March is a tricky time of year: one moment brings sunshine, radiant cerulean skies, and stark sunrises that nibble at the darkness. The next day reveals a layer of snow, cloudy skies, and a harsh windy reminder that winter has not released its grip. We celebrate the balance between the dark of night and the brightness of day with fall and spring equinox. Our cultural and political surroundings remain equally in flux.
What I love about spring is the sabbat times, the eternal theme of renewal, hope, nature’s blessings, and the awakening of the new path that lies before each of us. It is one of the best parts about being a human: we choose to continue our journey along the well-worn track of the past or we learn that we are never so static that change becomes impossible.
Sunrise
Faith is one key. However it appears, each of us has an ethical internal compass. Instilled by our family of origin, family of choice, or even circumstances of how we made it from birth to what we consider adulthood, our understanding of what “faith” is or what it can be varies greatly.
In many religious traditions, including our own earth-based traditions, we have an experiential time commonly referred to as “The Dark Night of the Soul”. If one believes in the cyclical nature of the Wheel of the Year and in the initiatory process, then the “Dark Night of the Soul” occurs many times and in a variety of forms. In reality, this occurrence happens as a means that forces us to face what we are most afraid of emotionally or externally, including the false beliefs we hold about ourselves, or the truth which lies beneath the fear. The Dark Night of the Soul requires that we dive into the pool of our unconscious self, to face our emotional foundation, the false beliefs we hold about ourselves, and the genuine truths which lay beneath what we fear.
In short, we undergo a purification to emerge renewed, closer to our truest selves. Faith comes a part of trusting in the process. If we are fortunate, when we experience it there are others around who assist us.
Consider the role of mentors in many groups when a new potential initiatory candidate first joins. The specific word mentor might not be used; however, there is someone to show you want is the practice of said tradition, no matter how eclectic the outside order might consider it to be. The one who teaches the lessons of the craft or tradition is a mentor. So is the guide who takes your calls at midnight when you are questioning whether you are on the right path or whether you are being called to go elsewhere. The confidant who listens when you question why in the midst of happiness with your spiritual path, you suddenly feel like your life is falling apart qualifies as a mentor.
As humans, it is a privilege to help in this process whether we know them as a guide, mentor, counselor, sage, elder, mother or father.
We all need someone to help us open our senses to the reality of faith for ourselves. Just as the remains of darkness gives way to the burnt-orange, then coral hues of sunrise each morning, we rely upon each other to guide us through the darkness in our lives.
The dark morass hovering over our current circumstances nationally and internationally is a visible quagmire of economic, political, and diplomatic conflicts. We do what we need to survive.
I believe our nation struggles with the quandary of the dark night of the soul. To say we need faith is an understatement. We need our mentors, our guides, and our sages. They do not have to be of our traditions or even practices, but they do need to be to recognize the chasm that lies beneath our foundation.
As a child, I read about Matthew Henson’s journey to the North Pole with Robert Peary in a comic book. What impressed me were the images of how the snow covered dangerous spots where a human misstep or misdirection of a sled could lead to a fatal fall into a crevasse.
We are nearing our own summit with the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our nation’s founding in just under four months. Within the past few months, we took a leader we didn’t like out of Venezuela, started a war or “limited combat operations” with Iran, and we are attacking what the government describes as “narco-terrorists” in Ecuador. For a country founded for celebrate freedom of, by and for the people, our American ship is off course. If we held to a flat earth theory, then a visual would be sailing off the edge of the world into nothingness.
Night sky. Photo by Michael J. Bennett
Logic does not explain what is going on. We remain unbalanced between the darkness of night and the bright of day, between the dark morass and the enlightenment of wisdom, and between the haze of confusion and the awareness of sanity.
Faith provides a way to navigate based on our own beliefs at this time. We do what we can by our own ethical guidelines to help ourselves by helping others. As we face our fears to navigate effectively beyond our personal versions of the dark night of the soul, we assist those around us.
For those who are able to run for office, do so. The more we act, the more we break through the darkness that blinds, and increase our awareness.
Many are aware, and wonder what to do. There is no one clear answer. Some use mutual aid for the very real threat of ICE that remains in many communities, including here in Minnesota, where remaining in hiding can still be the safest option. Others stand their ground economically by purchasing only from businesses that are in line with their values. Some avoid social media because the stress causes too many issues for them.
Life is too short to argue more than you need to do with friends or family members who are causing pain. Love them from a distance. Each person walks the path at their own pace and in their own time.
In many of our traditions, we love the Earth, so we continue now to fulfill our covenant and pledge to our mother, our planet, through conservation methods if we are so inclined. Remember, many of the gains we have made for our planet since the first Earth Day in the US on April 22, 1970 have been rolled back recently by the current administration.
Do you like endangered species and their habitats? They’ve had problems since November 2025. Do you care about the protection of public lands and conservation easement? It’s been on the chopping block since September 2025. Do you want logging to continue in areas where it might help economically in the short term but devastate our planet in the long term? It has no longer been much of an issue last spring.
Our faith is being tested both as humans and as individuals with a stake in what is happening around us. We are standing up as we can to be fellow mentors, guides, and elders to each other.
We are the canaries in the coal mine for what is happening around us. Some are just waking up now to realize that the world they thought they knew is not what is present.
Sunrise
How do we escape the Dark Night of the Soul that surrounds us in an endless dark morass? We walk through it with faith, in faith, and using faith.
Magic users – sharpen your tools and use them. They are symbols of our faith, and they are a means to stay sane in the world while remaining fully human.
Listen to your friends, neighbors, and those who are scared. Comfort them as you comfort yourselves and as you would comfort your children of whatever age, born of you, adopted by you, or cared for by you. Be there as refuge as you do for your beloved pets who see you as their humans.
We have a responsibility to make it through these times because the alternative is to fall into a crevasse. Personally, I am not ready to give up on what we have. We are too good for that.
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