Coming Back April 1991
Free Thinking Allowed March 1998
An Atheist Lets Go June 1998
Step Four
Southern AA August 1950
It Takes What it Takes June 1978
Taking Stock November 1979
Burn that Trash! June 1984
Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall October 1987
Naming the Negatives April 1997
The Other Man's Inventory April 2007
Heard at Meetings March 2008
Number One Offender October 2008
At Wit's End November 2009
Her Own Part April 2010
Step Five
The Fifth Step—a Way to Stay High June 1974
Finding Self-Forgiveness October 1977
List Our Assets? July 1979
Short Takes July 1980
A 5,000–Mile Discussion December 1982
Ham on Wry November 2000
Lifting the Burden May 2001
As Real as I Can Be May 2003
Ugly Words May 2010
Step Six
Wrinkles in My Ego October 1979
Are We Really Willing to Change? December 1980
Don't Skip Over Six December 1993
Making Room to Grow Up June 1997
As Long as I Stay Willing June 2009
I'm No Saint! June 2009
My Armor June 2010
Step Seven
Little Surrenders August 1982
Mail Call: Step Seven November 1949
Food for the Journey July 2007
Ham on Wry May 1996
The Rose July 1991
Rock Bottom July 2009
A Lifetime Supply July 1995
Freedom from Fear July 2000
Step Eight
On the Eighth Step June 1945
Not Under the Rug January 1967
Persons We Had Harmed September 1979
The Eighth Step October 1977
Ham on Wry January 1990
Thinking It Through August 2001
Step Nine
Rewards of Step Nine April 1979
The Amends I Most Dreaded to Make August 1977
Right to the Edge April 2006
A Pat on the Back September 2001
Scene of the Crime September 1993
I Stole the Wallet August 2010
Heard at Meetings February 2009
Step Ten
Like a Ship at Sea October 1950
The Tenth Step December 1975
It Takes Practice to Be Human December 1977
In the Heat of Anger September 1983
The Peace Process December 1996
Wrong Turn October 1999
Daily Reminder December 2006
Safety Valve October 2010
Step Eleven
Not Taking the First Drink October 1978
Rewards of Meditation February 1982
Freeing the Spirit February 1984
Should We Go Easy on the God Stuff? April 2002
Clean Slate February 2009
From Foxhole to Light March 2008
Finding My Way April 2009
Alcoholic's Meditation November 2010
Step Twelve
Carrying the Message April 1971
Practice the Principles June 1981
The Woman Who Had Everything December 1993
Got It? Give It. Forget It! December 1998
The Luck of the Draw June 2002
How to Give a Lead July 2005
E–Stepping: Carrying the Message Online December 2005
Memory Motel March 2007
Tattoo August 2007
The Twelve Steps
The Twelve Traditions
Welcome
“The joy of good living.”
This is the theme of AA's Twelfth Step, according to the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. But most AAs would probably agree that this is the theme of all of the Steps.
The Steps have been called inspired by God. “I doubt if the Twelve Steps that have changed the course of existence for so many thousands of lives could have been the mere product of human insight and observation. And they can and will bless anyone, alcoholic or not, who will follow them through and be obedient to them. They are morally and spiritually and psychologically and practically as sound as can be,” wrote Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, the Episcopal clergyman who helped in the founding of AA, in the Grapevine in 1964. “I often say and shall always say that the Twelve Steps are one of the very great summaries and organic collections of spiritual truth known to history. … Herein is spiritual wisdom and health. We have had to look deep within, probe, burrow, struggle, and in a sense this never stops.”
Initially, there were six Steps, which co-founder Bill W. expanded into 12 in the process of writing Chapter Five of the Big Book. He originally named God very liberally throughout the Steps, leading to heated discussion and the eventual compromise and the addition of “as we understand Him” and “Higher Power.”
“Those expressions, as we so well know today, have proved lifesavers for many an alcoholic,” Bill wrote in a 1953 Grapevine article. “They have enabled thousands of us to make a beginning where none could have been made had we left the steps just as I originally wrote them. … Little