Disclaimer: This article is NOT INTENDED TO TAKE THE PLACE OF MEDICAL ADVICE. I use my knowledge of psychology, education, and the occult to address metaphysical topics. I AM NOT A LICENSED MENTAL HEALTH PRACTIONER. Please seek medical advice if you feel that your symptoms are affecting your day-to-day life or you feel that you may be a harm to yourself or others.
What exactly is a spiritual awakening and how can you tell which stage you're in? Does a spiritual awakening end? How does it begin?
From my perspective, a spiritual awakening is a subjective experience in which the ego transcends the "ordinary". I find it akin to existentialism, where one begins to question their existence and sovereignty. It can feel like a mental crisis because you begin to question everything. It feels like the Tower Card and 10 of Swords. It's not pretty, but it is amazing.
What sets off a spiritual awakening?
Stage 1 Pivotal Moment: You experience a catalytic event or a dark night of the soul. This can come in the form of trauma (acute, long-term, repetitive), geopolitical events, illness, or any event that causes you to question your beliefs and your purpose. We see this in people who have had an NDE (near-death experience). For me, it was being in an abusive relationship. This critical moment in time or event doesn't need to happen directly to you. As naturally empathic beings, just being a witness is enough to spark an awakening.
Additionally, this pivotal moment doesn't always have to be negative. It can simply be that one day, the career you thought you loved no longer makes you happy. Perhaps your hometown no longer resonates with you and you feel the urge to move to another state or even another country. Traveling also has an amazing way of sparking a spiritual awakening.
What happens next?
Stage 2 Questioning: The event will cause you to question everything. From your life purpose to whether there is a god and if there was why would x, y,z happen? We question religion and spirituality, the news, and perhaps everything we learned in school. It feels as if you woke up from a dream that felt all too real.
Stage 3 Seeking and Experimenting: Humans feel like they need to believe in something or nothing. A fundamental question becomes "What do I believe?" "What do I stand for?"I find this to be the most vulnerable stage of the process because when we become desperate for answers, we can easily be taken advantage of. We want our questions answered and we don't know where to start.
This is usually a stage where you purchase books, listen to podcasts, or go on retreats. Some people may partake in plant medicine, or become initiated into certain religions or practices. Perhaps you become Buddhist for a month and then you move on. In our quest for the "truth", we find that the message is the same, just delivered in different ways.
Stage 4 Learning and Developing: Here is where perhaps you have found a practice or perspective that brings you solace and you dive into learning and developing. Even if the decision is to be an atheist, it takes learning (or unlearning) and developing to step into that perspective. Perhaps you've stepped into the occult or tapped into ancestral work. This is the part where you become the student.
Stage 5 Integration/Application: As an educator, I consider myself to be a life-long learner. However, we can't spend our entire lives in Hermit mode. Eventually, we need to integrate our new perspectives and practices into our human experience. The only way to truly know is to experience, embody, and practice in real time. When I was a classroom teacher, it wasn't enough for me to "teach" my students, I needed to give them time and space to apply and practice the skills they were learning.
Stage 6 Surrender: Once you have found what works for you (or what works for that particular moment in your life), you learn to surrender. This is the stage where you learn to accept, let go, and trust. In Buddhism, this can be similar to non-attachment and in the metaphysical world, it resembles the law of detachment. The expression "Let go and let God" comes to mind as well.
Stage 7 Unity Conscious and Service to Others: Ultimately, we reach a point where we realize that there is one all-encompassing energy that unites us all. Some may go the path of believing that there is one external being that governs all things, while others may see that the divine energy responsible for creation is also within each of us and is present in all things.
Service to others doesn't mean you leave your job to hold spiritual retreats in Bali (but you definitely can, if that's your calling). It means that you begin to live your joy and your passion by doing what you love. If your calling is to be a police officer and it brings you joy to serve others, by all means, become a police officer. If what you do brings you joy, you're raising the earth's vibration, which, in turn, is helping others.
As humans, we can have similar experiences, however, It's important to keep in mind that a spiritual awakening is deeply personal and it may not always follow a clear or predetermined path. There is no set time frame for each stage, and you may find yourself in one stage for an extended period of time or moving through each stage quickly and having another awakening later in life.
Are you thinking about where you are in your spiritual awakening? Consider booking a spiritual mentorship session. I can help you identify what stage you're in, answer pressing questions, and co-create a sustainable course of action to help you on your journey.