Apfelmann the dark night of the soul

The Dark Night of the Soul Fra.: Apfelmann -------------------------------------------

"The Dark Night of the Soul" is the name given to that experience of spiritual desolation that pass through

all students of the Occult

at one time or another. It is sometimes charcterised feelings that your occult anywhere, that the

by

studies or practises are not taken you

initial success

that one is sometimes

granted after a few

months of occult working, has suddenly dried up. There comes a desire

to give up

on everything, nothing seems to be said of this

as

working. St.John of the Cross. a christian mystic,

experience, to

appetites

to abandon exercises and meditation,

that

it; "...puts

sleep, deadens them, find pleasure in

anything.

the

sensory

spiritual

and deprives them of the ability

to

It binds the imagination, and impeeds it

from doing intellect

any

good

become

discursive work. dark and unable to

It makes the

memory cease, the

understand anything, and hence

it causes the will to become arrid and constrained, and all faculties empty cloud,

and useless. And over this hangs which

the

a dense and burdensome

afflicts the soul, and keeps it withdrawn from the good."

Though the beginner may view the onset of such an

experience with

alarm (I know I did), the "Dark Night" is or destr-

not something bad

uctive. In one sense

it may be seen as

a trial, a test by

which the Gods examine

our resolve to continue with occult work, and

if you are

not completely

whole-hearted about your magical studies, it

is during this

period (at its beginning) that you

Dark Night

of the

Soul should be welcomened,

will give up. The

once recognised for what

it is (I have always received an innate "warning" just before the onset of such a period), will secure health soul`s Dark

as a person

might welcome an

and wellbeing. St.John of

operation that

the Cross embraced

the

1412 Night as a grace"

"sheer

Devine Appointment, calling it

a period of

and adding; "O guiding Night, O Night more lovely than Dawn, O Night that has united the lover with his beloved Transforming the Lover in her Beloved."

sense

When entering

of

the Dark

spiritual dryness and quarters, that all

existence, living.

such experiences

shows up the The

Night

should be

avoided, for so much of

way of bringing the Soul

that

deep

must

psychic transformation be set

overcome

by a

depression. The notion, in some

superficiality of

Dark Night is a

one is

may take place.

a peaceful

contemporary to stillness, so

All distractions

aside, and it is no good attempting

to fight or channel the

bursts of raw energy being. This inner outer depres-

that from time to time may course through your

compulsion to set everything aside results in the

sion, when nothing seems to excite.

1413 The only thing to do is obey your inner voice and

become still,

waiting for the inner transformation, (which the "Dark Night" heralds), to time of the

take place. You may

not be aware for

results of that inner change, but comes again

a very long

when the desire to work

and the depression lifts, the Dark Night has (for a moment)

passed. No

one

can help

during this

time, and

in many

cases there

is hardly anyone meaning advice

to turn for advice. One must disregard the well-

of family and friends to "snap out of it" this is no ordinary depression, but a deep spiritual experience which only those who have passed through themselves (in other words to a magical retreat) but for many, as the routines

of everyday life

can do

is

heart,

cultivate an inner and

wait, (like a will result in

solitude, a

prohibits this, all stillness and silence

you

chrysalis waits for the inner

a butterfly) for the Transformation to

of

changes that work itself out.

There are many pass through

such

"Dark Nights"

that the

occult

seeker must

during the mysterious process

trials but

of mitigation. They are all

experience teaches one to cope more efficiently.

With fractalic greetings and laughter

* Fra.: Apfelmann *