New Age (Updated)
In the final days of Pre-Regression civilization, a movement began centered around the belief that humanity would go through a new spiritual phase, the so-called "Age of Aquarius", in the coming years. Called the New Age Movement, they began to congregate in the Southwest as the Regression approached. The new era wasn't the total shift in spiritual conscionous they envisioned, but none can deny the world did change.
In the following centuries, the New Age philosophy and theology obviously underwent revisions. The once freeform nature of the faith became more and more structured as those with water - and thus, power - declared their ideas to be doctrine and opponents' beliefs to be heretical. The indigenous tribes of the Southwest proved to be amongst the most powerful, being used to surviving in the Southwest, and so their ideas and beliefs predominated.
The primary belief is the supremacy of a Sky Father, who rules everything. Below Him are the Earth Mother, who created everything, and the Great Spirits, personifications of nature who are prayed to by the Medicine Men for more specific favors. An observor would claim that this resembles the Catholics' belief in God, Virgin Mary, and the Saints, and would then declare that this is a relic from New Mexico's Latino population, but the New Agers deny any obvious similarities. For example, they point to their most holy ceremony, the Ghost Dance Ritual, or to their belief that gems contain healing properties.
New Age Medicine Men (Male) and Mediums (Female) are believed to have healing powers. While the mediums are simply beleived to heal by touch, the Medicine Men lead their village in rituals meant to cleanse the body - exrcise, meditation, and therapy like herbal teas. Astrology also plays a huge role in the New Age - no one, from the lowliest slave to the most exalted ruler, starts his day without a horoscope reading.
The New Agers believe in reincarnation - everyone has a spirit guide, and the lessons learned from meditating on one's past lives are considered an important step in spiritual porgress. While they do believe women serve an important role in their faith, this is still a Hydraulic Empire, and irrigator society has little room for advancement regardless of gender - Mediums are largely overglorified masseuses who speak in tongues, and other women find themselves as beholden to their caste as the men do.
The New Age Movement has spread to the Oklahoman tribes, who incorporated it's methods with New Israelite beliefs, but is otherwise simply New Mexico's state religion.
Here there be Monsters: The Grey
At the back of every human's mind is the feeling that he or she is being watched. This expands to the faer that these watchers will seduce or kidnap the defenseless, drag them to their homes, and the poor soul is never heard from again. They have many names - elves, fey, sidhe, fairies, the Good Folk, the Gentry. But in the Southwest, one name surpasses all others: The Grey.
New Mexican art is surprisingly consistant on what the Grey look like - grey (obviously) skin, large black eyes, emaciated bodies, bald. They come from Elsewhere to kidnap lone humans and take the defenseless to their citadels. Some times, the human escapes and returns to the world of Man, where they quickly become valued as spirit mediums because of there experiances. But New Age mythology is repleat with stories of those who weren't so lucky.