Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross, Post 1

We at the Catholic Thought Book Club read for Lent the mystical classic by St.John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul.   I’m going to post my thoughts and comments on it.  One thing that should be kept straight.  St. John wrote both a poem and a treatise with that title.  The treatise expounds on the poem.  More accurately I think is that St. John uses lines from the poem as a starting point for his rather deep mystical concepts.

One thing we should be familiar as we read is the poem, “Dark Night of the Soul.”  So as I understand it, St. John of the Cross wrote this poem, and later expounded on each line which became the book, Dark Night of the Soul.  It’s not a very long poem.  So let me posted it in its entirety here, first the original Spanish and then the Peers translation.

 

1

En una noche obscura,
con ansias en amores imflamada,
¡oh dichosa uentura!
sali sin ser notada,
estando ya mi casa sosegada.

 

On a dark night,

Kindled in love with yearnings—

oh, happy chance!—

I went forth without being observed,

My house being now at rest.

 

2

A escuras y segura,
por la secreta escala disfraçada,
¡oh dichosa uentura!
a escuras y ençelada,
estando ya mi casa sosegada.

 

In darkness and secure,

By secret ladder disguised—

oh, happy chance!—

In darkness and in concealment,

My house being now at rest.

 

3

En la noche dichosa,

en secreto, que nadie me ueya,

ni yo miraua cosa,

sin otra luz ni guia

sino la que en el coraçon ardia.

 

In the happy night,

In secret, when none saw me,

Now I beheld aught,

Without light or guide,

Save that which burned in my heart.

 

4

Aquesta me guiaua

mas cierto que la luz del mediodia,

adonde me esperaua

quien yo bien me sabia,

en parte donde nadie parecia.

 

This light guided me

More surely than the light of noonday

To the place where he

(Well I knew who!) was awaiting me—

A place where none appeared.

 

5

¡Oh noche que me guiaste!

¡oh noche amable mas que el aluorada!,

¡oh noche que juntaste

amado con amada,

amada en el amado transformada!

 

Oh night that guided me,

Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,

Oh, night that joined

Beloved with lover,

Lover transformed in the Beloved!

 

6

Y en mi pecho florido,

que entero para el solo se guardaua,

alli quedo dormido,

y yo le regalaua,

y el ventalle de cedros ayre daua.

 

Upon my flowery breast,

Kept wholly for himself alone,

There he stayed sleeping,

And I caressed him,

And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

 

7

El ayre de la almena,

cuando ya sus cabellos esparzia,

con su mano serena

en mi cuello heria,

y todos mis sentidos suspendia.

 

The breeze blew from the turret

As I parted his locks;

With his gentle hand

He wounded my neck

And caused all my senses to be suspended.

 

8

Quedeme y oluideme,

el rostro recline sobre el amado,

ceso todo, y dexeme,

dexando mi cuidado

entre las açucenas olvidado.

 

I remained, lost in oblivion;

My face I reclined on the Beloved.

All ceased

And I abandoned myself,

Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

 

The Peers translation used a four line stanza but I noticed that St. John used a five line stanza in the original, and other translations, like this one, used a five line stanza.  So I created a five line stanza version using the Peers translation and seeing in my rough understanding of Spanish where the additional line most made sense. 

I have to say I found it really worthwhile to physically type out the poem.  I think I absorbed it better than just reading it. 

My Comment:

By the way, which translation do people have. I haven't really researched translations but since I already owned the book I didn't have much of a choice. I have the E. Allison Peers translation.

 

All this while I thought E. Allison Peers was a woman. The "E" stands for Edgar. He's got a Wikipedia entry.  

 

Yes, I have the same Dover edition too. I saw it really inexpensive several years ago and picked it up. Glad I have it!

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Prologue; Part 1, I thru IX

Summary:

Prologue: The poem and the organization of the book being an expounding on the lines of the poem.

Part 1

Exposition: The first stanza of the poem.

Chapter 1: The imperfections of beginners.

Chapter 2: Imperfections of beginners with respect to pride.

Chapter 3: Imperfections of beginners with respect to avarice.

Chapter 4: Imperfections of beginners with respect to luxury.

Chapter 5: Imperfections of beginners with respect to wrath.

Chapter 6: Imperfections of beginners with respect to spiritual gluttony.

Chapter 7: Imperfections of beginners with respect to spiritual envy and sloth.

Chapter 8: Exposition of the first line of the first stanza and the beginning of the explanation of this dark night.

Chapter 9: The signs that one has when one is walking in this dark night and purgation of sense.

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It’s hard to say things definitively without having read the entire book first, but it seems like John puts forth his thesis and method in the Prologue.

In this book are first set down all the stanzas which are to be expounded; afterwards, each of the stanzas is expounded separately, being set down before its exposition; and then each line is expounded separately and in turn, the line itself also being set down before the exposition. In the first two stanzas are expounded the effects of the two spiritual purgations: of the sensual part of man and of the spiritual part. In the other six are expounded various and wondrous effects of the spiritual illumination and union of love with God. (p. 1)

 

First the method.  Each stanza will be expounded upon separately, and then line by line.  The first two stanzas are about what John identifies as two spiritual purgations, the purgation of the senses and the purgation of the spirit.  The other six stanzas expound upon effects which lead to illumination and then union with God. 

This is what Catholicism has traditionally identified as the stages of spiritual life: the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive.  New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia has an entry that describes each of the ways, here.   

So I take then that through this eight stanza poem, John will show us a way to pass through the three stages culminating is some mystical union with God.  If I’m getting this correctly, the “dark night” is not a description of the soul but a “road” upon which the soul has to travel to reach that union with God.

In this first stanza the soul relates the way and manner which it followed in going forth, as to its affection, from itself and from all things, and in dying to them all and to itself, by means of true mortification, in order to attain to living the sweet and delectable life of love with God; and it says that this going forth from itself and from all things was a ‘dark night,’ by which, as will be explained hereafter, is here understood purgative contemplation, which causes passively in the soul the negation of itself and of all things referred to above.

Irene Commented:

My understanding of "darkness" in this text refers to the withdrawl of consolations that is a part of most spiritual journeys. There is the dark night of the senses, the intentional stepping away from consolations in our lives that obscure our vision of or fidelity to God. That is the focus of the initial chapters. It is what other writers have called the purgative way. Then he moves to the dark night of the soul, God's withholding of spiritual consolations so that the soul does not cling to that which is not God. Even the peace, the sense of intimacy, the joy, that many feel in the initial stages after purgation or what motivated people to embrace purgation, is not God. So, God withholds these spiritual consolations so that the soul seeks God alone and not the good feelings they have received from God. Many spiritual writers have described this withdrawl of spiritual consolations as a "darkness". This comment is based on my recollection of this book from reading it decades ago and from reading the chapters for the first week's discussion, so I may be wrong.

My Reply:

Irene, I don’t disagree.  That is how I have always understood “dark night of the soul” as a common phrase.  And perhaps on one level that’s what John implies, but he also says the dark night is a journey.  Let me pull out these quotes. 

 

(1) From the Prologue:

“Since this road (as the Lord Himself says likewise) is so strait, and since there are so few that enter by it, the soul considers it a great happiness and good chance to have passed along it to the said perfection of love, as it sings in this first stanza, calling this strait road with full propriety ‘dark night,’ as will be explained hereafter in the lines of the said stanza.” (1)

 

Notice, he calls the “strait road with full propriety ‘dark night.’”

(2) From Book First, Introduction, Paragraph 1:

“In this first stanza the soul relates the way and manner which it followed in going forth, as to its affection, from itself and from all things, and in dying to them all and to itself, by means of true mortification, in order to attain to living the sweet and delectable life of love with God; and it says that this going forth from itself and from all things was a ‘dark night,’ (3)

 

If you break that sentence down, you find the clause, “this going forth from itself and from all things was a ‘dark night,’”  Again the journey is the dark night.

 

(3) Also from Book First, Introduction, Paragraph 2:

“Herein it extols the great happiness which it found in journeying to God through this night with such signal success that none of the three enemies…” (3)

 

Again “journeying to God through this night…”

 

(4) From Book 1, Chapter 2, Paragraph 8:

“For this reason, as we shall afterwards say, God leads into the dark night those whom He desires to purify from all these imperfections so that He may bring them farther onward.” (8)

 

Here the night is the “purgative” agent which purifies. 

 

There are more.  I just took these four examples.  In each case the dark night is not a description for the state of the soul in either anxiety or dryness of consolation or the “withdrawl of consolation” as you put it.  It’s an actual path in some places and a purgative agent in others.  Either way it is not just a description of the state of the soul. 

My Reply to Irene:

Irene wrote: "Yes, Manny, I don't think we are disagreeing. As you say above,
St. John is a poet. So the darkness is a metaphor for the perception of the soul. The journey is a metaphor for the spiritual life o..."

I guess it's a metaphor. I can't really argue against it but when he speaks of it it feels very tangible. Here's my unease on saying it's just a metaphor for the state of the soul. To say the soul is undergoing a "dark night," that's a static situation for the moment. But to say the soul is journeying through a dark night, that has motion and the description is of the path not of the soul.

I guess St. John really means both, a description for the soul and a description of the journey.

My Reply to Christine:

Christine wrote: "A thought that came to my mind was of someone who wakes up and realizes they are in a dark room with no light and has to surrender control and trust in someone who knows the way to lead them from t..."

This leads me to think that St. John is speaking literally of a passage through a dark night. It occurred to me that St. John is speaking of a mystical experience. He is a mystic. What is a metaphor to us is actually a real experience for him. Perhaps he can visualize that aridity so strongly that it is literally a dark night for him.

My Reply to Joseph:

Joseph wrote: "Manny wrote: "Christine wrote: "A thought that came to my mind was of someone who wakes up and realizes they are in a dark room with no light and has to surrender control and trust in someone who k..."

I think you are right, though it is not certain. From Wikipedia:
"The time or place of composition are not certain. It is likely the poem was written between 1577 and 1579. It has been proposed[by whom?] that the poem was composed while John was imprisoned in Toledo, although the few explicit statements in this regard are unconvincing and second-hand."  

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My Reply to Gallicius:

Galicius wrote: "Every reference to Him, take the Bible, Dante, speak of light that is more powerful than we can perceive or imagine. St. John probably uses this metaphor to designate a journey in contemplation. Perhaps he describes a starting point in that journey and that this will be more about the “darkness” we are in from which we must break out towards God."

 

Now that I got past the different spelling, I see your point. God is light. But I don't think John of the Cross is saying that God is darkness. I think he's saying the "dark night" is a passage to God. One has to go through the dark night to reach God.

 

I'm reminded of the Divine Mercy painting, the original Kazimirowski version where Christ is a light set against the darkness. One is going through the darkness to reach the light of Christ. Here's the painting if you can't recall.   

Casey’s Reply to Gerri:

Gerri wrote: "I confess my reading so far has been predicated on the notion that the dark night is a removal of any richness that arises from deep prayer/contemplation. And that it's a necessary prelude for anyo..."

The dark night is the removal of what appears to us to be the richness. The beginner gets a feeling, a comfort, a sensation, a thrill. Initially this motivates us to continue but soon it becomes the thing at which we aim. Those things must be removed so that we aim only at Christ.

As those feelings, comforts, sensations, and thrills wane we feel lost. We go slipping into the dark night. We long for what is lost but are being prepared for something greater. This period of purgation purifies and perfects our aims and is necessary for our spiritual growth.

My Reply to Casey:

Yes Casey, I think you captured it exactly. Aridity is intentional from God and toward a purpose, greater purpose. That seems counter intuitive to me. But that is what he is saying.

Casey’s Reply to Me:

Interesting because I find it entirely intuitive.

A child is given a gold star on his homework to create good feelings and motivate him to develop good habits. Later in High School and College the gold stars have gone away but there are still grades. In 20s there's squat. Nobody cares if you read or practice math or whatever. But then here we all are now reading and discussing a most challenging work for its own sake. No gold stars, no grades, no longing for such. Simply the elevated, properly refined attractions of the mind and soul.

 

We should probably also remember that this darkness he speaks of is actually extreme brightness. Something along the lines of Plato's cave. When we exit the cave we are blinded by the light. (darkness) It is painful and seems at first terrible to us.

This is necessary because we cannot, through our own efforts, prepare our eyes for the light before exiting. Only the light itself can prepare our eyes.

 

I think that the idea is not that we ought to sacrifice the pleasure of reading or crackers so that we can pray more. Rather that through this purgation the act of reading or eating crackers becomes itself prayer. The pleasure of reading and crackers is now plus 1. (Or plus infinity)

My Reply to Irene:

You're not being a brat Irene! Thanks. The problem with St. John is that he's both a poet and a mystic. If he is only speaking poetically then clearly you are right. If he is speaking as a mystic, then it becomes hard to gage the depth of his metaphor. A few months ago we read St. Catherine of Siena. She had many mystical experiences. She never talked about them as anything other than real. Take the exchange of heart mystical experience. Or the stigmata experience. She didn't say that either were a metaphor or anything other than it really happened. So is St. John here talking metaphorically or real? He's a mystic. Is this journey part of his mysticism? Does he expect others to have similar experiences. I have never had any mystical experiences. When a writer uses a metaphor, especially in prose, it is usually evident by cues in that language he is being poetic and not literal. I don't really see those cues in the language here.

But maybe we should just go beyond this. Whether he is being literal or not probably doesn't make a difference. Maybe it will be more obvious later on.