In modern times, the phrase "dark night of the soul" is used to describe a crisis of faith or a difficult, painful period in one's life.
the active and passive purification of the senses and the spirit, leading to mystical union.
a phase of passive purification of the spirit in the mystical development, as described by the 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross in his treatise Dark Night (Noche Oscura), a commentary on his poem with the same name.
It follows after the second phase, the illumination in which God's presence is felt, but this presence is not yet stable
The journey is called "dark night" in part because darkness represents the fact that the destination "God" is unknowable
Further, the path per se is unknowable
The "dark night" does not refer to the difficulties of life in general, although the phrase has been taken to refer to such trials.
The active purgation of the senses comprises the first of the classical three stages of the mystical journey, followed by those of illumination and then union.
The passive purgation of the spirit takes place between illumination and full union, when the presence of God has already been felt but is not stable.
illumination
purgation
union
The dark night of the soul is a stage of final and complete purification, and is marked by confusion, helplessness, stagnation of the will, and a sense of the withdrawal of God's presence.
It is the period of final "unselfing" and the surrender to the hidden purposes of the divine will.
The final stage is union with the object of love, the one Reality, God. Here the self has been permanently established on a transcendental level and liberated for a new purpose.
The term "dark night of the soul" can be used as a synonym for a crisis of faith.
More generally, it is "used informally to describe an extremely difficult and painful period in one's life".
There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a total annihilation of all that you believed in and thought that you were
The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation. When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed.
Before the full and final victory, however, the soul has to undergo another test:
it must pass through the "dark night" which is a new and deeper experience of annihilation, or a crucible in which all the human elements that go to make it up are melted together.
But the darkest nights are followed by the most radiant dawns and the soul, perfect at last, enters into complete, constant and inseparable communion with the Spirit,
so that – to use the bold statement employed by St John of the Cross
– "it seems to be God himself and has the same characteristics as him".
"This," says St. John of the Cross again, "is one of the most bitter sufferings of this purgation.
The soul is conscious of a profound emptiness in itself, a cruel destitution of the three kinds of goods, natural, temporal, and spiritual, which are ordained for its comfort.
It sees itself in the midst of the opposite evils, miserable imperfections, dryness and emptiness of the understanding, and abandonment of the spirit in darkness."
The phrase, "dark night of the soul" is often used informally to describe an extremely difficult and painful period in one's life, for example, after the death of a loved one; the break-up of a marriage; or the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness.
loneliness, isolation and fear , indeed, a dark night of the soul.
There is nothing wrong with these informal usages, and they have obvious links to the concepts of demoralization and despair, as we have defined them.
But they differ significantly from the original meaning and context of the phrase, as first conceived by the Spanish mystic, John of the Cross (1541-1597 AD)
