Religion vs Spirituality 1

Part 1: Why Awakening Often Brings Anger

A Reflection on Hate, Growth, and the Spiral of Awakening

As the world begins to awaken to the magic it was always meant to embody, I have noticed a recurring transition—one that often goes unnamed, unexamined, and therefore unresolved. It is a transition that can slow a person’s forward movement or create a sense of being stuck between who they were and who they are becoming.

This moment in the journey is not a failure.
It is not a regression.
And it is certainly not a sign that something has gone wrong.

It is a threshold.

Many people who experience a spiritual awakening find themselves standing at the edge of a new awareness, yet still tethered to the emotional and psychological imprints of their religious upbringing. They can sense that something expansive is opening within them, but they cannot yet fully step into it. The old frameworks no longer fit, yet the new ones have not fully formed.

This in-between space can feel uncomfortable, disorienting, and even isolating.

And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with the challenges this transition presents, it can become a stumbling block if the underlying emotions are not acknowledged and understood. The difficulty does not lie in the awakening itself, but in the unprocessed experiences that rise to the surface as awareness expands.

Like the teachers and masters before me—those who spoke not to shame, control, or dominate, but to illuminate—I feel called to address this phase directly. Not to offer dogma or solutions, but to bring language to an experience many quietly endure.

Because when this phase is misunderstood, people often turn against parts of themselves they have not yet healed.

The Feeling That Derails the Journey

Oftentimes, those who are newly awakened believe they are struggling because they are confused.

Others assume they are grieving the loss of certainty.
Some believe they are simply sad, disillusioned, or disappointed.

But if we slow down enough to truly feel what is present—without immediately labeling it, bypassing it, or attempting to rise above it—we uncover something far more charged.

It is not confusion.
It is not sadness.

It is anger.

And in many cases, that anger slowly ferments into something heavier, sharper, and more difficult to admit.

Hate.

Let’s pause here—not intellectually, but somatically.

Hate.

Notice how your body responds to that word.

For some, it tightens the chest.
For others, it creates resistance or discomfort.
For many, it feels like a word that should not belong in a spiritual conversation.

And yet, it does.

Hate is not neutral.
Hate is not empty.

Hate is a container.

It carries memory.
It carries pain that was never validated.
It carries resistance formed in moments where choice was removed.
It carries grief that never had permission to surface.

Hate tells us that something important has not yet been integrated.

And before we rush to justify it, spiritualize it away, or condemn it as “low vibration,” we must listen.

Because hate does not appear without cause.
It is not random.
It is not evil.

It is information.

Why Anger Emerges After Awakening

Spiritual awakening does not occur in a vacuum. It does not wipe away the past or erase earlier stages of development. Instead, it illuminates them.

Awakening expands perception, and with expanded perception comes memory.

For many people, religion was not simply a belief system—it was a lived environment. A formative container that shaped how love was received, how authority was interpreted, how obedience was rewarded, and how deviation was punished.

Religion often teaches:

• What was acceptable to feel
• What was dangerous to question
• What parts of the self needed to be controlled or hidden
• What behavior earned belonging
  

When awakening begins, it does not only open mystical awareness. It reopens these imprints.

The anger that surfaces is not necessarily about God.
It is not always about faith.

More often, it is about constraint.

• Constraint placed on curiosity.
• Constraint placed on identity.
• Constraint placed on imagination, desire, or self-expression.

For some, religion provided safety and structure at a time when those were needed. For others, it was a place of fear, shame, or silencing. And for many, it was both.

When awakening occurs, the psyche begins to recognize where it has outgrown these structures. The anger is not proof that religion was wrong—it is proof that the soul is no longer meant to live inside that particular form.

The Danger of Skipping This Stage

One of the greatest mistakes we make in spiritual spaces is trying to leap over anger instead of learning from it.

We tell ourselves we should be “beyond” it.
We label it as unspiritual.
We try to replace it with love before it has finished speaking.

But anger that is bypassed does not dissolve—it calcifies.

When anger is not integrated, it often turns into hatred of religion itself, of religious people, or of one’s own past. This creates a false polarity: religion bad, spirituality good.

This polarity is still duality.

And duality, while useful at earlier stages, becomes limiting once awareness begins to expand.

To heal this transition, we must stop asking whether religion was right or wrong—and start asking what role it played in our development.

An Invitation to Listen

If you feel anger or hatred toward religion after awakening, consider this an invitation rather than a problem.

Ask yourself gently:

• What did religion give me that I once needed?
• What did it restrict that I am now reclaiming?
• What part of me learned to survive by obeying?
• What part of me is now asking to create instead?

These questions are not about blame.
They are about integration.

Because growth does not come from rejecting where we have been—it comes from understanding why we were there.

And when anger is listened to with honesty and compassion, it begins to soften. Not because it was wrong—but because it was finally heard.

Where This Reflection Is Taking Us

This article is not here to defend religion, nor to dismantle it.

It is here to contextualize it.

To show how religion can function as a developmental stage rather than a final destination.
To explain why duality is necessary before multidimensional awareness can emerge.
And to offer a path forward that does not require hatred, denial, or spiritual superiority.

Because the goal of awakening is not to escape our past.

The goal is to outgrow it with grace.

And that journey begins by allowing ourselves to fully understand what this anger is asking us to become.

Read Part 2: Religion as a Necessary Stage of Consciousness