Dark Night of the Soul
Part 1 - What is the Dark Night of The Soul?
The dark night of of the soul is a spiritual journey to your authentic self and to the person you came here to be, not who you contorted yourself to be to survive, or who society told you to be.
It’s a period of deep, agonizing transformation that can turn your life upside down and bring you to your knees in despair. It’s a spiritual depression and existential crisis all rolled into one. It may feel like you’re living through a spiritual and mystical hell on the physical plane.
The dark night of soul is a death, with mourning, loss and grief. It’s a death of ego, a death of self, a death of the socially and culturally constructed parts of yourself, so your authentic self can emerge.
You’re wired for survival, not happiness.
To understand the dark night of the soul, it’s important to understand that your brain, body and nervous system are wired for safety, survival and connection, not happiness, purpose, authenticity or inner peace.
Even before you are born the world dictates who you should and shouldn’t be, and what you can and can’t do, instead of embracing the magnificent being you truly are, with your own unique gifts, purpose and path.
Safety, survival and connection often means maintaining the mainstream and status quo. Being different usually comes at a cost and can be a risk to your sense of belonging and acceptance. You instinctively hide parts of yourselves to meet acceptable standards and expectations of family, friends, workplaces, communities and society, as a whole.
It’s no surprise you may feel lost, feel like you don’t belong, feel like you don’t have a home or a purpose. You are not broken. You’re having perfectly normal emotional, physical and biological reactions to stress, trauma and the crazy world we live in. A world that has lost it’s sacred connection to the earth, to source and to our soul.
Enter the Dark Night of the Soul
The catalyst into the dark night of soul is different for everyone, but its purpose is the same. It serves as transition from one way of existing and being in the world to another, like a metamorphosis. You experience a life altering paradigm shift, shedding layers of societal conditioning and emerging from the void in more alignment with your soul.
For some, it starts with a whisper that is missed because nobody taught you how to listen to your soul, let alone honour its whispers. The whispers turn into screams that get louder and louder forcing you to pay attention.
For others, the dark night of the soul is ushered in suddenly through a severe illness, life changing medical diagnosis, an accident, death, tragedy, natural disaster, violence or war. This may present in the form of a spiritual crisis or spiritual emergency. In this case, modern medical and/or mental health intervention may be required for stabilization before spiritual work can begin.
The dark night of the soul is your soul screaming for change. It’s a wake-up call where you begin to question all that you’ve been taught, know and believe. You may question your place in the the universe, your connection to the divine and purpose of life itself.
Don’t be fooled by those who glamourize the dark night of the soul as a “mystical initiation with a gift to be found in the darkness” (spiritual bypassing is rampant) or by those who use the term as a metaphor to describe any period of darkness and reflection.
With the loss of mystics, sages, shamans, wise women and elders, society has lost those who understand and can hold space for the depth and nuance of a soul emerging from layers of conditioning, programming and deeply ingrained survival patterns to walk their own unique path and express their authentic soul-led self.
🔥 Heather
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