Where are the Twelve Traditions in the Big Book?

The SHORT FORM of the Twelve Traditions is on pages 561–562 of Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition. The LONG FORM — the fuller, original wording — is on pages 563–566. The Twelve Concepts follow on pages 574–575. Almost every version circulating online quotes only the short form, which is why so much of what people are told about the Traditions is incomplete.

Are the Twelve Traditions about God or a higher power?

No. This is the single most distorted point about the Traditions. The Twelve Traditions are governance, organizational, and structural principles — they are about how the Fellowship runs itself so that it survives long enough to help people. They have nothing to do with God or a higher power. The Big Book covers personal recovery; the Traditions cover how A.A. governs itself. The 1930s-40s phrasing in Tradition 2 — "a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience" — is period language chosen to make a structural principle palatable, not a theological claim. "Group conscience" means the collective decision of the group, not divine guidance. "Loving God" in that sentence means that no single human being is in charge.

Do the Twelve Traditions apply to individual members?

No. The Traditions bind A.A. GROUPS and the Fellowship as a whole — their internal life and how A.A. relates to the world. They do not govern an individual member's private or outside life, and they do not bind independent, non-A.A. organisations. They were adopted in 1950 to keep A.A. from being owned, co-opted, or torn apart by disputes over money, property and authority. They are not a rulebook for a member's personal life.

Can a treatment centre or rehab run an A.A. group?

Not and have it still be an A.A. group. The LONG FORM of Tradition 3 (page 563 of the 4th Edition) says that any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, "provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation." That clause is decisive — and it exists ONLY in the long form, which is why it is missing from most of what circulates online. The moment a group carries a facility's affiliation, it is that facility's programme wearing A.A.'s name, not an A.A. group. Tradition 6 reinforces it: an A.A. group can bind itself to no one, and cooperation must never become affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied.

Do you need permission from anyone to start an A.A. meeting?

No. Under the long form of Tradition 3, any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that as a group they have no other affiliation. No treatment centre's approval is required. No facility, organisation, or institution can own or authorise an A.A. group. Any alcoholic can start a meeting anywhere with two or three people, and it is a legitimate A.A. group.

Does “attraction rather than promotion” mean a recovery business cannot advertise?

No — and this is a common and consequential misreading. "Attraction rather than promotion" is Tradition 11, and Tradition 11 is a PUBLIC-RELATIONS principle for the A.A. Fellowship and its members acting as A.A. members. It governs how A.A. presents itself. It does not bind independent, non-A.A. organisations, and it is not a general prohibition on marketing. Stretching the Traditions to bind individuals in their outside lives, or to bind outside businesses, is one of the most pervasive distortions on the internet. The Traditions govern A.A.; they do not govern everyone who happens to be talking about recovery.

What is the difference between the short form and the long form of the Traditions?

The short form (pages 561–562) is the condensed version read aloud in meetings. The long form (pages 563–566) is the fuller original statement, and it says considerably more. The clearest example: Tradition 3's requirement that an A.A. group have "no other affiliation" appears only in the long form. That single clause is what prevents a treatment centre or any outside body from owning an A.A. group — and because nearly every online summary reproduces only the short form, that clause has quietly disappeared from the public understanding of A.A. If you only ever read one version, read the long one.

Why were the Twelve Traditions written?

They were adopted in 1950, out of hard experience, to keep A.A. from being owned, co-opted, or destroyed from the inside. Early A.A. came close to being bankrolled, branded, professionalised and fought over. The Traditions are the scar tissue from those near-misses — a constitution written to make sure no benefactor, no institution, and no faction could ever take the Fellowship over. The long form of Tradition 7 puts the danger plainly: nothing can so surely destroy A.A.'s spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.

Can an A.A. group accept outside contributions or donations?

No. Tradition 7 states that every A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions. The long form (pages 563–566) goes further: groups should be supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members; any public solicitation of funds using the A.A. name is highly dangerous; and the acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise. It also warns against treasuries that accumulate funds beyond a prudent reserve for no stated A.A. purpose. The point is not poverty — it is independence. A group that owes nothing to anyone cannot be steered by anyone.

Are the Twelve Traditions rules?

Not in the sense of commandments handed down by an authority — A.A. has no such authority, and Tradition 9 says A.A. as such ought never be organised. The Traditions are the Fellowship's accumulated experience of what keeps it alive, written in the language of "we have found" rather than "you must." But they are not merely suggestions either: they are the structural conditions under which A.A. remains A.A. A group that ignores them does not get punished. It simply stops being an A.A. group.

What are the Twelve Concepts and where are they?

The Twelve Concepts for World Service are on pages 574–575 of Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th Edition, immediately after the Traditions. Where the Traditions govern the life of the groups and the Fellowship, the Concepts govern A.A.'s service structure — how the trustees, the General Service Conference and the service boards relate to one another and to the groups.

Is Recovery Starts an A.A. group, and do the Traditions bind it?

No, and no. Recovery Starts is an independent recovery-awareness project. It is not an A.A. group, it is not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, and it does not speak for A.A. The Twelve Traditions bind A.A. groups and the Fellowship — they place no constraint on an outside project's operations. We publish the Traditions in full, unaltered and attributed, because the accurate version is worth protecting and almost nobody else prints the long form. That is the whole reason this page exists.

الکلی‌های گمنام · ویرایش چهارم انگلیسی

دوازده سنت،
آنچه واقعاً می‌گویند

در سال ۱۹۵۰ به یک دلیل پذیرفته شد: اینکه AA را از مالکیت کسی دور نگه دارد. بیشتر آنچه در اینترنت دست‌به‌دست می‌شود متن کوتاه است، بدون بخش مهم آن.

متن کوتاهص. ۵۶۱–۵۶۲

متن کامل — این را بخوانیدص. ۵۶۳–۵۶۶

دوازده مفهومص. ۵۷۴–۵۷۵

دربارهٔ دوازده سنت مدام سه چیز گفته می‌شود و هر سه نادرست است.

این‌ها الهیات نیستند. سنت‌ها اصول اداره‌اند — قواعدی ساختاری دربارهٔ اینکه انجمن چگونه خود را اداره می‌کند تا آن‌قدر دوام بیاورد که بتواند به مردم کمک کند. ربطی به خدا یا نیروی برتر ندارند. وقتی سنت ۲ از «پروردگار مهربان، بدان‌گونه که خود را در وجدان گروه بیان کند» سخن می‌گوید، این عبارت‌پردازی دههٔ ۱۹۴۰ برای یک ایدهٔ ساختاری است: گروه تصمیم می‌گیرد و هیچ فردی به‌تنهایی مسئول نیست.

شما را پایبند نمی‌کنند. سنت‌ها بر گروه‌های AA و بر انجمن حاکم‌اند. کتاب قواعدی برای زندگی خصوصی یک عضو نیستند و هیچ قیدی بر سازمان‌هایی که AA نیستند نمی‌گذارند.

و مهم‌ترین بند در نسخه‌ای که به شما نشان داده‌اند نیست. شرط سنت ۳ که گروه «هیچ وابستگی دیگری» نداشته باشد فقط در متن کامل (ص. ۵۶۳–۵۶۶) هست. این همان بندی است که می‌گوید هیچ مرکز درمانی نمی‌تواند صاحب یک گروه AA باشد — و دقیقاً همین بند از اینترنت ناپدید شده است.

ریشهٔ آن‌ها، ۱۹۳۷–۱۹۵۰، با تاریخ و منبع: چگونه دوازده سنت شکل گرفت ←

دوازده سنت — هر دو متن، به‌طور کامل

متن کوتاه و متن کامل، کلمه به کلمه، همان‌گونه که در الکلی‌های گمنام، ویرایش چهارم انگلیسی آمده‌اند — متن کوتاه به ترجمهٔ فارسی خود AA در ایران، و متن کامل به ترجمهٔ ما. بیشتر سایت‌ها فقط متن کوتاه را منتشر می‌کنند. مقدمهٔ خود AA در صفحهٔ ۵۶۱ می‌گوید متن کامل «روشن‌تر است و شاید ارزش تاریخی داشته باشد» — برای همین اینجا هم آمده است، همان‌طور که خود کتاب این کار را می‌کند.