John of the Cross was a Spanish poet, Roman Catholic mystic, and a Carmelite priest in the sixteenth century who said “you cannot find the light unless you enter the darkness.” As a founder of the Discalced Carmelites of the Catholic Church and a friend of Saint Teresa of Avila who became his spiritual director, John attempted reforms of the church for which he antagonized the religious and political hierarchy and was imprisoned in 1577. In his prison cell he wrote the Spiritual Canticle and began Songs of the Soul. After escaping from prison in 1578, he went to Andalusia, where he wrote prose on mystical theology, notably Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night of the Soul.
The Contemplative “Dark Night”
John spoke of the Dark Night of the Soulas a period of passive purgation that the soul undergoes once having transitioned from active to contemplative spirituality. The dark night is a purging purification before one is brought into the full ecstasy of mystical union with God....
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Madden, K. (2014). Dark Night of the Soul. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_153
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