0
No Problem....................................................................................................
All perception of lack is acknowledgement of inherent
potential.
I love dark nights in all their forms for there is such a collapse of the ego that it
gives us a rare spot of relief from our striving. In a Die-off or dark night seeking, the
search and hope cease. One could be in hell, but the relief of not being in striving
or hope is enormous. In this way death too must be the ultimate relief and release
from regret and confusion, for choice ceases. In this way a dark night is like living
through a death. Dark nights help us get in touch and accept our fundamental
aloneness and loneliness. No one can go with us into our Dark Night...and any
“help” just serves to distract us, and weakens the power of the alchemical event.
Coming out of a dark night we realize we don’t actually need anyone anyways, so
infantile need is burnt off as the elemental self is accessed. Dark nights are possibly
essential to a mature sense of Self and mature relationship based on Being Values
rather than needs. As long as we don’t get stuck in an extended depression, I think
dark nights are both essential to growth and provide the fastest growth curve.
Research will have to be undertaken to see whether genuine alchemical dark night
experiences and the consequent acceptance of fundamental aloneness, reduces the
overproduction of epinephrine (adrenalin) and the chronic state of sympathetic
arousal that are normally associated with an isolated lonely life.
A brilliant description of an extreme form of dark night is found in Robert
Augustus Masters book, Darkness Shining Wild, An Odyssey to the Heart of Hell
and Beyond. Here is what he says of the ego: “Regardless of its appearances to the
contrary, egoity is little more than personified separation trauma, made bearable by its
compensatory addictions and capacity for psychoemotional numbing and dissociation.
A cult of one.” No wonder there can be such shock and dread at letting go of this
defensive position and why it can simultaneously be such a relief.
Dark Nights come of their own accord, I doubt anyone volunteers for them.
I would say that not everybody needs to experience demons, Die-offs and dark
nights. It just depends on our chemistry, armoring, programming, situation and
destined calling. But the standard shamanistic cycle is to rise to heaven, cavort
with angels then later to descend to hell. Yet sometimes we notice a descent prior
to an ascent. This hyperbolic flip can occur within hours, days or months. The
alchemical period for the major Die-off associated with ones lifetime kundalini
peak is probably around three months between the up-peak at summer solstice to
the down peak at fall equinox. Believe me you are not less of a person because you
didn’t go down, for you may do so on another cycle or if your pace accelerates.
Going down is just as fascinating as going up, and requires equal mastery
to do it well.
Well after our dark nights and Die-offs are finished we intuit the benefits of the
hell aspect of metamorphosis. We slowly become nondual about the difficulty of
the journey and the unsolvable paradoxes of human existence. If one is not “afraid”
of pain, loneliness, alienation, confusion, loss, being lost, grieving, shadow, lower
nature—then this allows for more Flow and speeds synchronicity, the Acausal