When I first started telling people the Spiral Dynamics story I hoped it would wake them up to Turquoise all by it self. But nope. Most people are not quite ready yet. I feel like a popcorn kernel that has popped a little earlier than the rest. I hope and pray that it is just a matter of time before the rest of the kernels start popping so I can nestle in with them, but in the meantime it looks like I have some work to do.
Do you remember my proposed plan? Here again are the key things that have been holding us back. We need:
And this is how we are going to get there:
We have been working on Growing Up. I started here because without a coherent story we are stumbling around blind. Blue religions tell us to just trust God and everything will be fine. It won’t be. Orange scientists understand global warming but not people. Green activists understand the deep injustices of the world, but not how to fix it. Not really. Yellow seekers see no alternative but to watch the world burn. It doesn’t occur to them to join with others. So we have to waken Turquoise. We are much bigger than we think. We are bigger than our story, bigger than our fears. If we can get people out of survival mode and into the vast place of self-actualization we will change the world. So how do we get to Turquoise? We need to step through all the stages again but at a deeper level this time.
Each turn of the spiral takes us from individual (tic) to community (toc). And each turn is kind of a complete unit all by itself. A fancy word for this is dialectic. We start with an idea (thesis) and then we have an opposing idea (antithesis) and after much struggle we end up with something that combines the best of both (synthesis). For example with Red and Blue we started with the wild claim that humans can be as gods, and then synthesized that into something even bigger but still acknowledging human divinity.
Cleaning Up, Waking Up, Showing Up, and Wising Up each correspond to one turn of the spiral:
Cleaning Up gives us a deep rich fulfilling life. Beige and Purple will lead us there. Beige gives us back our bodies. Brings back connection with nature and sexuality. Here we work with our trauma and wounds. Purple puts us in a healing community that supports and inspires us to grow. It provides a culture that encourages us to take on healthier, wiser life practices. We are never done with this growth work. These two stages go together. We do a little healing work which allows us to grow a little close to others which then enables us to do some more healing work. Until one day we look up and realize we are in joy.
Waking Up is about stepping into something bigger than ourselves. Red and Blue will lead us there. Religion has been misused in such horrible ways that many have developed a strong aversion to it. They are right — we can be very dark indeed and that has shown up in our religions. So that is where we have to start. We are creatures of both light and darkness. We need to embrace both. Red took us to a very dark place. But it is part of who we are. So first we accept that darkness. Accept that burning need for domination and hierarchy. And celebrate it! We need our wild warrior to stand up and shout I will conquer this world!
But conquer it for what? How do we channel our sacred anger? Our shadow and light are interwoven. The world is deeply suffering but at the very same time we are surrounded by oceans of love just begging to be let in. And yet we stumble along with this sad illusion that we are separate and lonely. Caught up in the scary story that the universe is harsh and that we all die alone. It doesn’t have to be like this. Those stories are just stories. There is a deeper truth to be found. It is not so much that we need to expand our hearts as that we need to remember our hearts have always been one.
Showing Up has us making real changes to the world. Orange and Green take the lead here. Orange brings that ferocious drive for Truth that doesn’t let us just meander self indulgently. What is the core of the matter? Let’s get to it! Are we actually improving the world? Let’s measure it. Got a working prototype of something that seems to work? Great! Now let’s scale it up!
Green guides us back to group wisdom and justice. Once we understand the science part of the plan, but we next need to make sure we don’t just bulldoze our way there. That doesn’t work — we need to bring in Green’s ecological way of thinking to make sure that we don’t fix one problem only to create new injustices.
Wising Up is about figuring out what we came to Earth to do. And once we get really clear on that we will also get clear that we can not do it alone. Yellow and Turquoise take the lead here. We need people to first wake up to what it is they are here for (Yellow) and then for them to realize they can’t get there on just their own (Turquoise). We are going to have to get there together. We need to come together as one in community. And this community is already here we just need to believe in it.
This sacred community celebrates all of us. We bring our vibrant animal natures (Beige). We create sustainable, spiritual, loving community (Purple). We step into those incredibly challenging conversations and confrontations (Red). We commit to those wild dreams of something greater than ourselves (Blue). We honor the beautiful Truth of science and reason to see more clearly (Orange). We tend to the wounds of the oppressed and reclaim our natural equality (Green). We hone our Spiral wizardry to meet people where they are and actually get stuff done (Yellow). We wake up to our full strength and then look out to others (Turquoise). And then just maybe we can step into that more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
Turquoise is where we will finally find our way back to what we knew at Purple. We burned our bridges at Red and no longer can go back. We have to push forward through Blue, Orange, Green, and Yellow before we finally can make it home again. We need to fully embrace and welcome all of the stages before we finally step into Turquoise. Each stage is part of the solution. We need them all.
Turquoise whole heartedly loves and embraces all that we are. Revels in both our light and dark. This is what wants to happen if only we can get out of our own way. I think the very first step is to hold in our hearts that this huge dream is possible. That it is mainly our fears and habits that are holding us back. We forget how huge we are. It is time to remember.
Turquoise will be beautiful. People will go back to a full freedom they have not had for a very long time. We will once again live in sacred harmony with the land. Forests and rivers will stop being just resources to extract and will again be holy land. Our land helps feed us, yes, but also nourishes our soul. Children will run free and be loved by the whole village. We will help each of them find their reason for coming to Earth. Elders will achieve a certain wisdom and mentor the younger generations. No more traumas passed from generation to generation. No more genocide. No more senseless wars. This is possible. It truly is. But not if we continue as we are. We need a plan, a really huge, sweeping dream of a plan. And once more I ask you. Will you join me? I think I really do know what I am asking of you. Please join me anyways.