01 : the darkest night

My soul is thirsting for you like a dry, weary land without water.

— Psalms 62:1.

The desert is a metaphor for moments when we feel spiritually and emotionally barren. It’s the void we encounter in life, the empty landscape where nothing seems to grow, and every direction feels futile. This emptiness, or dread, isn't just the absence of meaning — it's a profound confrontation with the nothingness within and around us. We search for purpose but instead find silence, isolation, and the weight of our own existence.

Carl Jung might describe this as the soul’s "dark night," a psychological desert where the conscious mind is stripped of illusions and forced to confront the unconscious. This experience can feel overwhelming, leading to deep existential loneliness. It’s the sense that everything we believed to be stable has evaporated, leaving only the arid sands of uncertainty. This desert of the soul is a powerful stage of transformation.

Jung viewed such periods as essential moments of individuation — the journey towards wholeness. The emptiness forces us to reckon with our own shadows, those unacknowledged parts of ourselves that emerge when we are vulnerable. In the desert, we encounter this shadow side, and though it frightens us, it holds the key to our deeper self.

Instead of fearing the void, can we learn to see it as a sacred space of transition? The desert may seem desolate, but it is often the prelude to an encounter with the divine, both within and without. When everything falls away, what remains is the pure potential for transformation.

Journaling Prompt: When you feel alone in the desert of your life, what shadows or unacknowledged parts of yourself surface? How might you allow these experiences to be a transformative part of your journey?

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