2nd Tier Consciousness
The Spiral Dynamics of expanding your perspective.
In this article, I will explain and explore the “tiers of consciousness” present in the spiral dynamics framework, offering first the standard explanation, and then expanding upon it with my own take of how 2nd tier consciousness (💛Yellow and 🩵Turquoise) is uniquely essential to the process of growth itself.
In spiral dynamics, someone operating within the first 6 colors (🤎💜❤️💙🧡💚) is said to have “1st Tier Consciousness,” meaning they are not aware of the colored lens they are looking through. This can lead to lots of misunderstandings and conflict between those seeing through different colors.1
When someone is able to “zoom-out” enough to see their own perspective, they are said to enter “second tier consciousness.”
This is analogous to the difference between looking through glasses (1st tier) and taking off the glasses to look at the lenses (2nd tier).
Of course, one should BOTH look at their glasses (to clear away debris) and look through their glasses (to accomplish their daily tasks).
🩵Mindfulness meditations help us develop ways to “look at” our lenses, expanding our focus.
💛Concentration meditations help us “clean” the lenses we are looking through, better integrating our attention.
How 2nd tier consciousness permeates the spiral
A principle of the spiral is that each color is necessarily built upon the previous color and naturally engenders the next color. Once someone develops 💙Blue lens, it opens the door to developing an 🧡Orange lens, which opens the door to 💚Green thinking, etc.2 The process of moving from one color into the next is one of “transcending and including:” transcending the previous lens while still including it (or many elements of it) within the new lens.
Interestingly, the processes of 🩵transcending is highly associated 🩵Turquoise, which is the widest level of the spiral, very much about self-transcendence and expansion. And the process of 💛including (or integration) is highly associate with 💛Yellow, which is all about including the previous colors within a system that honors and accounts for them all.
Thus, it seems to me that Turquoise and Yellow, by nature of being 2nd tier, are able to “reach down” and inform the other colors, in a way that the other colors cannot. The “inklings” of Yellow and Turquoise are found throughout the spiral — when people are moving between the colors, or even growing within a color.
Growth is Integration and Expansion
💛Integration and 🩵expansion are the two movements of growth. Every kind of self-improvement is either 💛self-actualizing or 🩵self-transcending. Both of these involve looking at the way you are looking (a zoomed-out perspective), by which you can act with 💛intention to cultivate 💛virtue, or through which you 🩵receive from above, being lifted up by 🩵grace into more than you ever thought could be.
Socio-Cultural Validation
I’ve seen other teachers of the spiral give highly restrictive views of the necessity of progressing through every level to get to Yellow or Turquoise. But I believe, individuals (or even groups) in a culture are able to “tap into” 💛Yellow and 🩵Turquoise thinking, regardless of whatever color is predominant in their culture. The “2nd tier” isn’t closed off to someone just because haven’t had access to “global” or “relativistic” aspects of 💚Green. This makes sense of things like:
The mystics and sages of the past (who may have lived in predominantly ❤️Red or 💙Blue cultures — including the Buddha and Jesus) can still give us 💛Yellow and 🩵Turquoise wisdom by which we are called higher.
Many 💜tribal groups seem quite connected to 🩵Turquoise mysticism.
The classically early-🧡Orange ancient Greece, had some of the most profound 💛Yellow philosophy which is still highly influential today.
It’s true that if someone has not been through 💚Green relativism, they will not be able to integrate relativism into a 💛Yellow system — but they can still integrate whatever they have experienced.
Conclusion
1 - Second tier consciousness is a zoomed-out awareness by which one sees the lenses through which they see, affording both the work of 💛integration and 🩵self-transcendence.
2 - Contrary to some other takes on the spiral, I believe 💛Yellow and 🩵Turquoise are uniquely present and accessible throughout the spiral, as people (and collectives) experience 🩵transcendence/expansion and 💛inclusion/integration.
Image Credits:
Photo by Jackie Alexander on Unsplash.
Image of spiral created myself in Illustrator.
Imagine a disagreement between an 💙idealistic follower of the sacred way, a 🧡skeptical materialist pragmatist, and a 💚compassionate empath giving voice to the marginalized.
Note that since each person is not a monolith, and we all contain a multitude of parts, it’s possible that someone may be operating in 🧡Orange efficiency thinking in some areas of life and 💙Blue dutiful lens in others and 💜Purple familiarity in others, etc.