me: etymology of "the dark night of the soul"
AI Overview
The term "the dark night of the soul" originates from the writings of the 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross.
He used the phrase to describe a period of spiritual purification and transformation, where an individual experiences a profound sense of darkness, emptiness, and a perceived absence of God. This "dark night" is a stage in the journey towards spiritual enlightenment and union with the divine, according to St. John of the Cross.
===extra's emphasis
Stains may be bad analogy. Scars? One can gain wisdom from scars, literal ones or metaphorical ones.
Sense of being alone. A self. Isolated. I'm a recovered atheist aspiring to nihilism but I have understood the perceived absence of God, lately. Something must hold. Perhaps Sartre (hell is other people, in
No Exit) was wrong and God is other people.
I'm working on it. Your beliefs don't make my load much lighter.
No offense intended.