New Age
The Meaning of the New Age
By Hugh Lynn Cayce
May 12, 2008

In the year 1000 A.D. untold thousands of quite ordinary, law-abiding men and women deliberately starved themselves to death. They were preparing for the return of the Messiah and were so convinced that the Second Coming was at hand that they planted no crops, disposed of all their worldly goods, and spent long hours in prayer awaiting the dawning of the New Age.

This preparation for the Second Coming of Christ has been made over and over again. I remember reading a vivid account of a sect in Ohio who divorced themselves of everything they owned, arrayed themselves in white robes, and then, literally by the hundreds and somewhat prematurely, ascended a hill to await the dawn that was to herald the New Age. Until the very last moment, they were utterly convinced that the Master would descend from the clouds and gather them to Him.

Jehovah's Witnesses, one of the fastest-growing religious groups in America, have accumulated a tremendous amount of literature concerning this New Age that is once again expected.

All through history we keep coming across people who have suddenly taken it upon themselves to prepare for this New Age in a variety of different ways.

In his book Secret Forces That Change the World, Frank Bowman gives his conception of the New Age:

" This same law of change periodically appears in our day and night, when the forces of light and the forces of darkness alternate and attain successive domination. There is always a periodic change; the two cycles of the year, winter and summer - winter when the inner and spiritual forces have the greatest play, and summer when the outer and material forces manifest most activity.

" Within the yearly cycle exist the smaller diurnal alternations; within the greater cosmic changes exist the annual changes; and within those there are still greater cycles that control human life and destiny. One of these great cycles, as has been stated, is the sidereal year, a period of approximately 25,868 years. This is but a small cycle in a yet greater one."

This sidereal year terminates the Piscean Age and presages the Aquarian Age, so Mr. Bowman's theories have much in common with those of the Theosophical Society. Annie Besant placed the coming of the World Teacher contemporaneously with this movement into the New Age. The Theosophists treat it as a foregone conclusion. They are equally positive that at this point in racial evolution, a new subrace will appear on the surface of our globe.

So here we have representative occult groups, with the Theosophical Society representing the teachings of the East, all looking for a World Teacher to appear with the turn of the New Age. The astrological forecasts are divided: one school dates the Aquarian Age from 1882; others place the earliest emergence of the Aquarian sign at 1934, if not as late as 1952.

There have always been wide differences of opinion as to the movement of these vast cycles, but the greater majority of the astrological-occult groups are in accord as to the rapid approach of this New Age, just as the orthodox, more literal-minded religious groups think in terms of the Second Coming of the Christ.

An even more dramatic approach is that of the Space Age, some exponents of which have placed the birth of the New Age on October 4, 1957, the day the first space satellite went into orbit around the earth. In terms of scientific venture, this New Age is related to humanity's release from the gravitational forces of the earth that have bound and held us, and the beginning of our investigation of the dimensions of space. We now move at a tempo that has shattered our old concepts of what we called past, present, and future.

It would be a Herculean task to tabulate all the scientific advances that have taken place within our own time, in terms of humanity's control over matter. Even size has taken on new significance. Take the transistor radio, which does what the mammoth radio sets of yesterday used to do; and yet I can carry mine around in my vest pocket. Power is no longer related to size. I have a neighbor who is assigned to a top-secret job in a laboratory, totally concerned with the amplification and measurement of sound. They already possess equipment which can detect the sound of any vessel, anywhere in the world, and then identify it within a matter of minutes, solely by the vibrations of that sound.

Submarines that can remain subSmerged indefinitely belonged among the fantasies of Jules Verne until our time. We take for granted jet planes that break the sound barrier. Impulses of the brain are now measured in such a way as to establish the exact state of consciousness of the subject.

We haven't scratched the surface of the vast resources of solar energy. Radar telescopes are picking up sounds from the far reaches of the planetary system. Contemporary human power to measure the invisible, to establish the existence of forces which were previously unsuspected, gives us the feeling that we are under the total thralldom of science; it overawes us that we should have achieved this terrible control of matter. In this scientific age, most practical people will envision the New Age in these terms.

Some people, however, see this New Age in terms of political upheaval and change. Every nation in the world is on the brink of political changes so vast and so radical that you and I cannot conceive of them as yet. Nevertheless, they sweep onward with unrelenting momentum: whole continents of people are being emancipated and freed - their whole concept of existence is being revolutionized by the reforms that no organized resistance can subdue.

These economic, political, and social changes taking place right under our noses are shaking the very foundations of established order, and the end results stretch far beyond our lines of sight. If these things hold priority in importance to you, then this is the form in which the New Age will appear to you.

Then there are the psychologists, who think of this New Age in terms of humanity discovering the vast resources concealed in its nature, the latent powers, both in the depths of its own mind and in the conscious level. These are powers now being released, these are areas now being explored, that we have never before understood.

Specialists now document this inward search as we begin to investigate all that lies hidden in our inner being. I refer to the recognition of the unconscious, digging beneath the superficialities of human behavior, coming to grips with the mystic control of the mind over the body. This has yet to be accepted as an integral part of standard medicine. Attempts to analyze psychic sensitivity and whether we can really measure it or not are part of the challenge of this age. Never until now have we approached it objectively as a reality. Its acceptance is such that we hear it in normal conversation.

When the august American Medical Association in 1958 approved hypnosis as a means of therapy, it would seem that we began to move out of the shadows of reactionary nihilism into the broad daylight of progress.

These are strange and stirring times in which to be living, whether you look at them through the ecclesiastical mind that is preparing for the literal coming of a Messiah who will cause the lamb and the lion to lie down together; or through the eyes of the occultist who sees a new subrace emerging as the world moves from the Piscean Age into the Aquarian Age; or whether you measure the change in terms of scientific advances and social-economic upheavals; or in terms of humankind's invasion of the subconscious mind.

What did Edgar Cayce have to say about a New Age in his psychic readings? Where did he stand?

Remember, he was a man of conservative thought, trained in an orthodox religion from childhood. However, his outlook and point of view were never confined to the orthodox, and they have a vision that defies any attempt to confine them to dogma.

He had a great deal to say about this New Age. The first allusions to it appear in the "life readings" of people who were born around 1917 to 1920. He began to refer to them as forerunners of an advanced group of souls manifesting in the earth in a coordinated pattern, perhaps the extension of a kind of group karma, which would be absorbed into the earth's own karma as they began to influence and direct its destiny. These people were identified as Atlanteans.

That in itself is about as unorthodox as you can get, considering that Atlantis is a prehistoric civilization that is supposed to exist only in the fertile imagination of the occult-minded eccentric. And the evidence for it is extremely ephemeral: a thread here, an obscure allusion there; totally unacceptable by any scientific standard, unless you happen to be dealing with a staggeringly broad-minded scientist.

evertheless, from his unconNscious state, Edgar Cayce is speaking of an age which will bring an entirely new standard of ethics and morality to the earth. He describes an invading phalanx of highly developed souls - and they are assembling among us in full battle formation; they aren't straggling in in twos and threes whenever they feel like it. Nor do you have to peer into the faces of young children in search of signs and portents - you have only to walk out into a reasonably busy street. That's where you'll find them, looking superficially no different from any other Homo sapiens in the same street. Yet they are the flower of one of the highest points of our evolution before the fall. More, they bring with them an almost superhuman mental and physical vigor; vast stores of knowledge to reforest the dust bowls of contemporary thought; and vast scientific comprehension to replace the muddled bungling that has brought us to the brink of self-annihilation.

Humanity's ultimate control and mastery of matter rests in the hands of these new archetypes. According to Edgar Cayce, these people bring with them the New Age, a delay-of-execution, a respite for the earth. But they also bear a flail in their strong right hand, which will be felt by those who will have to live and work with them, because their methods will be drastic.

These people are in no way typical of the Atlanteans who brought about their own inundation. That type of Atlantean we need like a hole in the head, although more than enough of them have manifested themselves in this century and exploded two major holocausts in the process.

These new souls are of a highly enlightened and civilized order. They crop up in the "life readings" over and over again, always in connection with the prophecies of vast earth changes that are already beginning to give ominous signs of their imminence.

" And these will begin in those periods in '58 to '98, when these will be proclaimed as the periods when His light will be seen again in the clouds." (3976-15) ... as has been indicated, when this period has been accomplished, then the new era, the new age, is to begin. Will ye have a part of it, or will ye let it pass by and be merely a hanger-on, or one upon whom your brother - the Lord, thy Christ - may depend?" (2780-3)

However you conceive of this New Age, certain things stand out clearly. It must bring with it such tremendous responsibilities that they will challenge the very core of our being. It must demand the very best from us, the greatest possible control of the baser instincts of our natures. The most paltry and obscure individual will possess this dangerous negative power; the smallest sins will take on decisive importance when they are added to the chaos and confusion of these changing times.

These changes, if they are to succeed, if you are to have a part in them, must begin in you, with you, in your body and in your mind and in your heart, in all your words and all your deeds; in the demands you make on yourself.

I'm afraid that before the time comes for us to "stand up and be counted," a good few of us will have been subjected to a rude awakening. The escapist will have little chance of being conveniently whipped off into space to avoid helping to clean up the mess that he or she helped to create in the first place. It won't do much good to back off and say, "I didn't have any part in that!" If one didn't contribute a widow's mite to the confusion which exists here now, why is one here? Not by accident! The souls who had nothing to do with the corruption of the earth are all safely tucked away in the grandstand or taking their leisure in the celestial cities of their choosing. If you're here when the balloon goes up, you'll have to make the best of a bad job; you'll have to face it, and that facing must begin with yourself.

If you weren't aware of this, you wouldn't be here! You wouldn't be concerned with this time or this place, or even this universe. You wouldn't be striving to resolve the brain-splitting problems that will confront everyone who seeks the truth in times like these. It isn't much fun to turn the other cheek to the ridicule and mockery that become the bitter portion of anyone with guts enough to thrust one foot, one toe, across the picket lines of obsolete conformity.

There can be no going back, once these lines have been crossed. This New Age was conceived in challenge. Your own participation in that challenge begins within you, not at the nearest street corner. It is a fight to the death in its total lack of convenient last-minute reprieves. For we cannot be saved by two-cent miracles from facing up to the truth in ourselves!

Consider this age, then, into which we are moving as a magnificent spiritual challenge, as a splendid opportunity to thrust forward in our spiritual development with a purpose and a determination we have never used before, so that we can absorb every new release of spiritual power. After all, that power is a part of us all, and we are only hamstrung by the clumsy armor we have misguidedly built around ourselves in the grossly material, selfish sense.

As Edgar Cayce counseled in 1943: A" ... at the close of this next year ... there will be no part of the globe where man has not had the opportunity to hear, 'The Lord He is God.' And, as has been indicated, when this period has been accomplished, then the new era, the new age, is to begin. Will ye have a part of it, or will ye let it pass by and be merely a hanger-on, or one upon whom your brother - the Lord, thy Christ - may depend?" (2780-3; italics added)