Libro Primero — Declaración
The Purpose of the Dark Night
The soul describes her departure from self-attachment through the purgative power of contemplation.
1. In this first song the soul recounts the manner and way she went out—as far as affection is concerned—from herself and from all things, dying by true mortification to them all and to herself, so that she might come to live a life of sweet, delightful love with God.1 And she says that this going out from herself and from all things was a dark night—which she here understands as purgative contemplation, as will be explained later—which passively causes in the soul that denial of herself and of all things.2
Strength for the Journey
The soul finds the strength to overcome spiritual enemies through the transformative warmth of the Spouse's love.
2. She says here that she was able to make this departure using the strength and warmth that the love of her Spouse provided during that dark contemplation. In this she stresses the good fortune she had in walking toward God through this night with such prosperous success that none of the three enemies—the world, the devil, and the flesh, which always oppose this path—could prevent her; for that night of purifying contemplation put to sleep and dulled, in the house of her sensuality, all the passions and appetites, along with their contrary appetites and movements.34 So the verse says: On a dark night.
Read the original Latin
1. Cuenta el alma en esta primera canción el modo y manera que tuvo en salir, según la afición, de sí y de todas las cosas, muriendo por verdadera mortificación a todas ellas y a sí misma, para venir a vivir vida de amor dulce y sabrosa con Dios. Y dice que este salir de sí y de todas las cosas fue una noche oscura, que aquí entiende por la contemplación purgativa, como después se dirá, la cual pasivamente causa en el alma la dicha negación de sí misma y de todas las cosas.
2. Y esta salida dice ella aquí que pudo hacer con la fuerza y calor que para ello le dio el amor de su Esposo en la dicha contemplación oscura. En lo cual encarece la buena dicha que tuvo en caminar a Dios por esta noche con tan próspero suceso que ninguno de los tres enemigos, que son mundo, demonio y carne, que son los que siempre contrarían este camino, se lo pudiese impedir; por cuanto la dicha noche de contemplación purificativa hizo adormecer y amortiguar en la casa de su sensualidad todas las pasiones y apetitos según sus apetitos y movimientos contrarios. Dice, pues, el verso:
En una noche oscura.
Notes
- 1 ↩Spanish afición here is the soul's attachment/affection; rendered as "affection" (not romantic fondness). Canción is the poem's stanza/song unit in San Juan's structure.
- 2 ↩pasivamente marks a passive work of grace (the soul is acted upon), not moral passivity; saida/negación language is kept as "going out" / "denial" to match San Juan's technical vocabulary.
- 3 ↩"casa de su sensualidad" (house of her sensuality) is San Juan's technical term for the lower sensory appetite and its powers; kept as a calque rather than paraphrased as "senses" alone.
- 4 ↩"según sus apetitos y movimientos contrarios" is slightly redundant in the Spanish; rendered as "along with their contrary appetites and movements" to keep the force of full quieting of opposing drives without inventing a cleaner source syntax.
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