Find Beauty and Truth in the Dark of Night
DEEP PEACE of the DARK HUNTER moon to you
Let your desire be your guide
I truly believe that our seasons of spiritual darkness, disorienting and distressing as they can be, are rife with insights into what is most meaningful to us. When our expectations and hopes go unrealized, we can’t help but learn so much about ourselves. And it can be helpful to have someone to hold space for us as we go through that experience. If that’s something that would feel supportive for you, check out my one-on-one spiritual counseling offering.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2025
The Dark Night of the Soul
The upcoming full moon is the Hunter Moon. The crops have been harvested and stored and the cleared fields make it easier to see and hunt animals that are there gleaning leftovers. And those chonkers have also been storing up for winter so they’re nice and fat. But since many of us don’t hunt for our food—and I think it’s safe to say that none of us hunt as our primary source sustenance—my question for us this season is, what are you hunting for?
I wrote my master’s thesis on spiritual darkness, and particularly about how we are taught by the Powers that Be to fear the dark. These people in charge want to coax us back to them in what I call “a patriarchal preference for light.” I often give this example of the sky to demonstrate what I mean:
On a sunny day with a clear sky, all we can see is a bright blue expanse spanning in every direction. And a spiritual leader who wants you to stay in the light is basically saying, there’s nothing more to see! This is all you need to know. (Pay no attention to what’s behind the curtain!) And if they had their way, we would never know what a vast and glorious, mysterious, and beautiful universe we are a part of. We would think there was no alternative reality, nothing beyond the horizon.
But of course, the sun sets every day. Winter comes every year. And in our lives, we inevitably have seasons of darkness, when the way forward is obscured. When our familiar surroundings become unfamiliar. Our experience of this can range from inspired to uneasy to actually terrifying. There’s no wrong way to feel or respond to this experience. Many people feel like the rug has been ripped out from under them, and it’s incredibly disorienting in a very unwelcome way.
And yet—
If we only ever lived in the light, we would never know the stars. We would never know our neighbors, the other planets in our solar system. We wouldn’t see meteorites! We would probably find the moon to be very confusing. (Who is she? Where did she come from? Why does she keep changing shape??)
All that to say, there is not only disorientation in the darkness, but also beauty and truth. There is an alternate reality that is, in my opinion, far more layered and awe-inspiring than a blue sky on a sunny day could ever be.
Often the truths that we discover in our metaphorical dark night are things that have been buried deep within ourselves. We can ignore the whispers and nudges as long as we go along with the status quo, but it requires us to ignore that the night sky exists. That we know or at least suspect there’s something else out there. Something more than what we’ve been offered by the Powers that Be.
Those whispers and nudges are from our inner artist, adventurer, lover, designer, nurturer, freedom fighter. They have been shushed by the oppressive systems that can’t function if we’re at our most energized and creative. So we quietly put them away, because it’s practical to do so. Until it’s not.
And that’s why seasons of darkness can be so disruptive. With the curtain is pulled back and the fierce, harsh beauty of the universe is revealed, it makes it very, very difficult to continue as we were before.
A gentle practice for venturing into the dark
So in the spirit of the hunter moon, as we prepare to cross the threshold of tomorrow’s autumn Equinox and enter into the darker half of the year, let’s spend some time in reflection and see what our hearts, our souls, and our intuition may be seeking in the darkness. We’re going to go very gently. This doesn’t need to be about diving all the way in, head first. Just a gentle getting use to the dark, seeing some beauty there, so that if you decide you want to venture further out later, you have a starting place to continue from.
And if you need to come out of it at any time, just open your eyes and move your body slowly - maybe get a drink, stretch, journal. Do what feels good to you.
Reflect
What is your relationship with darkness? How about with your desire?
What are the barriers to living with your desire as your guide? Is there one small change you can make to chip away at one of those barriers? Ask for help if you need to!
Who are the people that champion your desire? Are you willing to tell them what that means to you?
Join me
Are you in the Baltimore area? Join me and others from the Wild Maven community on Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 7pm at The Space Within. We’ll spend do this guided meditation together and spend some time in conversation, hearing about each other’s experiences and enjoying time in community.
Photo by John Jennings on Unsplash.