The 5 Stages Of Spiritual Awakening | Where Are You At?

What Is Spiritual Awakening?

You may be going through one of the 5 stages of a spiritual awakening without knowing what is happening. You may be experiencing things you do not understand. You may feel very different and you may see the world and life in ways you never have before. Life can be very confusing during a spiritual awakening.

A spiritual awakening generally goes through a series of phases. When you can see the entire process of spiritual awakening, it will hopefully reduce concerns and help you through the process a little easier.

Let’s start with some definitions.

Spiritual relates to the ethereal, energetic realm rather than the physical, material realm.
Spirituality is the practice or journey to understand and connect with the pure life force energy of Source and aspects of the ethereal realm. It is an awareness of infinite intelligence and something bigger than yourself.
Awakening is becoming aware of the reality of what is happening in your internal and external worlds.

Spiritual awakening then is becoming aware of the truth of the physical realm, the ethereal realm, and something bigger than yourself.

What is essential to understand is there are two aspects of awakening that occur parallel in this process. One is the process of awakening to the reality of the external world outside of you. The other is awakening to the internal realm, yourself, and what is going on inside. Both are critical pieces.

Stage 01 | Being In It

The first stage of spiritual awakening is that of being in the world.

We are all born and told the world is a certain way. We must go to school and study hard to get into university and study again to get a good job. Then we must work hard to earn good money to pay off our car, house, bills, and hopefully establish some savings. Then, at the end of our lives, we can retire and enjoy the things we have put off for so long.

Simplified like this, it sounds a little grim. But at the time, we go along with it. There are fun times to be had. Like moving out and living on your own or with friends, heading off to college for the first time, or travelling overseas. Your first job, promotion relationship or child. There are many different opportunities; all of these are new, exciting, and challenging… Until they are not.

The way we are told the world is and how we must live is not the truth of who and what we are. Deep down, we know this, and facing this truth is part of awakening.

Living the way we are told we live is not authentic to the truth of who and what we are. It is not how human beings were designed to live, and it is certainly not what makes us thrive.

Most humans go along with things, trying their best to fit into the mould. When it doesn’t feel right, we try a new job or a new relationship. We try to ignore that niggling feeling inside that tells us something is not right. We bury it in shopping, busyness, alcohol, partying, entertainment and distractions.

The signs don’t go away. Over time, they get bigger until, at some point, we are hit with a wake-up call. Something big goes wrong in our life that we can no longer ignore. It is more painful to keep living the way we are than to face the truth.

We choose to awaken…

Learn More… What Does A Spiritual Awakening Look Like?

Stage 02 | Aware Of Half Of It: The Dark

Awakening begins when we accept there is something not quite right with the way we are told the world is and the way we are living. You’ve done everything you were told you needed to be successful, but you still cannot get life to work, or things still don’t feel right.

You begin to look around, question and search for truth and answers. You get curious and realise there is more to the world than what we see

In stage 02, you begin to see one half of the world very differently as either light or dark. Many start with seeing the shadow and darkness in the self and society.

The Dark Of The World

When we start to see the darkness and shadow in the world, we become aware of patterns of corruption, chaos, greed, fear, manipulation and control playing out at all levels of society.

We discover much information has been withheld from people or manipulated and distorted to keep us from the truth.

We see that the choices we have been presented with are not free choices about how to live but limited to options that fit the current model of the world.

We may get angry, frustrated, depressed, and want to fight against the external world at this stage. We see this as the reality, and many can get stuck at this stage.

The key is to understand this is not all there is. It is only one half, and your choice is to continue moving forward to reveal the other half.

The Dark Of The Self

You may awaken to the darkness by searching internally to determine what is wrong with you and why you cannot make certain things in your life work.

The thing is, there was never anything wrong with you. You do not yet know who you are, and you are just not yet living aligned with that.

You have just received some terrible programming from the outside world.

The key here is to work on yourself to release the beliefs, thoughts, emotions, unresolved traumas and patterns you have been programmed with. Then, you can replace them with what works for you.

Once you have done enough work on yourself to lift your energetic vibration, you will be pivoted to where you can see the light.

Learn more… “What Is A Dark Night Of The Soul And How Do You Get Through It?”

Stage 03 | Aware Of The Other Half: The Light

It is challenging to go from light to darkness and can often feel like a backward step, which is why many people seem to awaken to the darkness first. Some will first see the light in stage 02 and the dark in stage 03.

As we ask more questions and seek truth, we expose the shadow and darkness and then its polarity of light.

The Light Of The World

Darkness mainly exists in the heavy, low-density energies and is further away from Source energy. Much of this is expressed in the human-made systems, structures and things of the physical realm.

The light mainly exists in high-density consciousnesses and is closer to pure Source energy. We experience this physically in nature through plants, animals, and all the natural landscapes and wonders on the surface of the Earth. The light also exists in the ethereal realm, which most humans are not connected to.

As we start to understand the world is more than just what we perceive in the physical, we get a sense of much greater power and life force. We see the magnificence and wisdom in nature and life. We start to understand energy, the power that exists in us, and the possibilities of what the world could be. We want to share this knowledge with the world.

The key here is not to get caught in the light and be realistic about the existence of the dark.

The Light Of The Self

You start to awaken to the knowledge that you are a sovereign, independent being and you are in control of your life. You begin to search for and devour new information, people and experiences.

You discover universal laws, the law of attraction and how you can start to create your life. You may learn new tools such as affirmations and vision boards to help you focus on the positive. The possibilities are infinite.

You may begin to create amazing new things in your life. Sometimes changes stay, sometimes they disappear, and you are unsure why. You use all the new tools and information you’ve learned to continue to create change in your life.

You realise that focussing only on the positive and trying to create change is only half the picture.

The key is to awaken and acknowledge both the light and the dark.

For me, personally, I think I was aware of the dark for a very long time, without being fully aware of it. I numbed the pain of the dark by distracting myself with work, study, partying. It was only when the pain of this became too great, that I went in search of more. I found the light and different ways of thinking and viewing the world. I found bigger perspectives than my own.
In time, I was thrust again into the darkness to face the things I had been ignoring before. Over about ten years I have continued to oscillate between the dark and the light, each time seeing more than I had previously. It makes me think this journey of awakening, discovery and seeing reality for what it is may not end and continues through our life.

Stage 04 | Aware Of Both Halves Of It

Once you have awakened to the darkness and shadow of the world and the light and possibilities, it may be challenging to hold these two opposing, polarised realities.

How can the world be both such darkness and chaos and such light and possibility?

It is common to oscillate between these stages, sometimes for years. We must do the work to uncover a level of darkness and then find a new layer of power and light. Only to return to discover and do some more work on the darkness of the world and ourselves. Once this is released, we raise our vibrational frequency and return to the possibility of the light again.

The process of oscillation is like a pendulum released. On the first swing, the polarities are as far apart as possible. Over time the swing becomes smaller, and the polarities become closer together until the pendulum stops, and they are one. At this time, we move out of polarity and are out of it.

The key here is to keep moving from light to dark and back again, looking at the truth of both the external world and your internal self and constantly releasing.

Completion of this stage allows both the light and the dark to co-exist and unify.

Stage 05 | Out Of It

Resolving traumas and releasing beliefs, emotions, thoughts, and patterns that hold us back and keep us stuck allows us to move out of the awakening process.

We no longer dramatically oscillate between the light and the dark at this stage. We can see both and hold them simultaneously, without extreme emotions towards either.

We no longer want to deny or run away from the dark, and we no longer want to chase and run only towards the light. We understand they are both an essential part of the whole.

At this point, we are out of the world’s reality and can experience it as true observers.

However, the work does not stop here. We are not enlightened and then live happily ever after. The world continues. As we clear old energies and raise our vibration, new levels of information and awareness come to us. As these appear, we must continue to do the work and clear more energetic layers of not only ourselves but of our ancestors and all of humanity.

Awakening is an individual process until you realise you are just one part of a whole.

Navigate Awakening

Spiritual awakening does not happen to you. To experience awakening, you must be an aware and active participant.

Awakening is a choice to face the truth of the light and darkness of the world and yourself. Awakening is the choice to walk front on into the world’s reality and meet whatever arises.

Awakening is not always easy. It can be painful and cause suffering, and it can cause joy and euphoria. On the other side of light is darkness. On the other side of darkness is light. And through awakening is a view of the whole.

How quickly you move through awakening depends on your choice to face, release the shadows, and accept the light.

But once you choose and begin to awaken and see, you can never unsee.

The choice is yours…

…Liz Watt