Libro Primero — Capítulo 12
The Fruitful Weaning of the Soul
The dark night acts as a spiritual weaning, transitioning the soul from the milk of sensory consolation to the solid food of infused contemplation.
The benefits this night brings to the soul 1. This night and purgation of the appetite, so blessed for the soul, produces so many goods and benefits in her—even though, as we've said, it initially feels like it's taking them away—that just as Abraham held a great feast when he weaned his son Isaac (Gen. 21:8), there is rejoicing in heaven that God is taking this soul out of swaddling clothes, setting her down from his arms, and making her walk on her own feet. They rejoice that, by taking away the breast of milk and the soft, sweet food of children, he is making her eat bread with crust, and that she is beginning to taste the food of the strong. In these drynesses and darknesses of the sense, this food begins to be given to the spirit—emptied and dried of the juices of the sense—namely, the infused contemplation we have spoken of.1
Self-Knowledge as the Foundation of Humility
The primary benefit of the dark night is the profound realization of one's own misery and lowliness, which strips away the false security of spiritual prosperity.
2. This is the first and primary benefit produced by this dry and dark night of contemplation: the knowledge of oneself and one's own misery. Because, besides the fact that all the favors God grants the soul He ordinarily grants wrapped in this knowledge, these drynesses and the emptiness of the faculty regarding the abundance it used to feel, and the difficulty the soul finds in good things, make it know its own lowliness and misery, which in the time of its prosperity it did not notice.2 There is a good figure of this in Exodus (33:5), where, wanting to humble the children of Israel and make them know themselves, God ordered them to take off and strip away the festive dress and adornment with which they ordinarily went about arrayed in the desert, saying: From now on, take off the festive ornament and put on common work clothes, so that you may know the treatment you deserve; which is as if he said: Because the clothing you wear, being for feast and joy, leads you not to feel about yourselves as lowly as you are, take off that clothing now, so that from now on, seeing yourselves dressed in baseness, you may know that you deserve no more and who you are. From this comes the truth of her misery, which the soul did not know before: because in the time when she went about as if dressed for a feast, finding in God much delight and consolation and support, she walked more satisfied and content, thinking she was serving God in some measure; for even if she does not expressly hold this about herself then, at least in the satisfaction she finds in the delight something of it settles in her. And once she is set in this other work clothing of dryness and abandonment, her first lights darkened, she holds these truths more genuinely in this so excellent and necessary virtue of self-knowledge, no longer regarding herself as anything and having no satisfaction in herself at all; because she sees that of herself she does nothing and can do nothing.3 And this scant satisfaction with herself and the distress she feels that she is not serving God—God holds and esteems this more highly than all the earlier works and consolations the soul used to have and perform, however great they may have been, because in them she was led into many imperfections and ignorances; and from this garment of dryness there arise not only what we have already said, but also the benefits we will now describe and many more that will go unsaid, which, as from their source and origin, proceed from self-knowledge.
Reverence and the Divine Encounter
The dryness of the night teaches the soul to approach God with the restraint, reverence, and nakedness of spirit exemplified by Moses and Job.
3. As for the first, there arises in the soul a way of dealing with God with more restraint and more courtesy—which is what dealing with the Most High must always have, and which it did not practice in the prosperity of its pleasure and consolation; because that delicious savor it felt made the appetite toward God somewhat bolder than was enough, and discourteous and poorly mannered.4 As it happened to Moses (Ex. 3:2–6): When he felt God speaking to him, he was so blinded by his own pleasure and desire that he would have dared to draw near without a second thought, had God not commanded him to stop and take off his shoes. This demonstrates the respect and discretion required when approaching God with a stripped-away appetite. It follows that when Moses obeyed, he became so well-ordered and careful that Scripture says he didn't just refrain from drawing near; he didn't even dare to look. With the shoes of his appetites and pleasures removed, he felt his own misery deeply before God—for that was the state he needed to be in to hear the word of God.56 Likewise, the disposition God gave Job for speaking with him was not those delights and glories that Job himself reports there he used to enjoy in his God (Job 1:1–8), but rather keeping him naked on the dunghill, abandoned and even persecuted by his friends, full of anguish and bitterness, with the ground sown with worms (29–30); and then in that state the One who raises the poor from the dung (Ps.7 112:7), the Most High God, was pleased to come down and speak with him there face to face, revealing to him the deep, great heights of his wisdom, as he had never done before in the time of prosperity (Job8 38–42).
Divine Illumination in the Desert
In the desert of sensory dryness, God enlightens the soul, replacing human reasonings with divine wisdom and a deeper understanding of His glory.
4. And so we should note another excellent benefit there is in this night and dryness of the sensory appetite, since we have come to treat of it, and it is this: that in this dark night of the appetite—so that what the prophet says may be fulfilled (Is. 58:10), namely: Your light will shine in the darkness—God will enlighten the soul, not only by giving it knowledge of its lowliness and misery, as we have said, but also of the greatness and excellence of God. For, besides the fact that once the appetites and pleasures and sensory supports are extinguished, the understanding remains clean and free to grasp the truth (because sensory pleasure and appetite, even when it is of spiritual things, clouds and hinders the spirit), and besides also the fact that that distress and dryness of sense enlightens and quickens the understanding—as Isaiah says (28:19), that with affliction God makes one understand—in the empty and unencumbered soul, which is what is required for His divine influence, He goes on supernaturally, by means of this dark and dry night of contemplation, as we have said, instructing it in His divine wisdom, which He did not do through the first juices and pleasures.910 5. The prophet Isaiah makes this very clear (28:9) when he asks: To whom will God teach his knowledge, and to whom will he make his message heard?11 He says it is to those weaned from milk, those taken from the breast. This makes it clear that the disposition for this divine influence isn't the first milk of spiritual sweetness, nor is it leaning on the breast of the savory discourses of the sensory faculties that the soul used to enjoy. Instead, it is the lack of the one and detachment from the other; to hear God, the soul needs to be fully on its feet and detached in its affection and senses, just as the prophet says of himself (Hab. 2:1).✦12 He says: I will stand on my watch—that is, with the appetite detached—and I will fix my step—meaning I won't run on with the senses—so as to contemplate, which is to understand what may be brought to me from God's side.13 So, we see that from this dry night comes, first, knowledge of oneself, and from that, as from a foundation, comes that other knowledge of God. That is why Saint Augustine used to say to God: Let me know myself, Lord, and I will know you. For, as the philosophers say, one extreme is well known by means of the other. 6. To prove more clearly how effective this sensory night is—in its dryness and exposure—at bringing about the light we say the soul receives here from God, we will cite the authority of David (Ps. 62:3), in which he makes very clear the great power this night has for this high knowledge of God. 62:3), in which he makes very clear the great power this night has for this high knowledge of God.14 He says, then: In a desert land, without water, dry and pathless, I appeared before you so that I might see your power and your glory. Which is a remarkable thing: that David does not mean here that the many spiritual delights and consolations he had enjoyed were his disposition and means for knowing the glory of God, but rather the dryness and detachments of the sensory part—which is understood here by the dry and desert land; and that he also does not say that the divine concepts and reasonings he had used so much were the path for sensing and seeing God's power, but rather the inability to fix a concept on God, or to walk by the discourse of imaginative meditation—which is understood here by the land without a path.15 So then, for knowing God and oneself, this dark night is the means, with its dryness and emptiness—though not with the fullness and abundance found in the other night of the spirit—because this knowledge is like a beginning of that other.
The Purgation of Pride and Growth in Charity
The night of the senses purges the soul of spiritual pride, leading to genuine humility, obedience, and a newfound love for one's neighbor.
7. In the dryness and emptiness of this night of the appetite, the soul also gains spiritual humility—the virtue that counters the first capital vice we identified as spiritual pride. Through this humility, which it gains from the self-knowledge just mentioned, it is purged of all the imperfections it used to fall into regarding pride during its time of prosperity. For, seeing itself so dry and miserable, it no longer feels the initial impulse to think it's doing better than others or has an edge over them, as it once did; on the contrary, it knows that others are doing better.16 8. From this comes a love of neighbor, because the soul esteems others and doesn't judge them as it used to when it saw itself full of fervor and others lacking it. It knows only its own misery and keeps it before its eyes—so much so that it neither leaves that misery nor makes room to look at anyone else, which David, while in this night, shows admirably when he says: I fell silent and was humbled, and I kept silence about good things, and my sorrow was renewed (Ps.17 38:3). He says this because it seemed to him that the goods of his soul were so completely spent that not only did he have no language for them and could find none, but concerning others' goods as well he fell silent under the pain of knowing his misery. 9. Here they also become submissive and obedient on the spiritual path, because, seeing themselves so wretched, they not only listen to what they're taught, but even desire that anyone should guide them and tell them what they ought to do; the presumption of the affections they sometimes had in prosperity is taken from them.18 And finally, all the other imperfections we noted regarding this first vice—spiritual pride—are swept away from them along the way.
Read the original Latin
De los provechos que causa en el alma esta noche
1. Esta noche y purgación del apetito, dichosa para el alma, tantos bienes y provechos hace en ella (aunque a ella antes le parece, como habemos dicho, que se los quita), que así como Abraham hizo gran fiesta cuando quitó la leche a su hijo Isaac (Gn. 21,8), se gozan en el cielo de que ya saque Dios a esta alma de pañales, de que la baje de los brazos, de que la haga andar por su pie, de que también, quitándola el pecho de la leche y blando y dulce manjar de niños, la haga comer pan con corteza, y que comience a gustar el manjar de robustos, que en estas sequedades y tinieblas del sentido se comienza a dar al espíritu vacío y seco de los jugos del sentido, que es la contemplación infusa que habemos dicho.
2. Y éste es el primero y principal provecho que causa esta seca y oscura noche de contemplación: el conocimiento de sí y de su miseria. Porque, demás de que todas las mercedes que Dios hace al alma ordinariamente las hace envueltas en este conocimiento, estas sequedades y vacío de la potencia acerca de la abundancia que antes sentía y la dificultad que halla el alma en las cosas buenas, la hacen conocer de sí la bajeza y miseria que en el tiempo de su prosperidad no echaba de ver.
De esto hay buena figura en el Exodo (33, 5), donde, queriendo Dios humillar a los hijos de Israel y que se conociesen les mandó quitar y desnudar el traje y atavío festival con que ordinariamente andaban compuestos en el desierto, diciendo: Ahora ya de aquí adelante despojaos el ornato festival y poneos vestidos comunes y de trabajo, para que sepáis el tratamiento que merecéis; lo cual es como si dijera: Por cuanto el traje que traéis, por ser de fiesta y alegría, os ocasionáis a no sentir de vosotros tan bajamente como vosotros sois, quitaos ya ese traje, para que de aquí adelante, viéndoos vestidos de vilezas, conozcáis que no merecéis más y quién sois vosotros. De donde la verdad, que el alma antes no conocía, de su miseria: porque en el tiempo que andaba como de fiesta, hallando en Dios mucho gusto y consuelo y arrimo, andaba más satisfecha y contenta, pareciéndole que en algo servía a Dios; porque esto, aunque entonces expresamente no lo tenga en sí, a lo menos, en la satisfacción que halla en el gusto, se le asienta algo de ello y ya puesta en estotro traje de trabajo, de sequedad y desamparo, oscurecidas sus primeras luces, tiene más de veras éstas en esta tan excelente y necesaria virtud del conocimiento propio, no se teniendo ya en nada ni teniendo satisfacción ninguna de sí; porque ve que de suyo no hace nada ni puede nada.
Y esta poca satisfacción de sí y desconsuelo que tiene de que no sirve a Dios, tiene y estima Dios en más que todas las obras y gustos primeros que tenía el alma y hacía, por más que ellos fuesen, por cuanto en ellos se ocasionaba para muchas imperfecciones e ignorancias; y de este traje de sequedad, no sólo lo que habemos dicho, sino también los provechos que ahora diremos y muchos más, que se quedarán por decir, nacen, que como de su fuente y origen, del conocimiento propio proceden.
3. Cuanto a lo primero, nácele al alma tratar con Dios con más comedimiento y más cortesía, que es lo que siempre ha de tener el trato con el Altísimo, lo cual en la prosperidad de su gusto y consuelo no hacía; porque aquel sabor gustoso que sentía, hacía ser al apetito acerca de Dios algo más atrevido de lo que bastaba y descortés y mal mirado. Como acaeció a Moisés (Ex. 3, 2-6): cuando sintió que Dios le hablaba, cegado de aquel gusto y apetito, sin más consideración, se atrevía a llegar, si no le mandara Dios que se detuviera y descalzara. Por lo cual se denota el respeto y discreción en desnudez de apetito con que se ha de tratar con Dios; de donde, cuando obedeció en esto Moisés, quedó tan puesto en razón y tan advertido, que dice la Escritura que no sólo no se atrevió a llegar, más que ni aun osaba considerar; porque, quitados los zapatos de los apetitos y gustos, conocía su miseria grandemente delante de Dios, porque así le convenía para oír la palabra de Dios.
Como también la disposición que dio Dios a Job para hablar con él, no fueron aquellos deleites y glorias que el mismo Job allí refiere que solía tener en su Dios (Jb. 1,1-8), sino tenerle desnudo en el muladar, desamparado y aun perseguido de sus amigos, lleno de angustia y amargura, y sembrado de gusanos el suelo (29-30); y entonces de esta manera se preció el que levanta al pobre del estiércol (Sal. 112, 7), el Altísimo Dios, de descender y hablar allí cara a cara con él, descubriéndole las altezas profundas, grandes, de su sabiduría, cual nunca antes había hecho en el tiempo de la prosperidad (Jb. 38-42).
4. Y así nos conviene notar otro excelente provecho que hay en esta noche y sequedad del sensitivo apetito, pues habemos venido a dar en él, y es: que en esta noche oscura del apetito (porque se verifique lo que dice el profeta (Is. 58, 10), es a saber: Lucirá tu luz en las tinieblas), alumbrará Dios al alma, no sólo dándole conocimiento de su bajeza y miseria, como habemos dicho, sino también de la grandeza y excelencia de Dios. Porque, demás de que, apagados los apetitos y gustos y arrimos sensibles, queda limpio y libre el entendimiento para entender la verdad (porque el gusto sensible y apetito, aunque sea de cosas espirituales, ofusca y embaraza el espíritu), y, demás también que aquel aprieto y sequedad del sentido ilustra y aviva el entendimiento, como dice Isaías (28,19), que (con) la vejación hace entender Dios cómo en el alma vacía y desembarazada, que es lo que se requiere para su divina influencia, sobrenaturalmente por medio de esta noche oscura y seca de contemplación la va, como habemos dicho, instruyendo en su divina sabiduría, lo cual por los jugos y gustos primeros no hacía.
5. Esto da muy bien a entender el mismo profeta Isaías (28,9), diciendo: ¿A quién enseñará Dios su ciencia y a quién hará oír su audición? A los destetados, dice, de la leche, a los desarrimados de los pechos; en lo cual se da a entender que para esta divina influencia no es la disposición la leche primera de la suavidad espiritual, ni el arrimo del pecho de los sabrosos discursos de las potencias sensitivas que gustaba el alma, sino el carecer de lo uno y desarrimo de lo otro, por cuanto para oír a Dios le conviene al alma estar muy en pie y desarrimada, según el afecto y sentido, como de sí lo dice el profeta (Hab. 2, 1), diciendo: Estaré en pie sobre mi custodia, esto es, desarrimado el apetito, y afirmaré el paso, esto es, no discurriré con el sentido, para contemplar, esto es, para entender lo que de parte de Dios se me alegare. De manera que ya tenemos que de esta noche seca sale conocimiento de sí primeramente, de donde, como de fundamento, sale esotro conocimiento de Dios. Que por eso decía san Agustín a Dios: Conózcame yo, Señor, a mí, y conocerte he a ti. Porque, como dicen los filósofos, un extremo se conoce bien por otro.
6. Y para probar más claramente la eficacia que tiene esta noche sensitiva en su sequedad y desabrigo para ocasionar la luz que de Dios decimos recibir aquí el alma, alegaremos aquella autoridad de David (Sal. 62, 3) en que da bien a entender la virtud grande que tiene esta noche para este alto conocimiento de Dios. Dice, pues, así: En la tierra desierta, sin agua, seca y sin camino parecí delante de ti para poder ver tu virtud y tu gloria. Lo cual es cosa admirable; que no da aquí a entender David que los deleites espirituales y gustos muchos que él había tenido le fuesen disposición y medio para conocer la gloria de Dios, sino las sequedades y desarrimos de la parte sensitiva, que se entiende aquí por la tierra seca y desierta; y que no diga también que los conceptos y discursos divinos, de que él había usado mucho, fuesen camino para sentir y ver la virtud de Dios, sino el no poder fijar el concepto en Dios, ni caminar con el discurso de la consideración imaginaria, que se entiende aquí por la tierra sin camino. De manera que, para conocer a Dios y a sí mismo, esta noche oscura es el medio con sus sequedades y vacíos, aunque no con la plenitud y abundancia que en la otra del espíritu, porque este conocimiento es como principio de la otra.
7. Saca también el alma en las sequedades y vacíos de esta noche del apetito humildad espiritual, que es la virtud contraria al primer vicio capital que dijimos ser soberbia espiritual; por la cual humildad, que adquiere por el dicho conocimiento propio, se purga de todas aquellas imperfecciones en que caía acerca de aquel vicio de soberbia en el tiempo de su prosperidad. Porque, como se ve tan seca y miserable, ni aun por primer movimiento le parece que va mejor que los otros, ni que los lleva ventaja, como antes hacía; antes, por el contrario, conoce que los otros van mejor.
8. Y de aquí nace el amor del prójimo, porque los estima y no los juzga como antes solía cuando se veía a sí con mucho fervor y a los otros no. Sólo conoce su miseria y la tiene delante de los ojos: tanto, que no la deja ni da lugar para poner los ojos en nadie, lo cual admirablemente David, estando en esta noche, manifiesta, diciendo: Enmudecí y fui humillado y tuve silencio en los bienes y renovóse mi dolor (Sal. 38, 3). Esto dice, porque le parecía que los bienes de su alma estaban tan acabados, que no solamente no había ni hallaba lenguaje de ellos, mas acerca de los ajenos también enmudeció con el dolor del conocimiento de su miseria.
9. Aquí también se hacen sujetos y obedientes en el camino espiritual, que, como se ven tan miserables, no sólo oyen lo que los enseñan, mas aun desean que cualquiera los encamine y diga lo que deben hacer; quítaseles la presunción afectiva que en la prosperidad a veces tenían. Y, finalmente, de camino se les barren todas las demás imperfecciones que notamos allí: acerca de este vicio primero que es soberbia espiritual.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.28.9 — Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make understand the message? Those weaned from the milk, those drawn from the breast.
Notes
- 1 ↩"sentido" is kept as "sense" for John of the Cross's sensory part of the soul (as opposed to spirit); "jugos del sentido" = consoling sap/juices of sensory devotion.
- 2 ↩"potencia" is the soul's faculty (here, the sense/appetitive power emptied of former abundance); "mercedes" are divine favors/gifts of grace, not merely kindnesses.
- 3 ↩"éstas" points back to the truths of the soul's misery and lowliness just named; rendered as "these truths" for clarity.
- 4 ↩comedimiento / cortesía: courtly restraint and reverent courtesy before God, not mere social manners. mal mirado: lacking proper regard / ill-bred boldness.
- 5 ↩desnudez de apetito is Sanjuanist technical language: the soul stripped of appetites before God. zapatos de los apetitos y gustos allegorizes the removed sandals.
- 6 ↩considerar rendered as 'look' in light of Exod 3:6 (Moses afraid to look at God); could also mean 'consider/regard'.
- 7 ↩Spanish se preció belongs with de descender in s3; the pleased/deigned sense is completed in the next sentence. Parenthetical (29–30) is left as in the source; it likely points to Job’s dunghill/worm affliction rather than Job 1:29–30.
- 8 ↩se preció de rendered was pleased to (deigned to); Golden-Age sense of taking pleasure in / esteeming it fitting to act.
- 9 ↩Source has parenthetical '(con)' before 'la vejación'; rendered as 'with affliction,' following the common Isaianic reading that affliction/vexation is the means by which God grants understanding.
- 10 ↩'jugos y gustos primeros' kept as 'first juices and pleasures' for San Juan's sap/consolation image of early spiritual sweetness, not literal liquid.
- 11 ↩Spanish audición is a near-literal biblical Hebraism for what is heard / the hearing of the word; rendered here as "message" for contemporary readability while preserving the sense of divine teaching that is to be heard.
- 12 ↩arrimo / desarrimo / desarrimados keep San Juan's technical sense of sensory leaning or support and its withdrawal; rendered as leaning / detachment rather than generic independence.
- 13 ↩discurriré con el sentido keeps the sense of discursive sensory reasoning/meditation rather than mere physical motion; rendered as "run on with the senses" to match San Juan's contrast with contemplative stillness.
- 14 ↩Spanish 'virtud' here means power/efficacy of the night, not moral virtue; rendered 'power' to keep the force clear.
- 15 ↩'Desarrimos' rendered as 'detachments' (withdrawal of sensory supports), consistent with the night's stripping of the appetite. 'Consideración imaginaria' rendered as 'imaginative meditation' for discursive, image-based mental prayer.
- 16 ↩"por primer movimiento" is the traditional spiritual term for the soul's first spontaneous interior impulse; rendered as "first impulse" rather than the more technical "first movement."
- 17 ↩Spanish 'tuve silencio en los bienes' follows the Vulgate 'silui a bonis' (kept silence from/about good things); rendered as silence about good things rather than as mere quiet amid prosperity.
- 18 ↩presunción afectiva: presumption rooted in the affections (spiritual self-assurance from consolations/fervor), not mere intellectual pride.
Dark Night of the Soul companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent