Dark night of the soul
“Dark night of the soul” is the title of a poem written by the 16th century Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic San Juan de la Cruz. The main idea of the poem can be seen as the painful experience that people undergo as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God. Like Saint John, each soul has its dark night. Some, like those suffering from depression, experience darker nights than others. World-renowned author and psychic Sylvia Browne said about Earth in her book: Perfection of souls, that if we simply survive an earthly incarnation, we will have done something heroic! She believes that we choose to come to Earth to experience certain trials and learn lessons from them. For Sylvia, Earth is a kind of school, a “training ground” so to speak. The message of these two authors, a saint and a psychic, is that life is hard. If you do not prefer to listen to them, remember that Buddha said it too and Christ demonstrated it too. The life of Christ showed that you will be crucified every time (metaphorically speaking). This is not an “easy” planet to live on. We arrive with a cold slap on the butt, and we leave while they throw dirt in our faces! By now, you must be thinking, “Wow, Nina really had a bad night!” The point is: we all experience them. Moments when life seems cruel, meaningless and hopeless, nothing more than a sadistic joke. There are moments when life seems both haphazard and harsh, moments when you say to yourself, “What good is it? What is all the suffering for?” These dark nights of despair leave us questioning the meaning of our existence. Interestingly, it is not until we experience Dark Nights of the Soul that we can appreciate the light.
The light at the end of the tunnel
Have you heard the saying, “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel”? The light appears brighter due to the darkness around it. The polarity of life is its breadth, depth, and meaning. Until we have seen our shadow (Jung) we cannot appreciate our light. “In Jungian psychology, the shadow or” shadow aspect “is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, flaws, and instincts” (Wikipedia.com). Simply, the contrast between darkness (not knowing) and light (knowing) defines life, giving it more meaning. The cold drink is cooler on a hot summer day. The explosion of laughter, orgasm or pain is soothing and would not be cathartic without the precipitous state of retention. Human beings experience life as meaningful due to its polarities. The dark night of the soul, although painful, allows us to savor and appreciate the bright dawn of the morning. The meaning of “Horton Hears A Who” came to mind two years after I saw it; Suddenly, in the foreground of my mind, the characters seemed less Dr. Seuss-like and surprisingly spiritual. It seemed to me that what was originally a poignant children’s book was offering a deeply adult lesson that I had missed.
We are here!
During my “Dark Night of the Soul”, while I was thinking why there has to be so much suffering in the world, I sent a question, or maybe it was a prayer, but it sounded like this: “Do you know we are here?” As I did so, I remembered the story of Horton Hears A Who, and how the Who in Who-ville, in desperate anguish, preached a similar message to the Universe: “We are here, we are here, we are here!” Suddenly, I felt small, like the Whos; a single voice in a small colony of souls that lived in the pin-sized point on the head of a dandelion. I wondered if God was like the Horton elephant, silly but kind, living a happy, carefree existence, surprised by the little sound of Whose message: “We are here!” I thought, if there is a God, I hope it’s a big guy with a soft heart, like Horton. I don’t even care if he’s dumb like Horton (played by Jim Carey). I also thought about how, even in Horton’s world, there was an antagonist; a contemptuous and vindictive voice (played by Carol Burnett). I smiled again when I thought of the yellow ball named Katy, my favorite character in the movie, whose phrase my daughter and I loved: “In my world, everyone eats rainbows and defecates butterflies.” In Horton’s world, as in our world, there are agonists, antagonists, and also outlandish and disoriented souls. I thought: if in the movie Horton represented God, and we are the Who: small, seemingly insignificant and randomly falling through space, what is the message of the movie?
A person is a person, no matter how small
Throughout the film, Horton repeated a mantra that kept him “saving” Who-ville from destruction, and it was: “A person is a person, no matter how small.” What Horton meant was: regardless of the immense difference in size between him and the Whos, the Whos were so important to Horton. He couldn’t let them die when he had the power to save them. What we found charming about Horton was that he valued life, held it sacred. Even the life that was so small, in comparison, that he couldn’t see it and had to strain to hear it. If there is a God, I hope in this sense, he is like Horton. In the Dark Night of the Soul, we are sending a message, whether whispered in prayer, in thought, or shouted from the rooftops: “We are here!” The existential Message that I finally saw in “Horton Hears A Who” was: Everyone matters, no matter how small; in short, they all have value. If you believe that there is a God, or a Higher Power, or whatever you want to call it, then let this simple children’s movie remind you, like me, that the Creator, like Horton, listens to us and is moved by our requests. And if you’re an atheist and don’t believe, consider the movie theme anyway: We’re all the same, and therefore all worthy of compassion. Whatever your spiritual belief, there was a hidden message for you in “Horton Hears A Who” and I wanted to share it with you.
Oh, and one more thing … It wasn’t until I allowed myself to regret that this idea came to me. Insight often creeps up on us when we’ve opened our hearts. Light follows darkness all the time.
References:
Dark night of the soul. (2011). Wikipedia.com. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on July 22, 2011.