Three days ago was Halloween - the Samhain ['sah-win'] of the Celts. It was known to the Celtic Druids of old as the time of year when the veil between our world and the afterworld was the thinnest. The Druids did not shy away from the dark. They were well acquainted with the principle of working through the darkness to get to the light.

At one time, the Irish method of initiating Druids into Arch Druids was to seal them in a cave for three days and three nights without food, water, light, sound or any sensory input other than the cold, hard stone of the cave floor and walls.

Within that period, they had to prove their readiness for Arch Druidship by becoming one with their Higher Selves - evidenced by the fact that they could translocate their physical bodies to the outside of the sealed cave entrance.

We've all heard of "The Long Dark Night of the Soul," but what is it, really?
The Dark Night of the Soul is the opening up of the subconscious, and the emptying out of all that is there. And that is no small thing. Our minds are like icebergs. (See picture in upper right hand corner of page.) The conscious mind is only the small part sticking up above the surface. Most of it is below, unknown to us. Imagine suddenly becoming aware of 20 times more thoughts, feelings and programming than you knew of before - much of it from infantile periods of life and thus quite illogical, crazy, even 'insane.'

When the boundary between the conscious mind and the subconscious vanishes and all that has been suppressed in the subconscious starts flooding our minds within a relatively short timeframe, even the spiritual and emotional super heroes among us will find it utterly challenging to maintain their sanity. In the case of the Druids, even with years of preparation and training, only a few succeeded.
Long Dark Night of the Soul

And so it is with the Long Dark Night of the Soul as well. Talk of it may sound darkly mysterious and exciting, even romantic. But going through it feels nothing of the sort and it is definitely not anything to play with. When your Higher Self deems you ready to handle and survive the experience, then and only then will your Higher Self create it for you. I suggest that you do not go looking for it before then.

The purpose of this article is to help you recognize the experience if you are in it or have recently gone through it. Reading about it beforehand may also help you recognize it if it happens in the future. My purpose is not to encourage you to seek the experience. It will happen to you when you are ready.
Breaking Down of Subconscious Barrier

The Long Dark Night of the Soul happens because something has caused the barrier between the conscious and subconscious minds to break down. The Druids had their method of triggering the event - through fasting, sensory deprivation, isolation, spiritual training, and a focused intention. The old Egyptians did something similar - but with a sarcophagus instead of a cave.
Transcending Hope and Despair

A spontaneous Long Dark Night of the Soul can occur through any number of events which cause the Light of the conscious mind to be transcended. Perhaps the most common triggering event is one in which a person comes to transcend both hope and despair. (The Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism speak of transcending hope and despair as essential.)

Hope is the strongest defining quality of conscious mind. The corresponding defining quality of the subconscious is Despair. Both, of course, can be experienced by the same individual at different times. What they have in common is that they both take a person out of the here and now. While despair means you are in anguish over being present in the here and now, hope also means projecting your happiness into the future away from the here and now.

Despair is defined in the dictionary as "the loss of hope." In reality, despair is a cry for hope. As long as a person despairs, it means that there exists at least the hope