02.27.06
More on ‘Second’ Axial Age
I have a previous post on Karen Armstrong’s notion of a ‘Second Axial Age’, a completely confused idea, see here. This was an interview at Enlightenment magazine. A letter to the editor in the next issue shows total confusion on the subject. Sit down and study the eonic effect, and the eonic model, and the fallacy of Armstrong’s thinking will become clear. My problem with this is the postmodern strategy of the gurus trying to promote these New Age anti-modern religious movements. That, in an off itself, would not be so problematical–apart from mere lunacy–if it weren’t for the concealed anti-democratic nature of the basic initiatives.
Armstrong has completely confused the Axial Age as a kind of era of spiritual movements, when its character is far more general. The birth of modern secularism occurs in the Axial Age. The rise of modernity is the only meaningful successor to the phenomenon seen in antiquity.
This situation is a pity because we are being deprived of correct knowledge of one of the critical datasets both for history and the question of evolution.
The letter to the editor below is full of so many inaccuracies and fallacies I can hardly deal with all of them: a separate post analyzing it would be helpful.
Beware of the list of sages and gurus the letter writer gives. If they have some wisdom, fine. But if they are going to be used as evidence of a second Axial Age, to the exclusion of all secularists, scientists, democrats, and the rest, then we are in for another New Age distortion.
Note one thing: People who call themselves ‘enlightened’ can’t afford to make such a simple set of mistakes. They should be able to claim they understand history. But clearly they don’t!!!
More on this some other time.
Since Armstrong’s book on this is about to come out, I will pursue this at length.
Getting the Axial Age straight is not so easy, as this sad letter makes clear.
These gurus are setting up such people with a New Age historicism to justify their authority.
THE NEW AXIS OF HISTORY
The philosopher Karl Jaspers expounded the concept of the Axial Age in his 1977 book The Origin and Goal of History. The term denotes an extraordinary era, peaking between the sixth and third centuries BCE, in which a significant number of enlightened sages and illumined teachers emerged worldwide, radically advancing human self-understanding and its cultural expression. In India, the Upanishads were written. Zarathustra brought forth Zoroastrianism in Persia. Taoism arose in China, thanks to Lao Tsu. Siddhartha Gautama began Buddhism. Several major Jewish prophets, notably Isaiah and Hosea, appeared. Athens and other Greek city-states produced Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, and other philosopher-sages. The age can be regarded more broadly as a major development in human consciousness stretching from Akhnaton (c. 1400 BCEJ to Christ, and including, in addition to those just named, Moses, Confucius, Vyasa, and Plotinus.
Like Karen Armstrong, I see contemporary history as another
such turning point, a Second Axial Age. There have emerged in the last few centuries a remarkable number of spiritual teachers and elevated’ thought-leaders from all the sacred traditions and great world religions, and their collective effect is pointing humanity toward a profound and positive growth in consciousness.
The teachers and thought-leaders of the Second Axial Age have elevated mass consciousness toward the possibility of enlightenment-something which has never before occurred in history. As the idea of enlightenment comes into the mainstream
of popular culture, the evolution of human consciousness is accelerating; the average consciousness of humanity is being drawn upward by the advanced consciousness of the “growing tip.” That growing tip consists of enlightened teachers, seers, saints, and sages such as Andrew Cohen, Adi Da, Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharshi, Paramahansa Yogananda, G.I. Gurdjieff, Baha’ullah, Akbar the Great, Meher Baba, J. Krishnamurti,
Neem Karoli Baba, Lama Govinda, D.T. Suzuki, Katagiri Roshi,Ahmet Kayhan, Hazrat Inayat Khan, Byron Katie, Chogyam Trungpa, and others too numerous to mention. Their influence
is being marvelously extended by communications technology, a near-instant diffusion of knowledge compared to the rate of diffusion during the First Axial Age. It is a breathtaking vista to contemplate.
Although many people are writing and speaking about this vast process, Ken Wilber has been especially adept
at articulating it in a clear, elegant, and comprehensive manner. His writings have brought together the wisdom of the sages and. the enlightenment traditions and integrated it with the full spectrum of modern science, philosophy, psychology, and other aspects of global society, from business, economics, and politics to art and literature, while adding his own important insights. His unified theory of culture, culture, cosmos, and consciousness offers a powerful new paradigm for science and society alike-a worldview he calls Integralism. It is, I believe, the best guide to self- and societal unfoldment thus far in history. Therefore, I regard Ken Wilber as the primary voice of the Second Axial Age.
John White
Cheshire. CT