The dark night of the soul, named after a poem by 16th-century Spanish Catholic mystic St. John of the Cross, is an archetypal spiritual experience of profound depression, questioning, confusion, disillusionment, and despair. The dark night of the soul is generally associated with Christianity, but the experience is also found in other religious, spiritual, and artistic traditions.
Defining the Dark Night of the Soul
The dark night of the soul is foremost a seeking without finding – a seeking for God or the transcendent without any consolation that the spiritual yearnings of the soul are heard, acknowledged, or meaningful.
In St. John of the Cross’s eight-stanza poem “La Noche Oscura del Alma,” translated from Spanish to English as “The Dark Night of the Soul,” the longing of the poet’s thwarted soul for an experience of and union with God, which he seeks “without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart,” is palpable:
“This light guided me
More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he
(well I knew who!) was awaiting me
– A place where none appeared.”
The experience of the dark night of the soul is one of alienation and anguish because one is unable to find hope, assurance, or meaning in the world because God is seemingly absent or nonexistent.
Dr. Sanford Drob, on NewKabbalah.com, eloquently describes this bleak state of the soul:
“In such a state, one loses faith, and believes, if one is honest with oneself, that the ideas that there is a God, an objective meaning to existence, or anything of enduring value, are absurd fantasies that one had fooled oneself into accepting as a bulwark against the harsh, naked truth.”
For many, the dark night of the soul is the defining experience – the crossroads – on their spiritual journey. Some emerge on the other side of the dark night of the soul with a renewed and stronger faith in God, ultimately blessing the wisdom they gained as a result of their suffering, while others become hardened yet resolved to endure despite meaninglessness.
Dark Night of the Soul in Religions, Spiritual Traditions, and Art
The dark night of the soul is one of the foundational experiences of being human and thus is found throughout the world’s religious, spiritual, and artistic traditions. Within these traditions, the mystics and artists, who yearn for a direct experience of transcendence, grapple most profoundly with the questions of meaning inherent in the soul’s struggle after God.
The central image of Christianity, that of Jesus on the cross, directly evokes the dark night of the soul. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” cries out Christ in anguished despondency, while nailed to and dying on the cross (Mathew 27:46).
In Judaism, there is a profound awareness of the otherness and often unapproachableness of God. The struggle with God, which is perhaps most apparent in the Book of Job, is central to the ancient faith. If God is good, why is the world not? asks the Jew. The Holocaust, the most profound dark night of the soul in the Jewish experience, has redefined Judaism. Some Jews have come out on the side of faith, while others have abandoned faith altogether.
Eastern religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, are also keenly aware of perpetual and endless suffering and incomprehensibility as integral to the human experience. However, while Western religions tend to see the dark night of soul as a question of meaninglessness vs. meaningfulness, Eastern religions accept that life is suffering that must be transcended, as directly stated in Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths. In this respect, the positive outcome of Western religions' dark night of the soul is life affirming while the outcome of the similar struggle in Eastern religions is life denying.
The dark night of the soul is also a common theme that artists struggle with. One of the most exhaustive confrontations with this ultimate soul struggle is found in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, beginning, “To be or not to be: that is the question,” encapsulates the questions of the worth and purpose of human life.
Dark Night of the Soul in Human Experience
The dark night of the soul is a metaphor for the experience of doubt, angst, hopelessness, and alienation from that which would give life transcendence. For this reason, the dark night crosses the boundaries into all religious, spiritual, and artistic experiences.
The dark night of the soul can last for an extended period – even decades, as was the case for Mother Teresa and contemporary minister Ron Roth, who described his struggle “not as a night but an epoch” (p. 110). After struggling with the great unanswerable questions of human existence, one can either develop a strengthened and more fully authentic faith or turn to atheism or agnosticism, as was Charles Darwin's experience.
Sources:
Fox, Matthew. (2000). Original Blessing. NY, NY: Tarcher/Putnam Books.
Jewish Mysticism and the “Dark Night of the Soul,” NewKabbalah.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
Roth, Ron. (1997). The Healing Path of Prayer: A Modern Mystic’s Guide to Spiritual Power. NY, NY: Three Rivers Press.
Smith, Houston. (1995). World Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions. NY, NY: HarperCollins.
Aimee Larsen Stoddard - Aimee is a professional writer/editor. She has a BA in English and is currently completing an MS in Theology.
Join the Conversation