[Below is a brief extract from the 45-page Chapter 2 of the upcoming Second Edition of my book, “The Serpent and the Cross”. The chapter is entitled “In the Wake of the Cross: Spiritual Subterfuge Post Annum Domini”].

The Contents below are:

1) The Meaning of the Word ‘Occult’
2) The New Age Movement as the Latest Iteration of Gnosticism
3) The Real New Age Movement vs Trendy Modern Aberrations
4) There is Nothing ‘New’ About ‘New Age’

*****************************************

1) The Meaning of the Word ‘Occult’

Before examining this secret work of Satan throughout the Gospel Age, it would be in our interests to discuss the precise meaning of the word ‘occult’ and the context in which it is being used in this book. In the first place, we should not make the mistake of thinking of the term ‘occultism’ in its conventional, misunderstood sense, i.e., as a mere reference to overtly unsavoury pseudo-spiritual practices such as black magic, divination, psychic exploration, witchcraft, devil worship, etc. Although such practices could be put under a broad heading of ‘occult’, to restrict its application to these things alone would be a great boon to the strategy of the satanic realm. For the true breadth of occultism actually concerns the entire spectrum of Satan’s secret work in the world and among the churches.

This true meaning of occultism, as encompassing all the secret work of Satan, is one which has been widely ignored or completely misunderstood. In many Christian circles, the ‘occult’ is perceived as consisting exclusively in the use of Ouija Boards, attendance at séances, the celebration of Hallowe’en and ritual devil worship. However, although these activities are certainly part of the highly unsavoury work of the devil, they are in effect “smoke-screens” thrown up by Satan to obscure the real occult, of which many Christians seem to be completely unaware.

The word ‘occult’ is derived from the Latin occultus meaning “hidden” or “secret”, and if we are to come to a correct understanding of the true work of the satanic realm, we must not be fooled into thinking that it is manifest only in what is obviously evil. In fact, as we will show, the vast majority of the activities of the satanic realm in the world today are manifested in systems, practices and philosophies which have a purportedly “humanitarian” or spiritually-beneficent function, and an outwardly appealing veneer. This should not surprise us in view of Paul’s sombre warning that “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

Many seem to forget that the world, under its usurper Satan, is at war with the true Church; and after the failure of the persecutions, satanic warfare in the Gospel Age involved the “spewing out” of a huge flood of ideologies, philosophies, scientific theories, popular movements and spiritual deceptions, with which to carry away the Church of Jesus Christ. (see Revelation 12:15-16; cf. 2 Timothy 4:3-4. Floods, rivers and waves of the sea are often used in Scripture to depict the collective work of the ungodly against the godly — the working of humanistic movements which set themselves up in opposition to the One True God, 2 Samuel 22:5; Psalm 18:4,16; 69:1-2,14-15; Jeremiah 46:7-8; 47:2; 51:55; Lamentations 3:52-54; Jude 13; cf. James 1:6). The true Church, however, is able to withstand this flood of abominations, which only enrages the restrained satanic realm even further (Revelation 12:17). Throughout the Gospel Age, because of the restrictions imposed on Satan in the wake of the Cross (coupled with other causes which I shall uncover shortly), he has been forced to work in a great measure on an “underground” basis. This has meant that various mystery religions, secret coteries, and esoteric cults were to be the vehicles for the dissemination of the satanic Lie. This is the true basis of all occultism.

Although the open sorcery of the more primitive cultures has continued more or less unabated from ancient times, the Western nations have never been outwardly open to the widespread popular practice of such overt perversions. For this reason, the essential magic at the heart of that sorcery was held in the Western nations by secret groups and organisations, until such time as the world was ripe for its wider distribution. And here there is a counterfeit involved; just as the Lord God has always preserved His teachings in the form of the Holy Scriptures and by his singular care and providence kept them pure in all ages, so Satan has sought to do the same with his dogmas. But, whereas the Lord’s truth has been preserved openly and without subterfuge — at one time, in this land, even on the tabletops of the majority of homes — Satan’s lies have been preserved in the form of secret writings or by oral traditions held by select occult groupings throughout the world. One does not need to be a great researcher or historian to discover these things.

In the East, these secrets have been openly practised for millennia through a wide variety of ancient mystical teachings. However, Satan has pursued a policy of the “Westernising” of this Eastern knowledge through the occult doctrine of groups such as the Gnostics, Hermeticists, Templars, Cathars, Rosicrucians, Illuminati, Freemasons, Theosophists, Anthroposophists and others. It is worth noting here that, when speaking of the fact that the end of the age would be characterised by false christs and false prophets who would attempt to deceive the elect, the Lord Jesus Christ warned that the truth about His second coming is not to be found in eremitic or occultic circumstances:

“At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. See, I have told you in advance. So, if they tell you, ‘There He is, in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or ‘Here He is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:23-26).

This warning about the “desert” and the “inner rooms” is a categorical rejection of all ascetic and esoteric coteries which lay claim to Messianic truth. The open heart of Christian Truth is that it “was not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26) — that is, it has never been occultic. In fact, the entire Gospel message is the very opposite of ‘occult’ teaching. As the Lord Jesus Himself said, “I spoke openly to the world…and in secret I have said nothing” (John 18:20; cf. Isaiah 48:16). But the fallen archangel, Satan, has been working secretly — both politically and spiritually — on a vast scale throughout the (so far) two thousand years of the Gospel Age. Alongside of this subterfuge, he has mounted a constant onslaught, intensifying periodically, of false teaching against the true Church of Christ. This important truth was foreseen and predicted by both the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles, as one can see from the many prophetic references which relate not only to the spread of false teaching in the world at large (Matthew 24:5,11; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 2 Peter 3:1-4; 1 John 2:18,19; 4:1-3), but also to the fact that people who do not inwardly serve the cause of Christ would creep into the churches with the express purpose of deceiving all those who have been saved by the Lord (Acts 20:28-31; Romans 16:17,18; 2 Corinthians 2:17; Galatians 1:6,7; 2 Peter 2:1-3).

In terms of the Gospel Age, one can say that the true depths of satanic occultism are an integral part of the “mystery of lawlessness” which was already at work when Paul was alive (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Similarly, the Apostle John refers to “the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:3). In other words, the preconditions which will eventually issue in the revealing of the actual Antichrist at the end of the Age were already at work in the first century of the Church. A “mystery” in Scripture always refers to something which was formerly hidden but is now revealed to those who are the children of God. The secret work of Satan is clearly unfolded to us in the Word of God, especially in the Book of Revelation and other specific texts in the New Testament (e.g., Ephesians 6:10ff.; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12, etc.). The background to religious corruption in the Gospel Age can be found in a huge build-up, over many centuries, of numerous occult groupings — part of the “mystery of lawlessness” on a vast scale — which have helped to disseminate the teachings of Satan, in one way or another, in the wake of the Cross.

2) The New Age Movement as the Latest Iteration of Gnosticism

All the occult (hidden, camouflaged) work of Satan in the past two thousand years is now culminating in the growth of a spiritual development known today as the “New Age Movement”, and in its politico-economic equivalent: The “New World Order”. This connection between the New Age Movement and the New World Order is not at all a fanciful one. The term “New World Order” first appeared, in connection with the New Age, in the writings of the occultist, Alice Bailey, whose husband, Foster Bailey, was a prolific writer and expert on Freemasonry. Furthermore, it is no coincidence that the U.S. one-dollar banknote shows an Egyptian pyramid with an occultic “All-Seeing Eye” atop — a Masonic representation of the “Great Architect of the Universe” — under which is the inscription Novus Ordo Seclorum, Latin for “New World Order”. This design was brought into circulation in 1935 by order of Franklin D. Roosevelt, former President of the United States of America and a 32nd degree Freemason. The rich vein of Masonic symbolism in the artwork of the one-dollar banknote (and in the Great Seal of the United States of America, and the statue of Liberty, which was donated by Freemasons) is really quite astonishing and should be studied by all readers who desire to comprehend the powers of darkness which have propagated the “mystery of lawlessness” in this present evil age. For further reading, see the chapter “The Great Seal” in A. Ralph Epperson, The New World Order (Publius Press, 1992). Historic Freemasonry, when properly understood, is the culmination of thousands of years of occult development and is intimately connected with the forces which have propagated the real New Age Movement, as I will be showing later in this book.

One of the central claims of this book is that the New Age Movement is not just another strange sect or cult of the modern era like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons or Christian Scientists. Unless we have a proper grasp of this, there will be a fundamental misunderstanding of all the spiritual developments which are taking place in the modern world — all of which I will be opening up in the course of this book. For what we today call the “New Age Movement” or the “New Consciousness” is not new at all; it is actually the culmination of years of careful occult preparation. It is at least as old as the hills and could well prove to be the climax of every ambition of Satan in his long war against God. The New Age Movement (in conjunction with the political moves to create a New World Order) has a far-reaching eschatological dimension and exhibits all the signs of being a major vehicle for the final manifestation of Satan’s attempted kingdom-building project on earth — a project which has passed through many phases down the millennia.

3) The Real New Age Movement vs Trendy Modern Aberrations

When I speak of the New Age Movement throughout this book — the first edition of which was being written between thirty and forty years ago — I am not primarily referring to the trendy modern aberrations which have hijacked that label in more recent times. All the pseudo-therapies, sound-baths, massages, swooshy music, crystal healings, Ayahuasca sessions, divination of various kinds (astrology, angel cards, and tarot cards), ‘goddess coaching’, chakra alignment, affirmations, breathwork, aura adjustment, getting ‘blissed-out’ on anything which will do the job, and all the other associated nonsense are little more than a narcissistic featherbed for damaged people who are trying to bypass their personality disorders. These techniques and practices are just ‘groovy’ ways for fashionable hipsters, Valley Girls and other trendies to get ‘strokes’ to massage their egos. This is what I call the “Me, Me, Me” kind of New Age, as opposed to the real New Age Movement which I would refer to as ‘Maitreyan Transformation’ philosophy. [The significance of the word, “Maitreya”, will be opened up in a later chapter of the book.]

The “Me, Me, Me” type of New Ageism practises the above ‘witchy-woo’ activities as a way of pampering one’s ego and gaining the security of being part of a fashionable community. The real New Age scene, however — the ‘Maitreyan Transformation’ type of New Ageism — is a spiritual crusade which concerns itself with how to bring in the New Age, the golden age on earth, the ‘Great Shift’, what they regard as the next stage of human evolution through deep occult techniques such as deliberately ‘channelling’ discarnate entities who are supposedly from other galaxies or dimensions through powerful collective invocations, cultivating spirit-guides, and sophisticated methods of networking in support of generating a ‘leap in human consciousness’. All this activity — instigated particularly, as I will show, by the writings of the likes of Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) and Alice Bailey (1880-1949) and her subsequent acolytes — is motivated by their expectation of a World Teacher heading up a global government. This character has all the resemblance of what avid students of the Bible would regard as the Antichrist. So, while the modern trendy “Me, Me, Me” type of New Agers are busy pandering to themselves with ego-boosting practices, the ‘Maitreyan Transformation’ folks — the real New Age Movement — are engaging in occult magical exercises designed to further the global goals of the Satanic world-system and bring about an antichristian pogrom designed to destroy the Church and usurp the Messiahship of Jesus Christ. So, when I speak of the New Age Movement in this book, I am not primarily referring to the trendy “Me, Me, Me” clique but to the ‘Maitreyan Transformation’ element. The “Me, Me, Me” clique has its place as a low-level manifestation of satanic activity to carry away susceptible souls into la-la-land (plus it can act as a gateway into the real ‘Maitreyan Transformation’ type of New Age), but it is not a major player in the shaping of the destiny and debacle of this fallen world’s future.

The ‘New Age Maitreyan Transformation’ type of vision for the future of human civilisation is entirely in harmony with the biblical data concerning the approach of the end of this evil age, when humanity will finally begin to believe that it has subdued the world, brought down the Church, apostatised away from the need for belief in the transcendent God of the Bible, and found itself an ‘enlightened’ World Teacher to lead it into a ‘golden age’ on earth as the next stage of evolution. Never before in history have all the conditions been so advantageous to the fulfilment of this fundamental aim of Satan and his demonic realm.

As we work our way through this book, we will see the numerous twists and turns of historical development which have made possible the prevailing conditions of the present day. We will come to see that the influence of the New Age Movement is sweeping through the formative institutions of Western culture — especially the intelligentsia, the “caring” professions (social work, nursing, etc.), medicine, psychology, psychotherapy, multi-national industry, the major religious faiths, global agencies and world government organisations. There is no area of life which is now devoid of this New Age mindset.

4) There is Nothing ‘New’ About ‘New Age’

Strangely, there is a reluctance among many groups of believers to face up to the fact that there is a cosmic malevolence of global proportions in these developments. Until Christians wake up to these facts, they will continue to hold an entirely inadequate view of this movement and will fail to measure up to it apologetically. Satanic activity during the past two thousand years has not been confined merely to the tempting of people to sin, as some appear to believe. For Satan has continued to mastermind a grandiose world-plan from his beleaguered stronghold in “the air”; and what we call the “New Age Movement” is the net result of that activity.

Even secular academic observers of New Age developments have not been slow to grasp the fact that they are not “new” phenomena. As one scholarly publication puts it:

“Despite its relatively recent appearance, the [New Age] movement should not be viewed as a startlingly new phenomenon in Western culture. Rather, it is more adequately seen as the latest phase in occult-metaphysical religion, a persistent tradition that has been the constant companion of Christianity through the centuries and has blossomed heartily as a product of eighteenth-century scientific enlightenment” (J. Gordon Melton, New Age Encyclopedia, Gale Research, 1990, p.xxii.). [emphasis added]

This is an uncommonly accurate summation of what the real New Age Movement is: “The latest phase in occult-metaphysical religion”. However, rather than being a mere constant companion of Christianity through the centuries, it would be more accurate to say that this occult-metaphysical religion has been a constant combatant of Christianity. In fact, this occult-metaphysical tradition — of which the New Age Movement is merely the latest phase — is really a continuation of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism which has plagued the Church since the very beginning of her history. I believe, therefore, that it would be far more consistent with Christian analysis to speak of the ‘New Gnosticism’ rather than the New Age Movement (which has other connotations), or even to speak of the ‘New Consciousness’; and this is the convention I shall adopt throughout the rest of this book — not least because the phrase ‘New Age Movement’ has so many aberrational connotations.

In the following section, entitled “Gnosticism: Antithesis of Christian Truth”, we will examine the rise of ancient Gnosticism in the Church. A sound knowledge of these early Church developments in the wake of the cross will give us a greater understanding of later developments in satanic strategy during the Gospel Age.

.
.

.

© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]