The stages of spiritual awakening
Every one of us is somewhere on this map. Here are the ten levels, from survival to awakening, the shadow at each one, and how to find where you stand.
This map builds on the work of Clare W. Graves and of Don Beck and Christopher Cowan (Spiral Dynamics), and on Tara Springett’s book The Stairway to Heaven. The short quoted statement at each level is Tara’s, quoted from her book with thanks.
There are ten levels: Survival, Belonging, Power, Order, Achievement, Community, Responsibility, Love, Bliss and Awakening. People move through them in order. Each level builds on the ones below it, and each has a healthy side and a shadow side.
The first half of the journey builds a strong, healthy self. The second half sees through it. You cannot let go of a self you have not yet built, which is why the early levels matter so much, even for people who meditate.
The turn happens around Community. Before it, the work is about becoming capable. After it, the work is about opening.
Read them slowly and notice which ones feel like home.
“I must stay alive.”
Awareness organises itself around staying alive: food, warmth and safety from danger. There is no story yet, just a nervous system reacting to need and threat. It is the ground every other level is built on.
“I belong to my group.”– Tara Springett
Identity comes from the family or tribe. Life feels trusting and settled, and there is little drive to question or choose, because the self that would question has not fully formed.
“I want it, and I want it now.”– Tara Springett
The separate self wakes up through desire and willpower. The world becomes a contest of strong against weak. It can look ugly, but this is the birth of agency, an “I” that wants and acts.
“I do what is expected of me.”– Tara Springett
Safety comes from rules, morality and duty. Belonging now comes through being good, and the group’s approval is enough. The gift is discipline. The trap is doing good out of fear rather than choice.
“I want to achieve more than anyone else.”– Tara Springett
A rational, scientific view takes over, and success becomes the measure of worth. Much of modern Western culture lives here. The limit is that worth has to be earned, so who are we when we stop achieving?
“I am close to others and to nature.”– Tara Springett
The heart opens. Connection starts to matter more than winning. This is the great turning point of the whole journey, from “me” to “we”, and it is where many people discover meditation.
“I realise my dreams for the best of humankind.”– Tara Springett
You take full responsibility for your own inner life and reactions, and stop handing your feelings to other people. Your gifts go into meaningful work and service. Inner work and outer work become one path.
“I send love to heal the world.”– Tara Springett
Love and spiritual practice move to the centre of life, and worldly success matters less. The earlier levels did good and achieved. This level loves.
“My true nature is spiritual bliss.”
This is the territory deep meditation opens up: a direct experience of your own nature as blissful, spacious awareness. Identity moves from being a person who has experiences to being the awareness they arise in.
“I am love.”– Tara Springett
The separate self dissolves into love, bliss and wisdom, free of inner conflict. Every shadow on the way up has been seen through. There is nothing left to do for yourself, and everything left to do for others.
Where do you stand? The Awaken Quiz takes two minutes and shows the level you live from most of the time.
Take the Awaken QuizRead each one. The question that stings a little is probably pointing at the level you are working on.
On this map there are ten: Survival, Belonging, Power, Order, Achievement, Community, Responsibility, Love, Bliss and Awakening. People move through them in order. Each one builds on the levels below it, and each has a healthy side and a shadow side.
Most of us live from one level most of the time, with visits above and below. That is your centre of gravity. A quick way to find it is to read the eight questions above and notice which one stings a little. For a first indication, take the free two-minute Awaken Quiz. For a detailed picture of every level, including your main shadow, take the free Awaken Survey.
No. Each level rests on the one below it. If you are stuck at one level, the block is almost always an unfinished lesson one step down. So instead of pushing harder, go back down, make that step solid, and the mind climbs by itself.
Every level gives you a gift, and every level can cast a shadow. The shadow is the same drive, gripped by fear. When you are stuck at a level, it is usually that level’s shadow holding you there. Seeing through it is often harder than living the level itself.
Meditation promises peace, so when peace does not arrive we decide we have failed. But meditation does not numb us. It clarifies us. It shows us the patterns behind our unhappiness, and that is uncomfortable, so we reach for sugar, screens and busyness. The discomfort is pointing at the step that needs attention.
There is no fixed timeline. Most people stay at one level for most of their life. What moves you is practising the lesson of the level you are actually at, not the one you wish you were at. It is far faster with a guide than alone.
No. Many traditions see enlightenment as the top of the path. I see awakening as a process that starts much earlier. It begins when we start shedding the dualistic view of ourselves and the universe, the sense that we are separate from everything else. Awakening deepens step by step and culminates in enlightenment. On this map, that end point is the tenth level, Awakening.
It builds on psychologist Clare W. Graves’s lifetime of research into how human values grow in stages, later brought to a wide audience by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan as Spiral Dynamics. It also draws on Tara Springett’s book The Stairway to Heaven, which carries the map through to awakening, and the quoted statement at each level is hers. What I add is the shadow at every step, and a way to work backwards when you are stuck.
Seventeen taps. You see the level you live from most of the time, straight away.
Take the quizI walk through all ten levels in three short recorded parts, including the shadow at every step.
Watch the recordingWant the full picture? Take the Awaken Survey (25 minutes) for your detailed Awaken Map. Or book a free 30 minutes with me.