The Spiral of Human Development (Stage Four)

Order of the Pyramid: God, Morality, and Authority (BLUE)

Spiral Dynamics is a model of human development introduced by Don Beck and Chris Cowan, built upon the work of developmental psychologist Clare W. Graves. The model presents a dynamic, emergent view of human nature and proposes that our values, beliefs, and systems are influenced by various factors, leading to an ongoing evolution of consciousness and culture. The model outlines several distinct stages or levels of consciousness, each associated with a particular worldview and set of values, and each emerging in response to changing life conditions amid increasing complexity.

1. (BEIGE) Order of the Naked: Survival, Sensation, and Self-Concept

2. (PURPLE) Order of the Moon: Clan, Ancestors, and Nature

3. (RED) Order of the Fist: Courage, Honor, and Egoism

4. (BLUE) Order of the Pyramid: God, Morality, and Authority <

5. (ORANGE) Order of the Sun: Science, Commerce, and Reason

6. (GREEN) Order of the Leaf: Environment, Consensus, and Equality

7. (YELLOW) Order of the Nautilus: Integration, Emergence, and Complexity

8. (TURQUOISE) Order of the Lotus: Holism, Paradox, and Ineffability

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Learn humility and kneel before the voice that has delivered this Divine Insight. For without order, chaos will overcome our people. If our enemies don’t soon find our fighters flabby and undisciplined, they will eventually find them dead from disease or famine. We are thus commanded to establish order.

As all things must, the Moral Order radiates down from God. The sovereign is God’s imperfect embodiment on earth. His decisions are absolute. Edicts flow down a nexus of control in a great chain of being. In this configuration, each must know his place. One comes with a telos, which connects to a plan that, though mysterious, is magnificent. To execute His divine Designs, the king must bend to the Almighty, the governors must bend to the king, the magistrates must bend to the governors, the highborn must bend to the magistrates, the lowborn must bend to the highborn, and the animals must bend to the lowborn. 

To maintain this Holy Order, everyone must sacrifice to the Almighty, which begins with obedience. Such sacrifices include taxes of gold or grain to his protectors. In addition to material sacrifices, we must make spiritual sacrifices, too, such as carrying guilt. To avoid spiritual pollution, embrace virtue, avoid vice, and observe cleansing rituals with water, oil, and smoke. Sinners must be punished or shamed publicly, with the punishment's severity matching the sin's extent. Bearing witness to a sentence helps the people to realign, reminding them of their place in building a kingdom that God will favor above all others.

Those with means have a duty to sacrifice some treasure: Alms go to the poor. Tithes go to the priests. Taxes go to the king. The poor cannot toil without victuals. The temples are not resplendent without riches. And it is the sovereign’s duty to fortify his kingdom and to dispense largesse. Viewed from without, the temple ascends, reminding us that God is all-powerful. Viewed from within, the temple reveals glorious details, symbolizing the prophet’s words, the soul’s composition, and the Lord’s manifestations. When the wretched gather near the temple door, with pock-marked faces and filthy outstretched hands, we must remember that they, too, are God’s children. The temple is for everyone. 

When everything in the kingdom is working according to God’s Design, we must expand into the realms of the unclean. Soldiers march into the hinterlands not as raiders but as crusaders. Those subsumed into the Moral Order must be civilized, from blasphemy to piety. Otherwise, they will continue to harass us at the borders, or worse, worship beasts and false gods. We must slay and discard the unburied corpses of the unrepentant, so their souls wander as ghosts until something most foul pushes up from the ground and spirits them off to Hell. 

Any deviation from kingly fiat or scriptural commandment opens a gate to demonic forces who seek to raze the kingdom and feast upon our souls. So we must never deviate. Thus the moral order eats the weary world around it, transforming the barbaric and benighted into the good and the true. 

Yet amid the orderly administration of God’s design on earth, there is an unsettling paradox: Certain men with open eyes claim to see the law-like nature of God’s design in the firmament.  They melt glass and fashion it into shapes, which lets them see beyond the horizon, charting astral bodies and heavenly orbs. Planetary patterns appear to them as clicking gears, despite their king's proclamations or the priests' revelations. Would God bypass the most faithful in his flock by revealing his Laws directly to low-born eyes? Or is such cleverness a form of sin?

Dr. Don Beck, with co-author Christopher Cowan, expanded Clare Graves's original vision and applied the insights around the world. Dr. Beck passed away on April 17, 2023. May he rest in peace. This series is meant to honor his efforts.

Next week: Order of the Sun: Science, Commerce, and Reason (Orange)