.
David, you're trying to make sense of that which is non-sensible. I hate to be what might be thought religious, but maybe the Hargemedo is upon us. Finally someone who gives up wealth will be right, or at least in the mainstream.
Some people believe in astrology. Some other people are Wiccans. Mindfulness meditation and "wokeness" exist, too. Also, people write opinion columns. These five phenomena are examples of things people do to try to find patterns in today's "moment," soothing their confusion at the overwhelming complexity of modern life by finding and communicating about connections between disconnected things.
2
Being one of those people, still rare in our world who was raised without religion, and learned to think of organized religion as the means for humans to justify their proclivity for killing each other in horrid ways - indeed the source of most of the world's suffering. I am heartened to think that there is an awakening of a spirituality that emphasizes our one-ness.
Yet, people being people, this spirituality is bound to be understood in many ways, not all of them comforting to the soi dissant rational.
Even the most materialistic minded among us experience phenomena that seem unexplainable in "normal" terms, and the most curious seek answers elsewhere, in accordance with their emotional and intellectual development.
Everybody wants to know who they are. We aren't born with that information. As the question grows in us, we see some answers offered by Astrology, or DNA analysis, or the Occult.
Rightly or wrongly, it takes time and living to become what we are, and it takes the development of wisdom to accept what we are – a blessing not usually granted to the young or to the hyper-busy. We can look at Astrology, for instance, as a short cut that can give us clues if we don't take it too seriously.
Of course, I'm a Virgo, so I tend to be skeptical.
When you practice divination, you get answers that suit the plans of a higher power, not necessarily the truth. And there is no one language for this communication, you can create your own. But to give you those answers, something must be manipulated. The stars are fixed. Your life is not. In order for your life (or the questions stemming from it) and the stars to match up, guess which one the universe moves. Your life will be manipulated to match the stars and you will remain easily moved. It's much better to divine from more malleable media such as clouds. Broader inputs are also better, so dice are bad. The inverted butterfly effect cone on a cloud is sky high.
With climate change, we are now in the Age of Aquariums and, like the man said, we're going to need a bigger boat. The question will be, who gets to climb aboard and who will sink?
3
In staining to support a weak argument with dubious evidence, Brooks breaks it. He throws "mindfulness" into the pot of exotic religious practices, but it isn't a religious practice, it's a psychological discipline and a meditative technique. Perhaps he assumes that mindfulness is a religion and not a psychological tool because it originated in the "mystical" East instead of the "analytical" West? Whatever the reason, his column exaggerates both the impact and the prevalence of exotic countercultural belief systems. Meditation, mindfulness, and harmless entertainment with astrology fit in well with the rise of the younger generation's atheistic stance. They're not anti-religion; they're simply nonreligious. Nor are they amoral; their morality springs from humanistic beliefs and a disgust with the religious right's unrelenting hypocrisy and corruption, and mainstream religion's preference for institutional power over the ideals that formed it in the first place.
7
"We really are living through a moment of major transitional change."
The lack of a science education and critical thinking skills account for much of what Mr. Brooks claims as surging movements.
4
The premise of this column is that there used to be a time when everyone more or less believed the same things about religion, or were living in a less confused and/or searching manner.
When was this, exactly? If you read Acts, you quickly realize that even in the months following Jesus's death and resurrection, his followers were confused about who was in and who was out of this new thing called Christianity. The intervening centuries did not do much to settle things, as the religious wars of Europe demonstrated so bloodily (and religious strife today continues to prove). And let's not forget all those culturally unified, church-going believers in the US southern states who brutally enslaved, terrorized, and tortured millions of humans.
I'm for any mode of thought that gets you through your life a little more easily and doesn't hurt anyone else. And I write this as a proud and practicing Catholic.
3
There are many ways the Christian faith is expressing itself in this time of transition and change. I'm not surprised that people are turning toward alternative forms of "worship" and guidance. The institutional Christian church has failed to touch and transform hearts as it has refused to grow a container large enough to hold the global and cosmic understanding of our age.
Within the Christian faith is a movement toward exploring the Wisdom teachings of all the world religions which reveal what today we would call a change of consciousness. Richard Rohr's new book, The Universal Christ, is one of many voices that are reimagine the Christ message. Thought provoking and full of hope.
1
Mindfulness is a remarkable, psychologically sophisticated ancient Buddhist practice that has been sadly corrupted by the desires for celebrity and money. Mindfulness has been exploited by linking it to all kinds of goal-directed promises ("Improve your health!" "Be more productive at work!" or "Just feel spiritual!") by self-appointed gurus like Jon Kabat-Zinn and others who, granted, started out with excellent intentions and a lot of integrity, but became caught up in the growth of their own egos and bank accounts as the fad took off. We now have a remarkable ancient Buddhist practice led by those who are really no different than Evangelical mega-church leaders, hoarding wealth and celebrity on the back of what should be an altruistic endeavor.
7
@Tintin: The best things in life are said to be free.
1
So are the worse things.
1
The real answer is in times of massive change, where traditional institutions seem to not be able to handle change, people search for answers. They feel their lives are out of control and seek things to help them regain that. Traditional religious groups don't work, they see them rather than promoting love, promoting hate and trying to force their beliefs on everyone else. Astrology gives them some sense there is order in the universe, that they have some way of explaining things, or how to avoid them that quite frankly the old order doesn't give them. Neo Paganism is attractive because it allows people to feel connected with not only other people, but the whole world, among other things pagan beliefs hold the earth sacred in these days of climate change and plastic pollution as compared to the mainstream churches who seem to be falling all over themselves to fall behind the climate deniers or worse, that man is supposed to use up the earth. Neo pagans among other things see value in all beliefs, they tend to choose from across a spectrum of beliefs. Note, the fastest growing group out there are people who consider themselves spiritual, who believe in a higher power, but find their own path, outside any one religion.
3
We won't solve the energy conundrum by a contest of egos.
Always loved that song !
I was in grammar school and all the kids would start singing
"Let the Sunshine in" at the end. We could use some feel good music like the Fifth Dimension these days.
"For many, the traditional organized religions are implicated in the existing power structures."
A 1973 Times article, "God and George W. Bush," starts off with "Is President Bush a religious zealot, or does he just pander to that crowd?"
Since fundamentalist religion became a voting block, we've seen why conjoining religion and politics is not a good idea: fundamentalist religion is non-compromising, while politics is the art of compromise. This hybrid tree was borne nothing but divisive fruit.
5
All this scientific literacy is giving me respiratory problems.
“Each person borrows practices from, say, Native American, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and SoulCycle traditions...”
This made me laugh out loud.
“Finally, many people seem to want to be alternative without actually leaving the mainstream world. The people I know who talk about astrology sort of believe it, but they sort of don’t. Their attitude is ironical, attached and detached all at once.”
Hipsters, and the conformity of non-conformity. If hipsters knew that the ‘hipster’ label dates back to the 1920’s, would they stop trying so hard?
1
I recently saw a Latin ball player make the sign of the cross as he approached the batter's box and then went on to hit a home run. When he crossed the plate, he looked to heaven and pointed up with his index finger. So, how about that for spiritual connection!
1
This is interesting. I wasn't aware of increased interest in astrology and the occult. It makes sense because we evaluate most aspects of our lives based on entertainment value these days, why not spirituality?
It's all about making sense of our humanity and our place in the universe. Order and control, understanding our mortality... Religions are as "good" as the cultures that create them.
1
I once met someone who had a computer with software that generates horoscopes down to the time and geographic coordinates of one's birth. I gave the exact information. He interpreted the horoscope and told me it indicated I would take an interest in religion. It didn't go to my head.
As science began to shine light on how the universe works and became a valuable way to acquire and evaluate knowledge about the world through hypothesis testing, religious leaders tried to fight this new epistemology on science's battlefield - specifically, they began to argue that their understanding of the universe was as scientifically valid as that developed by the methods of science. The problem is, of course, that it isn't and was never intended to be because all of the world's major religions were founded before the Scientific Revolution. In trying to stay relevant in this way, these leaders were forced to deny (at worst) or conveniently interpret (at best) the knowledge acquired by science. Thus, religion (especially Christianity in America) lost its poetic and symbolic value as a path to transcendence, trading its insights about human experience for a weapon to use in the achievement of worldly power. People are gravitating toward new spiritual paths because the established religions no longer meet their spiritual needs - the old religions have lost their human relevance.
4
When I was a newspaper copy editor many years ago, we used to receive the coming week's astrological chart by mail. But every once in a while it didn't arrive, so we would rummage through a box in back and dig out one of the old ones to publish instead. That too, we figured, must have been in the stars.
7
Yes! Your key point, human beings are at root very spiritual, is well-taken. We search for meaning and truth within which to base our lives because the universe extends to infinity in all directions, and we are profoundly temporal and limited in our ability to perceive that within which we must make our lives. I see a lot of commenters seem angered by your very loving presentation of alternatives to current religious beliefs. I guess that has to do with religious strictures versus spiritual curiosity and creativity, which has been our religious life for millennia. Nonetheless, I take hope and encouragement from your essay. The spiritual in us is as perennial as the sun rising and setting. Thank you for reminding us in this gentle way.
1
You could also have mentioned other nutcase ideas like, "Unregulated free markets are good for everybody because the wealth will trickle down." Or, how about this one? "Cutting taxes will increase tax revenues." That's a laugher!
How about these for seriously crazy: "Winter snow proves that there is no global warming." And, "A fetus is the same thing as a baby." You're right, Mr. Brooks, a lot of people believe some bizarre ideas as truth.
9
This column describes a phenomenon that is occurring in America, where religiosity and belief in god have always been far more prevalent than in other developed nations. It's usually thought that the strength of religion in America is due to our strict separation of church and state (strict until recently, anyway).
Regardless, the scientifically ignorant American populace that believes in a supernatural god who performs miracles is easily persuaded that other kinds of supernatural nonsense have validity.
I kinda doubt another Age of Aquarius is occurring in Western Europe, where people have long been much more skeptical about the supernatural and organized religion.
2
People who don't practice Wicca or these other religions may also believe in their reality. I was astonished last fall to learn that Facebook friends-of-friends took the proposal to put a hex on Kavanaugh seriously (which I thought was satire) -- they were going on and on about how Satan was behind it and Jesus would smite anyone who supported it, etc. I thought it was funny -- they then thought I was a tool of Satan (which I also found funny but I stopped saying so).
Which brings me to another observation -- what about the Satanists? I wish they had been mentioned. I recommend the documentary "Hail Satan?" for a look into them.
2
Sorry Mr. Brooks -you so missed the mark on this one. Please do your research of both Paganism and Astrology. Both are based in the history and cycles of Nature. Both have deep relationship as their core value. It is just a far cry from the hierarchical male centric systems of religion that the world is fighting over. Step outside your attachment to this male dominant religion for once and see what a Feminine Centric Nature based system really looks like.
4
Teaching my child to be an atheist is one of my greatest contributions to society. Now she teaches others.
2
Part of America's foundational creed includes the inalienable right to pursue happiness. Throughout our history we have many divergent spiritual pursuits; some became institutionalized. Joseph Smith in 1829 experienced an epiphany of a visiting angel and gold tablets. He dictated to two colleagues what he saw on the tablets and that became the Book of Mormon. The Church of Latter Day Saints is well established throughout the world. In 1876, as a reaction to the plethora of diverse religious organizations and the changes industrialization and immigration brought to post-Civil War Manhattan, The New York Society for Ethical Culture was founded. Their building looks like a church, but their creed is secular and humanist. "We are a humanist community dedicated to ethical relationships, social justice, and environmental stewardship." In 1908, out the Holiness Movement a number of Christians raised on John Wesley's teachings focused on living a "sanctified life". They merged with Pentecostals and Holiness Churches to form the Nazarene Church. My own Church, First Community Church, has a part of its stated belief is "All people are included in God's unconditional love and grace; and we strive to follow the path of Jesus Christ, while we recognize other pathways to the Divine." In 1924 a founding pastor described First Community as the "church of the infinite quest." These are but four examples of Americans in history pursuing different spiritual quests, like the Americans here.
HA! Does TODAY ring a bell. Can't believe its all back!
As a young foreign correspondent in London in the early 70s I was fascinated by the then all-pervasive Esoteric. Linda Goodman's "Sun Signs" was on every bedside table (as it is now again I hear). The magazine "Alternative London" proved a godsend for my research. I interviewed the Flat Earth Society, saw the Hari Krishna umm near Oxford St. replenish the Goddess's food at sunrise. I photographed The Pet Cemetery in Hyde Park. I was hypnotized and levitated. I was treated (bloody expensive) by the "healing" Black Box which worked from afar in Hampshire. I spent hours at the very grand edifice of The London Spiritual Society, made rich by generous bequests, where among other mediums, I interviewed a professed non-musical cleaning lady who had finished Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and then preformed it for me on the society's piano. Every new story made me more of a skeptical bore and my paper more excited. When the film "The Exorcist" opened in England around 1974, I tracked down Friar Neil-Smith in Hampstead, the Church of England's only recognized exorcist and asked for an interview. I arrived a rainy and cold November afternoon with my photographer and a girlfriend who had come over to see "Swinging London". A chat in the rectory about the veracity of possession and green-slime vomit and the like, was followed by a "photo session" in the church itself where I for practical purposes were to be "The Possessed".
3
@Anna Lundstrom: Somehow you escaped without being transfixed by the crucifix capping the falling steeple of the church. God must not have been paying attention.
@Steve Bolger Haha, There wasn't room in the Comment for the END of my exorcism in the Cold and Dark church huaahh..my paper at the time was a bit worried..
I see no difference between astrology and witchcraft, on the one hand, and Mr. Brooks's "normal" religions on the other. All of them are essentially fairy tales, calling upon their followers to believe some pretty weird stuff.
4
@Alan: Mythology. The grist of theater.
As somebody noted during the heady days after the fall of the Soviet Union, "When you allow people to believe what they want, you find that they will believe anything."
Religion is a disease of human society. You can't get rid of it. You can only try to channel it, for good or evil.
@Daedalus: Why are we doing this?
The world is ugly. So is American politics, society, and culture. Such ugliness has always existed, but many people--at least if they were white, middle class Americans--were not bombarded with it on a daily basis. Thus, we could go about our lives blind to the disasters, tragedies, and travails suffered by others. Now we're forced to see it close up. This is both good and bad. Good because it has awakened millions and caused us to question virtually everything and seek community. Bad because it made us look for easy answers, and easy fixes, when we need complexity and thoughtful analyses.
2
@kathleen cairns: There is an underlying simplicity to complexity, fractal self-organization in nested scales. Learn one layer of the onion and you can deduce the others.
As we begin to experience the most terrifying effects of climate change in the coming decades, it's going to seem as if God has begun to unleash His wrath on mankind. It's likely we'll see a resurgence of religious fervor like the world has not seen for centuries.
1
If you read Tara Isabella Burton's article in the "The America Interest," which Brooks links to his opinion piece here, you'll notice two things. First, Brooks has basically taken her observations and dolloped on top a bunch of highfalutin sociological "ideas" untethered to fact or research to "explain" the phenomenon. Not surprising, as this is one of David's main go-to moves.
What he leaves out of Burton's analysis, though, is telling. She sees the turn to astrology and especially Wicca as a reaction against the overweening political power of the far-right evangelicals who voted en masse for Trump and continue to support him. In other words, the alternative spirituality to which he condescends comes from of place of deep political anger and frustration, fed by the goal of far-right evangelicals to impose their vision of a "good" society on the rest of us.
Leaving out that fundamental element of Burton's analysis gives a distorted and deeply misleading picture of what the Wiccans are up to -- and opens the space for David's both pompous and smirking put-down.
6
As an Aquarius who loved the free spirit of the sixties....we also didn't much care for war....I take offense at your characterization.This certainly doesn't feel like "the age of Aquarius" I was hoping for.As for belief in the occult,I think your evangelical friends are way ahead of us(magical thinking etc.).In a humorous vein, I looked up an astrologers reading of Trump.He said those born under his sign exhibited "someone gifted at double talk,shifty and changeable."His rising sign of Leo indicates "a person full of bluster...roaring at those who criticize them or who would wound their egos."This reading was done before Trump even ran for president.Come on David.....what's your sign?
1
Something is missing from the educational curriculum in this country. Lack of attention to critical thinking skills allows many silly ideas to flouish. If there is a social trend toward greater belief in astrology and things like that the blame lies there.
4
Two of America’s greatest thinkers-writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, believed in the individual, in his-her freedom to design their own spirit world. That’s why we call them transcendentalists. This is Thoreau on Hinduism: “In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal philosophy of the Bhagavat Geeta, since whose composition years of the gods have elapsed, and in comparison with which our modern world and its literature seem puny and trivial...” I doubt if Emerson or Thoreau would have disparaged “Witchcraft” like David Brooks doses.
7
Seeking to understand and work with the energy of the cosmos, as with astrology, and of the earth, as with Wicca, strike me as profoundly physical practices. They only seem spiritual because of the disconnection from other people and other life forms on this very old and deeply natural planet moving through the universe it came together in. To the extent that the universe continues to expand from the big bang, everything is still connected, although the connections may grow more tenuous.
@Fred: I figure there must be some kind of grand quantum-gravitational convection process that reverses entropy in something like black hole formation. Whatever it is, it must be eternal. And I think gravity is not quantized, but the electric and magnetic fields are. I think "dark matter" could be a foam of Planck oscillators. Anyway, none of this matters in practical engineering.
Of course there is some truth to astrology. The problem is that nobody knows exactly what that truth is. So in the meantime we can still read astrological predictions, but take them with a grain of salt.
@David Gold: Astrology confirms birth as the start of life, our first intake of other people and all the complexities of civilization, as well as our own capacities.
As a former Catholic, I am no expert on the history of religion. But it seems to me that at least some of the main stream religions approximately follow the pagan calendar:
Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ (which supposedly did not actually occur on December 25) corresponds to Hannukkah which corresponded to the Winter Solstice.
Easter = Passover = Vernal Equinox.
Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur = Autumnal Equinox.
It's all just people trying to make sense of the unexplainable. And believing that we were made in God's image (he looks just like us!) is egotistical and a way to feel superior to non-believers and "lesser" animals/beings on our planet.
I have no problem with people joining communities of like-minded people or believing whatever they want to believe as long as they don't try to impose it on others.
There's only one rule you need to follow (paraphrasing the Golden Rule): treat others the way you would want to be treated.
5
@SouthJerseyGirl: There is also the Hillel version, which states the Golden Rule in the form of a prohibition: Don't do to others what one doesn't want done to oneself. In many ways it is easier, because it has many more ways to reciprocate.
3
@SouthJerseyGirl
Agree and just be kind, courteous. Not hard, costs nothing and has a huge affect.
2
'But society is groaning. New forms are coming into being. We really are living through a moment of major transitional change.'
Indeed. A time of great spiritual churn and experimentation, if not exactly 'awakening' - always a minority achievement, since spirituality is like every other human activity- takes practice and competent guidance.
But there is a new kid on the block, religion-wise, and it seems to have caught the Big Boss's eye. followers of one 'Chrestos', or maybe it's 'Christos'.
Constantine swears that faith in that group's sign, helped him at Milvian Bridge - and so to the Imperial throne. How many times has Jupiter done that for anyone, hmm?
Good points all. Astrology, silly as it is, is better than the toxic monotheisms, wiccer is about sex and people wanting it (go figure) and mindfulness has some solid neurology behind it, All good - anything but the bronze age fairy tales of old I say.
3
If there is a common theme with religion and protest movements, it is that people really like an excuse to play dress-up-- witches, the red handmaid's tale habits, priestly vestments, etc. I believe it serves as a sort of psychological release. Perhaps we should make our legislators attend session in full regalia-- if the chamber looks like a dungeons and dragons convention maybe the sheer ridiculousness of it all would take some of the vitriol out of members speeches; a new approach to bipartisanship!
1
If I were David Brooks, I'd worry more about the erosion of traditional Christian beliefs, values and community from watching Fox News and undertaking the moral gymnastics to continue supporting lying, cheating, covetous, adulterous, vain, "I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue" Trump than from anyone reading “Witchcraft Activism: A Toolkit for Magical Resistance,” which, in comparison, as Brooks says, "is surprisingly normal."
8
As a member of the Board of Directors of the prestigious American Tarot association (ata-tarot.com) I assure the author of this piece that interest in witchcraft and the occult in America has never waned.
There exist quite a few healthy, thriving businesses, up and running for decades, that deal in occult/esoteric paraphernalia. Whole publishing houses devote themselves to works about the occult. Someone has been buying enough to keep them going all these years.
Just because media didn't know about this until it became trendy among the disgruntled (spells against political figures? LOL), does not make it something new.
We saw these same types of articles a number of years back when celebrities glommed onto Kabbalah. Plus ça change, baby.
And remember, Boys and Girls: Freedom of Religion means all religions. Not just those of which you approve.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
7
How is belief in astrology any different from all
religious belief?
Mark Van Doninck
2
Mr. Brooks, you can rest assured that no witch will ever come to your door offering pamphlets describing the joys of Goddess worship.
8
The young are exploring these religions because the craven display of hypocrisy, greed, and racism infects Evangelical Christians like a putrid stench. I would much rather spend time with a believer in Wicca than an Evangelical Christian, who I wouldn't trust to walk my dog.
11
@Adrienne-either you do not know any evangelical Christians or you cherry-pick who you decide will stand for evangelical Christians, such as Trump or other political figures. No, I do not think Trump is a Christian but he is supported by the evangelical right because he sticks up for their positions, whereas the left seems pretty hostile to Christianity.
I don't know any adult who believes these silly things.
Brooks' intent is to say 'once you get over these fads you will come back to the real stuff...Judaism and Christianity.'
But the truth is most people are getting over the 'real stuff' and only the fundamentalist nuts believe them any more (the evangelical and televangelical Christians and the Ultra-Orthodox Jews).
So the good news is that people are getting smarter, and getting over the medieval superstitions that led to petty hatreds, crusades, and pogroms.
Do we need something to ground values? Yes, but ethics can fill that without any narrow-minded religious biases.
2
What the heck is the SoulCycle tradition?
2
like reincarnation but easier on the joints
4
Didn't work last time....what makes you think it will this time? Here's the lyrics to Aquarius as it was once delivered to us.
It's far, far worse now than it was then...see below:
"When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius...
...Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!"
1
“ Whatever gets you through the night .” - John Lennon.
Amen, John.
2
Is the Second Coming of Christ a hoax? At the age of 20, I dropped organized religion forever and chose to live in the wilderness where two phenomena feed my respect for the Larger Circle of Meaning: synchronicity and grace. As for Jesus, I am hoping that he comes back as a stand-up comic...
"Last name?"
"Christ."
"First name?"
"Jesus."
Middle initial?"
"F."
8
Learn to accept yourself and who you are, tolerate others, never do harm unto yourself or others. (the gospel according to improv58 chap.1, verse 1)
Trump claimed a legitimate investigation was a "witch" hunt, Mr. Brooks.
Instead of making a fool of yourself by babbling about a belief in astrology, why not try instead to develop a sense of humor.
2
Seems fitting to turn to witches and warlocks a la Harry Potter, given that we now have He That Has No Shame as our president.
3
Harry Potter maybe?
1
An opinion column seldom provides shocking news. At this revelation I am scratching my head so hard that I will soon share the author's hairline, to be concealed with a tall pointy hat.
1
And then we die.
2
"When people cease to believe in God....they will believe in anything"....G.K.Chesterton.
Or was he missing something there?
3
You forgot those that worship the 401k, the DJIA and the s&p500...
5
"Humans ... instinctively appeal to supernatural powers."
Not true. Widespread? Yes. Instinctive? No. Read some genuine scholarship on the question, David, so you can better recognize your own biases.
"the movements that are rising are not what we normally call 'religion.'”
They sure are in my field, and have been for a long time. They don't show a particular kind of hierarchical institutional structure that some--repeat, SOME--religions manifest. But that's it as far as differences go.
"Occult"
Is your purpose here to ridicule, David? Because this choice of words sure looks like it. Try metaphysics. Try spirituality. Those are the words scholars of this movement have been using for the past 40 years or so.
And like I said, if you're really interested in this topic, try reading more. Because you know nothing, David.
Oh gosh, Nancy Reagan was ahead of her time.
1
Humans are transcendent creatures............., until they die.
That's funny. I don't remember David Brooks complaining when Nancy Reagan consulted her astrologer in the White House.
6
My wife and I were confirmed in the Episcopal Church as young adults in 1966. That was the year of the Episcopal Church's maximum enrollment and attendance, so we have been members of an organization in decline ever since. It took a while, but the decline hit the full range of Christian churches as well some years back. The world has never seen a society that went long without religion of some sort, so I assume the need for something akin to faith is built into our genes. It will be interesting to see if fringe movements like those Mr. Brooks mentions can fill the gap, but I predict not. Let me give a plug for the Episcopal Church: it is Christianity in its mildest form, and you can be a member in good standing without believing in God. The sermons, liturgy and music are generally of high quality. If you go through the motions for a few years, it might meet your needs.
3
The Age of Aquarius was not about astrology or the occult. It was about making a society that actually reflects the ideas we CLAIM the United States is all about. Equality, opportunity, peace, treating people with dignity and respect.
3
Are (some) of these witches really taking themselves seriously? I'd always considered them some equivalent of the church of the flying spaghetti monster...
3
The party of Pelosi is becoming a cult of persecution! You would think that after the GOP flirted with this bankrupt “religion” she would stop playing with fire and calling for prisoning.
1
Of course David Brooks can’t imagine that the most dangerous religious fanatics now control the Supreme Court.
5
@Rover-one man's moderate is another man's fanatic.
All beliefs require the dispensing of disbelief, logic and reason. Generally OK to laugh at irrational beliefs except monotheistic ones. If you have one god, everyone else must be ignorant, if they refuse to believe you they must be bad.
4
Mr. Brooks are you saving Harry Potter for a follow up column?
2
Dear David:
When established religions allow priests to sexually abuse, rabbis to encourage anti-vaccine ignorance and mullahs to incite jihad by basically abusing their power to shape civilization through belief, you can expect sentient, intelligent individuals to look for spiritual alternatives. Religion perfected fake news well before the internet enabled the devil. Sorting truth from belief is what will save mankind, not replacing one belief system with another.
Love,
Karl Popper Fans Everywhere
3
@Jeffrey Schantz-you can always cherry-pick actions by members of any demographic group and decide to let that disqualify the entire group, but that is a flawed method of evaluation. Although I do think Islam has a pretty significant problem of violence and brutality, and think the Catholic church did an egregious job of handling the abuse problem.
@Dan Oh you mean like how Brooks cherrypicks and stereotypes his way through an entire op-ed?
Beware the 666th comment!
1
@RickF:
Although few non-Jewish religiosos know it, the Torah in fact contains 613 commandments. Not the 10 they endlessly prate about... while ignoring them.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
1
Such hubris this piece! As if there is any less integrity to witchcraft, paganism or astrology than Christianity, Judaiism, Islam, etc, ...
At least the basis for astrology is physical, measurable. The powers of Allah, Jesus, Abraham, etc, ... are faith based. Granted, the conclusions of astrology and witchcraft are as unreasoned and unreasonable as any other faith based concoction some human(s) formulated through questionable machinations.
Mindfulness, on the other hand, is not a religion unless the practitioner suffers from profound OCD and turns a social-emotional snack into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Finally please consider the fact that every organized religion that pretends to know all the answers and whose elders are considered conduits of holiness enhances the possibility and probability that when the weakest are abused, they are not believed but cast out: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/us/southern-baptist-convention-sex-abuse.html?fallback=0&recId=1MVLnnedn8dJSmV9JNHSQNivq2v&locked=0&geoContinent=NA&geoRegion=ME&recAlloc=top_conversion&geoCountry=US&blockId=most-popular&imp_id=252611833&action=click&module=Most%20Popular&pgtype=Homepage
3
Leave it to a White Republican to link being a witch and being woke. No surprise the only photo is people protesting White Supremacy. Mr Brooks could benefit from a bit of mindfulness himself.
7
Since ignorance, anti-intellectualism, planned mediocrity and disdain for all but one's own deconstructed notions are the basis for all university "education" in Amerika, why be surprised at the preponderance of idiocy in the land? Now polluting the air of the sane are two generations of ignoramuses - some attired in the raiments of leftist lunacy, some as wannabe Dear Leaders, all without a remote chance at the comfortable life of their grandparents. C'est la vie, enfants terrible! We intend to use it all up and leave you with the bills, the mess and to your own devices. You should have paid attention.
1
@Doria The youth are savvier than you are, you can trust me on that one.
Fine by this Unitarian Universalist gnostic!!!
David Brooks !
I bet you haven’t studied the true origins of belief systems.
I bet you don’t feel how you are part of the natural world that your Republican friends decided to backtrack to destroy by lifting EPA and CDC regulations on poisons to humans and all species. ATSDR is being shunted aside with their charge. To provide public health guidance to state agencies. And affected polluted communities.
Covens love the natural world. Covens realize true Gnostics .... those taught Jesus was not the only son or daughter of god. God is Gaia. And as Jesus believed and preached ... the light of Gaia is within each of us.
Covens are full of healers using ancient medicinals and practices . Their pharmacopeia was used by drug makers and now big pharma gives alternative health practices criticism and stoke unwarranted fear of alternative medicine. In your world David every journalistic entry is dripping in Zionistic theology. Women gave our power away to men along time ago. For many reasons. Btw the New Testament is mostly the religion of Paul/Saul. He usurped early Christian philosophy and saw power to be had.
He fought against the original sect and won approval from the Roman Curia. Hence schisms.
You cannot speak about astrology David or ancient beliefs. You are ignorant because of fear of gnosis .... like so many Christians , Jew, and Muslims and Hindu and Buddhists. Your all pretentious in your assumption. And you demote women!
2
Astrologists, witches and such, are just as successful as all the Bible thumping Christians with their associated hocus pocus nonsense and fairytales. Although, some really think that the Antichrist is living in the White House. Could be onto something there, who knows?
1
"astrology and witchcraft have become important spiritual vocabularies within parts of the social justice movement."
Oh brother. I made myself read Mr. Brooks' article, although I detest his milquetoast whining, but this is a bit much.
The words 'within parts' are working really hard here.
Now trump cultists can have a new fear, oh the terror of the 1st Amendment, witches!!
I wonder why right wing people are just fine with swastikas, after the actual, historic nightmare of the Nazis. But the pretend power of wiccans? Republicans just have to let us know that lefties are scary, no matter how weird they have to get.
I expect this is one NYT opinion piece that trump supporters will totally believe, 100%! White supremacists? Meh.
3
David, do you read The New York Times? I'd refer you to two articles THIS week alone. 1) Elizabeth Dias' article on the Village Church abuse cover up. 2) Jason Horowitz and Elisabetta Povoledo's report on the recent Vatican "guidelines" about gender fluidity.
We are supposed to be afraid of astrology or people who sit quietly in a room alone? This is the threat?
3
So, I clicked over to the Pew report referenced in the article. I did find there some useful stats about the current state of belief in various new age ideas. But I found no info on a rise in any of these. So, where is the beef?
2
I'm always amazed that there are still readers who have not tumbled to what Brooks is about. This column illustrates it to perfection. First, delineate a problem. In this case it is the rise irrational unscientific thinking in the form of occultism and astrology. Second, tie it to the trump opposition such as AOC. And finally, third, extol those reactionary Trumpian forces in society as a bulwark against the threat. Thus the exaltation of orthodox Jewish community that refuse to allow their children to be vaccinated. Or of evangelical communities that deny the validity of scientific concepts such as evolution and long term geological change (e.g. "young earthers").
Somehow Brooks overlooks the 2 basic truths:
(1) Just because a silly belief has persisted for eons doesn't make it any less silly ( A significant portion of the Evangelicals have believed the earth is 5000 years old for at least 250 years since Bishop Usher's calculation)
(2) Just because a belief system organizes the behavior of its believers, doesn't make it right or virtuous (the Nazis were quite good at that).
The appeal to irrationality and emotions has been a trick the right and their shills such as Brooks have used to advance their economic interests for over 50 years. In the 50's it was nationalism and opposition to fluoridation; today it is anti-evolution, anti climate change, anti science in general.
Mr. Brooks, it's time to mark to market your beliefs.
3
@L. Soss: There is no regular anti-theist writer on this newspaper's Op-Ed page. It is a vacuum waiting to be filled.
2
@L. Soss
I picked up on it. He’s been at it in many of his recent articles, too. In one, I commented how he was backsliding. I have to laugh, though, as I don’t know what to do with this one, other than he’s been had by the witches and doesn’t even know it.
@rebecca1048 You are more generous and kind to Brooks than I am. I don't see a backslider but rather, as I wrote, a shill for right wing business interests represented by the Kochs and Mercers, the IG Farbins of the U.S. in the 21st century.
His approach is always the same; first preach equivalence. If he were writing in 1861, he would be counseling that there are two sides of the issue of slavery.
Second, ignore social theory (such as Weber, Durkheim, Marx, Giddens, Keynes) and economic facts, and try to reduce all arguments to one of moral ideology. Not for him the possibility that, as Marx put it, religious opposition is a mask for class/economic opposition. Chris Dillow and Simon Wren-Lewis (in his blog, "Mainly Macro) have some wonderful blogs on this and other economic & political debates.
Thanks for the reply!
1
Of course Mr. Brooks is correct that secularism will never prevail. Even a modestly reflective secular outlook on life requires thought, and, as Bertrand Russell famously quipped, most people would sooner die than think, and they do.
But strangely, if characteristically, Mr. Brooks directs his well-justified disdain for occultism entirely on members of the political left. Many members of the extreme right, in far greater numbers than left-wing wiccans, also belong to cults which espouse (variously) equally bizarre notions such as that virgins give birth, the dead come back to life, the universe is only six thousand years old, and a cracker placed on the tongue transforms itself into the body of a centuries-dead Jew. It is well to recall
Thomas Hobbes’ distinction between religion and superstition (Leviathan, chapter 6): “Feare of power invisible, feigned by the mind, or imagined from tales publiquely allowed, religion; not allowed; superstition.”
But perhaps I am being unfair. While irredeemably silly, astrology seems mostly harmless. On the other hand, Sen. James Inhofe believes, on the authority of a cult manifesto, Genesis 8:22, that climate change can never hurt us, and has been using his considerable power to combat climate change activism. Is it any wonder that a young person might prefer astrology?
3
Does anyone else remember that Ronald Reagan was deeply into astrology? It was a huge flap at the time, for good reason, IMO.
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/04/us/white-house-confirms-reagans-follow-astrology-up-to-a-point.html
1
To believe that lowering taxes on the top 1% will help the middle class or ease poverty is far more absurd than the belief that birthdates affect our fates.
310
@Richard Swanson:
Indeed, and I agree.
Sadly, though, "absurd" is often a synonym for "something I don't believe".
We have this awkward habit of giving respect to absurd ideas primarily because those ideas are shared by a large number of people, have been around for a long time, or both.
Many Americans find the story of the Book of Mormon absurd (the belief is that Joseph Smith found them in Manchester New York in 1823, translated them, and then returned them to the Angel Moroni). Yet many of those Americans meet at least weekly to profess a belief in human parthenogenesis followed by a bodily resurrection and subsequent ascension to the skies.
Heavy and light objects fall at the same speed, regardless of how many or how long people believe to the contrary. I find it absurd to believe to the contrary -- the religious authorities of Galileo's time disagreed.
1
@Richard Swanson
I don't know... my ex-husband and I were born the same year exactly 6 months apart. An astrologer once told me we could not be more opposite as our stars were on opposite sides of the universe. My birthday is the same day as John Lennons, my ex shares his with Adolf Hilter. That about says it all.
@Richard Swanson
If you are a boy, you have the best chance of playing in the NHL if you are born in the first three months of the hear. (True also to a lesser extent for all team sports.)
Birthdates do affect our fates. (just not the way astrology would suggest.
A fairly common trajectory for people who feel increasingly powerless: the fantasy of power (e.g. casting a spell on an enemy). In ancient Israel, the Israelites (and later the inhabitants of Judah / Judaea) only become messianic when they were living under Persian and then Greek rule: God would send a Messiah to liberate them. Towards the end of the Greek period, the Book of Daniel was openly apocalyptic: so moving from a divinely sent human king-warrior to the fantasy that God would intervene directly (as he had during the Exodus from Egypt). Apocalypticism hung around for a long time (e.g. the Essene Qumran community and probably John the Baptist and his followers). But eventually, because God didn't show up even when the Temple was destroyed, many people turned inward to other kinds of spirituality that connected them to some mystical world where the trials and tribulations of the real world could be reimagined as some illusion (or simply not that important in the larger scheme of things): enter Gnosticism and other secretive cultic practices and beliefs. When people are not powerless, they act; when they are powerless, they hope (and often that hope seems silly to those who can't quite understand the desperation).
2
We are living in the cusp of the change from Kali Yuga (the lowest age of human development) into Dwapara Yuga (an age of rising human potential in the understanding of the energy that animates our Universe.
Isaac Newton was an alchemists as well as a physicist. A person can live in both worlds.
Think about this possibility: The making of miracles by some of the prophets and avatars of history might have just been their deep understanding of Quantum Physics. From my understanding at the level of Quantum anything is possible.
I sense in this piece by Brooks a certain befuddlement about these things but at least in this one I don't read a lot of cynicism.
2
I partake in none of this stuff, yuk. But I also know you just don’t see signs of the need to control a politic and president who is out of control and scaring the wits out of us. You don’t understand that most of what you cited is either tongue in cheek symbolism or not to be read as you see it at all. You never could see past religion. Now, honestly, you show why older white men should not have the power you do. It’s not just unfair. You don’t see the country clearly at all. These are cries for help but not in the way you think. The age of Aquarius? Hardly. Start w climate change, kids in cages, hate crimes on the rise, abortion outlawed, fake “trickle down,” people of color as much st risk as ever, then go to gerrymandering and Mitch McConnel. And He (D) Himself. This all symbolic, the stuff you see. No one is cooking strange brews for breakfast except tears and rage.
This is a great article, thank you for this. You mention the following: " I doubt that much of this will be sustainable. I doubt it’s possible to have tight community and also total autonomy, that it’s possible to detach spiritual practices from the larger narratives and cultures and still have something life-shaping"
I have to part company with you here. I believe this upswing in consciousness and spirituality is in its ascendancy and we are only beginning to see its rise. Plus, there is a strong, rising consciousness out there of the Sacred Feminine (rise in witchcraft) , so needed if we are to bring life into balance with the Sacred Masculine. Patriarchy has been ruinous for all of us.
Spirituality isn't something we do at certain junctures of the day, it is a way of life. In my pantheon we are all one, ultimately, yet gloriously unique.
1
David Brooks fails to see the humor behind all these outrageous "religious" beliefs. The people he describes with horror are, indeed, the descendants of the Flower Children of the 1960s, and carry the same ironic mentality of their parents.
At least today's oh-so-serious column is good for a laugh.
3
This is harmless and has been going on forever. I meditate and dabble in other things but I'm not a true believer. I'm glad you didn't mentions UFO's because they are real. What they are, no one knows including the government?
1
I am amazed the Tien a Minh massacre is forgotten in China, the oldest continuous civilization Earth. History opens the door to learning without making the same mistakes in the process.
1
David go back and read Plato and Socrates, or Confucius or Buddha...the world you describe of people "yearning" for some clarity in the midst of hyper navel gazing has been described before for thousands of years.
Witches and astrology and evangelly bellies all want the same thing at the end: to belong, to connect with other living beings.
1
Mainstream religion steadfastly maintains its attachment to barbaric beliefs that are thousands of years old -- blood sacrifice, infanticide, cannibalism, absolute male dominance, magic, and superstition. It is no wonder that the world is leaving it behind.
The human animal has an instinctual craving for a relationship with an anthropomorphic "other" -- a craving that emerges from the nature of consciousness and the awareness of self. This craving is particularly intense in connection with the two great events that frame every human life -- birth and death. Cross-cultural anthropological research shows that virtually every human religious tradition centers around these two events.
I interpret the rise of Astrology, Wicca, and similar non-traditional spiritual movements as symptoms of a craving hunger that results from the utter failure of mainstream religion to face the reality of the world as actually lived by each and every one of us.
I suggest that hunger we feel is a craving for spiritual substance, rather than the superstitious Twinkees provided by "Religion" -- both mainstream and "alternative".
1
Most of us yearn to belong to something, and that need takes some down down very strange paths.
Astrology -- it's always been around, and even perfectly logical (otherwise) folks looks at it. It has been a mainstay in magazines and local papers, along with Dear Abby and Ann Landers; Ask Amy or Carolyn Hax. It' s mostly connect to worries about relationships - -
Mindfulness: granted, as a term it's way overused, but it isn't woo, and isn't supernatural -- it is more about being ( ala Ram Dass) Here - Now. Taking the time to see and perceive.
Hodgepodge spirituality? Well isn't it all a hodgepodge, thousands of years in the making? It isn't as if Christians or Jews or Muslims created new religions out of whole cloth. Where would we be, say, without Zoroastrianism? ( w/o Monotheism, and concepts of a conflict between good and evil) . The gifts of native American approaches have infused the environmental movement with reverence for the earth. Do we have to have a literal belief in myths to learn from them? I don't think so.
There's another reason why so many resort to religions of all kinds: when it appears that your efforts in this world are for naught. If you are powerless, belief in something larger, higher provides hope and meaning.
When the ideology means blocking out science and logic, in order to comfort yourself with myths, or attacking others because their differences are too threatening to your world view, then the woo is dangerous.
2
@cheryl: Some things are extracted by neural networks in ways the programmers themselves don't understand.
2
@cheryl
Yes, and I’ve often pondered if teaching children a belief in things unreal was good or bad, or if it was necessary for an imagination, or....
1
@Steve Bolger
Like that light at the end of the tunnel? With the old folks waiting for you in the great beyond?
It is probably not helpful to lump these different movements together. Some, such as mindfulness or secular Buddhism, require no believe in anything unscientific. Other movements, such as astrology or witchcraft (depending on how witchcraft is understood and experienced) are at variance with science. Perhaps this is not an important distinction to David, but it is to me.
Yes David correct. How dare people ride stationary bikes and meditate! What kooks!
Seriously, am I supposed to take my life direction from a 2,000 year old fantasy tale about a guy who comes back to life and instructs his followers to eat his flesh and drink his blood? How about a 4,000 year old book where God instructs a man to cut his son’s throat to prove his devotion?
No one ever raised an army to slaughter innocents because they don’t believe in Soul Cycle. The old religions feel respectable because they’ve been handed down through generations and because they occupy positions of power. But if you examine what’s been done in their name throughout history, it turns the stomach.
There’s nothing wrong with people exploring alternative paths to enlightenment. It’s not for me - it all seems like silly self-delusion, but if you must, at least pick one not burdened by a history of intolerance.
As for me, hand me a towel and a bottle of water. Let’s ride!
424
Yeah, but these other ideas are terrible. Replacing one bad idea with another is nothing to be proud of. And it's not like pagan religions were without violence. People all around the world practiced human sacrifice in the name of similar beliefs.
48
@Benjo
Neo-paganism, which includes traditions like Wicca, *explicitly* prohibits human sacrifice.
Please do some research before writing. Unfounded statements are very harmful to contemporary religious practitioners.
18
@Benjo
Of course pagan religions had violence, given they are full of human beings who are *gasp* violent. Where the pagan religions differed and today especially differ from standard religion is they are very individualistic, where the truth is what you find it to be, rather than the dogma that makes up a lot of mainstream religion, especially conservative churches like the Catholic Church or orthodox Judaism and the like. More importantly, because pagan religions were generally local, they didn't have the need to conquer others or force them to believe as they did, the way that Orthodox Christianity did, or Islam. If you don't believe your beliefs are true for everyone, you don't have the need to force others to live by your rules or to physically conquer them.
9
Five hundred years from now, the three major religions, instead of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, will be Trumpism, Scientology and Jerry Garcia.
5
@Dave: Abraham of Ur snatched his son from the knife of the High Priest in the nick of time and evacuated to Palestine. The rest is history.
1
The Catholic Church can't seem to come to terms with the rot that that has been allowed to fester for centuries under the surface, and the evangelical churches are nests of vipers, sucking the savings from believers for mega-mansions and private jets for its "pastors." The middle-of-the-road Presbyterians and Lutherans are seen as too timid in these turbulent times, so people are attracted to the outlandish and exotic. Look where we are. Our country is a mess and people are worried and anxious. If some find a kind of comfort in astrological charts and witches' brews, so be it. Others turn to Trump rallies. Tell me which is worse.
2
Things must be really bad in the conservative movement when it appears NYT conservative points of view have left politics behind and are delving into the occult.
5
With atheists, you can at least say they believe in no G-d.
With these guys, it's anything and everything.
3
I’ll take an Earth loving Wiccan over a Christian fundamentalist any day.
12
@RVB Amen!
Your religion is wacky, while mine is divine.
4
Cowrie shells were the first fiat currency identified by anthropologists to be in common use for regional trade purposes. I think they were chosen as they represented the gateway to human life as seen by the people.
1
But did not your "Saint" Ronald Reagan rely on Astrology when he was president? Just saying.
10
The statistics on what young people believe is an appalling condemnation of our educational system. Yet, I feel the same way when I read about on how many people believe bible stories are factual history. It is the height of hypocrisy to criticize people for making life decisions based on astrology or Wicca when our bodily politic is dominated by hyper-religiosity. But it’s easy to see why bibles are thumped when these beliefs motivate activism against the political damage done by the religious right.
8
Somedays I read you and wonder if you’re dying. Your work seems to focus on end of life ponderings and wondering if your life has had meaning. This was just a “call it in” kind of musings, a lot of stuff and nonsense not really signifying much thought. Oh the horror of astrology, lol, next will be dogs and cats living together in harmony, what has this world come to.
7
For many, in a world gone haywire, directionless, astrology and witchcraft and the like are ways for humans to feel some semblance of control over their lives. Control over one's own life, not power, is the prime force. If you understand that, you understand humans.
"A moment of major transitional change?" To say the least.
The institutions that have shaped the Western World for thousands of years, the family, Church and nation-state are all failing. The family: almost half of all babies born today are born to unmarried couples. The Church: no virgin ever had a baby, no innocent man ever died for our sins, and no dead man ever lived forever; Christian theology has now been exposed as an utter hoax. The nation-state: complex and vexing global challenges will never be solved by local or regional authorities.
What is to become of the children who have no families? Are we prepared to give up our dependence on supernatural authority and accept responsibility for ourselves? Can we summon the courage to work together for the common good or will we continue to surrender our lives and our children's lives to fascists like those who rule us today? Will we survive their corruption? "A moment of major transitional change" to say the least.
5
astrology is a rich metaphor to use as a guide. free will is always available.
check out Steven Forrest.
Are they coming from out of nowhere or is another religion in decline? I am under the belief it is tied to Paganism? And Christmas is their holiday?
Well, I don't believe in any of it, including religion. But if being a Wiccan would let me put a hex on Brett Kavanaugh that actually worked.....
There's nothing that I'm aware of in Wicca or astrology that's any more or less nonsensical that religious belief in a god. Likewise I've yet to hear of wars, beheadings, 'real' witch hunts with drowning as the test, whole swaths of society oppressed/punished/put to death over their sexual orientation, other cultures wiped out in favor of one religion over another, mass incarceration and genocide - I could go on and on - in the name of astrology or wicca.
People need to believe in something that gives them a glimmer of hope, even if their intellect tells them it's silly. In a world that seems out of control, where nothing is secure anymore, I can understand why the study of astrology would give them that. Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day.
5
@ JRB:
Love your stopped clock analogy!
A very good example how observations that don’t follow a thorough setup lead to misleading results.... I have friends who believe the time of an eclipse is “special” or somehow meaningful ....
I do agree that the tone with DB speaks about astrology reeks of religious exceptionalism ....
Ok David, so who’s going to lift the curse?
2
Apparently, Americans have a strong need for an irrational belief system. Reality and facts must be too much to bear.
3
Just when I think David Brooks is starting to come around, he serves up a muffin-gagger: "Humans are transcendent creatures who have spiritual experiences and instinctively appeal to supernatural powers."
This is Stone Age bunkum. Humans are creatures capable of self-discovery and self-delusion.
8
"We really are living through a moment of major transitional change." I hope you are wrong on the solutions. For the last few days, I have been searching for the story of a (French?) saint who consulted astrologers in her quest for knowledge, success, and guidance; and in the end she completely turned her life over to God. When I learn the name of this Saint, I will let you know.
"People are always saying we live in a more secular age, but secularism never really comes."
Very trumpian. Who are the "people" who "are always saying"? And how does Mr. Brooks declare that secularism never "really" comes?
Culture promotes religion; this culture currently promotes Christianity. In America, not only the culture, but the very economy pounds Christian holidays and traditions into us. It's impossible to shut out the roar of religion entirely.
Mr. Brooks seems to think that human beings can't live without some hocus pocus, mumbo jumbo religion to satisfy their "spiritual yearning". Or, if they turn to an equally silly "belief" in stuff like astrology, they are somehow second rate, inferior, lacking the gravitas of genuine, 100-percent pure religion that is more "sustainable".
The young people I know are more into Lennon's philosophy in "Imagine" than they are in astrology or blind faith in Christian mythology or any other.
But are we really in a "moment of major transitional change"? Not until we are all free of the religious right who too often intrude into too many aspects of our lives.
11
For my money, the rise in counter culture equates specifically with a loss of faith in our institutions to act as forces for the benefit of mankind.
Our political institutions are a mess, prioritizing personal aggrandizement and greediness over the principles that the members were elected or appoint\ed for.
The spiritual anchors have proven to have been corrupt for decades (at least) or rooted in unchanging, over-reliance on places and tenets that were relevant in past eras but aren't in this world.
Remedies sought in law are more often than not governed by the philosophical bent to the judiciary than with adherence t the constitution or laws as wrir=ten or intended.
Society itself is no more welcoming of "The Outsider" than ever, Blacks, Latinos, LGBTQs, Muslims, etc. are all outcasts within general society and find total acceptance only within their own groups.
if the public and in particular its youth can't find support, solace, role models, or leadership within the mainstream of society, what is there left but to seek them in the counterculture. And whose fault is that?
5
@Peter Steele: There is a scale-independence of mind that is disrupted by jealousies. We all have the same set of emotions to variable degrees and the same senses to perceive the universe. People follow disharmonisers down pathways to misery to improve their status in death. It is ridiculous.
Have you read some of the beliefs of mainstream religions? I don’t see how this differs from the tales told in all those accepted myths. And, as others have said, these groups get financial support from the government.
11
@Tricia as a counter weight to the idea that its all about creating revenue streams from "the government" mainstream religions actually invest outside their own communities with volunteering, mission work and piles of their own personal money earmarked for human interests beyond their own daily lives or what astrology reading gives them courage for the day...
@earle
Nonsense. Nobody knows what tax free non-accountable “mainstream religions” actually do with their cash. How much goes to proselytizing, mission works, mega building projects and elite management lifestyle.
1
Perhaps the attraction of witchcraft and the occult have something to do with the shortcomings of organized religions. Some folks might just be tired of the perceived silliness of virgin birth, transubstantiation or predestination. Or maybe it has something to do with the ever-persistent shadow of abuses committed by ordained ministers and priests against the most vulnerable of their flocks.
I'm not sure whether Wicca/neo-paganism/astrology will ever supplant any or all of the widely divergent choices of organized religion but the fact that nobody can agree on the "right" religion says more about human nature than it does about the obvious imperfections of any particular spiritual path. And, at the end of the day, can we say that a person who finds comfort, inspiration and guidance from a guru, a coven or an astrological reading is any worse off than those ever fewer devotees of orthodoxy?
By the way, David, I'm hearing that the fastest growing demographic of "believers" is comprised of atheists and agnostics. Just sayin'.
14
@cogit845: The development of software for machines gives one a deep sense of how software manages one's own body, and an image to use to explain the idea to others. We do have free will.
You’re right. Virgin birth is stupid, but believing that the alignment of the stars decides your life makes a lot of sense.
1
Politicians who are unable to lead with solid policy and rational discussion on all-inclusive development tend to rely more on such religious and/or racial polarization. BTW, in many cases, racism is part of religious fundamentalism as we see in many countries, including USA. Distortion of history to (wrongly) depict Jesus Christ as blue eyed, blond hair white man even in churches of black or brown people is a nice example. India's seemingly perpetual attraction for lighter skin and infatuation of specific type of "Aryan" beauty is also a very distorted idea that give rise to racism and linked to wrong perception of evolution of Hinduism which is believed to be invented by "Aryan" saints in ancient India.
It would be equally wrong to assume that rise of religious/racial minorities would make things right by itself. They might show similar, if not higher, tendency to use that power & influence to promote next generation of revenge politics making racism and/or religious fundamentalism equally toxic, as we see in religious clan or tribal conflict in many parts of East Europe, Asia (caste conflict in India included), and Africa from where such immigrants came from.
4
Well, we look at the White House and conclude that rationality has failed so why not turn to magical thinking. Isn't that what 'dietary supplements' are anyway--magical thinking?
4
I think everyone over 73 should show up at the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock this year.
5
@Babsy I would, but my knees are shot. And most of the performers are young people I never heard of. So many of the ones we loved in 1969 are dead or too old to tour.
3
I am a middle aged guy who has had a great career in tech, software, start-ups, high-pressure environments.
The way you slow down and reconnect with your god, spirituality, or whatever you fancy, is simple: The off buttons on your phone, computer, XBox, TV.
Try it! It works!
7
Its just part of the larger Dark Ages are back narrative we are in but dont realize.
1
Let's not forget that Jared Kushner owns the building at 666 Fifth Ave. The Forces of Darkness are everywhere.
17
There has always been this small but significant group of folks who believe in nonsense like astrology. Frankly I find that not very different than someone's belief in an imaginary person in the sky. Unfortunately those that believe in the imaginary person in the sky are deemed "religious" and given a tax break while the others are deemed as "Kooky". How about some reality here. How about giving some credit to humankind and science. All the solutions that we have in science, technology and medicine are human and for a change how about believing in yourself (yes you and me are all human) and doing what is right for humankind and our mother earth. She is trampled on so badly, that we all should be crying out for her. Believe in yourself and the power you have to do good on Earth and then go ahead and do it.
11
Another attack on the hippies . As a straight person , Brooks swears by the markets , religion and so forth . But when you have a malignant President , the hippies will lead the way. Steal Abbie Hoffman’s book, it will tell all you need to know to battle the oligarchy and the malignancy.
6
Belief without reason or intellect. STILL!
3
Brooks has omitted the most obvious and by far the most widespread emergent religion, which is that of Climate Change.
This religion divides people into "Believers" and "Deniers," and ascribes moral turpitude to those who are "Deniers."
It describes lurid scenarios of the doom that certainly faces those that do not believe. It convinces believers with signs (Flood! Forest Fire! Drought! Blizzard!), for which, to believers at least, there could only be one true cause- punishment for their sins (but mainly punishment of their less virtuous neighbors).
It posits a nearly omnipotent demon, CO2, which is seen to be the root cause of all evil in the world, including wars, economic failure, civil unrest, and more.
It further posits that anyone publicly doubting that this demon causes bad events must necessarily be driven by base motives like greed, or else is so stupid as to be duped by clever evil minions of the demon, or else is so psychologically damaged as to be unable to recognize "the truth."
This faith also tells you to close your eyes and block your ears, should you happen to hear anyone make arguments against it. And if a "denier" sounds like they actually might be making sense, then this is because the devil's greatest trick is making you think he doesn't exist, and you should not be so fooled!
Finally, this faith tells you that it must be true, because everyone believes it! And the people that don't believe must be wrong because everyone else believes!
2
@Bob A great analogy. But logical arguments, as well as religious claims, are not necessarily true.
2
@Bob
Your argument is no different than claiming that the earth being round is just one possible "belief" - because the horizon looks flat.
Climate change is not a religion, a faith or an opinion. It has nothing to do with sins or demons; it has to do with factual physical changes and their results.
This physical changes have verified by many controlled scientific observations, aka facts.
You can of course believe whatever you want - but the facts show that you are not correct. Galileo got the same sort of religious angry denial, when he stated that the earth revolved around the sun.
1
@Dr. M No, "Climate Change" has to do with factual physical changes, which are are a standard feature of the Earth's climate, being ascribed with certainty to only one potential cause, while disregarding all other possible explanations. Facile explanations for CO2 driving phenomena are accepted unconditionally and considered to be the last word on the subject.
"Climate Change," like all pseudoscience, also involves a lack of falsifiability, such that any "change" whatsoever is viewed as "proof" to believers of that which they were convinced was the case already. Incorrect predictions, which are too numerous to count, either disappear down the memory hole or are rationalized away post hoc. Like all millenarian movements, apocalypse is always just around the corner, and when it fails to appear, new signs are detected and a new timeline established.
Climate Change also involves believers shouting down and silencing alternate explanations, and casting aspersions upon scientists that dare to provide them, since "everyone knows" they cannot possibly be correct! The modern analogs of Galileo are scientists like Richard Lindzen, William Happer, Freeman Dyson, Judith Curry, and Nir Shaviv. The Climate Church are those who scream at them, refuse debate, and accuse dissenters of essentially being motivated agents of Satan.
As for "angry denial," you may note that the anger and emotion emanate almost entirely from the supposed "consensus" side of this argument.
1
Our learned pundit concludes (or should I say, dismisses) his summary of the current "alt-spiritual revival" by expressing doubt that "... much of this will be sustainable."
But somehow he has overlooked the existence of America's most sustained alternative spiritual movement - that being American Unitarian Universalism - which has ably represented the seven characteristics Brooks assigns to the current wiggy, alternative spiritual movements for over 300 years.
For the enlightened U2's ... indeed, "There is no grand narrative, no specific way one is expected to live, no set of laws you have to obey or even a specific cult leader who might boss you around. Religion bows before individualism." So I close with the question of why Brooks hasn't acknowledged them and their timeless and timely, universally applicable and beneficial five principles.
4
Why is Wiccan any less "occult'' than Christianity, Judaism or any of the mainstream religions? Why is Mr. Brooks and Mr. Douthat obsessed with the 60s? Brooks describes Mindfulness as a spiritual force rather than a scientifically supported psychosomatic practice that calms the stress response system in people. Awakening to the fact that no human being is inherently worth more or less than any other human being is a spiritual force, not a self-evident fact as is stated in the Declaration of Independence? How is forcing intellectually immature children to bow down in self-abasing subservience to a religion somehow good for human development? Mr. Brooks and his ilk are aghast that the old religion is being replaced by just another iteration of their magical thinking system and are confusing genuine breakthroughs in human understanding and development as a spiritually malevolent force engulfing the nation.
23
@Anam Cara "Mr. Brooks and his ilk are aghast that the old religion is being replaced by just another iteration of their magical thinking system and are confusing genuine breakthroughs in human understanding and development as a spiritually malevolent force engulfing the nation."
I'm not sure what you read, but I don't think it was David's column. Nowhere does he come across as "aghast" at the various topics he presents. He may give his own take on them, but he does not reject or condemn anything. And then he closes with the observation that "we really are living through a moment of major transitional change." Sounds to me like he may not adopt these new norms, but he understands the driving forces behind them.
@Anam Cara -- perhaps Brooks and Douthat are obsessed with the '60s because they missed it, and secretly wish they could have grooved in Haight-Ashbury.
1
@Anam Cara Spot on.Mr. Brooks and Mr. Douthat are Christians asking the reader to ignore the predictive capacity of science and its independence from a belief system on which they've come to rely for a shot at immortality. At one time, the Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule separated that system from other "magical systems", practical recommendations promoting longevity in somewhat more barbarous times. Ideas that can be learned in childhood when little sparrows falling can touch the heart. Pure social psychology in a way, a belief for all seasons and ages. If only the system hadn't been corrupted by the purely magical idea of spirits ascending into space leaving behind an Armageddon, the equivalent of burning wood and a stake to steady one's beliefs. Mr. Brooks and Mr. Douthat should indeed make clear their divorce from that malevolence.
2
I believe some people turn to the occult when they feel despair and hopelessness. They have lost purpose and are not succeeding in the present world, so they are turning to some outer world.
If the young are returning to it in greater numbers, it may be because increasing numbers are feeling lost.
There’s another side to this equation. People are turning to the occult when it is offered in greater numbers. Over the internet, on TV shows, in books, on the street.
Vulnerable people are susceptible to this and fraudulent purveyors take advantage.
It’s a cry for help and an opportunity for profiteers.
Always a dangerous combination.
6
@Steven Roth: Zany paracletes lurk in comic books.
Is there really much of a difference between the left embracing witchcraft versus socialism?
1
Yes, there is a difference. The right believes believes both witches and socialists actually exist. In fact neither exists.
6
@Jack: The "left" is social. We like to share experience.
3
@Jack
I assume that you oppose health care insurance, which is a form of socialism. Same could be said of taxes paying for roads that you personally do not drive, or schools that your children did not personally attend.
1
Rise rise of alt-right politicians, potential dictators, & post-truth era- all connected & directly linked with religious fundamentalism & racism.
If any (secular) democracy like to minimize, if not stopping altogether, the influence of Post-truth or Deepfake, then it has to minimize the role of religion, preferably no religion at all, while raising our children & in education system. No home schooling or religious private schools.
We now know that childhood religious allegiance affect the same part of our brain (front lobe) that's affected by drugs (https://is.gd/Y3Uci1). It impair our sense of reality, truth, ability to think logically, besides enabling to see/listen/experience things which is not there at all. These religious people, irrespective of formal educational degrees or job designation, prefer to live in a make-believe world. Many/most politicians & businessmen around the world do exploit it. That's one of the reasons why we must separate religion from public policy, as our founding fathers wanted. In fact, it's now proved that religion itself need royal or government patronization to spread or even to survive (https://is.gd/cmsCpy ). Yet, we are making things worse by increasingly infusing religion in Govt (mainly for electoral success) in most secular democracies around the world including in the US (mainly since Reagan era) for which a person like Trump could become an American President.
3
@bonku: The insertion of "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance curtailed understanding of physics in the US.
2
Politicians who are unable to lead with solid policy and rational discussion on all-inclusive development tend to rely more on such religious and/or racial polarization. BTW, in many cases, racism is part of religious fundamentalism as we see in many countries, including USA & India. Distortion of history to (wrongly) depict Jesus Christ as blue eyed, blond hair white man even in churches of black or brown people is a nice example. India's seemingly perpetual attraction for lighter skin and infatuation of specific type of "Aryan" beauty is also a very distorted idea that give rise to racism and linked to wrong perception of evolution of Hinduism which is believed to be invented by "Aryan" saints in ancient India.
It would be equally wrong to assume that rise of religious/racial minorities would make things right by itself. They might show similar, if not higher, tendency to use that power & influence to promote next generation of revenge politics making racism and/or religious fundamentalism equally toxic, as we see in religious clan or tribal conflict in many parts of East Europe, Asia (caste conflict in India included), and Africa from where such immigrants came from.
1
@Steve Bolger That whole saga of introducing "under God" and "in God we Trust" phrases is nicely explained in a recently published book, "Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic: Atheists in American Public Life". That specific "under God" thing was not there at all in the original pledge of allegiance in the first place, till mid 1950s. BTW, that "pledge of allegiance was written as a sales pitch by a flag selling salesman in 1800s.
1
Persecution of the Christians did not turn out well for the pagan Romans.
As the DNC approaches a cult of prosecutors who call for the prisoning of the President I suspect this will not serve them well either.
1
@Charlie. And your point is what?
The world is the center of the universe. Is it? Man is God's crowning achievement. Are we? There is only one planet like earth and therefore God invested all of his energy in redeeming it. Is there only one? Is God that obsessed with it? The true God was a desert God who led his warriors across the Sinai to claim a small piece of land. Really? In today's world how do any of these narratives make any sense. We just know too much. To cling to these mythologies is to close the mind to the revelations flooding in from many fields that undercut any and all of these mythologies. There are no real systematic theologians around to help us grapple with these revelations. There are only Bible thumpers who are Republicans with a pulpit pounding out their politics using theological rationalizations. No wonder people are out seeking something that can renew and refresh their souls. The spiritual has been removed from belief communities.
3
But the hippies 60’s was for love and flowers, the Alt’s speaks with inclusiveness and guns.
4
Both within “mainstream” religions and outside there is a history of astrological forces witches demons angels etc etc having influence on the affairs of men as well as nature
How these spiritual forces are defined varies and the extent of their influence is uncertain but it seems to me that Donald Trump becoming president of the USA is powerful evidence that these forces exist
“ Whatever gets you through the night.” - John Lennon.
A prophet and a genius.
7
The analogy with the pagan Romans is unnerving. As the Romans excelled at diversity and adopting new cults the invasions continued unabated. SPQR
1
Mr. Brooks' "moment of major transitional change" might indeed be in the offing. Careful reading between the lines in this newspaper provides clues, moreover, that it is being engineered secretly from the shadows. I would hazard a guess that the revelation of that story, with its successes and failures, will provide a new "larger narrative" that Mr. Brooks seeks.
These trends are psychologically regressive, that is going back to childhood, with its magical thinking and unrestrained imagination as compensation for a relative lack of power, as compared with “adults”.
It is mostly harmless and natural, but can become malignant under adverse conditions. Perhaps the current socio-economic conditions are creating sufficient stress for these regressive tendencies to emerge on a large scale?
1
What you just wrote describes every single religion so no, that is not it.
perhaps I'm being picky here, but the implication that opposing Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination on the basis not only of a plausible and public testimony by a respected professor but also his appalling behavior during his own testimony--an opinion not only shared by a large percentage of citizens but also put in writing and published by 2,400 legal scholars, should not be dismissed as a "left wing cause."
Mr. Brooks you are a gifted writer and I commend your efforts to rise above politics in search of a more gracious world. I hope that as you continue in this pursuit, you stay away from quick assumptions and false equivalence.
13
I think that you need to look at what certain of these are replacing, which is commonly some form of Christianity. The original messages of love thy neighbor, be kind to the stranger and help the poor are decidedly absent from many putatively Christian churches. People encountering that disconnect aren't necessarily going to stay Christian. If they do, they may try to practice a form of Christianity that matches this ethos instead of the modern prosperity gospels.
I find it wryly amusing that I may have casually known 1-2% of the self-professed Wiccan population in my original college years. I hope they are doing well.
7
@Jacob Sommer: The Jesus of legend merely claimed to have absorbed the soul of man, as a human being.
@Steve Bolger Jewish tradition has many of us throughout our history talk about being children of G-d. In this, Jesus saying he was the son of God was nothing particularly out of the usual. It’s when that status is denied to the rest of us that we raise our eyebrows and say, “Nu?”
My explanation is simpler: Everyone needs a hobby.
In a secularized society spirituality, including mainstream religion, is a hobby. What do you do with your free time? Engaging with religion is an easy and rewarding pastime for many. You get to sing and craft and organize book clubs. Throw birthday parties. March against this cause or that. Bake brownies for fundraisers and collect canned goods around Thanksgiving. Good 'ole wholesome fun.
I tend to reject the notion that humans are inherently spiritual though. I'd say we have a biological compulsion to stay busy. Most religions structure themselves around this compulsion as an organizing principle. If you don't have any real answers, at least give people something to do. We want to be preoccupied. Some religions are actually dedicated to overcoming the impulse. Think Buddhism. Doing and thinking nothing is a sacred pastime.
Astrology and Wiccan aren't very different. It's entertainment. Some people truly believe and most religions are tied up in astronomy anyway. There wasn't much to do at night in the ancient world but look at stars and tell stories. Aside from more, ahem, adult activities that is. Again, all entertainment. Asking someone about their sign is sort of like asking someone if they believe in fortune cookies. They'll probably say yes but with a wink and a laugh.
In a secularized society, you might as well ritualize Sunday golf as much as attend a church service. That's how deep the significance runs.
13
@Andy: Rituals are fun. Folks socialize and raise money for causes. Though I think the present scheme of making subsidies to do these things conditional on religion is stupid, I think local community-improvement associations should be eligible for federal compensation from broad-based taxation to pay their own local taxes for projects that benefit their communities.
2
@Steve Bolger
Depends on where you live. The overt influence of the LDS church in my area actually helps enable benefits to more secularized organizations.
We're part of the local community council here and we definitely benefit from a weird religious ripple effect.
We get grants and donations from all sorts of unlikely places. It's not like we're sponsoring a living nativity or anything. We can't typically serve beer in the park either but the result is kind of a wash.
If nothing else religious people shop at our local farmer's market just the same everyone else. That helps fund money for local block parties where beer typically is served. Just not on the community's dime.
You failed to include the rise of crystals and the New Age Movement throughout the 80's. Funny how this coincides with Republican rule! I would argue that the policies of Conservatives violate many people's understanding of the way we should treat one another and they seek a balance. The combination of Republican co-opting of traditional religion and the reality that these traditional religions are not stopping the raping of our morality would make anyone look toward nature, the stars, or any forgotten magic. It's the wanton abuse of our norms and the lessons we learned as children that cause people to seek a greater authority that may bring us back to a more righteous course.
Conversely during Democratic rule there is a rise in gun sales and militia groups - again people feeling their world is out of balance. Funny that these people turn to violence or threat of violence to right the ship. To their thinking their God will smite down any infidel to their fundamentalist ideas and they will give God a hand just to make sure.
10
@Lucas Lynch: Reagan derailed the wise choices of President Carter to explore the possibilities of direct use of solar energy, and conversion to the standard measurement system of Physics in use everywhere else on Earth.
4
@Lucas Lynch i think if you read the burton essay mentioned by brooks it relates the new age movement...just not drawing your conclusions...
If, fundamentally, what you’re talking about is the rise of the irrational then you can’t get much more frightening and comedic and all at once than Donald J Trump.
16
And religions are rational how?!?
My girlfriend in high school was Wiccan and I have nothing but fond memories of neopaganism.
14
Humans require myths of some kind to give shape and substance to their life on earth. The content of the myth/s is often secondary. The myths in our case can be democracy, science, religion, individual freedom, etc., and they give us a few hooks to hang our hats of meaning on.
Especially in times when unpredictability, lack of cohesion, high stress, and the lack of shared belief keep us fractured and frightened, astrology, witchcraft, UFO fetishes, and worshipping images of saints in peanut butter will suffice until the next spaceship comes to beam us up.
6
I swear by the god my people swear by!
4
I always learn a lot from The responses to Dave’s column as the passion with which readers express their views shows a very high level of learning. Dave’s humor such as putting Hermès in the same sentence as “Email” tickles me and sent me rushing to Wikipedia to study the gods. One thing though, I don’t see Dave as the corrosive conservative some ascribe.
2
@Ray: David is as resilient as a rubber duck. He cannot merge the orthogonality of liberation and conservation no matter how he is squeezed.
1
Or: they grew up with Harry Potter. Not trying to be flippant, merely pointing out that not everyone is on some super-special midlife quest for meaning and looking to scale Mt. Maslow.
13
@H.L.That's a good observation!
1
No. It is more about finding a belief system where you feel you have some kind of agency and control over a chaotic reality and not just a victim of a deity's moods and decrees given to you by a group of self-declared special humans. Traditional religions are about power and control of one group of people over another. Wiccan and those other belief systems are about you, about finding your own inner power, your own female power and your relationship with what surrounds you without any self-declared special intermediary. Traditional religions oppresses and dimisnoshed women, Wiccan religion give us our right place as the ones with power to carry life.We women have a power that terrorizes men: the power to let you live or not, the power to decide which males gets to pass on his genes or not. That is why males are the most anti-abortion supporters.
1
Seems to me, Mr. Brooks, that you missed the elephant in the room with this piece. Satanism, as reflected in the massive following of Donald Trump, surely is the phenomenon that needs further exploration. Why do so many Americans have such an allure to greed, lying, cheating, aligning with our country's sworn enemy, having extramarital affairs with porn stars and hating all those who are not Caucasian? Give the devil worshippers their due. They far outnumber the astrology and occult crowd.
23
Yeah, sure. "Satan" made me do it. Come on. There is no deity out imaginary being that makes anybody do anything, good or bad. I am an atheist but I do not go around lying,conning,cheating because I am a moral person (BTW, morality is a product of evolution not religion) not because I am afraid that some deity is going to punish me. On the other hand, look at the Republican Party and Republican and conservative voters. "Satan" making them being such hypocrites?
Anything, anything at all, that will break evangelical Christianity's stranglehold on American governance, large and small.
14
Did Mr. Brooks ever write a column about Nancy Reagan's reliance on astrology to determine her husbands travel plans?
Spoiler alert! People who dress up in a witch costume to make a point do not really believe in witches.
Do people who listen to ministers who speak in tongues really believe they are communicating with god?
Why is Mr. Brooks surprised that some young people turn to mysticism when their primary school education lacks rigorous instruction in math and science? To them rational thought must seem mystical.
8
@Marvin Raps well, to be fair, math is hard.
2
I think it is all just goofy. Yep, I understand that there is a basic human need to know where we came from and why we are here, but I don't want/need the answers so much that I'm going to follow any goofy religion--including the mainstream goofy religions you endorse, Mr. Brooks.
3
@Maloyo56
You make a point that often gets overlooked in discussions of the psychological and social functions of religion: most of the major traditional religions are based on cosmologies that have been massively refuted over the past several centuries. It's kind of hard to take claims of moral authority seriously if those claims are grounded on fantasy.
Each of us has a giant size hole. That spirit space, also known as the Soul. Is either filled by diversion or conversion.
2
Or education which will allow you to be more self-aware and help you find and your own inner-power. Ignorance breeds hopelessness.
1
I think the last line of Brooks essay is prophetic- “we are seeing a great change”. The twenty first century technology advances and long period of global peace have brought the mankind to a state where physical survival is not a day to day challenge for most men. The minds are now free to explore new horizons - science, philosophy, history, cultures, religions,... This brings all these ideas of astrology, witchcraft, mindfulness, spirituality, pornography,...to us through internet and Google search and Wikipedia. We are now physically changing by using excessive foods and mentally changing by using excessive visual and audible informations. You can assume your mental state as an obese mind like a physical obese person - a great change. Our challenge is to trim this obese mind and that is why we need proper mental food. We are searching that at different places and many of those corners are very dark and some of them are shining bright. This search will shape our future destiny.
5
@KB: Reason has yet to be established as an aid to long term survival of species.
2
@Steve Bolger
This is interesting. What evidence do we have to support this, and what evidence to disagree?
"Belief in astrology and the occult is surging."
It always does during a crisis: Vietnam in the 60s and Trump today.
8
I'm an amateur astronomer who has no use for astrology. I am also an outdoorsman. I am quite comfortable taking a solo hike or multi-day backpack or canoe trip alone, immersing myself in a world where man is only a visitor and doesn't stay long. The fact that the iron in our blood came from a supernova, because iron can't fuse, and the gravity-heat expansion balance of a larger star caused that explosion is far more beautiful than my birth sign of Ophiuchus, which is where the Sun is on my early December birthday. Science and the wilderness are both beautiful and in danger of being destroyed these days. My life has been richer because of both.
19
"Opinion Writer with Imaginary Friend Critizices People Who Believe in Stuff" There I fixed the title of this piece so you can send it to The Onion.
13
We all need something to identify with. Our society has no structure. It's like a body without a skeleton. There's nothing much there to hold us up. I read my horoscope daily to give me some perspective on the day ahead. It's like the old saying for getting thru the travails of life "it takes a village." Well, there's no more village! So we reach out for some guidance wherever we can find it. But we're a little cynical too. When i was working as a buyer for an import company, the day I was leaving for a three week trip to Asia, my daily horoscope said under no circumstances travel today. I went anyway & nothing bad happened. On another occasion a week after I made a life changing career step, that shook me deeply, I looked back at a monthly horoscope & found the day & circumstances of my traumatic career change exactly predicted, though I didn't read it until a week after it happened. In our modern world we've become Medieval gleaners. It's not plant & harvest in order & sequence. It's gather what's available & make the most of it.
1
@Doug R: Software is intangible. The soul is software.
1
Software is not "intangible": it is what we call written instructions that computers compile and translate into commands that produce very tangible electrical pulses to turn bits on or off. Now, if you tell me that what you are calling "soul" are the outside world inputs that trigger the electrical impulses that our brain cells use to communicate, then maybe, but I guess that is not what you meant.
When you feel like your government hates you, you might try just about anything.
5
What, no Yi Jing? Far superior to astrology; good for what ails you.
Some of these beliefs have at least some possibility of being true, compared to myths such as cutting taxes for the rich increases revenue, or that climate change is a Chinese hoax, or that the 2nd Amendment guarantees individuals the right to own any guns they want for any purpose, etc. etc.
8
@Cyclist You forgot that China is paying the tariffs.
3
“Belief in astrology and the occult is surging.”
Guilty. I keep googling “tRump re-election horoscope” on a regular basis to see if a consensus forecast is emerging. Sadly, no luck.
2
Brooks' shilling for the Republican Party paved the way to what it is now -- a cult or at least cult-ish following of Donald Trump which is going to meet with the results that Michael Cohen said are inevitable for those who follow Trump.
5
Nice article. One comment regarding: "Religion bows before individualism." Is it that, or is religion bowing before society's contempt for hypocrisy? After years of sexual abuse scandals, the Christian church has never had less credibility.
3
Is it possible that the occult appeals because it does not view humankind as flawed and therefore lacks the constraints of the traditional formal religions?
1
This stuff is no more nonsensical then any traditional religion. And the mindfulness stuff actually makes more sense.
10
Interested in the occult? Ever watch jimmy swaggart or Benny hinn . The dancing,singing, praise be the lord, and healing right before your eyes? Then there are the wealthy preachers who need that private jet. Let’s face it, much of modern religion has tuned into a political party or a big money making business.
7
Or the belief that a woman conceived another human asexually or the one where such human came back to life after being dead for three days?!?!? I am sorry but religious people do not have a moral right to question other people's beliefs because their beliefs are just as irratuonal and absurd.
No mention that evangelicals are more apt to believe in angels than evolution.
9
As a secularlist I have zero unfulfilled need for the spiritual. I had all I need for this life from 0 to 18 with forced biblical indoctrination. When I became an adult and could choose my own path I walked away free at last. My mother eventually did also. With that aside I went through a period where I studied many religions to understand their reasoning. All I found was mostly misogyny, alienation, hypocrisy, death and abuse. Don't be so sure Wiccans are a fleeting thing it might just be the right fit for a lot of women. Here's to the rule of three.
6
I always have a nice laugh when someone who derides organized religion swears by his horoscope or declares himself “spiritual”. People truly love feeling superior to others.
3
@Jake: "Spirituality" is sharing experience. It is spiritual to be taught how to solve differential equations.
2
@Steve Bolger
Amen!
If one believes in God, then the study of physics and chemistry and biology is the study of God's works.
Way more miracles one can see every day than Jesus and the fishes.
And I always have a good laugh at people who declare that having an imaginary friend makes them a better person.
1
"I doubt that much of this will be sustainable." Brooks obviously does not know what he is talking about, but I respect his attempt, it seems to be well intended. Polytheistic, earth based religions are about embracing, celebrating, & supporting the interconnected web of life. This is done not just with deeds, but with energy work, by extending ones spiritual self into the realm where the connections can be made. Just moving the energy around keeps the path ways open and healthy. For the inexperienced, The Force on Star Wars is as good of a basic explanation as any. Western dualistic thought has given us powerful analytical skills, but as a basis for theology it is a dead end.
2
We are hard wired to get comfort from magic, from making up worlds and rules that make us feel that there is control over our lives "somewhere."
It is probably because our brains evolved far enough that we can see into the future, and what we see is our death. And so we adopt magic to cope with that---we don't "really" die, we just shape-shift in various magical ways.
Further, if we can find other people who adopt our particular form of magic then we have met another innate need--the advantage to our survival of being in a tribe.
Part of the drive for wishing there was a magical solution to our deaths is that we can't admit to the limitations of our brains. A mouse can't understand the internal combustion engine, yet we believe we can understand everything. Maybe our brains are only capable of understanding 1% of the universe. Deal with that!
We are animals. Nothing more. We aren't special in the universe. Thinking we are special has produced such misery for human beings. Just find somebody to love, or a lot of somebodies, and enjoy it while you can. It's very short.
5
Wiccan's respect the Earth and it's season's of change and the Mother in all of us. The younger generation is looking for a place that honors and respects this planet, this may be what they are looking for.
4
@Calleendeoliveira
not to mention the fact that they don't dress like it's halloween.
And Wiccans respect and honor the female. Maybe younger males and females got tired of watching their moms being disrespected, ignored and treated like second class citizens by organized religions and decided they want better.
It is a cliche of conservatives that the Left is a religion. It provides its own vision of the "other world" (a paradise in this world), rules for daily life and politics, and a moral superiority. Correct.
But, take it from a lifelong Leftie: you shouldn't mix politics with religion.
What Brooks describes is the casting about for some new integration of this world and the next by those dissatisfied with the clunky 1850s philosophy ungirding the half-baked Marxism of contemporary radicalism.
This quest is understandable. But, the failure to separate what we can learn from this world, empirical knowledge, from what we can learn about the next, continues the sectarianism that destroyed European and especially Russian socialism.
The Left should be about this world, socialism, only: equality of wealth and rights. Period.
If comrades want to embrace materialism, social engineering, cultural revolution, or "the New Man", let them set up churches to pursue these endeavors, guided by beliefs from beyond.
It's my right to believe what I want about what can't be known from experience. Most atheists would say there is no other knowledge. They have a right to such a world-view. Others say there is this or that legitimate knowledge of another sort. I'm one.
I am religious. But it's something for the rest of my life, not politics.
To have conflicts about the beyond intrude into radical movements in this world destroys them.
In this world.
1
@alyosha: Everyone makes it to Nirvana on their first try. There is no life after death. Only the legacy of our experience remains, for a time.
Since it seems Trump has cast a spell on many Americans, it's no surprise people feel the need to fight back. Fight fire with fire.
It's also as Mr. Brooks says, a reaction to extreme uncertainty and massive technological and social change.
Nothing new, but certainly a change from the recent past.
2
I wish to examine Mr. Brooks' fifth tenet, "the desire to live within a coherent creed and community but without having that creed impinge on your individual autonomy."
Particularly to the American Experiment, people have been allowed, indeed encouraged, to place an emphasis on individual discernment over unthinking acceptance of orthodoxy.
Consider how American Catholics have perpetually been a bit off the Roman reservation of attitude, and even more so in recent years as the hierarchy has proven more interested in maintaining the institution over addressing the scandalous and destructive behaviors of its ordained leaders. Consider how many mergers and splits and versions of Lutheranism there have been throughout the country. Look how many flavors of Baptists there are, even as so-called "independent" churches form and re-form (get it??), they split up after a generation or two and often drift their way back toward a larger body, in much the way Mr. Brooks.
seeks.
Anti-conformist movements all have something to say, as do the religious and the atheists. Smart people listen for "truth," wherever its source. We need to listen to artists and mystics.
We just don't need to elect them.
If we can pull off the balance Mr. Brooks encourages between a coherent creed and personal autonomy, it is a good and healthy place to live. But the pull of individualism is not the only force at work here - so is the pull of the authoritarian call for conformity, and obedience.
4
Much of what Mr.Brooks writes of seems to be a reaction to the depressing age that Dpnald Trump has brought to America. People urgently look for an escape from its daily drumbeat of deady news along with Trump's loud, obnoxious and relentless presence.
But the notion of a new Age of Aquarius is absurd. I think Mr. Brooks missed many of the positive, exciting times during that period, kicking himself these many years as a result, and he has landed in a conservative, rigid place politically
The lyrics from the song from "Hair," written at the time, are quite lovelty...beaeutiful and poetic. It begins with the alliterative phrasing, "When the Moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter Aligns with Mars, then Peace will Guide the Planets, and Love will Steer the Stars."
While undoubtedly fanciful, the song and the late 60s were a unique time...yes, the Vietnam War was going full guns but other currents were very elevated There was hope for a more peaceful existence and there was a force urging that we care for one another. There was, as John Lennon wrote, the aura of a revolution in the United states but without, as he added, a sort of Maoist destruction.
So to Mr. Brooks, perhaps you might revisit the "Age of Aquarius," a bit of a romantic period in the lives of many people to be sure, and recognize the freedom and hope it offered.
3
I think Brooks missed a major point. Pagans believe in stewardship of the earth and reverence for, not predation of--nature. Climate change is killing us; we are killing ourselves. The dominionism that is inherent in the Judeo-Christian tradition views the natural world as simply resources to be exploited. Paganism offers a life-affirming alternative.
18
@Connie: The fact is we humans crush our immediate environments. A tree that leans towards my has a hollow in its trunk where four squirrels can winter. That is where the trunk will break in some Noreaster, which will blow it towards my house. What should I do?
1
@Connie
Good point about Pagans as stewards of the earth. But stewardship is the Judeo-Christian tradition as well. For Christians and Jews having “dominion” meant taking care of an earth owned by a creator not ourselves. It is only in the last 200 years in the wake of the industrial revolution and global capitalism that the stewardship tradition has been compromised. Pagans, Jews and Christians should be cobelligerents in fighting for the planet.
3
@Steve Bolger
Trim the tree or take it down in the summer.
This essay lumps witchcraft, astrology, desire for slowness and thoughtfulness, and the social justice movement into one entity. Naturally the conclusions of such lumping are ... unilluminating.
13
@Dan Styer: In mega-churches they just count lucre.
1
Should be a pretty good tourist season in Salem.
2
@Lakepoint1
Yeah, I wonder if Brooks considered that Harry Potter might be responsible for the growth in witchcraft.
2
Yet when I look out over the American landscape the group I see most mystified, most ideologically controlled, and lest able to reason their way forward are the Fox News viewers ...
10
@Guy: They never grew out of intellectual Pablum.
In most cases, it's not spirituality that drives people to believe in
some sort of supra-natural reality, it is credulity. How can one explain people following fake evangelists, leaders of cults or even dishonest politicians? The gullibility of humanity is as strong as its other characteristics.
8
@Frank Casa: People live to share experience. Why does Facebook exist?
@Steve Bolger
To help the Russians interfere in our elections.
1
We have entered the age of intellectual laziness, SoulCycle, yoga and a bit of mindfullness does not a philosophy make.
2
@Jonathan: Our souls exist to operate our bodies. They are software.
Notice it's all about "self-improvement." Making your life better. Not making the world a better place.
1
How exactly is “the occult” different from “traditional organized religions”? Seems to me that Catholicism, for example, is about as occult as it gets, what with transubstantiation and all. But, aside from that, Brooks’ again here dives too deeply into a shallow pool. He imagines a “spiritual yearning,” where it might be more accurate to call it the tendency of a vast number of people, for whatever reason, to engage in belief without evidence. Wiccan, Evangelical Christianity, Islam, Astrology, Trumpism, Christian Science: it’s all the same. It’s all a manifestation of a personality that you would avoid at a party.
9
The atomic unit of human motivation is fear.
1
I’ve been sticking pins in my Trump voodoo doll. Unfortunately, it hasn’t taken effect yet. But rest assured, I’ll keep trying!
6
@jgm, where can I get one? Maybe if millions of us all stick pins in at the same time, we'll get him to pay attention to his job?
2
All a well planned set up by the Russians to get votes for their candidate in 2020. It is less repulsive to wishy washy Americans than all of the other diversions. ;-).
2
Mr. Brooks, stop with the straw mans! Just based on even one of your points, "there is a widespread need to slow down, to escape the pace of life technology wants and to live at a human pace," you provide no proof & simply rant on about your usual, the fall of society & the need for conservative roots. How about writing about something real like the scientific fact that Climate Change is real, and the fact that the current President is a compulsive liar, and the fact that an American economy based on consumerism & giving tax breaks to the rich & corporations is a root cause of our society's disenchantment.
6
Oh, come on! Now you use "woke" as a weird manifestation of spirituality, tantamount to witchcraft and astrology????
"Woke," as much as I hate jargon, is a state of being. A state of being in which empathy and understanding are present. A state of understanding that individual differences are to be celebrated, not denigrated. A state of being where full equality is sought and where people's understanding of their own identity is accepted.
"Woke" is being human, not being "hip."
Perhaps Brooks will wake up too.
5
@Barking Doggerel I share your hatred of jargon. Somewhere someone has a massive Dyno Label Maker and is cranking out slogans nearly as fast as Trump cranks out lies. Problem with "woke" is it is completely subjective and is up to each person to determine who is or is not woke. How about we just be human?
Next thing, they'll be casting stones.
1
@Barking Doggerel, David is the master of opining the loss of polite American discourse. Funny how it's NOT swastikas that outrage him, but woke social justice warriors.
Look, a witch! When wiccans get the NRA's lobbying power, we'll be sure to take this seriously.
1
" I doubt it’s possible to have tight community and also total autonomy ..."
So, no freedom?
Does this explain the anti-abortion laws?
3
Would you rather go fishing with 1 evangelical, or 2? Two, because if you go with just 1 he'll drink all your beer. Point being: many "spiritual" people are phonies, who put on airs and live their catechism hypocritically, primarily based on the situation and who's watching. And what they stand to gain. I'd rather tolerate fake Wiccans and astrologers, who aren't convinced of their hobby as a full-time guide for life, than Trump voters and politicians, who appear to be all in for their savior.
2
@mick domenick
I’m wrestling with which is less appealing: a hypocritical christian or a judgmental atheist?
There will always be gullible masses. From where I sit, astrology, paganism, Abrahamic religions or any religion sit on the same plane of superstition and nonsense, so it merely shifts one questionable belief for another.
4
"We really are living through a moment of major transitional change."
At every point in history, there have been people saying exactly that.
But, David Brooks always manages to imply profound significance to every factoid he comes across.
“During the Kavanaugh hearings, 13,000 “resistance witches” cast a hex on Brett Kavanaugh.”
How well did that work out?
1
@Marty - We don't know yet.
1
Paganism proved to be quite adaptable, borrowing gods from other pantheons. Roman religion pretty much copy/pasted the Greek pantheon and exchanged gods with a conquered Egypt. Fitting for this era in a way, religion that adapts and spreads like an internet meme.
6
As the cult-like DNC becomes the prosecutors of Christians I fear history will repeat itself.
OK Dave, so as I understand it, your point is we have "Clowns to the Left of Us," who follow these bizarre spiritual "religions" as opposed to those mainstream religions we all know are the principles our "Founding Fathers" used as the basis for the creation of our Great Country.
Unfortunately, your tone of intolerance towards these "Clowns" tells me you cannot recognize the distinction between the "Clowns" and what I see as the more nefarious "Jokers to the Right," who are much more interested in dictating the terms on how ALL Americans should live their lives, as opposed to those silly "Clowns."
But, what do I know, I am just someone "Stuck in the Middle."
3
David, people will believe all kinds of nonsense. Why do you think the Republican Party exists?
16
This strikes me as a puff piece. Brooks doesn’t think much of this is sustainable (I would agree) and yet he thinks the world is on the cusp of a major transition? OK, from what to what? He needs to put a little more intellectual elbow grease into this one.
4
"Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!"
(lyric from the song, "The Age of Aquarius."
I so love these words but have they ever seemed so far away as they do today.
2
Is this really the most important thing to write about in the NY Times op-ed pages. Why not the hypocrisy of McConnell and Supreme Court judges-not a word. Why not about the behavior of the president in Normandy- never mentioning the importance of NATO. Another bit of fluff and cop-out by Brooks instead of getting into real issues.
5
Far more worrisome and far more dangerous are the cults that Mr. Brooks doesn't talk about. The cults of greed, ignorance, that degenerate into hatred.
Is it mere coincidence that the cults of the growing far right deny science and seek to eviscerate it? It is mere coincidence that the hugely followed televangelists preach a rightist 'fundamentalism' based on selective reading of texts of questionable veracity? It is mere coincidence that the white supremacists and their ilk conveniently forget those texts that affirm the brotherhood of humanity? Is it mere coincidence that the vulnerable are attacked for their vulnerabilities, while the privileged seek ever to obtain more privilege?
Do you think that the 'traditional family values' drumbeat, led by corrupted men (mostly) who somewhow manage to have the sexual affairs they decry, is a coincidence. Are not the 'televangelists' who live lives of luxury scamming the credulous, or prelates who abuse their position for sex and power not leading a cult?
These sir, are the cults that have been waxing for many years in this country. Mr. Brooks, at best you are barking up the wrong tree. You would do better by decrying these.
Yes on the left there are some anti vaxxers and faith healers too, but if you but scratch the surface, you will see greater concentrations among the so called conservatives, Measles anyone?
9
Belief in magic is vastly easier than learning quantum physics.
10
@JSK
True. But even those that admire our clever thinkers are fooled into believing that they in the end will be able to save our kind. More technology, more, more...
1
During the Kavanaugh hearings, 13,000 “resistance witches” cast a hex on Brett Kavanaugh. There is now a plethora of guidebooks for how to use astrology and witchcraft to advance left-wing causes. They have names like “Magic for Resistance: Rituals and Spells for Change” and “The New Aradia: A Witch’s Handbook to Magical Resistance.”
I returned all these books and asked for a refund because the rituals didn't work. Kavanaugh got elected to the Supreme Court. I'm going back to voting for the best and most reasonable candidate in every state and local election.
5
Just a little usage comment, but: isn’t all change transitional?
3
Bravo David Brooks. Given the headline, I expected a snarky, critical column on the woo-woo and wacky. Instead I got a well researched, nuanced. thoughtful look at new spiritual directions Americans are taking.
4
"Being an Orthodox Jew is a thick but binding life."
Yes, there are rules. Observe Sabbath. Get off your devices and spend some time with family and friends. Eat kosher. Be mindful of what you put in your body and when you consume. Honor your parents and your marriage.
Too "thick and binding" for most today I suspect.
7
According to the ultra-conservative Mr. Brooks, "There is now a plethora of guidebooks for how to use astrology and witchcraft to advance left-wing causes." But--funny thing-- he fails to mention that Ronald and Nancy Reagan had an official White House astrologer for seven of their eight years in the White House. I guess he didn't want to suggest that they were afflicted with all six of the problems that, according to him, lead people to "new forms" such as astrology. (Never mind that astrology dates back to ancient Babylon and thus could hardly be called "new"--kooky, maybe, but hardly "new.")
5
"Hodgepodge spirituality"?
You mean like claiming to believe in the sanctity of life, while cheering executions, promoting bombing campaigns and cutting school lunches?
Or insisting that flicking a light switch on a Friday evening is a profound transgression, but that stealing someone's else land and turning your snipers on children isn't?
Say what you want about New Age astrologers, but they've never conducted a pogrom or covered up years of institutional child abuse. And, with the possible exception of Nancy Reagan, they don't have to answer for war crimes.
6
Same as it ever was.
4
See Martin Buber on the difference between religion and religiosity:
"Buber drew a distinction between religion—a body of received beliefs and rituals—and what he called “religiosity,” the molten spiritual core from which religions are born."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/06/modernity-faith-and-martin-buber
"I doubt that much of this will be sustainable."
About as sustainable as Martin Buber's religiosity.
2
It's there now but it's anyone's guess if it's going mainstream. 20 years ago the police were arresting people with tattoos. Now the person with tattoos is putting on the cuffs.
3
If our main religious groups really cared about their followers, they would have stopped some of their ministers from sexually assaulting their children.
In almost all cases, these religious groups were more concerned about the reputation of their church and its ministers, than the welfare of children abused by their ministers.
Is there a single religious group that can say they protected children in their care?
4
I have always been amazed at the vast political power that a movement like Evangelicalism has accreted to itself. Yet in the Trump era, their leaders have proven themselves consummately Unholy time and time again. It seemed like an earth shattering event when a tearful Jimmy Swaggart proclaimed “Lord, I have sinned!” after being caught red handed consorting with prostitutes. But now a married President who garners universal evangelical support gives hush money to porn stars and Playboy models with whom he has had affairs and nary a blip? No, little wonder the common folk are looking elsewhere.
11
We could use a few more adherents of sacred springs, hallowed woods, and any spots where nature gets more respect than a corporate CEO ravaging the planet for monetary returns supported by his minions in the GOP. Oh, and no sacred golf courses included in this opinion. Let the grass grow and lay off the pesticides on the fairways already.
5
Conflating the alt-right with the 'radical left' (paragraph 10) in this instance it isn't egregious as Brooks is referring to alienated activists in general. The problem is that it's so typical of him to equate racist reactionaries with irritating college kids. I can never be sure if he is trolling Times readers or he really doesn't know the difference.
3
One imaginary hocus-pocus belief system is as good as any other. That said, it’s interesting to find The Satanic Temple (TST) left out of this article, especially since TST is now officially recognized as a church including tax-exempt status.
Then again, maybe excluding TST is due to the fact that members don’t actually believe in god or Satan... no hocus-pocus, no superstitions, no magical space fairies... just reason and science employed to enhance compassion, freedom, and justice via seven fundamental tenets... along with some strong challenges to those forcing religious displays onto everyone and using public/government properties to do so.
1
Well, all of my prayers go to the one whom they killed, the one who contained the spirit some of the others were looking for, but many didn’t recognize, because it came in the shell of a poor old bum, and they only loved money. Kind of an amazing “love” story isn’t it? He said, “ask and you shall receive” - I’ve never be denied. Of course like Aladdin, there are a few things which can’t be done. I have no need for witches, I have the best.
1
and then there is the largest wiccan movement...the Democratic Party.
A few months before Trump got elected President, I was in Mexico and at dinner with about a dozen Mexicans the common theme was a fear that Trump would get elected. I confidently told them it would never happen. In the back of my mind I thought I should have my sister in India break the usual 50 coconuts (I owe her a lot of money over the years) at a temple front steps to ward off evil, in this case Trump. But I laughed it off and did not do it.
But now...for 2020 I am taking no risks, the Democrats have shown a great ability to stand in a circle and shoot each other. I'll break the coconuts, ask our family astrologer for help and maybe even ask a local street parakeet astrologer for pointers. Works every time....:)
4
These could be called 'Links', where for instance this viewer just cut short an episode featuring in Midsommer Murders, an astrological who-dunnit, to tune into the reality of The New York Times. And there you are, Mr. Brooks, with an essay on the rising belief of witches and Stars, where Earth is fourteen times smaller than Uranus.
Earlier, you wrote of 'The Weavers', and when reading the News on D-Day, the Times featured photos of a singing group called the same.
My neighbor tells of a covenant of witches in the rural regions of New York, and it brought to mind how witches were persecuted for their beliefs when they could hardly afford to make ends meet.
There was Sybil Leek in the last century from England, who came to America and transformed herself into an astrologer. To Live and not just 'Exist', we all need something to believe in.
If you punch into Google, the name 'Susan', it reveals to some of us, the popularity of one of America's most formidable astrologers. A bright intelligent message from the above, and reminder of common sense.
The power of belief is extraordinary, and look what happened when we practiced 'voodoo-economics'; but be as it may, we should not impose our beliefs on others in a totalitarian way.
In childhood, a pony aptly named Witchcraft, bolted with this rider, and prayers were being made to 'Our Father', while my father on 'Robin Hood' was thundering behind. He believed in the extraterrestrial origin of Mankind and star dust.
1
"During the Kavanaugh hearings, 13,000 “resistance witches” cast a hex on Brett Kavanaugh."
How did that work out, Mr. Brooks?
2
Brooks frequently pokes fun at what he thinks are ascendant looneyisms on the left. This week it’s astrology. And, de regeur, AOC does her usual cameo as queen of the kooks. Good grief, conservatives, get a room!
I too know lots of people who read their horoscope occasionally and even chat a bit about the banal predictions. I’ve been known to break open my fortune cookie on occasion as well. If Brooks thinks these practices are the province of liberals alone, I’m seriously piqued.
But then, I’m a Scorpio.
2
Mmm. Imagine that. People believing in a mystical, supernatural power where incantations and praise to imaginary beings in the heavens determine our fate.
Oh! And that followers think science is fake and undermines these mystical beliefs.
Gosh. This sounds so familiar.
2
People are seeking comfort, not surprising in the age of Trump.
3
Astrology, witchcraft, Christianity - it’s all total fiction. Adopt the Socratic method, test your observations and bring some critical thought to the party. The position of the stars and planets are determined by physics and can be tracked with Keplarian math. There’s no causation or even relation. Likewise, late bronze era goat herders have absolutely no insight into who we are, how we got here and how things work. There’s no observable revealed truth anywhere in the Bible, Torah or Hadith.
Join the adults at the gown up table, folks.
2
I would add a need for self esteem.
In our hard-edged meritocracy, it is all too easy to judge oneself a loser. But our brains resist (80% of drivers consider themselves above average), and our rationalization engines have to get to work. Being a Wiccan or a certain race, having common sense they don’t have in the big cities, being alt-right or a commie, or being especially holy, all give you something to justify your superiority that is safe from scoring by testing or financial success. We overlook this motivator at our peril.
2
“Belief in astrology and the occult is surging.”. Why is this surprising? Just as there is a surge in alternative beliefs there a surge in simplistic evangelical Christian beliefs. Around the nation you have mega church’s with pompous Trump worshiping reactionary Christians ranting about abortion and socialism. There’s a popular creationist museum pedaling biblical literalism nonsense here in the United States. You have a resurgence in flat earth beliefs and conspiracy theory’s about fake moon landings. It’s the age of Trump & phony think tanks peddling climate change denial & other anti science dreck. Astrology & the occult isn’t the half of it.
3
Decades ago, some people thought talk therapy was psycho babble. Indeed, there was plenty of babbling going on; but yet, there is a danger to believe one's tradition is the keeper of the Truth and everything else is infidel
In one of your columns many years ago, Mr Brooks, you seemed to dislike moral relativity. Perhaps conservatives need absolutism. Maybe you have changed. But if the witches and alt spiritualists choose to believe in different things but otherwise harmless or even helpful to others, maybe we should let it be and live and let's live. A very Age of Aquarius attitude
In this column, Mr Brooks, you seem to want to wrap your pseudo empiriicism around some social phenomena; ironically, others could easily wrap their criticism around yours. So who is right and who is wrong? The following is my tie breaker
The late Willard V.O. Quine, a famed 20th philosopher and logician - who once taught Ted Kaczynski at Harvard - has written a seminal monograph titled "Ontological Relativity." It is fairly technical but the gist is that many ontological systems are valid and complete and can be mapped well with many others
Or, as the Dalai Lama has always tried to point out, he is not there to convert others; rather, it is best to be faithful to one's own tradition so long as it is genuine. Do good, do no harm, respect others, help others, help yourself, be kind, have compassion, have tolerance. If we can do that, witches, spiritualists, altheists, humanists. All are welcome!
1
If no animal, short of human, is willing to believe in nonsense, why should we? Are we so desperate. in our supine ignorance, to wanting to escape reason?
Is it really that hard to accept (and marvel at) what we don't know without making stuff up?
1
Mr Trump bends the minds of gullible people towards his lies and fabrications with " People tell me ...". Mr Brooks has done something of the same thing here with his suggestion that the political left has gone Wicca with a mention that "AOC's Aries Moon indicates...". Painting a person or a movement with talk of witches frightens me. There are too many alt-right thinkers who might be ready to go back to the Salem witch trials. Mr Trump could say yes, in fact he read about it in the New York Times!
2
As always, Mr. Brooks looks out of his window to throw stones at the left for ruining his country, this time with faux religions. Does he know what the GOP TV evangelists are preaching these days? They’re selling magic swaths of cloth and bottles spiritual holy water, to insure your place in the Prosperity Gospel. If he truly wants to improve American lives, he can start with cleaning up the religion in his own house first.
2
The desire to comprehend and to some extent control reality in it's overwhelming unknowableness is as old as the first time a caveman worshiped a tree or paid tribute to a dangerous beast he'd on the flip side be hunting for food. Doubt and open mindedness are not only disquieting but can be debilitating. Mining the various lazy , irrational beliefs and trends for clues to a particular age is probably fruitless as you'll most likely end at your starting point . So while your witch is woke feminism my midwestern evangelist is a climate change denier.
1
how about "belief" in climate change, david ... how's that doing?
is global warming really less important to you than "identity markers" and "coherent creeds" and "expressing alienation" and all the other pseudo academic jargon you love to offer us "transcendent creatures"! wouldn't saving the planet from thousands of years of human hardship be a "spiritual experience"?
i only ask the question in the terms you use, to make obvious the evasion on your side.
2
"Being occult is a way to announce that you stand on the fringe of society, that you stand against the patriarchy, against the heteronormative culture and against the structures of oppression."
This is David Brooks making up things about people has hasn't bothered to get to know. David, our church has a community of pagans who carry out ancient rituals to recognize and celebrate the natural world and our place in it. While pagan rituals are not my scene, these are my friends and they are not about "announcing stands." And, they come from a place of deep concern about our planet and the life it (currently) supports.
David, please stop making broad-brush judgements like this. It's superficial, fatuous, and demeaning to people you don't know. And David, that's what bigotry is.
2
David, this time you've really "jumped the shark". Using the tiny sliver of overlap in the Venn diagram between "progressives" and "the occult" - you try to smear the entire progressive movement (aka "The Resistance") as being Looney Tunes.
I doubt even Rush Limbaugh would stoop this low (although if he reads your column, I might be proven wrong tomorrow).
3
Maybe people are just reacting to the Taliban Christians who revile independent thought and can be counted on to vote against their economic interests and to drive the cultural/“spiritual “ wing of the family values Republican Party into the open arms of its donor class oligarchs.
5
Astrology is the prototype example of a rejection of science. When large numbers of people start to believe this nonsense, a society is descending into ignorance.
3
I honestly don’t see a lick of difference between belief in astrology and belief in God. Superstition is superstition.
1
Mr Brooks. There is nothing occult -hidden- about astrology. Its principles are available to anyone with access to a screen.
It might be easy to dimiss the fact that Amy Winehouse died at 27, and Prince at 58. But these are Saturn cycles. Saturn takes about 28 / 29 years to complete one orbit around the sun. Amy died at her first 'Saturn return', and Prince at his second. One may still be dismissive until we look into the deaths of many famous people at 27 {Janis Joplin, Mama Cass, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, etc} and 58 {George Harrison, Adolf Hitler, Andy Warhol, Machiavelli, Charles Dickens, Marcus Aurelius, Richard Burton etc}.
You could pick any age and list a bunch of famous people who died at that age. It is meaningless.
2
@Benjo
isn't that how faith works?
@Dave: I don't know how faith works. I don't have any.
to truly understand the meaning of this piece, one must view it through the walls of a crystal pyramid that has been cleansed of evil vibes.
1
Sir, witchcraft and Astrology are benign reactions to conventional religions losing veracity and legitimacy as the religions are generally at war with society or its counterparts. How is it possible to demand loyalty as you enprison and deny the very principles you admire.
Hypocrites really.
And sir, did you not have any friends during the age of Aquarius? You seem to be fixated on the 60’s. It was the time of seeing the American myth for what it is. A front to use the poor as Fodder to fight rich mans wars for power. We woke up alright. Woke up to the Vietnam War where you killed 55 thousand of your own and millions of south asians. The age of Aquarius Mr. Brooks.
2
G.K. Chesterton: "When a man ceases to believe in God he doesn't believe in nothing, he believes in anything."
And modern witches believe in?
@Tuffy 413
the sanctity of nature and life. helping and healing. at least the ones I know.
" “AOC’s Aries Moon indicates that she’s emotionally fed by a certain amount of independence, self-determination, and spontaneity,”
How is this bit of advertisement different than the long standing (bogus) story that Anglo Americans hand out about being "born" to leadership and riches and smarts and wealth? The bogus hand out that there is some innate set of traits that engender superiority at birth?
Good for OCA for playing the same game, but, using Astrology!!
Actually, OCA is using a time tested, outstanding approach to marketing herself since: Obviously Americans buy any story at all.
Look at what Trump is feeding the masses now. And look at what Reagan fed them back in the day while they lapped it up. He is smart, a genius, a master negotiator, handsome, and a boot straps up business man. (Trump or Reagan take your pick).
Nothing of the above is true (about Reagan or Trump), but, 40% of all of Americans are (or were) fully on the hook.
Go get em OCA. You were born to what you don't yet have.
Got and get what is yours to claim by (birth, astrology, marketing, consultants, whatever).
Got and get it. It's yours to claim.....as has been demo'd by the Republican Party for decades.
1
If we were all made in God's image, I'd look like Mitt Romney.
I'm surprised there isn't more of an exodus from organized religion. I have recently rediscovered my faith and belief in God. I have also made the decision that no one shall stand between me and my relationship with God. IE, I don't need an old (or younger) white man telling me what that relationship should look like and how I should worship.
I find God out in nature, in nature's cycles. That is where God speaks to me and teaches. I recently met a witch who similarly studies and seeks to understand nature. I realized that he and I were closer in belief and practice than the what is happening at the Mega Church down the street, which seems to be more about a worship of Capitalism and Pop Culture.
Organized religion is all about taking people's power away. I was raised Catholic and told regularly the ways in which I was not good enough by men who were abusing children. My God wants me empowered to live my best life, which has nothing to do with following a bunch of rules written by men, for men.
2
The practice of astrology is merely the remnant of the one true religion, that being the worship of the Great Old Ones and their priest, the great Cthulhu. The focus on constellations and the movements of the stars across the sky is, and has always been, necessary to predict when the stars will be "right" so that we may have adequate time to prepare ourselves for the Great Old Ones' return.
1
Just as believable as any conventional religion.
And far less harmful.
258
@Robert
Why do you say it's "far less harmful?"
Superstition is superstition.
Anti-vaxxers, essential oils and homeopathy over modern medicine, ignorant fear of nuclear power... These are all extremely harmful superstitions in an even more impactful way than the act of meeting up with people to recite words from a script.
7
@asdfj
"Essential oils and homeopathy are harmful"
Really? Not beneficial at all?
I think I found the pharmaceutical industry shill!
6
@michael.jones
Provide a source that shows essential oils or homeopathy have measurable benefits.
I'll wait. This oughtta be good...
5
Well, at least they don't get tax exempt status to impose their ideas on us.
600
@GMR
Best comment yet, I wrote something in a similar, yet more derogatory vein, but for some reason most of my comments on either Brooks or Douthat Op-Ed's fail to see the light of day.
Congrats on your concise and excellent summary.
31
@GMR I’ll admit I didn’t think of that. Excellent point. In Switzerland churches don’t pay tax but their followers do (and so subsidize the different religions). If you declare yourself non religious like myself you pay nothing. Sounds a lot more fair to me.
17
Or engage in an epidemic of sexual abuse of children.
25
Fascinating, but I don't understand why "mindfulness" is listed here. This is most often associated with meditation, which again, doesn't belong in a list of superstitions. There is a fair amount of scientific basis for it's benefits, as there is with yoga. Astrology and religion - not so much.
527
@Michael Cameron The premise is that there is a spiritual revival occurring, not necessarily a superstitious one. I don't think Brooks was saying mindfulness is superstitious, only that there is great interest in it and it is not a mainline spiritual or religious practice.
7
@Michael Cameron Because Mr. Brooks is attempting an examination of things that he has no experience with and just slipped up, is my guess why he threw mindfulness into the mix... He should have stopped by the Mayo Clinic online site and read their very positive take on this practice...
22
@Michael Cameron
Yes, the way Mr. Brooks lists "mindfulness" alongside astrology and witchcraft puzzled me, as well. It essentially shows how superficial his understanding is of belief systems that aren't part of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. Clearly, Mr. Brooks is not nearly as intellectually adventurous as he pretends. That's unfortunate, especially given how much he likes to write on this subject.
45
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
- Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio
Worth remembering that those beliefs defined as 'occult' or 'pagan' were defined that way, with predatory intent for political/financial dominance, by the Roman Catholic church as Rome sought to dominate Europe and Northern Africa. Absolutely people are looking for some higher purpose, or intuit there is a higher purpose outside of these dark ages of social media and constant trumpbabble.It is also worth remembering that what we call 'scientific' are those things for which we have developed the 'scientific' tools to measure, like string theory, alternate dimensions...things known by 'mystics' for ions. Remember that things like blood type, or a round Earth, a planet circling the sun were ravings and blasphemous before we figured out how to 'measure' it all. Dare I say before someone figured out how to profit from knowing it? Sort of like the denial of climate change.
2
Neither string theory not alternate dimensions are measurable scientifically. String theory turned out to be mostly a dead end. Alternate dimensions are just an idea. There is no way to prove them true or false. Therefore they are unscientific.
2
"The people I know who talk about astrology sort of believe it, but they sort of don’t."
I remember in the 1980s when I was interested in Wicca and Satanism. It became clear to me, from talking to people who were followers, that most of them were actually atheists.
Satanism, in particular, was a rejection of Christianity--as well as overbearing conservative rules, austere parenting, and conventional culture--than a real faith that people seriously embraced.
2
We are close to being half a millennium from the Age of Aquarius/Leo, when it will actually begin and we come under its influence. With the Precession of the Equinox the Age of Pisces/Virgo is receding, as the Age of Aries/Libra and all the prior Ages receded. What we are experiencing is the transition to a new Age. With the Water-bearer on the horizon it is expected that structures will crumble and beliefs will change. People who crave control and certainty will have a problem with that. Many would prefer to have authority figures to reinforce their beliefs than to have uncertainty. All will be well so long as the spirit of the law lives on, as it has in the past.
2
These trends (uncertainty and mysticism) may be occurring simultaneously, but other than that have little in common.
It shouldn't be surprising that in a world made so uncertain by technology, a faltering economy and looming climate disruptions that people will look somewhere to try and make sense of it all.
But to say that these ideas are "surging" may be a bit of an over statement. In this age of the internet, cell phones, apps and 400 channel cable TV, what has been around pretty much at the same level of interest is simply now being more widely shared.
Let's not forget that Ronald Reagan had an astrologist and very quietly so did a number of Wall Street houses.
The mystery of it all is hardly mysterious. Life moves in cycles and if you can catch a wave ascending or avoid its decline you can manage your affairs better.
It doesn't matter whether it's a personal relationship or catching the business cycle at the right moment. Astrologists try and make that crucial calculation even though most are pretty inaccurate most of the time.
Even the CIA got into the business of mysticism. Their experiments showed that some people can exercise clairvoyance or the ability to see beyond immediate space with their mind.
But they concluded that their accuracy rate wasn't enough to turn them into reliable spy's.
But today's alienation is much more concrete than the astrological belief's of .03% of the population. To understand that is as they say, a different story.
We find in the analysis of many polls about beliefs/religions that Americans tend to claim religion without particularly being religious, often out of a fear of what others might think of them.
Being a None (or, I prefer the term "unfettered") is actually more common that what we find in these polls. I think one can apply skepticism to these various claims of the number of Wiccans et al. Sounds good. Just isn't entirely true.
4
@Michael Doane: The wiser one gets, the more preposterous all claims to know what "God", or any other all-abiding personality of nature thinks, appear to be. They are all a resort to fake authority to make something non-negotiable.
It is odd that David Brooks doubts "that much of this will be sustainable" when various forms of paganism have existed since the dawn of human awareness. That it continues to exist in contemporary times and is found to have relevant expression in the age of Trump should not be surprising. Paganism is not monolithic and has always found expression in the current social and historical conditions in which pagans live. Pagans today are no different.
Paganism enunciates the deep archetypes that have been with all civilizations since way before the Greek mythologies. Most of Christian theology has been "borrowed" from paganism (Christmas, Easter, the Trinity, the Great Mother Goddess, ritual with bread and wine), and many Christians are surprised to learn that Christianity is not the only belief system that includes a dying and resurrecting god. But it is ever thus. All beliefs build on previous beliefs whether they acknowledge it or not.
At least today, mostly, witches are no longer burned to death in the town square. Perhaps we are making progress of a sort.
2
@MJM: Some people just like to practice rituals.
1
It can be summarized more simply, beliefs. Whether you share that belief with others is another topic. Whether you try to impress your beliefs on others (proselytize) is another. When one tries to make one's particular beliefs into secular law is where the conflict begins to take shape. All too many think their particular set of beliefs should be law and make their belief system superior to all others. It also poses another question, can one who does not believe in some diety or a belief system that has a diety, can one have a moral and ethical code? Yes. From personal experience, I know any number of people who have a strong set of moral and ethical codes but have no spiritual leanings. Often, I find them doing more for their community and their fellow man than many who follow an organized religion.
10
@tom: The US is chock full of presumption that one will be personally judged for its laws at the sorting process believed to occur at the Pearly Gates.
There is no magic. Birth is the moment we first experience what we are in for in life. The mood of the moment, the season, the time of day, floods in, and becomes our first impression, which endures.
I am in a Capricorn-Cancer marriage. We are complementary opposites.
Wait a minute. The guy who rails against religion and theism more than anyone believes in astrology?
2
David Brooks seems to bemoan the decreasing importance of the patriarchal religions that came out of the Fertile Crescent. Orthodox Judaism is hardly going to have much appeal for modern women The corruption and hypocrisy of evangelical Christianity, largely met with silence by mainstream Christians who aren't taking their religion back from the Franklin Grahams and Jerry Falwell Juniors of the world, has become disgusting to anyone not adhering to its "get out of jail free" notion of faith not deeds.
Is it any wonder the people are attracted to an earth-centered spirituality the creed of which is simply "Do what thou wilt, harm none"; a spiritual system that is about living in harmony with our planet instead of conquering it? A move away from the warlike religions that grew out of the middle east is a good thing, and long overdue.
18
“Second, there is a widespread need to slow down, to escape the pace of life technology wants and to live at a human pace”
The pace is not “technology”’s pace, rather the pace of global capitalism, which produced that technology to serve its purpose— to enrich those at the helm. The stressful, often inhuman pace at which we live is the pace of global capital.
6
"I doubt that much of this will be sustainable."
Don't worry David, as American disbelief in evolution stands rock steady at 50%. And Trump's support still hovers around 45%. Americans can proudly toe the line regardless of any rational or practical impediments.
14
As It happens, last week I re-read Starhawk's Dreaming the Dark, thirty years after first encountering it. It discusses Witchcraft, but focuses more on reforming society and the prerequisite changes to both individual consciousness and community.
A lot of today's politics is angry reactions by people who feel marginalized and dehumanized. Demagogues harness these people by promising to marginalize and dehumanize someone else instead. But what if we behaved as though every person matters, every person (and even every living thing) carries a spark of the divine, and we are part of the world rather than its rulers?
As Mr Brooks suggests, it is impossible to have "tight community and also total autonomy": if a community supports you, you have a reciprocal obligation to support it. The only way anyone might think otherwise is in a framework of "power-over", in which I can tell you what to do but you can't ask anything of me. But as Starhawk might put it, a community based on "power-with" is very different from a community based on "power-over": your obligations to the community are carried out not by obeying orders from your superior, but by working with others to accomplish what you agree is in the best interest of the community. Community thus defined is the antithesis of the "culture of estrangement". I'm not sure how it works at scale, but it's a more appealing thing to try than "tear-it-all-down" political nihilism.
4
I'd like to live to see the time when a major presidential candidate gives an answer along these lines to questions about what religion she practices, and that her answer is not only found to be acceptable--it is praised.
2
I'd like to live in a society where what imaginary friend mpresidential candidate believes is completely relevant as a measure of competency and trustworthiness. I want a president who does the right thing not beacuse she is governed by her fear of incurring the wrath of some diety but because it is the right, human thing to do. Besides based on what every Republican governemnt we have had lately has done, greed superseeds religion anyhow.
1
"Fifth is the desire to live within a coherent creed and community, but without having that creed impinge on your individual autonomy." Or said another way, people have begun realizing that organized religions like Christianity, Islam, Judaism et al. are fraudulent money maker organizations where the typical few at the top of the Ponzi pyramid reap economic benefit by selling false hope to the less emotionally and intellectually fortunate. People also have come to realize, if they want to suffer physical and or emotional abuse at the hands of those they trust, they can do that without also paying a tithe. We certainly are "living through a moment of major transitional change". The question is whether the people will stay awake long enough to understand no one is going to save them from themselves, least of all the very institutions they have heretofore placed their trust in. Nothing to fear however, what will be will be.
7
Mr. Brooks writes with a broad pen. Not everyone harbors “spiritual yearning.” I’ve been a quiet atheist for almost 60 years and have happily lived a non-transcendental life of secular humanism. Religion, whether established or fringe, is group delusion of counterfeit infinities. We are born into a material world. We live in a material world. We die in a material world. One can yearn for transcendental relief but those are the facts. Live with it.
30
What is the nature of that material? That's where it gets tricky.
3
"Humans are "transcendent creatures who have spiritual experiences and instinctively appeal to supernatural powers."
When we are ready to simply feel our need for transcendence without rushing to substitute some superstition, ideology, or other form of self-satisfying idolatry, when we wait sensing that need, with all the anxiety entailed, then, oh, then, we are prepared to hear that which speaks to our condition. Till that revelation happens that grounds us in the transcendent life, we should with integrity "endure until the end."
2
Thank you for delving into this shift in spirituality. One point not touched on is the connection to nature shared by both Wicca and astrology. Within us all is a deep-seated need to connect with the rhythms of the natural world. When our mainstream religious traditions took shape, humans lived inevitably shaped by the world around us. Now that the relatively affluent among our species live at a distance from the natural world, the alienation experienced seeks healing through practices more organic than that which can be found in humanly structured religious practice.
14
Raised in a nominal C of E family long ago, as a teenager, I got deeply into studying Christianity, and fairly quickly came to the conclusion that ALL the Abrahamic iterations promoted many really unpleasant rules, though wrapped up with some quite reasonable, acceptable ones. Every belief system, including Buddhism (pace Myanma) is open to abuse. Rational humanism seems less than most. The Evangelicals - despite many sincere followers, appear to be a mega business, presently rooted in similar outlook to Daesh (ISIS)
27
Equating astrology and mindfulness? Really?
Mindfulness is about inquiry into ignorance, among many other things. It is a practice, not a belief. Indeed, it can even deepen one's understanding of one's own religion. It does not stand apart from anything; it investigates the essence of everything.
Please, Mr. Books: a little more investigation before serving us your thoughts. Otherwise these are just your ideas.
29
@Satter
That’s Brooks in a nutshell.
This guys lives in a fantasy world.
"We are living through a moment of major transitional change."
That is the only meaningful statement in this editorial.
The litany of crazy reactions to our world of powerlessness
is not even interesting anymore.
If you can't really make music you can beat on a washtub.
Research has proven the efficacy of psilocybe in helping
the terminally ill to adjust to their approaching oblivion.
Perhaps it will help us adjust to our political oblivion too.
We might as well give it a try. Nothing else is working.
4
Perhaps this is a bit harsh but I believe what we are grappling with is the dawning awareness that the Abrahamic faiths aren't just false, but also wrong.
The false part--that what's in the books isn't factually accurate--has long been understood but hasn't created a real existential crisis because there was a belief that the lessons they taught were generally helpful to the human condition.
What we haven't done as a species is updated our relationship to the earth and cosmos based upon our expanded scientific understanding of how the universe operates and, most importantly in the here and now, how earth systems actually work and our impact upon them.
The abrahamic faiths operate from the assumption that the world is essentially infinite and acts upon us. We now understand the world is finite, finely tuned and highly sensitive to the changes we enact upon it.
We now understand that our economic behavior and fecundity are the most damaging forces on the planet and western faith traditions--with the possible exception of Quakerism--do not provide meaningful guidance for how to live ethically within the confines of the earth systems as we now understand them. That's the "wrong" of western faith traditions.
We grappling with a new golden rule: do unto the earth what you would have earth be for future generations, species and ecosystems.
We're not the center of the universe, that implies major behavior change, that's a hard pill to swallow.
68
@Ben
Thank you.
If we simply accept that there are lots of things that we can't or don't know, rather than believe that "Humans are transcendent creatures who have spiritual experiences and instinctively appeal to supernatural powers," perhaps then we can work with what we do know, learn what we actually can know, and do a better job of taking care of each other and the world we live in.
What exactly do we "transcend"?
Wow! Placing Buddhism in with astrology reveals ignorance, just not of those practicing it. Mindfulness is not spirituality. In America, unfortunately, it’s become a product but in Buddhist teachings it’s a foundational part of a practice of wisdom and compassion. It cultivates the awareness for an emptiness and non attachment to allow for the release of suffering. A little research would have discovered this. Buddhism arose 2600 years ago, 500 years before Christianity. It has a billion followers worldwide, and is not a religion. In its original form it is more akin to to a philosophy or worldview.
90
People need to belong to groups in things they share. In the cases of the occult and astrology, they are things shared by people who feel powerless. They cannot change things like themselves or others, so they try and use things they make-up. Acts of desperation in fact. They don't or can't use their own power, so they invent power that doesn't exist.
2
@John Chapin - Who is this "they" of which you speak? Have you spoken meaningfully with anyone who self-identifies as pagan? One wonder where you get your mis-information.
There are so many understandings of the word "power". The Wiccan author Starhawk speaks of "power over"," power with", and "power from within". I would suggest anyone interested in this topic read any one of her many books, particularly "Dreaming the Dark".
1
People need groups to belong to. We need guidelines too in order to define our identities. Today, our definitions of family, religions, nationality are very loose, yet we still crave some structure. We need to be tethered to something which gives our lives meaning. I still think a close knit family with supportive parents and grandparents is the best. A belief system whether religiously based or philosophically based is next. People need to stand for something or really they will fall for anything. See the NYT article on the young man who was radicalized by the alt right movement on the internet.
1
Sadly, the title of the piece itself is flawed. The only part of Astrology that is not bunk is the part based on astronomy: the locations of the sun, moon and planets in relationship to the stars and one another are factual. To that end, the Age of Aquarius is determined by the position of the sun relative to Earth at the Vernal Equinox. Due to the procession of the Earth's axis, this changes every 2100 years, give or take. As a result, we are still at the dawn of the age of Aquarius. Not that it matters . . .
7
This is my opinion; As a Catholic catechists have done a poor job teaching Catholicism. I think it's difficult to teach in a culture that prefers TED talks. Maybe we are mixing the disciplines, attempting to relate concepts.
In any event, religion is not the theological gift of faith. If a person's faith is in religion then it's not a living faith. As for astrology, the Septuagint does cite astrology and he should put the text in context - the Magi as one example. It's not alarming.
I wish you luck finding a book club that would like to discuss Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Tech writing is a good thing for one's readers but there is a lot of time involved in being an accurate tech writer. And, I am not sure the STEM disciplines are meant to be written the same as the humanities.
2
Surely we haven't missed an opportunity for GK Chesterton to weigh in: When people choose not to believe in God, they don't believe in nothing, they believe in everything. It is the antithesis of Karl Marx's opiate for the masses.
I'd take the trend down to two or three main drivers. First, organized religion has failed us, a lot. From child molestation scandals to politicization, too many churches have left the high road behind, and haven't found their way back.
Second, the religions that are growing are more fundamentalist, less inclusive, less tolerant. My own Catholic church just seems meaner as it tries to turn the clock back before Vatican II.
The third driver is the need for magic, for a belief that against all logic there are solutions, that comes from a general feeling that there is no way to control our lives. It is in the stars, in mother earth, in crystals. In something bigger than the littleness perceived in organized religion. Center yourself or be a cork bobbing along.
I don't think that either Chesterton or Marx is wrong. Faith is both necessary and capable of being used against us to control us. When we stop using it as a panacea, and stop looking at God, or gods, as magic or Santa, we'd have a better shot at having it be a beneficial influence on us.
9
We need renewed focus on SCIENCE LITERACY in this country! People without a functional understanding of how the world works will seek answers wherever they can find them, oftentimes through “supernatural” means (whether via occult or traditional religion). This article completely misses that point.
I’ve lived abroad a bit and I can say for a fact that the rest of the modern world is operating for the most part on a secular, reality-based view of the world, and is strategising accordingly while we Americans are not. We will not be able to compete long term if we do not get serious, think smarter, and get our act together. Unfortunately this piece only further sets us back by cloaking traditional religion in sophistication and legitimacy that comes with being printed in a positive light in the NYT.
19
I was mesmerized by this opinion piece, because it is magnificently rich with terms and lexicon. So, I’m embarrassed to admit, but I had not realized that Brooks was in fact criticizing the movement until I reached the very last paragraph. Too many things on my part on this subject matter, which would not be the spiritual matter much for me, I dare to say. My additions are: 1) It (called collectively in a singular form or simply paganism) seems to create deeper and wider spiritual yearnings. 2) Rather than a tech-wise (like clockwise), it would accelerate counter wisely the tech world taken down as to the stage of witch tech-crafts. 3) skip. 4) skip. 5) It may be also called gatherings to share from the juvenile awe of “oh! Such things exist! I didn’t know that!” 6) The ground narrative appears to be grand because it is all about fatalism controlled by the cosmic time and configurations. I don’t see personally there exists individual free will. My own end note: To me, paganism can embody the terror of the world and minds without God as Creator of Goodness. I was a reader of Arthur MaKen. Wendigo was my interest, too. Once, I was amazed to know how similar a part of my reading history is that of Stephen King. But, that was just a part for me to know more about God.
All of the alternative belief systems Mr. Brooks lists have one thing in common: they are not regarded as major, organized religions. What is is "ironical," as Mr. Brooks uses the term, is that even the belief in God is based, for many, on an unprovable "leap of faith," which is a good reason why the phrase exists in the first place. Yet, he dismisses alt-paradigms as antithetical to the mainstream.
Perhaps Mr. Brooks has forgotten a widely-revered American president, the presumed-to-be mainstream Ronald Reagan, whose wife, Nancy, regularly consulted an astrologist. Mr. Reagan was reported to have followed her guidance, making critical decisions in accordance with her star-induced beliefs. The Reagans even went so far as to have the address of a newly purchased home changed, officially, from what had been 666. How much more mainstream can one get? I guess the devil made them do it.
In an age when millions upon millions of Americans buy into the fantasies, untruths and alt-reality of our current, pseudo-religious president, Donald Trump, it is a bit over-the-top, if not altogether disingenuous, to prattle on about what Brooks views as the new age of Aquarius and the likes of astrologists, Wiccans and the occult.
Me? I'm more worried about self-help gurus Marianne Williamson, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra and their ilk, all of whom seem to worship the almighty dollar and, in particular, the dollars formerly owned by their generous true believers.
25
@Quoth The Raven Not that I'd recommend giving a nickel to Williamson, Robbins, et al (nor even to so-called 'main stream' religion), but I'm more worried about the cash raised by Deutcshe Bank and their ilk - that are handled in truly mysterious (supernatural?) ways.
2
@Rethinking They're not mutually exclusive.
"For many, the traditional organized religions are implicated in the existing power structures." There's a reason for that. Some of them are. On the extreme right, for example, one brand of evangelicalism is implicated in the Jacob/Esau arrangement negotiated by Franklin Graham and friends.
When one gets right down to matters, I am not so certain that the supernatural groups cited as examples of what constitutes a rather loose movement rejecting reason are so novel. Embracing those fantasies is not really so different from many brands of established religion in the rejection of even modest reliance on reason tempered by innate emotion. Denial of the principle of evolution, for example, requires abandoning one source of truth about human nature in favor of the fantasy of simultaneous creation of all existing species. As Sportin' Life observed, "The things that you're liable to read in the Bible ain't necessarily so."
5
Oganized religions are not only implicated in power structures, they are the weapon those power structures use to impose their power and stay in power. They are the weapon those power structures use to keep oppresed people from questioning and finally rejecting those power structures. Religion is indeed the opioid of the oppressed uneducated masses.
Community forming in the midst of individualism is tricky business. We aren't encouraged to be part of communities anymore. This is why people are forming different groups. In this we agree.
No, humans aren’t “spiritual”, (whatever that means- - feeling awe at sunsets?), humans are very emotional creatures however and virtually and almost universally confuse that with something outside our brain, which of course it isn’t. Because some feelings are almost universally experienced doesn’t mean they exist outside our heads. Virtually everyone dreams but those dreams are only in our brains. Same with “spiritual” feelings and longings. But humans do love delusions and since some are almost universal they can support a community or a religion. I think folks like Mr. Brooks probably understands this but don’t think humans can form a creed (which he seems to place a high value on) around the reality of a meaningless universe so delusions are necessary. He could be right about that. We are ruled by our emotions.
4
Belief in astrology and the occult?
I went through a phase of experimentation with the both, part of coming of age along with experimentation with drugs. The value of both to me, along with consciousness alteration of drug experimentation is that they celebrated individuality and touched on psychological/biological growth processes not much spoken of in traditional education not to mention organized religion.
And it hardly helped traditional education and organized religion that countless musicians such as the Who with Tommy or Pink Floyd with the Wall demonstrated alternative trajectories of human growth which while not demonstrating proof of astrology and the occult at least showed they could be taken as crude preliminary artistic representations themselves of psychological/biological growth processes not really acknowledged in polite society.
I really only grew out of the astrology/occult phase by going deeply into philosophy, psychology, literature,--really looking for answers no one spoke of when I was growing up. In other words, I have never returned to polite society but have always been pressing onward, upward, beyond, trying to understand all the ways a human being can grow.
But I still look back fondly on days when I read about the Golden Dawn and Freemasonry, and I know my astrology chart in depth (Sun conjunct Mars in later part of Capricorn, Moon conjunct Mercury in early part of Capricorn, Leo rising sign) and take seriously chart strengths/weaknesses.
5
Astrology is an opiate of the political left? Sorry to burst your comfort bubble, Mr. Brooks, but I recall a popular republican president who followed astrology and whose travel plans had to be approved by his wife’s astrologer. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/04/us/white-house-confirms-reagans-follow-astrology-up-to-a-point.html.
Besides, belief in astrology and belief in mainstream religion are not mutually exclusive. For instance, that popular republican president also identified as Presbyterian.
55
Oh for the love of pete. Why can't people keep their hobbies to themselves? Do we all have to paint waterlilies or make baskets or advocate for those who do?
Can we please stop wasting so much time on fantasy and spend some time trying to create a better reality for all of us?
16
Or you could blame the Internet, which has introduced everyone to on-line communities they never knew existed. For example, if I told you there were more Civil War re-enactors than ever before, what would you blame that on?
5
Just because you can't explain how witchcraft works doesn't mean it doesn't work David. Arthur C Clarke said that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.
You're a big reader David; go find The Book of Enki by Sitchin which is a translation of some 10,000+ year-old Sumerian clay tablets found in the Babylonian area. The reason for the 12 signs is well explained there along with how the Anunaki (literally meaning those who came from from heaven to Earth) created humans by splicing ape DNA with their own because they needed slaves to work in their gold mines.
Don't believe me? Google it and read it with an open mind, it's all there in tablets of stone (clay) and is clearly a prequel to most of the major religious texts followed on Earth today.
9
Mr. Brook's does not well hide his contempt for anything but the mainstream US religions in this piece. And it is quite clear that the essay is actually about politics but pretends to be about religion.
Many mainstream religious leaders have too long ignored the difference between and belief and faith. They would do well to reacquaint themselves. Having faith that Christ rose from the dead is very different than believing that a man died on Friday and woke up on Sunday. That tale is as irrational as it gets so please don't imply it has some legitimacy by comparing to some belief in astrology or Wicca.
8
You bring up the point that humans are transcendent, or have what Eliade called "transcendant" elevating relationships with God. I think the new forms of spirituality you're describing are imminent, Eliade's other description of spirituality, that describes spiritual experiences within mundane reality that transform it. I don't believe in astrology. Taking it too literally leaves one with delusions. But I do believe that God interacts with us personally and as I think God is everywhere, I don't think you can ever transcend it.
3
In the first century, when Christianity was taking shape, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus and other Romans described it as "superstitio," as it was not what the Romans "normally called 'religion.' " Presumably, they also felt the need to defend the sort of intersubjectivity that marks a "thick" society.
Our "society is groaning" probably more than first century Rome, and it is to be expected that "new forms are coming into being," but I would not discount the attraction or the staying power of a new atheist/humanism that finally brings an end to belief in "supernatural powers" of all sorts, but also finds the spiritual in the secular, and recognizes our collective responsibility for each other and our planet.
We may have been waiting a long time for something like this.
5
I am a new age lady from way back, when no one made a big deal over what and if I was into yoga or surfing or MEDITATION. To top it off I am an Israeli American whose childhood was a rich one because Israel celebrates Jewish holidays as part of our culture, and we will probably agree that many of our politicians ought to retire instead of inflaming the population with drivel and manufactured bravado in a time when many are seeking a spiritual life style. I rather like the fact that Queen Elizabeth is staying mellow and Macron has gone back to spending time with his family and that good old Angela Is COLLECTING degrees. HONESTLY; It’s fun to be an Aquarius-rising, it ain’t a fad, but my reality. And yeah, I will take on Meditation with a deep OMMMMMMM, and check out my new age books again... they read like Genesis, and Song of Songs...
11
How exactly is one person or a group using astrology any different from one person or a group invoking any other fantasy, such as invoking a stone age, middle eastern god?
9
David, you forget the presidential administration subject to astrology in modern times was the Reagan Administration.
11
Perhaps, just perhaps with all the goofy right wing conservative presentation of what is now accepted religion just isn't working for the majority of people.
Perhaps even in less rigid versions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and the other major religions also just isn't working for the majority of people. Maybe the fairy tale of religion just isn't working.
However, that does not explain why these "new" religious experiences are working.
I think they are all a form of superstition.
For me, quiet time in mediation works best for me to find peace.
5
The rise of magical superstition and the amalgamation of many believes iant something new, it's rather that Anglo Saxon societies go back to the normal. If you look at catholic or non-western countries this is normal. Jn south America Catholicism incorporated many traditions of the old pagan religious. In China people believed and believe in a mix of animism, buddhism, confucianism and recently western traditions. And they easily switch between them depending in what they need.
3
It's still believing in ghosts and superstition, whatever the variety. All that does is limit one's freedom, enable people to think they are better than others, cause wars and other calamities.
5
@Cathy Yes, just like traditional religions.
Actually, the root of the word ‘Astrology’, or knowledge of the stars, encompasses the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. And, visual Astronomy can only take place in total darkness, I.e. the occult.
Therefore, as long as one applies the rules of logic and the laws of nature, “Astrology” is perfectly fine.
3
Mr. Brooks, in listing people's needs you forgot to include the deep-seated need in many to believe in kooky nonsense.
With regard to new forms coming into being, the alternate belief systems don't seem new in the slightest. But this is typical for religion. While change and novelty are part of reality, most people are backward-looking, seeking to understand the world not through new knowledge but through antique nonsense.
5
“During the Kavanaugh hearings, 13,000 “resistance witches” cast a hex on Brett Kavanaugh. There is now a plethora of guidebooks for how to use astrology and witchcraft to advance left-wing causes.”
Hmmm. I guess it would be OK with me if they succeeded in hexing him into (1) appreciating the need for justices to be circumspect; and (2) understanding the respective fact finding roles of trial courts, legislatures, and appellate courts.
But perhaps the Wiccans (and the world they seek to influence) would benefit if they themselves take a broad view here.
For me, watching the 1955 Warner Brothers cartoon “One Froggy Evening” is a great way to meditate on the perils of employing a strange and wonderful gift to obtain wealth or, I would imagine, power.
As to political power, I’d think there’s a difference between employing their methods in an attempt to generally achieve harmony and employing those methods for (or even in most cases against) a particular solution or candidate. Perhaps ordinary methods are better suited for working towards a specific course of action or for a specific candidate.
4
David, you don’t need to look to the growing interest in astrology to understand the draw of alt-religions, just look at Evangelical Christianity. It ticks all the boxes that astrology does.
Evangelicals certainly aren’t Christians by words or deeds. Evangelical Christianity fulfills the shallowest need for spirituality, with prefab mega churches, Sunday moralism, millionaire preachers, and consumptive capitalism as the cure for all the worlds ills. It invites the money changers into the temple, while casting scorn on those unfortunate enough to not have been blessed by God’s graces. It instills tribalism and communal creeds every Sunday without impinging on individuals to actually live by those creeds once the service lets out. It gives participants a chance to feel alienated by elites with better educations who long ago gave up the idea of a cruel, malevolent, or impotent god.
Evangelicalism is part PAC, part pyramid scheme, and part cult. Is the astrology of our time.
15
@T. Rivers And I would add that your millionaire preachers, astrologers, tarot card readers, and psychics are all con artists.
Demonstrators against the Vietnam War formed a human circle around the Pentagon in the late 1960s to exorcise the evil of the 5-sided structure. Later demonstrations were intended to levitate the building.
The Vietnam War did end, eventually, only to be followed by a string of others. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. But you gotta keep the faith and continue trying.
2
‘According to a 2018 Pew poll, 29 percent of Americans say they believe in astrology. That’s more than are members of mainline Protestant churches’
This is the kind of false comparison that ruins journalism. Yeah believing in astrology is easier as it does not require the basic tenets of group responsibility and faith in times of trouble, instead it flames the fundamental illusion of worshipping the self and individuality above all — because we can then choose to connect to whoever we personally sync with. The point isn’t whether there’s any data to suggest astrology is different from Mbti or enneagram - the point is that communities are messy, lives are complicated and if we always choose the easier option of caring only about our individualism - we show no mercy and love to to ones different from us. This is why the root message of the Church is magnitudes harder yet greater to persist with.
3
Dog forbid we live through a period of major transitional stasis.
3
Another form of liberal nonsense conservatives can enjoy denouncing, as they use scorn in place of argument. But the "spirituality" that is invoked has long been popular in marking what a business society excludes.
Biblically, magic was forbidden along with paganism. It was an effort to manage the natural forces that people seemed ruled by.
Magic is everywhere today, in notions culled from a grab bag of religious sources, including Jewish Kabbalism, and hip psychologies, like Jung's. Common are authoritative declarations like that there are X forms of the Y aspects of the Z main things. These express a desperation to "know" the "truth" of "reality." Some call it a game, but still use it to "know" their destiny.
At the source of much of this is American "spirituality" of all kinds, which has flourished in tacit correspondence to medical health practices. Knowledge by authority is a common element, as is the broad desire for the transcendence of something other than this life in all its prosaic realism. Psych patients are told that they should have "a spirituality"; it matters not which you choose. We fetishize health, link it and happiness, and make the latter a norm.
Traditional religion is one alternative, but so are art, politics, and maybe love, not to be confused with "relationships." Spirituality is both comically empty in most cases and a desperate attempt at self-management. That is what most needs to be questioned.
2
I think that Mr. Brooks looking for the grand pattern is as much an excursion to nowhere as looking at the stars and seeing a constellation. Astrology has been around Washington for a long time, for instance, Nancy Reagan, famously an aficionada in all its forms. Many enjoy the Harry Potterish lore recipes, and rigor of Witchcraft, Wicca, and groups like the Satanic Temple, which seems to be more art performance. These groups seek to challenge the dominant narrative of Christianity, Rationalism, and Orthodoxy. How did Mindfulness get in there? It is generally seen as a non-religious practice that could help just about anybody
Astronomy is far more spiritually fulfilling than astrology. The cosmos is a wondrous place. By gazing into the depths of space we are also gazing back into prehistory. The forces of nature are writ large in the supernovae, quasars and nebulae. And there is the cosmic background radiation, the still-glowing remnants of the big bang. We've learned so much about our own solar system recently - the ion fields and storms of Jupiter, and the possibility of life on the moons of the gas giants.
Astrology - mere navel-gazing.
10
The dissatisfaction, uncertainty, fear, etc. of today is remenisient of the climate that ushered in Christianity two thousand odd years ago. The major difference is that we no longer expect a divine power to wade in and help, and that augments the angst.
3
There are such things as fads, too. For example, rebellion expressed through clothing soon becomes co-opted and turned to mainstream standard fashion. Wicca is becoming a popular mainstream rebellion brand. So what? At least they advocate being kind. That is a kind of rebellion we could use more of. Horoscopes and Tarot have always gone up and down in popularity. Mr. Brooks is reading too much into the wrong things.
Change is in the offing. The confluence our abusive Gilded Age redux, impending Climate disaster, and genuinely aware young people with better morals than any previous recent generations will lead to radically changed politics. To genuine honest representative democracy. The question is how much damage will be done in this darkest hour before the dawn.
11
You don't need all those theories David, and they miss the point. First and last is how out of control people feel right now. The need is for a little sanity in this country, to stop what we cannot seem to stop from happening. We are crying for it daily. (And never will you understand that atheism can be a valid response even for "transcendent" beings like ourselves.
23
"Humans are transcendent creatures who have spiritual experiences and instinctively appeal to supernatural powers."
That is one perspective. Another is:
"We are spiritual creatures having human experiences and instinctively appeal to transcendent powers."
10
The collapse of traditional religions is so dramatic now; I suppose there is a search for alternatives. The flaw in these religions seems to be authoritarianism. All (but Quackers) seem to lean on hierarchy and unquestioned authority. I think society is evolving to the view that these kinds of structures simply don't work. That structure, in the end just overwhelms dogma; any dogma. Democracy itself and the government structures of the enlightenment may be harbingers of a kind of human evolution that turns against authority. Interesting. Marx and Jefferson may have had an instinct; may have been groping trying to find what was bothering society. Maybe it's this authority thing that they were sensing is wrong.
7
This photo really catches the eye, doesn't it. I have a collection of Edison phonographs which use horns to make them more audible. The collectors refer to the horns as witches hat design and most can appreciate what that means. When I was a child, there was a myth going around in the under 30 set of the existence of a Gowacus. The name still seems to have become a real animal in my mind at times. So much for the scientific discipline I was raised in with two college professors for my parents. They debunked the myth at the time of course. It was fun to imagine what a Gowacus looked like.
2
Please don’t conflate the ancient and brilliant discipline of Astrology with other trends that are indeed reactions against collective failures. That people usually do not study Astrology and misuse it by mistaking it for nonsense daily horror-scopes, has always been a problem. But it won’t be for much longer, now that there are inexpensive Astrology programs available to all, which will open a broad societal in-depth awareness.
Of course, people can always go back to believing that humans are sinful because one woman talked to a snake and ate an apple.
8
Just as believable as thinking the stars hold the key to your personal destiny.
4
@Benjo: That’s the #1 misconception of how Astrology applies. It is indeed a belief system — a description of a culture’s story — but it is not mythology like even mainstream religions are. Its symbols are psychological archetypes. That they are gleaned from old mythologies can be confusing to the casual observer.
Witchcraft or astrology may be the fashion today, Jesus or the karmic wheel tomorrow. It's hard to get alarmed about a rise of any particular superstition when the majority of humans have believed in superstitious nonsense throughout history. The narratives are mostly harmless - far less so than claims about food, medicine, history, etc. that push the influence of that superstitious nonsense onto the rest of us.
10
I can't help but recall 50 years ago when this country was knee-deep in reality - Vietnam, the Apollo program coming to its incredible climax, and then Woodstock in August (not to mention the improbable NY Mets). Many dropped out or took a different road but you could almost not help being engaged in what was happening then.
Of course now in this horrendous age of trump reality is getting harder and harder to cope with so it is no surprise that Hollywood has turned to the comic-book for its inspiration and the fumes of what used to be a culture now drift toward the adolescent. Reality simply does not sustain us anymore.
8
@Plennie Wingo Well said. I remember those days as well.
1
Kids these days!
But who cares? We’ve had every manner of movement and fad throughout our history. They come and go. So why not focus on protecting reproductive rights, voting rights, the separation of powers, checks and balances, equal justice, access to affordable healthcare, education, gun regulations instead of pontificating on passing trends?
40
Fascinating, I found it that young people have a growing interest in astrology, a field of study that I have always connected with. At first I felt skeptical years ago, but as a close friend of mine did my yearly chart and transits, it really helped to put my life, its glories and struggles, into context and give a "large picture"/ I continue to find meaning and relevance with this field of study, and practice chi gong, a form of mindfulness. The best way to describe mindfulness is to imagine being a camera, filming thoughts, feelings, desires, avoidances, and not attaching to any one--just watching the river of life go by and welcoming each feeling and thought by name. It helps people to relieve anxiety and go past the incessant and repetitive conversation of the brain.
4
@K.M I suppose it's harmless enough so long as you understand it as a religious practice and not something grounded in reality.
1
I think that there is a growing awareness that the world as it is, is not working. Government, civil society, religions are not addressing the needs of the people. There is a growing realization that "things" do not bring happiness, that it is relationships, our interconnectedness to each other and our awareness of just how dependent we are on our world and how the world is dependent on us, that is fueling the rise of spiritualism and the realization that we don't own the earth, we are in a partnership with her.
It may be counter intuitive, but I think the Trump experience is going to drive a lot of this. It will be "The entire me first, last & always mindset is an evil we must not repeat." We must show each other that we are connected to each other and the world, for us to succeed, all must succeed.
Hopefully out of the evil we are enduring will come wisdom and compassion.
7
You say "Even in the most secular parts of society, there is great and unfulfilled spiritual yearning" based on what exactly? I doubt this statement is really true, at least in any traditional sense of spirituality. The fact is, I think what you described is that people, whether out of ignorance, powerlessness, fear, or hopelessness, often seek out magical solutions. Isn't that what religion is all about?
26
Any individual is free to express their personal views using whatever platform is available to them. However, when Mr. Brooks delves into complex issues related to human behavior and human choices on how people wish to lead their lives, he must be careful to not throw out superficial, not generally applicable, and obviously uninformed statements concerning such complex issues. As one example, I see no difference between those whose "spiritual beliefs" are based on longstanding practices of meditation, paganism or astrology and those whose beliefs are based on a God created in the image of Humans. The decision to follow such beliefs is an individual one based on the sense of morality, community and personal satisfaction that it brings. I see nothing in this column that presents evidence that some unconventional spiritual approaches are to be disparaged while organized conservative religion, with its mixed history, is encouraged. I expect much more from the New York Times.
18
Apparently humans are genetically wired to want to connect with a spiritual being or God. I was just in Easter Island where the inhabitants had no connection to the outside world for hundreds of years. They had no Moses or Jesus. Yet they had a strong desire for a spiritual connection, so they carved out huge statutes from the volcanos to watch over them and protect them. They were their gods. Today people who have left the traditional faiths such as Judaism and Christianity have a void or emptiness in their lives which they then try to fill with a false religion or the occult.
6
David, I have been an astrologer now for more than 30 years. I hardly see clients at all and have likely not made more than $25,000 in my entire 'career'.
IMHO, astrology offers a metaphoric framework that transcends ALL religious and spiritual traditions. It frames my understanding of what Hegel described as the zeitgeist - or the spirit of the times. In my considered opinion, that spirit is forever shifting - as the cosmos works through processes that we mortals can only guess at.
Astrology further constitutes a sophisticated model for both the human psyche and the psyche of national collectives - and yes, IMHO, nation states have a psyche that roughly shapes how those individuals who most closely identify with it (not all of us do) are likely to act at a critical moment in time.
Roughly ten years ago I began attempting to warn people that this nation was headed toward extreme crisis. In several essays, I tried to outline the rough shape of that crisis, and offer the best wisdom that a combined study of history, comparative religion, psychology, and cosmological cycles could provide. We are knee deep in that crisis today.
I submit that these works speak directly to the nature of the crisis that we face and to the validity of the astrological framework itself.
Size Matters - http://hpleft.com/040810.html
Take Care of this House - http://hpleft.com/010412.pdf
Of the People - http://hpleft.com/010513.pdf
The War Within - http://hpleft.com/011417.pdf
7
There is a Flat Earth Society as well for those who enjoy pseudoscience.
6
According to a National Science Foundation survey, 44 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds say that astrology is somewhat or very “scientific.”
Weren't these people eating Tide Pods, this time last year?
37
@Mike
I think they grew up being inundated with the science of climate change denial. Remember, we told those young people science could be debated.
13
@Mike They might have been thinking of astronomy, which IS scientific.
2
@Mike
Actually, I'm not sure the less educated understand the difference between "astrology" and "astronomy."
3
This is the unfortunate side effect of people being driven away from the message of Christ by hypocritical leaders who condemn some sins will turning a blind eye to others. It makes one wonder if destruction of the church is not their actual agenda. It looks like the last followers of Christ will be caught between the hypocrisy of the right and the seduction of the occult on the left. I can just hear Mitch and Donny cackling with delight.
1
Right!
Not to mention the horror of all those billions of people who’ve never properly received Jesus — those poor Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, etc.
If only the whole world could meet in a gigantic megachurch somehow for a mass baptism! That’d fix things!
Astrology is religion without the guilt, hypocrisy and vagaries of didactic thought. It's mathematical, incontrovertible and blind.
How many countless lives in how many countless wars led by how many greedy and 'god fearing' despots have led us to this painfully simple yet obvious conclusion?
9
Mathematical and incontrovertible, no. Blind, yes.
4
Get back to me when these crazy beliefs reach the levels of insanity that the "rising movements" in the Republican Party have embraced. Like the 70% of Republicans who don't believe President Obama was born in the U.S., or the 50% who think that whites are more discriminated against then non whites, or the 45% who think Hillary had people killed, or the 55% who think Global Warming is a hoax, or the 85% approval rating for a man who is dismantling this country foundational brick by foundational brick and law by law. We might be in another age of Aquarius, but the Republican's sign remains Cancer.
286
@Rick Gage
Excellent comment!!!
3
Our minds may be wired for belief in god or the gods, but that doesn't mean such things or beings (or Being) exists.
As the band Radiohead puts, "Just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there."
Here is a worthwhile article on this subject:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/12/is-god-an-accident/304425/
7
“It's so hard to believe in anything anymore. I mean, it's like, religion, you really can't take it seriously, because it seems so mythological, it seems so arbitrary...but, on the other hand, science is just pure empiricism, and by virtue of its method, it excludes metaphysics. I guess I wouldn't believe in anything anymore if it weren't for my lucky astrology mood watch.”
-Steve Martin
17
Of course it excludes metaphysics! There’s nothing there to include. Sheesh. The fact that you would say that demonstrates the problem.
Maybe the growing belief in astrology, witches, conspiracy theories, and other systems not based on facts, reason and logic has something to do with the Republican multi-decade effort to starve our educational system and transfer that money to billionaires and campaigns to manipulate these same less educated people, and perpetuate the age-old sacred cycle of greed in the name of the spiritual.
17
Brooks suggests this is a new phenomenon, but if Kurt Anderson’s Fantasyland is to be believed, a tendency toward credulity was baked right into the American cake from almost the beginning. Some of the odd belief systems prove to be fads, while others (Anderson counts Mormonism among them) last.
14
This is a natural and predictable backlash to the so-called freedom of religion political ploys. I am a bit surprised that you didn’t mention this. I wrote a letter to Jeff Sessions—unanswered, alas—asking if the Freedom of Religion initiatives included Wicca, Islam, and Santeria. All of these have been recognized as religions (see Church of Babalu Aye vs. Hialeah). Is it weirder to address a prayer to Mercury than to Jesus when writing letters or sending messages? At least you know the latter is a specialist.
You are not going to get straightforward responses to queries as long as pagans remain in hiding. There are probably many more who aren’t on the radar. Occult practices, too, are in the eye of the beholder, frequently masquerading as family traditions or “things we do.”
Finally, you don’t know how many people are pulling your leg. I myself often writing “Bast willing” or “Bast forbid,” and I don’t worship the cat goddess of ancient Egypt, unless promptly opening cans counts.
5
Mr Brooks seems to be demeaning left wing people in this commentary: " There is now a plethora of guidebooks for how to use astrology and witchcraft to advance left-wing causes."
Belief in all sorts of weird things are common across the political spectrum, such as many conservative Angelical Christian voters in the US expecting the Rapture.
However, banning publication of a report on climate change, because the science is not in agreement with the Trump administration's views, is both far more weird and disturbing than a belief in astrology.
48
We seek meaning; it appears to be in our DNA. It’s hard to improve on this ancient teaching: Love God. Love your neighbor.
Oh, and one more thing. When asked, “Who’s your neighbor?” the correct answer is, “everyone.” Everyone.
15
@Kris K
I can accept this because Mother Nature is the one and god whose existence surrounds us. But to Mother Nature, humanity is just another species, but one with destructive tendencies, including self destruction.
Who and where is this god you say we should love? Please include details with tangible evidence that is outside one’s brain.
I think that when one is young, the future is a scary place. Full of “unknown unknowns”. If someone can ease one’s anxiety and give characteristics that can be identify with and be proud of, it helps ease the burden. Gives hope in believing that the person is special, will find their way and receive their desires. When one gets older and had a blow of fortune or three, perhaps one finds it not as useful.
1
Mindfulness with its attendant practices (like meditation) may have arisen from an East Indian religion. However, as understood in Western countries today, it is a fitness/wellness/health practice, not a religion. It has plenty of scientific research to back up its benefits for health and well-being.
"Wokeness" is not a religion either. As I understand it (speaking from a white person's perspective; please correct me if I am wrong) it is coming to the realization of the privileges long enjoyed in our society by white and/or male and/or heterosexual individuals. These privileged strata of society have long oppressed non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual groups to varying degrees throughout history. This is a fact demonstrated not by hard science like physics but by social sciences such as economics, sociology, history, etc.
Astrology makes no sense whatsoever since the closest star to our planet is about 4 light-years away. Many of the stars that figure in the constellations and other patterns designated by astrologers are millions to billions of light-years from us. There is no demonstrable way that the movement of these stars has any impact on life here on earth.
I don't know enough about Wicca to comment, other than to say that it sounds like a revivification of ancient pagan beliefs that have been a part of the life of mankind for tens of thousands of years. Such beliefs probably began not long after humans evolved from animals to more sentient beings.
11
Lumping mindfulness and Buddhism in with the occult is a mistake on Brooks' part. For 15 years and counting, I'm someone who's been on what Brooks might see as some kind of hodgepodge path, but actually provides more of what he often touts the monotheistic religions as providing (community, purpose, meaning, et al), only with the added benefit of learning to not identify... learning what is ego and what is real... studying and practicing the true mystical foundations of what organized religion once was.
There has been lots of growth in paths like mine, and as trauma and body psychology develop, those modalities are also seeping into true understanding of our fundamental oneness and boundlessness. From these perspectives, organized religion often looks like its main purpose is to deeply entrench ego-identification... reinforcing beliefs rather than developing real experiences of faith.
13
OY! Here I thought that we'd be treated to the song, The Age of Aquarius. Instead we get a pageant about witch craft. But if that succeeds in banishing Trump and his attendant pandemonium, I say, Bring it on! I've never been one to put much stock in the dark arts. Though my sole encounter with having my palm read was spot on. The young woman who studied my hand said, You will be regarded in the future as a very wise man. Not that wisdom was so much in vogue back then. But I could not resist asking, When? She said, it'll be a long time. When you're about 45. Oddly enough that was about when I emerged in that role, in a highly specialized niche having to do with the evaluation of bilingual children. I go into a school and test a child who speaks little or no English, but I speak the child's language. So it's like being a knight in shining armor on a white horse. Oh I don't fool myself to consider that true wisdom. But I do enjoy helping the children and the school communities where I consult. I guess I'm wise enough not to take myself seriously, and modest enough not to make more of my abilities than they warrant. That said, I'm just waiting for a reenactment of Dorothy throwing water on the witch and watching her melt. Except the scene I want would be to see a witch cause Trump to melt. (DISCLAIMER The image of Trump melting is intended exclusively to be a fantasy. No harm is intended toward the person of the president. Anyhow I'm sure he's waterproof.)
3
After 40 + years of practicing simple techniques of meditation, how to center and focus within, I am constantly amazed to know (not believe, but know) that the fulfillment I long to find is already parked inside - pre-installed, standard issue, innately inherent and unequivocally right under my nose.
Common sense tells me this is true - the enchilada loaded with “the works” is ready for pick-up at the counter - closer and more obtainable than I can imagine.
I suspect that if we human beings spent more time discovering what already exists within, rather than groping about trying to find what seems to be missing, that the whole ball game might make a lot more sense.
The sensation of connecting to the magnificent energy keeping me alive provided my first convincing insight into the purpose of life – to discover that the essence of each breath enfolds the pearl of human fulfillment.
Our finely-tuned body can perceive and feel the subtlest élan behind each breath. And this elegant talent is our pre-engaged categorical consent to intimately know the divine.
Could it be that when I attend to this innate ability to focus on the gracious divinity in my heart, I am fulfilling the purpose of the ages, I am entertaining the meaning of being human?
How can I possibly move through this precious life without giving due credit to the breath? Solely by the benevolence of each breath does the daily, variegated experience of human existence even lift its head.
32
@Que Viva!
I belong to a support group, and I sometimes say to folks in the group that people are looking everywhere outside of themselves for paradise, for joy, for whatever brings them peace, contentment, fulfillment. They look down the road, they look up in the sky...they search and search for that precious jewel. But all along, the jewel was in their own pocket, if only they were to look in the right place and recognize the jewel when they see it.
11
@Tony King
So, so true Tony.
Another vital dynamic in this exquisite process is termed "thirst". Every person has a built-in thirst for fulfillment. And it is this keen thirst that can and will guide me to fulfillment.
This is a stunning fact. I can totally depend on this inner energetic to lead me to the well of joy. This is my innate design. Simple. It begs to be recognized and acknowledged as a potent force in life. I do not need a set of rules, spiritual concepts, special training nor external props. To hoot, human design is such that the thirst and the well sit side-by-side within. OMG!
True, for some, the false satisfaction, deceitful promises and dead ends of seeking fulfillment in the external have left them jaded, even to the point of pushing the thirst aside. But thankfully, thirst is indomitable. A slight reminder about where the joy truly exists can re-engage the dynamic of thirst again and take me on the journey home.
Cheezzz...if we could only appreciate how exquisite we are, how incredible is this human design. And its absolute sole purpose is fulfillment. Cheers!
1
@Que Viva!
Your first paragraph neatly summarizes the story of the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and Dorothy.
David Brooks always seems to see extreme individualism at the expense of community as a phenomenon of the left. It's still all about the hippies doing their own thing. If extreme individualism is in the service of profit - if it's opioid salesmen, or polluters, or any of the other countless exploitative commercial ventures that are undermining our communities - he doesn't seem to have as much interest in that.
16
Any Rand believed in extreme individualism.
5
The Age of Aquarius, All Over Again? "I doubt that much of this will be sustainable...But society is groaning. New forms are coming into being. We really are living through a moment of major transitional change."
The trends you mention do not disturb me. Actually, please bring Mindfulness on, it's been missing for too long. It's application would reduce car crashes, improve schools, enrich our lives, etc. Improvements galore.
We have a president who does not believe in science and is obstructing any meaningful response to climate change. Worse, he seems to have a goal of making it worse than it already is.
Meanwhile some horrifying old forms are resurfacing as well as transition of traditional forms into deformed and distorted entities.
Much more concerning is the rise of the 'religion' of white supremacy, gun worship, real or pretend craziness of televangelists, and a White House press secretary who claims 45 is on a mission from God. But I wonder: Which God?
15
A religion that will last? And meet all those needs and wants Brooks lists? Religious Naturalism. The belief that the natural world is sacred, of critical importance to human well-being and sustainability.
When a critical mass of humanity treat the Earth and all life on Earth as sacred and treat it accordingly, then we'll have a chance at survival.
11
I have a working knowledge of astrology, enough to be able to say what it means to have a sign or planet in a certain house and the difference between a trine and a sextile. The astrology column in the local paper has never been accurate and the natal chart is vague enough to have any number of meanings. But I was and have been interested enough in it to learn how it works and I am not a millennial. This sort of thing seems to catch on with every new age group.
4
An important difference between religion and astrology is that the former contains some time-tested anthropological, sociological and environmental truths. While astrology might offer interesting and comforting observations about personality types and their interactions, I am less convinced that any of it aligns with when you were born. The major religions don’t consign you to a similar category. You are human, and what is true for you is true for everyone, at least within a given belief system, which claims no ties to anything like the movement of the stars.
5
We humans keep searching for answers to unanswerable questions (i.e. what’s the meaning of life? How should I live?). Every belief system from political to religious to social to technological/scientific progress asserts itself as the answer for a few decades. We imagine we’re making “real” progress.
But eventually we look around and realize we’re roughly in the same place we were when we started, except with more advanced technology, new problems, more pollution, more people, and fewer non-human species roaming around. Our “progress” didn’t save us or allow us to transcend. We look around and realize we’re Still Human. Which for some odd reason terrifies, disgusts, and motivates us.
We feel disillusioned and lash out against whatever force drove our most recent narrative of objective progress. But this lashing out is just the start of a new narrative. And so the cycle continues for as long as our species does.
3
Astrology is NOT a religion, nor has it ever claimed to be! It is based on the blueprint of the planetary, fixed stars and asteroid positions made at the exact moment of a birth or event in a specific location. The various schools of astrology are many, spanning eastern and western systems. One can study techniques, schools and interpretative methods for a lifetime and never grasp it all. Some of history's most brilliant inventors, philosophers, scientists and scholars were serious students and observers of astrology/the movements of the heavens. The mathematical calculations alone can be daunting.
All I ask is to please not put down or mischaracterize an area of esoteric study that you have not had the time or interest to investigate and research in depth.
Many scholastic and statistical astrology journals have been published over the last 100 years, besides the ancient texts.
Studying and utilizing alternative, non-linear systems to enrich and analyze what IS still the ultimate mystery, LIFE,
does not make one a worshipper of that system, nor a foolish hack or quack. I submit that it is curiosity and mystery that fuels our very existence.
Buddha's enlightenment was a mystery. Some might call it a fable. Does that render his teachings useless and the practice of mindfulness meditation worthless? And if you use elements of Buddhist practice are you automatically a Buddhist? I don't think so.
How about more understanding and less label-assigning.
13
@K. Martel
excellent post. I also feel Brooks has conflated and misrepresented a lot here, even if it's true many people's mindfulness practice be more fad-following than serious dedication.
5
@Barbara Thanks.
I will take a ‘return’ to some ‘new age’ experiences that I ‘parked’ on my bookshelves, as a reprieve and familiar soothing adventure ESPECIALLY IN THESE TIMES IF NATIONAL TURMOIL AND CLIMATE CHANGE ( not to mention some tiresome antics of political figures EVERYWHERE )( not just in AMERICA) who should be retiring sooner rather than later! Honestly, AQUARIUS IS My ‘rising sun’ not a passing trivial phase, although MEDITATION IS WHAT SOME OF US PRACTICE, the way others are into YOGA, and though I was born in ISRAEL, surfing was my thing, and holidays where I came from were part of my cultural upbringing and life style, and not some dogma that politicians in my time tried to ruin with scriptures! There is a time for everything! I am for OMMMMMM
3
Great piece. This same need and impulse fuels the popularity of Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale, and the Harry Potter series.
All much more entertaining and better written than the repeatedly translated, mistranslated and heavily edited Bible.
3
@June Highly derivative of it, actually, but far more violent and pornographic, and utterly lacking in redemptive wisdom, not to mention being callow beyond belief, considering the vast amount of talent, money and technology involved in producing it.
@Thomas
"Game of Thrones, Handmaid’s Tale, and Harry Potter" are ... so NOT the same thing..
(remarkable..)
one of those three relates to current situation of women oppression.. @Thomas, which one is it?
1
From the beginning, man has created God in man's image.
That is not to deny the existence of God, but to acknowledge man's limited point of view in the matter.
Astrology and the occult are not my cups of tea, but who am I to criticize someone else's choice of a path towards an invisible divine?
3
At the basis of David’s assertions about “spirituality” (whatever that actually is) is his thread-worn impulse toward submission to and respect for authority. It is surely weakest as argument here when talking about religion, as religions often fail to be moral, as moral authority as a concept is inherently immoral. Allowing others to create your morality is a capitulation of your own responsibility to be a loving person. David’s failure to include in his list of reasons for modern people rejecting traditional Western religions our negative judgment of their morality (which contradicts their most fundamental reason for existing) seems to me, one of countless numbers who have personally witnessed cruelty in religious authority, a pregnant oversight.
18
@Mark
Very true. And one of the big problems with the moralizing of the major religions is that it amplifies a split between God (father/superego) and self (child/dependent/victim), rather than lead us towards maturity and experiences of oneness.
2
“Humans are transcendent creatures who have spiritual experiences and instinctively appeal to supernatural powers.” I would suggest that Mr. Brooks speak for himself – unless he has proof of this statement. And the proof can’t be to observe that many people practice religion which is a causal fallacy; it assumes a supernatural power exists that triggers an “instinctive” appeal, when it could just as easily be the opposite. In other words, humans could have created God as easily as God created humans.
Brooks says astrology and witchcraft “are not what we normally call ‘religion’.” He may not call them religion, but he would be hard pressed to explain the difference.
And in his condescending dismissal of these “fringe,” “Age-of-Aquarius” practices, it is interesting that Brooks implies that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of those fringe thinkers since she shared her birth date with an astrologer. That’s the only evidence he supplies. But what he is really doing here is casting a cheap-shot aspersion on a progressive.
Note: This is what conservative punditry has been reduced to.
94
@Michael
But human beings are not as David says “transcendent”;
they merely aspire to the notion
of transcendent being, wannabe gods. There are none.
There is the universe, without our malice.
2
@Michael
Agreed.
There is abundant evidence that 'Man created god(s)'.
The is no evidence for the prevailing view that 'god(s) created man'.
5
Today I read that the Vatican has condemned gender fluidity. They have already condemned the L’s, the G’s and the B’s ... so I guess they wanted to be sure not to leave out the T’s. Is it any wonder the masses do not seek other forms of spirituality? I guess the christianist spirituality of exclusion and hate doesn’t have the same appeal that it used to have.
23
"I doubt that much of this will be sustainable. I doubt it’s possible to have tight community and also total autonomy..."
You mean you HOPE it's not sustainable based on your own biases and preferences.. And you miss the point that many of these people (like Wiccans) have communities; it is not 'total autonomy.'
You also doubt, "it’s possible to detach spiritual practices from the larger narratives and cultures and still have something life-shaping."
Perhaps they are detaching because the 'larger narratives' (patriarchy? globalization?) are NOT life-shaping, but death and wealth-enhancing?
Certainly you could be writing about sexual assault within established religions and how that makes those religions problematic and less sustainable?
8
Incuding mindfulness in this otherwise interesting piece is, well, not quite mindful. It's like describing 'vegetarians' who eat 'chicken' or 'fish'.
4
Sure we are indeed seekers after the transcendent. Even you may not walk under a ladder. And we rarely show snaps of black cats, poor guys.. it is not so much a trend as an excuse. Because in an overwhelming technical works, who understands black holes, black matter, horizontal gene transfer and even 5G. So,it goes. I doubt it is anything to worry too much about. Except the lack of belief in the validity of REAL SCIENCE. Which can be fun, I think. There we can still get our dose of AWE. And yoga is just yoga, and nothing more than a physical exercise that works.
2
Thanks again for the laughs David. Say 12 Hail Marys and we're all good.
12
I don't see how mindfulness or "wokeness" qualify as essentially spiritual beliefs, nor how they can be lumped together with astrology and paganism.
19
The NYT recently featured a piece by a woman who described herself as a witch. That title had multiple meanings for her. First, in the classical sense, she seemed to precipitate supernatural occurrences around her. Secondly, in speaking up for marginalized groups, she was something of a heretic fighting against the current political agenda.
Who knows if there is any truth to astrology, witchcraft and the occult? But we do know that there is power in those who make us question any paradigm of thinking.
5
I find it ironic that Millenials, who often show contempt for Baby Boomers have pick up on some the practices they popularized. But then again many of them favor Boomer Bernie.
I finally donated my old astrology book to the local used book store. Perhaps some youngster can find it there. I believe it is in the free books pile.
5
We live in a culture in which no opportunity to dumb down the population is ever overlooked. Leaving aside the possible serious religious beliefs associated with the vast majority of Americans believe in angels, over the decades we have seen television shows featuring talking horses, talking cars, (in one case a car inhabited by the soul of the protagonist's mother), genies (or Jeanies) in bottles, angels, a tsunami of vampires and, of late, an invasion of zombies of one form or another. The list is actually inexhaustible. Shows that purport to be about scientists like the popular "Big Bang Theory" do more to caricature scientists as nerds, sexually repressed and infantile individuals. The anti-bias bent of our culture is well documented and much more pervasive than "Nova" episodes on PBS. How any serious student of our society can still wonder at the fascination with astrology or the occult is the real mystery.
8
As a Gemini, I'm naturally skeptical of astrology. But seriously, it does often seem to "work" because so many people, myself included, learned the purported traits of their sign at an early age, internalized them and grew up cultivating them. It's also common to project other people's supposed sign characteristics onto other people as well. The result is often a downright spooky verisimilitude.
6
@ChrisJBX
I'd have thought Geminis were anything BUT skeptical of astrology. They are usually known for being very quick to jump on any new metaphysical bandwagon. (I say that as someone with much appreciation for spiritual bandwagons)
7
@Peg
Donald Trump is a Gemini. That is way he constantly switch sides, is a fast talker, a sneaky wheeler dealer, is mercurial, unpredictable and dissembles.
3
@Peg Yes, as a Gemini [ahem] I've jumped on a lot of bandwagons in my day. But I'm skeptical of all of them!
"The people I know who talk about astrology sort of believe it, but they sort of don’t."
I have found this to be the case with Catholics too. Talk long enough with a middle-age Catholic about the virgin birth, Jesus walking on water, the resurrection, the Eucharist and many end up saying it's just a metaphor, that they don't REALLY believe all that happened.
In fact, the magical supernatural tenets attached to most major religions are not REALLY believed by those who practice, I would wager.
Most people practicing accepted religion do so because their parents taught them too. And so they carry that tradition down. The religion is good because of the meals, the gatherings, the rituals, the morals and values attached and agreed upon.
So, maybe if we take a look at the morals and values attached to Wicca and astrology, do we find anything shocking, anything drastically different than Christianity, Catholicism, Mormonism, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam? Maybe these more secular traditions just lack the popularity and acceptance; maybe they just lack the long traditions of song, formality, and stage. We certainly can't judge them by saying the others are more scientific, or more rational.
Also, I think many see the major religions as being patriarchal, exclusive, misogynistic and homophobic. Perhaps the attraction to Wicca and astrology stems from wanting less of that.
536
@PE
It's different because like the life and death of Christ is a metaphor for compassion. There is more for those who believe in Jesus than a hierarchical church.
As he said in the film, "Leon Morin, Priest," there is "the invisible church; all human beings of good will."
The church should provide ritual which grows this invisible church. When it doesn't, or when it does something antithetical to the compassion of Christ, it has failed.
Compassion is what Jesus died for. I don't know what astrology stands for. The story of Jesus is exemplary. It is a story of atonement or at-one-ment with mankind.
Your cynical comment about astrology or wicca being equivalent, or in a sense superior denigrates billions of people who seek at-one-ment with their fellow human beings.
21
@Wordsworth from Wadsworth
The same could be said for Christianity - the sense of superiority Christians feel towards other religions denigrates the followers of those religions, and the idea that only followers of Christianity "seek at-one-ment with their fellow beings" is laughable. Wanting to feel at one with other humans is not excusive to Christianity, or religion in general.
82
@Wordsworth from Wadsworth
To see Jesus only as an exemplar in no way or demeans his teachings or those who call themselves Christians.
The comparison with wicca and astrology is apt. Both are supernatural beliefs. There is nothing special about Christianity except that it is the prevalent local custom.
37
It's true that most people involved in the occult, but who only somewhat believe in it are frequently people with a natural spiritual need, for whom god, you know, the guy in the sky who has certain ideas about what you should & shouldn't do, doesn't make any sense. So, in a way, their spiritual agnostics & athiests. And the late 60s wasn't a period of 'disillusionment'. It was a period of tremendous energy, exciting politics & expressive freedom.
8
We have entered the age of egregiousness!
There are several people on the planet that are a button away from destroying us all. Putin, Kim Jong Un and our own DJT. I don't believe in astrology, but it's obvious that those guys were born under a bad star.
Other world wide atrocities are too, numerous to mention.
When life is painful and makes no sense, people look for answers or something to make them feel better. The age of opiods is already upon us, so why not magical thinking? It might be just a palliative without bad side effects.
138
@Texan Is there ANY post on ANY subject that Trump isn't mentioned on? From dinner parties to op-eds about spirituality to seemingly every news item, he seems impossible to escape. These few years have really taken their toll on almost every level of our shared life (and the life between our ears.)
8
@Texan
And just what "mainstream" religion does not rely on magical thinking?
3
@Texan
Magical thinking has always been with us. (Check the 12th house of your astrological chart!) Its very prevalent in politics and anything else where we are powerless. At base, what is life itself but magic?
The logic of orthodox religion is founded on the magical power of a supreme being. The logic of astrology is the principle of synchronicity. Is this magical thinking? It at least makes some sense and is empirically testable. Last time I tried to empirically test the supreme being principle nothing came through.
4
“Astrology tells you who you are and what traits you have. In a highly diverse society, it also tells you what sort of people you’re likely to be compatible and incompatible with. When I hear people talk about astrology, this is how they are using it.”
As reported in The Conversation in 2014....”Undoubtedly many people read their horoscopes just for entertainment value, or as a topic for conversation. But some people attach scientific credence to astrological predictions and regard astrology as a valid way of understanding human behaviour. A surprisingly large quantity of scientific research has been carried out to evaluate the claims of astrology over the past 40 years. There is no evidence to support such claims..... It should then be a cause for concern if citizens make important life decisions based on entirely unreliable astrological predictions. “
There is no end to human gullibility. It is exploited in many realms, from politics, to religion, to business, and most frequently, for profit.
8
Maybe “alternative” forms of spiritualist seem more appealing during times when so-called Christians, at least the loudest, most visible ones, all seem to support Trump.
59
Mr. Brooks fails to mention the cult of Mammon, the god of greed, that has ruled the US for most of its existence. That's the serious religion. The astrology crowd, Wiccans, Druids and the rest are people looking for a better life style, one based on spirituality and a connection to the world.
108
Please tel us, Mr. Brooks, what "needs of [her} current moment" was Nancy Reagan attempting to solve in the interlude between the Age of Aquarius and the Age of Trump?
8
In an age when the Catholic Church is self-imploding, Christianity is under broad attack, Judaism is also under attack, and Judeo-Christian Western Civilization is being run over, people will turn to something - anything -for spiritual fulfillment. The occult will not feed their souls or strengthen the bonds of family & community. It will continue to corrode society.
2
Turning from science to mysticism reflects loss of faith in the economic and political system’s ability to take care of and protect average Americans. When you face many unsolvable, complex problems, your future can appear random and you become desperate to find answers. In the late 1960s, the white, middle class hippie movement, rebelling against the traditional American family, government, and Christian morality, and in an identity crisis, split into a self-revelation wing through drugs and communes, and a political wing of radical opposition to the government. The first group evolved into New Agers, Wiccans, ideological vegans, self or group-identity involved. The main attack on science is from the Republican right and Christian nationalists, threatening civilization with climate change denial.
10
Mr. Brooks overlooks evangelical Christianity, much of which has embraced the so-called "prosperity gospel." It is informed not just by a need for community and faith, but by a belief in consumerism. Consider the highly produced "shows" that constitute religious services at most mega-churches. Just as medieval cathedrals embodied the social values of their day (physically separating clergy from common people), so modern evangelical Christianity celebrates technology, entertainment, and consumerism, all served with easy-to-digest theology.
Curiously, some conservative Christians also embrace theories of cosmology that postulate alternate dimensions and multiple universes. Such theories support their idea of heaven as an "alternate reality," even though most people espousing such beliefs have little or no understanding of the science behind the theories. Yet those same people reject the scientific consensus that climate change is caused by human activity, in part because it threatens unchecked consumerism. It is easier to believe that we're living in a divinely inspired "End of Days," rather than accepting the facts of science.
Mr. Brooks states that we're living during a revival of the occult, but all the examples he uses are typical conservative critiques of liberals. There are many, many conservatives who embrace an all-too-American and equally occult version of faith that seems as much like a shopping list as anything Mr. Brooks identifies.
20
The church has let many of us wanting something else. I tried to join a church years ago only to be left out and ashamed that I did not have the $5,000 or 10,000 to pay for building funds. Not to say that I could not have been a member, but to say that I could not afford what they asked up front. I had to walk away and think about it. Now, mindfulness and anything that doesn’t require a loan to join is ok by me.
5
This is what happens when people feel that no one responsible is listening to them. When they see their leaders ignoring reality and realize that there's nothing they can do to change things people resort to fantastic beliefs. Better that than realizing that the representatives you elect to work for you aren't, that your daily concerns aren't theirs, that no matter how hard you work or try to save money, or try to improve your life none of this will matter.
In America it's no longer existential angst that is the problem. The very real problems we're facing are not being addressed by anyone in a position to do something. Our president prefers to issue threats and make fatuous but dangerous statements. Congress is deadlocked mainly because of the GOPs intransigence. Many people are living on credit for the necessities of life because their jobs, if they have jobs, don't pay enough for them to have decent lives.
And then we have Mr. Brooks writing from his comfortable corner of the world with his version of the truth. It's not the Age of Aquarius all over again. It's the Gilded Age complete with high corruption, dirty finances, greedy politicians catering to the richest, and pundits who have no idea what life is like for the rest of us. I hope that corner remains comfortable for Mr. Brooks. The trauma of having to deal with real life tragedies could derail his GOP sanctioned sanity and he would lose his seat at the foot of the throne.
6/10/2019 10:40pm
112
Not sure why mindfulness is included along with all the hocus pocus. That’s like including etiquette, or self discipline, or fitness...
101
Not to blame everything on the president, but since he's been elected many of my friends have been turning to meditation and prayer.
50
For one, individual, I adore my mind wondering, enjoy my sleep more and more due to escapist dreams. My idea of social justice is hoping I, personally, don't get blamed for all the disappointments of others. Easily get confused by coincidences and find epiphanies before the sun rises ten degrees each dawn. Not to worry, this to will pass and I will try to be mindful of the anniversaries.
1
The only thing I learned from this column was the definition of being woke. I looked it up. Mindfulness I guessed at.
I cannot decide if Brooks is concerned about all of this but I am not since the "established" religions are all based on myth anyway so who cares if the Wiccans and Astrologists want to join in on the fun.
I did read in the distant past that the astrology tables are based on inaccurate measurements of the position of the planets so they are truly based on myth.
I do not know what being spiritual means for Brooks did not define it but I do not need nor have the yearning to appeal to supernatural powers. I am secular.
I do believe a bit in magic though.
9
We all need faith. When asked about his religion, Einstein replied that he believed in a "well ordered universe". Einstein understood, more than most, the terrifying universe around us and of the delicate balance of physics and chemistry that allows life to exist on the planet earth. He had faith that the balance that made life possible would be sustained. Why? Because otherwise we live in fear. High stress levels that stem from fear lead to poorly developed brains not as capable of introspection and genius. Einstein did not know that he was safe from the forces of the universe on this earth, but he chose to have faith, because choosing to have faith in a well ordered universe and a mostly benevolent society (while occasionally being disappointed) allows us to be most productive, and most happy. Any true realist will live in constant fear of nature and his fellow man, achieve little, and occupy his hours with suspicion and the preparation of defenses, both physical and mental. Faith in a higher power that protects us from outside and from each other is essential for any modern society, as without it we could not trust each other enough for society to function. We all practice some sort of faith to comfort us in our ignorance; the alternative is fear and Hobbesian chaos.
21
You’re talking about trust, not faith. Big difference. Einstein specifically said he didn’t believe in a personal god but in Spinoza’s God which is really no god at all. For Einstein, God was a metaphor for the ultimate mystery of existence of which all we can say is that no one knows. A god should not be the default answer to that mystery. Some people just aren’t comfortable with just saying they don’t know. That is the only honest answer.
4
One might note that late 19th century in many ways, for people in Western Europe and then current or former British colonies, was somewhat analagous to current times. It was apparent things were rapidly changing but not apparent what things would look like post-change. And was also a period when belief in what we might now call alt-religion was high.
This should be a bit of a warning. As arguably people now are also facing something like what befell them - which was a calamity lasting much of the 20th century and which we can no longer imagine.
3
Nothing new under the sun. Remember Nancy Reagan and her influence over the then president, her husband, Ronald Reagan? She was deep into astrology and made darn sure that her partner for life got a lesson or a reading or a prediction or two. Our ancient civilizations relied heavily upon the omens of the heavens. Who's to say that it doesn't have a bit of truth? I read a little about it where it relates to my date of birth, etc., and it's been darn close to who, what, and why I am. But then again, maybe I just wanted to believe what I read. These days under this Trumpian paradigm, I am vulnerable to a lot of things which will lift me out of my almost 3-year slump.
Like any organized religion or spiritual belief, we can not allow ourselves to become fanatical. Not unlike our national religion of Christianity and taken to the extreme, it will become a destructive force to others as well as to ourselves. It will throw our psyches off balance. But, David, let us have some fun with this. In and of itself, it is neither moral nor amoral. Like everything else, people make the decision and choice of how to employ their beliefs for better or for worse.
10
“Even in the most secular parts of society, there is great and unfulfilled spiritual yearning.” That’s a pretty broad statement to make without citing any sources. I live a secular lifestyle, and to the best of my knowledge, do not suffer from a great and unfulfilled spiritual yearning.
90
@Mascalzone Brooks is going through a spiritual awakening and so he assumes everyone else is, too. It's as simple as that.
6
“Mindfulness”, the code word for meditation coming out of a western version of Buddhism, is not in the same category as say, astrology.
This alternative consciousness has been studied via the scientific method and has been shown to provide measurable physical and mental benefits. This would be aside from any spiritual meaningfulness, which would be subjective in nature, as are all religious pursuits.
Given the practice of meditation predates Christianity and transcends several different belief systems, Brooks suggestion that it falls under the heading of something that is not sustainable outside of a formal religious context, seems flaky at best.
46
@Chickpea to be fair to Brooks, I believe he's discussing its role as a place people seek spirituality. (Some people on retreats, and probably nearly all people on retreats prior to the early 2000's, were not seeking "measurable" benefits; it was a spiritual practice, or a way to transform their relationship to life.) I also think that he's referring to a lack of sustainable interest in many of these things, not the inability of the things themselves to provide benefits to those who persist at them. If you've been meditating for a while you've probably seen how many people try it for a little and leave as soon as it gets uncomfortable.
2
There's a lovely compassion in Mr. Brooks' analysis of human needs. Yes, we have a need to be spiritual, to have some high treasured experience of life, a North star, a lodestone. I was blessed to find that in several spirtual mentors, and I see the thinly veiled despair in my friends who, for whatever reason, lack meaning in their lives. I'm not religious so I can understand why so many have turned away from religion, but not many other places offer a structured guide. Yes, as Mr. Brooks says, people construct a hodgepodge of personal spiritual traditions, taking what feels good now and always, somehow, passing over what might make them confront the reality of their own feelings.
3
Anything that might be called America's fastest growing religion is also probably the area of belief most rapidly becoming trivialized and routinized, following the path followed by the name brand religions. There is already less here than meets the eye.
5
I am reminded of "Game of Thrones" and the conflicting beliefs of "old Gods" and "new Gods." The old of our time link to the dominant Eurocentric Western culture, replete with instilling belief through playing to fears, hangups and heavy social conformity. On the other hand are the new who champion the right of the individual to be individual, but with a community more of malleable ideas than cohesive substance. The question being whether the latter will displace the former in the long run, or do they exist only to satisfy the needs of the present moment, and once the forces that brought them together dispel, we might suddenly find that the "old Gods" really weren't that bad after all?
2
Writing as someone who's very involved in this movement, I think Mr Brooks missed a lot.
The roots of this kind of thinking go back approximately two centuries, and experienced a real surge in the 1960's as well. I attribute the current surge in popularity to a lot of goals, but some of the major draws to modern witchcraft, occultism, and other ideas often lumped into the term "pagan" (notably absent from this column) include:
1. We're very concerned with relationship between humans and the environment. In this time of climate change, pollution, and other serious problems, this is very relevant.
2. Women, LGBT+ people, and people of many colors and ancestries have been fully part of these kinds of groups since at least the 1930's. The future is pluralistic, and we've been pluralistic for a long time.
3. We've specifically attempted to learn from the mistakes of other religious groups, and aim to structure organizations democratically to avoid the worst abuses.
4. While our latest rise is very modern, our inspiration goes back to the earliest words written by humans, but with the freedom to disagree with them. And it may surprise conservatives to learn that there is moral thought to be found there.
It's definitely not perfect, but it is gaining steam for a reason. NPR reporter Margot Adler wrote a classic study of the movement entitled "Drawing Down the Moon", which I recommend.
37
@Dave I totally agree. The history is long and diverse, and includes the suppression of many of the old religions and execution of its practitioners. I particularly like your second point. And, as usual, I’m peeved when David Brooks “discovers” something new. I believe those things also include feminism, emotional intelligence and collaborative power. I also have not forgiven him for the s ide and cynical column headline something like why Hillary Clinton is so unlikeable. As the publisher emerita of one of the most respected independent publishers of these sorts of books I’d be happy to send Mr Brooks a reading list.
9
Yes, David, new forms are coming into being.
In 1994, I became a Catholic Chaplain at Wellesley College just as it was developing a new multifaith approach to religious and spiritual life. Wellesley was growing beyond its Protestant roots to embrace the spiritual paths of all its students. Major events in the life of the community were no longer dictated by one tradition, but open to all of the great traditions practiced by our diverse student body. We might begin a service with African drumming, and then enjoy the Muslim call to prayer, a reading from the Torah, a Protestant hymn, a Catholic homily and Hindu dance - all centered around a common theme, like "new beginnings."
Once you are exposed to the beauty and love found at the heart of all the great traditions there is no going back. Once you find inspiration and peace from traditions beyond the one you were raised in, which may have been the source of religious injury, there is no going back.
This is not mere individualism, but a recognition that the presence of the sacred is not mediated solely by external authorities but can be found within each person, within all of the great religious traditions, and within the Earth herself.
On Saturday, One Spirit Interfaith Seminary presented 59 newly ordained ministers at Riverside Church. They commit to serving ALL, regardless of creed. This is the future. And these ministers will create a new way forward recognizing that we are one people sharing one planet.
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@Sue: I would also add that a spiritual journey is highly personal. It is impossible to dump all religious into one basket. The religiously injured see it one way---others see a different way. Like you, an interfaith approach is most fulfilling--and I note that usually includes and acknowledgement of science and education.
@Richard Winkler Yes, an interfaith approach that includes science and education is fulfilling. This is one reason I'm grateful that One Spirit Interfaith Seminary exists. Peace, Sue
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"We really are living through a moment of major transitional change."
I suspect this is yet another effect of our having transitioned, over the past forty years or so, from a society of citizens into an economy of consumers. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on psychological research that tells marketers how to create messages that, while intended merely to gain more market share in the selling of shoes or burgers, have had the ancillary effect of restructuring the human psyche.
Religions or spiritual movements are now just brands, and consumers choose among the options based on whether or not their choices make them feel good about themselves.
"You deserve a faith today."
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People are getting dissatisfied with authoritarianism - in religion, politics and social norms. It is not a coincidence that the defeat of the first serious challenge to male domination in presidential politics came with a rash of disclosures about misogyny in the news media and the entertainment industry. That is a very encouraging sign. I hope the winds of change are not shut out. I hope that change finds the necessary, appropriate structure.
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Insight meditation is perfectly compatible with atheism. As a reasonably experienced meditator, I have had many deeply moving, what some would call spiritual, moments. I consider them wonderful aspects of neurobiology.
I also strive to live according to a general ethical code, and do my best to live what I believe to be a meaningful life. This isn’t something that comes from religion or spirituality. The only people who don’t feel they have moral codes are sociopaths.
I happen to agree with a lot of what Brooks says about the importance of community, but I find most of his columns smarmy and/or inane.
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I recently read a pretty chilling literary analysis of Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale that talked about the concept of religious vacuum, which is basically the idea that historically, fanatical mass-religious movements tend to occur in regions where mainline religious institutions are weakening, absent, or perceived as illegitimate in the local culture. For example, Christianity and Islam replacing paganism in post-classical times, or Puritanism during the low-point of Catholic legitimacy in the 16th century. More recent and U.S-centric examples include the Great Awakening of the early 17th century, which filled the religious vacuum Enlightenment rationalism had created in Britain and a subset of the American Colonies, The Great Awakening of the early 19th century, which occurred in the U.S. after the post-Revolution wave of deism and disestablishmentarianism (yes that's a real word) hollowed out mainstream churches, and arguably the religious revival of the 1970s and 1980s following the counterculture of the 1960s. From a worldbuilding standpoint, it then makes sense that Atwood described Gilead as strongest in the "liberal" parts of the country (New England, California), and weakest in the "conservative" areas (Baptist rebels in the South, Mormon rebels in Utah). Maybe The Handmaid's Tale is coming true in less obvious ways than we expect.
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@Kelvin Ma I’d forgotten that Atwood had pockets of resistance based on faiths. I wish they’d incorporated that into the otherwise excellent tv series.
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As an agnostic, I don't really see more or less value in Wicca, astrology, mindfulness, and other "neo-pagan" religions than I see in "normal" religions. Sure, it's funny that people think of astrology as very "scientific." But all major religions -- if you look closely enough -- are illogical and un-scientific. In fact, one could argue that these newer religions are not as problematic. They carry less institutional baggage, at least so far have not inspired armies to fight and kill anyone, and generally are focused on some kind of personal fulfillment.
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Mr. Brooks blends many different things together, including spiritual beliefs, mindfulness, and sociopolitical awareness. This hodgepodge somewhat trivializes the subjects.
For astrology, I suspect that season and time of year of gestation and birth may impact the unborn child in many ways (times of plenty/want, times of activity/being more sedentary, weather, mood, romance, stress, air pressure...) I also suspect that there may be underlying truths involved at the core of many (on appearances) different spiritual paths.
Mindfulness is not a fad or even a spiritual belief, but a powerful practice rooted in experience and research.
Political perspective and affiliation is nothing new, but with technology, tribes are much more developed, self-reinforcing, and censoring.
I have a gentle suggestion for anyone who is curious:
Please read Jim Tucker. His research on past life memories reported by children is astonishing. There are thousands of cases. Another outstanding researcher is Dean Radin.
Also, recommend "I Know What I Saw" - free on YouTube about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. This is just a start.
Studying what is largely unacknowledged and as-yet unexplained has changed my life. It seems to be an unfolding, emerging process of learning and opening to possibilities. This process is not prescriptive and rigidly defined, but I am seeking to be rigorous. It is a "ground-up" way of developing. Let us seek the truth and to grow together.
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People are just looking for a little comfort, a way to organize and combat their increasing feelings of anomie and that "the center cannot hold".
Given the situation--authoritarian right wing governments on the rise, massive income inequality and a hollowing out of middle class good life prospects, and climate disaster looming--can you blame them?
I don't think interest in and engagement with these type of creeds will help us face these problems, but it probably doesn't hurt to give people a little calming, a little belonging, a little hope.
So, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"
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Some of us are tired of jealous gods.
The Abrahamic faiths are rooted in the assertion that there is only one correct god and only one correct way to worship, and the root texts of these faiths have a striking tendency to condone violence to force others to conform. The fact that the Abrahamic faiths differ in their beliefs about what exactly the one correct way to worship actually is only makes them *more* of a recipe for bigotry and atrocities. A religion that requires its adherents to strategically ignore certain elements of *repeated and emphasized* horror in their faiths' foundations in order to be decent people in a pluralistic society simply isn't sustainable in the modern era (which astrologers call the Age of Aquarius, as opposed to the medieval era which was the Age of Pisces, and the ancient era which was the Age of Aries.)
I was not raised Christian, and any chance that I might ever convert to any Abrahamic faith was firmly killed off when I read the Bible and discovered how grossly inaccurate its positive reputation actually was. Anyone who takes the actual text of this book seriously is incapable of tolerance, and tolerance of differences is essential for our society to function. Yes, we still need gods. We will find them elsewhere. We will dust off our ancestors' many, many gods, which monotheistic violence tore from us long ago, and reclaim them. We will create a new faith for a new age, one that fits who we are and what we value.
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@Iris
Actually, if you focus on the good stuff, and leave out the material more suitable for and pandering to the general public of two millennia ago, the bible in general and Jesus in particular has some really good things to say. Christianity was complicit in a lot of bad things over the last 2000 years, but it was complicit in most of the good things too. It's a story with many layers. While healthy skepticism is justified, particularly of the various hierarchical Christian churches and their clerics, but it is unwise to ignore the philosophy of Christianity when trying to understand humanity and the world it helped create.
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A new faith is needed that conforms to the needs of this tme. One that reaffirms the most important teachings of the past, especially justice, but also teaches the oneness of mankind, something we would never have understood 2000 years ago but can today.
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@Iris
Actually reading the Old Testament is key. The God of Moses, when he bestowed the Commandments, was jealous, or at least angry, that his people were worshipping the “other gods”, not fake or fantasy gods, but the “other gods”. In other words real gods beside himself. Judeo-Christianity completely ignores that in its monotheistic core tenets. My other favorite is the beginning of 1 Kings 2, right out of The Godfather where Don Corleone tells his son Micheal how to enact vengeance and kill his enemies and which ones especially. Great stuff!
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I don’t see how the affected behavior of “witches” will be sustained for long as much more than a contemporary fad, but on the issue of sustainability I suggest you take a longer look at the Buddhist tradition, of which mindfulness is a central aspect. It’s 2500 years old to begin with, which says something. And in its practice does not support the kind of affected individualism we see with witches casting spells (oh look at me- I’m so cool (even though I haven’t a clue what I’m doing)). The Buddhist tradition is far beyond that and asks you to look carefully at how and why you make whatever ‘identity’ you choose to, and leaves open the possibility that you simply don’t, because it doesn’t matter. That’s kind of a hard idea for our “individualistic society” to wrap our heads around.
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JG - Despite their vaunted traditions, Buddhists can be just as bad as followers of Western religions (ask the Rohingyas).
Whatever philosophy or theology you espouse, it all goes back to this - people are flawed.
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One of the purposes of classical religions is to provide moral instruction and guidance derived from well-known teachings and historical leaders. Obviously the influence of those religions, especially in the west, is in decline. In some of Mr. Brooks examples, it seems like the result is more of a social organization of like-minded individuals. May they enjoy themselves, I guess, as long as they don't try to get the power of the government behind them.
Mindfulness may have some staying power. Wiccans will wax and wane.
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“Mindfulness may have some staying power, Wiccans will wax & wane.” But witch burning Christian conservatives will always be the same. It’s only the “witch’s” that change. Used to be the village wise women & other threats to the church, now its gays, Muslims, immigrants & oh most of all “liberals”.
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Yes, a time of groaning transition. I’m no astrologer but I have observed myself and those close to me, when in times of personal transition and feeling out of balance, we are a bit more likely to check out what astrology says. So the whole culture is there now. Unmoored. I pray, not to Hermès, that we make it through.
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White male rationalists who have joined churches have created the situation where people will flee to any alternative.
And, yes, I'm spiritual but not religious. I'm also educated and intelligent and well read. I don't fit into a category, a religion or dogma. I think this is a good thing.
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@Anne
You ought to read the article in the NY Times yesterday on The Village, a church in the evangelical Southern Baptist Convention. The white males have created a Gilead and the control over member women, families, and children is surreal. I can see The Handmaid's Tale in this movement.
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@Anne
Believe me, blaming it all on white men and describing yourself as spiritual but not religious does very much indeed mean you fit into a category.
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I don't understand "spiritual but not religious." It seems like a cliche with no meaning.
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An excellent piece.
But remember, the witches in the picture and the other occultists mentioned are in the front line of the forces of good.
Republicans who still strongly support Trump, and that's over 90% of them (including millions who wear suits and would never put on a MAGA hat), are not on the frontlines of the forces of good. They are on the other side.
Perhaps do another piece, but on the well off wealthy who support Trump.
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@Marvant Duhon
I don't think christians want to examine their trump fandom this closely. It might dawn on them that they're now following the anti-christ.
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More so than the late sixties, the seventies were a time of drift and anomie. The book "Strange Days Indeed" laid out how this was the case in the UK and the US.
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Anything besides the disastrous result of centuries of folks putting their faith in either of the Abrahamic religions is a step in the right direction.
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@B
The disastrous result of centuries of Abrahamic religion is our society today, you and me and all that is good and bad. Sure, it's easy to identify bad things; those religious texts were written in a society rife with misogyny and bigotry by any modern standard. But the complex systems of love and trust that allow modern societies to function arose from those same Abrahamic faith traditions. We can't simply discard those traditions. We must retain what is good and excise what is bad. Blind dismissal of our cultural and faith traditions without discriminating between the good and the bad leads only to unintended consequences.
You mention "either of the Abrahamic religions". There are at least three that trace their history back to Abraham, depending on how you count (Christianity, Judaism, Islam). We cannot successfully move past the flawed Abrahamic religions that built our society without studying them and understanding them, and harvesting from them what is essential and good. Ignorance just won't get it done.
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@Tom Meadowcroft
The 'complex systems of love and trust that allow modern societies to function' I am sorry to say did NOT arise from Abrahamic faith traditions.
These systems arose idependently, through a society that gradually, using personal and societal well-being as a guide; and dragged these religions/systems kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
We must excise the incredibly pervasive and divisive influence of all religions from our lives and from the lives of our kids.
My children were raised in a completely irreligious household and school district, yet they are moral and loving kids...
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@Tom Meadowcroft
"We cannot successfully move past the flawed Abrahamic religions that built our society without studying them and understanding them.....Ignorance just won't get it done."
But the flaw in the Abrahamic religions is that they are based on ignorance.
And the more orthodox oppressive religious sects have grown stronger and more prevalent because of an increase in the rejection of scientific knowledge.
Did you read the article in the Times yesterday on The Village, a church of the evangelical Southern Baptist Convention? One former member posted a comment explaining that the words used within its membership to describe The Village was "God's Man."
Frightening - here we have Gilead and the Handmaid's Tale.
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When I lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, one of the corniest pick up lines was to ask a gal what her sign was. Not necessary because this was the height of the Vietnam War and straight single males were in short supply.
IMHO there are a world of people out there that are bored and looking for a new cause to pursue.
Work was the order of the day for my family. We had a grocery store and my mother and my two brothers worked 6 days a week and my father seven. When we discussed going to church of Sunday morning to Sunday school and then church, I said "Mother we know Alice runs the girls at the local resort hotel and her reading our Sunday school lesson is so much stuff." Yes she said - we have lots to do around here.
That was over 65 YAG and none of us have been back in a church since. When living in WI, I used to help build houses with Habitat for Humanity. I joined down here and these codgers kept reciting scripture - I left after half an hour of having my nose drug in it and did not return.
Oh when people get on a religious bent with me, I ask them if they have been to Jerusalem - none have but it is a fantastic place even for agnostics like me.
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The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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@John Walker - tell that to the climate.
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What a brilliant piece. Well said. Perhaps the fact that I totally agree with the points being made gives me a slight favorable bias, but Mr. Brooks' article gave me fresh insight into the reasons why this kind of 70s spiritualism is on the rise.
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@William: I think there are as many reasons why current religious dogmatic institutions are in decline (such as systemic sexual abuse) as there are reasons "this kind of 70s spiritualism is on the rise."
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@William, It perhaps reflects the failure of K-12 and the dilution of college education.
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