I don't know a great deal about New Age apart from buying the odd pretty crystal for my daughter, just to look at.
However, a lot of what has been discussed here can apply equally well to fundamentalist Christianity. It too can have a very antagonistic approach to people who are ill, or dying, or unfortunate one way or another, as if it is their fault for not having enough faith to pray away their situation. And worst of all if they are divorcing their spouse, whatever the reason. This is a very cruel version of religion, and has nothing to do with Christ, or what he had to say to people with illnesses, or who had fallen into difficult times, imo.
My own dad has a Methodist background, and when I was young used to use his own particular favourite bits of the Bible as sticks to beat us with. Again, not what I would regard as the purpose of any faith. One example is that I had only one school uniform (skirt and jumper, and several shirts), and a bone idle Nmother.
At primary school God knows how often my uniform was washed, but by the time I got to secondary school, I knew it had to be washed on a Friday night or Saturday morning, then dried in time for ironing on Sunday and wearing on Monday. Every single time my dad caught me in the kitchen, ironing my school uniform on a Sunday afternoon, he told me that his mother did her washing on a Monday, drying on Tuesday, ironing on Wednesday, and that ironing on Sunday was not allowed. He would be very angry and say, 'You shouldn't iron on a Sunday'. And every time I would try to explain that I needed the uniform Monday to Friday, and therefore ... He never ever heard what I said. I had to try to iron when he was not around, or hide what I was doing. And this in the name of religion.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that New Age may be very N based, but traditional religion, based on Patriarchy, is little better, imo. Both are based around imposing on people what is best for them, rather than allowing them to be who they were meant to be.
Anyone who believes that the right kind of faith, or prayer, or any other form of magical thinking, will be enough to prevent them from falling ill, or from misfortune of one kind or another, is living in fairy land. Life is not like that. The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous.
