Chapter 11

Dark Nights

This is the final phase of the emotional commitment to this Quest. After the next three days, you will be committed to manifesting the results of your efforts. This is the final phase of what I call “Conscious Incompetence” or the moments where the Quest has become its most challenging. You are now completing the time it takes to “believe” in something in order to “receive” the boon of your Quest.

Chapter 11 is called the “Dark Night” because emotionally this phase will ask you to rise completely above fear. In Campbell’s work this is a moment called “The Belly of the Whale” when it appears the hero has been swallowed up, appearing to have "died". What this really means is that all the powers of the subconscious are there to either be feared or to be merged with. Dorothy is locked in the Witch’s lair with the hour glass of her life running out. She has come face-to-face with her mortality. In Star Wars, Luke and his companions are trapped in a murky trash compactor where a slimy, worm-like monster stalks them from the deep. It is only at the last moment, when death seemed imminent, that they found salvation.

If you’ve gotten this far, you too will find your deepest salvation in treading the waters of the next three days. You will dig deep within and find your greatest power.

Your “negative” emotions are deep emotional power fighting to be freed and used. Fear is a call for you to heighten your senses. This will help you gain new information in the attainment of your Quest. Lust and Greed and emotions calling your attention to the fact that you’re fixated on something outside of yourself. Once understood, this gives you information to help you realize there is nothing external to be fixated on. The quality that you lust after or are greedy for IS a part of you. Anger is an emotional response in that calls your attention to a growth in your wisdom. Anger happens when your sense of justice has been compromised. When you feel anger it is a strong biological response to someone’s rights being trampled on - either your own or that of someone else. Anger is a feeling that lets your body know that the ego has unbalanced the scales. Sympathy, or Grief, is a call once again to not see yourself as separate. Usually these feelings are the result in a misperception that you “lost” something in which you might never get back. Flipping this emotion calls attention to your need to merge on an emotional and spiritual level with what you believe you have lost.

In the next three days we will focus on mastering your senses: Seeing, Hearing, and Feeling. There is power in recognizing these details of your emotions. These details may be physically in front of you or they're the ones buried in your own memories and dreams. In your deepest moments of despair your senses are overloaded. The same is true in your deepest moments of bliss. We will attempt to heighten the experience of these details. Once these senses are heightened that's when the new information will come in during the Transcendence covered in the next chapter.

Again, don’t lie to yourself. If you’re feeling fearful about one of your intentions bring it to your work out. There will be two exercises in front of you to choose from. One will continue to fan the flame of your intentions, one is intended to calm fear. The choice of which exercise to use is up to you. These exercises will be described on DAY 18.

This is the sixth phase of the journey.

A curious thing about the number “6”. Look at it for a moment.

It kind of looks like it has a belly, right? 6 is associated with many things - “the mark of the beast”, bad luck, the devil. Did you also know it was the number associated with sacred femininity? In some schools of numerology, “6” represents family, responsibility and motherhood. Makes sense, doesn’t it? The number kind of looks pregnant.

They say creation is also destruction, with birth comes death. What this really means is that you are ready to give birth to your results. Oftentimes this is painful, like childbirth. Yet it is a necessary part of the Quest and in understanding the Wholeness of returning your mind to health.

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DAY 18
DAY 18 (Mike's Journal)
DAY 19
DAY 19 (Mike's Journal)
DAY 20
DAY 20 (Mike's Journal)

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