Understanding the Dark Night of the Soul

Understanding the Dark Night of the Soul

St. John of the Cross is closely associated with the prayer concept of the dark night of the soul. Living in the 16th century, St. John was a reformer of the Carmelite order of which he was a member. He is regarded as one of the foremost Spanish Christian mystic. His well-known works include the Candicle of Love, the Dark Night of the Soul, Ascend of Mount Carmel and his poem Living Flame of Love. Actually all his works have only one theme and one book was often a commentary on the other. The theme is the contemplative movement of a soul to a unitive experience with God in prayer. The dark night of the soul must be understood in the context of prayer. In the last couple of decades, there has been a revival of usage of phrase ‘the dark night of the soul’ especially by evangelicals. Unfortunately it is often misunderstood as depression, spiritual dryness, or being patience in suffering.

To understand the concept of dark night, we have to aware of the context in which St. John of the Cross wrote. Firstly, he was a practicing mystic and a spiritual director. A mystic just meant a person who have experienced the closeness of God and is aware of the His loving presence. As a spiritual director, he was aware of the pitfalls and dangers of depending on experience alone. He described his works as spiritual theology. His focus was on prayer especially contemplative prayer.

Secondly, he was trained under the teaching of Thomas Aquinas. Thomas Aquinas divided a human soul into two parts: sense and spirit. By sense is meant our attachment to the things of this world which include human relationships. The spirit refers to the cognitive part of the mind which includes the will, memories, and thinking. When St. John refers to the dark night of the sense and of the spirit, he was assigning different meanings to the common modern words we use; sense and spirit.

Finally, St. John comes from the apophatic tradition. Christian spirituality basically may be divided into two categories. The kataphatic tradition, to which most Protestant and evangelicals belong, believe that God may be known and described by language. This tradition utilizes creeds, doctrines and lots of words. The apophatic tradition believe that God is too awesome to be described. No human language has words to describe God. God can only be describe by negatives. The only way to describe God is by what He is not. The apophatic tradition is known as via negativa because of its use of negatives. Examples of apophatic theology include God's appearance to Moses in the Burning Bush; the Name of God which may not be pronounced; and the prophet Elijah's experience, where God reveals Himself in a "still, small voice" (1 Kings 19:11–13).

Prayer is human-God communion. Broadly prayer may be divided into linguistic or non-linguistic. Linguistic prayers which include verbal and meditative prayers are prayers that are practiced using our mind and language. Most Christians are familiar to this form of prayer. We ‘talk’ to God using words. The non-linguistic prayers include contemplative and unitive prayers. Here words are seldom used. It utilizes our other faculties to connect with God. St. John focused mainly on contemplative and unitive prayers. He observed that people who have are advancing in contemplative praying will eventually hit a brick wall on their way to unitive praying. Suddenly they will find their prayers dry, arid, or lose their sense of the presence of God. They may even feel that they have been abandoned by God. When these pray-ers have examined themselves and not find any hidden unconfessed sins, St. John described the stage they are in as the dark night of the soul.

St. John described two dark nights of the soul. One is the dark night of the sense and the other is the dark night of the spirit. Each in turn has a passive and active component. St. John suggested that God is teaching us to detach from our attachments to the world, and attach ourselves to Him personally. It is to teach us to let go and let God be God. According to St. John, the dark night of the sense and the dark night of the spirit do not occur sequentially but are both side of the same coin.

In the dark night of the sense, we are taught to detach ourselves from our worldly possessions, our loved ones and even ourselves. Most of the time, it is these worldly possessions that distract us from being fully present to God. In the dark night of the spirit, we are taught to detach ourselves from our pride in our cleverness, our memories (past), and our willfulness. We are also taught to let go of our past experiences of God as these experiences may bind us down. The passive component is letting God work on us and the active component is our willingness to submit and allow God to work. It must be noted that this is different from the Buddhist discipline of emptying of the mind and attaining the non-self. The goal here is not to empty the mind and self but to detach from all that bind us and distract us from God Himself. The aim of these dark nights is unitive prayer where one become fire.

Only when we have lost all our detachments can we stand close to God who is fire or ‘living flame’ as St. John noted. St. John also noted that not all pray-ers will achieve this unity. Many pray-ers perceive that during the dark nights, God has moved away. God has not moved away. Instead He has moved closer to us. So close that we are blinded by His light. Hence the darkness we perceive.
One metaphor which St. John like to use to describe the process of the dark nights was that of a burning log. When a fire was burning a log, first it dehumidified the log. Then it turned the wood black and charred. Finally “the fire brings to light and expels all those ugly and dark accidents which are contrary to fire” [Dark Night, Book II, Chapter 10]. When the fire of the Holy Spirit burns us, the initial effect is alarming and painful. As the damp log dries and become blacken, cracked and dry, in God’s refining fire, our real self is revealed - blackened, cracked and dry. It has always being there but the flame revealed the truth and the truth always set us free.

This progress of contemplative prayer to unitive prayer as illustrated by the dark nights of the sense and spirit is a useful guide for those who seek to deepen their prayer life. In the process, we are transformed. This process was not discovered by St. John. The early church tradition was very aware of God as refining flame and our purpose to be like God. Here is a short story from the Desert Fathers; Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, 'Abba as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?' Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, 'If you will, you can become all flame.' If we will, pass through the dark nights, and become all flame.

The Christian Contemplative Path of Silence

Just finished reading these two powerful books about the Christian contemplative path of silence. In his first book (2006), Martin Laird, spiritual director and professor in the department of theology and religious studies at Villanova University shares on the contemplative path of silence and dealing with distractions. Five years later (2011), he publishes his second book which is meant as a companion to the first in which he explores further the distractions and how that help to bring awareness to God as the ground of our being.

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The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry. Liturgy and Women's Work

I have come to believe that the true mystics of the quotidian are not those who contemplate holiness in isolation, reaching godlike illumination in serene silence, but those who manage to find God in a life filled with noise, the demands of other people and relentless daily duties that can consume the self. They may be young parents juggling child-rearing and making a living...[I]f they are wise, they treasure the rare moments of solitude and silence that come their way, and use them not to escape, to distract themselves with television and the like. Instead, they listen for a sign of God's presence and they open their hearts toward prayer.

Kathleen Norris (1998), The Quotidian Mysteries (New York, NY: Paulist, 1, 70)

Book Review on McColman’s The Big Book of Christian Mysticism

I read Carl McColman’s The Big Book of Christian Mysticism: The Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality (2010, Hampton Roads Publishing) while on a long flight from Singapore to South Africa, and reflected on the book while I was on safari in Kruger National Park. Amidst the raw chill of a morning on the African savannah plain while watching a glorious sunrise, adoration for the divine fills my heart, and I had a glimpse of what the mystics of all ages have been trying to explain to us. It resonates with what McColman writes about Christian mysticism,

Christian mysticism is all about experience – the experience of union with God, or of God. But it is also about a spiritual reality that undermines experience itself, deconstructing all your masks and self-defen[c]es (sic) and leaving you spiritually naked and vulnerable before the silence of the Great Mystery. It is the spirituality of bringing heaven to earth, and of going through hell while here on earth in order to get to heaven (p.9).

McColman structures his book into two parts. The first part explains what mysticism especially Christian mysticism is and the second is how to be a mystic through a contemplative life. The book is written in such an easy to understand way that a reader may easily miss how much knowledge and experience is needed to make such a complex subject appear simple. I discern that McColman has depth knowledge of many of the Christian mystics, notably Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Bernard of Clairvaux, author of the Cloud of Unknowing and Hildegard of Bingen.

McColman’s writing reflects the output of a gentle and kind soul who wants to share what he knows but is fearful of the repercussions. He walks gingerly through the minefield of what we commonly called mysticism. He is wise to limit himself specifically to Christian mysticism. Even then, he is aware of many well meaning Christians to whom the word mysticism is synonymous with New Age, not realising many Old and New Testament heroes of the faith may be considered mystics. I appreciate the way he grounds Christian mysticism in the Trinity, the revelation of God in his word (Bible), the Mystery of the Divine and in community. It is not often that mystics are understood in the context of their communities.

The second part deals with the heart of mysticism which involves kenosis (self-emptying) and perichoresis (analogy of the divine dance of the Trinity) which McColman calls the contemplative life. He introduces certain spiritual disciplines such as lectio divina (spiritual reading) and prayer-beyond-words which prime us to the contemplative life.

The heart of the book is what he calls the “mystical paradoxes.” The mark of spiritual maturity is to be able to hold in tension two seemingly opposing spiritual truths and yet be at peace about it. This is Christian mysticism. Unlikely systematic theology which gives the illusion that everything can be neatly explained in propositions, mysticism reveals that God is still a Mystery to our finite mind. McColman notes that “[a] God that you cannot comprehend is a God you cannot manipulate. This, I believe, is a God of true grace, a God worthy of worship” (p.77).

These “mystical paradoxes” that McColman highlights are:
• Mysticism is the quest for God vs You cannot seek God unless God has found you
• Mysticism is about experience vs mysticism cannot be limited to experience
• God is immanent vs God is transcendent
• Mysticism involves significant, life-transforming events and changes in consciousness vs a mystical experience may seem as insignificant as the Butterfly Effect
• You can do nothing to “earn” the mystical life vs If you are passive, you will be thwarting the action of the Holy Spirit
• Mysticism is the “flight of the alone to the Alone” vs Christ is present “where two or three are gathered” in his name
• God is One vs God is a Holy Trinity
• Christ is fully human vs Christ is fully divine
• Seek the light vs Embrace the dark
• Take delight in God vs Accept even suffering
• God is all-merciful vs God is uncompromising in his justice
• Seek holiness vs Practice hospitality
• Plumb deeply the Christian tradition vs Embrace all positive wisdom
• Love God’s creation vs Do not love the world
• Humankind is sinful vs humankind is invited to participate in union with God
• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom vs Perfect love casts out fear
• Place your hope in the future when you will find conscious union with God vs Live in the present moment; that’s the only place you’ll ever find God
• Live by faith vs Live the truth
• Authentic Christian mysticism conforms to Biblical and church teaching vs Mysticism is following spiritual vision to greater freedom
• Pray methodically vs Prayer cannot be reduced to a method
• Become like little children vs Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind
• Mysticism is an intellectual pursuit vs True mysticism is mostly about the heart
• The mystical journey is like climbing a mountain – it’s a lifelong journey to reach the place God is calling you vs There’s nothing separating you from the love of God – right here, right now
• The Ultimate Mystery is silent vs Part of being a mystic is trying to express the effable through words
• Heaven is a gift freely given vs Hell awaits those who rejects divine love

Obviously those “mystical paradoxes” needs to be unpacked to do them justice and understandably McColman will not be able to do that even in his “big” book of 309 pages. The only fault I can find (aside from the pagination) is that this “big” book is not big enough! It would have been evenbetter if McColman expands more than what he has already done on these “mystical paradoxes.”

This is a good introductory book to Christian mysticism. Reading from the perspective of the Reformed/Presbyterian tradition, I do not have any issues with what McColman has written here. Christian mysticism is an essential part of the Christian spiritual life and I agree with McColman here that everyone is a mystic (see also Paul’s writing in Ephesians 3). It will leave us with a truncated spiritual life if we neglect or reject this facet of our Christian spirituality.

Soli Deo Gloria

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Candlelight Perception

Practice Candlelight Perception

The light of modern consciousness is not gentle or reverent; it lacks graciousness in the presence of mystery; it wants to unriddle and control the unknown. Modern consciousness is similar to the harsh and brilliant white light of a hospital operating theatre. This neon light is too direct and clear to befriend the shadowed world of the soul. It is not hospitable to what is reserved and hidden. The Celtic mind had a wonderful respect for the mystery and depth of the individual soul.

The Celts recognized that the shape of each soul is different; the spiritual clothing one person wears can never fit the soul of another. It is interesting that the word revelation comes from re-valere, literally, "to veil again." The world of the soul is glimpsed through the opening in a veil that closes again. There is no direct, permanent, or public access to the divine. Each destiny has a unique curvature and must find its own spiritual belonging and direction. Individuality is the only gateway to spiritual potential and blessing.

When the spiritual search is too intense and hungry, the soul stays hidden. The soul was never meant to be seen completely. It is more at home in a light that is hospitable to shadow. Before electricity, people used candlelight at night. The ideal light to befriend the darkness, it gently opens up caverns in the darkness and prompts the imagination into activity. The candle allows the darkness to keep its secrets. There is shadow and color within every candle flame. Candlelight perception is the most respectful and appropriate form of light with which to approach the inner world. . . . Candlelight perception has the finesse and reverence appropriate to the mystery and autonomy of soul.

— John O'Donohue in Anam Cara

Carl McColman on Mysticism and Contemplation

Received my autographed copy of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism from the post office. I appreciate Carl making the effort to post it to me. I am looking forward to reading it.

Carl in his blog post explains mysticism and contemplation

Mysticism signifies spirituality that is characterized by mystery: in Christian terms, this means the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of prayer, the sacraments, and salvation. The Mystical Body is the mystery in which we mere mortals find union with Christ, who in turn is one with God the Father (see John 10:30). So Christian mysticism is the spirituality of union with God in Christ.

Contemplation, by contrast, signifies the relational “gaze” or interaction between a creature and God (in Christ, if understood as Christian contemplation). Contemplation is not a process of thinking, but rather a process of seeing. “I see God, and God sees me.” In the seeing and being seen, we are invited into union. Thus, contemplation is a normal and perhaps even essential element of mysticism. Contemplation, or contemplative prayer, is the means by which union with God may be consciously experienced (I choose my words carefully: “may” be experienced, for the act of contemplation, particularly as initiated by human beings, does not guarantee or engineer any particular experience of God; all it does is dispose the contemplative to receiving whatever gift, in whatever form, it may please God to give). But just as mysticism arguably requires contemplation, so too I think we can make the case the contemplation leads to mysticism (or, at least, to “ordinary mysticism” as I defined it yesterday). Thus, I believe that contemplation and (ordinary) mysticism, while not identical, are certainly most intimately related. Read more.

Here is an interesting dilemma:

is mysticism a subset of contemplation

or contemplation a subset of mysticism

or are both an overlap of the process of 'deitification' or union with God?

My understanding of mysticism is that it is the state in which our being (mind,soul,spirit) perceive of being in contact with God. It is best explained by the analogy of a dance. As the Orthodox tradition best explains it, this dance is the perichoresis of the Truine God. We are invited to join in this dance. Mysticism is the ontological and episemiological awareness of being participant in this dance.

Contemplation is a more focused mysticism in that the attention is directed to one member of the Trinity. It is also an ontological and epistemological awareness but narrower in scope.

Both mysticism and contemplation comes under the process of union with God as we come into deeper relationship and interaction with the Truine God who is both immanent and transcendent.

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McColman on Ordinary and Extraordinary Mysticism

Carl McColman whose The Big Book of Christian Mysticism I am impatiently waiting to arrive so that I can read it on the long plane ride to South Africa defines "ordinary" and "extraordinary" mysticism in his blog post here. I find his definitions very illuminating and similar to my own perspective. This is especially useful for Evangelicals who for some unknown reasons find mysticism threatening.

• Ordinary Mysticism is what I understand Rahner to mean when he says “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all.” This is, in essence, an experiential spirituality which seeks union with God, in the heart of the mystery of God, which transcends a merely rational or intellectual relationship with God. This mysticism basically has three characteristics: it aims for, and hopes for, the felt experience and conscious awareness of the presence of God, and union with God. But of course, since such experience can only by the gift of God, the seeker must recognize that sometimes God is “known” only in darkness or unknowing — the felt experience of the seeming absence of God. This is where faith is essential, for only a lively and well-nurtured faith can sustain the seeker through times when God seems absent. In addition to experience and faith, the third element of ordinary mysticism is practice: the disciplined engagement with historically recognized spiritual practices, including lectio divina, meditation, prayer, and contemplation, which do not cause the experience of God, but dispose the seeker to be open and receptive to receive whatever experience God may choose to bestow. One who engages in such practices can be called a “contemplative,” even though the highest, most mystical form of contemplation is, itself, purely a gift from God.
• Extraordinary Mysticism, like ordinary mysticism, entails the conscious awareness of the presence of God, and/or sustaining faith in God’s presence even when only aware of God’s seeming absence, and a life ordered to spiritual practices aimed at fostering greater intimacy with God. However, it is extraordinary in the sense that the mystic experiences phenomena or events that cannot be explained by ordinary human science: such as miraculous healings, visions, locutions, levitation, the ability to survive on no food other than the Eucharist, the stigmata, and the body remaining incorrupt after death. Such phenomena, of course, is controversial, and many devout Christians may remain skeptical about such things. I would argue that even a person who is skeptical about allegedly supernatural phenomena may still be an “ordinary” mystic.

I strongly hold that mysticism has a place in Christian spirituality because mysticism prevents Christians from placing God in a box.

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God's Glory in Everything

Meister Eckhart once wrote that it is delusion to think that we can obtain more of God by contemplation or pious devotions than by being at the kitchen hearth or working in the merchants’ stalls. This is hard to believe because it is literally beyond human comprehension. God is in the saucepan as well as the chalice, the lawn mower as well as the monstrance. The manner is ordinary, but God’s glory is in every event, every moment, every particle of creation.

— Mother Gail Fitzpatrick, OCSO, Seasons of Grace:
Wisdom from the Cloister

This quote is from the blog of Carl McColman, Anamchara-The Website of Unknowing. Carl has written extensively on mysticism and this is a great blog to visit if you are interested in the subject. Recently Carl has published a new book

Order your copy of The Big Book of Christian Mysticism by clicking here.

I have written to him and he has graciously agreed to send me three of his books which he will autograph, some bookmarks and prayer cards. I am looking forward to reading his book and has been bugging my postman (poor chap).

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The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart

The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart (2009). M.O'C.Walshe (trans) New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company.

This book is actually a reissue of the three volume Meistert Eckhart: Sermons and Treatises, translated and edited by M. O'C Walshe. These three volumes were published in 1979. Meister Eckhart is my favourite Christian mystical writer and philosopher. M. O'C Walshe did a good job in translating his sermons and writings. Eckhart presents his scholarly and academic writings in Latin while he preaches and presents his reflections in the vernicular German. The German portion of his works are often referred to as his mystical writings.

in the midst of silence, there was spoken within me a secret word...But where is the silence and where is the place where the word is spoken?...It is in the purist place that the soul is capable of, in the noblest part, the ground...

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How to be a Mystic

Carl MacColman in his delightfully named blog/website The Website of Unknowing posted his thoughts on How to be a Mystic.

And so this is the real kicker: the most reliable path to becoming a mystic is, simply, the path of following Christ. Like Evangelicals, we need to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. Like Catholics, we need to make Communion a priority. Like Lutherans, we need to nurture our faith. Like the Orthodox, we need to make sure the name of Jesus is always on our lips. We need to read the Gospels and make the stories of this wild carpenter-turned-rabbi part of our daily lives. We need to go and do what he said. We need to make his mind our mind, and open our hearts to his heart. We need to be so focussed on Christ (instead of ourselves) that we stop worrying about whether we are mystics or not.

And once that happens, we will have begun the journey.

read more

I really like his thoughts on mysticism.

Demarest on Mysticism

An interesting article on Mysticism posted on METAmorpha

Bruce Demarest: Mysticism: Peril or Promise?

What Do We Mean?

Satiated with consumerism, technological gizmos, and frenetic activity, people of all stripes are exploring the mystical realm. We all resonate with moments of elevated wonder triggered by a beautiful sunset, rapturous music, or the birth of a baby. In a depersonalized age, image bearers are searching for relationship with something or Someone larger than themselves that will ease the dullness of daily life and energize the soul. Christians, in particular, hunger for more intimate experience of Jesus Christ and greater awareness of the Spirit’s ministry within.

read more

To understand mysticism I find it helpful to distinguish between hard, occult, and soft forms of mysticism. Hard mysticism alleges the merging of human nature with the essence of the Absolute or God, in such a way that self-consciousness is lost. The Buddhist seeks absorption into Nirvana (an egoless state), and the Hindu, merging of the self (Atman) with Brahman (universal deity). Meister Eckhart (1260–1327) was one of the few Christian mystics who made statements that border on hard mysticism. Occult forms of mysticism (e.g., est, New Age, Psycanics) seek transcendent insights and experiences through mind-altering substances and/or esoteric practices. Both hard and occult forms of mysticism are fundamentally opposed to orthodox Christianity.

While I appreciate his division of mysticism into soft, hard and occult forms, I find that it is too artificial a division. To limit 'soft' mysticism to orthodox Christianity, 'hard' mysticism to Buddhism and Hinduism, and 'occult' mysticism to New Age is to limit our understanding of mysticism.

Demarest is right to point out the numerous mystical experiences in the biblical records. However, as he also points out, Meister Eckhart and the Rhineland mystics may be included in 'hard' mysticism and if I may suggest 'occult' mysticism (as defined by Demarest) too. The ascetic practices of the desert fathers and mothers are dangerously close to 'occult' mysticism. Would we exclude Meister Eckhart and the desert fathers and mothers from 'orthodox Christianity'?

Buddhist mysticism seeks awareness of the non-self rather than 'absorption into Nirvana.' Hindu mysticism seeks a transcendent insight that will leads to a better karma. Christian mysticism seeks intimacy with God. Personally, I will prefer describing mysticism as from the traditions such as Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, Native American etc rather than soft, hard and occult.

The taxonomy of Christian mysticism will include Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican, Lutheran, Roman, Orthodox, Pentecostal...

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Science and the Mystic

Image by Amanda Duffy

Science and the Mystic What are we to make of the variety of spiritual experiences? By Mark Galli

Harmless on Mystics

Books & Culture, May/June

Raids on the Ineffable
A lucid account of eight mystics refutes the notion that "all religions are the same at the top."
Reviewed by Nathaniel Peters posted 06/23/08

Mystics by William Harmless, S.J.Oxford Univ. Press350 pp., $18.95, paper


But true mystics are far from amorphously spiritual. As Bernard McGinn has put it, "no mystic (at least before the present century) believed in or practiced 'mysticism.' They believed in and practiced Christianity (or Judaism, or Islam, or Hinduism), that is, religions that contained mystical elements as part of a wider historical whole." McGinn's work serves as the starting point for William Harmless, a professor of theology at Creighton University, whose new book Mystics is a walk through the lives and teachings of eight great mystics: Thomas Merton, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, and Evagrius Ponticus from the Christian tradition, as well as the Sufi poet Rumi and the Buddhist divine Dogen. read more


A good review. I look forward to reading this when my book arrives.