Dark Night of the Soul: Tarot Pick a Card

Most people go through a dark night of the soul: this is a time when you feel everything slip away and you become immersed in negative feelings. It can happen after a sad event, but any intense spiritual experience (like a meditation retreat) can bring it about because your entire worldview is shattered. You enter into a temporary nihilistic state.

While this is painful, many people who have this experience evolve their souls and come out the other side a transformed person. If you were drawn to this tarot pick a card, then the universe thinks you either went through one recently or you’re about to go through one soon and just need a little boost to help you get through it and spiritually rise again stronger than before.

All you have to do is look at the piles of cards above. Which animal stands out to you the most? That’s your pile and that’s your tarot reading!

After you select your cards, scroll down to your pile or choose below.

Here I’m using the Santa Muerte Tarot and the Angel Guide Oracle decks while the animals are from an Acekar Sticker Pack (these are affiliate links that support me if you make a purchase).

Remember that you have free will. That means you can manifest the positive and avoid the negative of any reading.

Now let’s find out about your dark night of the soul.

Pile 1: Dog

The Wheel of Dark Nights

Your first card is the Wheel of Fortune. There are a few possible meanings here, but for some of you, they may both apply.

Most will find that their dark night of the soul was inevitable or somehow necessary. There was no good way to avoid it and it may not have even been something you would want to avoid despite the pain. That’s because the experience is fated and has very clear connections to your personal growth.

A second meaning is that your dark night of the soul comes in multiples. You may have already had one in the past, perhaps many times, and expect it to continue to happen in the future. While some dark nights of the soul have their origin in a powerful, personal event, it’s not uncommon for spiritual people to have painful spiritual awakenings from the actions they take.

I’ve read a lot about people who go to spiritual retreats, most often meditation ones, who felt their sense of self shattering. This is one of the reasons why a small subset of the population can’t meditate because this is a particularly painful and unexpected result of meditation for them.

It’s also common with psychoactive drugs and is one of the reasons why people are cautioned against pursuing them for solely recreational reasons.

And let’s not forget exploring faith and feeling your self-awareness shifting. This usually results in a mystical commitment, a conversion to another faith, or deconversion to atheism.

Be aware that all of the above should put you on notice: a dark night of the soul isn’t something you want to make a habit of as it could result in drastic life changes. Sometimes they would be welcomed, but it’s possible that it could lead you down a nihilistic rabbit hole of self-annihilation.

Be Heroic, Not Fading

The second card in your spread has the wisdom message of Take a Step Back. I see this not to discourage you from pursuing spiritual growth, but to not run headlong into a purposeful dark night of the soul.

These are powerful experiences and you may end up throwing yourself into it like a doomscroll session with social media. If you find yourself spiraling because of a dark night of the soul, step away from any activities that promote it.

You’ll find that such activities can include anything nihilistic (meaning there is no meaning to life) or too potently spiritual that it becomes gnostic in a bad way (your body is imaginary). In microdoses, both activities can be very useful. However, when either one is done in excess you can have someone like a school shooter or a person that commits suicide to be free of their blood suit body.

This is all very harsh language to describe the dark night of the soul, but I think it’s important for you to hear as you’re more likely than others to have multiple transformations which also means you have the potential for more negative transformations too.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be that way. Your second card isn’t telling you to stop, but to take a step back so you can see the whole picture.

Consider narrating your life and being very symbolic. Keep a journal, write a personal essay, or create a piece of art that helps you to symbolize your story with a happy ending. The hero in any good story always goes into the belly of the whale on their quest. This is your belly of the whale and you’re meant to be victorious, not devoured alive.

Fate Is On Your Side

The final card in your spread is Trust the Universe. Notice how in the image of the card we see a wheel surrounding what looks to be a star.

You may feel as if your pain because of these experiences is solitary and without meaning, but that’s not true. The universe is letting you have the lesson that goes with the suffering you had the misfortune of facing. It is possible for bad things to happen and not grow from that. However, your destiny is not suffering without reward.

I’m not going to pretend that any dark night of the soul will be easy for you, but there is a silver lining because there’s an opportunity to use that acute pain to build yourself up. Look for that potential in every dark night of the soul you experience. Your life is a story other people want to read about – and it has a happy ending.

I loved reading for you! If it resonated, let me know. You can also leave a tip on ko-fi or book a private reading on my Etsy.

Pile 2: Giraffe

Different Experiences

The first card in your spread, the Three of Pentacles, has spiritual connotations to it. That’s because the traditional image takes place in a church. I tend to interpret it to mean a mind-body-spirit connection and I think that holds here.

Your dark night of the soul is multidimensional in its experience. You should expect to feel physical, emotional, and intellectual changes.

Notice the image in the card though: the skeleton is watering the ground. In the ground are three skulls which are the roots of growing flowers. There’s a tangible and very positive benefit to your experience, but it will take a lot of time, and where you’re going to have to approach it on multiple levels.

However, another meaning of this card that is important here is the social aspect. You don’t have to go at it alone. You should seek the expertise or even the companionship of other people who would understand you.

Not every person you seek this from will be helpful in all areas. For example, you may realize that your dark night of the soul will make you feel very mortal and you need to exercise, so you work out with a friend. But this friend isn’t exactly the intellectual or spiritual type, so you wouldn’t be able to relate with them on that level.

I think one lesson you’re going to learn from your dark night of the soul is that life is multifaceted. A spiritual awakening isn’t just being aware of a spiritual reality, but also a physical and intellectual one for you too.

Meant for Now

The when of your dark night of the soul is important as the second card, Divine Timing, indicates that it’s meant to happen at a very specific time in your life. Or, if it was unplanned, it fits perfectly with the circumstances.

That means you can make use of your dark night of the soul in a way other people couldn’t. And perhaps this makes the investment time your previous card indicated so interesting.

You’re growing the next level of your mind-body-spirit in a way that may not have been as powerful at any other time. So while the dark night of your soul may be painful, know that it couldn’t have happened at a better time.

Now this card looks really fated, but I get a very strong sense from your particular spread that it was unplanned and not intended by the universe, but when you went through a difficult time the universe interceded and decided to make it spiritually meaningful in a way it wasn’t previously.

You may find that during this time that more spiritual activity will happen around you. Angel numbers are possible, but experiences with your spirit guides are even more likely.

This brings to mind the social aspect of the last card: one or all of your spiritual companions or mentors may not be human. It could be an angel, an ancestor, or even an animal spirit.

Be very open to the counsel of those who wish you well, even if they don’t have a human body. This does require listening and being perceptive, but I think your dark night of the soul is going to superpower those skills to help facilitate that relationship.

A Positive Experience

There’s something very bright and positive in your spread. Your third card, Ask and Receive, seems to indicate that you will gain a lot during your dark night of the soul.

While for many the experience is wholly negative until they’re out of it, some people do benefit from struggle and that wouldn’t be any different for a spiritual struggle.

I recently learned that the best way to use dopamine, the feel-good chemical, is not as a reward once you do something difficult. So if someone were to study for a test, they shouldn’t reward themselves with a treat. Instead, they should see the struggle as the reward because it’s doing something interesting. Studying is an inherent reward in itself.

Over time, it actually gets easier to do something because you don’t reward yourself.

Your dark night of the soul may be a struggle, but I think it’s one where you can get close to the universe and other people. This will help you to make big asks of powerful spiritual beings and of the people you love.

I think you’re likely to receive a lot of gifts and abundance at this time. But strangely, that’s not going to be what excites you: it’ll be journeying through the darkness and learning from the experience.

I loved reading for you! If it resonated, let me know. You can also leave a tip on ko-fi or book a private reading on my Etsy.

Pile 3: Koala

Don’t Change Too Much

Your first card is the Four of Wands, Reversed. This seems to suggest that your dark night of the soul will result in some sort of disenchantment, especially of the home. It will unsettle you and cause you to feel as if your current place in life is unsatisfactory.

On one hand, your spread does confirm a need for change, but this change may not be material. However, you’re currently on track to respond to your dark night of the soul in that way. This could mean moving to start over, cutting ties with certain people, or trying a new approach in life.

There’s something in your spread that suggests you’ll want to make a major change which would seem rather bombastic and surprising to other people. Now I do think a change needs to take place, but it seems as if you’re going too far in some way.

Sometimes when a dark night of the soul happens we become disillusioned with the world around us. Perhaps a really good example would be someone who grows up in a Christian family but leave the faith. They then look upon their loving family as toxic simply because they continue to follow that religion. The person wants to break contact, move away, and live life anew.

But that would be the wrong decision. Just because some aspect of your life is no longer satisfactory doesn’t mean your entire life is worth throwing away and starting over.

You need to scale back any plans that you become inspired by because of your dark night of the soul. Change is needed, but it shouldn’t seem like you’re living a new life entirely. Some transformations aren’t radical. Sincere, but not radical. And that’s the case for you this time.

Look Within Yourself

Your second card is Self-Acceptance. I think you’ll be tempted by your dark night of the soul to put transformation onto people and places. There’s some part of you that doesn’t want to change your life, but your circumstances so circumstances will do the work for you instead.

That’s the wrong approach. A dark night of the soul is meant to be a personal transformation and most of it will be internal. You can’t expect changing your circumstances to make the mental transformation for you.

If you put that transformation into an introverted context so it becomes a self-transformation, you’ll be more likely to have a positive experience from it.

Let’s go back to the previous example because it’s a common one in modern culture. Someone deconverts from a traditional religion and throws away their old life as if it’s baggage. But now they’re becoming more and more distant from their family, friends, and social network.

What they wanted wasn’t to have a new religion – it was to have the people in their life change just because they had different spiritual beliefs. But they weren’t going to, so the person tried to replace everything about their life.

Instead, it would’ve been healthier to be firm in their deconversion with their family, but respectful of their beliefs and open to having the same, lovely relationship as before even if it changes a bit. Love can heal differences on both ends.

You need to transform for yourself and not expect the world to transform instead.

This creates self-acceptance and a more intimate understanding of the universe. It becomes something that filters through you instead of something you collect from the world.

You Have the Power

Your third card is Opportunity and Change. See the green archway that surrounds the woman? I see this as the container of your life. Although you may feel that you’re limiting yourself by making small changes, you’ll find that it’s a very cultivated approach.

Instead of the world changing around her, the woman in this card is almost iridescent and magical. By focusing on yourself, you develop abilities and gifts. That’s far more important and valuable than trying to change your circumstances.

That’s because you aren’t creating a reality where you’re dependent on external environments, but instead your internal reality. You make your dark night of the soul into an experience of empowerment.

For you, the nihilistic darkness of the event breaks away the chains the external world has on you and replaces them with personal strength. You’re going to build yourself up and because of that, you’ll create your own opportunities instead of waiting for your circumstances to give them to you.

I loved reading for you! If it resonated, let me know. You can also leave a tip on ko-fi or book a private reading on my Etsy.