The Stages of A Spiritual Awakening

What even is a spiritual awakening?

Have you ever been driving down the highway for quite some time then all of the sudden you become aware that you are driving and you say to yourself “Oh right, im driving. Right, okay”. That is how I like to relate what it seems like to have an awakening, only less painful.

When you have a spiritual awakening you finally are seeing the limiting ways of the human existence and mind. You very quickly become extremely aware about how much more there is to life and how powerful it is. Sometimes we realize we need a wider lens to get the full picture. This is literally “ waking up”.

To be “woke” is it to be Enlightened?

Well in a sense, to be awakened is to have more of an open outlook and a fully aware mind about what is going on around you. Try to think about the day you were born, you can’t remember right? Right. That is because we were so unaware of what was going on around us. Our minds were in early stages of developing and learning. In Buddhism, to be enlightened is to completely eliminate yourself from all attachments because being attached to something is to suffer.

This question is sort of one of those things where you might just have to come up with your own definition to enlightenment such as; success. I can not speak from personal experience because in my opinion I don’t believe I have reached full enlightenment.

As we begin to awaken our growth differs per our soul contracts. Here is what my observation is on the various stages of a spiritual awakening.

Stage One – The Dark Knight of The Soul

In my experience, everyone goes through this stage once they are first starting to wake up. It is one of the most painful and confusing stages. Usually people start to wake up when they are going through a dark time in their lives. Hints the name the dark knight of the soul.

“ I feel like I am going insane”
“Nothing feels real”
“ people asked if i’m depressed”
“I’m going through a crisis”
And so on…

The dark knight of the soul is a period of your life where you feel like your life is falling into shambles. You may feel a dark presence and clouds hanging over your head, almost like depression, but it is not because you can actually function and do your everyday task. This might begin after some huge tragedy or tuama happens in your life and hits you on a deeper level subconsciously.

This stage can last up to months or even years for some people it all just depends on the matters of your life. Usually this is the time where you hit rock bottom. That is good though because once you hit bottom the only way to go is up. All this agoney is not for nothing which leads me on to the next stage.

Stage Two – A Path to Hope

Like I was saying once you hit bottom the only way to go is back up, there is no giving up. Something inside of you just won’t have it. This stage is important; it marks a time in your life of transition. Transition from autopilot to conscious living.

For me, I woke up in the morning in bed with a deep feeling. No other words can I describe with but just love and fulfillment. That feeling followed me around that day giving me the biggest amount of hope to keep going.

I still had not known all the answers but I felt like I did in a sense. So, maybe you’re scrolling on tiktok and a video drops in front of you talking about angel numbers and how you are on the right path with divine guidance and things just start to spark up in that moment. You want to know more so you do some research of your own.

It might not happen just like this but however this feeling ponders acoss you, you will definitely be feeling an instant relief of this darkness and heaviness that has followed you around for however long. Remember how I said you would spark an interest in this feeling and begin doing research? That’s how you know you’re about to begin the next stage of a spiritual awakening.

Stage Three – Bookworm

I like to call this stage bookworm because quite frantically that’s what you become. You are now binging youtube videos and audiobooks on everything and anything about spirituality. We are just stuffing our brain with information at this point. There’s never been a time in your life where you have felt more excited to learn.

“Google, what is a soul purpose?”. Yup, you read that correctly. We are now diving deeper into topics and questions such as; the meaning of life, oneness, reincarnation, meditation, soul contracts, energy, and so much more. You may even dive deeper beyond your own inherited religious text, into other eastern, western, and ancient scriptures. This was a time for me to also get involved in conspiracy theories falling down a rabbit hole two nights out of the week until 4am. Whoops.

According to psychology we can only hold seven facts in our brain at once after that we start to forget and get mixed up about what it was we learned somewhere near the middle and end. So, it starts to get a little confusing at this time. We tend to draft towards a practice that best suits our beliefs and what makes most sense to us. Personally I gravitate more towards practical spirituality and western tools. I have broadened my spectrum since then but this is where I felt most comfortable to begin.

Stage Four – Internal Conflict

Right, this is where we begin to become doubtful of ourselves and spirituality. At this point, you have taken a break between all the research and just kind of chilled out. Maybe you are even getting more into daily practices. You’ll soon find yourself becoming bestfriends with google again because you want to believe in the existence beyond this reality but the ego mind just can’t do the math.

In Buddhism the ego is also another thing that should be completely dissolved, but is also something we need to navigate the world. The ego is who you tell yourself you are and this may bring in some kind of trouble considering to buddhist. They believe we do not exist how we think we do. To dissolve the ego is to just simply have an alert seeing or acceptance.

Our ego:

“What if this is not even true?”
“Am I really spiritual? My emotions get in the way and isn’t spirituality about all love and light?’
“I’m losing control”

In this phase of your spiritual awakening it will be very similar to walking through a corn maze. Sometimes paths will lead you to new openings and others will make you turn around. There will be stops in the road but it is okay to challenge our spiritual beliefs. Just keep pushing on, don’t let this stop you in your spiritual progress. This is a time where you will feel overwhelmed and you may even take a huge break from everything just to find a piece of mind but don’t worry, we have already started the process there really is no going back.

Stage Five – Metamorphosis

After all that triumph of a mess things will soon fall into place. You’ll realize you have been so divinely guided that this is no longer a coincidence. Now your spiritual journey really starts to kick in. Think of it as a roller coaster with all those twists and turns, feeling a bit sick but finally it comes to a stop and we can get off the ride to collect.

Now that you are no longer overwhelmed and can breathe, this is where we really start to open our minds and see the world for what it really is. During this time I experienced things such as;

Major self awareness.
Guilt for past behaviors and changing those to be in alignment with my true self.
Finding new interest in hobbies I never liked before.
Noticing others around me that are still “asleep” or on autopilot mode.
Feelings of disappointment and sadness for the world around me.
Desperately wanting to help others around you “wake up” but not knowing how to go about it.
Turning into a homebody and losing friends because I was on a different path then they were and I wanted to protect my energy.
Becoming extremely sensitive to negative energy and learning how to protect myself.

I could go on and on about all the eternal shifts that happened, it’s kind of like a makeover but for your soul. This is one of the stages you will most notice. You will break out of that cocoon and transform into a beautiful butterfly. All the pain and heartache seems to be a bit more worth it at this point.

Stage Six – Spiritual Ego

All of that time spent blooming and becoming distant around others was tough, but youre so proud of yourself that you have now formed a second ego, the spiritual ego. Feeling a bit full of yourself? Yeah, I thought so.

Here are some examples of the spiritual ego:

Feeling rare because you are “woke” and others are not.
You are superior to others who don’t live consciously.
You are no longer putting up with toxic behavior so you put up with no one, now you’re all alone.
You don’t belong on this planet, you are too wise and too old of a soul
You might even rant on social media about how people are ignorant for not being “woke”

During this time you lose the feelings of sadness and concern for the world and others around you. You have now developed this alter ego who believes they are a golden treasure. The concern turns into resentment and it can be quite embarrassing for some people.

You may even begin something called “spiritual bypassing” believing that there is only love and light. You begin to ignore negative emotions, instead of focusing on healing them you suppress them and then they grow even bigger. That is okay though, this shall too pass and another stage will begin. It is all a part of the process. It is hard not to become cocky when you are doing so well.

What helped me was to really become aware of this ego and instead of speaking only love and light to it, I destroyed it. I picked at my shadow self. I would sit down with pen and paper and write out all the things I disliked about my mindset, then I would write where it came from, give it a foundation, and then I would turn those toxic ideologies into better beliefs and practice it daily everytime I felt the need to be so smug.

It is important to be patient with yourself during this time and really hone in on your behavior. We don’t want to set ourselves or others on a pedestal; it is key to find balance within this stage.

Stage Seven – Tapping into The Magic

At some point a brick falls out of the sky and knocks you right back into reality. You really haven’t been taking this whole spirituality seriously, now have you? No. I know, neither did I, we all go through it. This journey has been like a 10th grade relationship, off and on. No commitment, but the time has now come that we decided we want to settle down and get serious about our stuff. We are longing for a long term, committed relationship with the universe and its magic.

Here are some things we begin to realize:

Feelings of being fully accountable for our karmic debts.
The universe will always have your back but it is up to you to decide if you are going to fully trust it or not.
No one is going to start their journey the same time as you, the same way you did, and neither is better or worse.
We are all one and connected.
The main goal is to heal ourselves and the others around us who need and want help

As an attempt to heal yourself faster, you will notice a growing inclination of certain healing practices. In all stages of the spiritual awakening this one is surely the most exciting!

Examples of healing practices:

Energy work
Subconscious healing
Body healing (exercise, yoga, ect.)
Chakra healing (meditation work)
Healing stones and crystals
Using sage and essential oils
Learning about tarot and astrology

There are many healing practices and tools you can use in your spiritual journey. My personal favorite has always been writing and using meditation. Which is very basic but what works best for you is what works best.

Stage Eight – Coming Out of The Closet

Normally it takes some time to come out to friends and family about what is going on internally. Especially if they do not believe in or follow what you do. For most a spiritual journey is a very isolated thing, it would be easier to talk to a stranger on the internet about it than it would be with their neighbor.

I still haven’t found anyone close enough to me that believes in what I do, but I have come to a point where I am confident in my beliefs and I will share them with anyone who is interested in listening. I have friends and family members who have come around to it but I just dont think their journey has quite begun for them.

As you heal deeper and undergo transformations you will find yourself being more comfortable and open with your spirituality. It becomes second nature, it is a part of you, and a passion. If anyone is willing to dislike you or befriend you for your beliefs then they probably weren’t meant to be in your life to begin with, so be thankful for that.

I am always someone you can come to and chat with about your beliefs, my socials are on my about page and I would love to hear from anyone who is going through their spiritual awakening.

Stage Nine – Finding Your Purpose

Although we go through all this turmoil and healing process, some of us may find that there’s something still missing. I have found that once you know what your purpose is in this life to be giving back all the dots start to connect.

It is not always an easy process of finding out exactly what your purpose is. It may take you finding out your true passion and exploring different hobbies to find that exactly. This is called your dharma. The dharma is not just what you do, it is why you do it, and what you do it for. Once you find the dharma that brings you full happiness this is what you are supposed to be doing. This is where all doors will open up for you and opportunities flow in.

You can also look into your natal chart to find out what career paths you should take to experience life long happiness.

Stage Ten – Spiritualist

This stage is about mastering spiritual lessons. It is a stage where you may feel as if you have become “un-spiritual”. Almost as if you have become disconnected with the universe. You just fell off the band-waggin!!

It is such an uncomfortable feeling. You did all this work and you have walked into your purpose feeling like Ghadi, now you are disconnected. If you take a deeper look though there is something really magical happening.

Revisiting and overseeing the challenge we once have gone through before is not to remind us how bad we have failed but to show us how far we have come. It is to help us clean up our act a little better and to shine a little brighter.

Currently this year I am struggling with controlling my anger and being more compassionate with others but as I said before this too shall pass. If I can get through it then so can you, stay strong and continue to put in the work. You got this !

Concluding thoughts

These 10 stages of a spiritual awakening are most accurately in order. Some may experience them differently and some will go back and forth with one another such as the reality check and spiritual ego which seem to play a game of tag. Maybe they even play well together such as yin and yang balancing each other out.

The journey is strange, magical, and mesmerizing but in the end it is all worth it. Some of these stages last longer for others even up to years as opposed to people like me who it took about three years to fully go through each stage. Just remember to have patience with yourself and shine as bright as you need. None of you are alone, I am just a message away!