7 Spiritual Development Basics

Back to Basics

Every now and again, I will publish beginner-friendly posts that take us back to the basics. Not everyone who visits Angelorum has been here since its inception in 2015. Furthermore, my work and understanding of spiritual concepts have evolved quite a lot since then. So in today’s post, I wish to share what I currently perceive to be 7 essential spiritual development basics. You don’t have to agree with me but hopefully, this article will help you evaluate what your spiritual development basics and core values are.

While this post is mainly aimed at anybody who is currently awakening and is just starting out on their spiritual path, it does us all good to revisit the basics from time to time. We may find that our belief about the basics has changed.

7 Spiritual Development Basics

1. Your Heart IS the Path

No matter what path you are on, your own inner guidance is where it’s at. Without tuning into the Still Small Voice Within daily, it is all too easy to get lost. It doesn’t matter if you are on a spiritual path or if you belong to a religious movement. Without seeking to connect within daily, in stillness, you will not be able to know yourself…

2. Uncover Your Essence

…and knowing yourself is essentially what it’s all about. Your spiritual development is a gradual uncovering of your divine essence. It’s not about turning you into something you are not. It’s literally about dropping everything that is not genuinely you. Your soul descended into your body as a pure divine essence. Then followed years of programming that created your ego-personality aka little self. The aim is not to destroy the ego-personality. The aim is to gently guide it to act in deference to your Essence aka your Higher Self. Another way of putting it is to say that what it’s all about is becoming the Angelic Human you were born to be.

3. Choose an Exoteric Path

The choice of the exoteric path/religion is sometimes made for us. Eventually, when we get a bit older, most of us get more freedom of choice and many choose a different path than the one handed down to them by their parents.

However, it is important to realise that our soul chooses to incarnate in the culture and tradition that is most helpful in terms of our soul’s development. This does not mean that we should dogmatically adhere to that tradition. What it does mean is that we should strive to find the nuggets of wisdom contained within it. If trapped in dogma, deconstructing one’s childhood faith can be an arduous and often painful process. However, it is well worth the effort. Every dogmatic system is essentially an inversion of a true stream of Christ Consciousness.

Ultimately, once we are free to choose, we should choose a path that maintains a good balance between challenging us to grow and bringing us comfort. The importance of the latter is easy to underestimate. However, all brave souls who choose to incarnate here sooner or later will need a source of spiritual comfort.

4. Set Up a Daily Routine

Perhaps the spiritual path or religion you have chosen provides you with a good model for a daily routine that helps you keep growing and developing spiritually. However, in many instances, daily spiritual discipline is not encouraged to the extent it ought to be.

If you are lucky enough to have a spiritual mentor or accountability buddy, you are way ahead of the curve. Most of us don’t. But then it becomes even more important to have a daily routine in place. The routine itself provides accountability, especially if combined with daily journaling.

Bonus tip: If you struggle with routines, call on the Angel of Routine, Haamiah

Nobody will tell you what you must include in order to be successful. This will vary depending on your current developmental phase and speed of development. Sometimes things also naturally grind to a halt (see The Dark Night of the Soul below). However, a short daily meditation is highly recommended as is keeping a journal. You may also wish to add a daily card draw, prayer, self-healing, mantra chanting, affirmations etc.

What matters most, just as for physical exercise, is consistency. This is especially true when you first start connecting with your Spirit Team. They need to know you will show up and that you are committed to working with them!

5. Do Not Compare

You are a unique individual and your spiritual journey will be unique. Avoid FOMO (it is evil) at any cost. Just because someone else had a powerful kundalini awakening doesn’t mean that is how you grow and develop in this lifetime. Your spiritual gifts will be different and unique to you. Who is on your Spirit Team may not be as audacious as the guy you know who claims to be guided by famous Ascended Masters. Be okay with all of it. Trust that you always receive perfect support for every part of the journey.

Spiritual pride, jealousy and envy are really quick ways to halt your development.

6. The Dark Night of the Soul

In spite of the fact that we are all unique, there are, of course, also some commonalities. One of those commonalities is that anybody who is serious about spiritual development will–sooner or later–experience a Dark Night of the Soul.

Gigi Young makes an excellent point for us all to bear in mind when it comes to going through a Dark Night of the Soul: The despair you feel is not who you are. It is what is leaving you to reveal more of your true essence.

7. Strive for Christ Consciousness

“The term Christ means ‘the True Self of all of God’s children.’ Yearning to remember who we really are is the motivation behind everything else we seek and experience.”
― Michael Mirdad

Christ Consciousness is the consciousness that allows us to fully embody Divine Grace. It is fairly far removed from the ego-mind for most of us due to societal conditioning. The way to embody Christ Consciousness is through compassion and forgiveness. This brings us back to the first point about the heart being the path.

Christ Consciousness keeps us heart-centred. It also helps us understand that psychic gifts do not equate to spirituality. You can hang out in the lower astral realms and have psychic experiences without being spiritual.