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Mystics, saints, and shamans throughout history have referred to our struggle as humans in different ways – but they all pointed to the need for us to grow into our divine potential consciously. One of these people was Saint John of the Cross, a Spanish monk who coined the term “Dark Night of the Soul” based on his experience.
Presently, the concept of the Dark Night of the Soul has come to be used in a much broader way. What was once a term reserved for people actively going through a Spiritual Journey now has come to easily label anything ranging from a few bad days and a period of depression to the death of a loved one.
I often hear people speak of the Dark Night as some problem they have to “fix” or something they “went through a long time ago that is now over, thank God.” But these people thought a Dark Night may have just been a glimpse of the darkness within them, especially when they speak egotistically about it as if it were a badge of honor.
The Dark Night is a herald, an omen, of change. It lets us know that we can’t continue living the way we have been living. Life has no growth or awakening without first seeing and acknowledging our disappointment.
Acknowledging our disappointment means becoming aware of the deeply held sense of “incompletion” that we all carry; it means becoming aware that something is desperately missing from our lives. Those who have experienced, or are currently experiencing, a Dark Night of the Soul will know that something fundamental at a core level is out of focus or completely lacking in their lives. Those going through a Dark Night will sense that so much more is possible in their lives, even though they don’t exactly know what that “so much more” is.
A true Dark Night of the Soul has a long-lasting impact- it completely changes an individual. When individuals exit a Dark Night, they discover that something has been taken away (for the better), such as their beliefs, perceptions, former meaning in life, or even, in rare cases, an inflated ego.
Have you ever seen a butterfly begin to emerge from its cocoon? It must struggle to strengthen its wings. If someone frees the butterfly from its cocoon prematurely, it won’t be able to fly because its crucial tempering stage will not have occurred. Your Dark Night of the Soul is your cocoon; it is the struggle of shedding the Ego Self to embody the Soul Self.
If you think you might be going through this journey, you must know that many of us, including myself, have been where you are. Many people are still going through the process as you read this. There is no one map; there is only the flickering luminescence of your Soul to light the way.
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