Dark Night of the Soul

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Night_of_the_Soul
Rather than resulting in permanent devastation, the dark night is regarded by mystics and others as a blessing in disguise, whereby the individual is stripped (in the dark night of the senses) of the spiritual ecstasy associated with acts of virtue. Although the individual may for a time seem to outwardly decline in his or her practices of virtue, in reality he becomes more virtuous, as she is being virtuous less for the spiritual rewards (ecstasies in the cases of the first night) obtained and more out of a true love for God. It is this purgatory, a purgation of the soul, that brings purity and union with God.


http://www.themystic.org/dark-night/
"Dark night of the soul" sounds like a threatening and much to be avoided experience. Yet perhaps a quarter of the seekers on the road to higher consciousness will pass through the dark night. In fact, they may pass through several until they experience the profound joy of their true nature.

Many seekers would encourage the dark night experience if they knew what it was. However, to one engaged in the dark night, suffering seems unending.

The dark night occurs after considerable advancement toward higher consciousness. Indeed, the dark night usually occurs like an initiation before one of these special seekers is admitted into regular relationship with higher consciousness. The dark night also occurs to those who do not seek relationship but immersion or unity in the higher consciousness. While the term dark night of the soul is used broadly, its general meaning — in the field of higher consciousness — is a lengthy and profound absence of light and hope. In the dark night you feel profoundly alone.

Are you going through it? Good luck.

For a few years now

Are you sure it's not just some kind of major depressive period?

You might derive some benefit from this:

http://web.mac.com/danielmingram/iWeb/D ... 1BA33.html

Dark nights seem to me to be like Pluto transits, except in every house at once.

It IS a major depressive period. But it also results in growth. I have also heard it called an "existential crisis". Or, more prosaically, "mid-life crisis".

Which means you needn't feel ashamed about taking pills or talking to a counselor to help. But the best cure for it is to figure out what you're supposed to learn from it.

So sorry to hear this, .

This is a very interesting article here:

Positive Disintegration

Here is my favourite poem by the "Steppenwolf" and "Siddhartha" author Hermann Hesse, maybe it speaks to you as it did to me. I wish you all the best.

Steps

Like ev’ry flower wilts, like youth is fading
and turns to age, so also one’s achieving:
Each virtue and each wisdom needs parading
in one’s own time, and must not last forever.
The heart must be, at each new call for leaving,
prepared to part and start without the tragic,
without the grief – with courage to endeavor
a novel bond, a disparate connection:
for each beginning bears a special magic
that nurtures living and bestows protection.

We’ll walk from space to space in glad progression
and should not cling to one as homestead for us.
The cosmic spirit will not bind nor bore us;
it lifts and widens us in ev’ry session:
for hardly set in one of life’s expanses
we make it home, and apathy commences.
But only he, who travels and takes chances,
can break the habits’ paralyzing stances.

It even may be that the last of hours
will make us once again a youthful lover:
The call of life to us forever flowers…
Anon, my heart! Do part and do recover!

This is the best translation that I have come across, but I do not know the name of the person, who translated it.

I pray you have spiritual guidance from a present human being outside yourself and us on Internet fora, someone who knows you and/or who knows what s/he is doing.

I thought the difference between depression and other things was that depression didn't have a cause in the world around us, or else it grew out of all proportion to such cause, e.g., "excessive," protracted grieving for someone departed. I'm not an expert, but I'm not sure the Dark Night is said to be like this ... though I imagine it could possibly spawn a depressive episode or intensify one.

---Pete

Yes, but is it simply a rum time, or is it spiritual crisis? That's the question

I don't think the dark night is the same thing as a mid life crisis, though I suppose they could co-incide.



"Once you cross the A&P you are a Dark Night Yogi until you figure out how to get through it"

Interesting and inspiring message this dark night of the soul.

I think it is not same like depression.
I feel it is good and inspiring thing even not easy...

Sparklehorse

As the old phrase goes, "Been there. Done that." Survived? Yes. Scars? Yes, mental and physical. Changed? Absolutely! Learnings? More than you can imagine. Desire to repeat? No way!

Yes, the dark night can last for a prolonged period of time and it can be very depressing and seem hopeless at times. There is real developmental work that is going on during that time however, but it requires you to be open to it and to actively participate in the process. That can mean many different things. For example, take the time to consider your situation. What is it exactly that is happening? What do you fear about it? Why? Are there patterns here that you might have seen before in your life? How is this changing me? Should I change? What can I learn from this? Why me? Karma perhaps?
Think over everything that is happening to you and especially review your whole life up until this point. Look for patterns that repeat. Look for commonality. Ask the usual questions; Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why? Question everything! Examine everything. Most of all do not be afraid of any of your conclusions, no matter how strange they may seem, or how different they might be from what everyone else believes. This is a period where you are learning to stand on your own two feet and realize that you are an independent being from all others. What is happening to you and what there is to learn is different for every one of us. The most important thing is to learn.
Yes, it is tough to swim upstream sometimes, especially when everyone else is going the other way, but for you it is necessary. Don't miss this opportunity. Remember you need to be able to think and reason clearly, so that means no alcohol and no drugs. These things just mess up your mind and clog up the mental functioning. They will only keep you from seeing the truth that is around you. (During my dark time, many tried to get me to take a whole range of drugs, but I steadfastly refused. 20/20 hindsight later showed that this refusal on my part was the right decision.)
There is a danger during this dark period as well. You must not let yourself drown in your own sorrows. At some point you must girdle your loins and do battle with the dark forces that would keep you down and depressed forever. Spent time in the depths to learn, but then gather all of your will power and force yourself up and out of the pit and into the light. Once there, you will be amazed at the changes in yourself and at how much you have actually learned.
(BTW Neptune is always more of a problem for me, than Pluto. I learned long ago to do my own astrological work and to trust only my own interpretations. And I might add that I have no use for the modern psychological interpretation approach. The old style that simply "tells it like it is" is much more useful.)
And lastly, remember that what and who you were before is not important. It's who and what you are now, at this moment, that matters. The important thing is to learn and grow. Learn and grow.

I hope that this helps.
Blessed be and may the Great Ones be with you.

Thank you for all the kind words everyone.

I'm not reaching out, at risk, or listening to The Smiths or Morrissey records, but put it up as I think it very much applies to those who come here and stay awhile, retreat from life, take stock, learn some truths about people, then move forward, into the fray once again

Surf is pumping today, I'm in a rush to get to the waves....

Will be back in 10 hours

Perhaps it's just endless twilight? Or maybe some people are born with their head in the dark and their feet in the light?

Perhaps it results in profundity?

Tea-time.

Maybe he had a food addiction, felt yuk, and blamed his faith with god as weak

Maybe the coiner of this phrase, 'Saint John of the Cross' was just depressed cause he was an aspie

Saint Johns wort????

For every dark night there is a beautiful dawn...