DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL
Of the Dark Night of the Spirit.
Which
begins to treat of the dark nights of the spirit and says at what time it
begins.
THE soul which God is about to lead
onward is not led by His Majesty into this night of the spirit as soon as it
goes forth from the aridities and trials of the first purgation and night of
sense; rather it is wont to pass a long time, even years, after leaving the
state of beginners, in exercising itself in that of proficients. In this latter
state it is like to one that has come forth from a rigorous imprisonment;99 it
goes about the things of God with much greater freedom and satisfaction of the
soul, and with more abundant and inward delight than it did at the beginning
before it entered the said night. For its imagination and faculties are no
longer bound, as they were before, by meditation and anxiety of spirit, since it
now very readily finds in its spirit the most serene and loving contemplation
and spiritual sweetness without the labour of meditation; although, as the
purgation of the soul is not complete (for the principal part thereof, which is
that of the spirit, is wanting, without which, owing to the communication that
exists between the one part and the other,100 since
the subject is one only, the purgation of sense, however violent it may have
been, is not yet complete and perfect), it is never without certain occasional
necessities, aridities, darknesses and perils which are sometimes much more
intense than those of the past, for they are as tokens and heralds of the coming
night of the spirit, and are not of as long duration as will be the night which
is to come. For, having passed through a period, or periods, or days of this
night and tempest, the soul soon returns to its wonted serenity; and after this
manner God purges certain souls which are not to rise to so high a degree of
love as are others, bringing them at times, and for short periods, into this
night of contemplation and purgation of the spirit, causing night to come upon
them and then dawn, and this frequently, so that the words of David may be
fulfilled, that He sends His crystal—that is, His contemplation—like
morsels,101 although
these morsels of dark contemplation are never as intense as is that terrible
night of contemplation which we are to describe, into which, of set purpose, God
brings the soul that He may lead it to Divine union.
2. This sweetness, then, and this
interior pleasure which we are describing, and which these progressives find and
experience in their spirits so easily and so abundantly, is communicated to them
in much greater abundance than aforetime, overflowing into their senses more
than was usual previously to this purgation of sense; for, inasmuch as the sense
is now purer, it can more easily feel the
pleasures of the spirit after its manner. As, however, this sensual part of the
soul is weak and incapable of experiencing the strong things of the spirit, it
follows that these proficients, by reason of this spiritual communication which
is made to their sensual part endure therein many frailties and sufferings and
weaknesses of the stomach, and in consequence are fatigued in spirit. For, as
the Wise Man says: ‘The corruptible body presseth down the soul.’102 Hence
comes it that the communications that are granted to these souls cannot be very
strong or very intense or very spiritual, as is required for Divine union with
God, by reason of the weakness and corruption of the sensual nature which has a
part in them. Hence arise the raptures and trances and dislocations of the bones
which always happen when the communications are not purely spiritual—that is,
are not given to the spirit alone, as are those of the perfect who are purified
by the second night of the spirit, and in whom these raptures and torments of
the body no longer exist, since they are enjoying liberty of spirit, and their
senses are now neither clouded nor transported.
3. And in order that the necessity for such souls to enter this night of the spirit may be understood, we will here note certain imperfections and perils which belong to these proficients.
99
[Lit., ‘from a narrow
prison.’] 100
[i.e., between sense and spirit.] 101
Psalm cxlvii, 17 [D.V. and A.V.].
Describes
other imperfections103 which
belong to these proficients.
THESE proficients have two kinds of
imperfection: the one kind is habitual; the other actual. The habitual
imperfections are the imperfect habits and affections which have remained all
the time in the spirit, and are like roots, to which the purgation of sense has
been unable to penetrate. The difference between the purgation of these and that
of this other kind is the difference between the root and the branch, or between
the removing of a stain which is fresh and one which is old and of long
standing. For, as we said, the purgation of sense is only the entrance and
beginning of contemplation leading to the purgation of the spirit, which, as we
have likewise said, serves rather to accommodate sense to spirit than to unite
spirit with God. But there still remain in the spirit the stains of the old man,
although the spirit thinks not that this is so, neither can it perceive them; if
these stains be not removed with the soap and strong lye of the purgation of
this night, the spirit will be unable to come to the purity of Divine union.
2. These souls have likewise the hebetudo
mentis104 and
the natural roughness which every man contracts through sin, and the distraction
and outward clinging of the spirit, which must be enlightened, refined and
recollected by the afflictions and perils of that night. These habitual
imperfections belong to all those who have not passed beyond this state of the
proficient; they cannot coexist, as we say, with the perfect state of union
through love.
3
To actual imperfections all are not
liable in the same way. Some, whose spiritual good is so superficial and so
readily affected by sense, fall into greater difficulties and dangers, which we
described at the beginning of this treatise. For, as they find so many and such
abundant spiritual communications and apprehensions, both in sense and in spirit
wherein they oftentimes see imaginary and spiritual visions (for all these
things, together with other delectable feelings, come to many souls in this
state, wherein the devil and their own fancy very commonly practise deceptions
on them), and, as the devil is apt to take such pleasure in impressing upon the
soul and suggesting to it the said apprehensions and feelings, he fascinates and
deludes it with great ease unless it takes the precaution of resigning itself to
God, and of protecting itself strongly, by means of faith, from all these
visions and feelings. For in this state the devil causes many to believe in vain
visions and false prophecies; and strives to make them presume that God and the
saints are speaking with them; and they often trust their own fancy. And the
devil is also accustomed, in this state, to fill them with presumption and
pride, so that they become attracted by vanity and arrogance, and allow
themselves to be seen engaging in outward acts which appear holy, such as
raptures and other manifestations. Thus they become bold with God, and lose holy
fear, which is the key and the custodian of all the virtues; and in some of
these souls so many are the falsehoods and deceits which tend to multiply, and
so inveterate do they grow, that it is very doubtful if such souls will return
to the pure road of virtue and true spirituality. Into these miseries they fall
because they are beginning to give themselves over to spiritual feelings and
apprehensions with too great security, when they were beginning to make some
progress upon the way.
4
There is much more that I might say of
these imperfections and of how they are the more incurable because such souls
consider them to be more spiritual than the others, but I will leave this
subject. I shall only add, in order to prove how necessary, for him that would
go farther, is the night of the spirit, which is purgation, that none of these
proficients, however strenuously he may have laboured, is free, at best, from
many of those natural affections and imperfect habits, purification from which,
we said, is necessary if a soul is to pass to Divine union.
5
And over and above this (as we have said
already), inasmuch as the lower part of the soul still has a share in these
spiritual communications, they cannot be as intense, as pure and as strong as is
needful for the aforesaid union; wherefore, in order to come to this union, the
soul must needs enter into the second night of the spirit, wherein it must strip
sense and spirit perfectly from all these apprehensions and from all sweetness,
and be made to walk in dark and pure faith, which is the proper and adequate
means whereby the soul is united with God, according as Osee says, in these
words: ‘I will betroth thee—that is, I will unite thee—with Me through
faith.’105
103
[Lit., ‘Continues with
other imperfections.’]104
[i.e., ‘deadening of the mind.’]
105
Osee ii, 20.
Annotation
for that which follows.
THESE souls, then, have now become
proficients, because of the time which they have spent in feeding the senses
with sweet communications, so that their sensual part, being thus attracted and
delighted by spiritual pleasure, which came to it from the spirit, may be united
with the spirit and made one with it; each part after its own manner eating of
one and the same spiritual food and from one and the same dish, as one person
and with one sole intent, so that thus they may in a certain way be united and
brought into agreement, and, thus united, may be prepared for the endurance of
the stern and severe purgation of the spirit which awaits them. In this
purgation these two parts of the soul, the spiritual and the sensual, must be
completely purged, since the one is never truly purged without the other, the
purgation of sense becoming effective when that of the spirit has fairly begun.
Wherefore the night which we have called that of sense may and should be called
a kind of correction and restraint of the desire rather than purgation. The
reason is that all the imperfections and disorders of the sensual part have
their strength and root in the spirit, where all habits, both good and bad, are
brought into subjection, and thus, until these are purged, the rebellions and
depravities of sense cannot be purged thoroughly.
1
Wherefore,
in this night following, both parts of the soul are purged together, and it is
for this end that it is well to have passed through the corrections of the first
night, and the period of tranquillity which proceeds from it, in order that,
sense being united with spirit, both may be purged after a certain manner and
may then suffer with greater fortitude. For very great fortitude is needful for
so violent and severe a purgation, since, if the weakness of the lower part has
not first been corrected and fortitude has not been gained from God through the
sweet and delectable communion which the soul has afterwards enjoyed with Him,
its nature will not have the strength or the disposition to bear it.
2
Therefore, since these proficients
are still at a very low stage of progress, and follow their own nature closely
in the intercourse and dealings which they have with God, because the gold of
their spirit is not yet purified and refined, they still think of God as little
children, and speak of God as little children, and feel and experience God as
little children, even as Saint Paul says,106 because
they have not reached perfection, which is the union of the soul with God. In
the state of union, however, they will work great things in the spirit, even as
grown men, and their works and faculties will then be Divine rather than human,
as will afterwards be said. To this end God is pleased to strip them of this old
man and clothe them with the new man, who is created according to God, as the
Apostle says,107 in
the newness of sense. He strips their faculties, affections and feelings, both
spiritual and sensual, both outward and inward, leaving the understanding dark,
the will dry, the memory empty and the affections in the deepest affliction,
bitterness and constraint, taking from the soul the pleasure and experience of
spiritual blessings which it had aforetime, in order to make of this privation
one of the principles which are requisite in the spirit so that there may be
introduced into it and united with it the spiritual form of the spirit, which is
the union of love. All this the Lord
106
1 Corinthians xiii, 11. 107
[
Ephesians iv, 24 .]
Sets
down the first stanza and the exposition thereof.
I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest.
EXPOSITION
INTERPRETING this stanza now with
reference to purgation, contemplation or detachment or poverty of spirit, which
here are almost one and the same thing, we can expound it after this manner and
make the soul speak thus: In poverty, and without protection or support in all
the apprehensions of my soul—that is, in the darkness of my understanding and
the constraint of my will, in affliction and anguish with respect to memory,
remaining in the dark in pure faith, which is dark night for the said natural
faculties, the will alone being touched by grief and afflictions and yearnings
for the love of God—I went forth from myself—that is, from my low manner of
understanding, from my weak mode of loving and from my poor and limited manner
of experiencing God, without being hindered therein by sensuality or the devil.
1. This was a great happiness and a good
chance for me; for, when the faculties had been perfectly annihilated and
calmed, together with the passions, desires and affections of my soul, wherewith
I had experienced and tasted God after a lowly manner, I went forth from my own
human dealings and operations to the operations and dealings of God. That is to
say, my understanding went forth from itself, turning from the human and natural
to the Divine; for, when it is united with God by means of this purgation, its
understanding no longer comes through its natural light and vigour, but through
the Divine Wisdom wherewith it has become united. And my will went forth from
itself, becoming Divine; for, being united with Divine love, it no longer loves
with its natural strength after a lowly manner, but with strength and purity
from the Holy Spirit; and thus the will, which is now near to God, acts not
after a human manner, and similarly the memory has become transformed into
eternal apprehensions of glory. And finally, by means of this night and
purgation of the old man, all the energies and affections of the soul are wholly
renewed into a Divine temper and Divine delight.
There
follows the line:
On a dark night.
Sets
down the first line and begins to explain how this dark contemplation is not
only night for the soul but is also grief and torment.
THIS dark night is an inflowing of God
into the soul, which purges it from its ignorances and imperfections, habitual
natural and spiritual, and which is called by contemplatives infused
contemplation, or mystical theology. Herein God secretly teaches the soul and
instructs it in perfection of love without its doing anything, or understanding
of what manner is this infused contemplation. Inasmuch as it is the loving
wisdom of God, God produces striking effects in the soul for, by purging and
illumining it, He prepares it for the union of love with God. Wherefore the same
loving wisdom that purges the blessed spirits and enlightens them is that which
here purges the soul and illumines it.
1
But the question arises: Why is
the Divine light (which as we say, illumines and purges the soul from its
ignorances) here called by the soul a dark night? To this the answer is that for
two reasons this Divine wisdom is not only night and darkness for the soul, but
is likewise affliction and torment. The first is because of the height of Divine
Wisdom, which transcends the talent of the soul, and in this way is darkness to
it; the second, because of its vileness and impurity, in which respect it is
painful and afflictive to it, and is also dark.
2
In
order to prove the first point, we must here assume a certain doctrine of the
philosopher, which says that, the clearer and more manifest are Divine things in
themselves the darker and more hidden are they to the soul naturally; just as,
the clearer is the light, the more it blinds and darkens the pupil of the owl,
and, the more directly we look at the sun, the greater is the darkness which it
causes in our visual faculty, overcoming and overwhelming it through its own
weakness. In the same way, when this Divine light of contemplation assails the
soul which is not yet wholly enlightened, it causes spiritual darkness in it;
for not only does it overcome it, but likewise it overwhelms it and darkens the
act of its natural intelligence. For this reason Saint Dionysius and other
mystical theologians call this infused contemplation a ray of darkness—that is
to say, for the soul that is not enlightened and purged—for the natural
strength of the intellect is transcended and overwhelmed by its great
supernatural light. Wherefore David likewise said: That near to God and round
about Him are darkness and cloud;108 not
that this is so in fact, but that it is so to our weak understanding, which is
blinded and darkened by so vast a light, to which it cannot attain.109 For
this cause the
3
And it is clear that this dark
contemplation is in these its beginnings painful likewise to the soul; for, as
this Divine infused contemplation has many excellences that are extremely good,
and the soul that receives them, not being purged, has many miseries that are
likewise extremely bad, hence it follows that, as two contraries cannot coexist
in one subject—the soul—it must of necessity have pain and suffering, since
it is the subject wherein these two contraries war against each other, working
the one against the other, by reason of the purgation of the imperfections of
the soul which comes to pass through this contemplation. This we shall prove
inductively in the manner following.
4
In the first place, because the light and
wisdom of this contemplation is most bright and pure, and the soul which it
assails is dark and impure, it follows that the soul suffers great pain when it
receives it in itself, just as, when the eyes are dimmed by humours, and become
impure and weak, the assault made upon them by a bright light causes them pain.
And when the soul suffers the direct assault of this Divine light, its pain,
which results from its impurity, is immense; because, when this pure light
assails the soul, in order to expel its impurity, the soul feels itself to be so
impure and miserable that it believes God to be against it, and thinks that it
has set itself up against God. This causes it sore grief and pain, because it
now believes that God has cast it away: this was one of the greatest trials
which Job felt when God sent him this experience, and he said: ‘Why hast Thou
set me contrary to Thee, so that I am grievous and burdensome to myself?’111 For,
by means of this pure light, the soul now sees its impurity clearly (although
darkly), and knows clearly that it is unworthy of God or of any creature. And
what gives it most pain is that it thinks that it will never be worthy and that
its good things are all over for it. This is caused by the profound immersion of
its spirit in the knowledge and realization of its evils and miseries; for this
Divine and dark light now reveals them all to the eye, that it may see clearly
how in its own strength it can never have aught else. In this sense we may
understand that passage from David, which says: ‘For iniquity Thou hast
corrected man and hast made his soul to be undone and consumed: he wastes away
as the spider.’112
5
he second way in which the soul suffers
pain is by reason of its weakness, natural, moral and spiritual; for, when this
Divine contemplation assails the soul with a certain force, in order to
strengthen it and subdue it, it suffers such pain in its weakness that it nearly
swoons away. This is especially so at certain times when it is assailed with
somewhat greater force; for sense and spirit, as if beneath some immense and
dark load, are in such great pain and agony that the soul would find advantage
and relief in death. This had been experienced by the prophet Job, when he said:
‘I desire not that He should have intercourse with me in great strength, lest
He oppress me with the weight of His greatness.’113
6. Beneath the power of this oppression and weight the soul feels itself so far from being favoured that it thinks, and correctly so, that even that wherein it was wont to find some help has vanished with everything else, and that there is none who has pity upon it. To this effect Job says likewise: ‘Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, at least ye my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me.’114 A thing of great wonder and pity is it that the soul’s weakness and impurity should now be so great that, though the hand of God is of itself so light and gentle, the soul should now feel it to be so heavy and so contrary,115 though it neither weighs it down nor rests upon it, but only touches it, and that mercifully, since He does this in order to grant the soul favours and not to chastise it.
Of other kinds of pain that the soul suffers in
this night.
THE third kind of suffering and pain that
the soul endures in this state results from the fact that two other extremes
meet here in one, namely, the Divine and the human. The Divine is this purgative
contemplation, and the human is the subject—that is, the soul. The Divine
assails the soul in order to renew it and thus to make it Divine; and, stripping
it of the habitual affections and attachments of the old man, to which it is
very closely united, knit together and conformed, destroys and consumes its
spiritual substance, and absorbs it in deep and profound darkness. As a result
of this, the soul feels itself to be perishing and melting away, in the presence
and sight of its miseries, in a cruel spiritual death, even as if it had been
swallowed by a beast and felt itself being devoured in the darkness of its
belly, suffering such anguish as was endured by Jonas in the belly of that beast
of the sea.116 For
in this sepulchre of dark death it must needs abide until the spiritual
resurrection which it hopes for.
1. A description of this suffering and pain, although in truth it transcends all description, is given by David, when he says: ‘The lamentations of death compassed me about; the pains of hell surrounded me; I cried in my tribulation.’117 But what the sorrowful soul feels most in this condition is its clear perception, as it thinks, that God has abandoned it, and, in His abhorrence of it, has flung it into darkness; it is a grave and piteous grief for it to believe that God has forsaken it. It is this that David also felt so much in a like case, saying: ‘After the manner wherein the wounded are dead in the sepulchres,’ being now cast off by Thy hand, so that Thou rememberest them no more, even so have they set me in the deepest and lowest lake, in the dark places and in the shadow of death, and Thy fury is confirmed upon me and all Thy waves Thou hast brought in upon me.’118
For indeed, when this purgative
contemplation is most severe, the soul feels very keenly the shadow of death and
the lamentations of death and the pains of hell, which consist in its feeling
itself to be without God, and chastised and cast out, and unworthy of Him; and
it feels that He is wroth with it. All this is felt by the soul in this
condition—yea, and more, for it believes that it is so with it for ever.
2
It feels, too, that all creatures have
forsaken it, and that it is contemned by them, particularly by its friends.
Wherefore David presently continues, saying: ’ Thou hast put far from me my
friends and acquaintances; they have counted me an abomination.’119 To
all this will Jonas testify, as one who likewise experienced it in the belly of
the beast, both bodily and spiritually. ‘Thou hast cast me forth (he says)
into the deep, into the heart of the sea, and the flood hath compassed me; all
its billows and waves have passed over me. And I said, “I am cast away out of
the sight of Thine eyes, but I shall once again see Thy holy temple” (which he
says, because God purifies the soul in this state that it may see His temple);
the waters compassed me, even to the soul, the deep hath closed me round about,
the ocean hath covered my head, I went down to the lowest parts of the
mountains; the bars of the earth have shut me up for ever.’120 By
these bars are here understood, in this sense, imperfections of the soul, which
have impeded it from enjoying this delectable contemplation.
3
The fourth kind of pain is caused in the
soul by another excellence of this dark contemplation, which is its majesty and
greatness, from which arises in the soul a consciousness of the other extreme
which is in itself—namely, that of the deepest poverty and wretchedness: this
is one of the chiefest pains that it suffers in this purgation. For it feels
within itself a profound emptiness and impoverishment of three kinds of good,
which are ordained for the pleasure of the soul which are the temporal, the
natural and the spiritual; and finds itself set in the midst of the evils
contrary to these, namely, miseries of imperfection, aridity and emptiness of
the apprehensions of the faculties and abandonment of the spirit in darkness.
Inasmuch as God here purges the soul according to the substance of its sense and
spirit, and according to the interior and exterior faculties, the soul must
needs be in all its parts reduced to a state of emptiness, poverty and
abandonment and must be left dry and empty and in darkness. For the sensual part
is purified in aridity, the faculties are purified in the emptiness of their
perceptions and the spirit is purified in thick darkness.
4
All
this God brings to pass by means of this dark contemplation; wherein the soul
not only suffers this emptiness and the suspension of these natural supports and
perceptions, which is a most afflictive suffering (as if a man were suspended or
held in the air so that he could not breathe), but likewise He is purging the
soul, annihilating it, emptying it or consuming in it (even as fire consumes the
mouldiness and the rust of metal) all the affections and imperfect habits which
it has contracted in its whole life. Since these are deeply rooted in the
substance of the soul, it is wont to suffer great undoings and inward torment,
besides the said poverty and emptiness, natural and spiritual, so that there may
here be fulfilled that passage from Ezechiel which says: ‘Heap together the
bones and I will burn them in the fire; the flesh shall be consumed and the
whole composition shall be burned and the bones shall be destroyed.’121 Herein
is understood the pain which is suffered in the emptiness and
poverty of the substance of the soul both in sense and in spirit. And concerning
this he then says: ’set it also empty upon the coals, that its metal may
become hot and molten, and its uncleanness may be destroyed within it, and its
rust may be consumed.’122 Herein
is described the grave suffering which the soul here endures in the purgation of
the fire of this contemplation, for the Prophet says here that, in order for the
rust of the affections which are within the soul to be purified and destroyed,
it is needful that, in a certain manner, the soul itself should be annihilated
and destroyed, since these passions and imperfections have become natural to it.
5. Wherefore, because the soul is purified in this furnace like gold in a crucible, as says the Wise Man,123 it is conscious of this complete undoing of itself in its very substance, together with the direst poverty, wherein it is, as it were, nearing its end, as may be seen by that which David says of himself in this respect, in these words: ’save me, Lord (he cries to God), for the waters have come in even unto my soul; I am made fast in the mire of the deep and there is no place where I can stand; I am come into the depth of the sea and a tempest hath overwhelmed me; I have laboured crying, my throat has become hoarse, mine eyes have failed whilst I hope in my God.’124 Here God greatly humbles the soul in order that He may afterwards greatly exalt it; and if He ordained not that, when these feelings arise within the soul, they should speedily be stilled, it would die in a very short space; but there are only occasional periods when it is conscious of their greatest intensity. At times, however, they are so keen that the soul seems to be seeing hell and perdition opened. Of such are they that in truth go down alive into hell, being purged here on earth in the same manner as there, since this purgation is that which would have to be accomplished there. And thus the soul that passes through this either enters not that place125 at all, or tarries there but for a very short time; for one hour of purgation here is more profitable than are many there.
114
Job
xix, 21.
115
[There is a reference here to Job vii, 20: cf. sect. 5, above.]
116
Jonas ii, 1.
117
118
Psalm lxxxvii, 6-8 [A.V., lxxxviii, 5-7].
119
Psalm lxxxvii, 9 [A.V., lxxxviii, 8].
120
Jonas ii, 4-7 [A.V., ii, 3-6].
121 Ezechiel xxiv, 10.
108
Psalm xcvi, 2 [A.V., xcvii, 2].
109 [Lit., ‘not
attaining.’]
110 Psalm
xvii, 13
, [A.V., xviii, 12].
111
Job vii, 20.
112
Psalm xxxviii, 12 [A.V., xxxix, 11].
113
Job
xxiii, 6.
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Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25
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