The Dark Night of the Soul and the Mystic Way



When we search for our real self, we must learn to release our ego from selfish and egotistic thoughts. To be able to do that, we must attune with an ideal model that lies within ourselves. This search for the self is important because it helps us to unfold a different aspect of being based on the ideal model that is, in reality, an image of our soul, a Divine archetypal image dormant within us. By focusing and reflecting upon it, we energize our spiritual nature, which puts us in better touch with our intuition.

Iamblichus used the word daemon or daïmon to express an inner guiding presence that escorts and inspires our search for truth on our spiritual journey. The daemon is an invisible presence linked to each one of us from birth, whose purpose and bond with us remains sacred and mysterious, since it is linked to our spiritual awakening process. However, at the beginning of our spiritual quest, the daemon, as an inspiring initiator, guides and attunes our consciousness towards our ideal model. Because the ideal model is our spiritual counterpart, our ego needs to recognize it, and the daemon is that inner presence that shows us the way.

Through spiritual exercises such as meditation, contemplation, prayer, dream work, etc., the daemon’s presence is awakened and our attunement with it animates the process of purification. Thus, when we become aware of this inner work, we gradually to let go of our past ego identifications and cooperate willingly with the daemonic inspiration. Learning to let go of past ego identifications is a challenge, but must be done. Thus, ego identifications such as "I am a teacher, a mother, a businessman, a mystic, or whatever" have no more meaning to us, for we realize that these ego identifications are just "masks" and "subpersonalities" and transient illusions covering our real center of Being. Moreover, we understand that they were necessary protections sheltering the elusive and hidden center of Being.

This realization marks the beginning of a turning point in our life, bringing with it various trials and tribulations. It is a self-inflicted and salutary initiation that brings a high level of spiritual transformation. Likewise during this process of initiation, our ego, having no more protective masks, opens up to a new dimension of being within consciousness that relates directly to existence.

The first step of letting go of our ego’s hold on life brings about a complete transformation in our psyche. The second step—immersion into pure Being—brings about the revelation that our ego is itself just a limited projection of pure existence and being. This happens after we pass through what has been described by mystics of all ages as the dark night of the soul. For some, this process lasts longer than others, but there are different stages of this spiritual work, belonging to different levels of Cosmic Consciousness.

Cosmic Consciousness opens up the intuitive perception of our center of Being, which unfolds our own mystery and reveals a new way of receiving knowledge. However, our ego personality does not disappear; on the contrary, by merging with the source of pure existence, our ego becomes its receptacle, the sacred grail, the clear mirror wherein impulses projected from the center of Divine Intelligence and Wisdom are reflected.

The dark night of the soul is a blessing in disguise because it saves us from the delusions and fantasies created by our ego. This is the initiation that imprints the likeness of the ideal model upon our ego. Thus, we can see that the dark night of the soul is the passage that takes us from a world of duality to a world of wholeness and unity, and makes us beacons of light for others to follow. We become living models who inspire in others the same spiritual process that leads them to their own understanding of primordial knowledge and truth.

The dark night of the soul teaches us to look at the horrors and joys of the world, the cycles of birth and death, the wars and destructions of nature and of the world economies with a quiet heart and a peaceful mind. On this level, our consciousness becomes a part of the center of everything happening in the world since we empathize with all the pains and joys that humanity experiences. Together they are transformed and united in the hallowed Holy Grail that, from here on, enlightens and illuminates our center of Being. The dark night of the soul liberates our limited and limiting consciousness into one that is unlimited and universal, as Cosmic Consciousness makes us aware of our true cosmic nature.

In Hinduism, Advaita Vedanta calls this level the "nondual" that contains everything and nothing. Christian mystical tradition refers to such a state as Divine Apathy. Through this mystical and spiritual perspective, we observe that we are nothing and yet everything, and from this central place of balance, we experience what meant by the words:

"To be in the world but not caught by a single thing in it."

This is an major part of my life. Any Tibetan studies including yoga dreaming and energy training.
The source of this article is found here http://www.plotinus.com/archives.htm This is a superb site.

Greetings!
Thanks for that! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ac42.gif)
If I may recommend this book in your path...?
"Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light" by chogyal Namkhai Norbu
I've had some great success whilst reading it and using the techniques therein. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/egypt1.gif)

Danke, Im always trying to find more good information to absorb. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/i_triangle.gif)

Greetings Enochian,

I must agree with much of the exegesis of this post. I do agree that Meditation, Prayer or Self Reflection, Dream Analysis, and Trance States where one enters within the veil of their Unconscious being is how we reach into the whole aspect of our being.

Out Persona or outward projection is one of many mirrors or many facets, when we realize that we have a nature called by some the Yechidah or True Self, the High Self, The Augoides, or the Personal Daemon or even the Holy Guardian Angel, then we can start to learn of that Inner Divine Nature which is Us.

Yes I would say we must have a sort of non-differentiation towards our present outward persona or projection of our Ego. Yet we, as has been stated, protect this Inner Core or our Central Nature by creating these Outward Projections in order to deal with the various conditions, situations, and environmental stimuli that our present form is an integral, unseperable part of.

In my opinion it is not a necessity to "Tear Down The Wall" as according to Pink Floyds Title Song of the Movie, or as Jim Morrison might say, "break on through to the other side." It is though necessary to realize through Self-Reflection that much of our Projected Persona is a defence mechanism, and when we can realize that we are Multifacetous in our Being, representing various dimensions of personality, action, behaviour, and thought and emotion, we then begin to discover a core part of ourselves, usually represented by the Collective Conscious aspect our Inner Being as well as the Unconscious aspects of our Hidden (Darker) Natures, which contains Our Whole or True Self.

Often as your message indicated, this process of "Finding Ourselves" or Discovering the True Self and the True Will comes only through a process of bringing the Dark things to light, Analyzing them, Affirming their existence in our Nature, Accepting that these repressed or negative feelings, thoughts, and aspects are genuinely a part of our makeup, and then reassimilating them within our Being. Often this is Unconsciously done (In my Opinion) through Rituals of Evocation, however these aspects are not separate entities, yet an integral Hidden Aspect of our own Unconscius Mind.

This Traverse of the Dark Night of The Soul may theoretically or literally be explained by the Traversing the Abyss in many Golden Dawn, and Thelemic descriptions to the Uniting of the Higher Self, with the Lower Personality forming a complete, Perfected Man.

Great Post Enochian.
Respectfully,
Helel (Joseph)

Thank you Joseph, There is no question i have stumbled (maybe) into a inteligent group. It is said that after we pass away there is a time spent in purgation where we relive all the worst deeds we perfomed in life. Through recapitulation i believe we can do this prior to passing. It is done by the Shaman already to recover spirit and i believe if fulfilled well you said it. We will have walked through the gates of Arzir and back. we must recover the keys to heaven and hell just as Jesus did. A dreamer would tell you, i will tell you heaven is only about an inch away. This life is but a womb for the soul if it does not grow enough expect not the eternal but a return trip.

Greetings again Enochian,

My personal belief is that each lifetime, or incarnation is a type of purgation to our Immortal Soul. We in this life continue to react in the same programmed mentality, with the same or similar behavior that we have exhibited in this life many times before. We often follow the same Paths, and go through the same motions as we have done countless times before.

Yet, this is the purpose of life, to follow or move fluidly with the wheel of Birth, Maturity, Old Age, and the Transition of Passing. The one relevant thing we have that is certain though, is this very moment. Regardless of the conditions we find ourselves in, we only have but this moment.

All too often there are those that want to escape this Form of Flesh, believing the next Life will be more suitable, or believing their is a great reward in the Spiritual Dimensions. When actually according to the fundamental Hermetic Axiom found in "The Emerald Tablet of Hermes,";
"It is true and no lie, certain, and to be depended upon, that the superior agrees with the inferior, and the inferior with the superior, to effect that one truly wonderful work."

Verse five and six go on to provide the diligent aspirant the mystic key by which he or she can arise from the tomb of matter even while acknowledging that the tomb is an integral part of the self.

"The power is perfect, after it has been united with a spiritous earth. Separate the Spiritous earth from the dense and crude earth by means of a gentle heat, with much attention."

It is the profoundest of cosmic ironies. The Divine Power, our True Spiritual Essence, does not achieve perfection until it hits the rock bottom of the cosmos--the dense and crude earth.

This excerpt is found in the book "The New Hermetics" in the forward by Lon Milo DuQuette.

The Hebrew "Zohar" also gives a similar passage stating: paraphrased:

"The candle flame as of true spirit, cannot burn without the physical body of wax, which fuels the flame."

These instance as referenced, mean to me, that, the Body as a Temple is indeed necessary for Self-Illumination of the Higher Levels of Spiritual Attainment.

Respectfully,
Helel (Joseph)

I think you are more than correct. And thats a problem we and the rest of the world want us to live so fast (it makes politicians rich even) to experiance everything quickly and now. I try to live moment to moment and in the moment. lol

The great alchemy of turning lead into gold thus the gold ratio or the perfect spiral only comes with time and attention.

This post has been edited by Enochian: Dec 28 2006, 10:52 AM

Dear Enochian,

Could you go into further detail about the nature and role of the personal Daemon that leads one through the 'Dark Night of the Soul'? Is he/she a spiritual being, or a part of a person's psyche? Can you use magick and scrying to contact him/her? Does it do any good to try to 'define' this entity, or is it essential not to clutter his/her identity with mundane details and possibly deceptive and limiting qualities?

I'm wondering if my restlessness and dissatisfaction with the goddess-forms I read about is really because deep down I am trying to reach my personal Daemon guide, not one of the Deities at all. I am in a dark place now, I don't know if it is 'The Dark Night of the Soul' though.

Thank you, Bym, for guiding me to this topic. A lot of what I've read here resonates with what I believe my spiritual condition is like.

Thank you:)
Oliver

P.S. How's this for a hyper-active imagination? I just wondered whether the Personal Daemon -is- every Goddess, God, and Demon I will ever know. Maybe the persona of the goddesses are just masks, spiritual costume identities, that my Personal Daemon takes on for the moment to be more comprehensible to me? Maybe 'True Divinity' is not 'knowable' to me until I have 'grown' and put away 'childish things'? No, I probably got that wrong, didn't I?

Picture the dark night of the soul more as a realization that we create our own demons. But that does nat at all mean they cannot manifest from this. The reason i say this is because belief and the way we see things/think is our reality.
You realize from the gnostic view that your ego grows and strenghtens when you only listen to your wondering mind. When you never truly focus. In essence no control of your ego is the beggining of demonic.



All too often there are those that want to escape this Form of Flesh, believing the next Life will be more suitable, or believing their is a great reward in the Spiritual Dimensions. When actually according to the fundamental Hermetic Axiom found in "The Emerald Tablet of Hermes,";
"It is true and no lie, certain, and to be depended upon, that the superior agrees with the inferior, and the inferior with the superior, to effect that one truly wonderful work
This is from josephs post above read it again.

Your reward is what you choose to do. The dark night of the soul is when you realize your ego rules you and its a creation of exactly what this world wants it to be and how you percieve.
The personnal daemon is our higher self which is a combination of ego or the physical and of your spirits past. Last but not least it is the sum of all creations thoughts and experiances combined. it is manifested by the enrgy and frequencies of all our bodies (energy, aethereal, physical,etc..) since we exist in one form and at all times in many planes and places it is a massive amount. In fact it could be said to be everything. There is little possibly nothing that we cannot "tap into". Imagine the gaurdian angel,daemon,higherself, left behind from that !

The only thing i see wrong and its only opinion here is the child is the most important part of the entire picture. And the rest of your p.s is accurate. growth comes when we only allow are ego to manifest itself from our choosing. we SEE everything and realize how the ego became to be what it is. Only after that and by clearing away the garbage (mostly what continues to pop up in noob meditators minds is that garbage) stalk these things and recapitulate (traverse what made the ego) to clear it away.

This post has been edited by Enochian: Dec 29 2006, 11:06 AM

Here is another scroll of the dark night of the soul. It is Long.



http://essenes.net/scrolls/64ssDarkNight.html

The site this was taken from is called the order of the nazarene essenes. They are a christian/ buddhist belief.

Enochian, I would disagree if you were saying that we only realise we create our own demons during a dark night of the soul...the realisation can be attained through enlightenment meditations and by strengthening the light side self to the point where we can see the difference between the happiness and beauty that we have inside us, and those things that have held us back.

Perhaps being able to see the two sides of ourselves from a higher perspective (a place without suffering) also allows us to free ourselves?

witchy x