This integrating – this re-connecting (re-ligio^[3]) – is an intensive ‘inner journey‘ of ’personal growth‘, guided by a clear ‘inner alignment’. Its focus is not on reaching a destination, but on honoring the process itself. As the well-known saying goes: the journey is the destination – a life­long journey. It is a conscious ‘inner development’ of all 5 core capacities, enabling awareness, integration, and situational application of all levels of human development (archaic, magical, war­rior, traditional, modern and postmodern) consciousness – embracing both their light and shadow aspects, depending on the situation.

2. The Transition into the Integral – from Green to yellow & Turquoise (Integral I & II)

All previous transitions in the Spiral Dynamics model were characterised by rupture and separa­tion, shaped by an ‘either-or mindset’. What was on one level before was seen as outdated and obsolete, while what emerged next was dismissed as mere fantasy and perceived as a threat to the status quo, something to be preserved and defended at all costs.

This transition, however, is far more complex. On the path toward a multi-perspectival way of seeing, the move into the Integral involves a profound leap in awareness. Consciousness expands into an inclusive, holistic view that no longer divides (either-or), but connects (both-and). This new perspective has shifted from linear, bipolar, judgmental, two-dimensional thinking into a circular, holistic, spatial, multipolar, non-judgmental, three-dimensional way of understanding. It is a deep inner transformation – comparable to that experienced by painters in the early 15th century when they made the transition from perspective of meaning to central perspective.

^[1] The mathematician Roger Penrose said: “I find paradoxes extremely appealing. You see something like that and try to understand how on earth it could possibly make sense?! Even that is paradoxical: I have a great fondness for paradoxes, and at the same time I want to eliminate them from the world!” (quoted by Gábor Paál) – Whenever we encounter something paradoxical, we are very close to the essence of life!

^[2] The supposed separation of subject and object, feeling and reason, activity and passivity, heaven and earth, culture and nature, day and night, father and mother, head and heart, experience (pathos) and knowledge (logos) is seen as ‘two sides of the same coin’ and culminates in a holistic, undivided awareness.

^[3] re-ligere, from Latin, means to bind again, to reconnect, to unite – consciously reconnecting with life, with the origin of life, and with the Divine. This is also where the word “religion” originates. This “re-connection” brings increasing flow, ease, and love into life. Therefore, the integral perspective cannot exclude the religious-spiritual dimension – it simply belongs to life, to wholeness. Spirituality is an integral part of life.

^[4] A model is understood here as a representation of an inner reality – a map that graphically depicts internal forces at work and can serve as a means of orientation. Neither models nor maps are reality itself, but they can point the way and offer a comprehensive perspective if one knows how to read them. If one wishes to do so, this must be learned and practiced. And, as with atomic models and their electron orbits, nothing is 'fixed' or 'set in stone'; rather, everything is dynamic, interconnected, and open at the same time.

^[5] An organic development comes from within, through one’s own strengths and abilities – that is, from the intrinsic drive (intrinsic) and ‘inner force’ inherent in every system. This natural, healthy and self-sustaining growth from within usually takes longer and is therefore stable and sustainable.