The Dark Night of the Soul Stages and Symptoms

Going through a dark night of the soul stages can be one of the most challenging yet transformative experiences in life. As a certified transformational life coach, energy healer, and quantum psychology practitioner, I’ve guided clients through this profound process of spiritual awakening and ego death. In this comprehensive guide, I’ll explain what the dark night of the soul is, its stages, symptoms, causes, and how to find your way through to the other side.

The dark night of the soul is a phase of intense spiritual crisis marked by hopelessness and despair that arises as the ego dissolves to make room for awakening to one’s true self and higher purpose. The dark night of the soul stages are Spiritual Awakening, Disillusionment, Ego Death, Exploration of the Void, and Rebuilding.

If you want to know about my experience of going through the dark night of the soul stages you can check this video:

What is the Dark Night of the Soul?

The term “dark night of the soul” was coined by 16th-century Spanish poet and mystic St. John of the Cross to describe a spiritual crisis. It’s a kind of initiation experience that plunges you into an abyss of hopelessness, shattering your ego and attachment to the world as you’ve known it.

While often extremely difficult and painful, the dark night of the soul is not a curse or punishment. Rather, it’s a natural phase of spiritual development and a rite of passage on the path to self-realization. It’s the ego’s last stand before surrendering to the awakening process.

Dark Night vs Depression

There is some overlap between the dark night of the soul and clinical depression, such as feelings of despair, emptiness, and meaninglessness. However, depression arises from biochemical causes, while the dark night is a spiritual crisis. With depression, there is no deeper sense of purpose behind the suffering.

Is it Necessary?

Not everyone will experience an intense dark night of the soul on their spiritual journey. However, it’s common for those undergoing a profound awakening process, especially after initial glimpses or breakthroughs into higher states of consciousness.

What’s the Purpose?

The dark night serves several purposes:

• It annihilates the ego and attachment to the world, creating space for the true self to emerge.
• It forces profound inner inquiry into the nature of self and reality.
• It purges negative qualities like greed, hatred, and delusion.
• It awakens intuition, insight, and a greater connection to Spirit or Source.

Dark Night of the Soul Stages

While everyone’s experience is unique, the dark night of the soul tends to unfold in stages or phases:

1. Spiritual Awakening

The dark night usually begins with an initial spiritual awakening or glimpse into higher realities. This gives you clarity to see through illusions but also stirs up shadow material to be cleansed.

2. Disillusionment

As your old ego-based view of life crumbles, you fall into profound disillusionment and despair. Cherished beliefs, relationships, and goals now all seem empty and meaningless.

3. Ego Death

This is the deepest, darkest stage. The ego struggles against the rising soul force. As identity dissolves, you may experience extreme confusion, hopelessness, emptiness, and annihilation anxiety.

4. Exploration of the Void

With the ego now fully surrendered, you rest in the void beyond all concepts and identities. Here, you realize your eternal nature as pure consciousness itself. Creative inspiration, mystic visions, and new directions may arise.

In this article, you can read more about the void stage of spiritual awakening, where I also share my experience.

5. Rebuilding

Integrating the profound realizations from the dark night, you gradually rebuild your life on a soul-infused foundation. You live with simplicity, and authenticity, and surrender to a higher will.

Dark Night of the Soul Symptoms

As you traverse the dark night of the soul stages, you may experience some of the following symptoms:

• Depression – Profound sadness, grief, melancholy.
• Hopelessness – A feeling that your suffering will never end.
• Loss of Identity – A sense that you don’t recognize yourself anymore.
• Lack of Meaning/Purpose – Old sources of meaning like career and relationships now seem empty.
• Emptiness – A deep sense of something missing inside.
• Nihilism – A belief that life has no inherent meaning or purpose.
• Social Withdrawal – A desire to retreat from social activities and interactions.
• Chaos – Your outer life falls apart as your inner world is dismantled.
• Dark Thoughts – Obsessive dark, critical thoughts torturing your mind.
• Feeling Lost – Unsure of who you are, where you are going, or what to do.
• Difficulty Concentrating – Inability to focus or comprehend things that used to be easy.
• Death Anxiety – Fear of dying or ceasing to exist.
• Somatic Symptoms – Headaches, disturbances in sleep, appetite, and energy levels.

What Triggers the Dark Night of the Soul?

The dark night of the soul is triggered when the ego finds itself locked in a fierce conflict with the burgeoning soul essence, grappling with an entirely new understanding of life. Common triggers include:

• Spiritual Awakening – Profound spiritual experiences reveal the ego’s falsehood, triggering disillusionment with ordinary life.
• Psychospiritual Crisis – Also known as spiritual emergency, this intense unveiling of subconscious material can lead into a dark night.
• Practices like Meditation – By illuminating the unconscious, practices hasten its purification in a dark night.
• Life Upheavals – Major changes like divorce, job loss, relocation disrupt ego patterns, sparking a dark night.
• Trauma – Deep traumas can crack open the psyche, bringing on a painful dark night.
• No Apparent Cause – For some, it arises spontaneously without an obvious trigger.

Are Dark Nights of the Soul Necessary for Awakening?

No spiritual experience is strictly necessary, as there are always exceptions. However, for most undertaking a profound path of awakening, the dark night offers gifts that are difficult to obtain any other way.

Dissolving ego – The dark night annihilates the ego structures blocking the light of the true self.

Burning past karma – The darkness purifies karmic energy patterns keeping you bound to the cycles of suffering.

Compassion – Having suffered so intensely yourself, you’re able to empathize with the pain of others.

Relinquishing control – You realize you cannot control life. Surrender arises to a higher intelligence.

Realizing essential nature – By stripping away transient identities, the dark night reveals your eternal nature as pure consciousness.

While there are gentler pathways, the dark night cuts through profoundly in a short time. The challenge is in having the courage, trust, and humility to let it run its course.

Tips to Navigate the Dark Night of the Soul

Here are some suggestions for navigating the intense terrain of the dark night of the soul:

1. Accept it

Accept that you are in a dark night and trust it is unwinding karmic patterns, purifying your psyche, and awakening you to a deeper truth. Surrender to its trajectory.

2. Get support

Find mature spiritual friends, a therapist, or a teacher who understands and can compassionately guide you through the process.

3. Express emotions

Make space to healthily express and release the challenging emotions arising within through journaling, artistic expression, and grief rituals. Here you can find more information on how to process negative emotions in a healthy way.

4. Spend time in nature

Spending plenty of time in nature can help restore perspective and equilibrium during this challenging passage.

5. Meditate

Practices like mindfulness meditation help you find the observer perspective to navigate challenging experiences with more equanimity.

6. Move your body

Physical exercise, yoga, dance, jogging can help work through the intense physical-emotional energy release of the dark night.

7. Let go of control

Practice trusting in life’s unfolding rather than trying to force quick solutions, outcomes or timelines.

8. Focus on service

Shifting focus from yourself to being of service to others helps surrender selfish ego patterns, opening space for grace.

9. Look for the lessons

Everything unfolding has a purpose in your awakening. Look for the hidden teachings so you can integrate them.

10. Let time do its work

Dark nights arise in their own perfect timing. Don’t rush the process, but flow with its natural intelligence.

How Long Does the Dark Night of the Soul Last?

There’s no fixed duration for a dark night of the soul. Some key factors include:

• The intensity of ego patterns being purged.
• Willingness to surrender and flow with the process.
• Support received from others.
• Openness to the hidden lessons unfolding.

While it may last for years, most navigate a dark night in somewhere between a few months to 1-3 years. However long it takes, trust there are gifts in the waiting.

Signs the Dark Night of the Soul is Ending

As the darkness lifts, you’ll notice the following signs:

• Increasing sense of peace, trust, and surrender to life’s flow.
• Growing compassion, wisdom, openness from lessons learned.
• Feeling reborn and renewed in your connection to Spirit.
• Spontaneous creative inspirations and intuitive breakthroughs.
• A simpler, authentic life aligned with your truth.
• Emerging into a new sense of soul purpose and meaning.

How to Integrate the Dark Night of the Soul Lessons

As you integrate the profound lessons and transformations initiated through the dark night, here are some tips:

• Express gratitude – For getting you to this more awakened state.
• Practice mindfulness – To keep integrating wisdom and stabilizing realizations.
• Embrace simplicity – By clearing away clutter, let your most authentic self shine.
• Follow intuitions – The dark night opens you to new creative inspiration and purpose.
• Help others – Share your journey and support others going through their dark night.
• Embody patience – Allow time for continual integration and maturation of insights.

Conclusion

While excruciating at times, the dark night of the soul remains one of the most sacred initiations on the spiritual path. Having conquered immense adversity by surrendering yourself fully to Spirit’s transformative wisdom, you’ll emerge renewed with greater authenticity, freedom, self-mastery, wisdom, and capacity to serve.

If you find yourself in the midst of this divine catharsis, I hope these insights help you navigate the dark night of soul stages with trust, courage, and grace. May you be blessed to realize the incredible gifts waiting quietly within the darkness!