Sudden Darkness falling down

As I’m writing these lines it has stopped raining. Night has fallen, no moon to see. The darkness came in early this afternoon. And with it heavy rains and wind rushes. I took a photo from the almost sinister view on the Western horizon: the mountains of Westphalia beyond the Weser, a threatening darkness, but fascinating too. I don’t know what it means or symbolizes when it darkens suddenly during daylight. Deep insecurity or fear of the ending cannot be the answer of spiritual wisdom. But what does?

I should not pretend to say anything ultimate - something that can hold - in this short Journal on this question about the meaning of darkness in life. Let me therefore improvise and note two kinds of approaches. Two practical starting points for writing in progress. The first point lines out that selfexperience or selfexperiment of Carl Jung, which is called “Nekyia”, meaning a descent into the inner darkness of the psyche/soul. No aimless or destructive fall into an abyss, but a conscious “journey to hell”. A meaningful introversion of the conscious mind into the deeper layers of the unconscious psyche.

What such a process of careful self confrontation with your inner darkness could mean and why and how it can be undertaken is not my point here. My point will only be this: during most life-crises we try to avoid the radical confrontation with the inner darkeness in the depth of our psyche or soul. But if we want to reintegrate on a higher spiritual level of consciousness, we cannot evade or avoid this confronting journey through the darkness of your own Night.

My second point refers to what Max Weber said ending his “Politics as Vocation”. There he gives an interpretation of the Biblical text of Isahia 21:11, where people fearing their fate in the darkness of their time ask the Nightwatcher what might be expected of the future:

“He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night ? The watchman said, The morning cometh but also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come’”. And then Weber makes this “final” (?) conclusion after referring to the fate of the people of Israel during the ages. He draws the lesson that nothing is gained by yearning and tarrying alone, and that we shall act differently. We shall set to work and meet the ‘demands of the day’, in human relations as well as in our vocation. This, however, is plain and simple, if each finds and obeys the daimon who holds the fibres of his very life.

So, according to Weber, in order to meet the demands of the day, each should find and obey her or his “daimon”, or original core self. And precisely for that purpose - finding and obeying your daimon, it is necessary not to avoid any form of confrontation with the darkness deep in your unconscious psyche. So dear friends, we have nothing to fear or avoid when suddenly darkness falls. A new chance is still waiting for us if we want to heal, reintegrate into a spiritual being.