Conspicuous Consumerism to QAnon Conspiracies- the “Spiritual” Community’s Epic Fail
By: Angela Kaufman
Tags: Wiccan, Qanon, Pagan, Capitalism, Spirituality

The time to reckon with the failure of the “spiritual” community is long overdue. To clarify, I am not anti-spirituality. In fact, spirituality has long been an integral part of my life and even my work. Spiritual belief and ethics, a connection to Divine Source and the tenets of pagan/Wiccan and some aspects of what has come to be (erroneously) considered “New Age” spirituality have been a beacon guiding me through some of the most challenging experiences of my life.

This, I came to believe in childhood, is one of the core functions of spirituality and thus should be a central feature in any spiritual community with integrity. Yet just when it is needed most, this type of community seems to be in short supply.

When I was first drawn to Earth centered spirituality and polytheism, it was nothing like the trendy cash cow it has been in recent years. The internet was not as prevalent then- I hadn’t even heard of it at the time, and books on the subject were highly specialized and only found in massive bookstores or specialty New Age shops. My local library had two books on this subject.

The message behind most of what I read was that spirituality was not an excuse to bury one’s head in the sand, and was not a replacement for mundane responsibilities, but a way to enhance one’s life and find meaning and purpose, to gain perspective and connect with nature and other beings in a way that shows reverence. Yes, the Tarot cards and other tools were cool, but these were ancillary to the core purpose of spiritual connection, which is to say, the process of connection with something beyond the individual ego.

It was the mid 90s and I was exploring the works of early pagan writers, as well as the likes of James Redfield, Robert Moss and Dan Millman. Though there are some problematic aspects of works popular at this time, specifically the proclivity of cultural appropriation, the overall themes dealt with seeing through the illusions of high pressure success culture and returning to a life of ethics, meaning and purpose. Reconnecting with the energy of the Earth and recognizing intuition in practical encounters. These works centered on the practical application of esoteric concepts.

And yes, their distribution relied on the institutions of marketing and capitalism, but the goal was, as I have heard and also said numerous times regarding my own work as a spiritual based entrepreneur many years later, to work within the system to meet people where they are and then bring them deeper into a spiritual perspective.

Which was all fine and good until the early aughts. In one fell swoop, the movement that previously preached social consciousness and concern for the Earth, the value of interconnection and respect for nature, was hijacked by a cult of pleasure and instant gratification.

Yes, I’m referring to The Secret.

I first heard of this book while working at an outpatient substance abuse clinic, a job which allowed me to facilitate a number of groups, some on the role of spirituality in recovery. After one group, a client approached me with a wide grin and asked “Are you turning people on to The Secret?”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but listened as she explained what sounded like a very watered down version of what many people were previously hunted down and killed for simply calling Magick, or Magik, or Majik, or Ceremony, or ritual. Now, suddenly, it appeared that a stripped down, juvenile version of the concept of sympathetic magick was being sold to a target market of open minded people who desperately want to believe they can use the Tinkerbell approach to having whatever they want- that is- by thinking happy thoughts.

My suspicions were confirmed when I read the book. Or at least, a few pages. I couldn’t suffer through it. If there is one thing you can guess about someone who refers to early 19th century capitalists as possessing secret wisdom that allowed them to rise to success, all while ignoring the exploitation and greed that fueled the rise of such figures, it is that they are highly misinformed and misguided and don’t know the first thing about history.

And that they are gambling on the fact that the masses also are ignorant of these important facts. And they gambled right. While this book was incredibly popular and influential in 21st century “spirituality” I consider it a turning point. And not a good one.

Now, instead of concern about the Earth, healing relationships and working through traumas or crises to find meaning, the goal seemed to be manifesting sportscars and obsessing over delusional fantasies, all in the name of “attraction” and “intuition.”

While this trend sold the public on a gutted and hollowed out brand of “spirituality” completely void of anything useful, it was in fact a capitalist’s dream. And fed into the conspicuous consumer lifestyle that earlier works on practical spirituality tried so hard to expose as illusions.

At an earlier point in my career as an Intuitive Reader, I started an Intuitive Relationship Coaching program. The reason was because I never wanted to do another love reading again. The purpose of the program was to help people understand relationships outside of the paradigm of possessiveness and control, trauma bonding and superficial trappings of love. My goal for this service, and for my later book, Queen Up, was for my clients to not need my services.

I am certainly not the only spiritual practitioner who would rather their clients find the intuitive connection and confidence to no longer need their services. Yet such planned obsolescence is not an ideal model in a predatory capitalist system. So as you can imagine, it’s not the typical motivation of most successful “spiritual” entrepreneurs.

In fact, part of the premise of Queen Up was to teach people how to connect with Four basic Tarot/Elemental archetypes intuitively, without relying on cards or other tools. In spite of describing this process in as much detail as possible and providing instructions on how any deck can be adapted to this purpose, or how readers could even make their own cards but ultimately don’t need them, I am still caught off guard by the frequent request for an entire deck to match the book. Proof of how capitalism has created such dependency on other people’s directions and tangible “tools” supplanting our ability to trust our own connection.

Of course, I don’t blame readers or seekers for being entangled in this web of dependency. It was created intentionally to ensnare in such a way. And on the surface, seems harmless. So what if someone feels more confident having 80 Tarot decks rather than just one? Who cares if someone has a preference for owning 50 books on the same subject matter?

And I suppose there is no overt harm in keeping the public dependent on the words of influencers and the products of big name content creators, as long as the information is helpful, meaningful and ethical.

Except….

This is where we again come to a point of conflict. Nothing better illustrates this than a controversy that emerged back in 2016 or so. In a rare show of courage and integrity, two widely known and respected influencers in the New Age community made strong and clear stances against then candidate trump.

I want to be clear and explain I am not referring to courage and integrity being rare for these two women in particular, but among those who had broken through and reached high visibility and success in the New Age world, which by then had become largely narcissistic and self-indulgent. At the time, any focus on social responsibility or issues of oppression was seen as “too negative” or “low vibration.”

The two influential woman I am referring to are Caroline Myss and Marianne Williamson, who would attempt a run for president in 2020. Whatever past problematic assertions they had made prior- and Williamson has had some sketchy assertions in the past that deserve critique- the bottom line was, they were the only two on the level of New Age superstardom to put their ethics and politics into the mix and call out trump and trumpism for what it was.

Many of us on the lower and unknown echelons certainly sounded the alarm as well, but we had nothing to lose compared to these two women. The backlash was astounding and sickening. I read through comments on Caroline Myss’s post, for example, when she warned Americans to “Look alive” because the rhetoric from trump was parallel to that of the nazi uprising in Germany. Many of her followers openly expressed how appalled and disappointed they were.

And so we have the vicious circle of capitalist driven spirituality. In order to distribute your message, you must amass followers and become an “influencer.” Yet to amass such a following you must, to some extent, keep the customer satisfied.

I am not suggesting that either of these two individuals rose to success because of unethical people-pleasing, in fact I don’t believe this was the case. Yet let’s face it, anyone who truly pulls back the curtain on the many abuses and injustices in which we all participate every day in order to maintain our comfortable lifestyle, will quickly find the room has cleared out.

Trust me, I’ve been doing this since grade school. It doesn’t make you any friends.

This is also why, in the fall and winter of 2019, celebrity Astrologers by and large predicted that 2020 would be a great year economically and also postulated all kinds of wonderful things coming to pass. Even though any Astrologer with an ounce of sense would NEVER have made such predictions about a year that was kicked off with a Stellium in Capricorn and featured other heavy aspects such as a conjunction between Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn.

But truth, like ethics, doesn’t sell as easily.

But wait, there’s more…

If the purpose of spirituality is to remind us of our interconnection, our responsibilities and to help us find meaning in our suffering, if the purpose is to help us unite and act in reverence for all life, what happens when the platforms, language and symbols of spirituality become perverted into systems of narcissistic self-indulgence?

What happens when “love and light” becomes a shield behind which we can hide, finding comfort in our privilege and in doing so, willfully ignoring any opportunity to actually demonstrate love by caring about the plight of others who don’t have our privilege?

What happens when our “spiritual communities” gain popularity and followers by gaslighting people with toxic positivity? By convincing others that if they are suffering, it is because they “think too negatively” or that traumas and wounds are the fault of the victim for not being “enlightened” and “forgiving” and “rising above all the negativity”?

2020 is what happens.

And just as the evangelical community has obviously abandoned any semblance of Christ’s teachings in order to pursue wealth and power, so too has the New Age and even aspects of the Pagan and “spiritual” community abandoned any semblance of concern with the welfare of others.

This year started with stirrings of concern over a new form of coronavirus which was declared a pandemic. Before lockdowns were in effect, I was concerned about contagion. But as I cancelled one event after another, the organizers of some of the more prominent annual conferences and events didn’t seem to share my urgency.

Sure, they were understanding, but plans were to go forward, business as usual. To be fair, some of these organizations were facing a difficult decision as insurance would not cover their financial losses for cancellations. But….

As a “spiritual” community, why would that factor as more of a priority than the health and safety of your attendees and speakers?

On a smaller scale, I was shocked by several collaborators who were unfazed by the growing news of outbreaks in NY and abroad. “I’m not going to play into that negativity,” one told me. “My intuition tells me it’s being hyped up, I’m not worried,” came the response of others.

Thus, 2020 became the year that wishful thinking as a more pleasant alternative to intuition and toxic positivity as the answer to deeper introspection, became the official mantras of the “spiritual” community.

Apparently, capitalism loves a good war, but when it comes to the predatory capitalism within the “spiritual” community, conflict doesn’t sell. Even the brief spurt of “woke” spiritual books that emerged in the wake of the trump election appear to be an exception to the rule. Such books generally didn’t sell well and so major publishers are reluctant to approach this topic again. Marketability, not truth, matter in this industry in the same way followers, not integrity, matters more in the world of “spiritual” influencers.

So here we are, experiencing unprecedented losses both in lives and in lifestyle. Significant increases in poverty, hunger, uncertainty, fear, and even violence and extremism. Here we are at a moment when true spirituality could be the compass that guides us back to our values, to our recognition of the humanity of others, to our need for reverence for the Earth and nature, our exploitation of which started this pandemic in the first place.

And is the “spiritual” community stepping up to be of service? Are we coming forward to dedicate our time and talents to healing, guiding and helping others? Are we finding purpose without gaslighting and victim-blaming?

Some, yes.

But by and large, the “spiritual” community has once again been hijacked. This time not by capitalism, nor conspicuous consumerism, but by conspiracies. Rather than dealing with the true pain, fear and horror of such massive losses, the “spiritual” community is opting to not focus on the “negative.” To instead call the pandemic a hoax. To suggest that those who are suffering and dying are guilty of not taking vitamins and having a “good enough” immune system.

Instead of serving those in need at a time of greater need than we have seen in modern history, we, the “spiritual” community remain stuck in our profitable narcissism. We have failed to rouse people to find purpose outside of capitalism and instead have become a tool of this destructive system.