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Spirit 101: Spiritual Phases and Archetypes

  • Writer: Admin
    Admin
  • Mar 3, 2017
  • 5 min read

In this article I want to talk about the conceptions of spirituality that are misleading when we first start off on the spiritual path.

Spirituality is a broad and general term that can have a lot of different meanings for people. What is spirituality? What does “being spiritual” mean? In my own life and spiritual process I can look back and see different stages of the spiritual path. So in this video I’am going to label and define the stages so you can get a better understanding of where you are in the process and where you are heading. Now the spiritual process is unique to everyone there are some observable reoccurring patterns that exist within the human experience. Something that I call “Spiritual Archetypes”.

Everyone is coming from different backgrounds. Some of us may have grown up in traditional religious homes, whether Christian, Islamic, Jewish and that was where we got our first dose of spirituality while others may have never known about those labels and instead just stumbled upon that sense of oneness with something greater than ourselves through a connection with nature, or a Near Death Experience, or some practice such as Yoga.

It doesn’t matter what end of the stick your coming from what matters is understanding where you’re at, how far along you are, and where your heading. Knowing these things might relieve some anxiety for a bit until life drops you into the next level and all these questions arise again, which is completely natural. There are many times along the spiritual path where we finally find ourselves standing on a stable platform only to fall through it once again and feel ourselves falling or wading through space. This is completely natural and is the normal peak and trough process of all things in the universe. Duality. You will naturally go through times of confidence and security and doubt and insecurity. Fluctuation is how we grow. You’re riding a wave that constantly rises and crashes but it’s always taking you somewhere.

So phase number one: Religion. You have a strong and passionate attitude for a belief system that supports you and your life.

There are set and rigid rituals that you follow which you believe will help you in life and they provide a sense of support and comfort. You don’t necessarily understand how they will help you and to what affect but that doesn’t matter. It gives you a sense of comfort and ease which makes the realities of life easier to bear. Right now this is where a predominate number of the people on the planet reside. You can find all types of people here. Even people who some would consider impolite, rude, and rigid can be in this space and the only thing from keeping them out of the label of bad or horrible human being is the set of morals that they have adopted as their value system. However, there are also perfectly beautiful and charitable beings residing here but they still haven’t evolved to the point where they question all value systems and learned that values, ethics, and morals are things that should be constantly considered, questioned, flexible, and everchanging.

Phase two: The Spiritual Façade. The spiritual façade is a phase for those people who have become disillusioned by traditional religion.

Religion may have at one point given them hope, security, and a set of morals to rigidly follow but their being is now expanding and they find themselves longing for something deeper. Something that offers them more flexibility to life’s everchanging circumstances. They no longer view the world’s problems, and their own, as something to be solved with a prescription. The prescription being a simple prayer, ritual, or plea to a divine figure like Jesus or Mohamed. They’re evolving past the point of crying out for a solution and enter a new realm of becoming or embodying a solution. Many people find this transition distressing because the old prescriptive system is leaving. It no longer has the ability to give them a sense of comfort. But as this feeling fades away they find themselves realizing that they’re the solution and that they’re responsible for solving their problems and contributing positively to the world. You can find these types at Yoga courses or meditation retreats. They are just starting down the path of authentic spirituality and being very real with themselves. They start having a truly deep sense of compassion for themselves and the world. However, this is where spiritual bypass is most likely to occur.

Spiritual bypass is when we get our first dose of authentic spirituality and we start to see everything in the world and ourselves through a rosy sunshine colored lens. We think to ourselves, “The world is such a beautiful place and you alone have the power to create the reality that you want in anyway.” This can be found everywhere throughout the New Age community and many teachers, and their students, get stuck here for years.

Many of these people have truly good intentions and want the best for themselves and others. And you will find them being as kind and loving and caring as they can be but many of them are missing the bigger picture. That we are all human and that there is still a hell of a lot of unconscious and dark shit within the human psyche, specifically theirs. They will appear to be kind and loving and “at one” with everything but you will feel like something is amiss or not right. You might feel a tad bit of inauthenticity. And this is because they are at a phase of development where they are trying to be what they believe to be is spiritual. And what they think about “being spiritual” is that you are loving and kind and caring 100% of the time and never have any problems and everything is just peachy green because god is everything and we are all one and love makes up the center of the universe. For some, and I hope for all, this is short lived. The next layer, or trough, in spiritual unfoldment will hit and the person may be shocked and confused when they find themselves acting out, giving into old compulsions, and re-experiencing emotions and thoughts of their former selves. Not to worry it’s just the next phases. Things tend to kick real hard before they die, especially are old habits and compulsions. They might have one or two last go arounds before they’re kicked for good.

Phases Three: Spiritual Maturity. When you get to this phase you’ve experienced the ebbs and flows of the spiritual paths. You’ve probably had 5 or more dark night of the souls and you’ve come to accept and be OK with old unconscious shit coming back up unexpectedly.

Before it scared you because you thought, “Wait I thought I was already done with this and past it?” But now you realize that spirituality isn’t all about peace, love, and truth. You recognize, understand, and accept that true spirituality is about constantly vomiting up all your unconscious stuff on a daily basis and dealing with it directly. You realize that “being spiritual” is something like a sweater that you just put on when it’s convenient but rather realize that it’s a way of living every day and every moment. And you accept that it isn’t always pretty, clear, and concise but at times, many times, can be ugly, messy, and confusing. And your OK with that now. And because you find yourself constantly taking complete responsibility for your own emotions, thoughts, and actions despite what is going on outside of you you feel a sense of empowerment and peace within yourself. And then “spiritual people” will look at you weird and think there is something off with that dude.

 
 
 

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