Andrew Harvey – Rebirthing Yourself Through the Dark Night of the Soul

Rumi wrote, “The grapes of my body can only become wine after the winemaker tramples me.”

In the dark night of the soul, as understood by the Christian and Sufi mystics, the beloved himself (or herself) personally “tramples” the “full” Self of the seeker. This trampling is not punishment, it is savage grace…. and opens up the crucial birth canal for a more empowered, committed, and passionately engaged Self to emerge.

This process was known by both Saint John of the Cross and Rumi to have two essential components: a systematic, personally tailored disintegration of the false self created from a lifetime of bad habits, and the emergence of the real, essential Self, through a series of ecstatic and empowering visionary experiences.

In this module, you’ll:

• Understand the dark night of the soul through the eyes of Saint John of the Cross and philosopher and theologian Henry Corbin
• Discover the 2 essential components of a dark night of the soul: the darkness, or challenges, and the experience of “no thing,” as you are severed from the familiar
• Learn how it is possible to experience a simultaneous “falling apart” and the “new you” appearing
• Discover why the destruction of the false self and the ultimate mystery of darkness — leading to the emergence of the true Self — is crucial to understanding both our internal darkness and the global dark night we’re experiencing as a species
• Learn the soothing practice of “Saying the Name of God”

The main characteristic of the dark night of the soul is its overwhelming, onrushing power. Just as a woman giving birth cannot stop her contractions or “expansions,” so, too, the authentic dark night cannot be controlled. It is not meant to be controlled. It is meant to be surrendered to — completely — so that savage grace can do its transformative work.

In this module, you’ll explore both the resistances to this unconditional surrender and the enormous beauty that opens up when this surrender is established… It is not only a surrender to the birthing process and the agony of the disintegration of the false self, it’s also a surrender to the enormous expansions — the amazing new opportunities for truth and passion — that occur as well.

In this module, you’ll:

• Realize that whatever suffering you’re going through is a necessary catalyst for your spiritual evolution
• Understand why you cannot “control” a dark night of the soul, and why you must surrender to the suffering — and the new opportunities it helps you to birth
• Learn how to be a conduit of divine grace to experience the birthing of a “new you” in all its emerging, dazzling, and empowering stages
• Learn a prayer of gratitude and adoration for opening to the birthing process inherent in the dark night of the soul
• Learn why shifting your perception about the dark night process — from one that leads to birth, not death — makes the process not only easier but more transformative

To come into your essential Self not only demands surrender, but also a deep sense of what your essential Self is — when you know what you are surrendering to, your transition can go more smoothly.

This week, Andrew will draw from the wisdom of the mystical traditions to provide a deep, rich, and complete sense of what the essential Self is. You’ll gain a sense of its deathlessness, its spaciousness, and its marriage of profound attachment and compassion, so you can recognize this important part of yourself amidst the confusion of your dark night journey.

In this module, you’ll:

• Understand what the essential Self is
• Learn how to recognize your essential Self in the darkness of your journey
• Discover how to touch into and work with adoration, gratitude, and even profound joy in the midst of profound suffering
• Understand why surrendering is essential to opening to the essential Self
• Discover Vichara, the Hindu “Who Am I” practice that helps you to access clearer and clearer glimpses of your essential Self – – lighting the way and giving you the courage to go on

As divine consciousness starts to rise from the ashes of the old self, it’s essential to understand that what is being born is a new kind of human being, an embodied divine human. And to make this transition, the divine consciousness you are discovering as your essential Self needs to be worked with consciously…

You can then infuse your mind with the divine clarity needed to expand your self-compassion and slowly begin to learn how to suffuse even the cells of your body with this clarity to awaken their inherent divine consciousness as well. This is how you allow the birthing process of the “new you” to be as rich, deep. and complete as possible.

In this module, you’ll:

• Understand what it means to be reborn as a divine human, even at a cellular level
• Learn how to assess a divine consciousness rising from within you
• Discover a new depth of self-compassion as a balm for helping to carry you through your suffering as you transition into your essential Self
• Learn a Tibetan practice of uniting with the wisdom mind, a bringing together of the mind, heart, and body with the light itself that does the birthing process

Participants engaged in sacred conversation with Andrew about the teachings in the first three modules.

The transfiguration process is the greatest mystery of the mystical traditions. This week, Andrew will weave together the wisdom of the great Sufi, Christian, Hindu, Tibetan, and Buddhist mystics to help guide you through this “mutation” and the great birth that awaits you.

You’ll explore the resistance that your heart, mind, and body create in the face of this overpowering and magnificent process. Identifying your resistances will help you work with them compassionately and powerfully so you can open up as deeply as possible to their transfiguring grace.

In this module, you’ll:

• Discover that the destiny of the human being through the process of the dark night of the soul is to be born as a divine human
• Learn how to pursue the dark night of the soul with intelligent awakening and recognize the subtle signs of your progress
• Explore the teachings of ancient traditions to learn to open deeply to the transfiguration process
• Learn a Hindu tantric practice to open to the golden light of the great mother and awaken each chakra to its fullest and most radiant potential

Participants engaged in sacred conversation with Andrew about the teachings in the previous two modules.

As the transfiguration process deepens, you’ll become aware that you are being beckoned to incarnate as a “new self” – and that this means changing all of your life to reflect the new truth that lives in you. Inevitably, shadows will be awakened through this process, many of which you might not have been aware of before. This is entirely natural.

Andrew will share his experience of how, for example, the lust for power in the mind hides in secret places, how the heart’s new commitment to passionate compassion for others can be sabotaged, and how the body, even in the midst of transfiguration, can confront deep-seated resistances.

To incarnate your embodied divine Self is only possible through sustained, impassioned practice — the practice of shadow work and of profound adoration of the One that is turning you into Itself.

In this module, you’ll:

• Become aware that you’re being challenged and invited in all aspects of your life to reflect the new truth that lives in you
• Discover your deepest shadows and identify the sources of your resistance to growth
• Find that the heart’s commitment to others can be sabotaged by selfish desires and passions
• Develop the courage, concentration, and commitment required for shadow work
• Be instructed in tonglen, an ancient Buddhist practice to awaken compassion

The dark night is a prelude to awakening. It is the urgent call of your soul to retreat into the darkness, where friendly forces can be summoned to expand your consciousness so that you can emerge from the cocoon of darkness and delusion into the light of enlightened awareness.

In your darkest hour, you may feel desolate and abandoned, but isolation is an illusion — the Divine remains as near to you as your next breath. Only when you pass through the darkness will you fully appreciate the prophetic words of Kahlil Gibran: “One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night.”

The inevitable outcome of the dark night is transfiguration, resulting in the birth of a new divine human focused on justice and transformative sacred action — an evolution which offers great hope for the creation of a holy new world.

In this module, you’ll discover how to:

• Create a network of grace in your life
• How to bring together like hearts in your community
• Create grace out of your spiritual community
• Sustain and encourage each other while moving forward on the path of sacred activism
• Do real work that makes a real impact in the real world

Participants engaged in sacred conversation with Andrew about the teachings in the previous two modules.

In this illuminating dialogue, Andrew Harvey and mystic scholar Mirabai Starr share intimate details of their own dark night experiences — what they each lived through and what they learned from their shattering, yet transforming experience. Anyone who has been enveloped by darkness will find comfort and inspiration in their stories — and with the knowledge that the promise of a new dawn never dims no matter how dark the night.

Mirabai Starr writes creative nonfiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and interspiritual dialogue. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. She’s received critical acclaim for her revolutionary new translations of the mystics John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Julian of Norwich. She’s the award-winning author of Mother of God Similar to Fire, a collaboration with iconographer William Hart McNichols; God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, and Caravan of No Despair: A Memoir of Loss and Transformation. Her latest book, Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics, will be published in the spring of 2019. She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.

In this riveting conversation, bestselling spiritual author Caroline Myss will draw on her research for her extraordinary book on Teresa of Avila, Entering the Castle: Finding the Inner Path to God and Your Soul’s Purpose, to explore Teresa’s vision of the dark night — and how it relates to Caroline’s own experience and to the experience of our world as it undergoes terrible crises that could birth a new divine humanity.

Caroline Myss is a five-time New York Times bestselling author and internationally renowned speaker in the fields of human consciousness, spirituality and mysticism, health, energy medicine and the science of medical intuition.

In spiritual theologian Matthew Fox’s tremendous vision of creation spirituality, the dark night, which he calls the Via Negativa, is followed by the triumphant and glorious Via Transformativa, a path of radical commitment to sacred action on every level that leads to the divinizing of heart, mind and body — and the birth of a new kind of human being: a divine human. These two celebrated mystic scholars will explore this transition from the dark night into an empowered divine humanity in ways that Matthew’s amazing vision, drawn from the depths of Christian mysticism, make available and vivid to us.

Matthew Fox is a prolific author of books that are renewing the ancient tradition of Creation Spirituality. This tradition is feminist, welcoming of the arts and artists, wisdom-centered, prophetic, and caring about eco-justice, social justice, and gender justice. Fox’s effort to reawaken the West to its own mystical tradition has included revivifying awareness of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart and the mysticism of Thomas Aquinas, as well as interacting with contemporary scientists who are also mystics. He believes that “by reinventing work, education and worship, we can bring about a nonviolent revolution on our planet,” and has committed himself to this vision for many years, most recently by setting out 95 theses for a new reformation of Christianity.

Fox founded the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California in 1996, and was President and professor until 2005. Now he serves as mentor, spokesperson and professor for Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality in Boulder, Colorado, which was founded by former students. He speaks regularly at professional and community gatherings around the world, and has led a renewal of liturgical forms with “The Cosmic Mass,” which mixes dance, techno and live music, DJ, VJ, rap and contemporary art forms with the Western liturgical tradition. He is recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award; other recipients have included the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks. In addition to his duties at Fox Institute for Creation Spirituality, he is also a visiting scholar at the Academy for the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Charles Upton will take us through the stages of the mystical way enshrined in Sufi tradition that unfolds into union with the Beloved in heart, mind, soul and body and make clear the difficulties, changes and shadows that need to be overcome and transmuted for us to live humbly as the Beloved’s beloved.