“Spiritual awakening” can mean different things to different sorts of contemplatives. For St. John of the Cross ‘spiritual experiences’ are usually either childish,(‘when I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as child, but when I became a man I put away childish things’), or delusional, or deceptions of the devil.
For St.John of the Cross, there is no union with God without denying oneself, taking up one’s cross daily and following Jesus Christ.
This is just a small slice of his advice for entering into this spiritual journey toward union with God:
6. Strive always to prefer, not that which is easiest, but that which is most difficult;
Not that which is most delectable, but that which is most unpleasing;
Not that which gives most pleasure, but rather that which gives least;
Not that which is restful, but that which is wearisome;
Not that which is consolation, but rather that which is disconsolateness;
Not that which is greatest, but that which is least;
Not that which is loftiest and most precious, but that which is lowest and most despised;
Not that which is a desire for anything, but that which is a desire for nothing;
Strive to go about seeking not the best of temporal things, but the worst.
Strive thus to desire to enter into complete detachment and emptiness and poverty, with respect to everything that is in the world, for Christ’s sake
(Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book I, Chap. 13.)
No one can actually do these things for the sake of Jesus Christ without the Spirit of God, but one must be willing to choose these detachments from egotistical and selfish desires in order to enter one’s journey onto the narrow road. If other forms of contemplation are achieving this entry onto the narrow road, then the assumption might be that they are of the Holy Spirit.