diff --git a/django/contrib/messages/constants.py b/django/contrib/messages/constants.py
index bf83bfa13b..b43144872c 100644
--- a/django/contrib/messages/constants.py
+++ b/django/contrib/messages/constants.py
@@ -11,3 +11,11 @@ DEFAULT_TAGS = {
     WARNING: 'warning',
     ERROR: 'error',
 }
+
+DEFAULT_LEVELS = {
+    'DEBUG': DEBUG,
+    'INFO': INFO,
+    'SUCCESS': SUCCESS,
+    'WARNING': WARNING,
+    'ERROR': ERROR,
+}
diff --git a/django/contrib/messages/context_processors.py b/django/contrib/messages/context_processors.py
index 26cbcd5853..bf3f083108 100644
--- a/django/contrib/messages/context_processors.py
+++ b/django/contrib/messages/context_processors.py
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 from django.contrib.messages.api import get_messages
+from django.contrib.messages.constants import DEFAULT_LEVELS
 
 
 def messages(request):
     """
     Returns a lazy 'messages' context variable.
     """
-    return {'messages': get_messages(request)}
+    return {
+        'messages': get_messages(request),
+        'DEFAULT_MESSAGE_LEVELS': DEFAULT_LEVELS,
+    }
diff --git a/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py b/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py
index b247362e1b..648ec4c221 100644
--- a/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py
+++ b/django/contrib/messages/tests/base.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from django import http
 from django.conf import settings, global_settings
 from django.contrib.messages import constants, utils, get_level, set_level
 from django.contrib.messages.api import MessageFailure
+from django.contrib.messages.constants import DEFAULT_LEVELS
 from django.contrib.messages.storage import default_storage, base
 from django.contrib.messages.storage.base import Message
 from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
@@ -189,6 +190,13 @@ class BaseTests(object):
             for msg in data['messages']:
                 self.assertNotContains(response, msg)
 
+    def test_context_processor_message_levels(self):
+        show_url = reverse('django.contrib.messages.tests.urls.show_template_response')
+        response = self.client.get(show_url)
+
+        self.assertTrue('DEFAULT_MESSAGE_LEVELS' in response.context)
+        self.assertEqual(response.context['DEFAULT_MESSAGE_LEVELS'], DEFAULT_LEVELS)
+
     @override_settings(MESSAGE_LEVEL=constants.DEBUG)
     def test_multiple_posts(self):
         """
diff --git a/docs/ref/contrib/messages.txt b/docs/ref/contrib/messages.txt
index c1995b6d39..caf51d26cc 100644
--- a/docs/ref/contrib/messages.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/contrib/messages.txt
@@ -196,6 +196,22 @@ Even if you know there is only just one message, you should still iterate over
 the ``messages`` sequence, because otherwise the message storage will not be cleared
 for the next request.
 
+.. versionadded:: 1.7
+
+The context processor also provides a ``DEFAULT_MESSAGE_LEVELS`` variable which
+is a mapping of the message level names to their numeric value::
+
+    {% if messages %}
+    <ul class="messages">
+        {% for message in messages %}
+        <li{% if message.tags %} class="{{ message.tags }}"{% endif %}>
+            {% if message.level == DEFAULT_MESSAGE_LEVELS.ERROR %}Important: {% endif %}
+            {{ message }}
+        </li>
+        {% endfor %}
+    </ul>
+    {% endif %}
+
 Creating custom message levels
 ------------------------------
 
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.7.txt b/docs/releases/1.7.txt
index 13db17cbd4..784ee86493 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.7.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.7.txt
@@ -203,6 +203,9 @@ Minor features
   follow the :setting:`SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE` and
   :setting:`SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY` settings.
 
+* The :ref:`messages context processor <message-displaying>` now adds a
+  dictionary of default levels under the name ``DEFAULT_MESSAGE_LEVELS``.
+
 :mod:`django.contrib.redirects`
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^