Mystery not mastery

I would love to close this book with something more substantial than empty faith, unattached love, and hopeless hope. I would love to be able to make practical suggestions about how to identify and claim the transformative qualities of the dark night in your own life. I yearn to offer something that would make the hard times easier and bring a definite sense of meaning to the unavoidable sufferings of life….But the nature of the dark night does not permit that.

Gerald May, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores… (2004), p. 194.

What the hell kind of self help book is this?

An honest one. In fact, it isn’t a self help book at all.

I hope to flesh this out later.

N.B. The word play “mystery” vs. “mastery” comes from May’s book Will and Spirit.

See John 1.5 NEB ”Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not mastered it.” Darkness has neither subdued nor even understood light. Dark night is light so bright, it appears dark to the human soul/spirit.