DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL – THOMAS MOORE

 

PART ONE – PASSAGES

 

Ch. 1: The Night Sea Journey

 

Sometimes in your darkness you may sense that something is incubating in you or that you are being prepared for life. (4)

 

Many poets and artists have created their best work out of their emotional darkness. Even if you don’t see yourself as an actual artist, you are an artist in your own life. (11)

 

Society, too, prefers to sing its blues rather than to state them plainly. The poignant song gets through to us and charms us even as it portrays memories of sadness and loss. (14)

 

Look deeply into your fears. Take serious note of your defenses. See where and how you elude the demands of your existence. (20)

 

Ch. 2: Rites of Passage

 

Unconsciousness is like junk food. It’s an easy way to go through life, but it doesn’t give you the nourishment you need. (31)

 

People in transition often disregard their appearance. (40)

 

Coming back into normal life after a dark night may not be as easy as you expect. You will have changed. (42)

 

If you choose not to become involved in ritual, some form of compulsive, repeated behavior will probably enter your life anyway. (45)

 

It’s interesting how people who lose touch with their souls become ritualistic in ways that are destructive. (45)

 

A common way to mark passages is to make music out of time and do things on a rhythm. (46)

 

Ch. 3: Sorting Out and Starting Over

 

Addictions of all kinds signal that life is stuck and blocked. (51)

 

If you can find good words and style for your story, you may feel cleansed by it. (58)

 

We have to recover, not naively and not in the usual terms, a vision of the divine. Our secular society isn’t working, and in fact is self-destructive. (67)

 

Ch. 4: The View from the Moon

 

Ch. 5: Life’s Ironies

 

A good way to become darker is to have a keen appreciation for the ironies all around you. (103)

 

Humor is a sign of comfort with the unpredictable ways of God and nature. (104)

 

You have to be faithful to the mystery taking place in your heart, rather than to any idea or system that would try, with the best of motives, to disempower you and make you theirs. (108)

 

A little clean, honest wit can save you from the heavy seriousness that gives life a tragic tone. The odd thing is that your dark night need not be tragic. (110)

 

If you can’t think, reflect, and actively imagine your life into existence, you are condemned to a half-life of unconsciousness. You are mired in facts and information and opinions and slogans. In effect, you are imprisoned in the stale notions of a dead society. (117)

 

PART TWO: DISTURBANCES

 

Ch. 6: Lovesickness

 

The relaxing of your will, however desperate, allows life to proceed. (133)

 

Ch. 7: Wedding Nights

 

No one, of course, fully knows the person he marries. All lovers are mystery partners. (150)

 

Ch, 8: Night Eros

 

Until you honor the spirit of sex and are blessed to have it animating your life, you may feel its absence as the withdrawal of vitality. (177)

 

Ch. 9: Creativity, The Child, and the Sure-Footed Goat

 

It is said that artists are born “under Saturn.” That means that the source of their creativity is also the root of their suffering. (189)

 

For many people, not becoming a star is a tragedy, and they become dissatisfied with life in general over their failure to achieve great success… Creative people live on the edge, where wonderful gifts lie in wait for them and where the fall into failure and disillusionment is always a possibility. (191)

 

For many, a dull sense of ordinariness crushes the spirit. You know that no matter how hard you try, it is difficult to have your creativity accepted and admired. Sheer numbers can be discouraging. (193)

 

You can use your desperation as a guide and barometer. Precisely where you are desperate, you can take back some of the adulation you give to others. (194)

 

The feeling of inferiority that often accompanies the child archetype is not necessarily negative. It can keep you humble and let your creativity flow without interference from an ego desparate for fame and accomplishment. (199)

 

Ch. 10: Dark Beauty

 

Good art makes its way directly to the soul and does its job of healing. (216)

 

A dark night almost always has these two qualities: focus and attention. (217)

 

A thing of beauty stirs the soul out of its slumber first by drawing you into itself. (221)

 

If you can discover your essential beauty, in spite of all your problems and imperfections, you are on the way toward well-being. A preliminary step is simply to accept yourself with all your failures and imperfections. (224)

 

Whatever you choose, you have to take it in and let it affect you. In a way, you become this beautiful thing. (229)

 

PART THREE: DEGRADATIONS

 

Ch. 11: The Deep-Red Emotions

 

Anger gives you borders and definition. (234)

 

Anger gives you the impetus you need to change conditions that need to be changed. (237)

 

Ch. 12: Temporary Insanities

 

Everyone, trying to discover the plot, is a character in search of an author. (251)

 

That which seems to have twisted your life or personality for the worst is the very thing that will heal you and give you meaning. (256)

 

Ch. 13: The Island of Illness

 

To evoke the sun is to create an atmosphere of health and hope. (278)

 

The dark night of illness sets severe limits on what you can do. (282)

 

Ch, 14: The Twilight Years