The Spiritual Journey

The stages of the spiritual journey have been laid out by many traditions. Don Riso and Russ Hudson lay out the journey in nine strata in their book, The Wisdom of the Enneagram, pp. 372-377.

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The first stratum is “our habitual self image.” This is how we perceive ourselves, or how we would like to be. There is no self-examination here – we see ourselves as good or bad, with good or bad attributes, but we really don’t understand ourselves, and often really don’t care, as long as what we’re doing is working. When it stops working for us, often as a result of a confrontation with another person, we may be driven to seek help or examine our behavior.

Their second stratum is “our actual behavior.” This the where we may get a bit of a shock when we notice that our actual behavior doesn’t line up with our beliefs about ourselves. For example, a person may think of herself as upbeat and positive, when in reality she does an awful lot of complaining.

Their third stratum has to do with noticing “our internal attitudes and motivations.” Why do we do the things we do?

The second set of 3 strata in the R&H writings, have to do with leaving the realm of habitual self image, and understanding our motivations. They deal with what happens on the spiritual journey. In stratum 4, We start to become aware of “underlying affects and tensions.”

In stratum 5, we connect with “our rage, shame, and fear and libidinal energies.” This is about as far as traditional psychotherapy can take us. This is a very uncomfortable part of the journey, and many are tempted to turn back here and find an easier way. It is important here to get support from others on the spiritual journey. At this level, it becomes increasingly important, and difficult, to learn to relax and accept the discomfort, and accept and love ourselves. When you find yourself judging yourself harshly, it so important to have a companion on the journey to give you a reality check, so that you know that you are NOT these difficult qualities you have found in your personality. It is important here to “let go and let God” and trust that the ground of being will support you. One school of thought refers to this stage of the journey as “Dragon Fight.”

And then we start the cycle over. We are reborn in a sense, and go through the process all over again. We observe ourselves, we are dismayed by what we find, we suffer, we become willing to ask for a miracle, we experience the void and are reworked a bit, and then we are reborn…

Joan Kellogg There was an underlying order that has been her gift to us, her all encompassing life cycle theory, which she called “The Archetypal Stages of the Great Round of Mandala.” This model can be applied to understand just about anything, from the evolution of man, to the creation of a painting, to the stages of a relationship. “She may well have stumbled upon the schema for the hardwiring of the human mind…” (Thayer, 1994, p.204).


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(Susanne Fincher, Coloring Mandalas)

“Dragon Fight has to do with adolescent conflicts that accompany your separation from your parents, and from the tribe or community in which you grew up. At this stage you may break out of hidebound traditions in general. Dragon Fight is characterized by an increase of tension at all levels of the psyche. Issues are polarized and may be acted out in emotional confrontations with others.”  “
 … Important transitions later in life – times such as midlife – can bring you around again to the stage of Dragon Fight.”