The last time people lost faith in institutions, they turned to the stars instead.
The rise of astrology, tarot, spiritual self-help, and cosmic language isn’t new—it’s cyclical. And we’ve seen this particular cycle before. The 1970s weren’t just disco and bell bottoms. That decade was shaped by economic uncertainty, political collapse, environmental anxiety, and a deep cultural craving for something that felt real. Sound familiar?
We’re living through another era where institutions feel hollow, capitalism feels rigged, and traditional paths don’t offer the answers they used to. So people are turning inward, outward, and upward—looking for guidance in birth charts, rituals, energy work, and alternative beliefs that don’t ask for permission. These 14 parallels between then and now don’t just explain why mysticism is back—they show that it never really left.
1. Recession shook the economy—and belief in the system.
In the 1970s, inflation hit double digits, wages stagnated, and unemployment soared. Gas lines wrapped around city blocks. The American Dream, once promised to everyone willing to work hard, suddenly looked hollow. Economic anxiety wasn’t just a policy issue—it was personal. And as people watched financial institutions falter, they stopped trusting the systems that claimed to protect them.
Millennials and Gen Z are delaying homeownership, marriage, and kids as wages stagnate and living costs soar, according to Rachel Wolfe of the Wall Street Journal. The math doesn’t add up. Like in the 70s, when faith in capitalism faltered, people started looking elsewhere for meaning. Astrology, tarot, and other mystical frameworks offered something capitalism couldn’t: a way to understand struggle that wasn’t about blame or failure. When material systems collapse, spiritual ones fill the gap. And both then and now, the search for stability moves beyond dollars.
2. Disillusionment with politics drove people inward.
Watergate shattered illusions of political integrity. The Vietnam War only deepened the national distrust. By the mid-70s, many Americans had stopped believing the government acted in their best interest.
That loss of faith didn’t kill the desire for change—it just redirected it. Rather than trusting leaders, people turned inward, exploring spiritual and mystical traditions in search of clarity.
That shift is echoing again today. A 2024 Pew Research Center study found only 22% of Americans trust the federal government to do what’s right most of the time. Political doubt is fueling another cultural pivot. From birth charts to shadow work, more people are leaning on personal frameworks instead of institutional ones. It’s not apathy—it’s agency. When the news feels hopeless, mystical practices offer something politics rarely does: a sense of control, even if it’s just over your own energy.
3. The feminist movement sparked spiritual reclamation.
During the 70s, second-wave feminism didn’t just demand equal pay or legal protections—it asked deeper questions about where women’s power came from, and how to reclaim it outside patriarchal systems. Many women rejected male-dominated religious institutions and explored goddess worship, Wicca, and other spiritual traditions that centered intuition, cycles, and embodiment.
This impulse persists today, with spirituality serving as a refuge for individuals—especially women, femmes, and queer folks—who feel marginalized by mainstream religious structures, per Pallavi Prasad. Tarot becomes a tool for self-trust.
Astrology becomes a language of emotional validation. Mysticism offers space for nuance, softness, and nonlinear growth. Both movements weren’t just about rejecting authority—they were about building something more nourishing in its place. Feminism cracked open the need for liberation. Spirituality, then and now, helps fill it with meaning.
4. Environmental collapse turned attention to the Earth—and beyond.
The 1970s were the first time environmentalism entered mainstream awareness. Oil spills, smog alerts, and dying rivers prompted Earth Day, new regulations, and a growing sense that the planet was in crisis. But it wasn’t just scientific—it was spiritual. People turned to nature-based rituals, alternative healing, and earth-centered belief systems to process the grief and reconnect with the world they feared losing.
Today, the crisis is even more visible—and more dire. Wildfires, floods, and heatwaves aren’t warnings anymore; they’re happening. And with them comes a new wave of earth-based spiritual practices: ancestral rituals, herbalism, astrology tied to lunar cycles. People aren’t just reacting politically—they’re responding spiritually. It’s a way to remember we belong to the Earth, not the other way around. When institutions offer delay and denial, mysticism offers immediacy and reverence.
5. Counterculture challenged traditional values—and opened spiritual doors.
In the wake of the 60s, the counterculture didn’t just protest war and inequality—it questioned everything. What counted as truth? Who got to speak with authority? That openness paved the way for spiritual experimentation, from Buddhism to psychedelics to New Age ideologies. The boundaries of belief widened, and people stepped through.
Today’s counterculture has new tools—memes, zines, podcasts—but the energy is similar. Disillusionment with the status quo leads people to build their own systems. There’s renewed interest in anti-capitalist spirituality, energy healing, and rewilding the self. Mysticism becomes both a sanctuary and a strategy. Like in the 70s, it’s not just about belief—it’s about breaking from what no longer fits and imagining something better.
6. Mainstream religion lost its grip—and mysticism filled the gap.
In both the 70s and now, traditional religious institutions lost their appeal for many. Scandals, strict doctrine, and inflexible hierarchies made people—especially young people—question what faith meant to them. What replaced it wasn’t atheism. It was curiosity. Interest in the occult, astrology, and divination surged, offering flexible spiritual frameworks that didn’t require dogma.
Today’s decline in church attendance parallels the rise in “spiritual but not religious” identities. Apps replace sermons. Online communities replace congregations. Instead of one central narrative, mysticism offers thousands of paths—none more valid than another. It’s not about rejecting belief altogether. It’s about wanting something more personal, intuitive, and responsive. For many, that shift feels more like a return to self than a break from faith.
7. Technology shaped how people accessed spiritual ideas.
In the 70s, self-help books, public TV gurus, and cassette tapes helped spiritual ideas reach living rooms across the country. The mystical became mobile—no longer locked in temples or hidden in esoteric groups, but available to anyone willing to listen, read, or tune in. That access mattered. It let people personalize their practices and experiment without gatekeepers.
Now, we’re deep in a digital version of the same phenomenon. TikTok witches, astrology memes, virtual tarot readers—it’s all right there, algorithmically served up to whoever needs it. While some worry about the commodification of spirituality, it also means more people are finding tools that resonate. Just like in the 70s, technology isn’t just spreading mysticism. It’s reshaping how we practice, connect, and share it.
8. Distrust in healthcare led to alternative healing.
In the 70s, Western medicine was viewed as cold, clinical, and often dismissive—especially toward women, people of color, and the poor. As a result, many turned to herbal remedies, acupuncture, energy healing, and holistic practices that felt more humane and intuitive. Healing became something you did with your community, not just in a doctor’s office.
Today, that skepticism hasn’t gone away. From pandemic-era chaos to medical gatekeeping and insurance nightmares, modern healthcare often leaves people feeling unseen and unheard. Alternative wellness has stepped into the gap again—sometimes with thoughtful, evidence-based support, and other times with unregulated chaos.
Still, the appeal is familiar: listen to your body, trust your gut, and reject systems that only see you as a symptom. Just like in the 70s, mystical and alternative healing offers not just medicine, but care.
9. Economic burnout made hustle culture feel hollow.
By the end of the 70s, people were exhausted—overworked, underpaid, and fed up with jobs that didn’t lead anywhere. Sound familiar? Today’s generations are clocking out of hustle culture faster than they’re clocking in. Between side gigs, student loans, and housing crises, the promise of upward mobility has lost its shine.
In both decades, that burnout has fueled a spiritual shift. Mystical practices offer a counterweight to capitalist urgency. Tarot encourages reflection. Astrology affirms emotional cycles. Rituals slow you down. For people who feel like they’re never doing enough, mysticism whispers that maybe the problem isn’t them—it’s the system. And in that gap, a different kind of value emerges.
10. Self-help became a spiritual survival tool.
The 70s saw a boom in self-help books that blurred the line between psychology and spirituality. Authors offered tools for self-awareness that weren’t clinical—they were soulful. These resources helped people navigate trauma, loss, and identity with language that felt more personal than a diagnosis.
Today’s version is digital, decentralized, and deeply rooted in the same hybrid space. Instagram therapists, shadow work journals, trauma-informed astrology—there’s a whole universe of tools that combine mental health and mysticism.
While not all of it is grounded, the intention is the same: to heal on your own terms, using frameworks that resonate beyond pathology. In both eras, mysticism became a toolkit for people who didn’t feel seen by traditional structures.
11. Marginalized communities used mysticism to reclaim power.
In the 70s, spiritual practices like Santería, hoodoo, and other ancestral traditions helped Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities reconnect with cultural roots while resisting colonized religion. These weren’t just spiritual tools—they were forms of survival, protest, and self-definition in a society that often denied their existence.
That reclamation is just as strong now. With rising visibility of Afro-Indigenous spirituality, land-based practices, and decolonial mysticism, many are returning to traditions that center community, intuition, and healing from oppression. Mysticism, in this context, isn’t escapism. It’s empowerment. It’s a way to say: we were always here, and we have our own ways of knowing.
12. Escapism wasn’t the goal—it was transformation.
The 70s didn’t just produce trend-followers. It birthed seekers. People weren’t just looking to escape difficult realities—they were trying to understand them differently. Psychedelics, meditation, astrology, and communal living were ways to ask deeper questions when the surface stopped making sense.
We’re seeing that again now. People aren’t just doom-scrolling—they’re trying to make meaning in a world that feels surreal. Whether it’s through eclipse rituals or ancestor altars, the goal isn’t to check out. It’s to tune in. Mysticism offers something consumer culture never could: a sense that change starts with how you think, feel, and connect. Not to avoid reality, but to reimagine it.
13. Aesthetic and spirituality blurred into lifestyle.
Flowy dresses, incense, handmade journals, cosmic tattoos—spirituality in the 70s had a look, and it wasn’t accidental. Mysticism became part of the visual language of the era, just like it is now. The rise of “witchy” fashion, crystal jewelry, and celestial aesthetics isn’t just about marketing. It’s about people wanting to wear their beliefs.
Both then and now, that blend of aesthetic and spirit reflects a craving to live your values, even in the clothes you put on or the way you decorate a room. Critics call it shallow, but for many, it’s a portal—a way to keep meaning close, visible, embodied. When the world feels chaotic, beauty becomes its own kind of grounding.
14. The mystical gave people a way to belong.
The 70s weren’t just a time of individual exploration—they were deeply communal. Mysticism became the glue in a moment when many felt unmoored. From astrology salons to intentional communities, people gathered not just to learn but to heal and reconnect.
These spaces offered something traditional institutions couldn’t: permission to be curious, spiritual, emotional, and unsure. It wasn’t about having the answers—it was about asking better questions, together.
That sense of belonging is still what draws people to mysticism today. Whether it’s through online moon circles, group tarot readings, or spiritual mutual aid networks, people are building meaning together. For those disillusioned with politics, organized religion, or the isolation of digital life, these spaces offer warmth and witness. The mystical isn’t just about insight; it’s about intimacy. In both the 70s and now, the spiritual became a sanctuary, not just from the world—but within it.