For mystics, the “dark night of the soul” is a phase of life in which we seem to be immersed in a sort of inner darkness and spiritual aridity. It is a period that can last days, months or even years during which one feels at the mercy of a sense of powerlessness towards our existence, of paralysis of the will and of weakening of our ability to choose and act, as if every vital energy were being sucked away.
Fear, confusion and a deep melancholy crowd the mind, like black clouds that obscure all hope. Although this condition can be triggered by an external event – a loss, a personal crisis or a significant failure – the dark night of the soul can also arise without a clear cause, creeping into our life like a silent and inexplicable shadow. Yet, it can be a crucial moment of rebirth.
The dark night of the soul is in fact an essential passage for spiritual awakening. That feeling of emptiness is in fact an indication of an inner beauty that wants to resurface from the darkness into which it has fallen.
It is essentially the beginning of Dante’s journey who, in his life path, found himself “in a dark forest”, that is, in a moment of disorientation that marks the beginning of his purification, which will lead him to Paradise.
As Saint John of the Cross explains in Dark Night, “[the soul] at the beginning suffers from the contrasting and simultaneous presence of two opposite influences: divine splendor and human ugliness… to free itself from the rust and slag of the affections that have affected it even in its innermost being, the soul must annihilate itself and consume itself… sometimes it perceives its misery so acutely that it seems that the gates of hell are opening before it… The fact is that the darkness and other sufferings that it suffers when it is struck by the light, are not attributable to the light, but to its own miseries: the light illuminates them and makes it see them. In fact, the more it approaches it, the more the darkness blackens and the obscurity in which it is plunged thickens because of its weakness. It resembles in fact one who, approaching the sun too closely, and not tolerating its splendor due to the weakness of sight, sees everything black.”
However, this is not a purely Christian conception. The descent into inner darkness is a necessary stage in the soul’s journey also in many other spiritual traditions. In Greek mythology, for example, we find symbols of this descent and ascent. Let’s think of Orpheus who descends into Hades to find Eurydice, his lost love. His journey is also a confrontation with his own fears and illusions. The ascent from Hades symbolizes the victory over these shadows and the return to light.
Jung, for his part, states: “if you seek a light, you will first fall into an even deeper darkness… one does not reach enlightenment by imagining figures of light, but by bringing inner darkness to consciousness”. For Jung, healing and spiritual realization pass through the knowledge of our shadows, of those hidden and often rejected parts of our being. True growth does not consist in avoiding darkness, but in confronting it to bring forth a better self.
Even Pinocchio had to deal with his “dark night”, symbolically represented by the belly of the whale by which he is swallowed at the end of his journey. The belly of the large cetacean in fact represents the awareness of inner darkness, which precisely precedes his transformation into a real boy, that is, alchemical illumination.
Alchemy in fact recognizes the necessity of a dark night: the Nigredo. It is the first great alchemical transmutation, that is, a phase of darkness in which to fight one’s inner shadow and crumble the conception one had of oneself to make room for a renewed and spiritually better “I”. The alchemical motto “Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem” (Vitriol), which means “Descend into the depths of the earth and, rectifying, you will find the hidden stone,” summarizes this process well: only by going deep into one’s own darkness can one discover the “philosopher’s stone” of one’s being. In other alchemical terms, it is in the darkness that lead transforms into gold.
Essentially according to various traditions, in order to become aware of what does not make us grow and free the best part of us, it is often necessary to lose oneself in a deep darkness. The dark night of the soul therefore is not only a moment of loss, but a call to awakening, an opportunity to face our dark side. It is an invitation to look within oneself, to challenge one’s fears, face one’s flaws and correct them to rediscover the hidden beauty that will push us upward, towards rebirth.
So, if it seems to you that you have hit rock bottom and cannot climb back up, do not lose hope. Perhaps it is your turning point: the one in which, with the exercise of will, you will finally find the Light again.
♥
“Your light will shine in the darkness”
Saint John of the Cross
