New Age: uma revolução cultural em dois momentos

Abstract

The New Age emerged in modernity as a result of secularization and the recomposition of esotericism and religion in the West. Chronologically it can be placed in two moments. The first takes place after the Second World War, when the movement was embraced by the younger generations, acquiring public visibility. It became popular through apoc-alyptic and utopian subcultures and contestant countercultures, which created a break with the lifestyles of modernity. The second appears in the late 1970s, when a process of collective recognition of New Age spiritual beliefs and practices as alter-native or deviant began. Since then, the diffusion of the New Age has essentially occurred through indi-vidual DIYs. Although these spiritual practices are often seen as framed in the logic of the capitalist system’s neoliberal market and do not bring some-thing truly new (given that most recover old eso-teric and spiritual practices), they also promote, for the most part, ecological values, the physical and psychological well-being, and a sense of belong-ing to communities of various types, namely digital ones. In this article we conclude on underlining the need to broaden the research on the New Age in Portugal, as a way to bolster scientific knowledge on contemporary practices