But truly the New Age movement, whereas it draws from ancient beliefs, is nevertheless a very recent phenomenon. It is a malicious misrepresentation to date the New Age Movement to the Reformation or to lay the New Age Movement at the feet of the Reformation. From your source:
While much of New Age is a reaction to contemporary culture, there are many ways in which it is that culture's child. The Renaissance and the Reformation have shaped the modern western individual, who is not weighed down by external burdens like merely extrinsic authority and tradition; people feel the need to “belong” to institutions less and less (and yet loneliness is very much a scourge of modern life), and are not inclined to rank “official” judgements above their own. With this cult of humanity, religion is internalised in a way which prepares the ground for a celebration of the sacredness of the self. This is why New Age shares many of the values espoused by enterprise culture and the “prosperity Gospel” (of which more will be said later: section 2.4), and also by the consumer culture, whose influence is clear from the rapidly-growing numbers of people who claim that it is possible to blend Christianity and New Age, by taking what strikes them as the best of both. It is worth remembering that deviations within Christianity have also gone beyond traditional theism in accepting a unilateral turn to self, and this would encourage such a blending of approaches. The important thing to note is that God is reduced in certain New Age practices so as furthering the advancement of the individual….
If the Catholic Church wanted to "blame" someone for the New Age Movement - it should have blamed science.
Here is an account of the New Age Movement and its history from a source that has no "dog" in the (theological) fight:
The New Age Movement is in a class by itself. Unlike most formal religions, it has no holy text, central organization, membership, formal clergy, geographic center, dogma, creed, etc. They often use mutually exclusive definitions for some of their terms. The New Age is in fact a free-flowing spiritual movement; a network of believers and practitioners who share somewhat similar beliefs and practices, which they add on to whichever formal religion that they follow. Their book publishers take the place of a central organization; seminars, conventions, books and informal groups replace of sermons and religious services.
Quoting John Naisbitt:
History of the New Age movement:
New Age teachings became popular during the 1970's as a reaction against what some perceived as the failure of Christianity and the failure of Secular Humanism to provide spiritual and ethical guidance for the future. Its roots are traceable to many sources: Astrology, Channeling, Hinduism, Gnostic traditions, , Spiritualism, Taoism, Theosophy, Wicca and other Neo-pagan traditions, etc. The movement started in England in the 1960's where many of these elements were well established. Small groups, such as the Findhorn Community in Inverness and the Wrekin Trust formed. The movement quickly became international. Early New Age mileposts in North America were a "New Age Seminar" run by the Association for Research and Enlightenment, and the establishment of the East-West Journal in 1971. Actress Shirley MacLaine is perhaps their most famous current figure.
During the 1980's and 90's, the movement came under criticism from a variety of groups. Channeling was ridiculed; seminar and group leaders were criticized for the fortunes that they made from New Agers. Their uncritical belief in the "scientific" properties of crystals was exposed as groundless. But the movement has become established and become a stable, major force in North American religion during the past generation. As the millennium comes to a close, the New Age is expected to expand, promoted by the social backlash against logic and science.
LOL! being a faithful, practicing Catholic and a New Ager is an oxymoron. If she is a New Ager she is not a faithful Catholic.
Just as the Jews will accept someone as Jewish even if he or she is not obervant (even agnostic or atheist), but the rabbis wll remind us that one cannot be a Jew and a Christain and remian a Jew.
The Catholic Church is immune.
Individual Catholic church’s who do not follow the teachings of the Catholic Church can fall into this snare . I have seen it where a few individual churches have offered yoga etc..
It is up to those of us in the Church militant to bring it to their attention that they are not following the Church’s teaching. If they disregard it we must be ready to take the abuse to the Diocese or even higher if necessary to force them to stop .
The protestant communities do not have a system to stop the spread of the NAM.
When its brought to their attention what sometimes ends up happening is their communities continue to divide amongst themselves.
Case in point..Rick Warren ,Robert Schuller and other popular protestant communities are New Agers are separated from what you might practice
An individual Catholic church can be easily shown things such as the document I provided from the Vatican to show their error