The Dark Night Of The Soul

—Have you recovered fully from yesterday’s exploits? – asks the master. Look, today’s challenge is not very easy, be careful.

—To be honest, I haven’t really. However, I find myself very willing. Tell me, in short, how do I have to act to collect one more victory in this next challenge?

—Firstly, you must keep your courage and fighting spirit. Second, use your knowledge and yesterday’s improvement as weapons to surmount all the adversities. Be strong and don’t lose faith at any time. Only this way you will win again and as a reward you will receive the complete knowledge about the fourth cardinal sin.

—I understand. Thank you. Could you please also give me some clues about the place and the exact time of the realization of this challenge?

—As far as the place is concerned, I cannot help you. Follow your intuition. Concerning the time, it will be 08h00 in the morning.

With this answer from the Hindu, I look at my pocket watch and realise that is almost time. I feel a slight tremor in my body, but I prefer to believe that everything is going to be alright. I hurry up and finish my breakfast, say goodbye to the Hindu and leave at once to accomplish one more stage in my career. When I left, I begun to draw my plans and to ponder which direction to follow. Instinctively, I decide for the northeast due to the fact that I have never travel in those parts. The direction defined, it only remained now the attitude. With the intention of helping my mind, I recall the past knowledge (what I had absorbed since the previous adventure to the present time) and the improvement that I acquired under the supervision from the Hindu. Analysing carefully and impartially, I end up concluding that they had been and are very important for me to become the man who I was at that moment. For this reason, I should use them (whenever necessary) in my favour during this journey (the dark night of the soul) and the next ones that I may undertake. The reader, at this point, may ask: And will this be enough to achieve complete success? That question is extremely difficult and it would be absurd try to answer it, in my present state of evolution as a man and as seer. The only and absolute certainty that I had is that I would risk, no matter how difficult the obstacles were and the path that I intended to walk.

With that assurance, I walk briskly on the track that I have chosen; sometime later, finally I arrive at the northeast side of the top of the mountain. I carry on walking and suddenly in front of me a mysterious clearing opens up and without thinking I get closer to it. Go into it and arriving exactly to the middle I find a tomb. On a cross by the side I read the following message: Here lies an oppressed one. Driven by a strange force that I cannot explain, I touch the cross. By doing this, the sky darkens, the forces are shaken, and the top of the mountain trembles and the dark night of the soul quickly concentrates around me. After a few instants, a tunnel appears above me and immediately a force sucks my fragile spirit. After that, a kind of astral travelling begins, and by its strength and power, I travel through distant times and spaces for some time until reaching a more visible place. At this moment, my spirit relaxes and as if it were in a film I have the corresponding vision to the fourth cardinal sin:

“Jefferson and Wesley were two very close brothers, farmers at Pernambuco’s wilderness. Some of their typical characteristics were that they were two serious and honest lads. However, a certain day, at a city’s festival, they met a delicate lass called Andrea. At first sight, by coincidence, both became enchanted with her, getting close, they start chatting with her and both had the chance to dance with her and enjoy the festival together. After that moment, both felt a deep love for her and each one already thought of a prosperous and happy future. However, Jefferson (the wisest) forestalled and the following day managed got get in touch with Andrea. As the meeting, Jefferson wooed her and declared his love for her. She reciprocated and so they started going out together. Sometime later, it was Wesley’s turn to get in touch with Andrea. But when they met he found out what he had feared most: His brother, Jefferson, had stolen her from him. This was the best chance for the dark night to act and transform Wesley’s feelings towards his dear brother: What was tenderness and love became pure hate. Encouraged by this feeling he planned a horrendous crime against his brother and at the right time carried it out, hoping that with the end of his brother Andrea would take him. That did not happen. Andrea became disconsolate and decided to move to the capital, disowning the traitor. As for Wesley, he was imprisoned, but even so the punishment wasn’t enough for killing of a person.