As we start to “awaken”, people become very drawn to us, and for good reason. The process of awakening is basically the shedding of our illusions, of the inaccurate or incomplete beliefs we hold. As we do this, our Life energy shines through us less restricted. People see the Life in us, and it sparks a recollection that there is Life within them as well. They find themselves drawn to us without knowing why. The more false layers of self we clear, the more brilliantly we shine, and they more people are drawn to us. How does this impact us socially and economically?
1.) Beginning to Awaken: People are inexplicably attracted to you, though neither they nor you seems to know why. Everywhere you go, many people think they want to befriend or date you, or in the very least, tell you their life story. Simultaneously, your empathic abilities sudden become much stronger, so you can feel their pain and their feelings for you. You want to be there for them and be kind, but it’s starting to get overwhelming. At the same time, you’re also beginning to experience the physical symptoms of awakening, many of which are unpleasant and not something our doctors can explain. (Note: Do see your doctor if you’re experiencing any concerning symptoms.) You will wonder if you are going crazy. This question is a normal part of releasing your old beliefs.
2.) Dark Night of the Soul: At this point, you have seen many of your illusions for what they are and released them. As a natural result, the ego-driven attachments that you had to those in your life start to fall away, often very rapidly. Most of your existing support system no longer understands you or what you’re doing with your life, and you understand them too well to be able to connect with them in the now superficial-seeming way you once did. Many of the topics you used to discuss with them now seem pointless, and you can barely remember how to engage them on that level. The physical symptoms of awakening are in full force, so you may feel sick and have a lot of fluctuations in energy and sleep patterns as well. You feel totally alone. You don’t know who you are, your place in the world, or what life even is anymore. At the same time, your empathic abilities are heightened to the extent that it becomes too painful to be around others because you feel their pain, often more strongly than they do. It seems like almost everyone is suffering deeply. There’s just so much pain out there everywhere you go. It’s unbearable, so you avoid people as much as possible. The isolation is painful but necessary at this stage. It can be difficult or even impossible to “function properly” in your life during this time. If you’re there now, remember, “This too shall pass.” (Note: The Dark Night of the Soul isn’t a one shot deal. We repeat it to some extent each time we release a lot of old pain and heal core wounds. Usually it goes faster in later stages of the journey though because we recognize it and know how to work with it.) You’ll find your way out of this stage as you learn about and begin to embrace the practice of self-care.
3.) Finding Your “Tribe”: In this stage, you’ve realized that you need to focus on self-care and self-love, and as you begin to “fill your own void”, your level of happiness climbs rapidly. You get in touch with (or much more deeply in touch with) your spiritual guidance and inner guidance. You begin to make new social connection or discover significantly more depth in ones you already had. You begin to recognize your “soul family”. Other awakening or awakened people stand out to you, and you fearlessly connect with and learn from them. At this stage, it’s a wise investment to hire a healer, teacher, mentor, coach, etc. if someone really resonates strongly with you. You also begin to connect with and mentor/teach others, but you yourself are likely not yet truly in a place to make “awakening” or spirituality your livelihood. You just want to learn as much as you can and spread knowledge and joy in the world. Now, even more people are drawn to you, but you’ve learned that self-care means managing where you spend your time, attention, and energy. You know that you cannot spend a lot of time around suffering people without being negatively impacted, so you don’t unless you have to, and if you do, you immediately take some time to recover. You still have your struggles, but life has become much more light and joyous overall. You find it difficult to care as much about practical concerns in your life because they seem pretty meaningless compared to the areas in which you’re expanding. You invest in books, tools, classes, etc. and may work at your regular job less to give yourself more time for your new interests and self-care.
4.) Spiritual Volunteer or Starting Spiritual Entrepreneur: You’ve continued to release your untruths while hearing many other people’s depictions of their truth (in ancient texts, from talking to people, from taking classes or courses, from studying under someone, from reading about topics that grabs your attention, and from discussing many other people’s journeys with them). You’re at a point where you’re most trusting of your own inner guidance, but you still also rely on your teachers and spiritual guidance as well. Others are more drawn to you than ever before, and now you’re in a position to interact with even the most miserable of people without being harmed by it. This is because you know not to resist pain, so you can feel their pain with them, bless them, and release the pain (whether they’re also ready to do so as well or not), and keep moving. This ability to see who people truly are at their core and to be where they are with them without judgement is indispensable for those who are struggling. People regularly tell you that you’ve changed their life. It feels amazing to touch people’s lives in this way! However, you’re starting to feel overwhelmed not by the emotions or struggles of any one person or group of people at a given time, but by the sheer quantity of people who are coming to you for insight. Additionally, there are some people with whom your manner of explaining things resonates very strongly, and those people seek continued frequent contact. You don’t want to turn anyone away, but your life is out of balance. You’re working for free or for low fees. You’re running yourself ragged, and all of this focus on spiritual stuff has meant even less focus on practical concerns. You’re definitely richer and healthier than you’ve ever been before in many ways, but you wouldn’t know it by looking around at your material conditions. Your work at your day job, if you still have it, is starting to suffer as well because you can see how much more important your spiritual work is. While you feel bad charging people “just to talk to you” and certainly don’t want to turn anyone away, you’re finding that you’re no longer able to give ANYONE the time or attention you once did. It’s time to redress the balance.
5.) Spiritual Entrepreneur: At this point, you understand that the best way for you to serve the world right now is to charge for the expertise that you’ve invested a countless amount of time, energy, and other opportunity costs to acquire over the years. People aren’t “paying just to talk to you”. They’re investing in themselves, and you’re able to be a part of that because you’ve invested so much in yourself over the years. You’ve sacrificed nearly everything (if not everything!) you once were to get to this point. You also understand that Life is infinitely abundant and flows through us all inasmuch as we allow it to do so, and you understand that this applies to both your finances and those of your clients. If someone is meant to work with you at this time, Life will provide them with the means to do so. Their means is not your responsibility, and you can see now how it’s egotistical for you to think that it is. You charge what you feel guided to charge and recognize that Life will sort out who your clients will be. You also recognize the immense value in this type of exchange and hire your own healers, coaches, teachers, etc. This change to charging a healthy amount allows you to focus all of your efforts on your own continued growth in life and on serving your clients in the very best capacity you have to offer rather than on accounting or fixing cars or whatever your livelihood used to be. You now recognize that it’s prideful for you to work for free (why exactly WERE you doing it, anyways? because you believed you have something to offer that no one else does? because it made you feel important? these are good questions to answer 😉 ) unless you’re already in an extremely comfortable financial position and feel guided to do so. This change works quickly and wonderfully to redress the balance, and soon you’re able to play and rest more, dive more fully into your spiritual practices, and offer the best input to your clients. As you do this, you lose even more layers of false knowledge, and you draw even more people to you! Your spiritual business growths until there comes a point where you start to have so many referrals and people ready to sign up for your services that you have to raise your prices and create waiting lists. You begin to see that you’re once again no longer serving the world as well as you could be.
6.) Spiritual Guru: At this stage, you stop doing individual and small group sessions and begin to offer your message to much larger groups. Eventually, you fill any size auditorium with those seeking to find themselves in the messages you allow to flow through you. Your book is on best seller lists, and you’re in a position to effect true social and political changes in the world.
7.) Spiritual Master: At this stage, you no longer use 10,000 words to teach spiritual truth. You just live your life. People come to you for guidance, and you answer their questions with very short answers that to them may seem nonsensical. They may say you speak in riddles. (People who are on steps 1 through 6 take on the task of attempting to explain the meaning.) You see the truth so clearly that you now know that there is nothing you could ever say to show it to anyone else. They must get there in their own time and in their own way. All is in perfect, divine order. The wiser you become, the less you speak and the less you do. “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
Where are you now? Remember, this journey is the natural result of dying a thousand deaths. That is, you let go of who you think you are and what you think life is. If you attempt to skip steps, you’ll become a “false teacher” and bring too much ego into your message. You’ll also fail to connect with people the way you need to in order to achieve real, lasting results. Thank you for reading this! Blessings to you all. ❤
MODERN MYSTIC 