|
|
The Dark Night of the Soul
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 97 10:49:43 EST We've been discussing the Dark/Dim Night of the Soul, and my question is: Is this experience a necessary step in the evolution of consciousness? If it is then it should appear in one of the seven steps of spiritual unfoldment. So which step does this experience relate to? Understanding the Dark/Dim Night of the Soul from the tarot perspective would provide considerable insight and comfort to those who are experiencing this stage of growth. 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 My guesses would be either The Tower, K16 (uncomfortable destruction of past ways of thinking and being), or The Moon, K18 (the dark before the dawn). JC ===== JC asks which key the Dark/Dim Night of the Soul corresponds to and suggests K16 (Tower) or K18 (dark before the dawn). Another possibility is K13 (Dim Night uses the technique of killing the old in order bring in the new) and K14 (Temperance as the Dark Night of the Soul because merely killing the old is not enough, you must also temper the lead you are changing into gold by overcoming the depression and taking the first steps towards success). That is why giving is required before getting. That is also the basis of primitive magical beliefs that that the gods answer prayers by imitation. If you wish the gods to grant you favors, then do favors to others first. If you want mercy, show mercy. This is a possible explanation of the tempering process, and a possible reason for the Dark Night of the Soul, where we ride the gray dragon of desolation and depression long enough to feel its power and long enough to realize we wish its power to be balanced with other powers rather than in sole control of our lives. ===== JC wrote: > So which step does this experience relate to? I'd say Key 15, THE DEVIL, in that the Dark Night of the Soul is, among other things, a beginning of a new cycle. The problem is that it feels like an ending or emptiness with no hope - this is the temptation/illusion. It's also an ending in that it is a result of past cycles - something has brought us to this point. The trio 1, 8, 1.5 relates to this. How we use self-consciousness through suggestion has prepared us with a background and foundation that is effective or unsupportive as we prepare to meet this Trial. Then Key 16 is the insight, the flash from the Light at the End of the tunnel, Key 17 the building of intuitive insight into hypotheses we can experiment with, Key 18 the results and assimilation as we learn and grow, etc. Love in LVX, CM ===== Even though the original thread that started this dim night was only = about the inability to reach a previous level in a meditative state with a new meditation, we seem to have taken the subject Martha used to explore an entirely different realm. My contribution in response to JC's post is to use the Hanged Man. Look at things differently and also to realize that we continually enter cycles in everything 'including' the = work. Periodically, both Ann and Paul reiterate that we enter down cycles as well as up cycles...like the tides and the sub-consciousness in which our obedient servant sees to it that our every wish is granted. As we increase our awareness of how the events in our particular life are manifested, we can rise above these cycles. Until then, we diligently must focus on the work at hand and one attitude or turn of mind I have always felt helpful is the Hanged Man. My father was one of those individuals who never approached life like anybody else and was definitely not of the herd instinct, though he had his prejudices like anyone, he modeled for me the living Hanged Man. His teachers in school marveled at the way he approached math problems...he always got the answer though not in the established patterns of thought. These individuals today who teach children and adults to perform math in their heads with lightening speed are only making money on a system of = thought my father understood well. For some reason, the Hanged Man is at the forefront of my thoughts and so I pass the suggestion along to = the rest of you...when all else fails, stand on your head and think = differently! lvx. P. ===== i THINK YOU ARE RIGHT IN A WAY, JC. THIS EXPERIENCE TENDS TO SHOW US OUR DESIRES ARE NOT OUR OWN, THAT OUR VERY MOTION IS DEPENDENT ON OUR BEING PROGRAMMED. IT CONFIRMS THE REALITY THAT WE ARE THE INSTRUMENT OF THE SELF. N.J. > =====
Hi Everyone, PC wrote: > ...when all else fails, stand on your head and think differently! Is it possible that what we think of as a dark or dim night is actually the very Light we have been looking for? We meditate, pray, search for God, not realizing we are projecting a conditioned concept of just what God is. Of course it is impossible that that God fits our image... So, in the Christian parlance, we are heard...we have attuned ourselves to God, the One--but He is No-thing!! Of course we would like for God to be something, fit into at least *some* kind of image; unfortunately that is not the way it is....all "something's" are created images, things done *by* God, but which are not God Himself. (Even the male attribution to God, and the capital 'G' are images...suggestions of the active rather than receptive role...) So that bottom line of what I am saying? The Self is not it's images, it's forms, but expresses in them...We identify with those forms, and even try to give a form to the Self. Even when we approach that level of consciousness where contact with the level of Self is possible, we are so attached to our ideas, our conditioning, that we try to hold on to them. Thus we are conflict, because we are the concept, the idea of ourselves, and all ideas are, by their nature, a separation out of the whole, thus a kind of conflict. So what is the Dark Night? Maybe the Fool? At least our experience of resisting the very thing we want...Our old imagery must be dissolved, must pass away, before we can live in that level we imagine we want. It may not feel like it at the time, but it is a passage from the darkness we thought is light into a "darkness" which is *Really* Light. T. ===== I hope this will be of some help to those of you who have had, are now going through, or will have, the so-called "dark night of the soul" experience, that is actually well chronicled in esoteric literature. It's sort of like spiritual measles. Everybody seems to get it. Well, almost. But we all get exactly what we need on the Path, including phenomenal experiences! I remember this with crystal clarity. In early fall of 1968, I was on my way to a driving vacation to central and northern California. My summer tourist business had been good, and I felt that I had earned my vacation. On the freeway from Laguna Beach to Los Angeles, all desire suddenly vanished from my consciousness. Not just desire to experience my vacation, but desire to do anything including moving. Of course I immediately thought the cause was something terrible I had done. My middle name was "Guilt" at that time. I just barely drove directly to Ann Davies little house and in Eagle Rock and fortunately she was there. She took a look at me and my haggard face, sat me down and told me a story. She said that the same thing had happened to her one day at the Temple. Fortunately, she was not lecturing and just doing some work in the office, when suddenly all desire, anticipation, capacity for pleasure was taken from her. She was just alive, and uncaring about that. She said that all she could do was try to function on the memory of the reality she had known, but had no feeling of it--no inner connection. It was Hell! She told me that she had to resist the tendency to fall into a deep hopeless depression, including an absence of a desire to live. Ann said this absence of desire finally lifted in a few days and she realized how important our desires are to our capacity for pleasure, accomplishment and aspiration. She then realized vividly that only through the desires that we think are our own, is our evolutionary motion generated. We are truly the instrument of the Self, activated by desire. Desire is the evolutionary engine! The other awareness that came from this was about the constant training in emotional management that we are undergoing. Our degree of emotional maturity is indicated by how we keep ourselves from childishly flying up to the skies in exaltation over something pleasing to us, or dropping into the depths of depression over a disappointment. This training is a constant on the Path, in case you haven't noticed, and being consciously aware of it aids the process. After talking with Ann, or rather listening, for a short while, a little light/desire seemed to creep in which she observed. She asked if I wanted to continue on my vacation and I found a remnant of my initial desire and left. I can tell you that it left me shaken. The Inner Teacher is in constant and total control of its instrument through the desires implanted in our consciousness that moves us in seeming time from one experience to another. I congratulate all of you having this experience. It indicates a wonderful step in realization of Who you are and Who is running the show. N.J. . ===== What a lot of discussion this morning! As one who started this, I have to put in my two cents worth. JC suggests the Dim (or dark) night is represented by either Key 12 or Key 18. First I note that both these Keys are watery, so speak to unconscious processes. That works for me. Having just been experiencing this process, I note several things. First, Key 18 definitely tells the story of this experience. In fact, Z. posted the story a few days ago in response to my original posting. And this fit very well for me. As P. noted, both Ann and Paul warn us of this experience so frequently that it was staring back at me in the lesson I am studying this week. So Key 18 definitely tells the story. Then Key 12 gives the answer. I had to look at it a new way. I had to move my meditation area into a different room, set up a new altar, and then look at my expectations. As T. notes, I was expecting the experience to be the same old one that was quite comfortable for me. What I am finding is a new experience of that connection that we seek. I am experiencing the Empress (which is the meditation I am working with) in a different way. I get to feel some of the pain of the Mother! So of course it felt miserable at first and I translated that as depression. But Joseph had assured me this was a stretching time and so it is. Today I am feeling excited about this process and looking forward to the climb up this hill so I can enjoy the view from the top. Then like the Fool, i get to journey down into the next valley. L.V.X. M. ===== Reading the responses to the question of the Dark Night of the Soul, it brings to my mind again and again the idea of the "dark before the dawn". I can see this concept symbolically in several places. Key 13 Death. K13 connects Tiphareth (Sphere 6 Beauty) and Netzach (Sphere 7 Victory). K13 connects the Self and our Desire nature. By dissolving forms (the forms that our desires take) the Self purifies our desire nature. You can also see this by noting that in K14, our Holy Guardian Angel pours purifying fire on the Eagle, meaning that our procreating, mating nature is purified by the dissolution of forms. Our HGA also acts directly on our personality by purifying our desires through dissolution. Note that in K13 (a picture of transformation) the emphasis is on reaping the experience and on the coming dawn (sun rising in the East=Venus=Desire=Empress). Also, 13 means love and unity, and the key represents the sign of Scorpio (reproductive urge). Could it be any plainer? The forms that our desires take are being dissolved. In order for us to "feel" desire, that desire must take a FORM. IF we have not forms for our desires to take form in, then we can't experience that feeling. Think about it, every time we feel a desire, there has to be an "object of our desire" (taking that vacation, meeting that person, doing that sport/hobby, getting that object, becoming this or that, etc...). If your HGA dissolves the current FORM that your desires have previously taken, then you're going to feel empty until you create (Creative Imagination) a NEW FORM FOR YOUR DESIRES. (hopefully a more purified form since that was probably the reason the old form was dissolved in the first place - so you could reap what was valuable in the experience and create new more harmonious forms). This points to the Creative Imagination (Venus=desire) which is exalted or rules (I forget which) Pisces which is The Moon. The gate/doorway (Daleth) in the Moon (K18) is the gateway to what lies beyond. Meaning Creative Imagination is the gateway! So if you're in K18 standing before the gates that lead from physical sensation to what lies beyond, you've got to USE your Creative Imagination (The use of your Creative Imagination is the Imaginative Intelligence which is K13 Death!) to move beyond. Standing clueless before the gates in the middle of the night seems to me a Dark Night of the Soul. But this key shows that physical bodily changes are taking place that will enable us to become Regenerated if we just stick with it and have faith. (note in the tarot tableau that K11, "The Faithful Intelligence." is just above K18.) Note however the lesson of K11. We must put our faith into ACTION on the physical plane to effect those bodily changes that build and organize our bodies (in the night/sleep) so that our consciousness can be Regenerated in the Sun (Key 19). So they're all connected. K13 (dissolution of form), K14 (HGA purifying our desire nature with fire), K18 (Organizing new physical structures that will enable us to express new forms for our desires), K11 (putting our faith into action to make those bodily changes), and K19 (Regeneration). I've been meditating on K19, the Sun. It does wonders for creating that sense of confident expectation and of the sense of shamelessness, playfulness, and recreation. JC |