Paper Short Abstract:

The paper shows that the religious and the economic are inextricably intertwined in alternative spirituality, both in terms of everyday practical life and in terms of ritual and cosmology, that is, the particular practices and doctrine that are tied together by a commonly shared discourse of energy.

Paper Abstract:

In our mainstream society, the economic dimension of alternative spirituality (which is sometimes still called "New Age") has been regarded as controversial since it contradicts our historical-cultural assumption that the sacred is not negotiable. However, a growing number of studies show that contemporary alternative spirituality, as a product of late modernity, was born within the capitalist market economy, and although it explicitly opposes the market in some respects, it is fully adapted to it. It sees no contradiction between spirituality and money, between personal growth and economic prosperity. A key concept here is that of a universal, impersonal, globally flowing "energy" as the essence of the world that encompasses money and coherently connects both realms.

Based on my ethnographic research on Amerindian-oriented alternative spirituality in the Czech Republic, I examine this topic by presenting some examples of events, seminars and workshops organized within the Czech alternative spiritual milieu, in which visiting indigenous people from Latin America actively participate. I focus on the economic side of these activities, the way in which the financial resources are treated and conceived of, and in which they shape the social relations between those involved. The aim is to show that the religious and the economic are inextricably intertwined in alternative spirituality, both in terms of everyday practical life and in terms of ritual and cosmology, that is, in the particular practices and doctrine that are tied together by a commonly shared discourse of energy.