Dark Night of the Soul
"Dark Night of the Soul is the title of a poem written by 16th-century Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic Saint John of the Cross, as well as of a treatise he wrote later. The main idea of the poem can be seen as the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God" (Wikipedia.com). Like Saint John, every soul has its dark nights. Some, like those suffering with depression, experience more than others. Author and world renowned psychic Sylvia Browne says about Earth, in her book trilogy, Souls Perfection, that if we simply survive an earthly incarnation, we have done something heroic! She believes we choose to come down to Earth in order to experience certain trials and to learn from them. To Sylvia, Earth is a sort of school - a "boot camp", if you will (2000, Browne). The message from both these authors, a saint and a psychic, is that life is hard. If you don't prefer to listen to them, then remember that Buddha said it, and Christ also demonstrated it. Here on Earth, Christ's life showed, they'll crucify you every time (metaphorically speaking). This is not an "easy" planet to be born into. We arrive with a cold slap on the butt, and exit as they throw dirt in our face! 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. A sadistic joke. When we grieve because life seems both random and harsh. Moments when you say to yourself, or wonder to God in prayer, "What's the use? What's all the suffering for?" These dark nights of despair leave us questioning the meaning of our existence. Strangely, it's not until we experience Dark Nights of the Soul that we can appreciate the light.
The Light At The End of the Tunnel
You've heard the saying, "I can see the light at the end of the tunnel"? The light, in this case, looks brighter because of the darkness around it. The polarity of life is the breadth, depth and meaning of it. Not until we have seen our shadow (Jung) can we appreciate our light. "In Jungian psychology, the shadow or "shadow aspect" is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts" (Wikipedia.com). Simply, the contrast between darkness (unknowing) and light (knowing) defines living, giving it significance. The cool drink is cooler on a hot Summer's day. The explosion into laughter, orgasm or grief is relieving, and wouldn't be cathartic without the precipitous state of withholding. We humans experience life as meaningful because of it's polarities. The Dark Night of the Soul, though painful, enables us to savor and appreciate the morning's bright dawn. The meaning of "Horton Hears A Who" broke upon my mind two years after having seeing it; suddenly, in the foreground on my mind, the characters seemed less Dr. Seuss-ish, and surprisingly spiritual. It seemed to me, what was originally a touching child's book, was offering a profoundly adult lesson that I had missed.
We Are Here!
During my "Dark Night of the Soul," as I pondered why there has to be such suffering in the world, I sent out a question, or maybe it was a prayer, but it sounded like this: "Do you know we are here?" As I did, I remembered the storyline of Horton Hears A Who, and how the Whos in Who-ville had, in desperate distress, trumpeted 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 minuscule colony of souls who lived on the pin-point sized dot on the head of a dandelion. I wondered if God was like Horton, a goofy but kindly-hearted elephant, living a carefree and blissful existence, caught unawares by the tiny sound of the Whos trumpeted message: "We are here!" I thought, if there is a God, I hope He is a big fellow with a soft heart, like Horton. I don't even care if He is goofy like Horton (played by Jim Carey). I also thought about how, even in Horton's world, there was an antagonist; a disparaging, vengeful voice (played by Carol Burnett). I smiled all over again when I thought about the yellow puffball named Katy, my favorite character in the film, whose one-liner delighted my daughter and I: "In my world, everybody eats rainbows, and poops butterflys." In Horton's world, as in our world, there are agonists, antagonists, and the clueless, quirky souls, too. I thought, if in the movie Horton represented God, and we humans represent the Whos, so small, seemingly insignificant and randomly falling through space, what's the message of the film?
A Person Is A Person, No Matter How Small
Throughout the movie, Horton repeated a mantra which kept him "saving" the Who-ville from destruction, and it was: "A person is a person, no matter how small." What I believe Horton meant was: regardless of the immense size difference between himself and the Whos, the Whos were as important to Horton as he was. He couldn't let them perish when he had the power to save them. What we found endearing about Horton was that he valued life. He held it sacred. Even life that was so small, by comparison, that he couldn't see it, and had to strain to hear it. If there is a God, I hope in this regard, He is like Horton. In the Dark Night of the Soul, we are sending out a message, whether it is whispered in prayer, thought, or shouted from the rooftops: "We are here!" The existential Message I finally saw in "Horton Hears A Who" was: Everyone matters, no matter how small. In sum, every one has value. If you believe there is a God, or a Higher Power, or whatever you want to call it, then allow this simple child's movie to remind you, as it did me, that the Creator, like Horton, hears us, and is moved by our requests. And if you are an atheist, and do not believe, then consider the movie's theme anyhow: we are all equals, and therefore, everyone is 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...allowing myself to grieve is when the insight came to me. Insight often sneaks up on us when we have opened our hearts to experience pain. Light follows darkness every time.
References:
(2011). Dark night of the soul. Wikipedia.com. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on July 22, 2011: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Night_of_the_Soul#Poem_and_treatise_by_Saint_John_of_the_Cross
Browne, S. (2000). Souls Perfection. Hay House, Inc.
Shadow (psychology). (2011). Wikipedia.com. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on July 22, 2011: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_%28psychology%29
Schultz, D.P. and Schultz, S.E. (2009). Theories of Personality. Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning.
Nina Bingham
Catharsis Counseling, Portland, Oregon
http://www.catharsiscounseling.vpweb.com/
Call: (800) 935-8461
Email: nina@catharsiscounseling.vpweb.com
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