Hopelessness feels never-ending. It feels like finding yourself in a dark, dead-end cave from which you’ll never emerge. But it may be a birthing canal. “Dark Night of the Soul” refers to a spiritual or psychological crisis in which one is suddenly permeated by a deep sense of meaninglessness. The term itself dates back to a 16th-century poem by Saint John of the Cross- a Roman Catholic mystic. He used it to describe the first step of the ten steps on the ladder of mystical love, the goal of which is union with God. According to the Catholic tradition, during this step one experiences a soul sickness, whereby the soul “loses her taste for everything and the colors of her past existence are transmuted”.
Many other traditions have a similar concept. In Shamanism it is termed shamanic illness, wherein a period of fits, visions, and madness signal the birth of a healer. Perhaps the most poetic description of despair’s action on the soul is by Rumi, a thirteenth-century Sufi mystic.
Sorrow and even hopelessness can prepare you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots so that new roots hidden beneath have room to grow. Whatever sorrow shakes from your heart, far better things will take their place.
The Dark Night of the Soul is often excruciatingly painful as former illusions are shattered and our familiar selves offer no comfort. It feels hopeless, its rewards, however, are great. Depressive states, particularly when accompanied by deep introspection often leave the sufferer in a significantly improved emotional and spiritual state. Often these individuals exhibit levels of compassion, integrity, and peace greater than they were previously capable of. In this way, sorrow serves as a birthing canal to a new freedom. Carl Jung asserted, “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” Such dark states have also been associated with creative inspiration for ages.
I have personally experienced several dark nights. I attribute them, in retrospect to signify moments of unbearable inner tension during I recoil from Truth or Insight as if from a flame. However, Truth is a ruthless predator; once you and he have glimpsed each other he will pursue you endlessly. It is usually under the threat of being devoured that I am eventually propelled forward into a more peaceful, joyful existence.
