Monday, June 1, 2009

The Vilification of Virgoan Analysis and Scorpionic Intuition Within the New Age Meme Complex

"Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense."

- From 1984 by George Orwell

The last post on New Age solipsism got me thinking about how important both Virgoan analysis and Scorpionic intuition are, especially these days, in determining real from fake. It also got me thinking about how both those things are vilified in much of the New Age ideology of the day.

The manipulation of the people has very much gone to the embedded stage. The trick of the day is to mix a grain of truth with a little trend-a-licious language and imagery along with a whole lot of garbage designed to achieve certain hidden, control-based motives - and hope people swallow it whole.

Current world governments are setting up embedded police/military forces. Just think about that for a moment. People embedded in daily society who appear to be regular citizens who are actually members of the police or military. Imagine the effect of this on our communities.

In the same way, I feel that the people are being coerced with embedded pseudo-spiritual ideologies.

I know this starts to sound a little kooky for some people, but it's not really.

It's the idea of certain ideologies, catch phrases, and ways of thinking catching on like wildfire in a population. We must examine the root reasons certain ideologies spread so rampantly in this way (virally), as well as the effects those ideologies have on the individual and the collective society. .

Although I'm not a Richard Dawkins fan (strong non-fan, actually), he coined the term 'meme' for this phenomenon.

Meme: a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes, especially with the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them, much as viruses do.

The term 'meme complex' denotes a group of mutually-supporting memes that form an organized belief system.

I see the New Age movement as a meme complex.

To me, this concept explains very well how the ideas of the New Age are spread. Think of the rampant spread of the ideology of The Secret, for example, and how people felt a compulsion to aggressively (and/or passive aggressively) proselytize and spread those ideas to the people around them. They did so and continue to do so to a nauseating extent.

The constant promotion of certain New Age ideas by its proponents - all while often denying doing so - is an example of how these memes are spread in the population. Examples: "creating abundance," "creating your own reality," "all part of the divine plan," "love and light," "oneness," "moving to a new dimension," "density," "enlightenment," "transcendence," the concept of spiritual hierarchy leading to ascended master consciousness, etc.

People are often parasitized by these ideas/memes without even knowing it. Their speech is peppered with this stuff, or sometimes just a few words sneak in, but the energy of it is the same. The fact that people promote it often without recognizing they're doing it - or at the very least denying they are doing it - shows the level to which it has been embedded.

A lot of New Age people I've come across use very sneaky and subtle proselytizing techniques. They start off with seemingly benign chit-chat and then subtly start pushing their beliefs, throwing in a few key concepts. Because they're not doing it out in the open, it's easier for the meme to spread. People feel its all very innocuous.

But I believe the effects of these New Age memes on the individual and, therefore, on our societies, are far from innocuous.

The words often say one thing, seemingly benign on the surface, but ultimately mean another. Elements and applications of New Age ideology are being used manipulatively, in damaging ways, and are taking hold along with the seemingly more light-hearted aspects.

The end result of people adopting these ideas is a largely complacent, docile, navel-gazing population ignorant of much of anything that hasn't been prescribed on their journey up the (false) enlightenment ladder.

It's bizarre to me that people speak as if they are reading straight out of a New Age 101 textbook, but they claim they are not New Age. They repeat the same beliefs, the same idioms, quote the same gurus, use the same tactics but claim no connection.

If there really is no connection, how can I tell within seconds that someone is coming from this ideology, no matter how sneaky the person is? Once you can energetically pick up on the influence of these New Age ideologies, there is no doubt.

So perhaps "New Age" is an old term, one easily denied by those who sense critique? Maybe we need a new term for this meme complex.

Either the proponents of these ideas are denying the roots or they really don't know what they're promoting. In either case, most haven't examined the sociological effect of what they're promoting, and this is unnerving.

To me, the prevailing New Age meme complex is an overriding mindset that promotes complacency (misusing the terms "acceptance," "tolerance," "surrender," "all part of the divine plan"), along with socio-political ignorance, lack of personal responsibility/action, and solipsism (nothing exists outside yourself), where every social ill is linked back to the individual's own negative thinking, personal impurities, or belief system. Every social ill, people are told, can be solved with internal self-examination, meditation, and "spiritual" practises prescribed to them.

Everything is considered subjective and beyond personal judgement, even the idea of right and wrong.

Everything can be explained away with this mindset - murder, theft, rape, destruction of people's homes and businesses. People are taught that they do not have the right to judge these things. They are taught to give up their own personal discernment and values in favour of the "divine order."

People are taught that nothing exists outside themselves, and that, therefore, there is no external accountability for actions, even from public officials. Everything is in the hands of the "higher power," which they already are or can become by submitting to the hierarchical process of "enlightenment."

The ideology goes that there is a spiritual hierarchy that each individual is striving to climb on his or her way to achieving "ascended master" consciousness. (IE. Buddha, Jesus, etc.) Immense amounts of time and energy are put into climbing this supposed enlightenment ladder, all focused on the individual achieving "enlightenment," which is determined by those who are already considered at the top of that hierarchy.

There are endless books, lectures, workshops, retreats, sessions, fasts, cleanses, purification rituals, diets, programs, all intended to keep the individual focusing strictly on him or herself. There is also a strong element of playing people off each other, activating the spiritual ego about who is more or less "enlightened." It's a race to the finish line.

"Guru" human beings who have supposedly reached the highest levels of this enlightenment ladder are set up as models by which those on a lower rung should pattern their lives.

And again, the language of it seems innocuous at first to the untrained ear. (As does, for example, world leaders calling for a new world order.)

Tolerance, acceptance, love and light? Who could be against these things?

But here is the subtext, the double-speak. Here is where the combination of Virgo and Scorpio are necessary to weed out the real from the fake, to pick up on the underlying message and energy, and to identify and eliminate the embedded poison before it is swallowed.

There is the message and then there is the effect and application of that message. Here is where the ideological thrust of the New Age movement gets less innocuous.

When you strip away the fuzzy language, the effect is this:

People are taught to adhere to moral relativism - that reality is completely subjective, all in how you look at things. People are taught that acceptance of all things is the way to go, including those things generally considered personally or socially unacceptable, because the individual has no right to declare what is right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable. They are told they do not understand the divine order of things (only those "higher up" do) but can calm themselves with the understanding that it is "all part of the divine plan." This goes to the extent that mass murder committed by the state is considered to be all part of the divine plan.

Nothing exists "outside" the individual, so all events are linked back to the individual. If "darkness" is experienced, it is because the individual is a negative thinker or holds a negative belief system and is attracting this "negativity." This often creates a huge amount of guilt and an eroding belief that there is something wrong with the individual, that he/she is energetically dirty, etc. Because of this all-encompassing link to the individual, all ills, people are taught, can be solved with internal focus. There is a lack of holding anyone external accountable for his or her actions because, they are taught, there is no "external." This also relates to the state and relieves the individual of any requirement of political or sociological awareness or action. There is a lack of any personal responsibility or concern for collective circumstances.

There is constant, unbalanced positivity-pushing, an "if you don't look at it, it doesn't exist" ethic.

All questions are answered with the same meaningless, solipsistic idioms.

An endless focus on spiritual materialism, philosophical tail-chasing, and internalized navel-gazing related to the goals of climbing the personal enlightenment ladder is encouraged, fueling already off-the-charts levels of narcissism within this group of people. (Wank, wank, wank.)

People are encouraged to drop/"purify" their egos and personal wills, as well as any personal values that are not aligned with New Age values. Those values, they are told, are from a "lower consciousness." Also sometimes referred to as a "lower dimension," "lower vibration" or "density."

Anything that doesn't fit the meme complex, people are told, is from that "lower consciousness" and is looked upon distastefully.

There is overriding pressure to conform to the ideas of the group - misusing Piscean "oneness" to mean homogenity. New Age adherents are taught that it is inevitable that, with enough exposure to their "universal truths," everyone on Earth will come to the same understanding of things that they have, which, they are taught, is simply "increased consciousness," not a belief system or ideology. There is pressure to envelop the traditional religions into the New Age "oneness consciousness," also sometimes referred to as One World Religion. This New Age "oneness consciousness" is, again, believed by adherents to be the inevitable progression of human consciousness on Planet Earth.

Reinforced separation from non-adherents is built right into the system. This goes along with the playing on the hierarchical spiritual ego: the idea that New Agers are special and of a higher consciousness level than the rest of the people on Earth. New Agers are taught that the people who refuse to "see the truth" are in a different dimension of consciousness from the one(s) they inhabit, and that the dimensional divide is so strong that eventually they will not even be able to physically perceive these people. This reinforces the "enlightened/unenlightened" divide and fuels more bubble-dwelling solipsism and lack of care for fellow human beings. It's also a big boon for murderous world governments when people divide themselves along "consciousness" lines and stop believing they even inhabit the same "dimension" as people who are less privileged. Because it is only the so-called enlightened who know how to "manifest abundance" (wealth), the poor are blamed for their poverty and difficult circumstances with no understanding or consideration of the class-related power dynamics - intentionally reinforced to benefit the few over the many - on this planet. More of the "if I don't look at it, it doesn't exist" ideology.

There is a great deal of reinforced socio-political ignorance within this ideology, as New Agers are often taught that they are in a "different dimension" from war, suffering, injustice, politics, etc. Because they have "transcended" these distasteful aspects of life on Earth, they have no personal responsibility for social or political awareness or action.

The constantly reinforced ideas of "transcendence" further the ungrounded separation from the requirements of physical life on Earth. Those requirements (including those of inhabiting a human body) are often looked upon as "unenlightened throwbacks," simply as things that need to be pushed beyond, rather than heeded.

Virgoan skills such as critical analysis, personal discernment, personal preference, judgement and rejection of what is not meaningful, necessary, or acceptable for the individual are all looked at suspiciously and are quite often given a negative spin. Here, within the context of the tail-end astrological Piscean Age, there is an imbalanced glorification of and push for Piscean qualities (tolerance, acceptance, surrender to a higher power, going with the flow, love and light, etc).

So much easier to pull the wool over your eyes, my dear!

In reality, Virgo energy has never been more necessary to balance the excesses of tail-end Pisces.

Scorpionic intuition is also vilified quite often by those in the New Age but is very necessary to skillfully determine what is really going on. Scorpio is aware of extremes, both ends of the spectrum - light and dark, yin and yang, negative and positive, and of the trickery and ruthlessness that is used along that spectrum. The consciousness represented by Scorpio relates to things most people would prefer not to look at and/or deny altogther (which the New Age consistently does). Scorpio can't pretend or look the other way. When it feels that something isn't right, something isn't right. It has to penetrate to the core of what is going on and remove detrimental influences.

Scorpio intuitively feels things like dishonesty, lack of integrity, motivations, abusiveness, attempts at subjugation/domination and coercion.

This intuitive understanding is, again, generally written off within New Age circles as "negative" under the imbalanced Piscean umbrella of, "Everything is acceptable. Be open to everything."

Scorpio is aware of both the surface appearance and what is going on underneath (hidden influence and motivations), and the proper use of its intuition is crucial.

But any form of critique or exploration of motivations is written off by the New Age movement as the "negative perceptions" of the individual. Or the (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) perceptions of a less enlightened individual who just "isn't there yet." The individual's intuitive skills/personal perceptions are often vilified by those in the New Age. "You need to check/align your perceptions," they are told by the New Age proponent. All in an attempt to get them "on board."

Both Scorpio and Virgo, when they haven't allowed themselves to be talked out of their knowledge, can smell bullshit a mile away. These energies, well-developed, can determine real from fake. They can identify the drop of embedded poison before it is swallowed.

Skillfully used Virgo and Scorpio energies are both dangerous tools to have in the hands of people you are trying to put one over on. If your motive is dirty, Virgo and Scorpio will more than likely know it and, in combination, can generally prove it. These signs can pick up on the most subtle of vibrations. Very refined "spidey sense." Built-in bullshit detectors.

Both these energies are valuable in scenarios of embedded motives.

And again, these signs are dangerous to people with coercive, manipulative motivations. They would prefer the populace give these powers over to them, and with New Age ideology, they usually do.

This is why people using these faculties are so often attacked or written off as negative, dense, unenlightened, etc. within the New Age movement.

It's all kind of silly because both Virgo and Scorpio ARE negative. They're yin/feminine/negative signs. It's just that the current New Age paradigm equates negative with bad.

It's the perfect embedded religion to go along with that embedded police force. It's a belief system that claims no centralization. People promote the beliefs without even knowing what they are doing or of the effect these beliefs have. It's the advancement of One World Religion, and most people don't recognize it.

"Good afternoon, believers," Obama says.

Gag.

Nothing is out in the open. The influence and allegiances are hidden, which is why it's crucial that we develop these very refined bullshit detecting skills and trust our own perceptions, especially when the pseudo-spiritual ideology of the day is trying to talk us out of them.

10 comments:

Jeannette said...

... I think or I feel it's easier not to see or call bullshit. Then you don't have to take up arms and pick one of the many battles going on about now.
I love Piscean energy, but it can crawl up into it's own ass quicker than any one else. When your ass is on your shoulders you can't really acknowledge anything that's going one.
The scary thing about the New Age and much of what is going on is that people are missing their power. They have no idea of how powerful they are. The idea of allowing others to cleanse, heal, or tell you what you should be doing is bullshit. You really know the truth...
For some reason I never knew things were this raw in Canada.. I mean yeah, the US is bad.. but damn..

Willow said...

But that's exactly it...if there is no critique, the misuses of this ideology continue unchallenged. I can't allow that. That's complacency to me, and it's exactly what I'm referring to regarding the New Age mindset of "false light and nothing else"...

I think analysis is strongly needed...as are conversations in which people aren't having the positive-thinking stuff shoved down their throats.

As I say, I don't think the effects of this stuff are innocuous...so to remain silent is not an option for me.

freeforall said...

Analysis and intuition are very important right now, as this New Age Bullshit has made its insidious way into the mainstream.

One thing that really bugs my ass is the belief that everything is self-created and that there are "no victims." Now, I don't like to encourage a victim mindset as that is detrimental to personal growth over the long term - but there is no question that in some situations people are victimized, and the New Age mantra that "you created it" (even on some obscure, unconscious level) sickens me. What are you going to say to a three-year-old girl who is raped by her uncle? Right. She "brought it on herself." When you point out the craziness of this, the New Ager will relent and say that it is at the "soul or subconscious level." OK. So now we are "responsible" for the contents of our subconscious? I like to point out that the subconscious is termed such for a reason! We cannot take responsibility for something unless it is conscious. Then we have the choice to change it or not.

Another thing that is getting my goat (ha, ha! Scorpio with a progressed Sun in Capricorn) is all of the astrologers on websites and blogs (Willow excepted!) who are infecting the subject with New Age mumbo-jumbo. I can't read them (even for interest) any longer because it is the same New Age shit appended to my beloved astrology! Yecch!

I stick to the basic astrological energies when reading charts, as there is plenty of material in that energy blueprint without adding the New Age or even psychological crap. After 30+ years, I'm still making discoveries about my own chart, so it works for me.

Great article Willow! Love to read your Scorpionic sanity!

Willow said...

Yes, the whole "bringing it on yourself" thing sickens me, as well. And I wonder why they focus on the supposed role of the victim (subconscious? HA! Give me a break) instead of holding the perpetrator accountable for actual actions? Again with the lack of accountability.

I also can't stand to read astrology mixed with New Age beliefs - especially when the astrologer denies/is unaware of doing so (usually the case). I've had quite a few throwdowns on that subject. haha

http://willowsweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/astrology-is-not-new-age.html

http://willowsweb.blogspot.com/2009/04/astrology-no-specific-belief-system.html

Thanks for the comment, freeforall...I'm glad I'm not the only one who recognizes this merger of astrology with New Age and dislikes it. Sometimes I feel as if I am the only one who sees this stuff...

:)

LivelyClamor said...

I am a very much newbie in the astrology field but my gut definitely agrees with this one. (I also apply the same opinion to other "older" organized religions and I can see bias in a lot of astrological analysis in all kinds of directions.) True confessions: the anger that comes up about it when I see it in others, I understand and fear at the same time.

I'm a Virgo with Scorpio rising.
One of the Pluto in Leo generation but someone who sees underneath layers. I suggest you read Year of the Unicorn by Andre Norton for an illustration of someone who sees through a societal-spawned illusion in a fantasy genre setting. (Matrix comes to mind too, of course)

Willow said...

Well, there's always bias. There's no such thing as 100% objective astrological analysis. The astrologer's perspective is always involved. For example, my perspective is as a critic of the New Age movement...

But the thing I find so disturbing is that astrology and New Age have been merged to such an extent that a lot of people think this is the only form astrology takes. They don't recognize the merger points of astrology with New Age beliefs.

Not only that, but many astrologers do this merging without any awareness of it. They deny they are New Age at all when in actuality (whether aware of it), they are promoting the beliefs of the New Age movement...subtly or not-so subtly.

I think when you look to the roots of New Age, it is disturbing as all hell. For me, anyway. So the passing on of these beliefs (in meme form) through astrology or other means is what I'm trying to bring to awareness.

Alicia C said...

"astrology and New Age have been merged to such an extent that a lot of people think this is the only form astrology takes"

this is perfect, though.

Astrology came back into public consciousness riding on the tails of the same New Agey - hippie movement that successfully spawned what I might call "Spirituality, Capitalist Edition: the New Age complex".

(the 'capitalist' point for me is key, BTW. I don't think any of this new age/spiritual froufrou/find yourself stuff would have gone anywhere had those few clever people not realized early on "this shit is a CASH COW WAITING TO HAPPEN" and begun pulling on the appropriate strings to bring sthg previously considered 'fringe' by society into the cultural landscape.)

Thus astrology became just another commodity to sell in the already-overflowing spiritual commodities store - yet another thing to fetishize, hawk, etc.

For most people (probably me too, though I don't remember at this pt) exposure to the New Age was the entry-way to astrology - making the two intrinsically fused in their consciousness.

In fact, I don't think astrology would've been at all accessible without the commodity fetish 'marketization' of it. Hell, we might not even be having this conversation! What are the chances that little ole me would've met the One Person in my town secretly practicing astrology or whatnot w/o it? What are the chances any of us would know ANYTHING about astrology had it not been so easy for us to go to the nearest chain bookstore and seen the New Age/Astrology section there, in all its glory?

I am curious as to astrology - how it was practiced, how it was passed on, what shape did it have, etc - prior to the New Age phenom - in Western Culture. Who was studying it, passing it on, even as the Age of Reason and traditional religion were keeping it under wraps?

I'm also curious as to the shape of astrological practice in Eastern cultures and other societies that traditionally have not operated under the New Age paradigm.

Sorry for rambling but dammit, you make me THINK. I like that. Thinking is good.

LB said...

Willow, where have you been all my life? With my Mercury in Scorpio sextile and in mutual reception with my Pluto in Virgo (conjunct my Virgo Ascendant from the 12th)and in square to retro Mars in the 9th, reading this post was like finding my people.

I've never understood the whole "don't judge" thing, although admittedly, I've occasionally allowed myself to get sucked into that way of thinking. I sometimes wonder if the people who say it are the ones most afraid of their own moral shortcomings.

Even within Christianity, judging isn't such a bad thing. The trick is to make judgments as objectively as possible, and without hypocrisy. Tough to do if we haven't fully developed our critical thinking skills and powers of discernment.

Plus, I think most people are pretty lazy. It's much easier to let someone else do their thinking for them.

And on a separate note, while I get the value in trying to stay positive and in taking responsibility for ourselves, people like James Ray and Louise Hay have totally missed the point; essentially they're judging others based on that false evolutionary scale you've referred to.

As someone who's suffered, I can tell you the greatest gift to come from the experience was a far greater sense of humility. Any illusions I may have had about my spiritual worthiness were shattered.

Great post. Thank you for saying what I've often thought. Sorry for my long-winded comment.

Anonymous said...

Love this post gurrl,
I have pluto in scorpio 22 degrees,
Square sun in aquarius 29 degrees,
and square moon in leo 29 degrees.

So I sniffed out the bullshit of the new age sucker ideology like you so brilliantly demonstrated in this post :-)
I also read ur pluto in leo post, and I agree whole-heartedly, didn't know pluto in leo folks would be that self-centered, gave me another percpective on the sign of leo as well, haha.
I used to love em, but now Im kinda, hmmmm.
Hopefully its just the pluto in scorpio folks,
because many of the leo suns I have met are such beautiful and awesome creatures.
Much gratitude for what ur doin. I also think that aquarians are good at sniffing out bull-shit, because they can see things from a third perspective kinda way.

Willow said...

This illustrates the false hierarchy and eugenicist ideology promoted by the New Age and Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, et. al.

"Mankind is obviously divided into god-informed men and lower human creatures. The intellectual difference between the Aryan and other civilized nations and such savages as the South Sea Islanders, is inexplicable on any other grounds. No amount of culture, nor generations of training amid civilization, could raise such human specimens as the Bushmen, the Veddhas of Ceylon, and some African Tribes, to the same intellectual level as the Aryans, the Semites, and the Turanians so called. The 'sacred spark' is missing in them and it is they who are the only inferior races on the globe, now happily – owing to the wise adjustment of nature which ever works in that direction – fast dying out. Verily mankind is 'of one blood,' but not of the same essence. We are the hot-house, artificially quickened plants in nature, having in us a spark, which in them is latent" (The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, p 421).

Alice Bailey was also a big proponent of the "New World Order" and one world government:

1934 -- The Externalization of the Hierarchy by Alice A. Bailey is published. Bailey is an occultist, whose works are channeled from a spirit guide, the Tibetan Master [demon spirit] Djwahl Kuhl. Bailey uses the phrase "points of light" in connection with a "New Group of World Servers" and claims that 1934 marks the beginning of "the organizing of the men and women...group work of a new order...[with] progress defined by service...the world of the Brotherhood...the Forces of Light...[and] out of the spoliation of all existing culture and civilization, the new world order must be built."