Holy Darkness

Waking Up In Dark Places

The Stages Of The Four-Foot Drop:

1. Not knowing
– blindness
– false light

2. Knowing
– seeing & feeling
– holy darkness

3. Choosing
– practicing, integrating,
– first light

4. Being
– living light

When The Light Feels Like Darkness

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."

Carl Jung

Knowing (Holy Darkness)

Here, false certainty collapses. Harm becomes visible. Complexity emerges. Shadow is recognized, not as pathology, but as reality.

This phase is extremely uncomfortable. Reality as we once knew it begins to deconstruct and fade away without being catastrophic.

Still, it can feel catastrophic. It does not destroy the self; it dismantles illusions. An aspect of self dies.

This is essentially what many call the dark night of the soul. It feels like darkness, but in reality it’s first light breaking through.

What was once unquestioned can no longer be held. Narratives fracture. Explanations fail. The world no longer fits the frame that once made it feel safe.

The Womb & The Tomb

This phase is deeply uncomfortable, but just because it feels like darkness doesn’t mean it is darkness.

It’s exposure. It’s the first time reality is allowed to speak without interruption; light breaking through where it was once forbidden to enter.

Reality as it was once known begins to peel away and fade through clarity and release.

The ground shifts. Orientation is lost. Meaning dissolves before it’s reformed.

Holy Darkness does not destroy the self. It dismantles illusion. Something dies here, but it is not the soul. It is an old reality.

A new reality peeks over the horizon.

On Darkness

“O night more lovely than the dawn.” – John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul (16th century)

“What doth it profit thee to enter into deep discussion concerning the Holy Trinity, if thou lack humility?” – Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (15th century)

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – attributed to Rumi; source unverified

“I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee.” – Job 42:5