As morose as it might sound, the aptly named dark night of the soul is necessary to our spiritual evolution. It is the universe’s way of initiating us into a new level of consciousness. it is there to test our previously held belief systems. We will either use this time to strengthen those beliefs or we will throw them out to make room for something new. A break from all our paradigms that will either make or break us.

The dark night is when we loose all faith in ourselves and our abilities not only as spiritual beings but as physical ones. On a spiritual level, a person who is going through this period of initiation will feel disconnected from their intuition, their beliefs, and from their chosen gods. On a physical level, this time will make us feel as if we don’t know who we really are anymore. Things around them will fall apart, and they may feel extremely depressed. They may feel as if we have spiritual ADD in a way, meaning they will go every which way with their energies to find a solution to their earthly dilemma. Nothing seems to satisfy those who are going through this bit of spiritual boredom. Searching for answers because more of an addiction than an actual searching for answers. It’s like they are searching for a certain sort of something, but don’t know what that something is.

The problem is that one doesn’t know what to do about the fact that they are going through such a dark time. One almost has to approach it with a “go with the flow” type attitude.

Some people state that when you going through this time you should meditate to calm yourself. That is always easier said then done. Of course that is simple when you are content and don’t feel the need to be all over the place with your energy and spread yourself thin. A spiritually unsound soul is not at rest, and eventually will keep that not so rested feeling as the norm. It can cause a multitude of mental maladies, and a lack of confidence.

Some people in this time, will not being searching for spiritual answers at all. Their whole life may have fallen apart, and it is hard to be spiritual on any level when your physical self is threatened as well. A person’s physical well being must be cared for first before you can or should do any hardcore searching into the spiritual. Spiritual work is tiring, and so is not being able to take care of yourself or your family.

It is important to remember that all of this will pass. Life has it’s cycles of knowledge, and even what we think we know will ebb and flow like the ocean. Existence can be chaotic at times much like the ocean in the storm. I am a firm believer that even seemingly tough times can end up being our greatest teacher. Challenges can show us how strong we really are in the face of adversity if we are willing to learn from it.