Herramienta de control de activos para el almacén El control de inventarios es un elemento básico para cualquier entidad, resulta ser una actividad

Introduction

"Is not religion ail deeds and all reflections, And that which is neither deed nor reflection, but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul, even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom?

Who can separate his faith from his actions, or his belief from his occupations?"*

If it is possible to find a definitionary characteristic from the phlethora of religious notions in what constitutes New Age’, the attempt to bring the spiritual into everyday living is one of them. The people I

met emphasized over and over that, in their opinion, modern people had lost contact with an older and intrinsically spiritual part of themselves: from this loss stem, apparently, many of the problems of modern living.

Again, returning to the theme of the outer reflecting the inner and the inner as influential on the world, it is seen as a natural logic in

Glastonbury that issues such as the abuse of the environment and exploitation of people would not have occurred if people were still in touch’ with spiritual values and the spiritual aspects of their own character.

As the above quotation from Kahlil Gibran suggests, such a spirituality must encompass all aspects of one's life. Just as the Shakers

taught Let every breath be a continual prayer to God , part of the

purpose or motivation behind moving to Glastonbury and the alternative community which has evolved there, is to create a lifestyle in which one's spiritual beliefs are reflected in all parts of one's life; the religion is for Sundays' attitude sometimes associated with the Christian church is strongly criticized on this basis. In this respect Glastonbury is very similar to older religious communities like the Shakers and Hutterites, or, contemporarily, the Bhagwan Shree Raj nee sh community in Oregon. As one person in Glastonbury said.

1 have had these powerful experiences in my life which are really beyond words; indescribably sweet, just feeling myself bathed in interconnectedness to everything. Now I am trying to bring those experiences into the rest of my life and to find a way of being where I can operate in the world from a spiritual space and also enhance the opportunity for more of these intense revelatory experiences.

Likewise one is encouraged to acknowledge the sacred aspect in everyday living; a section in Glastonbury Times' is called 'Holy

Housework and bears witness to this. Like the body, the home is seen as somewhere to be honoured and cherished. Some people take this one step further and see the household' as imbued with its own energy. When one person was looking round a prospective house to rent he said he felt the energy by the cooker as being the strongest point of the house. Others feel aware of the presence of spirits at nearly all times, as intimately connected with the moods and events of the house. One booklet advised on a ritual when moving to a new house to invoke the devas, or angels; the symbols of the four elements' were to be placed in the four corners

of the room, incense representing air, salt for earth, a candle for fire and a bowl of water for water,

Today, one can still have an overshadowing angel who tends to the

home s atmosphere, adjusting energies so as to aid a more attuned

and beautiful life. A conscious effort, however, must be made to invoke the help and ongoing presence of an angel of this kind. First one must be aware for several weeks of one’s intention to call such an angel to one's home. Second, one's home must be thoroughly cleaned. Then at a quiet and serene moment sit and light a candle for the angel. Remain quiet and sense that an angelic presence may come to the home."2

With the potential for angels and spirits around one at any time it is seen as important in Glastonbury to maintain a lifestyle and a way of being which is consistent with the spiritual energy' of everything around one, from trees, to people, to living spaces. It is on the basis of this belief that many people within the New Age movement hold in great esteem people who live in tribal societies, such as those who practise ancestor worship. Because people in tribal societies will say that the spirits of their ancestors are around them all the time, and even explain events in terms of spirits, New Agers admire the spiritual consciousness' with which such people appear to live out their lives. Running the risk of

romanticization, many people in Glastonbury commented that they felt people living in isolated tribal’ societies maintained a connection with their spiritual selves which we, in the West, have lost.

2 ‘Devas, Fairies and Angels. A Modern Approach', William Bloom. Gothic Image Publications, Glastonbury. 1986. p.30

In this chapter I propose that spirituality amongst the New Age movement in Glastonbury can most usefully be examined in terms of two complementary ideas; individualism and holism. Until this point in the thesis 1 have interpreted the ethnography in terms of the individualistic nature of beliefs and lifestyle in Glastonbury; in attitudes to work,

health, child-rearing and social relations- in the more practical areas of life- individualism predominantly informs the alternative community in what they do. However holistic ideas have been mentioned as well; for example, ideas about energy reflected in attitudes to health and in social relations can be understood through ideas of inherent mutuality between people. But when we turn to what might be called people's general

contemplation of life, where notions of spirituality predominate,

elements of holism become especially strong. I contend that such ideas of holism act as a complement to individualism and predominantly serve the important function of community building.

It is true that I never heard people articulate ideas quite this way during my fieldwork. However individualism and holism are two

categories they would recognize separately and to speak of them as complements certainly makes sense of many things people say and do [for further discussion see the next chapter].

To introduce the complementary nature of individualism and holism in the context of Glastonbury, I describe a case study which, I believe, highlights how these two elements work interrelate. The case study is based upon a group of friends, and friends of friends, who had talked of forming some kind of spiritual community that would meet on a regular basis to share spiritual experiences in a stable social environment. The impetus to form such a group came from mainly two sources; people who had been involved before in specific religious groups or practices

to bring them up in some kind of spiritual community but did not feel sufficiently sympathetic to the views of the church to have their child baptized and to become regular church-goers [some of the people

belonged to both groups]. The idea had been discussed for many months and there was a feeling of consensus about what people wanted.

Eventually a meeting was arranged to discuss these matters further and try to sort out a kind of procedure and pattern for the meetings to follow. Before the meeting one of the members of the group explained it to me as a group of people looking for a sense of family,

You know what it's like, when you meet some people it's as if you know them immediately. There’s some kind of commonness there, this is just a group of people getting together to explore this. " However at the meeting it became clear quickly that people had very different expectations. When people were discussing what they wanted differences arose over whether the group was an opened or closed group; some felt they wanted to develop a group where they knew who was going to be there and could feel comfortable to open up,

whereas others felt that the whole point was to go beyond the level of personality, to recognize the communality of humans and that sometimes one could have one's most powerful experiences with a total stranger. Another point of contention was over children; some people felt that perhaps at some times in the meeting it was more appropriate to have children around than at other times, whereas others [particularly the parents] felt it was appropriate to have children there at all times. Eventually it was suggested that we played some games so that people became more relaxed with each other. However, a series of polarities had dominated the evening.

I also attended the next meeting the following week. Some of the people from the previous week were missing, notably the two sets of parents. In both meetings there had been a continual sense of

awkwardness about how to proceed; people were trying to evolve a procedure and although a number of people had experience in co­

ordinating groups, they were hesitant to impose their ideas on the rest of the group. With the shrink in numbers in the second week, people played

trust-building games and then sat around talking. During the course of the evening the conversation turned to the fact that nearly all the people present had been involved in either a new religious movement, or a more traditional one, or had followed closely the teachings of one particular teacher. People talked about how they had felt too confined in one group, how they had felt compelled to take on a whole body of beliefs, not all of which could they accept; they had felt their individuality threatened, and preferred now to take from diverse teachings, as they pleased. Jokingly at first, one person suggested that that was what they all had in common; a

mutual dissatisfaction with teachers, the guru syndrome', and the

discipline of the group. Soon everyone was exchanging their experiences on this theme., and deciding that what they had in common was their reluctance to embrace one faith and jeopardize their individuality by doing so.

The group continued from this for a number of weeks, in a similar routine of playing trust games and sharing'. However, it slowly became smaller and more irregular. It certainly never became a spiritual com m unity.

In this case study we see the juxtaposition of two ideals; the desire for community with an emphasis upon shared understanding,

connectedness and a sense of family, and the strong individualist ethos. It could be described as a microcosmic example of the continuing dialogue

in New Age thinking between the holism of the group/community and the emphasis upon the autonomy of the self. Here when the two elements came into contact there was conflict; however a number of other factors have to been taken into account such as group dynamics, different expectations and misunderstandings. In general the two ideas can co­ exist harmoniously; indeed the logic of an extreme individualism is that there could be no alternative community' in Glastonbury. A holistic complement is thus implied.

I now proceed to look at individualism and holism in turn.