La indianización de la nueva era en Guadalajara

Abstract

This paper presents a historical reconstruction of the emergence and rupture between two esoteric associations linked to the spiritual movement of the New Age in Guadalajara: the Gran Fraternidad Universal - Great Universal Brotherhood (gfu) and the Mancomunidad de la América India Solar - Solar America India Commonwealth (mais). It will support the hypothesis that the central element of the conflict between the two groups is due to the acceptance, by the mais members, of the local indigenous traditions as a legitimate source for a shared ideal of spiritual search and synthesis; whilst the said ideal is revindicated as universalist, in the local environment it has clearly been reduced to the Eastern traditions and the spritual consumer preferences of the middle-class people from Guadalajara in the 70s and 80s who were linked to the gfu organization. The analysis of this case within the confines of the local society is carried out through the use of original materials (brochures and in-house publications of the organization), as well as some other publications from the same period and recent interviews with several personalities involved in the process through which the conflictive character of the emergence of a revindicated indigenous trend on the part of the spiritual seekers who identify themselves with the New Age, thus showing the limits of the unrestricted inclusion, or collage, of different ingredients from varying origins with which this global spiritual movement is usually associated.