Read Timeline #1 first in order to get a view of the main points. This timeline describes the key stepping-stones on the conscious spiritual path in more detail.
This sequence corresponds to the second half of Tarot of Marseilles’ Major Arcana. It is linear in time. However, after key events take place, at any point it can become non-linear and we jump from one stepping stone to any other, until the process is completed. The process may terminate at any moment.
Preparatory Work
Aim, aim, effort, effort. Of course effort is important. Put some restraints on that unruly personality full of negative habits. So that if some truth comes our way we will not crack, go mad or simply misread and reject Awakening.
Awakening
Truth then does come our way. Specifically the truth about who we really are. A Revelation of the True Self. Gee! What a surprise! I am not what I thought I was all these years. I’ve been looking from the wrong angle all along.
Elimination of the Unnecessary
There is so much nonsense in this personality. So many wrong ideas unrelated to reality, to how things really are. So many wrong beliefs about myself. Wrong masks that don’t suit me and don’t really fit which I learned and was forced to wear. They all have to go. All symbols of identity have to go. Including the spiritual “me” — the unenlightened me as well as the enlightened me. Eliminate the unimportant and the useless.
Right Work of Personality
The more garbage that is out the more balanced we become. We begin to feel normal and handle the opposites of duality with more grace and ease. Right work of personality begins to settle in.
Self-Undoing
Yet, old habits die hard. The momentum of false-personality is not so easy to rein. It will come back with a vengeance at every opportunity. The self-sabbotage, self-limitation, self-harm, self-ignorance are still stirred when given the right stimulus, and often even without apparent stimulus simply out of the spinning air in our minds and its memories. We feel at a loss and it seems our spiritual work has gone backwards. We have no control over false-personality, it appears it has a life of its own.
External Intervention
So, in situations when we are stuck we receive an external shock or intervention, of the unpleasant kind. It shakes us up and breaks our personality’s structure. An illness, an accident, a divorce, betrayal, whatever. It is painful but it is good in the overall picture of the spiritual path.
Integration
We become humbled and begin to flow with nature around us as a result, rather than resist the forces of life. We acknowledge guidance from a force beyond us as individuals. We feel more integrated into the world and more in harmony with Essence.
Emotional Pain
Yet, emotional pain is inherent in life and must be acknowledged and accepted. Our degree of emotional maturity becomes prominent. Past trauma becomes visible, impinging on our present emotional outlook, so it must be consciously processed. We have to grow up and accept pain as a natural part of our experience, rather than deny or avoid it. Pain is to be felt. There is nothing wrong in emotional pain.
External Help
We are not alone. Help comes in one form or another. A teacher, a friend, a spirit guide, psychedelic drugs; it will come in many forms. Likewise, we will impart this same help to others we meet on the spiritual path. Like brothers and companions we all are.
Self-Inquiry
Within the process of cleansing, purification, and love we become ready to recognize who we really are and live by it. The Truth revealed earlier on the path becomes more and more accessible, as the false beliefs and identities dissolve more and more and we are able to listen to the voice of the Natural State.
Spiritual Realization
Nothing is wrong anymore. Total Acceptance and peace with whatever is present in this moment.
Both life and personality go on just fine as they are supposed to. With our likes and dislikes, pains and pleasures, but fearless and uncontrived. Making mistakes, paying attention and learning curiously as a normal human being.
