Phase Seven: Spiritually Awake

This is the final installment in a series called "Twelve Steps to a Spiritual Awakening"

If you have been walking along with us on this journey, putting one foot in front of the other and taken the Steps, you have had a spiritual awakening. That is what the Twelfth Step says, “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps...” For some this comes as a burning bush. For some this comes as a gradual awakening, eyes opening more with each Step.

For me it was more the latter, although there were some major revelations along the way. I can tell you that in practicing the Steps “as a way of life” my spiritual awakening deepens beyond anything I could have imagined when I started, to the point of finding the Self that never was asleep. This process is much more a shedding than adding to.

So lets look at Step Twelve. Let me begin by saying that if you are reading this you are already looking at Step Twelve. One of the principles of this program is that I try to share what I have found with others.

In the AA version it reads “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” In the original manuscript, the author wrote “...we tried to carry this message to others, especially alcoholics..."

Most alcoholics have to hit rock bottom before they are willing to surrender themselves to God via the Steps. The ego must be sufficiently displaced in order to allow the space for this program to work. But that is what the Steps are designed to do. A surrender to the process and willingness to see it through are required.

Practicing the principles of the Steps in all our affairs takes a commitment. It takes a desire to move to something more. To evolve.

The world, humanity in general, needs the Twelve Steps at this time. We are collectively hitting rock bottom. What is required is that we clean up our own shit and be a light to others. Let's light the collective darkness.

Let us adopt this design for living in oneness with our Higher Power and manifest His/Her will on this planet. It is a daunting task to save the world, but when we bring it down to the level of the Steps, willingness and surrender are all that are needed.