What do Steps Six, Seven and Eight ask, and how much does the Big Book say about each?
In short:
- Step Six asks whether we are "entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character" (p. 59); Step Seven, that we "Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings" (p. 59); Step Eight, that we "Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all" (p. 59).
- The Big Book's instructions for all three are on one page, p. 76, and they are short. Step Six gets one paragraph of five sentences; Step Seven gets one paragraph, which is mostly a prayer; Step Eight gets about three sentences before the text moves on to Step Nine. Together they take up less than a page, in a chapter that gives Step Five three and a half pages (pp. 72–75) and Step Nine about eight (pp. 76–84).
- For Step Six the question is willingness: "Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable? Can He now take them all—every one?" (p. 76). If we cling to something, "we ask God to help us be willing" (p. 76).
- For Step Seven the book gives a prayer, prefaced "we say something like this" (p. 76), and then says "We have then completed Step Seven." (p. 76).
- For Step Eight the list already exists: "We have a list of all persons we have harmed and to whom we are willing to make amends. We made it when we took inventory." (p. 76).
Where the three Steps are worked (p. 76)
Chapter 6 reaches them right after Step Five. Having told our story to another person, we go home, sit quietly for an hour, and read "the first five proposals" to ask "if we have omitted anything" (p. 75). "If we can answer to our satisfaction, we then look at Step Six." (p. 76).
Step Six. The whole instruction is one paragraph: "We have emphasized willingness as being indispensable. Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable? Can He now take them all—every one? If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing." (p. 76). That is all. The book does not list the defects here; "all the things which we have admitted are objectionable" points back to the inventory and the Fifth Step. The chapter has already said, about Step Five, that newcomers who "hung on to some of the worst items in stock" (p. 73) got drunk, and that the housecleaning must be complete.
Step Seven. Also one paragraph: "When ready, we say something like this:" (p. 76), followed by the prayer that begins "My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad." (p. 76) and asks God to "remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows" (p. 76). The paragraph ends: "We have then completed Step Seven." (p. 76). Nothing else in the book is given as the Seventh Step. "Something like this" leaves the wording open, as the Third Step prayer's "The wording was, of course, quite optional" (p. 63) does. See: What is the Seventh Step prayer, and where is it?
Step Eight. The book takes Eight and Nine together: "Now we need more action, without which we find that 'Faith without works is dead.' Let's look at Steps Eight and Nine." (p. 76). Of the list it says: "We have a list of all persons we have harmed and to whom we are willing to make amends. We made it when we took inventory. We subjected ourselves to a drastic self-appraisal." (p. 76). The next sentence is Step Nine: "Now we go out to our fellows and repair the damage done in the past." (p. 76).
On the willingness in Step Eight, the paragraph adds, a little further on: "If we haven't the will to do this, we ask until it comes. Remember it was agreed at the beginning we would go to any lengths for victory over alcohol." (p. 76). Those lines sit after the Step Nine sentence and are about the will to go out and repair the damage. Of Step Eight's own willingness the book says only that it is already there: the list is of those "to whom we are willing to make amends" (p. 76).
Where the Step Eight list comes from
The book says the list was made "when we took inventory" (p. 76). In the Step Four pages the inventory does produce one. On resentment: "We listed people, institutions or principles with whom we were angry." (p. 64). On sex conduct: "Where had we been selfish, dishonest, or inconsiderate? Whom had we hurt?" (p. 69). The inventory section closes: "We have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to straighten out the past if we can." (p. 70). Bill's story has the same thing in 1934: "We made a list of people I had hurt or toward whom I felt resentment." (p. 13). See: How does the Big Book say to do Step 4?
The words
The Steps' own words are "defects of character" (Step Six) and "shortcomings" (Step Seven) (p. 59). Page 76 uses "the things which we have admitted are objectionable" and, in the prayer, "every single defect of character." "Character defects," the phrase most often heard, is not in the first 164 pages. See: "Character defects" or "defects of character," "shortcomings": what does the Big Book say?
How much the book says, honestly
By the count on p. 76, Step Six is about 65 words, Step Seven about 70 (most of them the prayer), and Step Eight about 55 before the text is into Step Nine. The book gives no separate procedure, list, or worksheet for any of the three. What it does give is one question (are we willing, all of it?), one prayer, and the reminder that the list is already made. The length and detail go to the Steps on either side: Step Five, with its reasons and its choice of a listener (pp. 72–75), and Step Nine, with its cases and the promises (pp. 76–84).
Chapter 7's summary of the program to a newcomer matches this: the member explains "how you made a self-appraisal, how you straightened out your past and why you are now endeavoring to be helpful to him" (p. 94). Steps Six and Seven are inside that, not named.
See: How does the Big Book say to make amends?, Is "faith without works is dead" in the Big Book?, What does "willing to go to any length" refer to?
Read it yourself
- Chapter 5, "How It Works" (the Steps as listed, p. 59): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
- Chapter 6, "Into Action" (pp. 72–84): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
- Chapter 1, "Bill's Story" (p. 13): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt1.pdf
- The full book: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 1 | 13 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 5 | 59, 63–64, 69–70 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 6 | 72–84 | 1939 |
| Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 7 | 94 | 1939 |
Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.
These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.