Olavo de Carvalho’s 2017 Premiere “The Garden of Afflictions,” a New Age Movie
By Julio
Severo
“I
give to students of my course an assignment: to be in a garden and lay down in
the ground and be permeated by the universe’s presence above them and by the
planet sustaining them,” said Olavo de Carvalho in the beginning of his movie
titled “The Garden of Afflictions,” premiering in 2017.
Interaction
with the universe is a significant characteristic of the New Age philosophy, a
movement born in the foundation in 1875 of the
Theosophical Society, which mixed philosophy and spiritualism (esotericism,
occultism). Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was the founder of the Theosophical
Society.
The
movie ends with a spiritualistic poetic tone, with Olavo de Carvalho saying:
“In
my lifetime, I had never the impression that the dead are absent… My dear dead…
I do not miss them, because they are present, they exist… Eternity is the
current and simultaneous ownership of all our moments… What happened here,
during a fraction of seconds, is in eternity.”
If,
as he said himself, in his lifetime he had never the impression that the dead
are absent, then his spiritualist concept only was adapted to Catholicism, in a
syncretism very common in Brazil.
Would
it be far-fetched to imagine a link between New Age and the direction of “The
Garden of Afflictions”?
Reality
points stronger connections than mere figment of imagination or coincidence.
Movie director Josias
Teófilo was already known as contributor in the magazine Sophia, a national
publication in Brazil published by the Theosophical Publishing House.
Yet,
connections do not stop here.
Teófilo has
already lectured in several major theosophical lodges in Brazil, including Hope
Theosophical Lodge, in
João Pessoa; Sirius Theosophical
Lodge, in Campina Grande; and also the Brazilian headquarters of the
Theosophical Society, in Brasília. Just as other lecturers in the theosophical
lodges, Teófilo has a degree in philosophy.
Following
the example of Freemasonry, Brazilian theosophy calls its meeting places
“lodges.”
In the
Campina Grande lodge, Teófilo spoke about the
importance of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s spiritualist vision on September 27, 2014.
“A vast
organizational network today, the New Age Movement received it modern start in
1875 with the founding of the Theosophical Society by Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky. A basic teaching of this organization was that all world religions
had ‘common truths’ that transcended potential differences. Strongly
propounding the theory of evolution, they also believed in the existence of
‘masters’ who were either spirit beings or fortunate men more highly ‘evolved’
than the common herd. This was a doctrine which was to have a substantial impact
on the development of Hitler’s Nazism several decades later.”
In
the International Theosophical School held in Brasília on July 2012, Josias
Teófilo delivered a lecture to youth in the workshop “Mysticism and
Neoplatonism.”
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| Brazilian Theosophical Society |
Pearcey
described New Age Islamic adherents’ passion for Plato and Aristotle. Among
adherents, she mentioned René Guénon, a French Catholic who converted to
Islamic esotericism.
Similarly,
Olavo de Carvalho, who is considered the responsible for making Guénon known in
Brazil, even having translated into Portuguese one of his books, is a promoter
of Neoplatonism, which may, among other connections, have brought him near
Teófilo.
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| Josias Teófilo: “Symbolism is exact sciences” — René Guénon |
Carvalho’s
“conservative” and “anti-Marxist” base comes from Guénon’s Traditionalist
School, who was one of the most prominent leaders of the New Age’s Islamic
esotericism. To understand Carvalho’s esoteric base, read “What Draws Olavo de Carvalho to the United
States?”
Carvalho’s
current supposedly “conservative” and “anti-Marxist” career is marked by many
forecasts in the political realm. These forecasts, or handling of tips with
several different and even antagonistic previsions, come from his experience
and history as the founder of the first school of astrologers in Brazil in the
1980s.
Even today,
the power of his astrological influence is so sharp that a Protestant teacher
who became his hard-core disciple, fighting inflexibly Marxist indoctrination
in the classroom, incurred into the severe fault of taking astrological
indoctrination into the classroom. Last month, in a public Facebook post in
Portuguese, she confessed that she frequently teaches her students to make
astral maps. Because astrology is totally forbidden in the Bible, it is evident
that the Protestant teacher did not learn this occultist practice in the Bible
or Protestant churches. Because she is a prominent student in Carvalho’s
“philosophical” class, it is evident the origin of her attitude of taking
astrological indoctrination into the classroom.
It is
not possible to separate Carvalho’s “political” forecasts from his New Age
history, just as it is not possible to separate a New Age soul from “The Garden
of Afflictions,” because its director is so involved in spiritualistic
philosophies as the movie’s main character.
“The
Garden of Afflictions” is more than a movie personifying Guénon’s anti-Marxist
traditionalism. It is a personality cult of astrologer Olavo de Carvalho,
directed by a Brazilian theosophist. No one better than an esotericist to speak
of another esotericist.
By
watching “The Garden of Afflictions,” the unsuspecting evangelical public
suffers esoteric influences from its director and character.
Brazilian
evangelical churches and publishing houses spent much of the 1990s warning
about the dangers of New Age. If “The Garden of Afflictions” had been launched
in that time, it would have been rightly identified as New Age propaganda,
right in Guénon’s anti-Marxist traditionalist style. There is no lack of
evidence to support such identification.
Today,
Brazilian evangelical churches and publishing houses hardly talk about New Age
stuff. Consequence? Even Pentecostal ministers are unconsciously recommending
and promoting New Age.
On
June 2017, Victorio Galli, an Assemblies of God minister and congressman, spoke
at the floor of the Brazilian Congress to praise “The Garden of Afflictions.”
Publicly, he also praised theosophist Josias Teófilo.
On
July 2017, Marco Feliciano, an Assemblies of God minister and congressman,
incurred in the same fault, publishing a public Facebook post tagging Carvalho
and Josias Teófilo and asking his public to watch, like and share “The Garden
of Afflictions,” which was recommended by him at the floor of the Brazilian
Congress.
It is not
the first time Feliciano has stumbled horribly. In early 2017, he recommended
books by Paulo Coelho, an internationally famous New Age author.
Galli
and Feliciano were “naiver” than Americans. In the premiere of the movie in New
York in July, the American public did not appear. Just a few Brazilian
immigrants did.
Even Americans
who are members of the Inter-American Institute,
headed by Carvalho, did not attend the premiere of his movie and did not
recommend it.
“The Garden of Afflictions” is a
New Age movie, from character to director. It is sheer propaganda of the
anti-Marxist traditionalism that esotericist Guénon already promoted many
decades before Carvalho. The only difference is that it has pinches of
Carvalho’s Catholic syncretism but it does not make it different from most
Brazilian Catholics. It is hard to find a non-syncretic Brazilian Catholic.
If we
were in the 1990s, soaked in the Protestant
world in exposés against New Age, “The
Garden of Afflictions,” his character and director could not enter the churches
and be praised by Assemblies of God ministers at the floor of the Brazilian
Congress.
Yet,
today Feliciano cannot identify the threat. New Age, in philosophical apparel,
became stylish to them.
With
“The Garden of Afflictions,” it became easy to enter Protestant churches and
hearts. This occultist invasion happens in a time when the powerful American Left has recognized
that the main conservative power in Brazil are evangelicals. Such fundamental acknowledgment
is nonexistent in “The Garden of Afflictions,” because its greater mission is
to promote his own syncretic Catholic character as the main power and
intelligence in the Brazilian conservatism.
If
even the American Left sees that evangelicals, who give glory to God, are
making the real difference in conservatism, why did Feliciano prefer to give
glory to a mere astrologer, who has distinguished himself for turning his
Protestant disciples in mere syncretic religious individuals (as it is the case
of the Protestant teacher adherent of astrological indoctrination in the
classroom)?
If
ministers like Feliciano do not perceive that they are being undermined,
Brazilian evangelicals may become weak to continue leading the Brazilian
conservative wave.
They
need to read as soon as possible the article “What Draws Olavo de Carvalho to the United
States?” before the propaganda of “The Garden of Afflictions” turns
them in mere fools in the service of New Age.
Recommended
Reading:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fokfDdFaYKs&t=1512s
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