A return to the natural order - or more New Age deceptions?
How the late 19th to early 20th Century Germany is mirroring the current western world
Intro
As the world historically swings from one end of the spectrum, in due time there’s a swing back to the other side. An oppositional reaction that is fomented over time and then catalyzes into various movements we’ve witnessed throughout history.
As the modern western world has rejected Christianity, and organized religion as a whole, they’ve searched for something to fill the void – enter the New Age movement / paganism which represents where the pendulum has been swinging towards. Where women think of themselves (proudly) as modern witches fighting against the patriarchy that’s subjugated their divine feminine powers (or something like that).
It also coincides with Scientism as I’ve described in the past.
People are desperately searching for meaning in this post-industrial age.
Furthermore, there are no rites of passage to bring one into adulthood as all prior civilizations have done. This dialogue is from Joseph Campbell’s series based on his book The Power of Myth:
JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, you can go through it today, actually, in cultures that arc still having the initiations with young boys. They give them an ordeal, a terrifying ordeal, that the youngster has to survive, makes a man of him, you know.
BILL MOYERS: What would happen to me as a child, if I went through one of these rites, as far as we can…
JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Well, we know what they do in Australia. Now, when a boy gets to be, you know, a little bit ungovernable, one fine day the men come in, and they’re naked except for stripes of white down that has been stuck on their bodies, and stripes with their men’s blood. They used their own blood for gluing this on. And they’re swinging the bull-roarers, which are the voice of the spirits, and they come as spirits. The boy will try to take refuge with his mother; she’ll pretend to try to protect him. The men just take him away, a mother’s no good from then on, you see, he’s no longer a little boy. He’s in the men’s group, and then they put him really through an ordeal.
I posit that as a result of this lack of challenge, not necessarily to the extent described above, it has also enabled so many of the younger generation to question their sex, their sexuality, and themselves in general. They’ve become weak and lacking of principles to guide them through life. They are weak and lack character. They have no north star in life to guide them – and as much as I don’t like traditional religion it gives people a framework of ethics to move through the world with.
Then some university professor (or even a grade school teacher because it is 2023 after all) tells a boy that he’s a girl, and soon after they’re on hormone therapy and start buying tampons.
This shift from Christian values into the ‘New Age’ isn’t a new phenomenon, either. Germany experienced a similar shift over 100 years ago.
Germany and the Industrial Age
As Germany entered the Industrial Age, it became an absolute powerhouse – in particular the period from the late 19th to the early 20th Century. From Britannica,
The speed of Germany’s advance to industrial maturity after 1890 was breathtaking. The years from 1895 to 1907 witnessed a doubling of the number of workers engaged in machine building, from slightly more than one-half million to well over a million.
And this excerpt, from Wikipedia,
From the 1850s onward, the economic bourgeoisie began to set itself apart from the other bourgeois groups through its lifestyle – for example, by building prestigious villas or buying land. In some cases, they began to model their lifestyles on the aristocracy. However, only the owners of large estates had the means to do so.
By 1900, Germany had the largest industrial economy in Europe.
As part of this industrial economy and the myriad changes it resulted in, there was a growing resentment of not just industrialism, but also materialism and urbanization. There was a desire to return to nature – the natural order of things. To live harmoniously with nature.
The pendulum had swung quickly towards industry, machinery, and city life, and thus the there was a deep desire to return to a more natural way of life.
From this desire we get the German phrase Lebensreform, or “life reform” in English.
Representatives of the Lebensreform propagated a natural way of life with ecology and organic farming, a vegetarian diet without alcoholic beverages and tobacco smoking, German dress reform and naturopathy. In doing so, they reacted to what they saw as the negative consequences of social changes in the 19th century. Spiritually, the Lebensreform turned to new religious and spiritual views, including theosophy, Mazdaznan and yoga. Many late neo-romanticism elements were also taken up, along with a glorification of the "simple life in the country". Dozens of magazines, journals, books, and pamphlets were published on these topics.
Sound familiar to today?
This also ties into the more esoteric content I create. Theosophy is an occult philosophy based on Neoplatonism and Asian philosophies such as Hinduism. Theosophy was founded by occultist Helena Blavatsky after spending time in Tibet and supposedly learning various secrets from the occult adepts there.
The ironic thing is, the ‘New Age’ is all based on ‘Old Age’ practices. It’s all based on pagan practices centered around astrotheology and the occult.
The Nazis were heavily into the occult as well but this is very rarely spoken about. The Nazi party was originally formed as the Thule Society, a secret society / mystery school based on occult principles via Blavatsky. It was from her teachings where the idea of an ancient Aryan race came from – and supposedly the Germans had the most ‘pure’ blood of this ancient race of superhumans. These teachings formed the basis and subsequently the entire strategy of the Third Reich – yet it’s never discussed.
The swastika came from the far east as well and is thousands of years old. Not understood, however, is that it is a symbol of regeneration, or of the sun. Yes, the Nazis revered this ancient symbol as well. From the BBC,
The swastika has a long, complex history – much older than its association with Nazi Germany – dating back to prehistoric times. The emblem was a sign of well-being and long life, and was found everywhere, from the tombs of early Christians to the catacombs of Rome and the Lalibela Rock Churches, to the Cathedral of Cordoba. "The motif appears to have first been used in Eurasia, as early as 7,000 years ago, perhaps representing the movement of the sun through the sky.
And this explanation of its use in Indian culture, also from the BBC article:
Ajay Chaturvedi, author of Lost Wisdom of the Swastika, tells BBC Culture: "The swastika is a four-dimensional cube used in Vedic Mathematics, and also symbolises an entire state of being in Indian philosophy – the fourth state of consciousness, which is beyond waking, sleeping and dreaming. The sign as used by Hitler was demonising [it]… and using it in politics, without any understanding of what it stood for in Indian philosophy, where symbols are always backed by meaning and deep significance."
It’s a sign of illumination, both literally and metaphorically. A sign of increased consciousness in alchemical terms.
As I’ve described in prior articles the worship of the sun is key to understanding what’s going on today – and throughout time the sun of God (aka the SON of God) has embodied this. It represents an illumination of consciousness, and the mystery schools have kept the practices secret for only the adepts and those on ‘the path’. The mystery schools teach alchemy which is really about elevating one’s consciousness. Lead into gold is a metaphor for transforming one’s lower nature (lead) into higher forms of consciousness (gold).
The swastika is also a cross – it just has the legs bent.
Seeing the bigger picture yet?
The modern Lebensreform
Since the 1960s, but particularly over the past two or three decades, we’ve seen a huge push towards all things natural and organic. And yoga as well, mixed together with ‘spiritual’ people and meditation.
We’re witnessing essentially the same exact movement over 100 years later. People are disillusioned by the modern world, this time in a post-industrial age, and are looking for deeper meanings in life.
Although I’ll admit that a return to the natural order is a good thing overall. Eating healthier food. Removing alcohol and tobacco. Practicing yoga and meditation. All good stuff.
My point is that these ‘New Age’ practices are actually thousands of years old and how Germans called this return to the natural order Lebensreform. We also can’t ignore the occult underpinnings of that movement, or this time around either. They’re full of New Age practices as well as deceptions.
Also, out of curiosity I did a Google Trends search of ‘move to the country’ since 2005 and it exemplifies the modern desire away from the soul-sucking city life.
The early 20th Century marked a time of tremendous change for the world. Lebensreform was a call to action – to change society at a fundamental level. World War I began shortly after Lebensreform. This then led to the Versailles Treaty, which the Nazis used as a pretext for their vision of the Third Reich, which ultimately led to World War II.
Now, after the past few decades of the modern version of Lebensreform, the world is caught in seemingly another world war scenario. The Great Reset, as some would call it.
It seems history does repeat.
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I liked this article, it reminds me of very nice article called "Broken Clockwerk of Western mind" from https://neociceroniantimes.wordpress.com/
Just to add few insights, I totally agree our current situation is result of lost religion. People need religion either god like or systematic religion which was based on science like communism or capitalism. This vacuum is fueling the people seek for something higher above them. In old times it was empiror, king or ruler who they could into for high principle. This was dismantled in begging of 19th century with industrial revolution. Like the Theophilus Chilton wrote already, since people vote and create their governments they are getting cyclical into period of fashism. It's due to tendency of crowd and mass formation which gave rise of inquisition and nazi regime. Similar to this the mechanical view of world which can be resembled to micro particles and reinvented is also one of reason for today misery, they don't count with human beings, soul but only with resources and when you compute everything you are finished, becouse there is no future. In last part it's the linear progress belief which is not true, in nature there has been always cycles like described in book Fourth Turning.
The question is currently this, when we dismantled every ideology and didn't setup new one, shouldn't we start formulating new one? This is currently most crutial thing and I believe, there is no grand global theory, it has to be local one and come from human being. The one who will formulate this ideology will be leading the part of the world and has to speak the language common to their inhabitants. And it's not AI.
Great in-depth article.