Where the phrase comes from
“The dark night of the soul” comes from the Spanish friar and poet St John of the Cross (1542–1591). He wrote a short poem beginning “En una noche oscura” (“On a dark night”) and then composed prose commentaries on it, usually printed as The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night. The phrase became widely known in English through translations and later popular use.
What John actually meant
For John, the “night” is a process through which God draws a person away from reliance on consoling feelings, images and ideas of God, toward a deeper, more direct love. In his poem, the soul slips out of the house at night to meet the beloved. The darkness is not a sign that God has left; it is the soul’s experience of being led beyond what it can understand or control.
Many Christian writers understood this within a longer path of growth; see the three stages of the mystical path.
The night of sense and the night of spirit
John distinguishes two phases:
- The night of sense concerns detachment from sensory satisfactions and from spiritual consolation. A person who once found prayer sweet may find it dry, and John treats this dryness as a possible invitation to deeper, simpler prayer.
- The night of spirit is described as more profound and more painful, a purifying of the deepest attachments and self-reliance. John presents it as rare and demanding.
He also speaks of “active” nights, which a person undertakes through discipline, and “passive” nights, which are experienced as given. See asceticism and mysticism for the discipline side.
Why “night”?
John uses darkness because God and the soul’s path are beyond ordinary sight and understanding. Night is also when faith, not sight, guides. He is working in the apophatic tradition, which stresses that God exceeds every concept; see Christian mysticism.
Dark night vs depression
The two are often confused today. John was describing a spiritual process, with specific signs he lists, within a life of prayer. Clinical depression is a medical condition that involves persistent low mood, loss of interest, changes in sleep and appetite, and other symptoms, and it needs professional care. Some writers have noted similarities, but they are not the same thing, and a person should not try to treat depression as a spiritual exercise. If you are struggling, talk to a doctor or mental health professional; if you are in crisis, contact local emergency services or a crisis line.
How the phrase is used today
In popular speech, “dark night of the soul” now often means any period of deep despair, loss or crisis, religious or not. That is a broad, secondary use, and it is not what John meant.
What John said about the outcome
John presents the night as leading to union with God, expressed in the poem’s closing image of the lovers resting together. He insists this is God’s work, not something the soul earns. For more of his world, see famous mystics through history.