Welcome to Gaia! ::

What the heck is the difference between "Pagan" and "New Age" ?

I was always under the assumption that New Agers spend more money (ie. pay $3000 for Transcendental Meditation classes and buy crystals) and are hippies-turned-yuppies.

I was also under the impression that some New Agers believe in Christ, while others do not?

Is New Age considered under the Pagan umbrella or outside of it?

And... New Agers are interested in Mysticism and Eastern Philosophies and Religions...

But methinks, there is more to it...

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

New age isn't necessarily anything religious, one does not have to be pagan to be new age.

I disagree with that. While alot do, a whole lot don't either.

New Age means loosely Old Ages Anew. Take an old belief, art style, musical theory and bring it back slightly modernized (usually watered down or only parts of it are recognized)

Pagan means non-jewish.

Heathen means non-christian.

Neo-pagan means New non-jewish religion. You know anything that developed post judism about 4000 years or greater. Like Christianity. Commonly Neo-pagans are people modernizing a older religion, so New Agers and Neo-pagans aren't too dissimilar.

The difference? About one decimal place. That how the joke goes, at least.

It's hard to define what's what--it's an issue of semantics, and "New Age" doesn't really have a proper, formal definition. Hell, it gets divisive just trying to define Pagan or Neopagan.

The dividing lines and boundaries collapse even further when you compare the New Age movement to the Eclectic Neopagan movement; New Age thought is almost entirely characterized by its eclecticism. I find, though, that a New Ager is much more likely to view their varied spiritual practices as transcendental to religion rather then as a highly personalized pallet of religious thought and individualistic journey. Still, there are plenty of self-identified Eclectic Neo-pagans that I wouldn't hesitate labeling "New Ager"; a certain overlap does exist between the two schools.

And that's the thing--It's sticky because, realistically, they're parallel spiritual movements that share a certain commonality in their foundation. The difference tends to be in the minutia, trappings, associations and active practices rather then the set theological definitions because... well... neither really have set satisfactory definitions. It would take a lot of study of both movements to really understand where the differences start and stop. There are entire books dedicated to the very subject; it's a difficult one! Admittedly, you won't be catching me reading one any time soon. (Unless I'm self-medicating a bout of insomnia.)

The definition I use for pagan is "pertaining to the worship or worshipers of any religion that is neither Christian, Jewish, nor Muslim." I find that's also the most popular definition to modern academia as well, so it's a pretty safe one. To me it's a simple quantification; A religion is either Abrahamic or Pagan. New Age isn't necessarily a religious movement as a spiritual one. Many New Agers identify reasonably as Christian.

It's a similar deal with Neopaganism, which I would define as "The modern spiritual and religious movement characterized by an interest in, and revival of, existing non-abrahamic religion."

But as for the difference between the New Age and Eclectic Neopagan movement? You're on your own on that one. D=

Feh, you're right; it's a flawed definition. It might be better to just break it down to its simplest and define it as a post Christian/Jewish/Islamic new religious movement.

Pagan - from the Latin Paganus, originally applied to rural dwellers. Later used to refer to persons whom were 'simple' in their beliefs, and as such became a negative term for those whom were non-Christian.

New Age - various definitions have been levelled for this one. Some asser that it's defined by the fact that we now have the 'dawning of the Age of Aquarius'. Actually the Age of Aquarius as calculated by various astronomers starts between 2062 and 2654. Most sources however put this new Age as around 2600, so it's a bit away even from the dawn of the Age of Aquarius. New Age also seems to be used when referring to Post Renaissance development (i.e. the Age of Science) where people began turning from the established Religions and became interested in Science and Magic more and more. Other definitions of New Age, such as anything which is a revival of older traditions. So, yes, there's a few definitions, and invariably there will be more out there.



Don't worry, some Pagans, and Neo-Pagans are quite adept at doing the same.



New Agers tend to believe in many different things. Certainly some would believe in Christ, God, Angels, etc, and others would not, whilst yet others would believe in 'everything'.



A little from column A, a little from column B...



And more besides, and sometimes less.



And, yes, there is far more to it. It's a bit like the rhetorical question. "How long is a piece of string?"

Ver thu heil