SELINA KHAN June 20,2014
Dark Night of the Soul
A Time of Spiritual Awakening
If you’ve ever experienced a dark night of the soul, then you know that this period is often the hardest but most meaningful turning point in your life.
A dark night of the soul feels like everything that gave you a sense of security and identity in your life has fallen away.
But rather than hitting bottom and getting stuck there, a dark night of the soul can be a necessary part of your spiritual awakening.
Difficult circumstances in life can trigger a dark night of the soul. It could be that a partner, child, or parent gets ill or dies. It could be getting fired from work.
The circumstances that cause a sense of meaning and place in life to fall away are personal. What one person will get through okay, another will enter a dark night of the soul. It all depends on how integrated your sense of self is to the beliefs that are being broken or challenged.
It is unusual for people to have more than one period of a dark night of the soul. Although it is called a night, it represents a period of time.
This period varies and can last for days or weeks. The strength that comes from going through the process is transformational because it involves rediscovering meaning in life.
In order to get from such a stripped down, bare bones place to finding new meaning and understanding in life, everything is questioned. Who am I? What is really important? What is true in this world and what is illusion? What do I want now moving forward?
Although a path of action may not always become apparent, a deep sense of meaning and renewal of the spirit takes place. The meaning comes from recognizing, sometimes at a soul level rather than a conscious one, that you are connected to all that is and that relationship, being one’s authentic self, and opening the heart is the way forward.
During this time, your spirit guides, family in spirit, and other beings of love and light who work with you may give you signs. Perhaps it’s through your dream state, a book you find that just makes sense, or a person who says something that just clicks it all together for you.
Sometimes Spirit will help you to unfold gently and things fall into place over time. The dark night of the soul can be very alienating as you may feel that no one understands or feels as you do.
It is a necessary part of the journey. In a true dark night of the soul, everything seems to be dismantled first in order to rebuild with a new understanding and vision.
It is a metaphorical death and the rising of the phoenix into new life. But that is only one segment of your path. A spiritual awakening has layers and stages to it. There may be a point of opening where there are many “aha!” moments. Yet growth will continue even after you see life through your new perspective.
As there is a new quest for purpose and meaning, many people discover the gifts that Spirit has given them. This starts to manifest in a new career direction, new self-identity, new or renewed relationships, and new activities. There is an acknowledgement of self and the importance of being interconnected and symbiotic with the larger universe and divine creative force which expresses itself through you in the way you choose to experience and co-create life.
The dark night of the soul is a personal journey and yet it is a journey that connects us to all those who have understood the power of being stripped down to the bare essence of who you really are. The dark night of the soul is a pilgrimage into the self, and when one is ready to emerge it is you who brings the light of dawn with you. It is a sacred journey of rebirth.
This article has been reprinted here with permission from the author.