The Dark Night of the Soul: When Consciousness Collapses

In this week's episode, we dive into the concept of the 'Dark Night of the Soul.' Discover how this painful yet sacred phase can lead to profound spiritual transformation. If you're feeling lost or questioning your path, this episode is for you!

The Dark Night of the Soul: A Sacred Phase of Spiritual Transformation

Host: Julia Marie
Episode Focus: Understanding the Dark Night of the Soul
Theme: Spiritual evolution, inner desolation, and awakening

Episode Overview

In this profound episode of Evolving Humans, host Julia Marie invites you to explore the concept of the Dark Night of the Soul—a challenging yet sacred stage in the evolution of consciousness. This episode seeks to illuminate how what feels like spiritual failure or abandonment can actually be a deep reconfiguration of awareness.

Julia delves into the origins of the term, tracing it back to the 16th-century mystic Saint John of the Cross, and discusses how this experience is characterized by profound inner desolation and a loss of meaning. She emphasizes that you are not alone in this journey, and that such experiences are common among spiritual seekers.

Through engaging insights and reflections, Julia draws parallels between the Dark Night of the Soul and the life of Jesus, illustrating how both experiences can lead to a deeper, more authentic relationship with life and the divine. She also offers practical tools and self-reflection prompts to help navigate this challenging phase, encouraging listeners to embrace their struggles as part of a greater transformation.

Key Themes & Highlights

✨ Understanding the Dark Night of the Soul

• Defining the Dark Night as a period of inner desolation and loss of former meaning
• Recognizing the signs and symptoms that indicate you may be in this phase

✨ Parallels with the Life of Jesus

• Exploring moments of anguish and surrender in Jesus' journey
• Understanding how these experiences relate to our own spiritual paths

✨ Navigating the Dark Night

• Practical tools for self-care and grounding during this challenging time
• Reflection prompts to explore your personal experience of the Dark Night

✨ Common Misconceptions

• Distinguishing between the Dark Night of the Soul and clinical depression
• Recognizing the transformative potential of this experience

Join Julia in this enlightening episode as she encourages you to view your dark moments as opportunities for growth and transformation. Remember, you carry the light within you, and your journey through the darkness is a vital part of your spiritual evolution.

Many thanks to Pixabay's Relaxing Time for Relaxing Music Pt 1-141198 for the music bed for this episode.

Transcript

This is a third episode in a series that focuses on Christ consciousness this week, the dark night of the soul. What feels like spiritual failure or abandonment may actually be a deep reconfiguration of awareness today. We'll unpack the dark night is a painful but sacred phase in the evolution of consciousness. Welcome to Evolving Humans. I'm your host, Julia Marie. If you're a thoughtful seeker who feels something shifting inside and you want to understand what that means, evolving humans is the place for you. We explore how consciousness is changing and provide you with practical wisdom to help you understand your own spiritual transformation within a larger context. If you're ready to see your life as part of a greater wave of remembering, evolving, humans will take that journey with you. 

Keep in mind as you listen, anything that holds true for you as an individual is also true for humanity. Our collective awakening is underway, and when we find ourselves in seemingly dark and desperate times where many of us feel we're up against an insurmountable obstacle, it's actually a sign of hope, not despair. Many say the world is in a really dark time, and I would like to plant the seed that perhaps this is our collective dark night as a soul. And remember this, it's always darkest before the dawn, the light is coming. I'll start by saying this. If you're in a dark place, you're not broken and you're not alone, you're not being punished. You might be in the middle of a profound initiation. So how can you tell if you are in that dark night? Well, if you're questioning everything, feeling spiritually numb or wondering if you're doing something wrong in your life, what you're going through does have a name in both mystical and psychological literature, and it's far more common and more meaningful than you might think will define the dark night of the soul in both classical and modern terms Today, we'll briefly mention how the life of Jesus also has examples of this dark night, and we'll show how it overlaps with and also differs from depression and offer you some practices to help you navigate this phase of your spiritual journey. 

So let's dive in. 

The term dark Night of the Soul comes from the 16th century mystic St. John of the cross who first described a period when familiar experiences of God, meaning and spiritual connection vanish. Even though the person has been sincerely seeking greater understanding of their place in the universe, a more modern working definition might go something like this. The dark night of the soul is a period of profound inner desolation disorientation and loss of former meaning in which old spiritual frameworks fall apart so that a deeper, more authentic relationship with life self and the divine can emerge. 

So let's take a moment to look at some of the key features of a dark night. We might feel emptiness, a loss of purpose, or we may be confused about what we believe and why we believe it. We may have a strong sense that our old life or self no longer fits and may feel ashamed and try to hide our distress because it doesn't feel safe to speak of it. Before we move on, consider this. What if moving through this season of life doesn't require striving but only asks for our consent? What if this isn't a punishment but rather a sacred opening to a deeper experience of our own divinity? 

I want to briefly mention the foremost important parallels with the life of Jesus for I believe He was sent as an example to be a model for us. Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane could be understood as his breaking point. Here, he experiences dread, anguish and even expressed a desire to avoid the path that he sensed was before him. For he said, let this cup pass from me. This moment demonstrates that feeling, fear, doubt, or overwhelm is human and not a lack of faith. Christ's consciousness holds the energy of both. I don't want this and not my will, but yours be done. He surrendered to the circumstances of his life. He didn't turn away. 

While on the cross, Jesus experienced abandonment and he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's the epitome of spiritual desolation, his greatest external darkness. The crucifixion coincides with this deepest inner sense of separation. Jesus'. Time in the tomb represents the period where nothing seems to be happening for us, no voices, no visions, no obvious progress, just stillness and waiting, but this is where the unseen reconfiguration happens. Our resurrection, our transformation is accomplished in the dark. Jesus' resurrection represents the emergence of a new identity he returns to this world transformed. He's unrecognizable at first even by those who knew him best when he visited the disciples after his resurrection. 

Here's the thing, we don't just get our old life back. When we emerge from a dark night, we awaken into a deeper, freer, more spacious self, and Christ's consciousness or enlightenment is living from this place of resurrected awareness where we see life from a place of unity rather than separation. The main point here, Jesus life is a map from the garden at Gethsemane to the cross, the tomb, and then resurrection. The dark night is not the end of the story. It's the middle of the awakening process. These days, many people are going through their own Gethsemane. Perhaps it's a health crisis, a loss of some sort, identity collapse or disillusionment with the existing institutions. For example, we all can clearly see the signs of humanity's dark night failing systems. The collective shadow side is coming up for healing and the truth of long hidden secrets is being revealed. 

When we can understand this pattern, we can resist less and cooperate more. With the transformation, we can help each other through the darkness instead of shaming it, and we can assist in the birthing of the new consciousness that is emerging through humanity. Now let's take a look at how the dark night shows up. In the scientific and psychological literature, we often see related concepts in psychology and psychiatry like for example, the words or the phrase existential crisis or a spiritual emergency, post-traumatic growth or deconstruction, a crisis of faith. The term dark night of the soul is used in some clinical case studies to describe crises that have spiritual content and transpersonal psychology identifies the dark night as a stage of deeper development. 

Some research on mystical experiences that have difficult destabilizing phases also use the term generally the literature shows this state can look like depression or anxiety on the surface, but also often include a strong question about meaning such as who am I or what is reality? We also find a reassessment of values, beliefs, and identity, and there are sometimes mystical or altered state experiences before or after the dark night of the soul phase. Some researchers within transpersonal psychologies see this as a possible stage of spiritual maturation, provided it's navigated with support and doesn't become chronically debilitating. 

Even in the scientific literature, we see an emerging recognition that what looks like everything is falling apart can sometimes be a reorganization of the self at a deeper level. If we can look at the dark night of the soul as a natural part of our spiritual development, it's easier for us to navigate it in the mystical traditions, the Sufis, many Christian mystics, Buddhist practitioners and others describe a phase where one's early spiritual excitement fades and one's faith matures through the experience of doubt and emptiness. In modern terms, it can be seen as a stage of spiritual maturation where we move from what many call transactional spirituality. In other words, that's the if I do X, God or the universe will give me y approach. 

Over time, this approach evolves to a deeper relationship based on trust presence and being comfortable with not knowing what's coming next. Now, not everyone experiences a dark night in a dramatic way, and it's important to understand this is a season and not an identity, and the season of our dark night of the soul can vary enormously as well. For some it's weeks or months for others, it can take years. Some of the factors that influence this timeline are based on a person's psychological history and their trauma load, the external support they receive, their capacity for self-awareness and emotional regulation, and whether they're experiencing clinical depression or other conditions layered on top of the experience. 

I will add here that how long the season lasts is not a measure of success or failure. The key here is to ask yourself, am I getting any support and am I learning anything about how to relate to this process? There are some common difficulties with an experience as a dark night and I want to mention them here. The hardest part is often the sense of aloneness and the belief that this emptiness means something is wrong with you or with your path. When in many traditions it can mean something deeper is being made right. Some of the other challenges can be the sense of loss of meaning because the story you told yourself about life, God or yourself no longer works, or maybe you no longer find comfort in prayer or with your practices and you feel spiritually abandoned. Often your sense of identity can collapse and you think to yourself, if I'm not who I thought I was, then who am I? And sometimes we may fear we're going crazy because the mind can panic in the absence of familiar structures, and yet there are gifts available to us when we're able to integrate these experiences. Humility and authenticity are often a byproduct of making it through our dark night. As a soul, we find ourselves no longer needing to chase constant highs or seek validation. Life is more about a steady, subtle presence, not navigating peaks and valleys. 

Finally, what truly matters becomes clear to us as our old illusions drop away and we find ourselves viewing life differently when we finally emerge from a dark night as a soul, some of these common shifts are we tend to think less in terms of black and white and we're more comfortable with paradox and mystery. We're less ego centered and life is less about our story and more about participation in something larger. Often we're more grateful for the simple things in life and small joys become precious. We no longer assume suffering means abandonment or failure. Instead, we see it as a part of a greater pattern of growth, and we often find ourselves with a desire to use our experience to help others. 

We gain a clearer sense of our calling or service. It is important to spend a few moments talking about how the dark night of the soul and depression can be similar and how they're different. Keep in mind I'm not diagnosing and I want to encourage everyone that if in doubt it's crucial to seek professional help. The two are similar in the sense that both can make one feel sad or hopeless and cause us to lose interest in life. Our sleep and appetite often changes and sometimes we withdraw from our friends and activities. We often get tired and have difficulty functioning. 

The dark night of the soul is described by mystics and transpersonal. Psychology tends to also include a strong spiritual or existential dimension to the experience, and there's a sense that something in you is trying to transform. Even if you can't see how clinical depression can be biochemical situational or trauma related and doesn't necessarily include spiritual content or experiences, it often just feels like total deadness with no sense of any potential meaning. The important part here to remember is the two conditions can coexist. In other words, a person can be going through a spiritually meaningful dark night and have a treatable depressive disorder at the same time. 

I want to encourage you that if you're having persistent suicidal thoughts or can't function in your basic day-to-day life, please seek professional mental health help because getting support doesn't ruin your spiritual process. In fact, it can protect your body and mind so your soul can do its deeper work. By this point, you might be asking yourself, what can I do to help myself when I find myself in the middle of a dark night of the soul? The good news is you don't have to go into long complicated techniques or practices. Sometimes a simple acknowledgement is enough. Just naming it can bring perspective. Tell yourself I might be in a dark night here. Hold it lightly in your awareness as a season and not a label. Remember that Christ consciousness doesn't require spiritual performance. It welcomes honesty and truth, so say exactly what you feel, whether it's anger, numbness, confusion, or doubt, and give yourself permission to not feel spiritual while you're in a dark night. Your previous connection to the universe can often go offline for a time, and this can be a little disconcerting. Remind yourself that this time on your path is not a step back. The absence of spiritual feelings is not the absence of God. It's the rewiring of our perception. 

Now, grand plans are not possible in a dark night period. The best approach at this time limit yourself to one step at a time. Literally, you've heard me say this before, I only ever ask spirit two questions. What do I need to know? And more importantly, what do I need to do next? What do I need to do next is the perfect question to be asking. If you're in this kind of a period in your life and have some compassion for your poor nervous system, the dark night is not just mystical, it's sematic. In other words, your body is processing a lot of energy at this time, so be kind to yourself. Rest, breathe, find some grounding practices. All of these things are critical to your wellbeing. 

Now, I told you I'd give you a tool each episode, so here's a simple practice and experiment that uses Jesus Dark Knight of the Soul experience as a model for you to consider how it may be impacting your life. Find yourself a journal and a quiet place to do some self-reflection. After you settle, ask yourself, where does my life feel like the garden at Gethsemane, the crucifixion or the tomb right now, and then write a few sentences recording the first thoughts that come to your mind and don't edit. Just let the words spill out onto the page. Take a few moments to express who you are, where it hurts. 

This is what I'm afraid of. This is what I'm angry about. Give yourself the grace of being honest with yourself in that moment after you've written it all down, take a moment to ask yourself this. If some deeper life is trying to be born through this, what might it be? You don't need to have a clear answer here. Just open a tiny space by telling yourself, I don't see it yet, but I'm willing for this to be used in service of my awakening. And finally, ask yourself, what is the smallest self-care step I can take today while I'm in this darkness? 

Perhaps the answer is as simple as drink more water. Call a friend, take a walk. Breathe for five minutes or rest. Now, whatever comes to you, commit to that and don't worry about fixing your whole life right now. Remember what I said earlier, this is not the time to make long range plans. This is the time to focus your energy only on what the next step needs to be. And there you have it. We covered a lot of ground today, and here are your takeaways. The dark night of the soul is a widely recognized pattern in mystical traditions and increasingly in psychology. 

The dark night of the soul can feel similar to depression and can overlap with it, which is why professional support is essential If you're in doubt about your situation. We cannot force the dawning of the light, but we can cooperate with the process so it can unfold with less resistance if we meet it with acceptance, surrender, and gentle, grounded practices. It's important that we remember we are not alone in the dark, that this is a path that many saints mystics and ordinary people have walked before us. The darkness is often the sign that your soul has outgrown an old container or way of being, and remember, life runs in cycles and trusting the deeper pattern of death and resurrection. As you keep your awareness focused on the next right step, you need to take as helpful as you move through your own dark night of the soul. 

As we come to the end of another episode, I encourage you to take heart. If you find yourself in a season where everything feels stripped away, where your familiar prayers don't work, your old beliefs don't hold, and your former self feels like a ghost, remember that you may be standing at the very threshold the mystics have been describing for centuries. You are not being punished. You're being invited into a deeper, quieter, more honest relationship with life itself. The part of you that is collapsing is not the deepest truth of who you are. The dark night is the space where that deeper truth can finally emerge. You don't have to see the whole path. You only have to take the next step to tell yourself the truth about where you are on your journey to take good care of your body and to remind yourself, especially in the toughest of times, I am willing to be transformed by this experience on every true spiritual path. The darkness is never the final chapter. It is in fact the pathway to the next evolution on your spiritual journey. And when you emerge from your dark night, you don't just get your life back, you return with a new depth of vision, a newly opened heart, and a gift that only you can offer, a world that desperately needs it. 

If you're in the midst of your own dark night, keep going somewhere beyond this night, a more spacious, more authentic, more aligned version of you already waiting. Next time, the series on Christ consciousness continues with a look at some simple practices that you can employ to reshape your awareness. Well, that's our time for today. If you found value in this episode, please share it with two other people so that together we can bring more light to this world. If you need clarity about a life situation, some energy healing, or you wish to reconnect with loved ones living on the other side of life, please go to my website, Julia Marie us, and click the book now button on the homepage. Until next time, remember, you carry the light within you. That is the doorway through which you begin your journey home.