Dark night of the soul - wikipedia Dark night of the soul For the album by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, see Dark Night of the Soul ( album ). Part of a series on Christian mysticism Theology Philosophy Apophatic Ascetical Cataphatic Catholic spirituality Hellenistic Mystical theology Neoplatonic Henosis Practices Monasticism Monasticism Asceticism Spiritual direction Meditation Meditation Lectio Divina Active ascetism Contemplation Hesychasm Jesus prayer Quietism Stages of Christian perfection Divinization Catharsis Theosis Kenosis Spiritual dryness Passive ascetism Abstinence People ( by era or century ) Antiquity Ancient African Origen Gregory of Nyssa Pseudo-Dionysius Desert Fathers Paul of Thebes Anthony the Great Arsenius the Great Poemen Macarius of Egypt Moses the Black Syncletica Athanasius John Chrysostom Hilarion John Cassian 11th 12th Bernard of Clairvaux Guigo II Hildegard of Bingen Symeon the New Theologian 13th 14th Dominican Dominic de Guzmán Franciscan Francis of Assisi Anthony of Padua Bonaventure Jacopone da Todi Angela of Foligno English Richard Rolle Walter Hilton Julian of Norwich Margery Kempe Flemish Hadewijch Beatrice of Nazareth John of Ruysbroeck German Meister Eckhart Johannes Tauler Henry Suso Female Beatrice of Nazareth Bridget of Sweden Catherine of Siena Mechthild of Magdeburg Marguerite Porete 15th 16th Spanish Ignatius of Loyola Francisco de Osuna John of Ávila Teresa of Ávila John of the Cross Others Catherine of Genoa 17th 18th French Pierre de Bérulle Jean - Jacques Olier Louis de Montfort Charles de Condren John Eudes John of St. Samson Others María de Ágreda Anne Catherine Emmerich Veronica Giuliani Francis de Sales 19th Dina Bélanger Catherine Labouré Mélanie Calvat Maximin Giraud Bernadette Soubirous Conchita de Armida Luisa Piccarreta Mary of the Divine Heart Thérèse of Lisieux Gemma Galgani 20th Padre Pio Therese Neumann Marthe Robin Adrienne von Speyr Alexandrina of Balazar Faustina Kowalska Berthe Petit Sister Lúcia of Fátima Edgar Cayce Simone Weil Alfred Delp Thomas Merton Charles de Foucauld Contemporary papal views Aspects of meditation ( Orationis Formas, 1989 ) Reflection on the New Age ( 2003 ) Literature Media Lingua Ignota Ordo Virtutum Scivias Ascent of Mount Carmel Dark Night of the Soul Spiritual Canticle Way of Perfection Book of the First Monks The Interior Castle Abbey of the Holy Ghost A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation Diary : Divine Mercy in My Soul From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart The Glories of Mary The Imitation of Christ The Ladder of Divine Ascent Philokalia Revelations of Divine Love Spiritual Canticle The Story of a Soul Theologia Germanica Devotio Moderna The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima Sol de Fátima The Cloud of Unknowing The Consolation of Philosophy The Mirror of Simple Souls Sister Catherine Treatise Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii The Vision of Adamnán Divine Comedy Inferno Purgatorio Paradiso Dark Night of the Soul ( Spanish : La noche oscura del alma ) is a poem written by the 16th - century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross. The author himself did not give any title to his poem, on which he wrote two book - length commentaries : Ascent of Mount Carmel ( Subida del Monte Carmelo ) and The Dark Night ( Noche Oscura ). Contents 1 Poem and treatise of St. John of the Cross 2 In Roman Catholic spirituality 3 In culture 4 See also 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links Poem and treatise of St. John of the Cross St. John of the Cross, OCD The poem of St. John of the Cross, in 8 stanzas of 5 lines each, narrates the journey of the soul to mystical union with God. The journey is called `` The Dark Night '' in part because darkness represents the fact that the destination, God, is unknowable, as in the 14th century, mystical classic The Cloud of Unknowing, which, like St. John 's poem, derives from the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the sixth century. Further, the path per se is unknowable. The first verse of the poem is translated : In an obscure night Fevered with love 's anxiety ( O hapless, happy plight ! ) I went, none seeing me Forth from my house, where all things quiet be -- that is, the body and the mind, with their natural cares, being stilled. At the beginning of the treatise Dark Night ( the Declaración ), St. John wrote : `` In this first verse, the soul tells the mode and manner in which it departs, as to its affection, from itself and from all things, dying through a true mortification to all of them and to itself, to arrive at a sweet and delicious life with God. '' The `` dark night of the soul '' does not refer to the difficulties of life in general, although the phrase has understandably been taken to refer to such trials. The nights which the soul experiences are the two necessary purgations on the path to Divine union : the first purgation is of the sensory or sensitive part of the soul, the second of the spiritual part ( Ascent of Mount Carmel, Ch. 1, 2 ). Such purgations comprise the first of the three stages of the mystical journey, followed by those of illumination and then union. St. John does not actually use the term `` dark night of the soul '', but only `` dark night '' ( `` noche oscura '' ). There are several steps in this night, which are related in successive stanzas of the poem. The thesis of the poem is the joyful experience of being guided to God. The only light in this dark night is that which burns in the soul. And that is a guide more certain than the mid-day sun : Aquésta me guiaba, más cierto que la luz del mediodía. This light leads the soul engaged in the mystical journey to Divine union. The Ascent of Mount Carmel is divided into three books that reflect the two phases of the dark night. The first is a purification of the senses ( It is titled `` The Active Night of the Senses '' ). The second and third books describe the more intense purification of the spirit ( Titled `` The Active Night of the Spirit '' ). Dark Night of the Soul further describes the ten steps on the ladder of mystical love, previously described by Saint Thomas Aquinas and in part by Aristotle. The time or place of composition are not certain. It is likely the poem was written between 1577 and 1579. It has been proposed that the poem was composed while John was imprisoned in Toledo, although the few explicit statements in this regard are unconvincing and second - hand. The treatises, written sometime between 1578 and 1585, are commentaries on the poem, explaining its meaning line by line. Padre Lucinio del SS. Sacramento, who edited the critical edition ( edition 5 ), with extremely thorough notes, of John of the Cross 's Complete Works in the Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos series, writes that `` the idea of the ' night ' to analyse the complex psychology of the soul under the purifying influence of grace is the most original and fruitful symbolic creation of the Mystic Doctor 's doctrine. '' The Ascent and the Dark Night should be considered as forming a single body as P. Lucinio states, quoting Andrés de la Incarnación and P. Silverio de Santa Teresa. Both works were left uncompleted. In Roman Catholic spirituality Main article : Spiritual dryness The term `` dark night ( of the soul ) '' in Roman Catholic spirituality describes a spiritual crisis in the journey toward union with God, like that described by St. John of the Cross. St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, OCD, a 19th - century French nun and Doctor of the Church, wrote of her own experience of the dark night. Her dark night derived from doubt of the existence of eternity, to which doubt she nonetheless did not give intellectual or volitional assent, but rather prevailed by a deepening of her Catholic faith. However, she painfully suffered through this prolonged period of spiritual darkness, even declaring to her fellow nuns : `` If you only knew what darkness I am plunged into... ! '' While this spiritual crisis is usually temporary, it may endure for a long time. The `` dark night '' of St. Paul of the Cross in the 18th century endured 45 years, from which he ultimately recovered. The dark night of St. Teresa of Calcutta, whose own name in religion she selected in honor of St. Thérèse, `` may be the most extensive such case on record '', having endured from 1948 almost until her death in 1997, with only brief interludes of relief, according to her letters. In culture This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( August 2013 ) Ernest Dowson alludes to the `` obscure night of the soul '' in his absinthe poem, Absinthia Taetra. In The Crack - Up, F. Scott Fitzgerald penned his famous line, `` In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning ''. As a comment on the shallowness of modern spirituality, author and humorist Douglas Adams parodied the phrase with the title of his 1988 science fiction novel The Long Dark Tea - Time of the Soul. English electronic band Depeche Mode make a clear reference in `` I Feel Loved '', the second single released from the album Exciter : `` It 's the dark night of my soul and temptation 's taking hold, but through the pain and the suffering, through the heartache and trembling I feel loved... ''. Alternative rock band Sparklehorse, along with producer Danger Mouse and director and visual artist David Lynch, collaborated with a number of other artists on an audio - visual project titled Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Present : Dark Night of the Soul. The phrase has also been used as a song title by several other bands and music artists, including Steve Bell, The Get Up Kids, Ulver, Mayhem, and Shai Linne in The Solus Christus Project. Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt set the poem to music on her album The Mask and Mirror. Composer Ola Gjeilo has written a SATB choral setting accompanied with piano and string quartet, fourteen minutes long, with the English translation of the poem. Northern Irish singer - songwriter Van Morrison writes about the `` dark night of the soul '' in two of his songs, `` Tore Down a la Rimbaud '' on A Sense of Wonder, and `` Give Me My Rapture '' on Poetic Champions Compose. In his novel, Insomnia, Stephen King makes a reference to the F. Scott Fitzgerald usage when his protagonist first begins experiencing the signs of insomnia following the death of his ( the character 's ) wife. King also references it in his short story `` Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ''. See also Ascent of Mount Carmel Ego death Existential crisis Loevinger Loevinger 's stages of ego development Dabrowski Theory of positive disintegration Kenosis Lawrence Kohlberg Kohlberg 's stages of moral development Nigredo Psychology of religion Divinization ( Christian ) Chicken Soup for the Soul References Jump up ^ Underhill, Evelyn. ( 1974 ). Mysticism. 12th ed., New York : New American Library. ( 1930 ), p. 83 Jump up ^ Underhill, Mysticism, Ch. 4. Jump up ^ Lucinio del SS. Sacramento, Nota Introductoria a la ' Subida ' y la ' Noche ' in Vida y Obras completas de San Juan de la Cruz, 5th ed., Madrid : Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1954, p. 358. Jump up ^ Vida y Obras de San Juan de la Cruz, 5th ed. Lucinio del Ss. Sacramento, Ed. Madrid : Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1964. Jump up ^ Lucinio del SS. Sacramento, Nota Introductoria, p. 359. Jump up ^ Nota Introductoria, p. 357. Jump up ^ Martin, James ( 29 August 2007 ). `` A Saint 's Dark Night ''. The New York Times. Jump up ^ David van Biema ( 23 August 2007 ). `` Mother Teresa 's Crisis of Faith ''. Time Magazine. Jump up ^ http://olagjeilo.com/sheet-music/choral-satb-accompanied/dark-night-of-the-soul-satb-piano-string-quartet/ The chapter titled `` The Dark Night of the Soul '' from Evelyn Underhill 's Mysticism at Gnostic.org. Underhill, Evelyn. ( re-issue 1999 ). Mysticism Oneworld Publications. ISBN 1 - 85168 - 196 - 5. Further reading May, Gerald G. ( 2004 ). The Dark Night of the Soul. A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth. New York City : HarperCollins. ISBN 0 - 060 - 55423 - 1 ; ISBN 978 - 00 - 6055 - 423 - 1. McKee, Kaye P. ( 2006 ). When God Walks Away. A Companion to the Dark Night of the Soul. New York City : Crossroad Publishing Company. ISBN 0 - 824 - 52380 - 6 ; ISBN 978 - 08 - 2452 - 380 - 0. External links Wikisource has original text related to this article : The Dark Night of the Soul Dark Night of the Soul verse translation of the poem. Text of Dark Night of the Soul from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library Original and Translation of Dark Night of the Soul From The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. ( 1913 ). `` article name needed ''. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York : Robert Appleton. Online version of Dark Night of the Soul Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dark_Night_of_the_Soul&oldid=833014682 '' Categories : Christian mysticism 16th - century Christian texts Books by John of the Cross Christian devotional literature Christian literature 1578 works 1585 works Hidden categories : Articles containing Latin - language text Articles containing Spanish - language text All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from December 2017 Articles with specifically marked weasel - worded phrases from December 2017 Articles needing additional references from August 2013 All articles needing additional references Articles incorporating text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with no article parameter Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Español Français Nederlands Polski Português Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 29 March 2018, at 06 : 08. 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Question: who coined the term dark night of the soul
Answer: St. John of the Cross