Waking Up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age

In the tradition of Thomas Mertons spiritual classic The Seven Storey Mountain or Thomas Moores Care of the Soul Waking Up to the Dark is a deeply resonant and personal projecta modern gospel that is an investigation of the relationship between darkness and the soul. The darkness Clark Strand is talking about here is literal: the darkness of the nighttime of a world before electricity when there was a rhythm to life that followed the suns rising and setting. Strand here offers penetrating insight into the spiritual enrichment that can be found when we pull the plug on our billion-watt culture. He argues that the insomnia so many of us experience as the Hour of the Wolf is really the Hour of Goda wellspring of rest and renewal and an ancient reservoir of ancestral wisdom and inspiration. And in a powerful yet surprising turn he shares with us an urgent message for the world received through a mysterious young woman about the changes we all know are coming. Waking Up to the Dark is a book for those of us who awaken in the night and dont know why we cant get back to sleep and a book for those of us who have grown uncomfortable in real darknesswhich we so rarely experience these days since our first impulse is always to turn on the light. Most of all it is a book for those of us who wonder about our souls: When the lights are always on when there is always noise around us do our souls have the nourishment they need in which to grow? Praise for Waking Up to the Dark A celebration of the life-enrichingindeed indispensableproperties of the night . . . Strand delivers a significant amount of experiential melding to existential thoughtfulness in this book about the sublime and elemental powers of the dark. . . . An exigent affecting summons to rediscover the night.Kirkus Reviews This book is small in size and mighty in spirit. It is at once a clarion call and a meditation. Sonorous deep soul-stirring and profoundly comforting Waking Up to the Dark is a rare book that will be pressed from one hand to the next with the urgent whispered words: You must read this.Dani Shapiro author of Devotion In a modern world flooded with artificial light Clark Strand reminds us what we have left behind in the dark. This beautiful haunting meditation is filled with surprises and lost knowledge. Read it by candlelightyou will never forget it.Mitch Horowitz author of Occult America and One Simple Idea In this exhilaratingly original work Clark Strand shows us that the key to enlightenment lies where we dont want to look. It is hidden in plain sight but we have to turn the lights off to find it.Mark Epstein M.D. author of Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart and The Trauma of Everyday Life Breathtaking and revolutionary a small masterpiece for a world that has grown uncomfortable with the darkness and a poignant plea to take back the dark as the Hour of God as the great friend of faith awakening and soul nourishment.Gail Straub co-founder of Empowerment Institute and author of Returning to My Mothers House Wonder solitude quiet intimacy the holydarkness holds these treasures and more. If we want to connect with God argues Strand in this wise and compassionate book we will awaken to the dark. Paul Bogard author of The End of Night