Dark Night of the Soul

Poem written by John of the Cross

The Dark Night of the Soul is 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, 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 author himself did not give any title to his poem, which together with this commentary and the Ascent of Mount Carmel forms a treatise on the active and passive purification of the senses and the spirit, leading to mystical union.

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