A Guide to Spiritual Awakening for Beginners

Spiritual awakening is where you realize that you are more than your personal self. It gives you a direct experience of union or yoga.

The personal merges with the universal. Time merges with eternity and the finite merges with the Infinite.

The mystic poet Rumi says it this way.

The dewdrop merges with the ocean and the Ocean merges with the dewdrop—Rumi.

The Master Jesus Christ speaking as the awakened Christ says it this way.

I and the Father are One – John 10:30

This spiritual awakening experience is given through Grace. You don’t earn it. You can never earn it. You can’t earn what you already are.

Spiritual awakening makes you a mystic. A mystic, as I define it, is someone who has had at least one DIRECT encounter with the Divine.

Spiritual awakening experience makes you a KNOWER.

Know this, if you claim to be a believer is any religious teachings then you have not had a direct encounter with the Divine.

This is spiritual awakening as revelation. This is the end result (that never truly ends) of the spiritual process of bringing Heaven on Earth.

Here I share 10 Common Signs of Spiritual Awakening that were part of my experience.

Journey into the Light.

Photo by Matese Fields on Unsplash

The process of spiritual awakening is a journey within time to the revelation of the timeless.

Yoga Journey for Life shares various maps of the process of spiritual awakening. This is the journey we all take. Yoga’ means ‘Union.’

This union or yoga takes place through revelation. This is not something you achieve. It is something you can companion.

These maps of the spiritual journey have themes in common. These include:-

• The Territory.
• The Ways.
• The Paths.
• The Stages.
• The Signposts.
• The Steps.

There is also the language of spiritual awakening.

Here at Yoga Journey for Life this language we use includes:-

• Mystical Poetry.
• Mythological Storytelling.
• Heartsong Inspiration

I ground this journey that is the process of spiritual awakening in the many spiritual practices explored here. Key practices include:-

• The Power of Silence.
• The Power of Abundance
• The Power of Intention.

When I refer to Stages in the spiritual growth and development, I include:—

• Life Stages—1st Half—Midlife—2nd Half.
• Chakra Levels—Personal—Transitional—Universal.
• Stages of Awakening as Process and as Revelation.
• Ordinary World – Success—Failure—Unity.
• Extraordinary World – Call to Adventure—Breakthrough—Return with the Boon.

These stages of awakening refer to the different maps of the territory.

They all point in the same direction. So there is no right way to journey. There is only your way.

It’s your road, and yours alone.
others may walk it with you,
but no one can walk it for you.

― Rumi

On this website, that shares with you key signs of spiritual awakening we invite you to understand the real meaning and purpose of Yoga, which is the union of the personal with the Divine, Time with Eternity and the personal with the universal.

Understanding the different stages of the journey is important because this will allow you to recognize if you are pushing the river for results.

Different mystics of various times and traditions have mapped the above stages of the spiritual journey. Mystics are the true guides to the paths of spiritual awakening. Anyone else is really the blind leading the blind.

The language that I write from includes; –

• Mystical Poetry. – Rumi, Hafiz, Mary Oliver, W. B. Yeats, Wendell Berry, Derek Walcott – Love After Love.
• Mythological Storytelling. – Snow White, The Fall of Icarus, The Four Treasures of the Tuatha De Danaan and more
• Modern Rock Anthems – Chasing Cars Snow Patrol  – To Close to Heaven – The Waterboys – Stairway to Heaven – Led Zepplin..
• Folk Songs- Homeward Bound – Simon and Garfunkel – All the Ways You Wander – John Spillane

The above invite a feeling connection to the heart. What I invite is not more information but an experience of transformation through the language of the heart.

For example.

In Ireland I run a workshop entitled Companioning YOUR Greatness.  I love to introduce myself with a favorite poem that shares the 3 Stages of my Life.

With That Moon Language – Hafiz.

Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them,
“Love me.”
Of course you do not do this out loud,
otherwise
someone would call the cops.

Still, though, think about this,
this great pull in us
to connect.

Why not become the one
who lives with a full moon in each eye
that is always saying,
with that sweet moon language,
what every other eye in this world
is dying to hear?

The 3 Stages of my life are about dependency (Love me), Think about this longing to Connect and Becoming one who speaks with a full moon in each eye.

The moon is a symbol of wholeness that lights up the darkness.

The Journey of Spiritual Awakening is not all bliss.

It is a fabulous journey of possibility but you will find challenges along the way. In this Yoga Journey for Life I will be introducing you to those pitfalls which many people fall into.

These include: –

• Over indentation (Teacher and Group).
• Pushing for Enlightenment (The Icarus Syndrome).
• Disembodiment (Feet not on the Ground).
• Taking the Teachings Literally (Clinging to Signposts).
• Practicing Spirituality as Avoidance (Spiritual Bypassing.
• Certain New Age Practices (Magical Thinking).

The pitfalls along the way are wonderfully illustrated in the mythological Greek story of The Fall of Icarus. This is where the Hero (you) flies to close to the Sun (enlightenment) and falls to earth (becomes disembodied).