Dark Night of the Senses vs Dark Night of the Soul

 


The Dark Night of the Senses is the purification of how we experience God. The Dark Night of the Soul is the purification of how we relate to God at the deepest level of our being.

They are related, but not interchangeable. One is the doorway; the other is the interior passage.

🌑 The Dark Night of the Senses

This is the first night in St. John of the Cross’s map of spiritual transformation.

It happens when:

  • Prayer becomes dry, flat, or strangely unsatisfying

  • Old spiritual consolations no longer “work”

  • The senses — imagination, emotions, spiritual sweetness — stop cooperating

  • You can’t go back to your old way of praying, but you can’t go forward either

This night is not punishment. It is weaning.

God withdraws the “milk” of spiritual feelings so the soul can grow beyond needing emotional feedback to stay faithful. The person is being moved from sense-based spirituality to faith-based spirituality.

It is uncomfortable, but it is not annihilating. It is pruning, not uprooting.

Most people who pray seriously will experience this night at some point.

🌑 The Dark Night of the Soul

This is the second and far deeper night.

If the first night purifies the senses, this one purifies the spirit itself — the will, the intellect, the identity, the deep interior attachments we don’t even know we have.

Signs of this night include:

  • A profound sense of interior emptiness or abandonment

  • The collapse of one’s previous image of God

  • A stripping away of spiritual self-reliance

  • A sense that even one’s capacity to pray has been taken

  • A radical unknowing — “I no longer know how to be with God”

This night is not about feelings. It is about the death of the false self.

Where the first night removes spiritual “sugar,” the second removes spiritual selfhood — the subtle ego that wants to manage holiness, earn grace, or control the relationship with God.

This night is not common. It is a call to deep union.

🕯️ How They Relate

Think of them as two movements in the same symphony:

  • Night of the Senses: God removes what is external and felt.

  • Night of the Soul: God removes what is internal and clung to.

The first night teaches us to love God without emotional reward. The second teaches us to love God without possessing God.

The first night purifies our prayer. The second purifies our being.

image and some content from AI


post inspired by a post inspired by Spiritually Homeless (Girrell)

Book description:

Many have walked away from organized religion not out of apathy, but out of honesty. Still the spiritual hunger remains; the longing for community and a place called home persists. Spiritually Homeless offers a deeply compassionate and practical guide for those navigating spiritual life beyond church walls. Whether you left organized religion years ago or never belonged to some sect to begin with, this book will meet you right where you are. Through stories, reflection, and decades of experience in spiritual leadership and psychological insight, Spiritually Homelesss explores how we find belonging, create ritual, face the dark night, and rediscover awe—without needing to return to doctrines that no longer fit.


keywords:

spiritual hunger; spiritual seekers; leaving organized religion; life beyond church; spiritual belonging; creating ritual; spirituality without religion; evangelical journey; spiritual community; finding awe; dark night of the soul; spiritual leadership; psychological insight and spirituality; religious trauma healing; faith deconstruction; reconstructing spirituality; compassionate spirituality; modern spiritual life; spiritual guidebook; spiritual homelessness

 




For more posts about Kris and his books, click HERE.

Check out more at Kris Girrell's website.





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