ABSTRACT
As indicated by the previous two chapters the spectrum of new era religiosity is
a broad one. Populated predominantly by the urban-industrial middles classes,
the spectrum of new era religious discourse and practice embodies a repertorial
range stretching from the explicitly religious and communal to the purportedly non-
religious and private. Whilst the heterogeneity of new era repertoires must not be
lost sight of, there nevertheless exist a number of discursive components which
appear across the spectrum of new era narratives as recurrent rhetorical motifs. In her
study of ‘mystical-esoteric’ groups in and around the federal capital of Brasília, for
example, Siqueira identifies a number of shared motifs which she records as ‘notions
of karma and reincarnation’, the ‘emphasis given to the development of spirituality’,
the annihilation of ‘the Ego’ and its attachment to ‘materiality and the world of
illusions’, stress upon encountering ‘the divine within each and every person’, and
the espousal of ‘holism’ and resulting claims of organizational ecumenicity (2003:
44). The following overview of new era discourse identifies three motifs which act
as primary organizing principles around which new era narrative repertoires are
structured. These three narrative components are: a holistic perspective in which a supernatural force or universal energy is held to pervade the cosmos, uniting
individuals with it and, by virtue of its mediating ubiquity, with each other; an
individualistic emphasis in which the self is posited as the primary agent by which religious authority is arbitrated and through which self-fulfilment is achieved by
harnessing and manipulating cosmic forces residing deep within the self; and, a
pragmatic ethos in which new era repertoires are regarded as a form of practical knowledge comprising information about and techniques designed to achieve
absolute self-realization. Whilst the specific content of organizational discourse
inevitably differs from group to group, these three motifs act as architectonic themes
pervading the entire new era spectrum and thereby play a major role in defining the
overall trajectory of particular new era narratives. Although specific attention is paid
to the discourse of new era groups and organizations already discussed, a number of
other relevant sources (e.g. Japanese new religions) will also be drawn upon to make
the following treatment as broadly representative as possible. Prior to engaging the
three primary motifs of holism, individualism, and pragmatism, however, it may prove beneficial to look at a concrete example of new era discourse in action (so
to speak!). In addition to furnishing a working example of new era motifs at work,
the following overview of the ‘Course in New Gnosis’ also provides a welcome
grounding and particular point of reference for the analysis which follows.
