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Night

Although mystics often experience the Divine as a radiant, all permeating light, sometimes God is described in terms of night or darkness.

Night is the great Mystery, the unknown. Darkness is the place of secrets. It is the time of sleep, rest, peace. We drop all of our activities and turn inward.

In many traditions, darkness is especially associated with the Goddess, the feminine aspect of the Divine. The black-skinned Hindu goddess Kali is one of the more striking embodiments of Night as a face of the Divine.

Because nighttime is associated with sleep and, by analogy, death, it can also represent the time when the ego sleeps and most easily can "die" or fade away. The ego is less in charge at night, less demanding that its every desire be instantly met. The busy mind is less active, more likely to be at rest.

Night is the time when lovers meet, when the soul meets its Divine Beloved.

Darkness, like God, envelops everything in its embrace. It is in the darkness of night that all things become one, losing their individuality as they disappear into that mystery. Nighttime is the time of nondual awareness, when dichotomies and artificial notions of separation fade.

In Sufi poetry, nighttime has an added dimension in that many Sufis engage in a special midnight prayer (in addition to the traditional five Muslim prayer times) or gather for all night recitation of the names of God (zikr). Because of this, the night is eagerly anticipated as the holiest of times for many devout Sufis. Abu Madyan (d. 1198), a famous Sufi saint from North Africa, wrote of the late night prayer:

"They call for darkness during the day, just as the compassionate shepherd calls his flock, and they yearn for sunset, just as a bird yearns for its nest at sunset. When night falls, when darkness overcomes, when the bedcovers are spread out, when the family is at rest, and when every lover is left alone with his beloved -- then they arise, pointing their feet towards Me, turning their faces to Me, and speak intimate words, adoring Me by virtue of My grace..."
(Quoted from The Shambhala Guide to Sufism, by Carl W. Ernst, PhD)

Christian mystics, particularly St. John of the Cross, speak of "the dark night of the soul." This is not so much a reference to the experience of the Divine as mentioned above, but a preliminary state. Prior to experiences of union, the soul loses its orientation, where worldly distractions seem pointless, but the blissful fulfilment of divine union hasn't yet been experienced. This can be a period of confusion, of intense spiritual thirst, and a feeling of blindness that is the equivalent of trying to find one's way in the dark. But that too can be an important stage of the journey that indicates the nearness of the sacred goal, not its distance.

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