A long time ago, someone once found my blog by searching for

navigating a dark night of the soul three signs

OK. Yes, there are three signs given by Saint John of the Cross regarding the onset on contemplation (which is the same thing as the beginning of the “dark night”).

But, dear friend, if you plan on navigating a dark night, which is entirely about turning over control of, first, your senses (desire for sense consolations) and, second, your proper will (desire for spiritual consolations)… well, I dare say you’re not going to go through a dark night at all. You’re going to navigate around it or away from it. You’re just going to splutter around and hurt yourself, trying to keep what is no longer, by God’s request, yours to keep.

Sorry if that sounds harsh. But the idea of “navigating” through something whose very meaning is “giving up more and more the ability to independently navigate”… I don’t get it. As far as I know, you won’t find anything like this on this blog! (I’d hardly consider something like Dark Night, Bk I, Ch 10, to be “how to navigate”.)

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