What is The Dark Night of the Soul?
Here is a short introduction and a collection of quotes by Roberto Assagioli about the spiritual crisis called The Dark Night of the Soul, by several mystics. It is a crisis before achieving full spiritual liberation or oneness with the Spirit and must not be confused with other “dark crisis´” normally showing up in the life of the ordinary person or in connection with the awakening process.
The concept the “dark night of the soul” is being used by many to describe a long and painful crisis where they undergo a deep transformation. Roberto Assagioli also speaks about the “dark night of the soul” but in a much more specific way, than many do today.
However, the crisis is not only related to intense pain and depression but a death experience we undergo before entering the most intense spiritual light. The concept was made famous by the mystic St. John of the Cross, and Assagioli quotes him a lot when dealing with this theme:
“Before the full and final victory, however, the soul has to undergo another test: it must pass through the ‘dark night’ which is a new and deeper experience of annihilation, or a crucible in which all the human elements that go to make it up are melted together. But the darkest nights are followed by the most radiant dawns and the soul, perfect at last, enters into complete, constant and inseparable communion with the Spirit, so that – to use the bold statement employed by St John of the Cross – ‘it seems to be God himself and has the same characteristics as him’. (Transpersonal Development, p 146-147)
And in this quote, we see that the “dark night of the soul” is related to the crisis before Nirvana:
“After the “dark night of the soul”, that new period of shadow, labor and sorrow, comes the glorious goal, the transfiguration of the soul in God, the conscious communion of the individual with the universal Spirit. The Orientals call this Moksha and Vinmuhti (liberation, Nirvana) and the Occidentals the Mystic Marriage and the Unified life.” (Assagioli in the article Spiritual Joy)
It seems to be the case that the “dark night of the soul” is related to the final stages of spiritual psychosynthesis and is about disidentifying – letting go of our attachment to the superconscious ecstasy. This is what Abraham Maslow called “higher side-tracking. ”
Assagioli says: “The purpose of the “dark night” is very clearly explained by Evelyn Underhill: “The function of this process upon the Mystic Way is to cure the soul of the innate tendency to seek and rest in spiritual joys; to confuse Reality with the joy given by the contemplation of Reality.” (Transpersonal Development, p 146-147)
There are many types of dark crisis; some happen before the personality has been formed and are related with “normal depressions” due to many personal reasons, others happen in relation to the awakening process of the soul, where there is an existential crisis between the values of the ego and the awakening soul. None of these crises is the real “dark night of the soul”, but might be considered preparations for the final relinquishment of attachment to the separated ego.
Whenever we let go of an attachment to false identifications, which enslaves us to be less than we could be, we undergo a minor initiation, which prepares us of for the great renunciation, where we enter into the Life of the Spirit – whatever that might be.
I recommend that you read the groundbreaking article by Assagioli from 1932 Spiritual Development and Nervous Diseases for a full introduction to the different spiritual crisis.
1. Crises preceding the spiritual awakening.
2. Crises determined by the spiritual awakening.
3. Reactions to the spiritual awakening.
4. Phases of the process of transmutation.
5. The “Dark Night of the Soul.”
Blessings to all …
Below is the collection of quotes from Roberto Assagioli:
“… 5. When the process of transformation reaches its climax, its final and decisive stage, it is marked by a period of intense suffering and inner obscurity, which has been called by the Christian Mystics, “the dark night of the soul.” The mental anguish and the great depression accompanying it, bear a close resemblance to the symptoms of the mental disease called by psychiatrists “depressive psychosis” or “melancholia.” These symptoms are chiefly: an emotional state of despair; an acute sense of unworthiness; a systematic self-deprecation and self-accusation; the impression of going through a hell which becomes so vivid as to produce the delusion that one is irretrievably damned; a keen and painful sense of intellectual impotence; a loss of will power and self-control and an inability and distaste for action.
Some of these symptoms may appear in a milder form in much earlier stages, but we must not mistake those for the true “dark night of the soul.” As Adela Curtiss has expressed it in her vivid style: “You feel as if you were nothing but a hole; a huge unfathomable ache of emptiness into which all creation might be poured and still it would be emptiness, aching for God. Of course, we all think we are in this state ages before we have come within sight of it. Any mood of dissatisfaction can be mistaken for it, as we all discover when we come to the real thing and look back at the many absurd imitations which deluded us into wonder as to what God could be doing to neglect such a hunger and thirst as ours.”[1]
This strange and terrible inner experience is not a mere pathological state; it has a specific spiritual cause and a great spiritual purpose.
The cause has been explained both by Plato and by St. John of the Cross with the same analogy.
Plato in his famous allegory of “the dark cave,” contained in the Seventh Book of his Republic, compares unenlightened men to prisoners in a dark cave or den and says:
“At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows.”
St. John of the Cross uses words curiously similar.
“The self is in the dark because it is blinded by a Light greater than it can bear. The more clear the light, the more does it blind the eyes of the owl, and the stronger the sun’s rays, the more it blinds the visual organs; overcoming them, by reason of their weakness, depriving them of the power of seeing. So the Divine Light of contemplation, when it beats on the soul not yet perfectly enlightened, causes spiritual darkness, not only because it surpasses its strength, but because it blinds it and deprives it of its natural perceptions . . . As eyes weakened and clouded by humours suffer pain when the clear light beats upon them, so the soul, by reason of its impurity suffers exceedingly when the Divine Light really shines upon it. And when the rays of this pure light shine upon the soul, in order to expel its impurities, the soul perceives itself to be so unclean and miserable that it seems as if God had set Himself against it, and itself were set against God . . . Wonderful and piteous sight! So great are the weakness and impurity of the soul that the hand of God, so soft and gentle, is felt to be so heavy and oppressive, though neither pressing nor resting on it, but merely touching it, and that, too, most mercifully; for He touches the soul, not to chastise it, but to load it with His graces.”[2]
The purpose of the “dark night” is very clearly explained by Evelyn Underhill:
“The function of this process upon the Mystic Way is to cure the soul of the innate tendency to seek and rest in spiritual joys; to confuse Reality with the joy given by the contemplation of Reality. It is the completion of that ordering of disordered loves, that trans-valuation of values, which the Way of Purgation began. The ascending self must leave these childish satisfactions; make its love absolutely disinterested, strong, and courageous, abolish all taint of spiritual gluttony. A total abandonment of the personal standard, of that trivial and egoistic quest of personal success which thwarts the great movement of the Flowing Light, is the supreme condition of man’s participation in Reality . . .
In illumination, the soul, basking in the uncreated Light, identified the Divine Nature with the Divine Light and sweetness which it then enjoyed. Its consciousness of the transcendent has been felt chiefly as an increase of personal vision and personal joy. Thus, in that apparently selfless state, “the I, the Me, the Mine,” though spiritualized, still remain intact. The mortification of the senses was more than repaid by the rich and happy life which this mortification conferred upon the soul. But before real and permanent union with the Absolute can take place; before the whole self can learn to live on these high levels where—its being utterly surrendered to the Infinite Will—it can be wholly transmuted in God, merged in the great life of the All; this separated life, this dependence on personal joys, must be done away .. .
The various torments and desolations of the Dark Night constitute this last and drastic purgation of the Spirit; the doing away of separateness, the annihilation of selfhood, even though all that self now claims for its own to be the Love of God.”[3]
The “dark night of the soul” in its highest and final stage corresponds to what has been called the “mystical crucifixion ;” the death and resurrection which really marks the disintegration of the personality, the “old Adam,” and the triumph of the soul, the “new Christ.”
Many serious disturbances, which sometimes amount to actual diseases, are due to a special cause and have their origin outside the personality of the sufferer. This cause is the “mystical substitution,” by means of which an ardent, loving and generous soul may attract to itself the inner suffering and even the physical symptoms of another person. This may sound strange and almost unbelievable at first, but a closer investigation will show that it really is only an extreme instance of the taking on through sympathy of another person’s condition, which most of us have sometimes experienced. The important distinction is, that in the case of “mystical substitution” it is not something which happens unconsciously and without volition; it is the consequence of an active and determined spiritual resolution. This “mystical substitution” can be accomplished both in a personal and in a general sense. Instances of the former are not rare in the lives of the Christian Mystics and the Saints.
The most familiar probably is the case of St. Theresa of Spain who states in her autobiography, that she brought upon herself the intense temptations of a priest, who was at once freed from them as soon as St. Theresa began to experience their torment.
The most extreme and dramatic case is perhaps that of St. Lydwine of Schiedham, who succeeded in attracting to herself a series of grave diseases. Her extraordinary story has been graphically portrayed by the French novelist, Huysmans.
The general “mystical substitution” consists in offering to offset by one’s own suffering, some of the sufferings and wrongs of humanity at large. The more austere and contemplative religious orders, such as the Trappists and the Carmelites, are doing this regularly.
An interesting experiment of this kind, made by a group of twelve laymen in cooperation with the Carmelites at San Remo, is related by Montague Summers in his article on Mystical Substitution. He describes the effects as follows:
“The psychic experiences of the mystic were very remarkable. Amongst other things all suffered during the time of their oblation from intense mental lassitude and a spiritual aridity which are always accounted sure proof that the substitution has been accepted and prevails. It may further be noted that this psychological state began abruptly in each case immediately the oblation had been made, the interior disorders and pain increased almost hourly, and no relief nor waning was found until the dark cloud dispersed suddenly, in a moment, to be succeeded by the sunshine of an interior peace, and consolations which were all the sweeter from their contrast with the preceding desolation.”[4]
In the East this spiritual activity is performed in a different way, but with a self-abnegation no less unreserved and heroic. We find it expressed in the vow in which the Bodhisattva or future Buddha, pledges himself to renounce the bliss of Nirvana and surrender his all for the good of all. …
[1] Creative Silence (London, 1920), p. 153.
[2] Noche Oscura del Alma, L. II, cap. V.
[3] Mysticism (London, Methuen), pp. 472-474.
[4] The Occult Review, October, 1918.
(Assagioli in: Spiritual Development and Nervous Diseases)
“Then there is the mysterious stage of the ‘dark night of the soul’, that ‘passive purification’ in which the mystic’s consciousness undergoes a new, more radical negative experience and in which the actual death of the old personality, or ‘Adam’, takes place – a necessary condition for resurrection in Christ. It is in this mystical death, I believe, that human suffering reaches its highest level: it is an inexpressible torment, a real conscious agony. It is little wonder that during such a terrible experience, which can last for a considerable period, the health suffers and we encounter symptoms similar to those associated with the illness known by psychiatrists as ‘melancholy’.
But here too the pathological similarities in no way detract from the reality and value of the spiritual experience. Indeed, I would go so far as to maintain the opposite. I have observed in a number of cases of so-called ‘melancholy’, when the patients themselves thought they were suffering solely from an illness, that a profound spiritual upheaval was taking place within them. (Transpersonal Development, p. 129)
“Before the full and final victory, however, the soul has to undergo another test: it must pass through the ‘dark night’ which is a new and deeper experience of annihilation, or a crucible in which all the human elements that go to make it up are melted together. But the darkest nights are followed by the most radiant dawns and the soul, perfect at last, enters into complete, constant and inseparable communion with the Spirit, so that – to use the bold statement employed by St John of the Cross – ‘it seems to be God himself and has the same characteristics as him’. (Transpersonal Development, p 146-147)
“When spiritual life and development are regarded from the traditional point of view there is very often associated with them the idea of renunciation, of suffering, labor, sorrow and pain. This is unfair, for a single aspect is over accented. It arouses perplexity, even repugnance and discourage the novice on the spiritual way.
Suffering constitutes the preponderant and characteristic element of only one phase, one level, of the spiritual life – the phase of purification which follows the awakening of the soul, the first revelation of our indwelling Spirit. That awakening is full of joy and exultation and joy is the note of the state that follows purification, the state of the illumined soul. After the “dark night of the soul”, that new period of shadow, labor and sorrow, comes the glorious goal, the transfiguration of the soul in God, the conscious communion of the individual with the universal Spirit. The Orientals call this Moksha and Vinmuhti (liberation, Nirvana) and the Occidentals the Mystic Marriage and the Unified life.
In this state the soul is filled with bliss, an enduring and ineffable joy. We should not marvel at it for bliss is the essential quality of the Supreme Spirit. Both Orientals and Occidentals testify to this. According to the Hindus, the three essential attributes of the Supreme Spirit are Sat, Chit, Ananda; namely, being, knowledge, bliss. Other authorities as the Manduka Upanishad call these characteristics of Atman, the Supreme Self, “shantam, shivam, advaita”; or peace, bliss, unity.
According to the Christians the communion with God in this life and the next gives conscious enjoyment of Him, of His glory and His bliss. (Assagioli in: Spiritual Joy)
“Again, we have attempted to understand the Self in terms of our normal experiences, and arrived at a concept which has no relation whatsoever with the true nature of the Self. The “way of negation” needs to be reinterpreted in its true sense. When we say that anything that has quality is not the Self, we mean anything that has specific quality. The Self has no quality yet at the same time it is the synthesis of all qualities, in the sense that all qualities are contained in it and harmoniously integrated. Both darkness and white light can be said to have no colour, yet white light contains all colours, and the right proportions. And the radiation of the Self can be experienced as blackness or as pure intense white light at different times. This has been reported by many mystics, the most famous of all being St. John of the Cross who used the term “Dark Night of the Soul” to describe the state that precedes, and leads to the experience of the Self. Other mystics have talked about the cosmic “voice of the silence” or “music of the spheres” which can be heard when all normal sounds cease, yet contains all sounds. And the experience of The Void – the transcendence of bounded space and of all that is contained in space – has been described as terrifying or blissful in different circumstances. (6) This paradoxical nature of the Self is perhaps best stated by the Buddhist formula: “Neither being, nor not-being, nor both being and not-being, nor neither being nor not-being”! (Assagioli in: The Superconscious and the Self)
“But there is another kind of purification less well known and more difficult to understand. It is that called by the Christian Mystics passive purification, and it is generally accompanied by a state of emotional aridity, mental darkness and spiritual impotence. The mystics call its extreme phases ‘the dark night of the soul.’ One of its first and more frequent aspects is what is called in the life of occult aspirants “the pledge fever.” It consists essentially in a violent upheaval of all the lower elements of the personality hitherto more or less dormant, which is the reaction to an intense and sincere aspiration and to a determined spiritual purpose. It is literally the waking up of “sleeping dogs,” which, contrary to the proverb, has to be done, sooner or later, in our spiritual development. This passive purification is the most painful and difficult phase of spiritual evolution. I cannot dwell upon it now, as it is outside my immediate purpose, but it is necessary to know about it in order not to be caught unawares. It explains many otherwise baffling and disquieting inner events and also gives us a needed encouragement and hope. I will only add that it is a purification by fire accomplished by an occult burning up. It is interesting to note how the candid reports of the mystics coincide on this point with the esoteric teachings. (Assagioli in: Practical Contribution to a Modern Yoga)
Not all spiritual evolution takes place in light. Stages of light alternate with stages of darkness, of gloom, in which the mind no longer sees anything; all feeling is withered, all faith gone, the will paralyzed. These have been called by the mystics “the dark night of the soul”. There are several, which stand between the successive stages of enlightenment.
The first of these stages of inner darkness, which precedes spiritual awakening, is very common at present and is called anxiety or existential anguish. It is not infrequently the cause of neuropsychological disorders, even serious ones. It begins with a state of restlessness, of dissatisfaction, followed by a sense of futility, of the unreality of ordinary life. This can escalate to a feeling of annihilation, of emptiness, of darkness. Not only has the new light not appeared, but the individual either ignores its existence or does not believe in the possibility that it will arise for him.
Another aspect of this state of darkness — by one of those paradoxes or apparent contradictions that are frequent in spiritual life — consists precisely in the action of the first influx of light. In this way, the first things the aspirant learns are the “negative” ones, from which comes the revelation of his limitations and his nullity: the undesirable elements of his aura appear to him in their fullness.
The darkness within him is intensified by the light coming from the center of his being that begins to enter: he often despairs of himself and has phases of depression. “Blindness, it has been written, preludes initiation, whatever its degree …”.
From the moment when a human being glimpses “something else”, however faintly, and sees himself in the right position in relationship to that distant reality just glimpsed, the “blindness” of which I have spoken is imposed by the soul upon the hasty aspirant, so that he may adequately assimilate and express the lessons of conscious experience: in this way he is safeguarded from too rapid and superficial progress.
To withstand the temptations of doubt, discouragement, and depression that assail us in the inner night, frequent reminders of the ever-present light behind or above the darkness, through the use of suitable mantras, are very helpful. It is necessary to hold a strong awareness, a mental and intuitive conviction of the evolutionary plan and its goals, and to recall the experiences of light that one has had in previous times.
In states of crisis or inner darkness, lower psychic elements may arise from the unconscious — actually, this is not a bad thing, because they can be mastered and transmuted. But they are very distressing periods for those who find themselves in them, and they give rise to wrong and unjust impressions in those who observe only their external manifestations.
(Assagioli in the Spiritual Path)
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